Progress report on the AGrip Jib Crane 6/27/12

Today is June 27th 2012 and at this point we've shot quite a lot of stuff with the AGrip Jib Crane. Many people remember the first Blog Entry for this Jib. Since that time Ryan Spencer and I did a lot of shooting and we cut a reel; now I feel like we have finished what amounts to "Round Two", which is in my mind, another 6 month time period of using this crane, and getting more experience, and adding to our family of Jib footage.

We've done quite a few shoots. I am going to write about some of them.


Recently we did a video for the artist named "Kornbread", we used a lot of Jib in this music video. The location was a gritty factory that had a a couple two story sections with steel grates and pipes. I lit this set up really cool and then when we filmed with the Jib Crane... It just looked awesome!

Kornbread Video in post production right now

Post production time line of the Kornbread video that is Jib heavy

Another shoot that we used the Jib Crane on was on a music video for an artist named DeSaint Reed.

Behind the scenes Jib shot from Desaint's video

Here is a link to the music video:

http://youtu.be/neFNl0BjRkI

The Jib shots start at about 3:58

We were able to get these beautiful Jib shots BECAUSE, the AGrip Jib can be set up so fast. All you need is somewhat flat ground and a close place to park the van. If you have that, then the Jib can be set up quickly and using a generator, you can get your shots on location. Mixing this amazing Jib crane with locations is simply awesome.


The AGrip Jib Crane was also used for Rebecca Black's new music video. Here is a link to the video:

http://youtu.be/PEXgUdNGkts

 

Jib Operator Ryan Spencer operating on the Rebecca Black MV

There are Jib shots throughout this music video. As you can see, the Jib shots look really cool with the beach house location because the Beach house had an area that you could see over with the Jib. The Jib was a great call for this music video.

The AGrip Jib Crane was used recently on a music video for Fredro Starr from the group Onyx. We used the crane in a private parking area in an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles. The parking area required us to enter a gate and drive up 1 story where we were in a parking lot, yet not on the street level with street traffic. This was the PERFECT spot to use a Jib. We would not be bothered by the police yet, since it was a dangerous street below we got to see the police in our shots a lot. For this video we wanted police syrens flashing onto the Mercedes that Fredro was performing on so we used lights and gels to do this. The Jib Crane was able to look over the wall at the real police and then fly over to Fredro who appeared to have been performing near police syrens. This was an amazing shot.

The Crane was also used in this same area to film a performance shot of Fredro on a fire escape. This vertical area worked great with the Jib. This video is going to be awesome. Stay tuned.










A Director that I work with hired me to get Jib Shots for his music video and after the first day with the Jib, the director decided that he wanted every shot in the music video to be a Jib shot and so he started hiring me for multiple days. We have gotten a lot of cool shots for this music video. The directors name is Lightfield Lewis. The music video is starring Lightfield's father, actor Geoffrey Lewis.

Behind the Scenes shot in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles

Actor Geoffrey Lewis being filmed by the AGrip Jib

One of the memorable shoots that we used the Jib Crane on was the B.A.D. video for the Rap group called "B.A.D. Company",

Check out the video:
http://youtu.be/lAaa2wCfINk

This video is filled with Jib Shots. It was a lot of fun working in 1 location with vertical areas such as external stairways, and 3 story shelving. I think that the Jib shots added a lot to this video. One of the uses of the Jib on this video that I especially liked was how we mixed aerial overhead shots of the fight scene near the stair well, with hand held shots filmed on the ground inside the fight.

DJ Laser Effects Lights in AGrip.net's Arsenal

This Blog Entry is kind of a "coming soon" blog entry that I will edit and update over time. I have however purchased my first Laser light. it is on the way even though this piece of equipment is somewhat unique, I do forsee it being an effect that ends up getting used in LOTS of my videos. I am putting together an affordable packaged deal of Laser lights that I offer with my "Van Deal" and these DJ Laser Effects lights will ad some really nice spice to a lot of videos. I will display some of my work with this kit, on this particular blog entry so, stay tuned. This is a picture of my new light:

These are some pictures from a shoot that I did a while back with Joe Nation using some DJ Laser Effects lights that he rented:

Alana Grace Music Video Shoot 2.2.12

Imani - Who does she think she is, Shoot

On Sunday January 29 2012 I did Grip/Lighting & Camera Support for Director JB Adkins on the artist Imani's music video. This was a cool project. JB had some target videos that he thought about when he made this shoot. JB actually wrote a blog about this shoot that was very informative and interesting. This is a link to that:

http://imanibossi.blogspot.com/







These are some videos that inspired this video for Imani:

Ralek Gracie - 1-16-12

Making of - Veronica Ballestrini - Don't give up on me 1-15-12

This was a really fun day of shooting. The DP of this video was Joseph Lombardi.

Directed by DJ Cosgrove.

I will post the video on this blog when it is done, stay tuned!

Veronica Ballestrini shoot, Guys like you

I had a great shoot on January 14th 2012 with Director DJ Cosgrove and his production company called Dextral. The Director of Photography for this shoot was Joseph Lombardi, he did a great job.



Veronica Ballestrini is an artist that I am really rooting for; she is very talented and has a great voice, she is also an uplifting person with a positive message.

This video rates high on the "Doability" chart. DJ came up with a concept that had many engaging elements, his concept also lended itself to quality production for the entire music video, within the time constraints of our budget.

3 concepts stand out in this video:

First of all, the paper background and split screen concept is interesting and entertaining. This concept supplies the video with quite a few precious seconds of entertainment.

The 2nd concept that stands out in this video is the use of children to carry the story line. Veronica being 20 years old, fully grown and beautiful makes people think about situations more in her age range however, the use of children is comedic and contasts with Veronica's age. It seems to show how boys can be boys but at some point they have to be careful what they turn into. (I guess, I mostly just thought it was a cute touch)

The 3rd concept in this music video is how we showed the production equipment in the video, we broke the 3rd wall and showed the equipment and a little bit behind the curtain of the music video. For parts of the video you will see music video looking footage and then the camera will dolly back revealing how we did certain things and you will get a sense that you are in a production. This is another engaging concept among many that makes this music video interesting from start to finish.




I liked Veronica's song a lot. Musically this song is catchy and fun; top notch.

Email me at: adamunruh1@gmail.com and ask me about the AGrip Van Deal for medium sized 1 location music videos. This is the best priced and manned Grip/Lighting & Camera support package out there. In the Audio Blog I forgot to mention that the "Van Deal" does come with track and dolly. This Van Deal is optimized for music videos.

Note: This behind the scenes video really does not do justice because the coolest parts of the video, I couldn't film behind the scenes on because I was pushing the dolly. But at least you can see a little from this video.