A BTS look at our “Chalk” video with Dance Sport Live.

The past three years has been quite chaotic for us. When looking back to review them we see we have made quite a few changes. These changes have been a whole range of different things spreading right across the industry.

Over the next couple of week’s we will be posting both here and at My Pixel Strategy about some these activities. We will also bring everyone up to speed with our future projects in the pipeline!!!

CHALK!

Now for those that may have been following you would have seen that we have had involvement with DanceSport Australia, DanceSport Live and a National dance project named P5000.

We had the opportunity of working with dance couple Annalisa Zoanetti and Sigurdur Thor Sigurdsson on a video named “Chalk.” Chalk was shot in our white studio with coloured Holi Powder which was exciting in itself.

Preparation

We began by repainting our white studio and clearing as much space as possible. This video was going to be a good opportunity for each team to play with a range of different toys.

Chalk! was shot on a combination of camera systems. These include:

• 3 of Nikon’s D800
• 2 DJI Osmos
  
• 1 Blackmagic Production Camera(In the coming weeks, I will also be doing reviews of different cameras and accessories I have used and recommend which will include the DJI Osmo.)

Martha Williams made up some white outfits for the couple which allowed us to set a soft scene with the white on white tones. We began to shoot our video in a clean, white studio. To start we had Annalisa and Siggy dance the rhumba with a close more intimate type feel. As the rumba finished we introduced a chachacha and with the chachacha came the holi powder. Dallas Williams of DanceSport Live directed the dancers through the shoot which was a major assistance due to his intimate knowledge and experience throughout the Dancesport Industry.

Using a variety of different cameras with different sensors proved a little more challenging than expected. Although in a controlled environment the Osmo’s broke up rather quickly in post production. We used the Blackmagic Production Camera as our main unit and the Nikon D800’s on a Ronin-M gimbal, a DitoGear Omni Slider and the third rigged up on a tripod. Using the Osmo cameras allowed the team to use them on poles to offering a variety of different angles and they also have a slow motion option of 120 frames per second which came in handy later in post production also.

The Process

Now none of us had used holi powder before in this capacity so we were not quite sure what to expect. It looked amazing and the contrast against the white was brilliant. We holi was a fine powder and knew it was obviously bright. What we had no comprehension of how much it was going to get in everything. Up the noses. In our mouth. Stain everything! I was cleaning equipment for weeks after continually finding more powder 🙁

The Cleanup

So after everything was shot and completed we were left with a cleanup job. Initially, vacuuming up the powder would leave a few scuff marks. Vacuuming was a lengthy process. The rollers on the vacuum cleaner just made sure holi powder was really rubbed in. Next came the paint. From the first push of the white roller, I knew that we were going to need more than a simple cover up. I went back to Bunnings to purchase a bucket of 30% grey and proceeded to coat the white cyclorama and excess holi powder. Unfortunately, this would turn out to be the easiest part of the process. 🙁

After painting the studio grey I could then paint my first topper of white. In the past, this process required 8 – 10 litres of paint. This time my first coat barely covered the grey no matter how thick I put it on. I proceeded to feed it four more coats which was an extra 60 litres of paint!! At this stage, things were starting to look much better and I went home and would return the following week. To my disgust on my return, I had not realized that there were clumps of holi powder on the roof which had fallen down over the past week directly on the white giving it red spots and a red tint. 🙁 🙁 🙁

Fortunately, it only required one more coat from there as it was light enough to hide but that was a slow painful way to lose $1600 worth of white paint for $40 worth of holi powder. In saying that I only used half so if there are any studios looking for some please just ask. 🙂

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