How To Shoot Broadcast Quality Music Videos On A Camera Phone

Related link: http://www.film-headquarters.com.au/video.htm?PUSA_Some%20Postman.mov

Photos by Ashley Bennett About a month ago, I heard about the first all-cell phone shot video of The Presidents of the United States of America (P.U.S.A.). This development is more than a novelty. It's a working demonstration of the natural artistic progression towards the integration of new mobile video technology within existing art forms. I predict that it will soon be commonplace for bands to shoot mobile phone-based video of interviews, practices, performances, songs-in-progress, or whatever, and post it to their websites. I interviewed director Grant Marshall to find out even more of the gory details behind how this video was produced. (See below.)

The video was shot last July at the Seattle Grip and Lighting studio on Queen Anne hill in 10 hours using 12 two megapixel Sony K750i camera phones. All the phones in the U.S. seemed a few generations behind those of his native Australia, so Grant had to import the cellphones from Australia. (They had only been out in Australia for one week.) The phones were set up on tripods to record 9-12 angles for each shot and the footage was sent via Bluetooth to a Mac. The footage was then brought up to twice its speed to make it look "normal," and of high enough quality to look professional enough to go back to back with the "high end" music videos.

Numerous technical obstacles had to be overcome in the process. Mobile phone cameras can only record at 1/3000 of standard broadcast quality, and don't capture movement very well. In addition these phones only recorded at 10 frames per second, even though the manufacturer had promised that they'd record at 15 fps. During the shoot, the phones were so temperamental that they'd just turn off at any point without warning, so Grant had the band play the song 24 times at half speed in order to provide enough footage to edit together one good take of the song.

Director Grant Marshall

"The colors were tweaked and enhanced and/or softened a bit...and touched up with a little telecine to produce the final product." That part of production took three people about two weeks, spearheaded by Tim Nikkinen. "We defocused parts to give it that soft look, and we ran noise reduction over the clip," Grant explained. The video has been a huge success. On iFilm.com (now owned by MTV), it's been viewed over 460,000 times and is already in iFilms top 20 most watched video's of all time. The video will soon be available for download at iTunes, and is expected to premiere on MTV in November. Contrary to popular belief, although the project seems like the ultimate promotional tool for Sony's camera phone line, the company didn't pay a cent for its production. The whole thing was funded by Blast Records, P.U.S.A's record label.

Here's the complete interview: L.R.: So why shoot on Mobile phones? G.M.: The idea came to me when we were joking about the shrinking budgets of music videos in Australia. Where previously we would shoot on 35mm for two days, now we had to consider 16mm, HD or video (all in an 8 hour day). My director of photography complained, "What’s next?... shooting on VHS? Soon we’ll have to shoot on our mobile phones." So I took this concept and wrote several treatments that would lend itself to a song. I originally pitched this idea over 18 months ago (when they started banning phones in change rooms and toilets) to several Australian bands, who instead chose clichéd music videos (like rocking out in an airport hangar… like we haven’t seen that before). Shooting on mobile phones was the most low-fi idea I could think of. I told PUSA that it would be like recording their album on an answering machine. In a hi-def world, this clip is Low-Def!

L.R.: How did you decide on the Sony K750i camera phone? G.M.: I did a lot of testing on mobile phones (I actually walked around shopping centres trying out the video functions of display models). I realised that to make the clip work we were going to have to utilise many tricks and use a heap of phones. The phones we used were the latest Sony Ericsson K750i with a 2 megapixel CCD camera that had only been out in Australia for one week. Despite the 2 megapixel camera, it still only recorded at 176 x 144 resolution at 10 and 15 frames per second (randomly switching, depending how long they were on standby). We had 12 phones on set, but not all were used for every take.

L.R.: How did you have to block your shots for them to come out right in the video?

G.M.: We had to think about the size shot we wanted, eg. if it was a midshot of Chris, the leader singer, we had to break the shot down into a grid and arrange the phones so that there was coverage of the shot. Each camera angle captured a section of the shot, and these sections overlapped so that a whole image could be pieced together. For example the top left phone would capture just the corner of his head and an eye, and the camera beside it would be focused on the other side of his head and shoulder. It's not a difficult idea, it just needs a lot of time (we're talking days to just sync the footage) and planning to piece together.

L.R.: So it took three people two weeks in post production to get it to look as good as it does?

