Artist: Raphael
Song Title: Superstar
Album: The Dark of My Mind
Director: Elia Athans
Prod. Company: Hey!Raphael Productions
Director of Photography: Alejandro E. Fuenmayor
Editor: Chip Eddy/Bonch
1st. Camera Assistant: Zak Raszawaski
Makeup Artists: Karla P. Fuenmayor @lastlooksbykarla
“Superstar” is the second music video collaboration with independent pop artists Raphael and his team. It is always nice when an independent artists from out of town calls you again to do another music video. Often times, independent artists come to miami to work on their music and they get taken advantage off by “REGULAR” music video production companies.
It was great to work with Raphael and music video director Elia Athans. I had previously collaborated with Raphael’s in his “Boys are Trouble” music video, which I also directed. Unlike “Boys are Trouble”, (which we shot mostly at Tropical Park Boxing Gym. with a 2nd day to shoot broll in Downtown Miami at night ) “Superstar” needed to happen all at night.
The Sony A7s is my favorite new camera. Once you pair it with a 4K recorder like the Odyssey 7Q+ it is very hard to not like the picture. As a Red Scarlet owner myself, the idea of trusting the image to a small mirrorless camera was difficult. To that i say seen is believing!! if you shoot with a raw camera like a Red or an Alexa (if you shoot RAW on it) the image needs to be worked on in post by educated hands to get to a good final result. The entire Red, Arri workflow is design to bleed money out of new Artists.
First, this “REGULAR” production companies convince the Artists to shoot in 4K or 6K if you buy into the dragon sensor. (it is beautiful to shoot in 6K as a cinematographer why shoot in anything else!!) Then, because you shot RAW (in the case of ALEXA. shoot raw, dang it. come on!!! yes I agree proress 4:4:4 looks amazing in the right colorist hands), proper post production is needed to get the right look. If the artist’s wallet survives the production process without too many overcharges, most can’t even afford to go through 4K postproduction. if so, their video ends up like 80% of all music videos shot on Red or Alexa. They get but a few Red Giant magic bullet looks applied over the standard LUT. (disclaimer: I do this all the time to my REDLOG footage, so yes one can get a kick ass image this way) if not, you may get the terribly popular desaturated look straight out of the camera, with the excuse it looks cinematic FU “REGULAR” production companies screwing with independent artists music videos.
There are lots of Red camera owners hatting on the Sony A7s. They are the same buch who previously hated on the Canon 5D’s. Now they hate on Sony A7Rii (come on sony 4K overheating issues need to be fixed right now). Now Sony puts out the FS7 (impossible to hate on this camera at this price range, unless you need RAW 4K). Let me add to this group of hater, the Colorist that can’t work with 8bit footage because “there isn’t enough information on the media to do color grading” yes!! 8bit is a thing of the 90’s. But 8 bit looks great! on the Sony Cameras. if you shoot it right.
My advice to all new artists is to invest in the people on your production team, not in the camera you shooting with. If you get a music video Director that cares, he or she will have a Cinematographer that cares. And if you get the right chemistry between the Director and the Cinematographer you can be sure your hard earned independent Artists dollars will get to the screen. end of rant.
4K Music Video with Sony A7s + Odyssey 7Q+
4K Music Video with Sony A7s + Odyssey 7Q+
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