Utopia last shooting day

Finally, we shot the second part of the videoclip was shot yesterday. It was gonna be a long drive to the deserts of San Bartolo and do some off-raoding.Started with some problems as usually every production has but was fixed quickly.

I was glad the location appealed everyone as it was a bit far but it was worth it. The results were awesome and the sky and sun was there with the precise position, the precise intensity, the wind was blowing not too fast, not to slow and the whole day was filled with fun and laugher and Toño Valero documenting all the behind the scenes with pictures and his little camcorder.The hawk and the trainer couldn't make it today but I'll do pick up shots of it probably on monday if possible as it has to be done way south outside of Lima. Maybe I'll arrange another nearby day.

We did a shot where a cape was used on top of a huge rock to to mimick a hawk and the wish to fly. We did it in sillohuette against the sun and the results were quite good. I loved the theatricality of the shot showing not an explicit but a more implied-artistic representation of the bird. Maybe if while editing I see this shot works better I'll just keep it and discard the real hawk shot....no matter if it's easy now to obtain it. I love those birds but the whole video idea is more important than bird.

For the long shots, the Nikon 80-200mm zoom was used and I think this was the best testing of it....now looking at the footage with the pro monitor at the studio it shows very clear, crisp and no color aberrations. Edge to edge sharpness was achieved and with the Canon 18-35mm there was no vignetting either. The Letus showed an incredible sweet bokeh and like I said...all the lighting and sun was perfect. Like if we paid it big bucks!



Hued the camera colors to the blues and cyans to jump one step in color correction in post.



So far, this HD footage takes quite long hours to render.At night we went to my good friend Jean Pierre Vismara's house. Although a bit far from the desert location (he lives in La Punta-Callao) and somewhat delayed in schedule, we finished fast.It was good to see him after almost two years. He was kind enough to lend me his house for the shooting. I shot there another videoclip in 2006 for Big Mike as a return of favors and he delivered. His house lends itself to lots of visuals as you can see on that video. And Rodolfo here stressed by the long hours of set up. He simply is not acustomed to audiovisual production scenarios and times. Impatient as he is it was such an ordeal to him to wait so long hours for shots that took actually minutes to do. You can see in his face his uneasiness....he is such a great guy. Very funny. Good old friend for the last 17 years!
It was a good day.

Hawks & Deserts

I have always digged hawks.

Since a child myself I have always admired the royal elegance of such a beautiful strong bird. It's typical silverish tone of the first one I saw in my life made it look like shining metal and so magestic it look soft and respected at the same time.

In psychology class back in college days I found out why I happened to relate myself to those birds, for its elegance and for its ability to soar high and away and always protect its bird family as they are very territorial and protective of what it considers its own. As corny as it sounds to some, I relate to that much.

Now, years later, I wanted to say such a strong image in the song "Utopia" while writing the lyrics and now, for this shot I have tried to get in contact with people that breed and train hawks and pray birds, and I finally got one!

Im just waiting to confirm for the hour they can get the falcon to our location in the deserts south of Lima. I went location scouting today and found a place close to what I had in mind with that dried-soil look to it.

So now....sunday is the day. It will be awesome to have finally a hawk for the takes.
Later that night, the pick up takes for the middle part of the song.

Color test of the "Utopía" videoclip

Here is the first color timing test of random clips from the video.
So far, so good.


UTOPIA videoclip color test from Juan Carlos Oganes on Vimeo.

Filming the Alter Ego video

So finally....the Utopía videoclip was shot on monday.
The day was packed with details that made it a frenzy one in production anecdotes.

Lighting took quite a while as the place was big and the main power box was a bit far from the shooting sets. We had a late start and had to push my singing shots to the end of the day and overrun our schedule ending time by three and a half hours. We wrapped for the day early morning the next day. Besides of that, it was good to see all the band together after years of being apart.

Establishing shots were done in 720p at 24fps using a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, medium and tight tele shots were done with the Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD and Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF zoom lenses all using the Letus Extreme.

The HVX200 delivered beautiful colors and details but had to lower the V-detail a bit to get rid of the "video" sharpness and get closer to film edge-quality.

Tried far to hue the colors in-camera as not to overload post-production and rendering times. So far, on today's tests, it's giving me five hours per minute of video.
The Jib-arm bringed those floating shots I so love and raising up to 12 feet, it sure brought production value to the shots.
As always, my good old friend Aguinaga was with me on the lights and it was a good thing to work once again together after so many years and like on every job, he is quite ready for light directions I might have. Most of my latter work was done with him under and I must say he is not only a great professional but a great friend.

Here are some pics of the shooting.
The second day of shooting will be on the weekend.

Here below is a first color grading test of random clips from the video.

Utopía wardrobes

We went to pick up the wardrobes for the videoclip. The wardrobe maker is Emilio Montero, excellent professional and good friend. He makes costumes for the Lima Prolírica Opera and also the Zarzuela. I chose him not only because he is so talented in his craft, but also as HD captures every nuance in fabric and texture that we need to be very picky on things like this and he is the guy for it. Toño Valero also came with me, his guitar riffs are gonna look cool with wardrobes like this.

So far, this is what he has. I'm liking it!

