Apartment + Musician + Laptop + HD Camera = Music Video

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DCPTV: John Gold's 'Cactusflower' Video

Creators of the video for singer-songwriter John Gold''s song “Cactusflower” wanted an organic feel for the piece. They also wanted to edit the video to convey the intimacy of Gold''s song as performed live. The crew (including DP Andrew Huebscher, at left with camera) used a combination of a small set (Gold''s living room), on-shoot editing, and live audio capture to achieve their goals.
Photos by Pete Thompson petethompsonphoto.com

In the video production world, tales of music videos and other projects shot with ultra-low-budgets — in some guy's apartment, using borrowed equipment, and edited using off-the-shelf software — aren't exactly new. Such stories might even make you might shrug your shoulders and politely stifle a yawn.

But the making of a new video called “Cactusflower” isn't your average low-budget production story. The video's creation illustrates how independent video productions can incorporate the best of the high-end and low-end worlds to get the job done, even when money is scarce.

“Cactusflower” is the opening track on Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter John Gold's latest CD, The Eastside Shake. To go along with the song, the video's creators wanted a cutting-edge concept video. Footage for the project was recorded live — a rarity for concept videos — and it was shot in HD using a Sony HDW-F900 camera, recording directly to disk.

This approach allowed for efficient previsualization of the effects-dependent concept. It also allowed editing and effects work to begin on location (Gold's apartment) as soon as shooting finished. This let the team speedily stitch together multiple separate scenes and takes into a panoramic composite.

Besides being a cost-effective way to get the job done, this production approach also matched the content and context of the song. Since Gold plays all his own instruments (keyboards, guitar, drums, bass, and even a glockenspiel), the video's creators felt it was important to edit the piece in such a way as to convey the emotional intimacy of his song as performed live. That goal proved to be a major technical challenge.

Another challenge the team faced was physical: The piece was shot almost entirely in Gold's living room. It's a space well suited for the organic feel the team wanted, but during production it was difficult to stage the shoot with high production values, given that the room is only about 350 square feet in size. Team members had to be very sparse with their use of video equipment, lights, mics, and related gear in such a small environment.

Production team members found themselves needing to deal with all this while grappling with an extremely modest budget, since, at presstime and during the time the video was produced, Gold had not yet signed with a major label.

In the video, musician John Gold plays all of his own instruments, from guitar to glockenspiel.

The director and editor on the video was Jacob Rosenberg, founder of Formika Films of Los Angeles. Rosenberg is a well-known nonlinear editing guru, and is the author of a best-selling book, Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 Studio Techniques. He is also an instructor with Total Training, a well-respected, California-based software education company that has partnered with Adobe to help teach the basics of its editing products.

“John [Gold] and I have been friends for a while,” Rosenberg says. “I first saw him in L.A. four or five years ago, and we've always wanted to collaborate. We went back and forth on [the video's] concept, both agreeing that lip-synching was not cool. We wanted something fresh, something very organic. It took time to get it all together — partly due to our schedules, and partly because a year or so ago, this idea would not have been [technically] possible.”

Having served as a technical supervisor on previous HD jobs, Rosenberg felt that new technical possibilities were emerging with the new HD technologies. For this project, he decided to try something new for a low-budget music video — capturing live imagery directly to a PC's hard disk.

To pursue that idea, Rosenberg connected with Jason Levine, a fellow instructor at Total Training and an Adobe senior product “evangelist” for Adobe Audition. Rosenberg believed Audition could help him produce the video the way he had envisioned it. Rosenberg wanted to capture Gold's performance live, with him playing each instrument in a different area of the living room. The final video would essentially “rebuild” the song, using the best of each live performance, each recording, and each camera angle.

Andrew Huebscher, an award-winning cinematographer who had worked with Rosenberg in the past, served as DP on the project. Together (with help from post guru and Adobe digital production specialist Mike Kanfer) they persuaded Panavision to provide a Panavised Sony HDW-F900/3 package for one weekend, based on the notion that they were helping to R&D the workflow concept of recording from the Sony camera direct to PC hard disk.

Central to the idea was the development of a way to capture images in the compressed 1080p HD format live on location using the camera's HD/SDI output capability. (For backup, images were captured and backed up to Sony HDCAM tape in-camera, but Rosenberg says the video did not need to resort to those tapes, and relied exclusively on the disk recordings.)

Jacob Rosenberg, founder of Formika Films of Los Angeles, served as director and editor on the project

As they prepped the shoot, Rosenberg's crew had to test the technical concept — to capture camera signals on Rosenberg's Premiere-loaded PC. They also had to test the creative concept. Since the video was to feature lots of compositing, with pieces of Gold's performances around the apartment stitched together, Rosenberg had to make sure he could grab frames from every recorded camera angle and use Adobe After Effects to perform test composites and make changes immediately on set.

