September Rooftop Concert Series Preview

September's show was one of the most exciting so far. The line-up was killer from start to finish. I've enjoyed all the Rooftop Concerts, but this one seemed like it had the strongest performances and felt the most like what you would expect from a concert. Here are a couple shots from our footage:

Rachel Kaiser.

The Neighbors.

The Vibrant Sound playing a Jackson 5 Medley!

The crowd dug it.

They really upped the production value on this gig.

Dan had some great interaction with the crowd.

This solo went on for a while. It was pretty sick.

We almost lost him.

BYUTV is shooting a series called "Audio-Files" which spotlights up and coming bands. They had a crew there that night shooting B-roll footage. So their 5-6 guys + us + the average 3-4 Joe Schmos with a DSLR + the clown who just waltzed on stage with a full shoulder-harness glidecam (thanks security)= a whole lotta cameras. Seriously, I couldn't spit without hitting another guy with a camera. What this meant was - it was hard to shoot. We were all up in each other's shots.

BYUTV had a sweet setup, at least 6 dudes, 3 of them staked out in prime spots (two front and one back) while the other 3 were roamers, just getting shots wherever they pleased or wherever the action was. It's a great setup... for them. For us, it was frustrating. They were crowding us. I'm just jealous I don't have those kinds of resources. In the end, they paid to get the bigger stage and the light show at the concert, which all contributed to making this one of the most memorable shows so far. All things considered, they still bothered me. But what a show! Hopefully they got some good footage. We sure did. We got our hands on a 7D for this shoot which meant we were able to do some nice slow-mo shots. We'll get a video posted soon!

-D

August Rooftop Concert

We are getting more efficient with our filming at the concerts. This results in quicker turnaround time on our edits. We get better coverage of the artist performing a song and editing becomes as simple as playing both backing and just picking which shot to jump to at what point in the song. Piece of cheese cake. I feel though that our efficiency might be lulling us into complacency. We might be getting too comfortable. We'll try to stretch ourselves a bit more on upcoming projects.

That being said, here is August's Rooftop Concert, featuring Joshua James. It was a warm summer evening, the chinese lanterns were lit, there was a slight breeze, and Joshua James played a few never before heard songs. It was a great night. It was a great performance. Here is the video.

-D

August Rooftop Concert Preview

August's show featured Joshua James. It was a great summer evening - here are some stills from our footage.

The crowd.

Knuckleheads.

Trevor Christensen snapping a few photos.

Backstage.

The soulful Joshua James.

Encore.

Posting stills is kind of my way of buying time. I hope to get SOMETHING out in an attempt to cover up the fact that I haven't pushed the video out yet. I'll get to it, alright? ALRIGHT?!

-D

The Abbey Road Show (Rooftop Part II)

If the Rooftop Concert Series had an actual roof, these guys would have blown it off. I mentioned it before, but I'll say it again... I like the way these guys did Abbey Road more than I like the Beatles original recording. Out come the torches and pitch forks.



I had to split up the video into two parts because YouTube doesn't allow uploads of more than 15 minutes. Here is Part 2:



The video being too long to upload as one file forced me to question the edit as a whole. I wrestled with the idea that my editing was sloppy. Maybe I was just too lazy to make a tight edit that would be more concise. I doubted myself for a while, but upon watching the finished product and re-watching it, I really don't think that is the case. First of all, if I really was that lazy there is no way I would have put in as many hours as I did on this edit. Second - it rocks. Not so much my editing, but the content just rocks.

There was so much energy at this show, and I think that is what sold me on these guys. Seeing musicians perform live has always been a pretty impacting experience for me. I have fallen in love with bands who until seeing them live I had simply enjoyed. There is a dynamic to seeing them perform that really lets you see who they are, brings you into their world. Maybe if I had been around to see the Beatles perform their album live I would have felt differently (although they never performed this album live). The Abbey Road Show had incredible talent, but even more incredible passion. These folks had fun, and it was a blast to shoot and to edit. Hopefully some of that comes through in this video.

Note to self for future vids, we have got to get a lens with a lower f-stop. -D

July Rooftop B&W

I'm indecisive. After meeting my deadline and getting this latest video up, I took a second look and realized I love the look in black and white. It's kind of cheating, because in black and white I don't have to worry about color matching between shots. Even shots taken on the Panasonic match up better with those taken on Mark. This is the EXACT same video, only in black and white. -D

Rooftop Concert Series - July PREVIEW Video

I rushed to get this done so C. Jane could include it in her post about July's Rooftop Concert. I feel so unsettled about it. First off - I didn't have our clean audio recording to use. Second, I focused on only one song which we didn't have enough footage of. I got it up before I had time to think about whether it would've been better in black and white, if the timing of cuts was too short or too long, or whether or not the transitions are smooth. Maybe it is better I didn't nitpick for days like I usually do, nobody ever tells the difference anyway.

