Behind the Scenes: Commercial Shoot

Here's a short tour of my basement where we shot some dental and jewelry ads.

This is one of the final ads:

Dazzle Her - Jewelry Ad from Tony Reale on Vimeo.

DSLR Rig & Gear for Video Production and Filmmaking

Episode 12 of Next Wave TV: Tony's Vidcast

In this episode, I show you the gear I use for my DSLR shoots.

More info on the DIY Zaza Slider:
Zaza Slider Website
DVXUser Forum Page

Hosted by Tony Reale

Produced by Creative Edge Productions







View more photos on our Facebook page.

Cinematography Tips for Video Lighting - #3 Lighting Every Angle

The third episode of Cinematography Tips for Video Lighting. Hosted by Tony Reale.

Today I talk about the importance of lighting ever shot separately. Often times people will light a scene and shoot from multiple angles. Here I show you why lighting each angle improves the quality of your video.

Produced by Creative Edge Productions







View more photos on our Facebook page.

PhoneCam: Corporate Video Shoot

We were down in Milwaukee this past week doing a corporate video shoot with a marketing firm out of Chicago. Here's some footage from the day.

Cinematography Tips for Video Lighting - #2 Interview Lighting

The second episode of Cinematography Tips for Video Lighting. Hosted by Tony Reale.

Today I talk about how to set up lighting for an interview and the importance of back lighting.

Stuff I talk about:

Lights: Cool Lights 5600k CFL
Smith Victor Photofloods
Britek Lights

Produced by Creative Edge Productions

Become a fan on Facebook!







For more pictures from the shoot, visit our Facebook page.

Cinematography Tips for Video Lighting - #1 Introduction

Vimeo version

The first episode of Cinematography Tips for Video Lighting. Hosted by Tony Reale.

Stuff I talk about:

Latest episode of NextWaveTV (to date).

Lights: Smith Victor Photofloods
Britek Light

Camera & Mic: Canon 5D MkII
Azden SMX-10
Zoom H4n

More info on my laptop and PC workflow.

Cinematographer Style on DVD.
Cinematography Style YouTube Clip 1 & Clip 2.

Produced by Creative Edge Productions

Become a fan on Facebook!

After Effects Tutorial: Add Anamorphic Lens Flares to Video

YouTube Version

Episode 10 of Next Wave TV: Tony's Vidcast

In this episode, I show you how to add realistic anamorphic lens flares to any digital footage using Adobe After Effects and Video Copilot Optical Flares. The methods I use here are both easy and fast...which can be very important when using effects like this.

This is a great alternative to spending thousands of dollars on anamorphic lenses for your camera. The results are very realistic and highly customizable.

I also show you how to add realistic handheld camera shake to your footage. This can be very important when working with DSLR footage since most DSLRs have rolling shutter problems that create a "jello-cam" effect when moved quickly.

Canon 5D MkII PC Workflow - Adobe Premiere CS4 [UPDATE]

I'm going to take a little time to go over two things: my editor and my workflow for 5D footage.

Editor:



My first setup was a HP Pavilion Intel Quad core Q6600 desktop. I used it for my HV20 thru my XH-A1 and some of my 5D MkII footage. I paid $1,100 back in January of 2007 and it still works great.

When we started editing the Doritos commercial Sean wanted to try out his new Intel i7 desktop, so we brought the footage over to his house. I was very impressed at how well the i7 handled the transcoded 5D footage (I'll talk about transcoding more in a little bit). So that got me interested in a new system...but this time I wanted to be mobile.



Which led me to my current editor, the Acer Aspire 8940G. It has an Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB RAM, Blu-ray drive, and 18.4" 1920x1080 HD screen. It is much zippier then my desktop and I'm really happy with how it edits.

What are the downsides? Well it doesn't have good speakers (at least compared to my monitors), so I always plug in my monitors before I finalize sound on any project. Also, even after calibration, I don't trust the laptop's screen to be truly color accurate. So before I finalize a project, I always color correct on a good external screen.

But all that said, for the price the Acer is a fantastic editor.

I love being mobile too. I can shoot on location and jump right onto my laptop and review the footage or start editing right away. Plus it lets me edit at my favorite coffee shop...which my desktop never could :)



Here we are on location at one of the Jewelery shoots and I'm reviewing footage. Pretty sweet!

Oh, and since I'm pretty much addicted to having dual screens, I bought a DoubleSight 9" USB monitor. It's not very good for video editing, but works great for viewing websites. I love it because it runs both signal and power over USB...no VGA or power cables to worry about.

Workflow:

I did a review on Philip Bloom's 5D MkII Training DVD and in that review I told people that I would recommend it if you are new to filmmaking. In his DVD, Philip goes over Mac workflow, but leaves PC users with very little so I wanted to give you guys a simple workflow method for PC users.

First I'm going to assume you have a quad core PC or are at least able to view raw footage from your 5D in Windows Media Player without it skipping. If you can't do that, your computer may not be able to handle 5D footage very well. Also we'll assume you've already offloaded the footage from your CF card to your computer. And lastly, I use Adobe Premiere Pro so this workflow will revolve around that. If you use Avid, Vegas, or something else try to substitute parts of this guide for your setup.

Now that it's on your computer, you'll need to transcode it. Raw 5D footage is encoded in H.264 which is great for capturing, but horrible for editing. Macs can read H.264 and edit it pretty well, but PC editors don't use the GPU of the computer the same way Macs do so transcoding is a necessary step in PC editing.



