Zooming with Bill Griese

Written by Melyssa Vazquez (Director)

When I was first presented with this song I was very excited about it. It was something different that Shoebox Story had never done before. From there we started working with Bill Griese on how we could turn this song into the video it deserved. Bill sent us pictures of the town he lived in and we fell in love with the landscape. When I arrived on the day of the shoot the foliage was better than I could’ve imagined. I spent some time looking for the perfect background to the performance shots and drifted off for a little while taking it all in. On our drive to the location we spotted the lake and we just had to get a shot or two there.

As the day was ending we still had to get a couple more shots and thanks to our Canon 7D camera we were able to capture the golden hour without much gain.

About a week after the video was completed I was very excited to see the song had been picked for a Fujifilm commercial airing nationally.

Check out the Bill's website here - billgriese.com

Also, check out some behind the scene clips that we put together!

DIDI "U Made Me Love Love" Music Video hits Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KobunUNJ-Gc

Just released DIDI's second collaboration with Shoebox Story Productions "U Made Me Love Love". What a fun experience, we shot in Astoria Park one night with just two camera lights a Canon 7D. Then we worked on the light streaks which we shot with slow shutter speed and some flashlights. We added them into the video by using the Composite Mode option on Final Cut Pro and experimenting with different layers.

The first collaboration was with Selfish which has reached 34,000 views on Youtube and taking her to the next level of her stardom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UTq6-Tp_o&playnext=1&videos=AqjpOzSMzz0&feature=mfu_in_order
Selfish was a fun and colorful video full of the NYC vibe with shots of the Empire State Building turned upside down and sideways and yellow taxicabs multiplied by nine. It was the first music video Shoebox worked with motion graphics and post production effects for almost the entire video and we are very proud of it.

Location Scouting

Recently, we've been scouting a few locations around New York, not only for current shoots, but also to create a database for future productions. Why? This really got me thinking about the importantance of shooting locations, and just how many aspects are often left forgotten.

Location Sound

Probably the most important element to check off the list! Seriously, think about it: Lack of power can be solved by a $70-$100 generator rental. Fixing bad lighting... well, that's my specialty. Set design can be pricey but reasonable. Re-doing bad location sound requires hours, even days of extra work with a post-production sound engineer. This could cost thousands of dollars extra depending on how much work is involved! What I'm getting at is, I think sound should be considered the first reason for our extensive search. This makes music videos seem like a picnic! But this isn't the only game stopper...

Versatility

With any great thing, there are typically limits. There are many laws, rules, regulations, and political matters that can limit what you're legally allowed to do at specific locations. When scouting, it's important to address these issues by asking, "what types of things CAN'T we shoot here?" By knowing our boundaries and which places have fewer limits, we can ease the pre-production process of our future projects.

Reliability

Here's a situation very closely based on a true story-- A client has a friend whose pizza shop would be the PERFECT location for his video. What's even better is that his friend is offering it, free of charge! We agree to use the pizza shop and gather the contact information, all seems to be going well. Then, on the day of the shoot we find ourselves sitting outside on the curb with our lighting gear and camera crew. Our location owner is nowhere to be found! He's not answering calls or emails. It turns out, he decided to take the day off because he forgot it was his niece's birthday. It's also the day his friend, our client, had to cancel his video shoot. Reliability of the location owner, contact, and staff are very important to ensure a smooth production.

So, anyone have some favorite locations to share?