It was a sunday. I normally work weekends but on Saturday of that weekend, I rested. Now it was sunday and I had slept in an hour or two. I was hungry and I was on the move. I was in my truck headed to McDonalds for an egg McMuffin, then I was gonna come back to the house and take a shower, and then probably lay in bed for a while and daydream about what kind of story I wanted to write that day. All of a sudden, phone rings... Its Jason Haberman a.k.a. What310 on the line.. He says "man, what are you doing RIGHT NOW!" I said.. "uuuuhhhhhhhhhhh, going to get an egg McMuffin?" he said "bro, this chic called me up, this is an emergency! Her video guy flaked, she needs us to make a video, I told her I would do it if I could bring my lighting guy.." I said "yo, talk money..(note: I didn't really say that in real life) Jason said "she threw in your cash for the budget, you in?!"... I was like "uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh, (I like to kick it and have days off but chillin is overrated) So I said "WEON homay" ... he said "alright, can you be there in an hour?!?!?!" An hour?! Daaaym, this was really an emergency; I pictured Jason running with a camera bag and a boom box, possibly sliding down a firepole with his girlfriend, Neysa, already in driver seat of the car, with the car running while jason ran and jumped headfirst into the backseat through the open window like on dukes of Hazard as Neysa did a burn out U-Turn... anyways, I was like "oh mannnn, ..... Alright i'll be there in an hour!!"
We talked about what equipment we would need, it was just gonna be a simple simple kit. I ended up going and getting that egg mcmuffin, then coming back and getting a shower, then loading the truck; I didn't forget the sun block. Then, BAM hit the freeway, rollin on the I-5 north into downtown LA, got onto the 101 and then got off on Rampart, etc. etc. Parked the truck right next to the house we were going to shoot at. We got set up and put on our sun block. We were kickin it, waiting for the artist "Medusa" to arrive. I was talking to Jason's girlfriend about Bald Eagles.. then Medusa rolled up in her custom wrapped colorful hip hop van with her mohalk in full effect. It was kinda tough to park that van on the super steep front yard; I helped drive that thing into position with my van driving man skills. The boom box was hooked up, the girls were ready, the water hose was flowing, the camera was rollin', dolly was goin, I thought I saw a samoan, etc. etc.
a few minutes later, those shots were done. Then we filmed Medusa and JNatural drive by in Medusa's crazy colorful wrapped Van. BOOM, we got into our vehicles and drove down the street to a spot in Downtown LA. It was a cool little hair salon slash/vinyl record store; this place was really cool, it had a lot of vintage style.
I parked the truck close and we unloaded real fast. I set up a couple lights and then I set up the dolly and track outside, first we got the roll up in the van shot, then we moved inside. We filmed both of the girls pretty quickly, the longest part was when the make up artist was getting JNatural's new look ready for the performance scene. The indoor Salon stuff went really smooth, then we packed up the gear in the truck, filmed a couple more things outside, and then, ThAT WAS A WRAP!.
I really liked this song and I think that, for an extreme short notice video, we did a pretty good job. Jason edited this video and had it uploaded... that night!
WOW. I think we SH(#$d on that other camera guy whoever he was... hummmmm. anyways, it was a fun little video and a fun little day. I hope everybody enjoys our video!
The Music Video for "Cus I Got Tatoos" has just been released! Watch it in Full Screen and let it load first. "Sayne" has changed his name to "Ryan Pinky" since we shot this.
This music video was a lot of fun to do. We shot this in Newport Beach. It’s a good song and I think we made a cute video. We had some really pretty girls for this video and we used a Tattoo parlor for our day interior. Also what is notable about this equipment is that we filmed a performance scene of a guy riding a Bicycle with my Bungee Cam set up for the truck. We also filmed on the pier. This video had to be cut short because we could not get together for the 2nd day of shooting so we ended up turning it into just a couple verses and choruses; I am hearing that this idea is actually working out maybe for the better and so I am very excited to see this video.
THE PLANET ASIA MUSIC VIDEO TITLED "BAR SEASON" HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED:
Planet Asia - Bar season
Bar Season is a video that I did quite a while ago. The artist was very happy with the video and they were saving it until they do some other videos so that they can steadily release all of them. I think that this is likely to be the best video that they will be releasing in their string of videos, watch their other ones though so that you can form your own oppinion! Ryan Spencer directed this one and the video was taken to What310 for editing. Joe Dilag was our DP and Camera operator and he was a good guy to work with. I built a special china ball and Pipe Boom Kit rig in order to get some fill light for the patio scene. We used a lot of AGrip tricks on this video despite it being filmed in such a short amount of time. I have actually written a blog about this video that you can find HERE if you would like to read about the behind the scenes of this shoot in further detail.
If you like this music video, buy a T-Shirt from the clothing company who sponsored it: ESBE Clothing Company.
THE OPEN MIKE EAGLE VIDEO TITLED "BRIGHT GREEN LIGHTS" HAS JUST BEEN RELEASED:
Watch on youtube: http://youtu.be/1OhobMZupEA
Open Mike Eagle - Bright Green Lights
I shot this music video on Thursday night. We shot in a very small apartment in Downtown LA. It was a little hectic to shoot this because we had to adapt to our change of location but I think we shot some really cool stuff here! I used my fog machine in this as well as my Kino Flo Break out kit that I put together for the 4Bank Ballasts... the Kino Flo tubes on the floor around the guy back lighting and up lighting the fog looked really cool. We also used a 650 Fresnel overhead with some diffusion on it for a key light. Originally we had planned to use a high hat sitting on the table to film "that 70's show" type pans on the table top, but we had no table to use! We ended up stacking some milk crates to the desired height and then ratchet strapping the high hat to them so that it would be secure. In post-production our editor Jason Haberman did some slow zooms. The second part of this video was filmed that night as well, outside of a warehouse in El Segundo. For this part we used my 12'x12' Green Screen and a classic truck as well as some cool ladies who came out.
