03-Nov-2011
Music Video Production with After Effects
Artist: Loyale
Album: The Heater
Music Producer: Teal
Director/DP/Editor/VFX: Marty Martin
Video Producer: John Eagan
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Color Grading: After Effects
VFX/Compositing: After Effects + Optical Flares
For this Music Video Production entry we'll let Marty Martin talk you through how he produce this little nugget for Loyale. 
Shot last May almost entirely on green screen for a silly low budget. Because of the low resources, I had to continue taking on client work and I didn't get to editing until November. What seemed relatively straightforward (everything was shot with deliberate intent) quickly turned into a post-production challenge for multiple reasons. Although I had a very clear idea of how post needed to be executed, the fact is that I had never done any of the music video production techniques I had planned. I basically had to learn from scratch, and quick. This went from experimental project to labor of love in a short period of time. I believed in the video itself as well as the artist, Loyale, and I was set on doing the music and the video justice.
I cut a first story edit in FCP, which was followed up by numerous green screen replacement tests in after effects. Once I nailed an initial look, I just dove in and cut the video on the fly in AE. Most of what I accomplished was just by jumping in and taking a stab at it. Most of the time I got it right. I had to, because the biggest hangup was render times. Running a maxed out Mac Pro with CS4, i averaged about 12 seconds of render time per frame. In one sequence, it took about 30 seconds per frame! I was up in my attic office editing nearly 18hrs per day (with a few days off here and there) for over a month. I'm sure that seems ridiculous and some people could surely do it faster, but the render times and hourly crashes really slowed things down.
Creatively, the biggest challenge for me was nailing a cinematic look in 3D space, while working in an After Effects 2D space. Plainly put, I have no idea how to do anything in 3D, so I basically had to come up with a bunch of tricks to simulate 3D movement and 3D tracking.
All in all, this was a great music video production experiment. I tackled the project at a time when I felt creatively stagnant and I needed to stretch my skillset into entirely new territory. I definitely see things now that I could do better or differently, but for a project I learned how to do on the fly, I'm super pleased and think this will bode well for this new electro-pop artist.
SUPERNOVA - Music Video [Canon 5D Mark II] from Marty Martin. themartymartin.com on Vimeo.
I guess the morale of the story kids; even if you don't know how to pull off your vision... just DO IT!
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