Taylor Swift " Bad Blood " shot on Weapon by Christopher Probst

[M.Halsell]

Awesome. Looks great! Lush.

 

[Antony Newman]

Chris,

Your team has cooked up the recipe for awe in this piece!

I hope it also serves as a platform to propel Ms Swift filmwards.

AJ

 

[Chris Lowe]

awesome job. thanks for breaking down the shoot as well. really love that these forums exist for such useful insight and discourse.

 

[Etienne Perrin]

Thank you so much Chris for the BTS, the vid is simply amazing.

 

[Gabriel Scindian]

Okay gang, here's the skinny... I'm super honored to have the opportunity to be one of the first to shoot on two 6K Weapon Dragon cameras... Jarred and Brent jumped through some hoops to allow my grubby hands on TWO fresh out of the oven 6K Weapons for our Taylor Swift, "Bad Blood" shoot. We also had some rad on-set support from Justin Jones, who had some extra parts and made some mad-dashes back to Red Irvine to get me more monitor adapters for the two cameras. Additional high-speed work for explosions was obtained with Camtec's Phantom Flex 4K... Though we had 4 other Weapon/Dragon cameras rolling between 86 and 200fps for this material as well.

With prepping the two brand new cameras, much of my Carbon Fiber accessory support like riser plates and top plates didn't exactly apply anymore. The body is shorter both in height and length. So some improvisation was in order. Prepping out of my usualy camera house, Camtec, in Burbank Calif. I pieced together a few cheeseplate options for additional topplate screw positions.... You can see here in these prep pics...

We shot the video on the new Arri/Zeiss Master Anamorphics except for a few Ronin shots where I used my smaller/lighter Kowa anamorphics on the gimbal. Our locations were all in downtown LA, both on practical locations and at LA Center studios for some of their office interiors/exteriors and stage work for set builds and bluescreen work.



Our "lab" set was constructed by production designer Charles Infante and was incredible to look at and light.

As much as this video is about explosions and knives and swords, it's also about beauty and fashion... Having amazing looking talent in front of the lens goes a long way!

We shot 2 days in the underground parking lot of the LA Convention Center... Some of you may recognize it from my Lexus Super Bowl ad I posted... So I didn't want to repeat the treatment I gave it for that spot... Instead of turning off all of the overhead lighting, this time I elected to use it as an architectural motif to build off of.

One of the first sequences we shot there was the motor cycle chase/performance.

We also constructed a boxing rink and used the depth of the entire garage in the background.

Also featured in the parking garage is the "Ice Box" set...

Another prime location in the video is the downtown bank that has been used in films like Zodiac and Dark Knight... There we set up our training facillity where much of the cameos and badassery ensues.

A separate location was used for the Locker Room set, which featured more gothic tiled arches that we built a more clinlical, modern structure inside of as a textural juxtaposition.

And finally, there was the stage work... We had a huge 120' by 30' bluescreen cove for "exterior" shots and also a little hallway set that plays in the middle of the video.

And here's some of the finale images of the explosion sequence...

Chris, I am in AWE of your work and what the Weapon can produce. Looking to see more. What software was used to create the composites? Color grade and Edit

 

[sam windell]

Chris, I really dig the Sin City/Watchmen hybrid feel when Taylor goes out the window and lands on the car. Sequencing there is sick and the hard pans into locked off on the very opening shots are kickass.

 

[Daniel Shojaei]

Looks awesome.

 

[Elias Tejeda]

The VISUALS are ..... Fan-friggin-tastic!!!

took the words right out of my mouth

 

[Jordan Molaro]

Great job!

 

[Mike McMillin]

I feel like you guys had an awesome time shooting this video and its almost like you can tell when people had a great time shooting something. I bet those master anamorphics are awesome wide open. I would love to get my hands on them for a shoot one day. I like your choice of shooting wide open and adjusting through iso and ND the few times I've used the master primes Ive taken the same approach. I felt like that approach on the MX sensor almost made the footage a little more contrasty or it lost some of the latitude or something but on the dragon I don't really feel that way. The color pallets were perfect and read so well referencing the older movies. Awesome work man! I have a question for you though... Did you use any skin tone filters? If so what is the difference to your eye in using the skin tone OLPF and filtration?

Nick, good questions... I find no matter what the subject, I just prefer to shoot wide open most of the time... So when you start lighting something, you know, with LIGHTS, shit gets brighter... Now you can start slathering on ND and stopping down the lens... But also, as long as the sensor is not clipping, you can lower the ISO some and clean up the image all the more... So why not?

I play a constant game of color temp, tint, iso and filtration to end up where I do for each and every scene... I too look at people's camera settings when the post pictures and often scratch my head trying to find a reasoning behind it... I think MANY don't give it much thought at all, and to me that's NOT a working method, that's flying blind.

The vast majority of the video is Low Light OLPF, for good reason. Only the actual day exterior was Skin Tone...

 

[Nick Morrison]

I feel like you guys had an awesome time shooting this video and its almost like you can tell when people had a great time shooting something. I bet those master anamorphics are awesome wide open. I would love to get my hands on them for a shoot one day. I like your choice of shooting wide open and adjusting through iso and ND the few times I've used the master primes Ive taken the same approach. I felt like that approach on the MX sensor almost made the footage a little more contrasty or it lost some of the latitude or something but on the dragon I don't really feel that way. The color pallets were perfect and read so well referencing the older movies. Awesome work man! I have a question for you though... Did you use any skin tone filters? If so what is the difference to your eye in using the skin tone OLPF and filtration?

