*Please read before watching the video above!*

But why is there a map on the video now?!?! Don't worry, I will guide you through this ;) After receiving numerous emails and reading thousands of non-believer comments on youtube, I am here to explain how we did the one take music video with Max Schneider and Victoria Justice. 

This was no easy task! In fact, it may have been the most challenging shot I have come across in my time as a DP (director of photography). For those of you who do not know what that is, a DP works hand in hand with the director. The director calls action to a scene, they direct the actors around and have the overall vision. The DP's job is to select the framing of shots, make calls on the lighting and camera setups and make sure the movie looks good! Back to the video. When we showed up on set, out of the six person crew, only the director had seen the location. We had no idea how much of a setup this was about to be, but we had 30 minutes to figure it out. We walked through it about five times while the camera was being built and instruments were being placed around the house. I started to get the flow of how we were going to have to move through the house, but that was just me... we were about to have a camera op with a steadi-cam rig (which makes you significantly wider than a normal human being), myself behind camera making sure we were always in focus by using a remote follow focus and Daniel manning our only constant key light and audio playback. Everything was about to change, we now have three/four people huddling together behind the camera, plus our three actors that have to navigate safely around us to get into next position. I'm not sure about anyone else on the crew, but I've never studied the art of choreographed dance! A crash course and pioneering was about to take place haha. We got everyone that was going to be involved with the actual take to become part of the walk-throughs. After a few "well, this isn't going to work" traffic jams in tight hallways, we managed to make it through with everyone still in tact. 

Now, here goes the technical side of the shot. After walking through and watching everything on camera, I spotted a bunch of different lighting scenarios through-out the set. This is no good for a camera that has a manual aperture ring! Since we didn't have a fiz unit to make remote adjustments on the fly, I had to start placing lights in the darker areas. But guess what.. after all of that choreography, I was about to throw yet another curve ball at our steadi-cam op! I placed a few lights around the house to illuminate the really dark rooms along with some bounce and diffusion. In addition to not running into walls, we now have to make sure we never see one of our light stands. This part wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, we changed from a 25mm lens to a 35mm to tighten our shot just a little so entering rooms was a less risky task. After bouncing a few lights for ambience, we still needed an extra kick on our actors faces at certain points in the set. Enter Daniel! We used a hand-held battery powered LED panel light with some diffusion. Optimally I would have liked to place this on top of the camera with a remote dimmer so we could change the brightness as needed, but again this was not an option. Our two person camera operation became a three person team. Daniel wasn't simply following us blasting light on the actors at all times, he also had points where he had to either dim down or pan the light off to avoid over-exposure. I will also mention at this point, half way through the video we start back-pedaling with camera. On top of watching the camera to make sure everything is framed right and the lighting is decent, we have to watch out for things behind us because one little trip-up can result in one of the most expensive domino effects imaginable! 

Onto our actors! Max and Victoria are some of the coolest people I have worked with. They didn't complain once about anything that we put them through! On one take, I accidentally tripped Victoria while she was running past, but like a cat, she landed on her feet and regained balance before disaster! She also made it to her spot and jumped out in front of camera right on cue, professional! Kurt was the most prepared, he was the calm before the storm.. but the storm never came for him. He also directed the video, so he could see all of the paths he needed to take in his head before the camera even entered set. All three of them did an amazing job and worked well together, there was never a moment of tension on this set and we pulled it off in less than 9 takes! Which isn't bad considering all that could go wrong, and one little thing would ruin an entire take since we only had one shot without any cuts. 

This was an awesome experience and a memorable one! It was definitely a team effort where everyone had to be on top of their game. Even down to the coloring/grading done in post by the talented Chris Ripley. He had to fix the lighting problems that we couldn't get around and add his classic touch to the color! Now I release you from a super long explanation for a 3 minute video, but hopefully those of you who were curious or refuse to believe we did it in one take will have a better understanding :) Watch the compilation above to see the animated map of the location along with the paths we all had to take to make this happen. It is paired with the actual video so you can see where our actors were when they were off camera! Enjoy and make sure to bookmark my blog to see new breakdowns, explanations, behind the scenes and industry tips! 

Rick