50,000 Unstoppable WattsSo, I've been spending the day cleaning up, archiving and doing the closing books on the Clutch video and thought I'd lay down the final count for the video.

Total Run Time - 3:41:11
Edits - 221
Frames per edit average - 30.05 (right around 1 second per edit. MTV at it's finest)

91 VFX shots broken down as follows:
29 Monitor Burn shots for a grand total of 100 screens
36 (Major) De-Noise shots. Thank God for Neat Video and Furnace. Perhaps  I'll talk a little about those shots in the future and how this video was put together.
24 Beauty fixes. I'm hesitant to call these beauty fixes. More like "There wasn't enough low fill light" so I     had to soften some shadows. But I'm a perfectionist so while I was at it I fixed some other stuff...
2 Matte Paintings. Actually 1 painting used twice...I try to cheat every chance I get.
8 Programs used: Final Cut Pro, Color, Fusion, Neat Video, Furnace, Lightwave 3D, Compressor, Photoshop. Love everyone of 'em.
1 Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
4 Lenses: 50mm 1.4, 15mm Fisheye 2.8, 24mm 1.4, 100mm 2.8 Macro
1 Guy: Me.

I was thinking about this the other day. Other than my actors and the band, this is the first time since my very first project in film school that I have done everything, soup to nuts, on a project. Concept, shoot, edit, post, VFX...everything. Inevitably you need help and the talent of a bunch of other people as your projects get more and more ambitious. It's hard to say which way I would prefer to work. I like the challenge of having everything on my shoulders. And even though I do this for a living and have sat in front of these magical boxes called computers every single day for the last 12 years, I still get blown away by what you can do with them. For instance this is the first project that I sat down and got proficient in Color for. We just didn't have the budget for a final tape to tape color session so I had to roll up my sleeves and do it myself and I'm damn proud and thankful that I did. I think it turned out great and I won't hesitate to go that route in the future.

Finally, an interesting side note: that first film school project I mentioned earlier...Guess what band I used for the soundtrack? Yep...Clutch. Funny how life works.

Finally. I can now say that the video is offically done. Look for it on MTV. I'll post some more details tomorrow, but for now I'm going to go have a beer with a pretty girl.

Anthrax, Ham Radio, and Liquor

Nearing the home stretch on the Clutch video. As I type this I'm watching the (what hopes to be) final pass on the color correction. The edit is locked, the 29 VFX shots are done, a handful of beauty passes are complete (not because the actress wasn't already beautiful, my lighting was occasionally not flattering) and the final grade is just about complete.

After that I'm hoping to get time for one more bonus VFX shot and then it's off to have everything laid off to  HD masters tomorrow.

I'm still a little unsure of where it will be shown (MTV is likely) and I don't know when or if I'll be able to post it but the second I know I will pass on the word.

Almost done.

Neil from "50,000 Unstoppable WattsI thought I'd take a small break and give a little update on the video. Things are progressing nicely as I'm almost to a locked edit. The guys saw the first rough edit and pretty much approved everything which is always a relief. It's hard to rework something that you are happy with. Happily, I dont have much of that to do on this project.

If you didn't know, this is a follow up to the video I previously directed for the guys, Burning Beard.

Finally, here's a shout out to the people at sassafrascove.com who managed to stumble upon my babling. Hope you guys like the video when it's done.

Just installed the recently released firmware update for my camera (see previous post.) Works EXACTLY like it should and how it should have from the factory. Better late than never. It's sad but I probably appreciate it more because I've been having to shoot this crippled camera. It's like i got a new camera for free. I plan on using this camera a whole lot more now.