ABOUT

Music video for up and coming English rock band, (cut down version).

I was approached by a Cinematographer friend who knew of a band that were in need of a video for their latest release. He knew that I wanted to try out a cinematography motion control trick we had discussed over coffee. Perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone?

So this project began as a technical problem solving issue, rather than from a creative drive.

I am involved in another small enterprise developing control systems for the film industry. Specifically we have developed, designed and built a lightweight portable motion control system. Not only with a small footprint, we believe that it allows you to use motion control in a more organic natural way, than more conventional moco systems.

Many people have had mixed experiences with motion control. Moco does have a varied reputation. Not simply technical failures, which are legion, largely because you are dealing with the outer edges of control system technology. Rather for the creative heads on any production; the Producer, Director and Director of Photography, the criticism is often that motion control takes control away from them. They are beholden to the system and operator. On the spot decisions and changes that occur regularly on any production, can be difficult to accommodate when shooting with motion control.

We believe our system gets around that. I wanted to illustrate this in the video, by pushing the boundaries of motion control. So the film would be a calling card both for Walkway and our motion control system, The RevolveR.

On top of this, music videos especially for start up bands, have little or no budget. So despite pushing the technical envelope, I knew we would have to get everything set up, lit and shot in a straight day.

Finally, from a creative standpoint, we had to deliver something that the band would like. I asked them to look at the seminal footage of the Beatles premiering their Let It Be album on a London rooftop. It showed the Fab Four on top of their game, regardless of circumstances. Great songs of course, but also an incredibly tight band of excellent musicians.

Walkway aren't really my cup of tea. However, they are great musicians and a tight band, despite being so young and raw. We wanted to illustrate this. So I suggested we shot them performing, almost as though it was a live gig. We would cover the performance with 4 cameras.

The key difference is that each camera would be on a motion control rig, the RevolveR, all tethered together. The rigs would then be locked to the audio playback timecode. The band would play, following the playback, the crew would shoot the piece, and then all the recordings would be saved. Then we would re-play the first recording 11 times. Each time the band would change their clothes and instruments.

Then in the edit, all I would do is shuffle between the 12 passes, on four cameras, each four moves on all 12 passes being exactly the same. So the instruments and clothing would jump but the camera moves would retain the smooth organic nature of how the crew operated and captured the performance.

Therefore we would show off the band as a tight outfit of talented musicians, with something a little extra, as the colours and guitars hopped about.

And of course for our motion control system, it demonstrated that it was versatile, quick and easy to use. And we set up, lit, performed the track 12 times and shot everything, starting at 8am and finishing in time for a cuppa at 4pm.

I think it works.