Finally Found, the music video

If you are going be up late nights, it might as well be on a project that you love, and it might as well be with the Late Night Alumni.

Here is the music video we did for Late Night Alumni

I had the chance to work with the Late Night Alumni (side project of D.J. Kascade, Finn Bjarnson, John Hancock and Becky Jean). They needed a music video and I had an idea that I thought was right up there alley.  They had a great song that’s about looking for love, finding love, eyeing it with cynicism, and maybe, just maybe settling down with it. I pitched them an idea and they let me run with it, with encouragement to include Becky as much as possible in the video.

The idea, in a nutshell: Old people dancing in slow motion, and Becky Jean singing.

I have been a fan of the Murray Arts center since I was in high school. I love the couples and older folks who go there to dance and I thought there is no better concentration of wisdom and grace then on there dance floor on a regular week night (They have dancing all weeks, but the regulars are out in force during the week). They were kind enough to let us film there, with one caveat: I couldn’t interfere with the regulars who come week after week. This meant we couldn’t do the normal things directors like to do, like boss people around, do the same thing over and over again, and perhaps most difficult of all, they only let us bring in one light. After dancing there again and again, I made a few friends with the regulars and they were all kind of curious about what I wanted to do. But they were as generous with their time as they were with their dance moves (I learned a little tango and cha-cha).

Over the course of several weeks we got to know them and their facility, but we only had one night to shoot, and so that we did. We shot at 3 different speeds. 24 fps, 60 fps and 120 fps. I wish I could have brought in the Phantom for some 1000 fps shots, but oh well. I also wish I could have had a few more lights, but overall we saw some beautiful things that night. Much of which ended on the edit room floor to include plenty of Becky.  We simply watched people do what they do every night and they were kind enough to let us film them. Irvin and Nina were a particular treat. Full of grace and kindness they let us follow them around. I could easily spend a week filming here, I just wish I could get a little more light into that place.

Incorporating Becky was a little trickier. as you can tell, she is a beautiful woman, but the kind that is kind of unaware of it. She prefers “Cute” to “Sultry”, but also believes in artistic expression. Without being able to light her properly on location (and a host of other sync issues that come with shooting on location) I decided to shoot her separately. I was inspired by some French new wave lighting techniques (on an unfinished film by Clouzot . We had neither the time nor the budget to recreate these techniques, but both LNA and I were willing to experiment, and most importantly, so was Becky.

We had the help of the beautiful and talented Michelle Phan. She does amazing makeup work and she didn’t disappoint here. Unfortunately, I made her do something that we normally don’t do in the film world, normally you do makeup as flat as possible. To recreate the French technique, I kept on asking her to make Becky glisten.  I think Becky shines in her close up, perhaps too literally. I think Michelle did some really great things with her eyes.

We sang the song over and over again with a few experimental set ups. from Christmas lights on a ring, to swinging naked bulbs. To make the experience a little more dreamlike, we shot the song at four different speeds.

The video plays at 24 frames per second. But we filmed her singing the song at 12 frames per second, 24 fps, 48 fps, and 60 fps. with the song appropriately re-timed. We then remapped the time in Final Cut to approximate sync. I was surprised by how much I like this footage.

I cut the whole thing together and had some great feedback from the folks here at Kineto. I hope you like the piece. Please feel free to pass it along, maybe even to someone that you love.

A little bit of Heart and SOLE

Have you heard of SOLE fitness? The guys make some great fitness devices. We met with Will McFarlane, one of the head honchos of SOLE and it was clear that he is committed to the quality of his treadmills and elliptical machines. He talked about headshake, stability, q-factor. I mean, I don’t know much about running anyway, but he made me feel like I had never used my feet before.

Anyway, everything about their treadmills and elliptical machines make you feel like the machine isn’t even there. It works around you and most of their features are only really appreciated by the hardcore runners.  And he has a marketing philosophy that is also very understated. They also have a great TV that can be used with their ellipticals and treadmills (or anywhere else for that matter) and they are going to be in DICK’s sporting goods across the country. He wanted to create a DVD that would show off the DVD player but also the machine’s that they stand beside.

So after a sight visit to Dicks we came together on a video that could speak for itself in a crowded store. We built one video as a commercial lead in and three others to show off the product.

First we cast some fitness models. Which meant we watched a bunch of incredibly fit people run and criticized their form (all of this coming from a guy who gets out of breath after clapping vigorously).

After we cast come great fitness models/actresses we shot the videos.  It was a fun shoot.  Travis and I got to drive illegally through mountain paths. He got to play with prime lenses, while I got to cast images on the wall.

Blair Kunz thought we were having so much fun in his studio that he snapped a few pictures of us. (Sure we have a studio too, but we needed to fit Glenn Fisk and his GIANT jib in as well)

Then Mike edited the body of the piece while Travis cut the open. Bryan put together some restrained motion graphics. In the end we had to use his DVD/TV combo as our line monitor since that was the final destination. It was a great opportunity to have a collaborative experience with a forward-moving company like SOLE and to develop something together. Now I just have to wait for the Holiday sales so I can practice my Jamiroquai moves on a treadmill, or maybe I will just recreate the OK Go video.

SOLE Fitness intro video, SOLE Fitness Treadmills, SOLE Fitness Elliptical