Shoot on Canon 5D Mark II
Software used: After Effects CS4 (Main VFX program we use)
Cineform ProspectHD (Speed up the workflow with CineForm’s fast compression)
Redgiant’s Magic Bullet Looks (used for the looks)
StrongMocha: Charles, Tell us a little bit about your history in the movie business.
Well, being only 20 years old, my history is short, but I’ve had my fair share of vivid experiences, especially in film. I first picked up a video camera as a sophomore in high school, and I’ve been infatuated since. Throughout high school, I made a few extremely amateurish short films, but I made a name for myself in the community.
By my senior year, I produced a feature length documentary about my graduating class. Although it was shot and edited using consumer grade tools, it sold 250 copies and was a hit. Instead of pursuing film, I attended Purdue University the following year, and intended to major in engineering.
Purdue was great, but engineering didn’t fly. My sophomore year in college I attended Columbia College in Chicago for film & video and totally enjoyed it. However, film school is inherently expensive, and I’ve opted this upcoming year to stay closer to home and go to a less costly university. For the past year and half, I’ve worked alongside my partner Michael Gebben from Gebbs Wedding Films (gebbsweddingfilms.com), producing wedding cinematography and commercial films. In my free time, I love taking pictures and learning kinesthetically.
StrongMocha: We love your recent video “Inferno Flow” , tell us more about the video?
Essentially, my friend John called me one day explaining that he was trying to get into some kind of theme group. He’s into the electronic music/rave/poi scene, and to get into the group, he had to demonstrate some type of skill. So, poi and fire eating being his skills, he figured a video would be the best way to go about demonstrating them. I’ve dabbled in poi a bit myself, and I knew the pictures always looked great, but video cameras could barely keep up.
With the Canon 5D Mark II newly introduced to me, I knew that fire spinning/eating was worth testing its limits. Basically, I went to his house one night and filmed for about 2 hours. I had an idea as to what I wanted the video to look like, and I knew that I had the tools to pull it off…I just needed to make it work. I filmed John performing several times, directing him a little, but mostly letting him work his magic. Taking from my skills in wedding cinematography, I did everything on the fly, but that’s how I’m used to working. Getting a variety of angles, movements, and camera settings, I made sure that I had plenty to work with- I knew that the fast paced editing would need it. I then picked the song based on its composition and relation to my footage. John wanted something “chill,” but I knew that the act of fire spinning required a higher energy music selection due to the nature of its intense motion. Edit, the composer of the song, is part of a group called The Glitch Mob, who I had listened to in the past. I was recently listening to some of their beats in preparation for another video, and when I came across LTLP, I knew it was perfect. The slow lulls mixed with the crazy sampling and scratching fundamentally meshed great with the footage. I suppose the rest is history.
StrongMocha: Who is the brain behind it?
I am the brain behind it, I’m just glad that John approached me for the video, otherwise I doubt I would have made the connection that fire + Canon 5D Mark II= awesomeness.
StrongMocha: Tell us more about John Klockenkemper, who is fire breathing & dancing in your video.
I’ve known John since high school, and truthfully, he’s the equivalent of a mad scientist, except that he works with computers. He’s a smart fella, and we share the like of fast computers, sick electronic music, and fire, with often all three being in close proximity. I think John has been playing with fire for a year or two now, in the hobbyist since of the term. The last time we spun fire together, he was only a little better than me and hadn’t attempted fire eating, but he’s clearly gotten much better since then.
StrongMocha: Can John be hired for a Fire breathing & dancing performance?
I’m sure John would loves to perform, but I think he considers it more of just a fun, relaxing thing to do. I know he has performed in front of large groups of people, but so far, not for money. He has the skill to do it, I just don’t think he has ever actively pursued selling it. I would hire him though.
StrongMocha: Can you tell our reader a little bit more about “Lying Still”?
Lying Still is a film about perceived reality. The film was entered into the Purdue Digital Cinema Contest and won Best Documentary as well as Best Actress. In my opinion, it was a complex idea that was executed in a simple, yet extremely effective manner.
StrongMocha: For what reason did you make “Lying Still”?
Before I say anything, if anyone is reading this and hasn’t watched it, definitely do so now (Video below). Otherwise, I’ll ruin it for you. If you have seen it though, it basically stemmed from the simple, yet powerful idea of falsifying something that everybody takes for granted.
In film, home videos should ring a bell. Why would anybody ever fake a low production value/nearly worthless home video? With that in mind, I had to come up with an extraordinary event to “catch” on film. A girl confessing that she was a victim to rape was a plausible idea for the time limit that I had, which was seven minutes. It was powerful, and more importantly, a touchy subject. Presenting it alone, even without the idea of falsifying it, would be moving. But, at the close of the film, the viewer learns that everything was made up. In my mind, a majority of the population watches supposedly “real” events, such as the news or nonfiction documentaries, and takes them to be true. Home videos also fall under that category, but if someone were to fake a supposedly “real” event, more people might question the “reality” of the world that is presented to them. I optimistically question nearly everything around me, and I guess the main reason I made this film is so that other folks will follow suit.
