As her performance will be integrated with computer graphics and we needed to film her against a green screen so that the final images can be composited.
Alicia was great to work with, but our production day started 7 hours before she sang a single note. The black lacquer Yamaha piano might as well have been a mirror. It reflected nearly every corner of the studio and we had to make sure that none of the green could be seen in any of those reflections. In the end it looks like a simple shot. Hah! And that's just what it should look like.
Stepping back a moment, there were so many things that needed to be arranged for this shoot to go off as planned that it took weeks of preparation to make it all look so simple. Sarah, in the role of senior producer was at the helm of this ship and organized everything and everyone, flawlessly. From day one, we had the right people, asking the right questions so that everything would be in place on the day of the shoot.
Of course, it was more than just the act of filming her singing. One of our first consideration was audio quality and to this end, Sarah decided to set the shoot up at a recording studio. Why try to reinvent the wheel when a decent recording studio will have most everything in place for us? For this, she set us up with Avatar Studio on 53rd Street. A classic studio that has been host to major recording stars for years.
Her next step was contacting the Jedi Master, Grammy winning producer / audio designer Jeff Jones.
If the position of the microphone in piano is off by a couple of degrees, well, honestly I'd be talking out of my butt if tried to explain any of that stuff and with the Jedi on board, I was free to concentrate purely on the visual aspect of the production.
Sarah also contacted Kevin Hunt of Top Gear Lighting. Kevin has worked with us on several major projects for Victoria's Secret and several other clients. Like the Jedi, when Kevin is on the set, everything arrives on time and remains cool and calm. He knows how to light, but much more importantly, he knows how to listen. He's great to work with and one of the best reasons to not try to do it all by ourselves.
On a recommendation from Kevin, Sarah brought in John Chiaparti to operate the XDCAM F-800 that had been arranged for the shoot. John is an experienced DP/camera operator and as my sole function was to be the director on this project, she wanted someone she and I could trust looking through the viewfinder.
Anders Sulisalo from IMS was in charge of the hospitality and rider and made sure that everyone was comfortable, well fed and that everything was presented beautifully.
Sarah had gathered a well crafted pool of talented, low maintenance professionals who managed to deliver excellent results without the least bit of friction. That, is a talent in itself.
Piano tuner, special microphones, hair, makeup, clothing stylist, security, audio technicians, studio management, tele-prompter, production assistants... All of these elements needed to come together to make this a smooth production and I'm so proud of Sarah for pulling it all off without a hitch.
Tech Talk:
The F-800 is a stunning HD camera and part of the CineAlta line of Sony Digital Cinema cameras. It recorded directly to optical disk at 1920x1080 4:2:2 50 mb and we were able to simultaneous record out of the HD/SDI port onto a Nanoflash digital recorder at 100 mb. This gave us great quality and a backup recording at the same time.
The audio was being recorded separately with a feed returning back to the camera. Jedi will work his magic on the mix of vocals and piano and later we'll match picture and sound with the help of a time code slate that marked the location of the audio as it was being recorded.
The last of the technical speak is about the monitors. Sony provided us with a PVM-740 OLED monitor which has the truest reproduction I have seen in a long time. Skin tones were accurate and it helped us create beautiful, clean lighting with an accuracy that has followed all the way through to the post production. The monitor has a built in waveform monitor that helped us balance the lighting on the green screen and our talent. The photo above shows us that the screen is brighter on the right and needs to be balanced properly. What a great tool!
For our clients we rented a few Sony LMD-2450 studio monitors so that we could monitor the action from the control room. This also aided in crowd control on the set.
All in all, Alicia was beautiful and terrific to work with. And OMG that voice!
She recorded parts of "If I Ain't Got You", "For No One" and "Empire State of Mind" and we all got chills watching and listening to her perform.
It's one of those times that an extra take is a gift.
www.duckyou.com
Chuck on Sony's VideOn Channel
