Adventures in RED© and Beyond

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Maitreya Live in Hong Kong - Production Shots

Firstly I want to thank everyone who helped so hard to make Maitreya's visit to HK a success... with out you guys none of this would have been possible.

I MEAN THAT...THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Also I wanna say to my camera guys, you nailed it, really you guys where amazing and as a team we kicked the proverbial assface. I have compiled below some pictures from the day, but they are more an artistic interpretation than anything else. I hate using the camera flash plus Digger was having an affair with the smoke machine, which pretty much made using a camera flash an exercise in futility. Still though, I managed to get out some wicked shots.

There will be more material posted through out the week as we compile all the material out there. We should have some behind the scenes video and some professional pics, so be sure to keep checking this blog!

 

Maitreya Live in Hong Kong @ Club Cixi
"Maitreya: The Outro"

Tonight - Maitreya Live in Hong Kong

So up early yet again, getting ready to head out to Club Cixi to begin prepping for the long day. Tonight we are shooting Maitreya's Live performance as well as shooting elements throughout the day to support the main video of the night, Chur to the Chur. The beauty about this location is...no sun and AIRCON AIRCON AIRCON!!

Once again... good luck to everyone and take no prisoners. See everyone tonight at the show!

UPDATE: Just finished the night, packing up the gear... using the wireless here to post this. The shit was hot.  Gonna try and get some best of pics up tonight before I crash.  Maitreya really rocked that shit hard, he is a very talented artist and all I can really hope is that the material we give him at the end of all of this takes him to bigger and better places. Right... so waiting for the last of these P2 files to copy over and then it's off to return the equipment. More later.

Maitreya - Lotaluv Production Shots

Just got back. Its 10:30pm and I am tired as hell. Not to mention burnt to a crisp. Tomorrow is going to be a lobster day for me. I need to crash but I wanted to upload some pics from today. All in all everyone rocked! Maitreya nailed it and all the crew and talent where amazing. Just want to say thanks guys!! Really you guys were amazing and if I could, I would do it again! Minus the waking up at 5am. Minus the sunburn. Minus sweating balls alot.

Enjoy :)

LOCATION 01:

LOCATION 02:

Today we shoot Maitreya - Lotaluv

Picture_17

It's looking like today is going to be a great day weather wise. Hoping to work on my tan while we are shooting, both locations are outdoors so I have my sunscreen. I am very excited, the crew for this is the best we have assembled yet and I think this is gonna be a great Digger T production. Maybe after this, he will get a chance to do that zombie vampire naked chick flick he has been talking about so much.

I know this is kinda pointless to say but I have no where else to say it so, "GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!"

-pics to come

Maitreya Live in Hong Kong - Press Release

 

so just wanted to get this up, this is the official press release that is going around with some background info about Maitreya.  He is an interesting guy and I am very much looking forward to working with him :)

  
 

NZ HIP-HOP ARTIST MAITREYA. LIVE AT CLUB CIXI, HONG KONG

Dig Deep Entertainment is excited to announce the LIVE music video shoot and album promotion by acclaimed New York based, Kiwi Hip Hop artist MAITREYA, supported by DJ Tee at the recently refurbished, Club Cixi in Central on Saturday, 30th August.

MAITREYA has always wowed audiences and caused a stir in the Hip-Hop World, be it working for Jay-Z's Roc-a-Fella R ecords in New York, performing to sold-out audiences in New Zealand or making history by becoming the first artist and New Zealander to earn USD50k to cut a record via www.sellaband.com.

MAITREYA joins us on the final leg of his tour after rocking clubs in Europe & the US promoting his stunning debut album 'CLOSE TO HOME' (produced by UK's The Silence and mastered by Vlado Meller - Universal Studios, New York) which has received critical acclaim around the world.

Whilst here, Digger T Mesch from Dig Deep Entertainment will be directing 2 music videos for MAITREYA, one of which will be during his live performance at Club Cixi on Saturday, August 30th. So, if you haven't been in a music video before, now's your chance to get downright Drum and Bass dirty and let this contemporary hero soothe your soul and shake your shoes as he hijack's the boogie and plays an eclectic set that will force another refurbishment of the establishment. MAITREYA IS IN THE HOUSE!!



(Maitreya "Live in Amsterdam" @ The Paradiso)

MAITREYA - Hip Hop Artist

Hailing from Christchurch, New Zealand, and now based in New York, Maitreya is an MC with a passion to renew the faith of Hip Hop.

He began his career as a founding member of Hip Hop band, NILSTATE, which gained a cult-like following around Christchurch, New Zealand, with a reputation for unpredictable and explosive performances.

In 1996, he moved to Auckland and joined DARK TOWER who took the nation by storm in the summer of 2000, touring to sold out venues across New Zealand.

In 2003, Maitreya took his skills to New York, where he secured an internship at Jay-Z's Roc-a-Fella Records. For the next two years, he worked for Roc-a-Fella and immersed himself in New York's Open Mic scene, eventually getting his own show "Illegal" in and around the Lower East Side.

In 2006, Maitreya hit SellaBand.com with a fresh repertoire of songs, and in only seven months crowd-sourced US$50,000 to make his debut album; the first hip hop artist to raise funds this way. SellaBand.com is a revolutionary music site that links unsigned artists with top notch recording facilities.

The result is "Close To Home", a stunning debut album. Maitreya brings back the art of honest and beautiful storytelling and takes you on a journey into the life and times of a kid from Christchurch, New Zealand, who never gave up chasing the dream.