"Utopía" videoclip getting close

Now as the day for the Alter Ego videoclip shooting comes close, I'm making visual examples to aid on the look style I want for it so I show my gaffers and crew. I always loved medieval, ancient, castle-like structures kinda like in the gothic arquictecture and for interiors the classy candle light ambiences. The song "Utopía" is dark and heavy so this bloomy and contrasty light/dark atmospehere need to resemble it. From wardrobe to make up, from scenography to lighting. All needs to be thought of well Tomorrow I'm checking for the type of cloth each band member fits to.


Here are some pics that exposes in a way the look I want to achieve for the clip.

The widescreen pictures are from Aaron Hobson that I happened to stumble on the net. Excellent work he does.

Nikon zoom fixed again

I took the Nikon zoom lens for repair and the guy did well. He dismantled the whole lens in parts and found that the problem was the the Manual/Automatic switch: it wasn't clamping well enough and it became loose, leaving the focus ring to spin freely without engaging the focusing internal motors.
This was the ofending part: The switch that didn't clamp well.
I have another Canon 35mm f/2.0 Prime lens that the focus ring didn't work as well. Dismantled the whole thing also.
It seems that it has the internal spining mechanism broken. I bought it refurbished in the US and I still have the warranty but it's too much hassle having it sent there, paying shipping and waiting for weeks to have it fixed, so just went ahead and took care of business myself. The guy sure seems to know what he's doing. Gotta pick it tomorrow though.
I just hope the Nikon lens doesn't become broken again and this time its fixed for good.

UPDATE: Went to pick up my Canon 35mm Prime and it works fine at last. The Nikon zoom lens is not giving me any problems either. Hope it stays that way.

Got the Nikon zoom lens

Finally...the Letus Nikon Lens Mount has arrived. Customs agents gave it clearance today but it was to be delivered tomorrow. I couldn't wait so I drove like 60km to Fedex's main office to pick it up. Then, off to get the Nikon lens. The guy was just finishing cleaning it up for the sell and it looked good. Now the focus barrel was better (but not smooth yet). I tried it a couple of times on the camera kit with the Letus Extreme and it worked pretty well: no vignetting on wide apertures, nice beautiful bokeh at 2.8, sharp, no scrathes and good contrast. But the focus ring got stuck once so the dealer gave it to me for some days to test it without buying it yet to see if it worked for me. So far, already installed with my HVX200 kit at home, the focus ring got stuck and doesn't move.
Tomorrow I'm taking it back for repair. This time it has to work. It is the best bargain ever and this Nikon zoom is quite solid and rigid and together with the Tamron 28-75mm, I really have a good range from wide to tele. I really dont want to let this lens go.

Found a bargain Nikon zoom lens

I bought a Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR lens a month ago. I guess it was second hand but it looked like new. The quality of the picture is quite good and decided to buy it after reading some reviews. But Im kinda short on the far end of the zoom range. I cant get tight shots from far away as 75mm isnt enough so I need to go shopping.

Some days ago, while searching for weeks for fast zoom lenses on a local market (cant go higher than 2.8, the Letus eats up 1/2 of a stop) I found a nice little (big actually) Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF lens. It looks amazing! It's condition was quite abused (the focus ring was loose, the zoom ring was jerky and it stuck often) but it looked repairable. Besides, the price was tempting (less than 1/4 of its actual price new) and it seemed repairable. So I told the guy if he could have it repaired and if done well I'll take it. He agreed.

That lens is really huge. Almost the size of the Canon XL 16x II, and the good news it can keep a 2.8 stop in all it's range. It can also go down to 22. I checked the glass under bright light and I didn't see any scratches and dont detect any aberrations either.

I called the guy yesterday and he has it repaired. Im just waiting for the Nikon Lens Mount from Letus to arrive tomorrow to have that huge lens installed on my cam rig!

It's quite a bargain...I just hope the repair is not just a momentary "make-up" and down the road in some days it starts falling apart again. The place doesn't offer a warranty.

Edward Gorey

I have always been a fan of Tim Burton films.

Starting young as an animator in Disney projects, he quickly made a name of himself by concetrating on his style that ranges between the dark, kinda film noir and gothic.

There has been an author and illustrator that I stumbled upon researching art galleries and odd concepts like Salvador Dalí's beautiful paintings and what Im talking about are the drawings of Edward Gorey. His visual style resembles much or at least transports me to the turn-of-the-century british era in the streets of London. When one sees his work Im sure that many have (and defintely any shrink that likes to analize anything) guessed he was a british or he was into death stuff or something. When I read his bio it was quite interesting to learn that he never ever stepped on english soil nor he had an adiction for that kind of stuff. In fact, many of his books were children's books....yes!! Children's books (ok, If I had a kid that loved that type of drawings and was attracted to all that dark stuff...im sure I'd send him off to the school counselor!).

His topics always inpired macabre, cemetery, dark and contrasty looks that revolved around the goth and the surrealist. He was into "literary nonsense"...much like Lewis Caroll.

Anyway, Im sure Tim Burton has come with ideas of his own watching his drawings as inspiration for The Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Sweeny Todd and others in the same horror/gothic type of gloomy atmospheric films.

I'd like to give the Utopia videoclip that look and air. Keep it dark, contrasty, lury, gothic....yes, that Gorey type of look. The lens I'll use together with the HVX200 will help to give it that tight flat sensation. Definetly, a lot of post work will be done in grading it to a darker picture. Plan to hue it toward the dark blues and greens.

Let's see how it develops. The day for principal shooting is getting closer.