“Andrew [Huebscher] set up the camera, and we would mark every position that John occupied. He would be in frame, or I would stand in,” Rosenberg says. “We would capture a short clip from each marked position, and then I would take each clip into After Effects and stitch them together in one big comp. We verified spacing and overlaying, and then made framing adjustments based on that.

“For the second room, we used a static frame with multiple Johns. That was easier to go because it would require masking, time-remapping, and rotoscoping to get the effect we wanted, no stitching.”

Those tests went well, as did the shoot, Rosenberg says. He says he considers the success a precursor to more liberal methods of performing HD video production work direct to disk on limited budgets.

“On a stage, on a set, you get the immediate feedback from direct to disk,” Rosenberg says. “You have everything there for you. I definitely think people who are doing stage-oriented work, set-oriented productions, can have much greater control over program elements using a direct-to-disk strategy. The second you are done on set, you can start working. That is where you start to see the opportunities. All elements are available to everybody, and everyone is using the exact same files. I think this way of working is totally the way to go.”

To help achieve his goals on the project, Rosenberg used a Boxx Technologies AMD Dual Opteron 250 workstation with 2GB of RAM and 1.4TB of SATA storage. To maintain the best quality, the computer's internal serial ATA drives handled sustained data rates of between 13MBps and 17MBps. Video was captured as a 4:2:2 signal, using AJA's Xena HS HD card running Premiere Pro 1.5 with CineForm Prospect HD, at 1920×1080 (23.98fps progressive with 1080 horizontal line resolution).

Individual “slices” of John Gold performing “Cactusflower” were shot around the living room/set, and then composited together. Each clip was imported into After Effects and stitched into one big composite.
Photo courtesy Jacob Rosenberg

To capture the signal direct to disk, the camera's HD/SDI port video output went first to a three-way HD/SDI splitter — sending a signal to the computer's Xena card, an outboard 14in. HD monitor, and a Tektronix waveform monitor simultaneously.

The camera system came with a set of three matching Primo prime lenses from Panavision, including a wide 7mm lens, Huebscher says.

“We also had a 5.5mm-50mm Fujinon HD zoom, which we used on some exterior shots,” Huebscher says. “We filmed at the 24fps frame rate. I used the 1/48 electronic shutter and the -3dB gain setting, turned the matrices off, with preset white balance, and kept most other enhancement settings disabled [like skin detail, for instance]. I prefer to shoot a flatter picture up front and build contrast later, so I kept the knee, pedestal, and black stretch in positions where shadows and highlights were most preserved.”

Image control parameters aside, the camera itself was positioned oddly to achieve the effect Rosenberg and Huebscher wanted for the video — they decided to turn the camera on its side for production. That meant that the 16:9 aspect ratio was turned into a tall vertical frame.

This was done so that they could divide the apartment into six manageable slices that could each be covered by the sideways camera. Gold was then consecutively positioned in each slice, performing his song with another instrument, all the while maintaining the energy and feel of a live performance. Reconnecting the slices in After Effects created a wide panorama-esque shot of Gold's living room, with five John Golds performing in the same frame.

“In that extremely small apartment, our saving grace for lighting was the fact that the ceilings were higher than usual [almost everything was lit from above, save for some hidden fixtures here and there],” Huebscher says. “Because we wanted to see a lot of the space, we had to use extremely wide lenses. The camera was mounted vertically on a Weaver Steadman three-axis head. We did get a lot of height information on the screen, but we were unable to hide some lighting and grip gear [which would be erased digitally later, during the effects process].”

“We captured some frames from each of those separate slices first, and stitched them together in Photoshop and After Effects, just to make sure it worked,” Rosenberg adds. “It did. As we are shooting progressive, there were no interlacing issues, no weird lines or stripes in the comped frame. So we captured positions one to six, taking about three hours to record the performances from just the first verse of the song, done in multiple takes and in multiple slices of John's apartment. That was the first day. On the second day, we moved into the other room of the apartment and shot that out using a static plate in about two hours.”

Footage was captured on a Panavised Sony HDW-F900/3, and output to a PC via the camera''s HD/SDI output.

On the audio side, Jason Levine's challenge was to develop a system and workflow that would support this multiple-live-recording concept. Working with his laptop and his audio kit, Levine was able to devise a workflow that would record the pieces of Gold's live performances, provide playback of each sequential take, and provide separate mixes to separate headphones. The workflow also had to synch up the live performance pieces seamlessly with the existing version of the song in terms of tempo, tone, and style.

“In talking with [Rosenberg] about the shoot, we knew about a year ago that HD and the associated technology was not quite where we needed it to be, conceptually,” Levine says. “But as things developed, the concept of a single camera, multi-angle video shoot with live audio recording was making more and more sense. It had never been done before, but when Jacob asked again, I said, ‘Yeah, actually, we can do that now.’ ”

Levine's approach appears deceptively simple. He used a Dell laptop; a MOTU Traveler, a portable FireWire-equipped recording/playback device; and a variety of microphones, including matched pairs from Audio-Technica. The Traveler essentially let Levine turn his laptop into a mobile digital audio workstation powered by the computer's FireWire bus.

