They Sang. We filmed. It Plays!

Recently, we had the privilege of working with some amazing people on a music video for The Boom Chucka Boys – Can’t Take My Lips Off You.

CCMA’s Group of the Year Nominee for the 2nd year in a row, these guys are great!

We had planned to shoot over 2 days to get the actors and Fireworks on the first night, the 17th, and return on the 18th to get coverage and film the BCB’s concert and the actors taking that all in. Because it was at the Westerner grounds in Red Deer and it was Westerner Days, it rained all day Friday and we were forced to cancel our first shoot day. So, on July 18 we planned one big day to film the whole music video.

The Key Elements: 1) Smooch Booth 2) A Day at the Fair  3) Live concert By the BCB’s

Our Gear for the Day:

• BlackMagicDesign Ursa
• BlackMagicDesign ProductionCam4K
• Canon C-NE 14/35/50/85MM Kit
• DJI Ronin
• One Quick Assembly Tent (sorry BCB’s)
• Batteries, and more batteries.

The day started wonderfully. We were going to be on location all day, so Dan and I needed all our gear accessible on site. Thankfully its only 320acres. But, we didn’t bring our seguay (I knew those things weren’t as lame as they look). Although we didn’t make a lot of mistakes, one of them was forgetting the tent for the smooch booth.

Teddy (base player and artiste) had made a great backdrop for the smooch booth and it was to sit inside the tent canopy that I had preparedly stored in my trailer to bring that morning. I didn’t bring it. WalMart had one. My Dad dropped it off for us about 10 minutes before we needed it set up! The added 30 minutes it took for the BCB’s and I to set it up was soon forgotten once we squeaked Teddy’s ‘#lips’ ‘neath the pinnacle.

Ryan and the guys did a great job finding eager fans who locked their #lips for the good of the video.

Shaun and Bobbi-Jo were our amazing talent for the day and were a lot of fun. Meagan from The Westerner Days was an incredible resource and helped get us to all the locations and to the front of the long lines. We had a number of people show up and lend us a hand hauling gear from setup to setup (especially Spencer / Nick / Marg / Dave and Cait), and watching it in the underbelly of the Centrium (Thanks Ash!).

We shot with the BMP4K on the DJI Ronin. Using mostly a 35MM cine lens on this set up. This allowed for some dynamic (stable – the gimbals are amazing) shots and great vantage points. Notably, the opening shot on the Ferris Wheel.

Here’s Dan and his setup:

This camera is a great option for the Ronin. It fits perfectly on this setup. Monitoring is okay just with the Camera itself, but an additional 4-7” monitor is ideal, and borderline necessary. A remote follow focus would be nice, but would have been difficult to operate anyway with the run and gun nature and monitoring setup we had for this project.

With the Cine Lens it is nearing the heavy end of operation. Dan and I took turns operating. Without an ‘easyrig’ or something to alleviate the weight, it is completely necessary to carry the stand around and set the ronin down at every opportunity. Especially in the arms and upperback, this rig gets heavy, no matter the setup, after about 60 seconds.

The Carneys were super helpful as well, although rarely agreeing to participate unless we were super fast. Thankfully, setups with the 20lb Ursa were a snap (Ursa = Bear). The original plan was to have the Actors lose all the games until the last one. I thought this would be easy, as carnival games tend to be harder than they look. We changed the plan as we went along, knocking over cups and draining shots with every take.

The Ursa has an amazing image and works so well with it’s little brother BMPC4K. The Post Color workflow is awesome with these cameras side by side and having the versatility of the ronin (URSA is too large to fit – perhaps the URSA mini will), there are so many options when you use the 2 in tandem. I have heard a lot about how awful the BM monitors are outdoors and you NEED an EVF, etc, etc. The URSA’s on camera monitoring is amazing. With the scopes and focus peaking we filmed all day without an EVF (that said, I have one on order for the next big project). I love this camera even though it is heavy.

We split the Ursa filming between 24 / 60 / and 80 fps. Without the option on the BMPC4K we shot all Ronin in 24fps. When it came to taking the shots at the live concert, we only had one take at the run-through of #lips. So, we had blocked it our with 2 Cameras: Ursa on the Floor shooting in 80fps, and the Ronin on stage to cover the action. We were able to grab some covering shots throughout the concert but took most of the shots from the actual performance of #Lips. The crowd was excited to be a part of a music video and it really turned out great.

Since the Fireworks were cancelled on the Friday evening, we had to rush to the fair grounds after the concert to grab the shots of the fireworks and the Actors locking #lips under the glittering lights. We also wanted a few night shots at the fair when all the lights were on. The nostalgic look that we all remember. The problem with trying to grab all these in one night with a scheduled firework display is the short hours of darkness in Alberta this time of year. They started setting them off earlier than we anticipated, about 20 minutes after dark (11pm). We had to race from our setup to our location where we could capture the fireworks and the couple for a classic ending to a beautiful day at the fair. What you don’t see in the video is the youthful, father-of-three holding up ‘bunny ears’ behind our actors, video-bombing as we tried to capture the moments to use for the video’s finale.

Sometimes you can’t plan for everything, you just have to improvise. In the end we are quite proud of the final product and glad to have had the privilege to work with one of the greatest country music bands in the land.

Check out the videoc on YouTube and Tune in to CMT to catch it in their lineup!

You can also watch it right here: