BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF SHOOTING A VIDEO WITH MONASH UNIVERSITY
When Monash University approached us for this project, they wanted to create something that was cool and hip to the younger audience. They were looking for a video production company in Malaysia, and we were ready to assist and deliver!​
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The whole concept of the video was to take the audience through this experience of what one of the students sees as he steps into the university. It develops into showing the different faculties and the research projects. Instilling these bits and pieces while holding a core story structure, helped us to formed a story that was both cool and informative at the same time.
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Logistically, it wasn't a straightforward shoot. There were many locations within the university that we had to work with. Plus, we didn't have the luxury to use paid talents. Hence, we had to use the students and lecturers as the talents for the video. So, their time limited because they had classes to attend to. Therefore, the planning on how to get around this was tough, but hats off to our Producers and Assistant Directors for this!
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Doing a cool video, has to have cool transitions and shots. And we did not leave that to chance.
One of the most rewarding and thrilling shots we did was the car-rig shot. This was our first time doing it and it was such a thrill!
Rigging everything on the side of the car was fun. But it did take a lot of time. So, for anyone out there, looking to do car-rigs for your next shoot, keep in mind of the time it needs to rig it up. It took us an hour or so just for setup, and for us, we're lucky because we only needed it for two shots of the same angle. But it did take us nearly 2 to 3 hours to complete them because it's not only the rigging that's difficult, it's the driving around too.
Imagine for a second the logistics of this. CAR A (where the director, driver and client was in) drove in front of the CAR B that is rigged. Inside the rigging car, we have our AD, driver and talent. So, because our shot needed the talent to look out the window to the university, we had only one stretch of road where this was possible. Whenever we did our take and we needed to do more, we'd have to circle back (mind you this is a busy road) and re-do the shot in the same stretch. It was a lot of communication (luckily we have the Hollyland Solidcom with us) was needed to make sure this was pulled off! Kudos to the team!
The whole project took 4-days to shoot. To be transparent with you, we initially quoted for 2-days of shoot. But because the logistics was difficult and weather was not on our side one of those days, we had to extend our shoot. We are grateful that the team in Monash were understanding of the situation and it was a fun experience to collaborate together.​
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Because of the length of the shoot and the logistics needed, our team had to be BIG!
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So we had our Director cum Director of Photography, Producer, 1st and 2nd Assistant Directors, Production Manager, 1st and 2nd Assistant Cameraman, Gaffer and 3x Best Boys, and a Production Assistant. With this crew, it gave us the flexibility to have one team shooting one scene in one location, and then have a smaller 2nd Team that prepared some of the equipment for the following scene in another location.
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Having the right people with you is very important. Having the right number of people too is very important. Having too many isn't too good either, as communication can be skewed. But, for this project, it was just perfect and every crew member made the whole shooting process smooth and fun!
In terms of equipment, we shot this whole project using the Sony FX3. We always love this camera. It's easy and cheap to rent, and the form factor really pays off. We would have taken a lot more time to setup on the car-rig had we chosen a heavier camera. ​
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The Sony FX3 was paired with the Olympus Zuiko Vintage Prime Lenses that have been Cine Modded. We wanted to get that vintage look for this project, as we felt that the trend nowadays, especially for younger audience crowd, seems to go into this filmic, vintage look. So, decided on the Olympus Zuiko was the right choice, considering it was cheap compared to renting like Leica Summicron Lenses.
Thoughts on these lenses is that not all the rings on the focus ring are in the same position. So, we had some trouble in the beginning to calibrate the lens to our Nucleus-M Follow Focus System. In terms of the look, if you really want that vintage bokeh that has a bit of swirl, then you need to really open up your aperture. Opening up to the max capabilities of the lens, give that nice vintage bokeh we're used to seeing. But when you stop-down on the aperture, it does lose that characteristics.
Overall, the project was a success in our opinion. The client gave raving comments on the final outcome and we were very happy with the whole experience. But of course, with every project there are things to learn from.
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One of the things I would learn from this is to give time to each scene. There was a lot of rushing in each location. Understandable considering the concept we were going for. But, given the right amount of time, we could nail the performance of the talents better, craft our lighting setup even more, and have a bit more fun and not be so stressed.
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So moving forward, whenever you are doing a project, always keep this in mind. When creating that call sheet, keep in mind how long it'll take, in detail of setup. I think I always underestimate my lighting setup time and need to overestimate that.
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But that's a lesson to learn that will propel all of us into becoming better filmmakers. That's the whole process and that's what makes this job fun. Learning and learning every single day. Never stop learning.
