After some really long editing sessions, I’m proud to present my latest trailer for my short film, The Best Day Ever. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve been posting many updates to the progress of my film, and now I’m finally able to share a small piece of it with you. Check it out and let me know what you think. The full short film itself will be released later as I’m hoping it’ll get into a few festivals. Once that’s the case, I’ll release the film in its entirety.
This is what #TheBestDayEver looks like when the audio is locked!!! Finally! Time for some color correcting then…SUBMISSIONS!!!!
While working on the reality tv series, “Good, Better, Best”, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a young and very talented musician named, Janelle McDermoth. She’s nineteen years old and sings in the very popular, a cappella group, Off the Beat for the University of Pennsylvania.
During our lunch breaks, Janelle and I talked about our passions, what we like to do, and music. Overhearing her sing when loading in gear and setting up, I was very intrigued by her voice. I approached her to see if she would be interested in collaborating on a music film. She immediately became very excited by this concept and was ready to go.
Since Janelle is a student, and finals were quickly approaching, our window of opportunity to film together was small. We were able to meet up for a couple of hours in late April to film. The location in which Whisper Low was filmed in was at the Psi Upsilon house on Penn’s campus, or as the students call it, Castle.
Going into filming, I didn’t know whether I wanted this to be in color or black and white. I had been listening to Janelle’s demo continuously, but felt a little foggy on colors. It wasn’t until I entered Castle that I realized this film would be in black and white. The basement, or bar area we filmed in was very dark. The room was surrounded by old brown wood paneling. The overhead pool table lights had been switched out to red and green colored bulbs from a past party. Even the surrounding candle lights were red and green. Basically, this was a giant black hole. Needless to say, shooting in color would have been a mistake, let a lone a nightmare for CC work in post.
Filming in black and white gave this film a smooth, dramatic, and high contrast look. I didn’t want to get too fancy with the lighting as my goal was to let the music and artists be the main focus. Having said that, with the songs lyrics and mood, I felt that the dark, noir style really complemented the song in a non-distracting way.
My inspiration for this film was to continue the style in which I shot the last two films, Traffic, and Packed My Bags, but film it in more of the “in studio” documentary fashion. I continued with the handheld and Glidecam work, but didn’t intercut like I did with Traffic as that was filmed in the French New Wave style. Packed My Bags had the story and structure that fit the song perfectly in my mind. As for Whisper Low, what I saw in my head had always been an in studio session. There’s something about seeing an in-studio documented session that has always fascinated me. They’re very personal and intimate.
Accompanying Janelle, or Laila Blake (her stage name), was Greg Oliveras who played the guitar and was the baking vocals. Greg too, is a student at Penn that I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting. He played a major role in this song as he and Janelle both worked together to create and bring this song to life.
I hope you enjoyed watching the film. Again, there’s always more to come. Until next time. Thank you for reading and watching.
I met Sarah Doheny through Twitter a while ago. You may have read her tweets from @styleprdiva. As our twitter relationship grew, I learned that she has been wanting to preserve/restore the small, reel to reel movie theater in Hamburg, PA, called, the Strand.
The Strand is a small, single screen movie house which is a thing of the past. Today we’re used to going to the multi-megaplex where twenty theaters is just about average. A ticket costs $12, a small soda is $8, and a small popcorn is $7. With the refreshments combined, you’ve already spent more on food than your ticket. This is not the case with the Strand.
Sarah’s goal is to take the Strand and bring it back to what it once was, a 1920’s movie theater. Tickets will be $5 and the refreshments will actually be reminiscent of the past, i.e., rockcandy, pez, and nonpareils.
Today, Hamburg, Pennsylvania is a small sleepy town off Interstate 78. You could pass it without even knowing. However, back in the 1920’s, Hamburg was a bustling mill town. There was work, people, shops, and of course, the Strand. To Sarah, a movie theater is the heart of a community, without it, what else do you have? The Strand evokes emotion within Sarah. A passion to keep alive the little history that Hamburg has left.
Over the recent year and a half Sarah had approached me to help her raise awareness anyway I could in her efforts to save the Strand. We talked about raising money and how crowd funding is a big trend (whatever you want to call it) right now. Her main target will be Indiegogo (I’ll post the link to this blog once it’s up). There, this documentary will be the main film you see to help entice potential investors and pledge.
