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MILLION DOLLAR SHOPPERS - for Lifetime

Nick Morrison

Nick Morrison

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Here's a super interesting project. Very modest budget (I won't say favor, but almost) and a lightning fast turnaround. Shoot was on a Monday, and edit had to be completed by Tuesday.

Original plan was to film Barbet on a black stage and keep it simple, but client and I decided to me ambitious and try some IN-CAMERA effects (something I'm a huge fan of...I'm hugely inspired by Janusz Kaminski...and his masterful use of in-camera filtration).

I always bring a big box of filters on every shoot (like a box of toys), and my young crew and I went to work. What was going to make Barbet look great? What could we do, quickly? We had about 2hrs to figure this shit out. Solution became this:

1) Use a streak filter (#3) to streak a number of lights we placed OFF CAMERA. This allowed the streaks to bleed into frame in an interesting way.

2) The streaks were way too JJ Abrams and sharp, and needed to be diffused. We ended up BLOOMING them with some Black Pro Mist (#1).

3) We wanted Barbet to look good and luxurious, and decided to use some Classic Soft as well. I think we overdid it by going with a #1. On Caucasian skin I usually don't go over a 1/2. Lesson learned.

Here's the final spot:


Client: Lifetime
Director/Producer: Nick Morrison
DP: Ted King
Colorist: Jake Blackstone
Camera: Scarlets
Lenses: Contax 35 1.4 & 85 1.4. Hasselblad 110.

Reduser's own Jake Blackstone did a GREAT job on this grade (this is my own director grade; what aired is similar to this...cut directly from the one lights we delivered).

Versions of this spot have been airing the past 4 weeks. Barbet read a number of lines and they'e been cycling through them all month.

Enjoy.

PS - Vimeo is fucking up the blacks on this spot. What airs is clean.
 
interesting look nick/jake - thanks for sharing the shop. definitely looks great, i think had the requirements not been so stringent it might have been nice to have streaks only on the edges with a cleaner center of focus, it is a little distracting to get her ghost, you probably could have done a quick composite by shooting clean with the actress and 'dirtying' it with an overlay/screen of streaks. just being extra-picky, awesome work all things considered (:

i guess i've got an excuse to turn on lifetime and eat ice-cream, anything worth watching?
 
paulherrin said:
interesting look nick/jake - thanks for sharing the shop. definitely looks great, i think had the requirements not been so stringent it might have been nice to have streaks only on the edges with a cleaner center of focus, it is a little distracting to get her ghost, you probably could have done a quick composite by shooting clean with the actress and 'dirtying' it with an overlay/screen of streaks. just being extra-picky, awesome work all things considered (:

i guess i've got an excuse to turn on lifetime and eat ice-cream, anything worth watching?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedack Paul!

In terms of what's on Lifetime, Project Runway is always fun - last season was great! And one of Runway's biggest stars is getting their own show soon...stay tuned for that!!! Also...Bonnie & Clyde airs this weekend, on Lifetime, A&E and History.
 
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ah yes, good good - thanks (:

so real technical color perception question here, jake may have to lend expertise.... which best suits the intended experience:
homemade, handturned butterfinger/pecan or mint/pistachio?
lol
 
paulherrin said:
ah yes, good good - thanks (:
Click to expand...

PS I hear about the time constraints. I wish we had an extra day or two. This was one of those rush jobs were decisions were being made on the fly. We decided on using in camera filtration the minute Barbet brought her wardrobe. We thought that shiny jacket would look very "millionaire"...and then just worked backwards from there...as in...well maybe we streak off the dress...add some lights in the corner out of frame, etc.
 
haha, i hear you loud and clear... great process. definitely an improvement from a minimalistic setup. now that you say that and i've seen it again (and actually listened... lol) i think it was a good decision to streak the dress, it works/fits for sure in context. i trust you had your eyes on it all and made the best decisions you could. i really like quick turnaround stuff, forces you to get real creative, really simply. def would like to see this with more proper black levels than the vimeo version - sry about that, wiki wiki wild, wild web.
 
paulherrin said:
haha, i hear you loud and clear... great process. definitely an improvement from a minimalistic setup. now that you say that and i've seen it again (and actually listened... lol) i think it was a good decision to streak the dress, it works/fits for sure in context. i trust you had your eyes on it all and made the best decisions you could. i really like quick turnaround stuff, forces you to get real creative, really simply. def would like to see this with more proper black levels than the vimeo version - sry about that, wiki wiki wild, wild web.
Click to expand...

Yup just uploaded a new file to the Vimeo link (I recompressed the spot in Squeeze). Think it looks better...cleaner at least...
 
yeah, lookin good (:

who wrote this? i really like the playfulness going on around the framed experience and the self-revealing narcissism. if only they'd make the shows at that level (i.e. cut the contrivance)
 
paulherrin said:
yeah, lookin good (:

who wrote this? i really like the playfulness going on around the framed experience and the self-revealing narcissism. if only they'd make the shows at that level (i.e. cut the contrivance)
Click to expand...

My clients wrote this. That's what I love about promo...it's so down and dirty. We write and create our own content, and there's a lot of freedom to mix and match and try things. Budgets are smaller than commercials (usually), but with that comes the hands on necessity that is incredibly edifying and transformative. Sometimes I wish we had more resources (I'm not at that level yet), but for the time being the process is so fun it more than pays for itself in experience and hands on fun.
 
nick, haven't caught the spot, but i did watch bonnie & clyde, it's awesome!

and it appears that lifetime has some interesting original films coming up... quite cool (:
 
Nick did you DP Bonnie n Clyde?
 
Jake Wilganowski said:
Nick did you DP Bonnie n Clyde?
Click to expand...

Haha, no way. I'm lucky enough to direct promos on occasion for Lifetime, but I'm miles away from working on a production as vast as Bonnie and Clyde.

But the network did a great job with the mini series. Looks amazing.
 
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