At first it was really stressful making this music video because the first location was tricky to get into and I brought too much equipment that all needed to be hauled up 5 flights of stairs, I got a lot of help though and we all had fun making this music video. I really enjoyed making this video and it is probably one of my favorite music videos that I have done. I just like it a lot and I want to keep going and do MORE!
Original Blog
I have been VERY busy with AGrip for the past 3 months doing lots of rentals and music videos. Since I started AGrip 4 years ago, I have never had a quarter like the last quarter of this year, where I have had so many music videos in post-production or finished and waiting to be released. They are really starting to pile up.
This is a list of the music videos that I have done that I can remember, that are waiting to be released to the public:
Pusha T feat. Jigg and Breezy - See about us
This video is finished and is waiting to be released. It was filmed at Atomic Studios in Los Angeles on their big green screen cyclorama and White Cyclorama. I really like the song that this video was for.
I saw the finished video and it is really hot. The editor that was hired for this is from Aspen Colorado and he took a very very long time editing this project but it does look pretty nice. This video was shot with a Jib and the same remote head that I now own which is for DSLR Cameras with Canon Lenses. This remote head can handle focus/zoom and Iris control of the camera. I can't wait for this video to come out. This is probably the biggest video that I have done that is completed and waiting to come out, and that I am including in this list.
Breezy - Young Love
This is another video that I shot around the time that I shot the Pusha T Video. Breezy is an artist featured in the Pusha T video that I did which is called "See about us". Breezy is a young guy from Virginia who is pretty talented. He is 6'7 and was on a state champion basketball team; he got a scholarship to play for Stanford but he can do more then just play basketball; musically he is very talented. This video was directed by Ryan spencer. Ryan directed 3 Videos that were part of a packaged deal for the artists Pusha T, Rashon Jigg Perry & Breezy; out of the 3 videos this "Young Love" video is the Directors favorite one. I think that this is a really cute and fun video. We filmed this music video mostly around the venice beach area and on a green screen as well. The music video was edited by my partner Jason Haberman.
Jason did a great job cutting this music video and he also did some very stylish and impressive green screen compositing. I can't wait for this video to come out. Notable AGrip contributions to this video are: The dolly moves with the girls in the park; also we used my 8'x8' checker/ultrabounce lame scrim to get fill light onto the girls and on Breezy when he is infront of the hot dog truck. I really liked the jib shots that we did in venice beach infront of the "Pink's Taco's" truck with Breezy and the girl playing his young love. This video is cute, laid back and has a lot of style.
Rashon Jigg Perry - Love Show
Rashon Jigg Perry is a big time up and coming artist. He can rap, sing and perform but he can also make some really great beats. Rashon is actually the guy who made the music for the Pusha T video that we did which is called "See about us". This music video was shot in a night club in San Diego.
It was a very stylish night club and we shot in quite a few different rooms. This video came out really nice. We did not have very much time to shoot in this club and so I think the collection of gear that I brought worked out pretty well because I was able to rig track and dolly as well as slider movement and lighting in quite a few different locations of the club so that the production could move from room to room without having to wait for set ups.
Suni Blac - Kiss of Death
This music video is for King Suni Blac and the main video was filmed in 1 day, with B Roll and pick up shots filmed on a second day. The song was sent to me by the artist, Rashad McCants and I got some visuals in my head of how I imagined it. I hired Jason Haberman to direct this video and Ryan Spencer to film it as well as myself of course, doing lighting grip and Camera support. This video came out like I wanted it to, it is very clean. We chose a rooftop in West LA which had a nice view of the sky scrapers in downtown LA.
Then we carried some straight track and the dolly up there. Near the ledge we put down some full apple boxes and had Suni Blac stand on top of them so that we could have him be higher and we could get a framing that was clear of the ledge in the background. We filmed him performing from the track and dolly. He was wearing a white blazer and it really popped against the sky. we filmed another performance part of him on the tile roof that was close by as well. Then we moved down to the truck, and we set up the car mount on his Black Mercedes. We also went to downtown LA and used the sunlight in the background as well as B-Roll of the city and the trains. This video came out really chill. I like it. Stay tuned for this video!
Focus - Married to the Game
This is the most recent music video that I have shot. We filmed this in a popular night club in LA.
We did not have very much time at all but we got some cool dolly shots and performance scenes in the club. The idea for the lighting was to use lights gelled purple to light up the back ground and then have a regular tungsten light for the key light on the artist. We also shot in Hollywood that night with the car mounts. We used quite a few car mount configurations and we used a somewhat shallow depth of field for these night time car mount shots. We lit up the people in the car with my LED Lite Panel lights. We are shooting another video for the artist "Focus" this coming Sunday 6/19/11.
There are a lot more music videos in the works but as you can see, I have been busy so stay tuned to my facebook page and to my blog and you will start to see all of these videos drop.
