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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

A VERY SHELBY XMAS SPOTS - for History

Nick Morrison

Nick Morrison

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Hey guys, History was kind enough to ask me to tackle A Very Shelby Xmas. Here's the campaign. All shot on Scarlet with mostly Contax primes, but also a 10-100 Zeiss Vario-Sonnar and a Hasselblad prime.

We were on a tight budget, and I was ambitious...I wanted to get as many spots in the can as I could. I was lucky enough to work on the launch of The Legend of Shelby the Swamp Man this summer (got huge ratings!), so I really wanted to keep the momentum going for them. So I went all in!

I'm happy to report the campaign was well received, and the "Mud Snowman" in particular seems to have touched a nerve! It's most people's favorite (mine included), and was the spot History led with on air (both cuts were pushed, the original and the Tim Burton "alt").

This campaign features all "one take wonders", each spot is one continuos take w/out a single edit. We thought that would make them funnier. What I loved is this device really forced us to focus on technique. The result is some spots ended up channeling a bit of Tim Burton, others some Michele Gondry, others a pinch of Spike Jonze. All in the name of fun. The challenge was "nailing" these shots, which was hard. One of our assistants believes we may have done over 1000 takes...to get these all in camera. Not sure if that's true, but it's probably close.

Graded by Reduser's own Jake Blackstone. DP'd by my friend Jay Gillespie. Shot over a weekend. All spots made air the following weekend (so all post was done within a week!).

Shot on location on a friend's farm. Hope you enjoy!!! Happy holidays all!!!

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Nick Morrison
DP: Jay Gillespie
ART DIRECTOR: Marco Cousins
GRADE: Jake Blackstone


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - MUD SNOWMAN (TIM BURTON "ALT")

A VERY SHELBY XMAS - MUD SNOWMAN


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - TURTLE SOUP


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - CHRISTMAS TREE


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - BOAR


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - PIRATE SHIP


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - WREATH


A VERY SHELBY XMAS - TURTLE SOUP "ALT"


NOTE: These spots are full of "easter eggs" - ie embedded with inside jokes for Shelby's legion of fans. You may need a bit of a "code" to get all the references, so here goes:

LANGUAGE
1) Shelby speaks his own "language". "PAW PAW" means "DUDE", and "TONI RONI" means awesome. Like "hey PAW PAW" and "this boat is TONI RONI"

DETAILS
2) Shelby loves his pup "Willy Dog", lives on a pirate ship, drives a tractor dangerously, drives his aluminum speed boat even more dangerously, loves to eat Turtle Soup, and has a thing for boars. And obviously he lives in the swamp.
 
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Shameless bump. Would love some feedback. Oh yeah forgot to mention we used Hollywood Black Magic and a Hyper Star filter.
 
Yeah, you can see the star filter in the christmas tree lights when they are out of focus ;-) I like the mud snowman. Nice looking spots.

Nick
 
Nick Gardner said:
Yeah, you can see the star filter in the christmas tree lights when they are out of focus ;-) I like the mud snowman. Nice looking spots.

Nick
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Haha. Thanks Nick. Yeah it's the Hyper Star filter, from Tiffen. Fucking love that thing! Looks more analog and natural than a standard "4 Point" star. Bought it months ago on a whim ("just in case!") and came in super handy.

The zoom shots were on your beloved Zeiss 10-100 T2 at 2K, FYI. Can't believe I got away with 2K and it totally worked! Vignetted a bit at the wide end, but no one seemed to notice or care.

I'm actually considering butchering my zoom and getting it permanently Leitaxed to CANON EOS so I can slap it on faster, and use a 1.4 Teleconverter to blow up the image circle if I need to (ala Kubrick). Having a tiny Zeiss 10x zoom sitting in my case is incredibly useful. Just wish it had better sensor coverage and didn't require a lens mount swap.

Thanks again for the feedback. Appreciate it.
 
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Matt Ryan said:
Great work Nick! Really loved the Mud Snowman, best of them all. Were you using a dolly or jib or both for the mud snowman spot?
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Thank Matt! Yeah I love the Mudsnow man as well. We used a Seven Jib on that. Dana Dolly on some of the other stuff.

Really appreciate the kind words. Means a lot!!!
 
Matt Ryan said:
Really good stuff, and very creative, as always. Hope to work with you some day!
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Likewise Matt. Sounds fun. Next time I'm in LA lets plan on some kind of fun side project. A car commercial or something else that makes fun use of available resources.
 
I loved them, but felt extremely misled by the one with Tim Burton music - definitely thought I was in for some "Nightmare Before Christmas" follow-up film!
 
BrendanLeahy said:
I loved them, but felt extremely misled by the one with Tim Burton music - definitely thought I was in for some "Nightmare Before Christmas" follow-up film!
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Haha, I wish! On set the Mud Snowman felt so "alive"....it was a very Burton-esque experience to shoot that. One of my highlights of 2013! After the shoot, I felt compelled to honor Mr.Burton somehow, so went on an elaborate quest to find music that channeled at least some of his "tone" or "magic". I was lucky enough to find that track!!!
 
Nick .. Great work, always nice to see great images from the Scarlet. Not sure if its been covered in a previous form but how are you mounting your Hasselblad lenses?
 
Ted Parkes said:
Nick .. Great work, always nice to see great images from the Scarlet. Not sure if its been covered in a previous form but how are you mounting your Hasselblad lenses?
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Honestly? A cheap ebay adapter. It works fine. Not ideal, but works. They are HB to EOS tilt adapters. For more solid connection I use the Mirex adapter, which is an impressive $750 dollar piece of German engineering, but it almost does "too much". Sometimes, I just want a basic TILT and so the more affordable ebay adapters work fine...I have several in fact.

This Pirate ship spot is where we used the Hasselblad 80 2.8, tilted. I've had all my Hasselblads cinemodded by RP lens, so they have most of the convenience of my Contax primes, just with a wider image circle and are easy to tilt on. Of course, once you "tilt"...the focus gears are useless so we were pulling focus by hand on this spot. Not ideal. Took us 50 takes to nail it I think:

 
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