Who is Takilma?

Before we go too much further, maybe it's time to introduce the talent.  Based out of Southern Oregon, Takilma has been touring and blowing peoples minds since the late 90's and in that time they have established a well deserved reputation of being a great live show.  While I am a close friend with one of the bands founding members, I'm also proud to say I'm a fan.  Take a moment to check out Takilma.net and find out when they'll be playing in your area.  If they're not playing in your area...get a new area.  Clearly, your current area sucks.

Let There Be Light!

So with the camera situation (somewhat) set, it was time to start thinking about light.  What's making this shoot challenging is that I have never seen the site before.  That means I don't know how much light is coming in and how much control I will have overall.  I asked the band members to find a place that was relatively dark so we could control the lights as much as possible.  They also said that they have some of their own lights that they are going to bring along but I didn't want to rely on that alone since, once again, I didn't know what I would be getting.

This left me searching for a basic light kit that would fit into my budget.  I knew I would not be getting anything professional grade so my main goal was to find a cheap kit that would at least last through the shoot.  I was also hoping for a 3 light kit that had either soft boxes or umbrellas included.  Since I didn't know the size of the room we were shooting in, I was also hoping to find a fluorescent set since they are pretty cost efficient and don't get hot, which would be beneficial if the room were on the smaller side.

Most of the kits on B&H's site were great, but not within my budget.  I know that they would last for a long time and be of high quality, but now is not the time for those.  After much searching, I came upon a set being sold on Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Y31CAC

It was a 3 light set from ePhoto consisting of three heads, stands and soft boxes.  It also came with a carrying case and an umbrella.  All this for the ridiculously low price of $169!  At first I was pretty skeptical about the quality, but I figured it was pretty low risk at that price.  Most of the reviews of the kit seemed to give the impression that you'll get what you pay for.  A few people reported that the soft boxes were exceptionally difficult to put together so I wasn't sure how that would go or if it would prove to be too much.

The kit arrived very well packed.  Each bulb was in it's own small box packed with styrofoam.  The stands definitely had a very cheap feel to them.  I was even a little concerned that they would tip over with the soft boxes attached.  When I was setting up the first stand, a part of the plastic immediately broke off from one of the latches.

Piece missing from bottom of bracket

I was worried when it came time to assemble the soft boxes but in the end it turned out to be very easy.  The first one took me a few extra minutes to figure out the best order to put the parts together in, but it was still far from difficult.  It's just a matter of putting the long "sticks" into the corner holders.  They hold the soft box in the proper form by maintaing tension.  It does worry me that these sticks may at some point snap because they do seem to be under a lot of tension when in place.

The inside of the light box

The tension stick in place being held by velcro 

Fold the velcro back over the tip of the stick to hold it in place

Switches on the back.  Also offers a removable fuse.
The hole in the center is for the umbrella.

The light heads hold four florescent bulbs.  The back of the head has two switches so you can turn the bulbs on two at a time or all four at once.  In a standard three point lighting setup, you would have one light at full power (key) and then another light at half the power (fill).  These lights should allow you to set that up with the two banks of lights.  There is also another layer inside the softbox which helps to further soften the light.  I'm assuming you could remove this if you didn't need it in place.  It would be nice to have different cloths in different colors to change the light temperature.

The stands do extend fairly high if you want a nice hair light on your subject.  Despite my initial fears, the stands don't seem to want to tip over, even when fully extended.

Just about fully extended

So far I've been pleased with what I've seen so far.  Some of the test shots I've taken so far have wielded pleasing results and the big question will be whether or not it'll survive being lugged around and a long days use.  To supplement these lights I'm also packing my trusty shop lights.  I also have a few different colored gels to apply to these for as extra accent lights.

Time will tell if this setup is going to work or not.  If it does, then this was a screaming deal.  If not...then I should have known better than going so cheap.  Hopefully this will go down as one of my brighter ideas! (I know...I'm so clever!)

