2011/04/14

Another Canon 550D No Budget Low Light Music Video (Bruno Mars' Grenade - Live Acoustic Cover Version)



Here's another video that I shot on the Canon 550D. It was a spontaneous shoot at midnight so I had no tripod, steadycam or rig with me. It was all shot handheld so there's a lot of camera shake in the clip. I did only have one Z96 LED video light to light the scene. Faces are overexposed everything else underexposed, but it was a just for fun shoot, so who cares. The camera was set to 1080 24p, ISO 3200, WB=5200K, flat custom picture style based on the neutral setting. It was all shot with the cheap 50mm lens. There were also some scenes that I shot with the kit lens, but I'm not sure if they ended up in the final clip. Audio was recorded on the Zoom H1 audiorecorder which was places in front of the band. It had a windjammer on it but the level was set to high so sound quality isn't as good as it should be. I edited this video over night and did some color correction with the famous Magic Bullet plugin.

I hope you enjoy the clip. Don't expect too much cinematography, just enjoy the music. If you have any questions concerning the shoot feel free to post a comment.

Cheers,
jonni

10 comments:

  1. Jonni: nice video. One quick making of question. You mentioned that you recorded the audio separately, so I'm sure you were able to set that track to sync with the film clips. But, how many takes of the video did you shoot? You seem to switch shots from a far left low angle to a far right high angle without losing any of the song. So I'm assuming you had the band record the song more than once? Or is there some other trick I'm missing.

    I'd love to be able to take a performance of make a similar video. The typical problem I have is that there's only one performance of the song for most of my kid's school shows. Any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Brad

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Brad,

    it was done this way:

    Take 1: live music and singing, recorded with the Zoom H1 audiorecorder, filmed on the Canon 550D.
    Take 2: same thing again.
    Post production: music taken from take 1, video from take 1, too. Then I inserted some scenes from take 2 where they fitted. Synching the singing was very difficult as it was not sung 100% same twice. So I had to cut the 2nd clip in many pieces and synch each of them separately.

    I will not do it this way the next time I record sth. like this clip. I think it's much better to playback the audio file in the 2nd take and do some kind of lipsynching to get the right speed. A better way is to record with 2 cameras, but who can handle 2 at the same time? ;)

    My suggestion for you: let your wife or another person shot with a second camera from another angle. Otherwise you will not be able to cut a video without loosing some parts.

    I hope this helps.

    Cheers,
    jonni

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jonni: That helps a ton. I was really thinking you must have done it in two takes since you didn't mention a second camera or cameraman. I agree with the suggestion. If I had second T2i/550D that'd be amazing. The most I've been able to do recently is shoot some audience reaction and other B roll before or after and use that as cutaways when I have camera shake or a whip pan to another place or some bad zooming.

    Thanks,
    Brad

    ReplyDelete
  4. B roll material would have been my next suggestion ;)

    Hope to see some of your videos!

    Cheers,
    jonni

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like the sharpness this video as shoot in a low light.is that shoot within iso 3200? Don't see any noise,really amaze me.How can u do that?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Riko, I think it was shot with ISO set to 1600. The raw material is noisy (of course), so I had to smooth it in post.

    Cheers,
    jonni

    ReplyDelete
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