Black Limbo

farss wrote on 5/15/2012, 8:52 PM

Just got approval to show this off from the artist.

That's pretty much how it came out of the camera apart from a tweak using Color Curves to roll off the highlights and clip any noise in the blacks. Many things I should have done.

We used a total of 7 lights.
2x 6x55W fluro with crates as main rim lights
3x 15W mirror backed fluro clipped onto the backdrop
1x 500 LED light as the key
1x Comer 1800 on the camera as beauty / fill light for the face

Backdrop is black velvet, specifically made for use a backdrop. Thanks to however it was years ago that put me onto that material. It really does trap the photons like nothing else. It is also a massive lint and dirt trap. Serious vacuuming of the floor is highly recommended BEFORE hanging.

Effort was helped by having enough room to get the talent as far from the backdrop as possible. Also helped having a decent HD SDI monitor with waveform display.

Really needs a top light, probably a large softbox with a skirt. I have access to one, I have a couple of uber nice Manfrotto boom arms with remote head control. Already worn out from rigging all that we had.

The shoot was a hoot. I expected a vanilla violinist and instead I got this rather insane lady complete with two suitcases of costumes and wigs.. What a riot. It seems at least some of her costumes are her own design. She plays, composes, dances and designs! Last night made it into the top 5 of her category at the MusicOz competition

Many thanks to a lot of people here for advice given over the years that has made it possible for me to get this far. People I'd specially like to thank:

Jay Galdwell for throwing a challenge ro shoot something like this years ago.
Serena for her "Cine4 + Detail Off", worked a treat, got rid of my EX1's habbit of snapping into focus.
Grazie, for just being Grazie and giving me many needed kicks along the way.
Victor Milt, for his "Just go out and shoot something". I "found" this lady on another $0 shoot.
Manjia Lou for trusting me with her many talents and putting up with all my futzing around.

Bob.

Comments

Steve Mann wrote on 5/15/2012, 10:23 PM

Minuses:
Definitely need a hair light.
The accompaniment music was often louder than her violin. sometimes to the point that her violin couldn't be heard at all.
You need a second camera for closeups of the violin.

Pluses:
WOW!
I rarely, very rarely make it all the way to the end of a music video. This was one of those exceptions.
I like the mic stand in the shot - it gives the scene perspective.

vtxrocketeer wrote on 5/15/2012, 10:28 PM

What a delightful treat. I tip my hat to you.

I kept getting distracted by the music. What in the world was that? My Yankee ear pegged it as Japanese folk-polka-western, but that somehow sounds all wrong.

Cheers.

ushere wrote on 5/15/2012, 11:16 PM

nice one - well done bob

farss wrote on 5/15/2012, 11:33 PM

Music is her own composition. She's Chinese so no doubt some Chinese influences in there.
Yes, backing is too loud, my bad.
Thing is I'd only seen her play a classical piece as the intro to a play by Tagore. So when she pulled out her Chinese boom box to play the accompaniment I was totally unprepared.
Indeed another camera or else get her to play it a couple of times and shoot different angles. Again so overwhelmed by her I did kind of loose it. I had a plan but that went out the window. I'd even found a black chair for her to sit on but she didn't want to sit, heck she wanted to dance.

She does have a DVD, shot by some serious local people with crane shots and her beside waterfalls and on the rocks by the ocean and a whole host of stuff happening, all done with the more is better mindset so I and her were quite uncertain about my less is more approach but when she saw how she looked she jumped for joy, I mean literally, in high heel boots .... and then near tripped over a power cable :)

Bob.

Laurence wrote on 5/16/2012, 8:51 AM

I love the way the black velvet just disappears into blackness. For all we know it could be just a little cubbyhole of shooting space and yet your mind immediately imagines a large stage (at least mine does). How big a backdrop did you use?

farss wrote on 5/16/2012, 5:07 PM

"How big a backdrop did you use?"

3M x 3M. Wider would have been better but would be a nightmare. The material is quite stiff and rolled up it is quite hard to handle as it'll suddenly kink and bend.

Using Color Curves I've pretty much been able to clip the black background to 0 IRE i.e. flatline on the scopes, which was my original intent. With more hair lights I could easily pull a good luma key.

Bob.

Red Prince wrote on 5/16/2012, 6:22 PM

Wow. She’s good!

Steve Mann wrote on 5/16/2012, 9:19 PM

"... or else get her to play it a couple of times and shoot different angles. "

Disaster pending. This will only work if you record a master audio track, then the musician has to self-sync to the master on all the "B" cuts. Much better to use a second or third camera.

Laurence wrote on 5/16/2012, 9:49 PM

I like one camera wide and one zoomed in with subtle movement, both at a close enough angle that they can share the backdrop.

farss wrote on 5/16/2012, 10:41 PM

"This will only work if you record a master audio track, then the musician has to self-sync to the master on all the "B" cuts."

Very true but she was playing along to her previously recorded master track anyway.
If I'd known beforehand that see wanted to play along to a backing track I'd have tried to get her an in ear monitor.

Now that I know much more about her I can be better prepared and I'll also have to do a lot more directing. On this shoot I'd show her the last shot and she'd just run off to change costumes, dragging the better half with her to help. I really didn't want to break the mood that had taken over the shoot. I really did feel a certain "magic" was happening, probably just me being full of it but meh, you've just got to go with your gut at times.

Bob.