THE MAKING OF 'ISSUES'

I recently wrapped my first metalcore video with director Dillon Novak (http://montaukfilm.com/) of RSM. The video ping pongs between performance and narrative, examining a cycle of multi-generational domestic violence. The narrative is broken up into two segments; the character as a child and as an adult. We opted to shoot with longer lenses with slow motion for a more observational aesthetic for the flashback scenes with the child.

We kept the camera at a low angle to match the child's eye-height for POVs and dirtied up the field of view as much as possible with foreground elements (mirrors, windows, curtains, etc.) to evoke a sense of fragmented memory.

We used heavier diffusion in front of the lens using 1/2 and 1 strength black magics to aid this dream-like effect. Really love these guys for digital because they take the edge of the highlights in an organic way, blossoming without effecting the contrast.

   

For the present day scenes, we threw away the diffusion and used wider lenses in the 29-35mm range for CUs for a more immediate intimacy, mixing handheld with fluid slider movement.We used a 8' dana dolly which is by far the smoothest ride for a slider that I've come across. Super buttery.

For both the flashback and present day scenes we used a lens baby for our insert shots to draw a subtle visual parallel between the child and his adult-self.

Although it was a bright sunny day on our production day, we wanted a more melancholy overcast look. We used overheads when we were dealing with direct sun and shot all of our day/ext work during magic hour. I wanted to unify the performance and the narrative with a "creamy", atmospheric, and soft image. I wanted high contrast lighting, but I still wanted to dig into the shadows and pull out as much detail as possible in the toe.

For the performance I wanted slightly harder light to compliment the soft lighting of the narrative scenes. We used a 45 & 90 degree shutter angle and opted for a responsive, dynamic handheld look for the camera movement. We really diverged from the narrative style, embracing shaky-cam, but using it sparingly to create energy bouncing off the 120fps material.

We had M18s coming through the curtains for a 3/4 back and keyed with a jokerbug inside with a chimera and 4x4 frame of 1/2 grid. I had the camera set at 4300K to create a color contrast between the cool daylight and the warm, amber practicals and curtains. My gaffer, Silvestre Rios spiked me with lens flare with a shuttered down source 4 to ping from just off-camera.

Panavision Hollywood provided us with a Red Epic package with an ultra speed prime set which included 14, 17.5, 21, 29, 35, 50, 75, and 125mm lenses. We shot the video at 5K and I colored the footage with Dillon in Da Vinci Resolve.

You can watch the video here: