Month: March 2013

Rapid Fire

michaelmerto

FCPX-icon

I’m really excited over a couple things. First I know Apple just released version 10.0.8 for Final Cut. Most of the changes don’t seem to affect me or help to speed my workflow. Having support for Sony’s 4k codec is not something that concerns me at the moment, nor is support for Alexa’s log. The positive thing is Apple is finally admitting that they lost professional users and are publicly making a bid to get them back.

Finally, the Wolverine trailer is out! The franchise took a big hit when Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, the Wrestler, Pi) stepped out of production. His presence made Wolverine look promising especially after the first origins movie. However, they did get Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma director James Mangold to helm after Darren’s departure. That’s more than a healthy alternative.

Roger Linn and Carson Day at SAE

michaelmerto

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A few weeks back I ventured up to SAE of San Francisco to film an event. They had two guest speakers, the Legendary Roger Linn and Carson Day from Dave Smith Instruments. Obviously, I felt a little weird attaching little Zoom recorders to these industry professionals but I did what needed to be done. They were great and kind and I learned a lot. Roger’s drum machine was used to create Prince music!

I had two cameras running. I had the 50 1.2 on a 7d locked down and I floated around with the 5d and various lenses attached to the mono. Aside from the Zooms, I used a Tascam DR-40 set really low specifically so I can get some clean audio of their music since there wasn’t a board I could plug in to. I also mounted the Rode shotgun on the 5d so I could monitor the audio to make sure I can get good audio to sync with. I used Plural Eyes to sync the 3 audio tracks and 2 cams. It did ok but I had to do a lot of manual syncing, PAIN!

The main issue I had was not having loaded Magic Lantern onto the 7d and facing the 12 minute recording limit. That meant keeping track of the time, while monitoring the audio, while moving around re-obtaining focus. It was sensory overload for me.

Anyways, it was a great experience and please check out the video on SAE Institute USA’s youtube channel below.

The Dancer

michaelmerto

Screen Shot 2013-03-15 at 11.43.22 PM

I had the pleasure of working with a Bay Area artist, RichieFaReal, for his upcoming LXXXV album. I was commissioned to shoot the music video for his song “Maniac.” It’s a visually cool juxtaposition of images between a beautiful, graceful dancer and the little girl from The Ring. Playing dual roles as the dancer and the maniac was Thonia. I was caught off guard by how great she was to work with. Didn’t flinch once on consecutive retakes and gave it her all.

We’re in the final stages of editing the video but I had some downtime and footage that wasn’t going to be used. So I chopped up this ditty as prelude to the final video. Everything was shot on Canon’s for this one with the use of available light. That was a mistake. I wanted the warmth from the dance studio’s light so I left the cameras at 5600k thinking I can simply add some purple (can’t shake the purple phase!). Instead of a nice warm sun yellow I got kind of a grotesque over-riped banana yellow that didn’t reveal itself since I shoot in Cinestyle. It was time consuming correcting each clip but a great lesson learned. In the prelude I didn’t want black and white so I kept the mid tones but desaturated everything else. FCPX for the edit.

The Oscar Effect

michaelmerto

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I normally disregard awards. (well, unless I win them). I like Seth McFarlane. He led me to the show and kept me watching, I thought he did great. I knew Ang Lee from his varied work from Crouching Tiger to the underrated Incredible Hulk. So he wins Best Director for Life of Pi.  So I watch Life of Pi. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I’m hypnotized by the world he created and I sit in silence five minutes after the movie ends, reliving what I just saw. Reliving how I felt when I watched it just moments earlier. That doesn’t happen often with me.

It just so happens that the other most recent time a film had that effect was another Oscar winner. It’s a short film called Curfew. Everything was great down to the use of anamorphic lenses.

Two highly recommended movies.