Behind The Scenes Filming Jack Perejuan's Single Shot Music Video

Behind The Scenes Filming Jack Perejuan’s Single Shot Music Video

Jul.29, 2011

Local Perth rising star Jack Perejuan contacted me recently to help him film his latest music video for a new song of his called Ghosts featuring Lois Mackay. A video that was to be shot in real time, in a single take, with no editing. It wasn’t some simple point and shoot exercise either, Jack had integrated camera spins and plenty of movement. I sure do like a challenge! This was all designed to be a steadicam shot so we could maintain fluid motion through the whole video. This isn’t Jacks first music video done in a single shot either, he has adopted it as a style for all his videos which makes each one a lot more fun and challenging!

So to pull this off, myself and a handful of assistants had to learn all the moves and you can see us all in the photo below taking instruction from Jack (right).

This is my thinking pose. You will notice I’m actually already wearing the vest & arm during rehearsals, that way when we needed to start filming it would only take 5 seconds to attach the camera rig.

This photo below shows the hustle nature of the shoot. You can see everyone desperately trying to stay behind the camera as to not be seen, Jack is undergoing a wardrobe change, and I’m moving backwards filming Lois.

And here’s me with the steadicam out. I actually tilted the monitor slightly towards me so I could view the monitor with the sunshade on. I actually balanced the whole rig like this because I knew it was going to be tough to see the monitor outdoors. The sunshade worked well enough that I could manage, but outdoors is still a bit of a pain, and sometimes it would be showing my own reflection. I don’t want to see myself!

My Steadicam consists of a Merlin Steadicam Vest & arm coupled with a Glidecam HD-4000. I have my SmallHD Dp6 monitor mounted to the bottom powered by LP-E6 batteries (5D battries) and up top I can use any assortment of HDSLR cameras. For this shoot I was using my 5DMKII complete with Genus Mattebox and shooting on a 16-35mm 2.8 L lens. (more about my steadicam here and here)