Mockingbird

I was thinking…

Production blog

Well, it’s over. Sadly, I cannot show you the final video just yet. I can say that I have learned a ton of stuff in the last couple of weeks and had a lot of fun creating the clip. I can also say, that I am proud of the outcome and super excited to get your feedback, once Mockingbird releases the song!

For now, I hope some stills and my conclusion are enough. Concerning the pre-production I am super happy that everything worked out so smoothly. It took some time to get my vision clear enough, but once I had a concept, the support from the band was great. It was a very good experience to meet the band on three gigs to get to know them better and to connect the final product closer with their work. My greatest weakness, the planning, did go well (for once) and although everything was planned pretty tight, it all worked out in the end.

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One week to go.

Production blog

I used this week to write an edit plan and to assemble all the material I need. On Thursday then, Mockingbird finally finished the song (Loosing myself) and I could start with the serious stuff. After some in-between feedback from my coach, the offline edit is finished now!

Concerning my editing style, I got some inspiration from other music clips of this genre (especially SOHN) which I then tried to combine with my personal editing style and the style of the song.

This Tuesday I will start compositing (Monday is research-time…) and I am very, very eager to show you the final product next week! For now, I’ll head back to my rotoscoping…

Full is full. (I guess…)

Production blog

To be honest: This week sucked. After weeks and weeks of mistreating my laptop, on Monday it finally gave up on me… I guess I kinda had that coming.

Sadly, that meant 5 full days of forced work break, which is not ideal (aka: awful) for my planning.

Well, I ordered my footage and have a nice overview over everything I’ve shot. I am still waiting for Tim & Maika to finish the song and send it to me, so I will have to make the edit plan with the draft version I’ve got.

Back to the future.

Production blog

The second day of shooting went by and I now have over 120GB of material to look through… yay.

This shoot was a completely different experience than the first one. Shooting on location (in an attic flat in Essen-Werden) I wanted to use as much of the natural light as possible. That’s why I ended up only using two additional daylight lamps for exposure purposes.

The way of handling the camera and the actors was new to me as well. As I tried to capture the “Super 8 feeling” I had to distance myself from the conventional way of shooting:

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Green & Red: Epic.

Production blog

You might call it a wonder: One whole day in the studio and nothing went wrong!

Actually it was a lot of fun. My crew was great (thanks to Robin and Jens), my cast was great (thanks to Tim and Maika), the camera worked, the lighting worked (after a rough start) and I got all the shots I wanted!

I will have to check the material in the following days to get a better idea, but we did quick checks while shooting, so I am sure it is what I need.

Note to myself: Improve on the catering… Coke, Apples, Frikandelbroodjes and Potato chips don’t seem to be enough.

OFFF and back again

Production blog

I just returned from the OFFF in Barcelona and my brain is bursting. I got inspired by so many great people (e.g. GMUNK, Anton & Irene, Gavin Strange, Stefan Sagmeister, etc.), I will need some time to order my mind… But then – somewhen next week, I hope – I will try to write a little entry about the festival.

But first things first. The music video. While my flesh covered skeleton seems to be exhausted, my mind is full of inspiration. Tomorrow, I will be shooting the green-screen material in the studio (see Call-sheet) together with my camera man Robin, who will handle the RED epic, and Jens the light-master. I will shoot everything in slow motion (100fps) and 2K, to have some more possibilities in post.

On Tuesday then, I will shoot the second storyline in Essen. The location changed from Dinslaken, as I found an even nicer attic flat – more on that later…

Callsheet Monday

Keep on rolling.

Production blog

Quick update: Yesterday evening, the guys performed in Dinslaken. I took some pictures and filmed more material – this time taking into account the purpose: I tried to imitate filming on a Super 8 camera. Handheld; no focus-pulling, etc.

Additionally I used this weekend to go location scouting and found the perfect location for some of the shooting. While the studio/green-screen shooting will take place in the Big Studio at Saxion (I will reserve the place tomorrow!), the other storyline will be filmed in this beautiful and cozy attic flat (sorry for the picture quality, though):