StrongMocha: Let’s dive into the technology and software you used for Inferno Flow. You shoot it with the Canon 5D Mark II, which lenses did you use?
As far as lenses go on this particular film, I used the Canon L-series 16-35mm 2.8 and an older manual Nikon 50mm 1.4 with a Canon adapter ring. I also used a shoulder mount for the static shots and a Glidecam 2000 for all of the moving shots.
StrongMocha: While you did shoot the footage did you learn anything you want to share with our reader?
Fire is hot. It doesn’t mix well with cameras, especially expensive ones. I was singed a few times, so be careful when you shoot poi. Aside from that, trying different shutter speeds with moving objects, fire in particular, produces very different effects. It looks great with both low and fast speeds, and depending on your preference, both can work. On slower shutter speeds, however, I did encounter a bit of ghosting. Also, using the 50 prime was definitely advantageous for me- it performed awesomely in the low light coupled with the Canon 5D Mark II and gave me some breathing room with testing different exposures.
StrongMocha: Tell us more about your editing approach and the software you use?
I normally preach preplanning and preproduction, but with a great deal of event videography, things change on the fly. If you think about it, the concept for my video was extremely simple; it was just well executed. I knew going into shooting that I needed lots of variety within my footage, so I just left it at that.
The editing for this piece was more of just experimentation along the way. I wanted very beat driven movements (because that’s kind of what poi is based upon), so I rough cut about 40 minutes of footage down to maybe 20 minutes of good stuff. From there I just played around. If something looked good and flowed well, I kept it in. I kept the pacing of the video as close as I could to the pacing of the song, since I wanted to make the connection very apparent. Everything clicked really well, and I think that the combination of being at the right place with the right tools, filming the right person, and using the right music made the editing a no brainer. Getting all those things right was the hard part.
I used Sony Vegas 9. I only applied speed changes and mild color correcting as far as technical stuff goes.
StrongMocha: We here at StrongMocha started to use compression code to speed our work up dramaticly, tell us about your tricks in your daily editing work?
I use Cineform’s standalone compression software to tame the beastly .h264 files. Converting everything to .avi makes editing a breeze. For daily editing, knowing shortcuts is huge for me. I’m constantly refining my workflow, doing whatever it takes to be more effective and ultimately faster, while maintaining quality. I try to control the tools and not let the tools control me- knowing the ins and outs of the software will only make you better.
StrongMocha: What can we expect from you next film?
I have a simple concept that, although time consuming, if done right, will be effectively extraordinary and something never attempted on the magnitude that I plan to achieve. It will involve timelapsing, a living statue, some absolutely nasty beats, and a deep concentration on motion at its fundamental level. It’s in the works right now, and I’m pretty flippin’ excited.
StrongMocha: You also work on wedding films one of your recent one is “Sonal & Saidul-HENNA PARTY”. How did you start in the Wedding Film business?
I opened up the phone book and persistently asked for an interview. Basically, my partner and I really hit it off in the beginning, we were both passionate, and we were both driven. Wedding films are being totally revamped, and our company is at the frontend of the wave. By all means, check out our films, I can safely guarantee that they are unlike (and better) than any wedding film you will ever see. Imagine Inferno Flow translated into a wedding film. Yeah. It’s cool, and we love what we do. We’re open for destinations worldwide! gebbsweddingfilms.com
It took Yann Arthus Bertrand and his Team nearly three years to make this movie that is the culmination of over thirty years of hard work and total commitment to the planet. « It’s probably the first ever movie that is 100% aerial footage, which is Yann Arthus Bertrand’s trademark. This film really is the culmination of everything he has seen over twenty years and our objective is for it to be seen by as many people as possible. » says Dorothée Martin.
Home is more than a documentary with a message, it’s a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth—our Earth—as we have never seen it before. Every image seems to be saying, “Look how beautiful the Earth is, look at what we’re destroying,
and above all look at all these wonders that we can still preserve.”
You can watch the full movie on YouTube until June 14th, 2009: Home on YouTube or buy the film on amazon
« The film shows the genius of human beings and their ability to adapt to their environment… or to adapt it. And the big question is, ‘How do we choose to exploit our genius?’ » (Isabelle Delannoy)
An Interview with Yann Arthus-Bertrand:
When did you feel the need to make this movie? When I invited Al Gore to show his film, An Inconvenient Truth, to the French Parliament, I realized just how much impact a movie could have, even more than a TV program. I saw how moved the audience was—to tears in some cases—and I said to myself that a feature film was an excellent way of reaching people. It also seemed a natural progression from photography and TV programs. It occurred to me that by taking photographs of the Earth, my subject was humanity, which is the same logic behind movies.
