I recently finished a fun and challenging commercial concept for long time friend and client, Evolution Tattoo. The concept was to do a one shot, continuous take camera move choreographed around a person entering the shop with a custom tattoo design, then squeeze it into a :30 second television commercial. For the concept I wanted to play with a slow/fast motion effect and give the camera a floating type of feeling. This is what we did to capture it:
Production
The commercial was shot with a 5K Red Scarlet Weapon camera with EF mount Sigma 18-35 lens mounted to a Tilta Gravity gimbal. I shot at 48fps so that I would be able to play with a slow/fast effect in post. The focus was remotely controlled via the Foolcontrol app for Red cameras. Using a Nyrius wireless video signal and the Fool Control app we were able to pull focus without the use of gears or motors connected to the camera.
The entire tattoo shop had to be lit. Grip and lighting was provided by Bourns Productions and lit by gaffer Tyler Bourns. We used a 2K HMI with yellow gel to flood the front of the shop from outside. Inside we and used various 1K, 2K LED’s and smaller LED litemats and fresnels loaded with colored gels to add accents throughout.
Getting a one shot can be extremely challenging because so many things have to go right which means a lot of things can go wrong. Thankfully after a few practice runs and after about 5 full takes, our final take come out the best and was used for the main edit.
Capturing a one shot camera move for Evolution Tattoo.
Post Production
The commercial was edited in Premier Pro in a 4K sequence. I used the 48 fps slow motion for the choice moments of the commercial and then using speed ramping, I sped through the travel, or “in between moments” of the one take shot. During the fast portions which are only about a half second or so, I added a zoom/blur effect to create a fast looking motion blur to the move. Overall I thought it would be a challenge fitting the entire shot into a :30 second commercial but I ended up having plenty of time too hang on the tattoo logo at the end for a few more beats. Huge thanks to my production crew for helping to pull this off! Full credits:
Director/DP/Editor: Bryon Evans
Gaffer/AC: Tyler Bourns
Grip: Don Gustavoson & Shannon Balazs
Produced by Bryon Evans Films
Camera, Grip & Lighting provided by Bourns Productions