New Musicvideo shot on Sony A74 with Helios 44 and Sigma 18-35

[Chrille]

Hey,

check out this little music video i shot on the Sony a74 with the helios 44 and sigma 18-35. Helios for Run&Gun - not sure i can recommend. Also did not manage to create the swirley bokeh so far. On the other hand it takes the digital edge of the sony footage which helped tremendously.

In the night scenes we also used the Tiffen Black Promist Filter 1/8.

I realized  i definetely need to learn more about lighting. If you can recommend any youtube channels i would be very happy. Of course i would also be happy about general feedback - and the artist would be happy if you would like or comment on youtube...

 

[kye]

3 minutes ago, Chrille said:

Hey,

check out this little music video i shot on the Sony a74 with the helios 44 and sigma 18-35. Helios for Run&Gun - not sure i can recommend. Also did not manage to create the swirley bokeh so far. On the other hand it takes the digital edge of the sony footage which helped tremendously.

In the night scenes we also used the Tiffen Black Promist Filter 1/8.

I realized  i definetely need to learn more about lighting. If you can recommend any youtube channels i would be very happy. Of course i would also be happy about general feedback - and the artist would be happy if you would like or comment on youtube...

 

Cool video, and nice use of a projector as light-source.

In terms of more normal narrative lighting, I highly recommend the WanderingDP YT channel for cinematography breakdowns, mostly from advertising but also some features.  He talks about the whole topic of cinematography, but mostly concentrates on camera placement in the environment, location design, lighting, blocking, etc all together because they interact, but the focus is on the light, which is why I mention it in response to your question.

Moving into more interesting lighting for things like music videos, I don't have a specific recommendation, but a couple of thoughts that did occur to me are:

1. Try to create more contrast
   Music videos are where you can push things, and you can push the colour grade as well as the production design.  In the situations like the outside shots where production design is pretty limited, you can still push the contrast in post, you can push the saturation too (perhaps pushing only select hue ranges, and perhaps darkening them to fit the grittier vibe), and you can also do a split-toning effect (like having cooler shadows).  All these will create more contrast in post.
2. Try to create more variation in the frame
   This relies a bit more on equipment, but try having more sources of coloured light and really push the hues.  Maybe grab a second projector and shine one on the talent and one on the background but having different colours.  Try shining one on the talent from the left and one from the right.

Another more general thought is to create a bit more variation in shots.  This involves shooting more angles, so would take more time, so maybe it wasn't in the budget, but getting more angles would really help in the edit.  Even if you could get the artist to do an additional run-through in each location and you just film it getting as many different angles as possible - high-angle, low angle, close-up, shot of their hands, focus on the background with them blurred in profile etc.  Then you can find any interesting little moments in that one and put them over the top in the edit.

In terms of inspiration, do a bunch of google image searches for inspiration, and save any images you like.  This is the images for the search "great music videos":

Lots of cool ideas in there.  Remember good artists copy, great artists steal!

Why don't you like the Helios for run-n-gun work?

[PannySVHS]

I really liked your other videos. In this one i enjoyed the backlight shots and the studio takes with the soft light. For the projector shots i would have lit foreground and background seperately for matters of control and effect. The outside shots would also benefit of from a more dedicated photographic approach. In the video they appear in a way a bit like ENG shots and would benefit from more in your face framing and composition, close, midshot, wides, front, profile, tracking, static, overhead, eye level, from down up, all more distinguishable, evoking strong visual interest, simple and to the point. Like in your other videos.😊 @Chrille

[Chrille]

On 1/25/2024 at 11:13 AM, kye said:

Cool video, and nice use of a projector as light-source.

In terms of more normal narrative lighting, I highly recommend the WanderingDP YT channel for cinematography breakdowns, mostly from advertising but also some features.  He talks about the whole topic of cinematography, but mostly concentrates on camera placement in the environment, location design, lighting, blocking, etc all together because they interact, but the focus is on the light, which is why I mention it in response to your question.

