Brisbane punksters WALKEN. Three guys. Three cameras. Three locations. One robot. One Jaymis.
Sometimes things just Make Sense.
Category: Motion Control
I’ve been filming various events and promos with Brisbane Powerhouse for much of 2015, all the while colluding with them to combine the huge breadth of footage I was capturing into a TV ad which showcases the Powerhouse as a whole.
We dubbed this project the Destination Trailer. It’s part of their Discover Brisbane Powerhouse campaign, which launched in November 2015.
The piece distilled months of filming into precisely 20 seconds, because Television. To include some more awesome stuff we’ve also produced an extended “Director’s Cut” for web.
After having a lovely time working together on visuals for Ball Park Music, Sam Cromack asked me to help him create a world for the debut single from his solo project, My Own Pet Radio.
Combining 3D printed characters, robotic controlled animation and a twee black and white aesthetic, this shoot was just as much fun as you’d expect.
WAAX are a band of punk-as-rock, hectic kids. Their track “Wisdom Teeth” had been creeping up on Triple J and Unearthed for a couple of months, and needed a quick clip that would match the intensity of their sound and live presence.
The third Graetzmedia music video for Violent Soho. Trying to keep their quintessentially Australian Suburbs image intact, while throwing some technological head-trip curve balls at their THC-addled fans.
We spent a lovely day in an excellent, naturally art-directed Queenslander house, running the robot back and forth endlessly. It went Rather Well Indeed.
Making sandwiches look like they’re epic opponents in a boxing ring requires some ridiculous camera moves.
A T-Rex Superscope lens mounted on Red Epic, mounted on the camBLOCK I modified to work as a 5-axis crane rig. Looked messy, worked a treat!
You can see it in action (and some other nerdy Graetzmedia shoots I was involved with) in this little BTS promo:
After the Violent Soho/Graetzmedia single-shot clip Covered In Chrome was nominated for an Aria award, we knew the follow up had to be really special.
Director Dan and I had been discussing if we could use the camBLOCK motion control system to do a low-budget version of the famous “Children Of Men” car chase scene. We did some tests in the back of a van and realised that the robot would be able to move while under acceleration, so we started planning.
Shitbox car purchased and modified. I came up with systems to allow director Dan to control the moco rig live, moving throughout the entire length of the car while he was huddled in the back underneath dirty clothes and sleeping bags. I figured out a quick-release system that enabled the transition between car interior and hectic live performance, which I may have done slightly differently if I’d known that transition would be mediated via my jumping in the passenger door of a moving vehicle.
Behind The Scenes
What followed was one of those wonderful creative experiences that makes the hard work of filmmaking completely worthwhile.
After designing and 3D-printing modifications to convert our 3-axis camBLOCK motion control system into a monster 5-axis crane rig, I needed a project to test out the system. Fortunately my buddies Little Scout were about to release their new single, and the aesthetic perfectly fit the multi-pass, audio-reactive ideas in my head.
Motion control gave me some delightfully crane-y multi-pass camera moves, and audio reactive lighting made the band members magically appear only when their instruments made noise.
This clip won Gold in the Music Videos category at the Australian Cinematography Society’s 2013 Queensland awards.
I’m the visualist/networking/game-master member of bitpop band 7bit Hero. When introducing our weird hybrid gaming/live music project to people, we had trouble explaining how it all works. The band actually wants people to be messing with their phones at our shows?
Perhaps a music video might get the concept across, with BEEEEZ!!!
This was an interesting shoot. I flew to Sydney to represent Graetzmedia in a big commercial production, with the camBLOCK motion control system packed in 2 big Pelican cases. Turned up at FOX Studios, walked in to the giant soundstage and announced myself as the Motion Control guy, to receive the response “No you’re not. Where’s all your gear?”
There were a lot of grizzled advertising shoot veterans with surprised looks at the end of that day. camBLOCK handled the full size Alexa with aplomb, and we spent a very pleasant time filming lots of copies of a pretty lady in different bikinis.