Dare Fusion created a 60 second web video and 30 second commercial spot for master colorist and stylist Sean Carrick.  The two day shoot included a client interview, action shots of the client working with customers, and b-roll of the client in various related situations.

Project Analysis

Master colorist and renowned stylist Sean Carrick was looking for a way to increase his exposure locally.  He approached Dare Fusion regarding the possibility of creating a video for his website that he could also use to showcase his skills to potential clients.  After a review of Sean’s existing exposure we determined that he already has a good presence on the web at seancarrick.net and holds a lot of industry clout through his high profile position with an exclusive Rodeo Drive salon.

We agreed that Sean’s instincts were correct with regards to using video to improve his website.  In addition we suggested that a 30 second commercial spot set to run locally would greatly increase his profile in the community and add significant name recognition and credibility.

We proceeded to coordinate a 2-day shoot where we would then capture Sean working with his clients in his element.  We also included an interview with Sean that gave him the opportunity to speak about his philosophy behind his work.

The Dare Fusion Difference

The initial concept envisioned for Sean was a high energy glamour shoot with flashy shots of Sean in action set to a high energy dance track.  However, once we spent some time with Sean we learned that he presents a much more heartfelt and focused manner.  As such we wanted to make sure that the pacing and music for this spot accurately conveyed the emotional connection that Sean’s clients experience.  We think you can see the difference when you watch.

 Production Notes

This was a 2-day shoot scheduled during slower times in Joseph Martin Salon on Rodeo Drive.  We used two cameras and shot MOS except for the interview, which was done with a lavaliere mic hidden on Sean’s collar.  Action shots of Sean with his clients were all done handheld to emphasize a kinetic feel.  We added a softbox kick to the existing lights in the salon to help establish that glam look.  Images were captured on a Canon dslr with a 24-70mm zoom with a wide open aperture for shallow depth of field.

One issue we faced was an unseasonably cloudy day on the day we shot Sean’s exterior shots and interview.  We setup next to a window for the interview and supplemented the shot with an additional daylight balanced light.  The problem arose when the density of the clouds changed allowing it to become more sunny outside.  This caused our shot to get gradually brighter, therefore overexposing our take (those sneaky clouds.)  Although we did reset for this, the takes we like were some of those slightly overexposed, so we had to work hard in post to match up the shots.  All post work was done using Adobe CS6.

Sean Carrick – 1 minute Web Spot

Production Photos

So I discovered a new song from a group called Pendulum.  It’s called “The Island pt.II (Dusk)” and simply rocked me.  I couldn’t help but envision some crazy action sequences that could be done to it.  And then I thought how funny would it be to try to cut something small and insignificant to such a big song and see if the dramatic hooks made the video go from happy normal to… well… EPIC!  Then I thought of a subject.

Me, my 1 year old Dax, and my camera ran around for 15minutes chasing a soccer ball.  I wanted to test slow motion for this, but my camera is getting old and only has a few frame rate options.  In the edit you will see both 60i and 30p slowed to as little as 8 frames per second.  There is definitely some rolling shutter but funny enough it lends itself well to the erratic feel of the edit.  This was a great opportunity to test out some edit techniques I’d been thinking of, however none of the shots were staged so it was a real chore pulling clips that worked.

Finally sequencing this to the music I discovered the one thing I had overlooked.  This song is 4 minutes long with like a bazillion beats and tempo changes!  Damn!

I only shot about 15 minutes total, so unfortunately there was no predetermined story to follow.  I happened upon the “chase the soccer ball” setup and it works okay.

On Perfection

Forget it.  This was a fun project.  I wanted to see how it would come out as a finished work, but I don’t have the time necessary to do reshoots for clean video, stabilize shots, re-adjust for lighting variances, etc.  In the edit, I think I was done and happy after I saw the first minute.  Test over.  But I couldn’t leave the song unfinished, so I trudged through the remaining battlefield of beats to see it to the end.  There are a few slow areas and some out-of-sync cuts, but the time necessary to go back and work towards perfection is not worth what small level of satisfaction I could expect over how fun and entertaining the current edit already is.  Sometimes you’ve just got to get it out there and move on to new things.

GNORML (pronounced “normal”) is a uniquely suspenseful drama that twists its way around a young photographer with a germ phobia who hides from the world by building a closed set in which to photograph people, only to find that she has opened a door to herself that she will not be able to close… and it may kill her.   The film is the first feature length film to be produced by Dare Fusion.  Staying true to our mission, Gnorml is a property that leverages multiple media formats including books and digital distribution – all produced utilizing the latest technologies and compressed timelines to facilitate a low budget.

“A young photographer with a phobia risks her career, her love, and her life when her search for what is normal opens the door to events that will change her forever.”

