Devon Thompson - Pillory music video

 

I recently shot a low budget music video that just came out. The premise was simple: a Blair Witch style "found footage" video of a woman being chased through the woods. With that in mind, we utilized a mix of cameras, from a RED Komodo with Dulens Mini Primes (daytime) and a Sony ZV-E1 with G-Master primes on a gimbal (night), to a Sony Handycam for an especially low-fi look.

The whole crew was the director, myself, and a friend of the artist to help carry a few things. For the nighttime shots, I embraced that found footage aesthetic and primarily used a camera mounted light or car headlights (in the road shots). I had planned on using a couple sources to add some "moonlight" to the forest at night, but the director wanted it to fall off into darkness and, hey, my job is to give the director what they want and so that's exactly what I did.

You can see the music video here:

We also shot some late daytime stuff that was supposed to transition us into night, but it didn't make the edit. I think it was some of the better stuff we shot, but I guess they decided that part of the story didn't work once they got into post. Anyway, here are a few grabs from the unused footage.

iHeartRadio AMA - Alice the G00n

I recently shot a little AMA for iHeart Radio and Alice the G00n. We referenced the lighting for a particular scene in a movie (which, to play it safe, I won't name since it'll tie in to the next music video) which had a harder light, under-lit look. I started off with quite a bit softer light and the producer kept saying, "It's too soft!" so I obliged with a more direct lighting style because I like to make my clients happy. And it more closely matched the reference this way. 

Recently, I picked up a set of Dulens APO mini primes and I put them to use on this shoot. They have a little more vintage look, with some softness taking the edge off the digital sensor and leaning a little towards the warmer side. It was just a crew of the producer (who also ran audio), Alice and myself. Since the main camera, a RED Komodo, was a locked off wide, I brought my Sony ZV-E1 as well to operate as a medium tight B-cam so that they would have the ability to edit without having jump cuts. I often use my Sony as a B-Cam, mostly for slow-motion work, so this was my first time using it as a second angle. For being a "blogger" camera, it looks really nice. Side note, the ZV-E1 has the same full frame sensor as the very popular FX3.