BEHIND THE SCENES OF 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
First we needed to buy a christmas tree, but it was mid november, so no one was really selling real christmas trees as the would have died before christmas, which was fine by us but most people want their tree to be alive on christmas day. Eventually we found one, and even then we were the first people to buy one.
Next came The trailer. For the trailer I wanted to have the story of effectively someone going out and getting a christmas tree and then bringing it back but in the most ludicrous way possible so that it stood out and wasn't particularly in a vlog format but more of a short film.
I really liked the idea of mike penny-boarding with the christmas tree, but the board was just too small to be able to carry a christmas tree on over the shoulder. so we used a longboard for mike with the tree, and I filmed him on the penny board with my glidecam. I used my 550D and 18-55mm kit lens as its cheap and has Image stabilisation which is good as its not the end of the world if i fell and broke it unlike all my other lenses and it had image stabilisation meaning that the shots from the penny board were as smooth as they could be. I also shot from the back of a friends car with the boot open.
Many people may say this isn't the most professional or safest way to create the video, but it was the cheapest and easiest way to shoot it with what we had on hand,. Sure there was risk, but we are all fine, and sometimes in life you have to take risks to get results.
The first video we filmed was a duet with Mike and my sister. Quite often for videos people think its just as easy as setup a camera and hit record, but this fairly simple setup took about 2-3 hours to setup. Why you may ask? well heres why:
First I had to pack down my computer both my monitors and interface. Next I dismantled my desk to make enough room to put the christmas tree and all the gear we needed to shoot the video. Then is when it started getting a bit crazy, I sanded and painted the walls to get the white background you see in the video and then we put a bucket in my room, placed the tree in it and dug up dirt and rocks from the garden to pack in and keep it upright. Next we hung the lights in the background and decorated the tree. We set up one light to the left and the right of frame to light them both and covered the bulbs in baking paper to get a more yellow hue to patch the bulbs in the background.
For Audio we used 2 SE R1 and an SE 2200A. We used one SE R1 on the guitar and one for my sister's vocals. We used a SE 2200a for Mike's vocals, this is where the issue came in, as the acoustic guitar Was so loud that it was very audible in Mike's vocal mic, from this we learnt to use the vocal mic in figure of 8 to cut the audio below where Mike was singing, the guitar, from the vocal mic.
Next was an outside video. i like to change the location for each shoot, as it shows people we care and haven't just sat in one place and filmed 10 things. Also that can become VERY boring if all the content is the same. this was a fairly simple setup, just move the tree with decorations on, and put up the fairy lights, but we had to film before it got dark. luckily it wasn't too windy and Mike nailed it on the first take, which meant it was a lot shorter to do than the previous video. That being said, it still took close to 2 hours to do!
For audio we used the SE 2200A for vocals and SE R1 for guitar. the song Mike chose was mistletoe by Justin Beiber. Make sure to check it out below!
I did a little bit of editing for each, mainly just lining up, and then that was it for the day. in total i spent about 14 hours for 3 videos, plus time later on for other editing and grading ect. Out of that we got one video. you live and learn, and anyway anything worth doing is a challenge! I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look ah what goes into one day shooting. and make sure to check back for more. Thanks!