Thanks a lot for your feedback - i have watched wanderingdp but will intensivy! You are absolutely right with all the inspiration and a stronger focus on concept. I feel bad answering your text with just one sentence , but i cannot say more than it's highly appreciatet and i will definitely look in those directions. 

On 1/25/2024 at 11:13 AM, kye said:

Why don't you like the Helios for run-n-gun work?

It's just hard to capture the focus, especially on a gimbal. you can only move from side to side but not in and out. AF ist much more convenient 🙂 On the other hand it just looks so nice wide open...

 

On 1/27/2024 at 3:30 PM, PannySVHS said:

I really liked your other videos. In this one i enjoyed the backlight shots and the studio takes with the soft light. For the projector shots i would have lit foreground and background seperately for matters of control and effect. The outside shots would also benefit of from a more dedicated photographic approach. In the video they appear in a way a bit like ENG shots and would benefit from more in your face framing and composition, close, midshot, wides, front, profile, tracking, static, overhead, eye level, from down up, all more distinguishable, evoking strong visual interest, simple and to the point. Like in your other videos.😊 @Chrille

You are also very right. I felt  pretty limited of what to show due to the winter and feel i played it a bit "too save"...

[kye]

17 hours ago, Chrille said:

Thanks a lot for your feedback - i have watched wanderingdp but will intensivy! You are absolutely right with all the inspiration and a stronger focus on concept. I feel bad answering your text with just one sentence , but i cannot say more than it's highly appreciatet and i will definitely look in those directions. 

The other thing that occurs to me is to watch BTS videos of music video shoots.  These will include lots of tricks about how to achieve various looks, as well as showing what the final looks are.

17 hours ago, Chrille said:

It's just hard to capture the focus, especially on a gimbal. you can only move from side to side but not in and out. AF ist much more convenient 🙂 On the other hand it just looks so nice wide open...

Yeah, a 58mm F2.0 lens isn't so easy to manually focus, especially on a gimbal, unless you had a remote-follow-focus, a very good monitor with excellent focus-peaking controls (that can compensate for the softness when wide-open), and are practiced at operating a gimbal and follow-focus at the same time.

It's not that difficult to degrade the image in post to achieve at least some of the major optical aberrations that these vintage lenses have.  One power grade you could setup for yourself and just pull out when needed might include:

• a power-window that darkens the edges (ie, vignette) and also adds a blur towards the edges (bonus points for mixing a normal blur with a radial blur)
• a lens correction that adds some barrel distortion
• a glow / haze effect to lower contrast (can easily be done with a blur that is put over the top of the footage at a low opacity)
• a very small-radius blur over the whole clip to knock the sharpness down a bit

When fine-tuned, the above can do a pretty decent imitation of a vintage lens, so is worthwhile putting into your toolkit if you're a fan of the vintage look.

Now we have AI there are other things you can play with too....

The Resolve Magic Mask is able to identify objects pretty well now (see the red overlay over the man):

So you could potentially mask out the main objects and then do things to the background like darken it, blur it, make it a different hue, etc.  The Depth Map feature is also interesting:

I would suggest that neither of these is good enough for really strong adjustments (without visible artefacting - they're roughly like the iPhone DOF simulations) but in music videos the look might be appropriate.  

Filters and blend modes are definitely your friend with music videos.  If all else fails, you can pull a key of the skin-tones and then do whatever you want to the rest of the image.

With all these things, if the edges aren't great or it doesn't quite stand-up then just back off the opacity.  You should always be applying too much of an effect and then pulling it back to something acceptable.  Then you can A/B it with and without the effect and adjust to taste.  If you don't go too far and then pull back, you will always be used to the image without that effect and so it will always look like it's overdone.

Also, most colour grading breakdowns show that it's about applying a number of small and subtle adjustments that add up - it's very rare for any one individual adjustment to be significant, with the exception of colour space transforms and the basics like adjusting exposure and contrast and saturation.

[Chrille]

Thanks a lot for the feedback!