The Cameras

We'll start off with the heart of any shoot...the cameras.  This video is going to be shot entirely on DSLR's since that's what the kids are into these days.  When I started getting into video more seriously, I began with a Canon HV20 and followed that with the HV30.  These were fantastic little cameras that served me well.  At the time it was virtually unheard of for cameras in that price range to offer 24p (even if did require pulldown during post production).  When I made the switch to DSLR's, there were immediately a lot of plusses as well as a few minuses along the way.  For one thing, audio was definitely not the DSLR's strong suit.  As countless people have commented on, Automatic Gain Control (AGC) was a huge burdon for anyone wanting clean, controllable audio.  Sure, there are plenty of work arounds, but nothing as simple as having clean, adjustable audio built in.  That being said, the picture that these cameras are capable of is very, very nice when shot correctly.

My first video DSLR was the Canon t2i.  Even though this camera was offered as the entry level video DSLR in the Canon family, it has still proven to be a formidable little piece of tech.  If you don't believe me, check out Film Riot's comparison of the t2i and the 5D Mark II (http://revision3.com/filmriot/t2ivs5d).  Obviously it just falls short of the 5D in most tests, but still does quite admirably for the price point.  The t2i served me well and saw me through several weddings and other events.  I knew at some point I would want something more but it was great for what it was.

With the release of the Panasonic GH2, the venerable GH1 came down in price enough to put it within reach.  What made it even more appealing were the great results people were getting from hacking the firmware.  With the increased bit rates and benefits like unlimited recording time (compared to the 9:00 minutes per clip of the Canon) this was going to be a great upgrade, so I pulled the trigger.

With the shoot approaching, I decided to pack both cameras and my trusty "Nifty Fifty" (Canon 50mm 1.8) and see which one performed better.  To get the lens to work on the panasonic, I ordered the Fotodiox EOS to Micro Four Thirds adapter.  For about $30, I was very pleased with the initial tests.  The only draw back was that the adapter disabled one of the GH1's biggest strong points...autofocus while shooting video.  This wasn't going to be too much of a concern since I had grown accustomed to manual focus from using the t2i, which has no autofocus during filming.  Another disadvantage with the GH1 is that it doubles the focal length of whatever lens you're using.  This means that my 50mm lens would be a 100mm lens when used on the GH1.  This could be a problem depending on the size of the room we would be shooting in.

My goal was to be able to use the GH1 as much as possible with the with the Canon coming along as a backup since that's the camera I have the most experience with.  As long as the crop factor wouldn't be too much of a hinderance, things should work out just fine.  What could go wrong?!  (I know...famous last words...)

Welcome

Welcome to my blog documenting the production of the music video for "Slow Burn," a song by the band Takilma.  First let me give you a little background about myself...

I first picked up a video camera when I was just about 9 or 10 and ran around the neighborhood shooting my friends pretending to be cowboys or indians or astronauts or whatever.  I continued to play around with cameras off and on throughout school, making little skits and commercial parodies with friends in high school.  During my high school days I also wrote movie reviews for my cities paper with a friend of mine...sort of a teenaged version of Siskel and Ebert.

Things went by the wayside for a few years after high school and it wasn't until about 5 years or so ago that I started getting back into it.  I began shooting videos for my work and this led to doing a couple weddings for friends.  The results were good enough to motivate me to start a small event videography business that's just starting to get off the ground now.  I'm not getting rich off it but at least it helps pay for my gadgets and toys.  I'm also finishing up one more semester at the local JC for my film studies degree and I've also just completed my Apple certification in Final Cut Pro.  I'd classify myself as a serious hobbyist and bordering on professional.  A huge portion of my education has come from scouring the forums and blogs online like dvxuser.com.  The forum members are (almost) always helpful and inspirational in showing what can be done with an idea and a camera.

In the following posts I'll be doing my best to document everything from the equipment I used to the shoot location and post production.  Hopefully this will give some other shooters out there some pointers on what to do and what not to do.  Please feel free to ask any questions as well as give some helpful pointers if you see any glaring mistakes in the process.