Hey Mike, I don't think Chris generally uses in camera softening filters (I'd forgotten that when I asked previously)...

I think when he says filtration he may mean COLOR filters...notice his use of CTB 1/2 at one point....

I "think" that's what he means by filtration (as opposed to Classic Soft, BMP or HBM).

Curious myself though!!
best

 

[BrandonChristensen]

Is this the first Weapon footage made public?

 

[Tony Harris]

Its funny how some people try to speak for everyone and accuse people that ask real questions of insulting someone. You ask people to trade up and spend their money without seeing the product but when they ask questions about he product you want them to buy or footage that came from the product its an insult? WOW what is reduser really about?

 

[Elias Tejeda]

Who was the colorist on this ?

 

[Christopher Probst]

Its funny how some people try to speak for everyone and accuse people that ask real questions of insulting someone. You ask people to trade up and spend their money without seeing the product but when they ask questions about he product you want them to buy or footage that came from the product its an insult? WOW what is reduser really about?

What are you talking about here Tony?

Who was the colorist on this ?

It's listed on the very first post Elias... People try to pay attention, several of the questions I see again and again have already been answered previously.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

Great work (as always) Chris!

 

[Solomon Walker]

Well I loved it. As mentioned by almost everyone the Cinematography, Set-Design, Wardrobe, Choreography are all masterful, and the cameos are entertaining.

But its a shame to see that while praise is received graciously, negative critique is not...really...so...welcome.

So while I feel I dare not say anything further, I'll put my foot in it, and I would tentatively say that it surely does empower girls insofar as it shows a quick parade of mostly perfect women that adhere to the classical beauty tropes, and then kick ass in a mostly plotless manner.

I am not sure, from a cynical point of view, that this is as 'feminist' as it aspires or pretends to be (because every glorious shot could be on the cover of a Mens Magazine). But I certainly agree that it ticks all the boxes for the target audience. Hell I enjoyed watching it and I'm way off that target audience. So what I'm saying is its possible to both like the video, and dislike part of it too.

I should probably fuck-off now?

 

[Christopher Probst]

Well I loved it. As mentioned by almost everyone the Cinematography, Set-Design, Wardrobe, Choreography are all masterful, and the cameos are entertaining.

But its a shame to see that while praise is received graciously, negative critique is not...really...so...welcome.

So while I feel I dare not say anything further, I'll put my foot in it, and I would tentatively say that it surely does empower girls insofar as it shows a quick parade of mostly perfect women that adhere to the classical beauty tropes, and then kick ass in a mostly plotless manner.

I am not sure, from a cynical point of view, that this is as 'feminist' as it aspires or pretends to be (because every glorious shot could be on the cover of a Mens Magazine). But I certainly agree that it ticks all the boxes for the target audience. Hell I enjoyed watching it and I'm way off that target audience. So what I'm saying is its possible to both like the video, and dislike part of it too.

I should probably fuck-off now?

Critical analysis is certainly not a problem, but viciously worded attacks that serve no purpose other to prop the reviewer up on some superior artistic high ground are another matter entirely. I will argue that the women in the video do span a range of "perfect" to not so perfect... I hardly call Lena Dunman model material. And Ellie Golding is pretty average/normal looking human being in my opinion as well. Selena Gomez has put on a lot of weight and though attractive, nothing like some of the Victoria's Secret models that do appear in the video as well. I did choose to try to make all of the talent appear as glamorous as possible as this video is ultimately a popcorn/fashion piece. So I guess in that regard we suceeded.

As a forum to discuss cameras, cinematography and filmmaking in general, I find it iteresting this is what you choose to hone in on. And with your whopping 30 posts in past 3 years it shows that you really don't care about this forum all that much anyway. So you can draw your own conclusion of what you should do next.

On an aside, it seems there is very little interest in the visual construction, blocking, editing-linking of shots, or lighting here... just sayin...

 

[Scott Crawley]

Critical analysis is certainly not a problem, but viciously worded attacks that serve no purpose other to prop the reviewer up on some superior artistic high ground are another matter entirely.

That is a point well made. It is very easy for criticism to play out that way. It can be overtly intended or subconscious, it can mean spirited or easily misinterpreted as malicious by passionate people. I know I have been guilty of all of those things and I wish I could apologize to everyone I have ever offended so. Good criticism is damn hard to write. It might be good for us all to acknowledge that about now.

One thing I have never done is complete a piece of entertainment as slick as this one! Regardless of our personal tastes I think we can all acknowledge the formidable skill and artistry Christopher has brought to bear on this project. Serious kudos to him... And anyone who doesn't can damn right fuck off! Ha! I'm joking... Maybe.

I will argue that the women in the video do span a range of "perfect" to not so perfect... I hardly call Lena Dunman model material. And Ellie Golding is pretty average/normal looking human being in my opinion as well. Selena Gomez has put on a lot of weight and though attractive, nothing like some of the Victoria's Secret models that do appear in the video as well. I did choose to try to make all of the talent appear as glamorous as possible as this video is ultimately a popcorn/fashion piece. So I guess in that regard we suceeded.

I don't know what any of these ladies looks like in their daily lives but I can appreciate how difficult it is to make most people appear this glamorous. They ALL look very glamorous. I'll say you succeeded. Again, kudos to you all and thanks for sharing your BTS story.

 

[Phil Holland]

Well I'll happily bring it back. I'm seeing a good deal of fluoro/Kino in there. Any tricky lighting setups going on you care to chime in on? Always curious. Really dig the lighting and exposure choice in the boxing ring, that location is flexible and provides a real nice deep frame.

How long was the total shoot out of curiosity? (including pyro day)