Here is the finished, official video for Roo Panes! (roopanes.co.uk)
(Official video though credits and copyrights may vary from released version)
Roo is a wonderfully talented British folk artist who I had the pleasure of collaborating with on this project. Half was filmed in Grand Rapids in September and the other half in Leelanau County in October during the beautiful fall colors. So essentially we get a British croon with international appreciation with West and Northwest Michigan landscapes as the foundation.
Filming and production happened almost flawlessly, with the exception of the tail end where strong winds and heavy clouds frustrated much of the final landscape shooting. But we only needed 4 minutes of strong footage to tell the story and we ended up with nearly 10 times that. Editing with an excess of GOOD footage is a joy and a nightmare. There are dozens of shots that it nearly breaks my heart to think that they didn't make it into the film.
It was shot almost entirely with the humble 5D Mark II and nikon lenses. A DSLR like the Mark II isn't necessarily what I'd want to use to shoot a music video, mostly because of the thin dynamic range, but it's the camera I know the best and how to get the images I want out of it. The footage was top notch though, as much as it can be with a DSLR... the light was great, exposure was always right where it needed to be, and the composition and content of each image was appropriate and intentional.
The trick was though, to manipulate the footage from a DSLR camera to get it to look like footage from a much more expensive and dynamic camera. The best place to manipulate that was during the color grading process. To colour my film, I use a program that I make a habit not to mention since many in the industry may frown upon my allegiance to it. Of course, I would argue that it's the most capable and controllable way to adjust and enhance color and tone. With it I was able to (in appearance, not in actuallity) expand the dynamic range of the color and tone in the footage to mimic the appearance and aesthetic of something shot in raw or on film. Color, or colour as I like to call it, is one the things I am most picky and geeky about, so I will always spend an unfair amount of time thinking about, talking about, and working on it for my films.
Here are some before and afters, see if you can spot the adjustments. Final image is on top, the original un-edited image is below.
We filmed with what can barely be called a skeleton crew. I'd call it a femur crew. It was essentially just me. The talent in the film, Matthew Fowler, while acting and carving also assisted me in moving equipment, setting up shots, and even shared some producing responsibilities. Matthew is also an impressive person in that he also successfully carved a beautiful owl (even though he doesn't call himself a carver) and was able to handle a full grown great horned owl like it was his job. Handling birds is always difficult since they are very picky about who they do and don't like, often based on nothing their trainers can discern, and are also very keen to pick up on their handlers unease if any anxiety is present and then get nervous itself and misbehave. Matthew and the owl, Eoin, became great friends during the filming I'm so thankful for that, because if Eoin hadn't taken to Matthew the way she did then most of not all of the owl footage we got would have been impossible.
So, cheers Matt! You are the bird whisperer.
Written by JohnPaul Morris
Eleven35 Productions
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