Our L.A. Management Company video production team felt like kids in a candy store when they embarked on a mission to produce a video showcasing some of their production techniques and talents using some of the newest and coolest tricks, tools and technology in one single video.
Some of the techniques used included a green screen, camera rigs such as a jib and slider dollies, as well as current implementations of DSLR and GoPro cameras. But more significant, is the way our team integrated all of these elements into an eye-popping, and amazing demonstrative video. Not only that, but we got to highlight the cool musical talents of L.A. Management Company co-owner Joe Zammit! Joe is not only an extremely talented video production and multimedia whiz, but is also a very talented musician.
Meet J.Z.
A self-taught drummer and guitarist since his teens, Joe developed a passion for music that carried into an early career in recording. While flourishing with his own music, he was helping others move their music careers forward as well.
Then life happened. Marriage … the birth of his daughter …. new career opportunities … his time for playing music took a backseat – until now.
Joe’s biggest musical influences are the Beatles and legendary guitarist Jeff Beck. This love of music became the subject of this video and Joe was up for the task of incorporating Beck’s guitar-style playing into his own while performing the Beatles A Day in the Life on a custom-built electric guitar he built from scratch specifically to meet his music goals for this project.
Production
An arsenal of cameras were used to showcase a variety of shots, including:
- A Sony PDW 200 for the main wide shot;
- A Sony camera mounted on a programmable motorized slider dolly to capture close-ups of the guitar and finger movements;
- Two GoPro’s, repositioned periodically to capture a variety of different video perspectives including one mounted to the guitar;
- And a Nikon DSLR to capture additional high resolution images.
The music performance was recorded using Apple’s Logic Pro X software installed on an iMac.
Before the cameras rolled, the L.A. Management Company video production team took care in ensuring that the foreground and back lighting was perfect to showcase Joe, and the green screen evenly illuminated so Joe could be keyed or separated from the green screen to allow a special multi-media background to be inserted later in post production.
On the audio side, each camera was tested to ensure a crystal clear audio signal that would enable all takes and angles to perfectly sync up in the edit process.
Action
After several takes were captured and in the can, shooting was completed and production was a wrap! Pre-production management and all the testing and prep work on the front end made for a smooth shoot.
Post Production
The first order of business involved editing, mixing and mastering the music in Logic Pro X. The video production team auditioned all of the takes to find the best overall guitar playing performance from beginning to end, then scrubbed some additional takes to sparingly extract the “best of the best” sections to create the final guitar performance track. The guitar track was polished lightly with some EQ and effects and then mixed with the backing track of A Day in the Life. The mastered music track was exported and ready to be used as the anchor for the video edit.
The video production team used Apple’s video editing software Final Cut Pro X to edit the video because it offers exceptional multi-cam capabilities and has a unique method for combining and managing many camera angles and video takes at the same time.
Creating the Custom Multi-Media Background
Using a green screen is a cost effective way to visually connect with an audience and L.A. Management Company wanted to showcase this tool of the trade.
The video production team created the multi-media background seen in the final video by testing multiple combinations of images and videos of different textures, contrasts, colors, tones and dimensions.
To create a background that was full of depth for more visual appeal, Adobe PhotoShop and Final Cut Pro X were used to insert the Beatles video footage in the background composite.
End Product
L.A. Management Company couldn’t be more proud of the end product. The video highlights the capabilities of the team and demonstrates technologies and tools that can effectively and visually connect with an audience.
But, also important, is the opportunity to bring Joe’s musical talents out of the closet! Pretty cool, don’t you think?
Want to see what the set looked like before the magic? Watch the video below when we were testing the green screen on just the DSLR camera.