"Close To Home" was mastered at Universal Mastering Studios New York by the skillful The Silence, and produced by legendary Vlado Meller (Kanye West, Public Enemy, and Run DMC). The result is an impressively eclectic body of work delivered by an artist with a rare and unmistakable honesty. Maitreya hijacks the boogie, soothes the soul and at times gets downright Drum n Bass dirty, with his soulful melodies punctuated by tight, head nodding beats and rhymes.

"Close To Home" takes you on a journey through sound into the tragedies and victories of an everyday hero who has taken his craft from Christchurch, New Zealand, to stages in New York, Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam.

The album is available for download from his website www.oneloveandlight.com.

Maitreya is currently in Hong Kong to film two music videos for international release.

  
     

Maitreya MV shoots - The Breakdown

(updated Wed 27, Aug)

MUSIC VIDEO 01
"LOTALUV"
Single camera shoot on RED one 4k

 

 

This is location 01- Dead End of Oil Street:
LOCATION CONFIRMED
CALLTIME: 7:00 AM for all crew & actors. Shoot starts 8:00 AM and wraps at 12:00 PM
DIRECTIONS (COURTESY OF JOVES): Fortress Hill MTR exit A. Oil Street phonetic pronunciation for the gweilos - Yao Guy (Yao - falling tone, like the end part of yoyo but pronounced like wow) cross traffic lights on left and walk towards the harbour till ya fall in...


(courtesy of Roman Baska)

 

(courtesy of Roman Baska)

 

The Rig (kinda) :
0dolly

 


 

This is location 02 - Soy Street:
LOCATION CONFIRMED
1:00 PM crew arrives for lunch and setup. CALL TIME: 4:00 PM for all talent & related people. Wrap time 12:00 AM
Soy_street_location_pan
(courtesy of Roman Baska)

The Rig (kinda) :
Dolly
(courtesy of Roman Baska)

This is the full scope 360° of Camera the movement:
(courtesy of Roman Baska)

This is the rough location of the rig setup:

Cam_location
(courtesy of Roman Baska)

Roman's animatic: ;


 

(updated Wed 27, Aug)

MUSIC VIDEO 02
"CHUR TO THE CHUR"
(TBC) 3-4 Camera shoot on HDV @ 1080i

 

Location - Club Cixi:

(location shots are not visually accurate as I had to do an alice in wonderland hack job)

 



Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Go Out And Space Lover

Yeah I know... damn it never ends right?!!  So this is supposedly the last of it.  Below you see 4 frames, in order, frame 01 is a depth matte that was rotoscoped over the lovely Ms. Space to match her movements.  Frame 02 is how the scene looked, Cedrick however felt that the background was too in focus so we forced some depth of field using the depth matte shown in frame 01.  Frame 03 shows the background with its depth of field focuse effect and frame 04 is the final composite of frames 01 - 03. Fun stuff!  And yes I need to re-upload to Vimeo so for all you dying to see the new enhanced version, it's right here! Also there are the obligatory credit changes which follow this lovely musical number.

太空‧愛漫遊 - Space Lover

Ok. So I know I said 3 days ago it was done and then 2 days ago i said it was done... but really NOW IT'S DONE :) You can see it here if you so desire. I decided to keep it separate from this blog even though it is related to RED because it doesn't involve the usual suspects. This was a side job for me although I did welcome the chance to experience more with the workflow involving the RED camera.

If some people are a little confused as to what this is and why it is the way it is, you can get some back history on the Cantopop Genre here.  You couldn't tell by watching it but this job was hard.  Really hard.  My role in this was as an editor, meaning I did the initial shot selects and I compiled the different effected footage coming in from Beijing, as it was being composited by a CG house out there.  They have quite a few employees and as is the nature of too many cooks, I was getting back many different flavored broths.  I actually put in twice the amount of time to get this graded and equalized than I did for the editing. 

Anyways the worst is behind me and I can now look forward to Maitreya if Digger would ever get back from L.A.!!!

UPDATE: The results are in! And most people hate it!! Haha. Well it's kind of all over the place.  My gf couldn't get past the 15sec mark.  Another friend of mine found it much more enjoyable with the music turned down.  One girl loved the stars, oh and one person was kind enough to even "Favorite" it :)  No requests for lyrics though, I did get them translated, lets just say they are very...erh... unique.  I think they make even less sense in English. FYI those are not Teletubbies, they are Coo Bears.  Both Cedrick and I agree we will be living large when some day we can sit back at the pool and eat Coo Bears Gummy Candy.  I already bagsed the yellow and magenta ones. 

 

Olympic Celebration

I am sorry I was unable to capture a picture of this but I believe the story is still worth telling. I was sitting at my station editing, as I do, and my producer walks in and tells me to come downstairs with him. He says there is a cart being taken around to celebrate the opening of the Olympics later today. So went with him and another individual. I get downstairs to be greeted by two carts with beverages. One has pitchers of beers and the other had bottles of vodka and pitchers of vodka & redbull. It was being pushed by a lovely bunch of ladies dressed in nurses outfits with a big sign attached to the cart reading "Drug Testing". They were quite jovial and as I was offered vodka shots, I couldn't help think to myself, "wow i am speechless". I couldn't however seem to make any words come out of my mouth. In my head I was repeating, "work... 11am... vodka shots....bad..." Eventually I just pointed to the vodka red bull. WIth my drink in hand, I went back to my editing. Wow. That was cool right?

I wish I had taken a picture.

UPDATE:Got pics!! Proof is in the pudding!