Stop Motion Music Video Shot with Pro-8a Air Strobes
Stop Motion Music Video Shot with Pro-8a Air Strobes
16,000 Still Photographs and Razor-Sharp Lighting Critical Success Factors
"We chose the Profoto Pro-8a Air generators because of their incredibly short recycle time, short flash duration, and consistent color temperature"
The old “Lights! Camera! Action!” verbiage took a different twist recently when New York-based Richard Patterson produced and directed a music video about Iranian rock band “Hypernova” using strobes instead of continuous lighting.
"Sinners" by Hypernova is a fluid stop-motion video created by Producer, Director and Director of Photography Richard Patterson. The video is unique in that it’s composed of 16,000 individual photographs. Scenes were lit with up to ten (10) state-of-the-art Profoto Pro-8a Air flash packs with Profoto Light Modifiers as principal light sources. The camera was a Canon 1D Mark III camera shooting at 10 FPS and a PRO Steadicam rig utilizing a RedRock Micro DSLR camera support system.
"We chose the Profoto Pro-8a Air generators because of their incredibly short recycle time, short flash duration, and consistent color temperature"
says Patterson, “and the fact that this strobe could keep up with the 1D Mark III at 10 fps for 45 seconds intervals. This extraordinary capability aided in creating the unique fluid motion of the video. The high output also illuminated the large factory that serves as the video’s principal location.”
Pro-8a Air lighting packs were used along with Profoto Light Modifiers (Strip Banks, Light Sticks, Zoom&Magnum Reflectors, ProGlobes, and an 11-foot Giant Reflector). The packs were synchronized using the new Profoto Air Remote. This allowed Patterson to adjust each light individually or all ten packs at once. One to two flash heads were connected to each pack. T stops (F stops) ranged from 2.8 – 4.5 to maintain shallow depth of field.
The Canon 1D Mark III was chosen because it’s the fastest Canon camera on the market that would take advantage of the speed of the Profoto Pro-8a. The file size compression was set to medium jpeg. This setting allowed for 45 seconds of continuous shooting before the buffer activated and provided a large enough file size to produce a 1940x1080 HD movie format. Lexar 300x 4 gig compact flash cards were used for their fast recording speed.
Audio playback was used on each take and a cinema slate was used to indicate the verse and time code. Mike Isler provided all digital wrangling and technical advice on location.
The RedRock Micro DSLR camera support system was used on top of a PRO Steadicam operated by Mike Fuchs. The Steadicam helped achieve the fluid cinematic look of the piece. The RedRock system provided stability to the camera setup and allowed for a Barteck follow-focus to be utilized.
Primary shooting took place at River Clark Studios in Hoboken, NJ over 18 hours in late May 2009. The secondary elements and inserts were captured later in Miami using the Canon 1Ds Mark II and Profoto Compact 600 WS lights. Marissa Adele provided the styling and aided in the creative direction of the visuals.
Postproduction was a massive undertaking and supervised by NYC editor Christina Burchard and guided by colorist / photographer Ryan Enn Hughes of Toronto, ON. The images were organized and divided into individual takes using Photo Mechanic. Final Cut Pro was used to edit the movie sequences. Because the Canon 1D Mark III shoots 10 FPS, a XDCAM 1940x1080p of 30 frames per second was selected, ensuring that the individual photographs played back with fluidity once in the timeline. Compositing and Flame FX work was added before the final edited piece was graded using Final Cut Color in Canada.
Equipment:
- Lighting: Profoto Pro-8a Air / Profoto Light Shaping Tools
- Camera: Canon 1D MarkIII, 1Ds Mark II&Canon 5D Mark II (BTS)
- RedRock Micro DSLR setup
- Lexar Compact Flash Cards
- PRO Steadicam rig
- Apple Mac Pro towers&Apple Cinema Displays
- Final Cut Pro
- Final Cut Color
Crew and Cast:
Band – HYPERNOVA: myspace.com/hypernova
Producer, Director, Director of Photography – Richard Patterson
Lighting Design Director – Cliff Hausner
Creative Director&Stylist – Marissa Adele
Editor – Christina Burchard
Steadicam Operator – Michael Fuchs
Tech Advisor – Mike Isler
Colorist – Ryan Enn Hughes
Flame Artist – Abdullah al Mamun
Compositor – Susan Cox
1st AC – Marcos Herrera
2nd AC – Peter Lau
BTS Camera A – Ab Sesay
BTS Camera B – Maria Gonzales
Location Manager – River Clark
PA – Nadiah Hamzah
PA – Sasha Hofmann