G.M.: Yes. And I also came on board to help edit and online the clip, not because I didn’t trust anybody else to do it, but because I had done the research, I’d set every phone’s position and we had 9 – 12 angles for each shot and before we knew it we had 30 hours of rushes… on memory sticks… not something a professional post house is set up for. I would hate to think the amount of Avid time we would’ve needed to book. We had an editor with two assistants using three separate Macs working around the clock on different sections of the clip simultaneously. Final Cut Pro and some G5s were perfect for the muti- angle work as it handled it all in real time, something the Avids at the post house weren’t set up to do.

Overlapping shots (shot from the same position) were overlaid in the edit, doubling or tripling the resolution. This combined with speeding up the footage (the band played at half time) and combining all the multiple windows; now we're getting close to something that is able to be broadcast. When you download the footage off the phones (via Bluetooth and USB) it is in its native .3gp format (which is approximately 8kbs per second, that’s 1/3000 the quality of SD) , which is a Quicktime file that can be used directly in Final Cut Pro for editing. The clip was exported out of Final Cut Pro and transferred to a Digi Beta tape. We then spent a few hours in Telecine enhancing the colours. We crushed it right down bringing down the black levels and softening them, and defocussed the highlights using a Davinci 2K+. We also ran a noise reduction over the whole piece and gave it a blue wash that matched in with our 'behind the scenes' footage as the LCDs on the phones had a blue tint to them. I still wanted the clip to look good as it would go back to back with big budget US clips on Video Hits and MTV.

L.R.: But you still think that people could do this kind of thing themselves at home, using consumer equipment?

G.M.: Yes. In fact there was nothing that hard about what we did at all, any kid with a Mac and a $300 phone could make something like this. And I hope we inspire people like this to give it a go.

Seeing a mobile phone on a tripod is really bizarre, it amused the whole set. I was totally amused we had an A.C.S accredited D.O.P Tim McGahan ACS shooting with a mobile phone. Everything about this shoot and post production was bizarre. In theory I could’ve text messaged the editor (in Australia) the footage from Seattle. No courier needed.

L.R.: What were some of the technical obstacles you encountered while filming the video?

G.M.: We encountered many problems while filming. Occasionally a phone would turn off, we were working with a very new technology in its infancy; its impossible to change the exposure as they are set on auto and are nothing more than toys. The mobile phones' camera function was low quality and had a low frame rate, which was troublesome as some drum hits and guitar strums were totally missed by the phones as the footage would jump, not running as smoothly as the usual 25 frames per second. To remedy this problem and double the quality of the footage the band performed at half time, (something that is very hard to do 24 times while keeping their performance levels up) therefore their movement was twice as slow, which when sped up to normal speed increases the quality and smooths out their movement, also giving it a unique high shutter film look. This was a key technique, as most of the footage recorded at normal speed was virtually unusable or had to be shrunk down to a very small size on screen. The simple white background also helped us as busy backgrounds would tend to break up and artifact.

The clip could very easily be distributed onto phones (in fact I have a copy on my phone and if you were standing next to me I could Bluetooth it across to you). A fan of the band commented, “This is great, because the lower quality is much more suitable for file sharing, just like MP3.”

L.R.: When did the idea of doing this kind of project first pop into your head?

G.M.: When I was at university (Queensland College of Art – Film and Television- 2000) my lecturer told us that we would need to think about framing and the growing importance of telling stories through close-ups as laptops and LCD screens are getting smaller and smaller. The class scoffed, but sure enough 5 years later with video-ready ipods and mobile phones doubling in resolution every year (such as the new Nokia about to come out), this could be the beginning of a new format and the future of filmmaking as a readily accessible medium that can be viewed by anyone with a mobile phone or an electronic device such as an ipod or Playstation Portable.

L.R.: What was your favorite part of this experience?

G.M.: Although the clip was shot on mobile phones, the most compelling element is the band’s rockin’ performance. I knew after take three that we were onto a winner. The PUSA are the funniest band I’ve ever worked with. Although it was a great experience shooting a music video on mobile phones and I’m glad I was the first to do it, but I’m definitely looking forward to shooting 35mm again.

Resources

1. ifilm - Some Postman.

2. High res version of the video (requires quicktime 7) http://www.film-headquarters.com.au/video.htm?PUSA_Some%20Postman.mov

3. The Making of "Some Postman" -- First All Camera Phone Shot Music Video

4. Camera phone enters new creative territory - from BillBoard.

5. Can you see me now? Presidents film video on cellphones By Judy Chia Hui Hsu for the Seattle Times.

6. Make Music Videos On Your Mobile by Shots.net.

What do you think about the implications of do-it-yourself broadcast quality cell phone-shot music videos?