Synopsis

GNORML is a film about a young woman, Jemma Walsh, who has been crushed by traumatic events and must find a way to experience life again with a new perspective.  This film explores a diverse set of characters and ethnicities in an attempt to find the state of contentment she associates with being normal, and leads her to the understanding that being “normal” can simply mean participating in life by embracing who you are.  The motivation for our hero’s plight is the fact that she has HIV.  The theme focuses on Jemma’s struggle to cope with life as she is and uses her HIV positive status as a common and prevalent adversity that has slipped into obscurity, yet still affects all of us.

Market Appeal

This film will be rated PG-13 due to brief scenes of violence and nudity.  It is designed to have an overall appeal to the 18-35 age group.  There is evidence to show that women are increasingly driving the theater-going choices and that films with female leads will find success at the box office.  This film incorporates an emotional journey, “shock value” imagery, and an HIV sub-theme in such a way as to cross gender lines and have dual appeal.

Although not an AIDS film the HIV sub-theme speaks to the AIDS awareness communities and has potential to resonate with the larger gay and lesbian demographics.

Production Notes

The film is currently in pre-production with production scheduled to begin in July.

In an exciting turn of events Dare Fusion has now been given the opportunity to assist in the production of Peace Pilgrim the Movie.  Producer Mark Skelton has brought the project in house and has entered it into the lineup for development.  This is a Hollywood retelling of the story of the most amazing woman you have probably never heard of.  We created a site (peacepilgrimmovie.com) that speaks directly to the mission for this film and the facts behind this almost unbelievable story.

Synopsis

The Peace Pilgrim movie will be a full-length Hollywood feature that takes you on an epic journey of adventure, wonder, survival and faith like no other. This compelling drama will give today’s audiences the social framework needed for solutions to our personal, societal and global challenges that will help guide humanity to a better future. This gripping true story highlights the power of women, the power of one’s convictions, the power of personal transformation, and the power of an individual to help change the consciousness of society.

The webiste invites you to collaborate on this breathtaking odyssey by telling your own story of how Peace Pilgrim affected your life, either in person or through her written words.  You can also support the project by writing an endorsement for the film or get involved by volunteering your services, skills or donations to help get the movie made.

Additional Photos & Media

Links:
www.peacepilgrimmovie.com

Rune Westberg is a Danish born songwriter/producer living and working in Los Angeles.  One might expect to describe Rune as the hardest working man in the music business, but that would be wrong.  Rune is an intensely focused artist who knows exactly what he wants to do.  Over his long career he has learned to move “work” out of the way so that he can make amazing things happen with laser focus.

Our own Rob Lewis met Rune through mutual friends and discovered for the first time a person who needed a website, but wasn’t trying to sell anybody anything.

It’s a refreshing change from the normal necessity to produce a “sticky” website.  Rune simply needed his own place to get his facts accurately listed on the Web and provide a means for contact (just in case.) -Rob Lewis

Synopsis

As an accomplished songwriter, producer, engineer, mixer and talented guitar player with his own home studio, Rune has no trouble connecting with people that inspire him and wish to collaborate with him on great work.  So his website didn’t need to promote his image, list a bunch of social media links, or espouse the merits of his work.  He has reached a point in his career that many of us aspire for, and that is the point where his work speaks for itself (no songwriting pun intended).

Production Notes

Rune’s site needed to accurately showcase many years worth of work while being easy to navigate and easy for Rune to update.  Rune was interested in a clean design and almost no images aside from the album art.  So after some experimentation we found that WordPress would be the best tool for the job, with the help of a dark theme from custom designers.

There was no need for music players or other media, so we installed the standard plugins that allow us to keep WordPress running well and with a little time spent with the client reviewing content creation, we were off and running.  A cool project.

Additional Photos & Media

Links

runewestberg.com

Wikipedia -Rune_Westberg

worldsend.com

Spin Bridge is the newly launched brain child of a small group of music professionals who wanted to get a more intimately understand the drive and motivations of the new artists that they were following and could not find a platform on the Web that provided for that… so they built it.

Spin Bridge approached Dare Fusion about leveraging some of their existing work on a new Website.  We examined the existing theme, and made sure that we could accomplish all of the goals of the new site in a functional way.

Video embeds, audio podcasting, magazine-style articles, and even a “live” page were all successfully implemented.  Following a development release, we provided training sessions for the team and ongoing support through the site’s launch.

Synopsis

Spin Bridge provides a multimedia entertainment service by producing music themed video and radio programs, along with publishing music related articles and reviews.  Ultimately, the goal is to provide viewers with professional entertainment content in visual, audio and written form.

Production Notes

Spin Bridge was developed using industry standard tools and plugins.  Using WordPress as a backbone for the CMS, we modified a dark theme to enable certain custom functions including two loops on the front page for Video and Radio.

