Thanks for the comment Milto! The lights were left and right from the band. The original footage was well lit, but I graded it darker in order to change the mood in the video. I explain a lot of how I did everything here: osnews.com/story/19767/

Thanks Ivan. And good idea on the close ups on the instruments.

After watching it again, I think you 've deserved a little present: buy yourself a letus extreme adaptor! It'll crank yourself up to the Pro level, and I'm not talking about Vegas now! What can I do more to convince you? Good job, Eugenia!

Thanks Ivan! :)
I actually have one on pre-order for almost a month now, but not sure when I am going to get it as the person who makes them by hand is currently busy with life. :)

Just left and right of the band, high enough, aiming towards the center of the band.

My wife whom is a really brilliant photographer showed me that if you point the lights at the ceiling it looks much more even and vivid. BUT, if you do that you also must use very small lights in addition ( like 150 watt ) to aim from a distance at each persons face so you still get nice EYES in the shot. I used to blaze lights at the subjects too, but it's not as beautiful that way. Remember to try and angle the lights pointed at the ceiling so the light falls down over the band, or person, and also to keep the light within about 3 feet of the ceiling pointing up at it. Nice and close to keep the falling light nice and bright. 500 watt lights are plenty for that so you will be set. I use a few 650 for my room lights ( ceiling ) and bounce board lights. For all of the fill lights I use 150 watters from at least 7 feet away to prevent hot spots. For the ceiling lights, barn doors are great to keep the bright light off of the wall and only on the ceiling so it doesn't become a dead give away whats going on. Thought I'd help since you help so much. Cheerio !!

Thanks, I will take this into account for the next time. This time there was simply no way to move lights far away or re-arrange them, the studio was small.

No, not much of a choice for the location. We did the best we could with what we had. :)

It was hot in there. :)

They actually had with them 2 t-shirts each, I had requested that. But it was so hot in there, and they were dripping sweat for playing the song at 125% faster, that I am not sure it would have been a good idea to change suits all the time. We all needed a good bath after the shooting. :)

As for acting on the song, we had discussed the possibility, but the band didn't want to give a wrong impression that e.g. a band member did something bad and needed an alibi.

Actually, as a director, you can ask them. It takes quite a few takes to get enough footage to edit it properly. I detailed everything here btw: osnews.com/story/19767/

Hi, I explain here: eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/04/01/the-trick-with-music-video-clips/
and also check out the OSNews link I link on the comments above. I explain everything there. The video you just saw was slowed down btw, you just didn't realize it. :)

Actually, the shooting took only 2 hours. We left home with my husband at 2 PM on Saturday, arrived there at 3 PM, shot until 5 PM, and by 6 PM we were back home. :)

I spent about 15 hours editing overall, in the span of 2 days.

Aah, I was about to update and mention that I had clicked your links and found the answer in your rather tasty article. Well well well, I just didn't realise the footage was slowed down at all. So I guess that would mean mission accomplished..

Me, pro? Naaah. I am just helping out indie bands. Possibly I didn't have enough of a groupie life as a teenager so I compensate now at 34. :)

Hell, you've been a pro! I was speaking of Vegas Pro. And how much of a pain was the whole speeding things up deal? I've heard it can be tricky.

Ah, yeah, I am using Pro since last August, pretty much just a month after starting using Vegas altogether. Yes, syncing the video back to the music is tricky.

Yup, from 30p to 24p it would have worked without these artifacts, but the HV20 doesn't do 30p and I didn't wanna shoot the very video-like 60i. I tried to disable resample on Vegas too, which usually takes care of these problems, but it didn't help.

What would I be sacrificing if I were to convert 60i to 30 or 24p in post? I've tried this once but never really noticed the difference between just shooting in 24p or converting 60i to 24p.

There is a difference. 60i looks like video, no matter what. The shutter speed is different etc.

Thanks Brian, appreciated!

I used the following for the studio shots, in this order:
3-way CC with the lows wheel towards blue, mids towards yellow, and highs towards green. Saturation to 1500, gamma to 0.750. Magic Bullet with the Sepia Red template, but with pre-saturation to -70 instead of -100. Finally, Unsharpen mask at 0.250 and radius at 0.100.

Thanks. It wasn't the shutter speed to blame, it was the frame rate. You see, on post, I had to take the 24p video and make it 18p (because I needed to sync the audio at 25% slower rate) and then resample it back up to 24p. This added the blur.

To avoid that, I needed an HV30 with its 30p support.

Thank you Karen! Much appreciated! :)
Yes, I am hoping to make more of them, I have 2-3 Bay Area bands in mind so far...

Hi, thanks. No, there was no major plan, as I had not seen the place we would shoot at all. We were making it up as we were going. I didn't use a 35mm adapter btw, but I have one on order.

Of course and it was pre-recorded. That's how most video clips are shot. :)

The same as in my tutorial, linked by Vimeo's tech-help forum.

David, that is a nifty trick, although you will outgrow it soon. It is very hard to acomplish shallow DOF in tight spaces where there is no room to work with between camera talent & background. An adapter also has the advantage of changing lenses for focal length with out distorition

And Eugenia, may I suggest a back light?

Are you using tungsten work lights? I would place one behind the talent at a 45˚ angle, one in front a of the talent at a 45˚ as a key, and a car windshield shade as a reflector as a fill.

I have these in my disposal: adorama.com/SVKT900.html and this amazon.com/Westcott-Photo-Basics-304-Reflector/dp/B000N4AYHC/ref=sr_1_10/103-1437221-6681421?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1189069122&sr=1-10

Ideas appreciated.