I wanted to help Sarah out because I believe in what she’s doing. I love film. And as much as I like going to the major movie plex’s, it’s hard for me to justify a $12 ticket for a mediocre film. Plus you have the overprice food, people talking on their cellphones, and constant texting from the people in front of you. This takes me out of the movie experience.
The Strand is a throwback. A classic style, reel to reel theater that focuses on one thing: cinema. I don’t need the bells and whistles of a megaplex. I don’t need the arcade games, stadium seating (although it’s nice). All I really need is my popcorn, a small soda, and a movie that’s going to take me out of reality for two hours. This is what the Strand is capable of offering. Plus, Sarah isn’t just solely focusing on showing today’s movies, but she’s looking to show the classics as well. Moreover, when the Strand is fully renovated, she’ll be showing the first film to have ever graced the Strands silver screen: “Whistling Devil”, a silent film.
There is something magical about this theater. It’s a throwback. It’s a time machine that, for two hours people will go and escape from their daily routine and experience what theater life was like back in the 1920’s.
A movie theater does matter. For a filmmaker, it’s his/her goal to screen their movie up on that giant silver screen for everyone to see. It’s not going to be easy for Sarah, but with her drive and support, it could make her journey into preserving this theater a little bit sweater.
I hope you enjoy the film.
*Newly Updated* If you’d like to donate to help Save the Strand, check out Sarah’s Indiegogo page here. http://www.indiegogo.com/savethestrand
Another lighting setup with @MyFixitUpLife Filming the reflection on the tiny mirror. Looking good. (Taken with instagram)
Last week my wife and I (as our company Zag Films), journeyed to FDR Skatepark in Philadelphia. If you’re not familiar with it, it resides under I-95. So I think you’ll understand that it’s loud down there.
We traveled there for one reason: to shoot a music film. This particular music film does not pertain to the recent B.f.E sessions I filmed; this is a separate experience all on its own. The films subject, local blues musician, Brandon Morsberger. Brandon had the idea to perform in the skate park within a confined skate bowl. The acoustics there were somewhat isolated, minus the above rumblings of I-95 traffic. This location in itself worried me, as I didn’t know if we were going to achieve audible sound. I don’t own a $1000 mic or a super awesome mixer, just an H4n. So you could see how this would be worrisome.
Setup began inside the bowl using only Brandon’s battery powered Pignose amp. I miced the Pignose using my Azden shotgun. At first listen, there was a certain quality to the sound that I liked. It had a more raw, rugged, aged sound, as oppose to the audio I recorded in my music film, “Traffic.” Nevertheless, with Brandon’s style, I thought this only added to the whole experience. The second mic was the vocal mic that was plugged into the right side of the H4n.
Lighting for most of the morning was overcast. We really lucked out, as it appeared that it would downpour at any moment. I had been keeping track of the weather for most of the week and was expecting it to be sunny. However, the overcast light really helped shape the tone/mood of Brandon’s song. Anything brighter and I think we would have lost the songs mood completely.
When it came time to editing the film, I wanted to give it more of a vintage look than this crisp, clean, polished look. Again, with the sound as it was (recorded live), there was (at least in my mind), a vintage sound/vibe going on. Being a fan of the Fuji Eterna stock (its green tones), I wanted to try and capture that feel along with creating a vintage look. I used Magic Bullet Looks to achieve this. I also added the MBL Color Reversal filter so I could make the surrounding graffiti pop around Brandon. It was such a colorful setting, I didn’t want that to go to waste. Finally, I added a little grain to really add a slightly more aged look. *The entire shoot was filmed at ISO 100, so no grain was done in camera.
Overall, I’m really happy with the outcome of this film. From the setting, to the sound, and to the look. What really surprised me was that there was very little audible traffic noise from overhead. I’m just thankful we had some really great mics working. My hope/goal is to continue with the music film process, as I find it to be very exciting, creative, and just simply fun. The collaborative process between music and film has always been a passion of mine and right now I feel really lucky to have met some very talented musicians.
I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.
Tech Specs:
Aspect ratio 2.35:1
All shot on the Canon T2i
Lenses: Canon 50mm f/1.8 & Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Glidecam 4000Pro
SmallHD DP6-SDI
Sound was recorded live via Zoom H4n
Vocal Mic: Shure pg48.