What is the film’s core message? The film has a very clear message. We have a greater impact on the Earth than it can bear. We over-consume and are depleting the Earth’s resources. From the air, it’s easy to see the Earth’s wounds. So, Home simply sets out our current situation, while saying that a solution exists. The film’s subtitle could be It’s Too Late To Be A Pessimist. We have reached a crossroads; important decisions must be taken to change our world. Everybody knows about what the film says, but nobody wants to believe it. So Home adds its weight to the argument of environmental organizations that we need to revert to a more commonsensical approach and change our consumer way of life.
How did you develop the film’s rhythm? I like the slowness of wonderment, so I wanted the movie to take its time. Technical constraints linked to the helicopter’s weight and the camera we were using led us to shoot a lot of scenes in slow-motion. That’s what I like about the movie—it’s contemplative.
It’s also a film that causes you to listen and stop to think. People don’t like hearing some of the things the movie has to say, but I wasn’t prepared to make any concessions.
This is your first feature film and a hugely ambitious project. From production to shooting and editing, did you encounter many difficulties? Denis Carot, the producer of Live And Become, was introduced to me by Armand Amar, a composer and friend. He said yes right away, just like Luc Besson. That’s when the going got tough! When you’re given so much money to make such a unique filmshot entirely on high definition from a helicopter—it’s a massive responsibility with constant stress. I worked through it on instinct, as always, learning as I went along. We soon realized that the crew in the helicopter had to be pared down to the pilot, cameraman and vision engineer.
Then we had to overcome technical issues stemming from the new camera we were using and the shooting conditions, which were different in every country we flew over. Also, I made the movie without a script, based on a single page synopsis. I knew the story I wanted to tell, but the narrative only emerged as we were shooting, especially the central issue of energy—first the energy of human muscle power, then the revolution sparked by what we call “pockets of sunlight”, oil. In the end, it really is the movie of a photographer who’s not used to restrictions.
In the above TED Talk Yann Arthus-Bertrand displays his three most recent projects on humanity and our habitat — stunning aerial photographs in his series “The Earth From Above,” personal interviews from around the globe featured in his web project “6 billion Others,” and his soon-to-be-released movie, “Home,” which documents human impact on the environment through breathtaking video.
CREW
PRODUCERS ………………………………………………………………………….DENIS CAROT
……………………………………………………………………………………………….LUC BESSON
ORIGINAL SCORE ………………………………………………………………….ARMAND AMAR
SCRIPT ……………………………………………………………………….ISABELLE DELANNOY
…………………………………………………………………………..YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND
………………………………………………………………………………………………DENIS CAROT
…………………………………………………………………………………………………YEN LE VAN
COMMENTARY …………………………………………………………….ISABELLE DELANNOY
…………………………………………………………………………………………….TEWFIK FARES
…………………………………………………………………………..YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND
FILM EDITOR…………………………………………………………………………….YEN LE VAN
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR …………………………………………..DOROTHÉE MARTIN
CINEFLEX CAMERAMAN …………………………………………………….TANGUY THUAUD
PRODUCTION MANAGER………………………………………………JEAN DE TRÉGOMAIN
COORDINATOR………………………………………………………………….CAMILLE COURAU
About Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Yann Arthus-Bertrand is perhaps the best known aerial photographer on the planet. He has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide of his seminal photo essay Earth From Above, a decade-spanning attempt to photograph all the vistas of the planet from the sky, whether by helicopter, hot air balloon, or anything else that flies.
Arthus-Bertrand seeks to uncover the story behind the landscape, not just create a pretty picture. Indeed, his subjects are not always photogenic — his prints show poverty and strife as well as green tranquility; and everywhere in his work is the encroaching hand of humanity and its enterprise. He keeps close track of the coordinates of his locations, so other photographers may track their progress over time.
His newest project takes a different view — focusing more closely on the people who live on this planet. Called 6 Billion Others, the project was a centerpiece of Pangea Day 2008.
From director J.J. Abrams (“Mission: Impossible III,” “Lost” and “Alias”) and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (“TRANSFORMERS,” “MI: III”) comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, “Star Trek,” featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before.
Cinemacuteo “a place where you learn how to do guerrilla filmmaking” has plenty of video tutorials, you can learn everything you need to know to make your movies, videos or audiovisual projects. Visit the free Film School Group at: vimeo.com/groups/filmschool
Some examples the team has collected in the vimeo channel
World Builder is an award winning short was created by filmmaker Bruce Branit, widely known as the co-creator of ’405′. World Builder was shot in a single day followed by about 2 years of post production. Branit is the owner of Branit VFX based in Kansas City.
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About Yann Arthus-Bertrand
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