Filming for a music video?

red_ice

A friend of mine wants to do a music video based in a warehouse. The lighing in the room can range from dim to bright depending on how many lights you have on. the place itsself is pretty good, the walls are all redbrick, the floor is a pollished concrete, and theres a great contrast in the main open area with unpainted iron pillars supporting the very high roof. The room has charactor.

Basicly, its not a video that would be passed off as being anything really serious or presentable, just something to see how the music can be visualised and if it works well with video. So we would like to make the best possible production.

My main question (having no experience with this lark) is the lighting. We would like to introduce a strobe light in certain areas of the song, but overall we want to keep the darkness in the room but still giving light to the main areas of the shots.

Can anyone give some sound advice on budget music videos? Where are the best sites to go to for learning whats what?

cheers

MLM

Sounds like you need a good Director of Photography for the lights. It not something you can learn off a website. If you want to do it well as it takes years of experience and training to get anywhere decent. If you need one PM me. You will need a good hair and make up person as the performers must look good, sexy, like heroes. Your job is to perfect them visually. Even if they are a low-fi indie band they must still look perfect in a lo-fi indie sort of way.
Pay particular attention to the clothes they wear. Make sure they can dress themselves, their choice of clothing works and they don't look like a bunch of gobsh*tes. If you have to, get a dedicated costume person. Most important of all, make sure the song is very very good and a proper professional recording. You should be able to get all of the above for free/or a small fee, with a little bit of planning patience and persistence.

BlitzKrieg

few quick questions about the location.

How big is it?

How many natural light sources are there (windows?)

How many artifical light source are there (lights)

The colour shceme is red (red brick) and the pillers are? A rusty brown?

I assume your shooting on mini dv, which camcorder?

if your not shooting on mini dv...then what are you using?


Also on a personal note..Where is this warehouse and how did you gain access to it? (looking for a warehouse for one of my films.)

red_ice

BlitzKrieg wrote:

few quick questions about the location.

How big is it?

How many natural light sources are there (windows?)

How many artifical light source are there (lights)

The colour shceme is red (red brick) and the pillers are? A rusty brown?

I assume your shooting on mini dv, which camcorder?

if your not shooting on mini dv...then what are you using?

Also on a personal note..Where is this warehouse and how did you gain access to it? (looking for a warehouse for one of my films.)

big? its about the length of a tennish court and a half squared, with a few cutt off areas and a few pallets.
Windows - no. One big ass shutter door thats on a motor.
Artificial lighting.. theres 3 lines of lights going down the room, theres 3 sets of 4 lights, so theres 12 in total i rekon. All of which are the 2 meter jobbie doubled up, a few of them are flickering and it can really show up when its the main source of light.

the colour scheme is mainly grey, i dont really pay attention to this stuff, the walls could be made of straight cavity blocks.. but for some reason i remember them being redbrick.

The pillars are a rusty brown, and they are mainly along the side walls as supporting structures, i thnk theres a total of 1 in the centre of the hall.

The warehouse is my fathers, i dont really go up there much, which is why my memory of the location is rather faded. He is very protective of it as he runs a business out of it. its located near the red cow.