Regardless, here it is: a preview video for July's entry in the Rooftop Concert Series. The Abbey Road Show playing The Beatles' "Hey Jude".



I'll get a complete highlight video of the evening up soon. In the meantime, enjoy.

-D

July Rooftop Concert Preview

We got to film July's rooftop concert here in Provo. This month featured Sarah Sample and The Abbey Road Show. Travis and I had so much fun shooting this concert. The collaboration between these talented musicians was something to see. Here are a few photos from the evening taken by our friend Trevor Christensen (be sure to check out his website, he has got some great photography projects going on).

Sarah Sample warmed the crowd up and the lighting was perfect for shooting. Our shots were filled with this warm glow and the occasional lens flare was the perfect touch. We just saw Super 8 and can't get enough lens flare.

The Abbey Road show just absolutely killed it. You could tell they were having the time of their lives playing music together. It was beautiful. There was so much energy and so much collaborative creativity it rocked our socks off. Below are just a few frames from video we took. We hope to get the video out soon!

The crowd.

The very talented Sarah Sample.

Lens Flare!

Ryan Innes belting out "Oh! Darling".

Robbie Connolly on lead guitar. This guy wailed.

Love the depth of field on this shot

Here are two more. Thanks to Scott Capener for the slick t-shirts. Most importantly, I would like to say thank you to Station 22 Cafe for the best tri-tip sandwich I have ever had. Bless you, Station 22 Cafe.

-D

I hope all those kids are here for our shoot

We drove up to Lehi yesterday to begin our shoot of a commercial for Run for Innocence. We arrived at the playground we were going to film at and it was full of kids. I commented to Dehn, "I hope all these kids are here for our shoot", just knowing there was no way that was possible. As it turns out, James Huntington and his cousin had rounded up about 20 kids! Dehn and I ran around with our cameras and got some really nice shots of the kids being themselves. The children had been told to look happy, and one child asked, "Are we supposed to look cheesy?" "No, don't look cheesy." "Well how am I supposed to look? Hopeful?"








Matt Pace, on very short notice, drove up and met us for the shots we needed on a local road.



Dehn drove the minivan and I alternated between hanging out both the side door and back hatch to film Matt and the kids running.



We ran the scene several times and by the end the kids were really tired. One remarked, "I need water!" Another immediately said, "I need ice cream!"

Thank you Matt, James and all the kids for a great shoot! We'll be getting some more footage in Provo this week and hope to have an edit done soon. -T

Rooftop Concert Series Part I

Travis and I headed to downtown Provo to shoot June's Rooftop Concert Series. The Rooftop Concert Series brings live music to downtown Provo the first Friday of every month, May through October. We unfortunately missed May's show (which featured Emily Brown, Paul Jacobsen, and Fictionist), but June's show was pretty great. Mindy Gledhill and Meaghan Smith were there and they put on a great show for everyone.

We had a great time filming it and appreciated being able to go wherever we wanted on stage. Hopefully we weren't in the way too much.

Here is the recap video we made for June's show:

And just because the footage looked so good in black and white, I made this video of Meaghan's performance (I also really dig the song she sang - "Poor"):

It looks pretty smooth in B&W, but it's still no Rattle & Hum.

My only regret from the show was not buying a tri-tip sandwich from the Station 22 Cafe. We're looking forward to the next show (July 1st) - hope to see you there!

-D

Dirty Dash

The annual Dirty Dash mud race is a fundraiser held at several locations (Boise, Seattle, Billings Spokane, and Salt Lake). They purposely make the 5K and 10K as muddy as possible. It's a mess.

This year I got to help Devin Graham shoot his latest YouTube video at the race held in Soldier Hollow on June 4th. We got a little dirty, but the footage is awesome. There were a handful of other videographers, all shooting on DSLRs (5D, 7D, 2Ti, and a few GoPro cameras for the really messy work). They were great to work with and the participants in the race were so fun to shoot. They came to have fun and had absolutely no inhibitions in front of the camera. What a fun event.

You can see Devin's video here (with some of the video I shot):

As always, Devin's video is great. Hopefully I'll get an edit up soon of just the footage I took. Thanks Devin, and thanks to everyone at The Dirty Dash (http://www.thedirtydash.com/)! -T

Salt Flats Preview

Here are just a few still shots from our video shoot at the salt flats. Scott Jarvie, a local photographer, held a bootcamp and this shoot was part of it. We went out at golden hour and did a bunch of shooting. The photographers were occupied with the models, but we were mostly concerned about the photo shoot as a whole and got some beautiful video. The photographers were all great to work with.

I've driven by the salt flats almost 48,151,623 times and never before stopped. I always think I should to appreciate the scenery - but it's the longest part of the drive, and I'm either two hours away from Provo, or only two hours into an 8 hour drive.

Thanks Scott Jarvie for letting us crash the party. Hopefully we'll have an edit of the video up soon!

-D

Mango Film Productions

Dehn Craig: 775.544.1139

Travis Moore: 928.533.7625