Instrument Mic: Shure sm57
Amp: Pignose 7-100
About a month ago I approached Liam Gallagher, a local musician in Mt. Airy, PA. I had heard him play at the local micro brewery, Earth, Bread, & Brewery. His style, lyric quality, and vocals reminded me a little bit of, Damien Rice and Cold War Kids. Watching him and listening to his music, I had the idea of doing a video with him. I had never made a music video before, (although it’s something I’ve wanted to do), so I thought why not now? I spoke to Liam briefly, in betweens sets, about some ideas I had and he seemed really intrigued by what I had to say.
Over the next couple of weeks we would correspond sharing our influences on music and film via email. Some of my ideas that I wanted to do with Liam stemmed from the recent Beck record club. I found what Beck was doing to be very interesting and intimate. Grab a group of musicians and record a full cover album (I’m very partial to his INXS cover). They way it was filmed really intrigued me too. The close quarters, intimate setting, lighting, and documentary style. There wasn’t any fancy camera work that distracted the viewer. It was simply documenting the music process and allowing the viewer to appreciate the music at hand.
Liam had been influenced by Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows. I had never heard of these before. He sent me a couple of links and within thirty seconds of viewing them, I knew that Liam and I were on the same page. What we wanted to do and achieve was right here.
For our first session, I had been wanting to do something very simplistic. What immediately came to mind was create a film, in black & white, in the style of the French New Wave. The reason for this, is because, 1) I’m a huge fan of b&w film and wanted to explore a high contrast look. 2) the very definition of French New Wave (given the times), is a simplistic documentary approach, where an unnatural editing, visual, and storytelling style differentiate themselves from the normal cinema standards. I wanted to incorporate this style so the focus wouldn’t distract from the music. In truth, this was a large experiment where a filmmaker and musician could collaborate and create something that they both could enjoy. 3) I thought this style of filmmaking fit perfectly with what Liam and I wanted to do; experiment.
We filmed on a Friday afternoon, around 4pm. The sun was beginning to set, but it still came through the window creating a gorgeous backlight. I didn’t want to add too much light (again, we’re taking a minimalist approach here), so I setup one light: a 650watt Film Gear Fresnel. This would be used as my side Key. I didn’t want to over power Liam and blast a tone of light on him, but just enough that would give me a natural window lit look. I placed two scrims in the 650, (1 Full Single & 1 Full Double). Knocking the 650 down was a good start, but the light was still a little too harsh for my liking, so I threw one sheet of 1/4 diffusion to soften things up.
Once lighting was set, I hooked up audio (audio was recorded live). We used the Zoom H4n and plugged two mics in for our main recording source: Azden SGM-1X shotgun and a Behringer B-2 Pro condenser mic. The shotgun was placed off to the right of frame capturing Liam’s strings and vocals, while the condenser mic was places in front of him, capturing vocals and finger picking. Since this wasn’t a music video where I was concerned about hiding things, I didn’t bother me to keep the condenser mic visible. I think it added to the setting.
The camera used on this was the Canon T2i. I used two lenses: the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 for the opening Master and low angle and the Canon 50mm f/1.8 for Closeups and exterior walking shots. To achieve the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, I used the SmallHD DP6-SDI monitor. This amazing little monitor has its own crop marks for various aspects ratios including my favorite, cinescope 2.35:1. No more tape across the camera LCD!
Everything was handheld. For the master shot and low angle, I used the Jag35 shoulder rig. Once those two shots were done, I simply used my hands. It was important to film this handheld so I could get up close and personal. I wanted to create some kind of visual intimacy. Otherwise, I could have just used the master shot and been done with it. But adding the extra layers of closeups, finger picking, eyes, mouth, etc, to me, created something far more stronger than what the master shot would have done.
Four takes later, we were wrapped. Finalizing the shoot with a glass of Jameson, I couldn’t help but voice how excited I was and how much fun I had making this. As simple as it was, it was the joy of breaking out the gear, setting things up, filming, and listening to the music. There wasn’t any money involved; just two artist collaborating and doing what they love to do: create. Until next time. Enjoy!
*For more information on the B.f.E, look them up on Facebook*
