This is the latest ecard for work. The pressure to top myself every year gets greater every year. I though of this concept two years ago but didn’t do it last year.
For this card I had tried a Merlin Steadicam. I bought it on Ebay and did a lot of practicing. It was hard! Not only was it challenging to balance the camera with my big 16-35 wide angle lens, it was hard holding it for long lengths of time. The concept of this video was a single take, long tracking shot. The ultimate being the entrance to the restaurant in Goodfellas or even So I Married An Axe Murder opening So I scrapped the Steadicam. I couldn’t hack it.
I had a serendipitous meeting with a DP one day in the office. He’s shot a lot of movies and video with a Canon DSLR and never uses Steadicams! That day I was practicing just doing hand held. He also said he would never do that either… But he offered to lend me a rig and I accepted.
Morning of the shoot the rig arrived. Actually just minutes before the shoot was to start. I had to mount the camera then do a quick practice. It was a shoulder rig with two handles in the front – kind of like this. I also had to practice the hand-off at the top of the video. My assistant had the rig, walked into my office and I take it away and do the rest of the shoot. It worked.
We did two full takes. The first one was good but I knew the second one would be better since everyone knew what was coming. I yelled my directions and warned everyone before I came into their space. The audio on this thing is hilarious!
Post was easy and hard. I edited the footage with Adobe Premiere Pro. Didn’t take much longer than a couple of hours. I did however spend a week and a half on getting the After Effects 3D tracking text right. I wasnt hard once I figured it out. I just had to figure it out!
Anyhoo, working on ideas for next year already….
MUSIC: “Saving the House” and “Premiere” by Danny Elfman from HITCHCOCK
STARRING:
MUSIC PUBLISHING –
Cathy Merenda, David Leiman, Janet Landrum, Kristina Sommer, Fran Block, Ryan Tomlin, Carolina Ossandon, Carmen Pon, Mike McGill
FINANCE –
Leanna Rossmann, Haydee Garcia
FILM CLEARANCE –
Ellen Ginsburg, Robert Kane, Jessie Roberts
TV CLEARANCE –
Rodney Griffis, Elaine Sir, Rey Espinola, Anna Novosel, Vanessa Little
LEGAL –
Tom Cavanaugh, Craig Renwick, Abby Hafermalz, Sandy Miller, Mitzi Brewer, Sarah Rahman
FILM –
Danielle Diego, Rebecca Morellato, Patrick Houlihan, Johnny Choi, Areli Quirarte, Jo Ann Orgel, Lisa Azille, James Patrick, Brianne Porcaro
PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY: Cathy Merenda
ASSISTED BY: Carmen Pon
PEOPLE WRANGLER: Janet Landrum
ASSISTANT CAMERA: Mike McGill
SUPPORT: Ryan Tomlin
Filmed on Location at Fox Studios, Los Angeles
Soundtrack available on iTunes and Sony Masterworks
©2012 Fox Music, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://foxmusic.com
[…] Again! I had a lot of pressure to top last year’s card. It was a good one. One take like in Goodfellas (albeit not nearly as good). So this year […]