With a combination of direct and mic feeds, Levine captured audio as a digitally converted, 24-bit, 48kHz signal through the Traveler. This allowed him to immediately edit the sound in Audition on his laptop.

Some instruments were plugged into the Traveler directly, since it can operate without external preamps on the XLR inputs with its 48V phantom power switches. Amplifiers and drums were miked to complement the direct signal, and separate mics handled acoustic piano and vocals. A slate mic was also used, and ambient room tone was captured as well. All this audio was then fed both to the Audition-equipped laptop and the camera tape itself.

Levin says this audio setup, like the video setup, was meant to be extremely interactive. During the shoot, he was able to feed click tracks to Gold, so his performances were all in tempo, even as the instrumentation was layered over and over again. As a loop file within Audition, the click track could be stretched, or its tempo changed, as required.

Also, with multiple headphones being driven by the Traveler and a Peavey splitter, the artist and crew could have separate cue mixes, based on the different requirements of the performer, the audio recordist, and the video director.

One exterior shot of the video was recorded only to tape (others were recorded to PC with tape backup). Director Jacob Rosenberg (right) helps align John Gold (on the grass) as DP Andrew Huebscher prepares to shoot the scene.
Photo: Noelle Watkins

Levine was positioned in a second small room of the apartment, where he monitored the audio recording and watched the HD capture on a computer screen.

“I captured everything, warts and all,” he says. “The noise reduction tools were essential in making this possible.”

For a live recording, the apartment shoot was a bit of a makeshift setup. There was no sound proofing, obviously, and no room for baffles. But inside Audition, tools like Spectral View allowed for easy monitoring of the sound frequency over time, Levine says. Noise or hum could be identified and eliminated, and a special noise profile zeroed in on unwanted sound, while leaving desired sounds in the range.

“It shows live input scrolling across the screen in different views,” Levine says of the Audition user interface. “There's metering of every track as it is being recorded. You can see the actual input level on each channel. Then there's a visual representation of the waveform, and DC offset displays. I instantly know what is going on in realtime. Any pops or digital distortions, or if he gets too close to a mic or clips the A/D converter, I can see that right away.”

As for the final mix in post, at presstime, the “stitched-together” version of the mix was being delivered. Levine says there was some EQ and mastering left to do, but the blending of live and pre-recorded versions of the song on location was seamless.

The various distractions on the set — including all the equipment and the cramped quarters — didn't seem to affect John Gold's musical performance, Levine says.

“There's often a tension between the artist and the engineer, but pretty much every take was best on the first or second try,” Levine says. “We did more for safety, of course, but John nailed it [each time].”

Ironically, it was Gold's first-ever video shoot, although his music can be periodically heard on TV as part of the soundtracks or closing credits on such shows as Weeds and Smallville. Gold says he found the shooting process on the “Cactusflower” video less than intimidating, largely because he paid very little attention to it.

“I sort of went away and got lost while they did the technical setup,” Gold says. “It was a fascinating process, but for me it was more about outcome than process. I am used to building songs from the ground up, but people usually go to a sound stage or studio for that.

“In this case, I was in my own apartment, wearing my own clothes. There were no stylists around, and I could do my own song in my own way. I think it is going to be original because of that, and it looks like one of the most organic videos I have ever seen. Because the camera is static, it's kind of like looking at a nice photograph, only it's moving. It's a great instance of how technology makes it easy to capture something natural and organic.”

Rosenberg says he was also satisfied with final results — and with the workflow the team created. He says the hardware and software setup let the production team have complete confidence in what it was doing. “What we were able to do together was more than pretty cool. It shows how we can empower ourselves to be more vertically integrated within the entire realm of production.”

Musician: John Gold

Director/editor/on set AE pre comp/PA: Jacob Rosenberg

DP/cinematographer/grip/gaffer: Andrew Huebscher

Audio supervisor/mixer/recordist/PA: Jason Levine

After Effects artist (post): Jason Woliner

PA/assistant editor: Michael McCarthy

Camera: Sony HDW-F900

Lighting: Kino Flo 2ft. 2-Bank and a 15in. Single; Arri Fresnel Kit with 100W, 300W, and 650W; Dedolights

Video capture: AJA Xena HS

Workstation: Boxx Technologies AMD Dual Opteron 250, 2GB RAM, 1.4TB SATA storage

Applications: Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 with CineForm Prospect HD, After Effects 6.5, Adobe Audition

Workstation: Dell M60 laptop, Pentium M, 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM

Application: Adobe Audition

Audio Device: MOTU Traveler

Microphones: Audio Technica AT4030 and AT4050 for vocals, AKG D12E for bass guitar, Sennheiser MD421-II and AT4041 (matched pair) for Wurlitzer EPs

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