Josh Emerick
- Mar 31, 2018
- 4 min read

JUST A "SIMPLE" VIDEO

Sink the Ship "Out of Here" Case Study: Power of a Good Shot-list

entry no. 15

Our approach to production, focused on how we can navigate in an efficient manner while still making something visually enjoyable. This is through energy, cinematography, lighting, shot variety, art direction and set design. These elements all add up to what we call creativity. Even when we set out to create a band performance video, we ask ourselves, how can we keep attention. With the Out of Here' video being 100% band performance, we wanted to keep it interesting, and align it's simplicity with the art direction behind the band's debut record, who's release cycle this is accompanying.

This blog will be brief, on the creative direction side. This one is about planning for the edit. The video is set in seemingly, our home away from home, Ohio HD Studio. We used it to our advantage to be fast, shoot A LOT of takes and dial in the “Persevere” album art color palette. We decided on lighting and moods first, planned for unique band arrangements, discussed camera movements and then created a shot list that would allow us to shoot takes in quick succession.

We decided to plan our various camera movements with wide, tight, stationary movement, and also playing with unusual band arrangements. Everything was done on the MoviPro so we could do take after take and use the mimic for extra creativity.

Going in, we planned out, in total, a shot list of 25 different arrangements and based everything around the drummers placement. We did this prevent their drummer, Zac, from losing energy and sweating too much. It’s all in the strategy.

Below we have a shot list from Josh’s (DP) notes he was following.

For the most part, it stayed exactly as we planned. Most projects we tend to keep our shot list smaller for faster editing. For this project we wanted to showcase the advantages of DMX, the Movi’s versatility and keeping attention with a full band video. This project was a huge win in our books.

We had two hours in light placement, DMX set up and programming scenes and shot all takes in under 4 hours.

Fun fact: We shot this the same day as the Everything production for STS in the middle of the day. By planning all aspects out for both projects we were able to shoot both full films inside Ohio HD studio in the same day.

Out of Here Shot list details

Overview: This is broken up by drum changes and giving Zac breaks as well as doing repetitive items close together. Lighting needs to be changeable by presets easily between takes. Hang two Kino selects from Rail system washing walls with correct looks. Spacelights should be labeled for changes and 4 arris up top with gels that match hue.

NOTE: Starting drum set up is drums at front facing towards corner