If you've been following my blog for a while, then you remember when I posted about the band Unrequited that came by DIGImmortal Photo's studio last year for a photo shoot. You can see those photos here.
At the time of that shoot we had tried taking some video of lead guitarist/vocalist Nick Vallese performing an acoustic version of their song "Black & White" - The video didn't pan out very well so we never put it out there for anyone to see. There were audio problems, and quite frankly the video setup wasn't that wonderful, either. I told Nick we'd give it some time and try it again at a later date once I got the audio issues figured out.
A few months, a couple of firmware updates, and an investment into a solid video mic later, we got together again to reshoot. This time I had better lighting prepared, a better method of recording video and audio, and plenty of time to take multiple angles.
I won't lie, there were issues. First off, I'm only just finding out something that, apparently, many 5D Mark II shooters have been aware of. The camera doesn't produce files that are easy to edit. This is because it uses a relatively new video compression that most software chokes on. This also changes the way you have to output the final video. Lots of transcoding going on to get these clips to work. In the end though, it's worth it for the great results you get. I edited using Final Cut Express, which took a bit of learning, but I'm happy with the results. In all it took about a week between research, editing, scrapping the project and starting over, re-editing, more research, and final output, which is pretty darn good in my opinion, considering I work a day job and always have multiple projects going.
I plan on doing a full band video shoot with Unrequited in the near future. They are finishing up recording of their new album and we are going to pick a song from that to release as a video. It will be much more intense to shoot and edit, but I'm up for the challenge, as long as the band is OK with miming the same song about 800 times in a weekend. (Not fun)
Also on the horizon is a video shoot for a new track from Steve Bello Band, which will be taken from their upcoming album Go Berzerk! which will be a lot of fun to film as well. Steve and I have been throwing around the idea of putting out a DVD with the content for him, since I've already put up a poorly filmed and edited teaser for a new track, and we plan on doing a video of the next rehearsal as well, on top of the official video (whenever we get to that). So there would be plenty of material to put on a DVD and I'm sure we can work up some extra bonuses to package in there along with all of that.
Before we get to the video, though, what do you think: Would you be interested in buying a physical DVD from an independent band? Physical music sales, as CDs or music videos on DVD are way down, but for some people this is the way they make a living and get known. If a band like Unrequited or Steve Bello Band put out a self-produced DVD with a music video, video interviews, photo galleries, and other extras, would you be willing to shell out a few bucks to help support unsigned artists? Leave a comment and let us know!
At long last, here is the video. You can get it from either YouTube or Vimeo. Personally, I prefer Vimeo's player as well as their quality, but YouTube did a good job of rendering this video, just make sure you select 720HD for the quality.
Unrequited - "Black & White" (Acoustic) from DIGImmortal Photo on Vimeo.
The HD is turned off in the embedded video above, go to the video itself through the link in the previous paragraph to view in full HD quality.
For info on how to get YOUR band a music video shoot from DIGImmortal Photo, just email me through the site, or leave a comment here and I'll get back to you!
Don't forget you can also follow me on Twitter and be kept up-to-date on new projects, new photos, what I'm eating for lunch, and my thoughts on absolutely nothing useful.
That's all for now, but more soon,
-Rob
Posts