I personally use Cineform NEO Scene for my transcoding. Mainly cause it creates an editable, lossless file that is converted from 30 fps (which is the 5D's only frame rate) to 29.967 (which is the industry standard frame rate).



Now that you've transcoded your footage, open your editor. Select a project that is 1080 HD at 29.967 (sometimes shown as 60i). Go ahead and drag in your transcoded footage and try playing it back. You will notice that the raw footage from the 5D will barely play at 1 fps in your editor, but the transcoded footage should play back fairly smoothly. Depending on the power of your PC, you may notice some choppiness in playback, but that has nothing to do with the quality of the footage. It just means your computer has a hard time editing Full HD 1080 footage. HD editing is very resource intensive so the newer and more powerful the computer, the better.

Hopefully that helps. Remember, transcoding is pretty much a requirement of PC editing of 5D footage. If you're planning on buying a 5D MkII and a PC to edit it on, add Cineform (or something similar) to the cost of your purchase.

Good luck!

[UPDATE]
I thought I'd share one more thing. Cineform is great for commercial productions when you want the best possible editable copy of your footage. But what if you just want something smaller to edit and archive?

I've been using Adobe Media Encoder to convert my 5D footage down to 720p 29.97 which works great. The file sizes are much smaller and it's a standard format that I can work with.

I usually compress out an MP4 using an H.264 encoding. Here are the typical settings I use. Depending on your sequence settings, you may want to change a few of the settings around until you get something you are happy with.

Crash the Super Bowl Doritos Commercial - Want More?

This is a commercial we shot for the “Crash the Super Bowl” Doritos contest.

Written, Directed, & Edited by Sean Bowers
Director of Photography & Color Correction by Tony Reale

Starring:
Nick Wicker
Travis Calkins-Delforge

Shot on the Canon 5D MkII and XH-A1 cameras

This was the first shoot I did with my new Canon 5D MkII...and I have to say, it's FANTASTIC! The image we captured was beautiful and it let me light more artistically than before.

Click here for pictures from the shoot.

Raivu for Kids

Back in June, we produced a video for Raivu Industries. Here's the finished product!

Macro Videography - Nikon D90

Vimeo version

A short compilation of video clips taken with my Nikon D90, my Nikkor 50mm f1.8, and various extension tubes.

Howcast

A few weeks back I received an email from a staff member at Howcast. He said he had come accross our How to Build a Camera Jib/Crane video on YouTube and wanted to host our content on their site. I was more than happy to see our content reach a wider audience.

Be sure to check out Howcast for a variety of helpful videos. Here's a link to our Howcast page.

Raivu Industries Video Shoot

I recently did a video shoot for Raivu Industries talking about their new ministry Raivu for Kids. I'm working on editing the video and I'll post it when it is complete.

For more information about Raivu Industries, visit their website raivuindustries.com or raivuforkids.org




Visit our Facebook page for more pictures from the shoot.

CEP Commercial Shoot

Last weekend I set up about 90% of my equipment for the first time to do a commercial shoot for Creative Edge Productions. While everything was setup, I shot an episode of NextWaveTV. I'll have the episode up soon and the commercial done in a few months. Here are pictures from the shoot.

Making Partners

I'm excited to announce that YouTube has upgraded our account to be a part of the Partner program. Check out our page to see the changes: youtube.com/nextwaveg

Q90 on the News

A few weeks after finishing the video for Q90FM, WFRV Channel 5 News in Green Bay asked to do a story on Mike Lemay the general manager at Q90. They also asked to use a small piece of the fundraiser video in the story.

Click here to watch the video

NextWaveTV Ep 7: Upgrading a Prosumer Camera Rig

NextWaveTV Ep 7: Upgrading a Prosumer Camera Rig from Tony Reale on Vimeo.

Episode 7 of Next Wave TV: Tony's Vidcast

YouTube Version Part 1 & Part 2
In this episode, I talk about the upgrades I did to my camera rig to bring it up to a professional level.

Hosted by Tony Reale

Link to Ep 4: How to Build a Prosumer Rig
Link to Q90fm Fundraiser Video
Visit our Facebook page
Pictures from the shoot

Produced by Creative Edge Productions
creativeedgepro.com

Q90fm Fundraiser Video

Q90fm HopeNet Fundraiser Video from Tony Reale on Vimeo.

YouTube Version

After several weeks of hard work, it's finished! This is the video we did for Q90fm's HopeNet program. For more information on HopeNet, visit their website: q90fmhopenet.com

For pictures from the shoot, view some of the older posts on our blog or view our Facebook page.

Produced by Creative Edge Productions creativeedgepro.com

Q90FM Video Shoot 2

We just finished with our second shoot for the HopeNet promo video for Q90FM. We worked with teens from Woodland Worship Center in Oneida, WI. All of the teens did a fantastic job in acting, especially since we were working with very emotional scenes.

To view more pictures from the shoot, visit our website creativeedgepro.com or become a fan on Facebook.

Check back in a few weeks to see the completed video.

Q90FM Video Shoot

Last week I did a video shoot for Q90FM. We're working on creating a promotional video for their HopeNet program. Check back for updates on the production. For more information on Q90FM and HopeNet, visit them online at www.q90fm.com

Visit our website for more pictures from the shoot www.creativeedgepro.com