These days video is readily embedded in almost any page, so the only work we had to do for media was to enable the radio/podcasting feature.  We accomplished this with an implementation of the PowerPress extension from Blubrry.

Additional Photos & Media

Links

http://spinbridge.com/

As a product of the 48-Hour Go Green Film project there are limits to our distribution options.  And after discussion about various venues those in charge have decided to make the film available to the public and also to give the film a home with the environmental conservation website Sea Bird Adventure http://www.seabirdadventure.com/.

Find out more about the film here.  We hope you enjoy it.

The Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school offers Young Acting Classes for actors ages 7-18.  The class is taught by Emmy Award Winner Melissa Hayden, and incorporates scene study, exercises, as well as information forums for both parents and young actors.

The BH Playhouse wanted to create an informative video that highlights the talent and experience of the teachers as well as the principle-centered method of instruction.  It was important to the client that our final product maintain the prestigious brand image that the BH Playhouse has earned, and also that we inform potential new students about the richly supportive and fun environment the instructors create.

Synopsis

Emmy Award winning actor Melissa Hayden discusses the Beverly Hills Playhouse – Young Actors and Teens class and her goals for helping to create confident and empowered individuals.

Production Notes

In order to determine a direction for this piece, we first attended several classes and shot class coverage.  We wanted to use the existing stage lighting and allow a raw documentary-style feel to the footage.

Next we cut together a first draft of the class in action to an energetic orchestral soundtrack.  Our goal was to delivery the energy of the class and show some of the talented kids in action, while also maintaining the prestigious feel.

Upon client review we learned that there were hits and misses.  We had succeeded with matching the feel of the class, but the action of the class without proper context fell short of the client’s goal to be informative.  A second draft was then produced that leveraged an interview with Melissa.  Now classroom action could be shown as B-roll in proper context with what Melissa was saying and helped to further solidify the clients deep-rooted principles for enriching the lives of their students.  The soundtrack was revised and toned down to serve more as atmosphere and the final product was accepted.

The record time is awesome too.  You can get up to 2.5 hours on a single charge, and that was clearly helpful in this one (of many) awesome video projects.

This project by a filmmaker and his son sends the camera up to the fringe of space and back!  It’s cool on so many levels: Dad, filmmaker, nerd…  We love seeing projects like this as it is just a reminder that there is literally no limits to what we can accomplish. Check it.

This year at NAB there were no doubt dozens of awesome collaborations and gear demos that will continue to make their way to the web.  Efforts such as these are great because they enable the greater population of absentee professionals and armchair enthusiasts to gain a broad range of experiences that would in many cases not be possible without a big “fucking around” budget.  And who has that?

This year one particular spontaneous collaboration happened where a number of sponsors pitched in for a test of the new Sony F3, and a chance to feature their gear and see it used successfully in the field (details below).  The video isn’t great because it’s a nice test of a camera, but more so because it shows you how supporting collaborations like this can really bring attention to (and even reward) the companies that are advancing the industry, pushing the limits of technology.

Manufacturers listen to the results of well done productions such as this on.  And I think you should too. Kudos to the team.

Summary

New York City, NY (April 18, 2011) Next Level Pictures in association with Tstop Cinema teamed up with Abel Cine, Kessler Crane, Wide Open Camera, Angenieux, Carl Zeiss, Cooke, Tyler Mounts, and Miller to unveil the worlds first ever camera test using the Sony F3 with S-Log. S-Log isn’t scheduled for official release until late summer 2011 so we are proud to get our hands on the camera and put it through several latitude tests to include helicopter aerials by Vincent Laforet, vibrant Vegas city lights, and skin tone tests of two models in ten different locations throughout Las Vegas at NAB 2011. The crew of twelve had only ten hours with the camera to produce and film the entire project. The purpose of this test is to compare the latitude and image quality of the new S-Log firmware to native EX codec.

Check out the official video here:
vimeo.com/​22540499

Next Level Pictures:
Jonathan Bregel
Khalid Mohtaseb

Executive Producers:
Eric Kessler
Jarred Abrams
Carl Zeiss Lenses
Vincent Laforet

Sponsors:
Kessler Crane KesslerCrane.com
Wide Open Camera wideopencamera.com
AbelCine abelcine.com
Tyler Mounts tylermount.com
Zeiss zeiss.com/​cine
Angenieux angenieux.com
Cooke cookeoptics.com
Miller Tripod millertripods.com

For a list of all crew and additional details go to:
nextlevelpictures.com/​blog/​2011/​4/​19/​nlp-shoots-the-worlds-first-footage-with-the-sony-f3-s-log.html

Pretty Lights – “Gold Coast Hustle” – Final Comparison Video
prettylightsmusic.com

Nat Kendall Presents: Songbird Sing – “On Again” – BTS Video
songbirdsing.com

Behind the Scenes Editor: Tyler Ginter

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