We were asked to shoot a dance showreel for Hana Lambert. Slightly tricky location as the 2 main walls were mirrored...so we couldn't help but get in shot with the gear sometimes.... so i decided to make it a feature of the film. I put lighting stands between the camera and the dancefloor to give the camera something in the foreground to dolly past. We also used a whole bunch of different cameras... an FS100 and Ninja2 for the main angles. A Canon 550D shooting from the floor at the front, a Go Pro Hero 2 on the floor at one end of the room and a Go Pro Hero 3 on a QuadCopter which we got some great overhead angles with...(it works great indoors - even in confined spaces).
It was then just a case of shooting some specific parts of the dance in Slow-Mo using the FS100... but at 1080 50p and also using the Fast Burst mode to get that crazy slow-mo look....albeit at a crappy resolution...
The shoot was tricky at times because i didn't know where Hana was going next...so i had to be quick to react with the camera. I kept it on the dolly most of the time and just slid it backwards and forwards to keep her in view.
The edit was a case of listening to Jenny who as a dancer herself, knows which bits we had to use and which bits we couldn't... and then throwing the whole array of 'pop video' type looks at it to spice it up... i could have gone for a classier look and kept it all in Black and White, but for a dancer trying to get hired, i think throwing everything at it to grab attention is the best plan. As is becoming usual for me now, i edited it in FCPX... the multicam editor was a complete lifesaver....and the text generators and transitions obviously help to make it look exciting for the client and the people the client is hoping will hire her.
Excellent edit and really lovely use of flares and lighting in the shoot. What dolly is that?
ReplyDeleteI built the dolly myself. It's a 1.5m length of custom rail with a skate type dolly on it. I fitted a Titan fluid head to it and it can take my full FS100 rig on the rail system with follow-focus, mattebox and the Ninja2.. so plenty of weight on there. I need it for this kind of work as the Glidetrack was just not long enough and couldn't cope with the weight. I'll do a blog on how i made it soon...
ReplyDeleteI have looked at a lot of dancer show reels and this is far superior in many ways. Most of the videos i have seen are very simply shot and not very creatively edited.
ReplyDeleteThis must have taken a lot of work. Well done.
I know where to come when i need one.