Michael John Grist

Posts Tagged ‘music’

The Scientist

May 28th, 2008 • Thoughts, Video

Ever since seeing the music video to the song ‘Yellow‘ by Coldplay, where Chris Martin walks down a deserted pre-dawn beach in slow motion while singing along to the lyrics of the song at regular speed, I’ve wanted to have a go at it myself.

Slow motion is amazing. You know? When I first saw the Matrix I was blown away. The slow-motion camera spinning effects they used for the fight scenes kick more ass than any other fight scene I can think of.

So, now I have a camera. I don’t have the ability to do any bullet-time stuff, that involving having an array of cameras all connected by sophisticated shooting programs, but I do have the capacity to replicate the effect in the song Yellow.

I chose do it with the Scientist rather than Yellow, as I like The Scientist better. I shot it all myself- so it’s a close-up image, which sadly doesn’t render into slo-mo too well. Full body shots allow for cool stuff like slow-motion running and gestures. As it is, you might think I’m just walking slow and mouthing slowly, when in fact the video on me has been slowed down by 50%.

As it is, I think it’s pretty awesome. The sync-up is pretty much perfect. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with slow-motion and other filming techniques.



Mike in the Black Diamond music video

Apr 24th, 2008 • Culture / Events, Life in Japan, Photos, Video

On Monday I got an email from Maiko, one of my students, saying- “Can I call you with my friend tonight?” It seemed a little mysterious- but she’s a friend as well as a student, so of I course I said yes.

That night she called, we had a little chit-chat, then she handed me off to the friend. The friend turned out to be Yaco, a fluent-in-English casting agent who was urgently looking for background extras to take part in an all-night music video shoot on Wednesday with 2 mega famous J-pop starlets.

Well, I was a bit blown away, but figured I could fit it into my schedule.

Yaco told me it was a casino-scene shoot way out in Minami-Machida (South CityField) near where I used to live, from 6pm Wednesday til 4am Thursday morning. The J-pop stars would be Namie Amuro and Double. I’d need to wear a suit and tie, and would be paid.

I confirmed on the spot, she confirmed back, and I got onto Wikipedia immediately to find out who the J-pop girls were.

(more…)



Coldplay’s The Scientist

Jan 23rd, 2008 • Featured Video



Locations of visitors to this page