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posting music videos Nice Shoes' Ron Sudul worked on M.I.A.'s Bring Da Noise. Music videos make up 10 percent of the studio's current work. STORYVILLE Pruett, who is also a senior editor at Storyville USA (www.storyvilleusa.com), cut over 200 music videos between 1996 and 2004 for the likes of Kenny Chesney, Leann Rimes and Big & Rich in the halcyon days when back-to-back videos for Rimes had budgets over $400,000 each. Today, budgets have plummeted by 75 percent or more, he reports, and Storyville seldom offlines music videos, concentrating instead on the finishing. "We try to take ownership of the finishing process — we have Smoke and Flame for beauty work, DaVinci Resolve color correction and can deliver HDSR, all of which are out of reach for most editors working at home," Pruett says. Even as budgets and turnaround times have shrunk, content captured on Red, DSLRs and Arri Alexa cameras has increased substantially. "We used to get two hours of dailies for music video shoots, but now we're often Storyville colorist John Buchanan called on Resolve for Gary Allen's Pieces video. 22 CMA Christmas special. Music videos remain 10 to 15 percent of the company's work, and they pose unique challenges as "a hugely creative" genre that requires not only talent but also speed. "You have about the same amount of time to post something six- to eight-times the length of a commercial," notes Pruett. "I try to get to the shoot if possible or see a treatment before we accept the job. These days, if we decide to tackle offline for a music video, it's often a labor of love." Country artist Gary Allen's Pieces music video, the second single from his ninth album "Set You Free," includes extensive VFX as pieces of his life — such as his own vintage photos — which fly and flutter in front of the camera during his performance in a tunnel cooled by giant fan blades. Director Wes Edwards of Ruckus Film shot the video on two Red Epic cameras and did the offline and VFX. getting about five hours worth. With digital cinematography, the camera never seems to shut off. Editors have to look at every frame — there may be a gem hidden somewhere in a take." Today, Storyville is primarily a commercial post house, with credits such as Jos. A. Bank and Blue Cross Blue Shield spots; it also posts independent features, did a recent promo for the ABC series Nashville, and gymnastics coverage for ESPN. The shop also edits Country Music Association programs, including the CMA Music Festival and the annual Storyville colorist John Buchanan conformed the video using Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve and high-end Sony OLED monitoring. "For Pieces, there were two different lighting set-ups: wide shots of the tunnel and tighter shots of the artist. John had to blend them in with the cool blue look they wanted," says Pruett. "Working with a flat Log C image isn't the same as dealing with film negative — you need a great colorist. The difference between before and after on Pieces is pretty amazing." Buchanan also recently conformed coun- Post • August 2013 www.postmagazine.com try artist Randy Houser's Runnin' Out of Moonlight video, the second single from his "How Country Feels" album. Houser's performance is intercut with the story of a young couple enjoying a romantic night ride that culminates in a sunrise kiss. Wes Edwards directed this one as well. It was shot on Canon's C500 with a raw .dpx recorder, staging a day-for-night shoot for the couple's ride and lensing Houser's performance at a planetarium in town. "A lot of what we do today is color matching from set-up to set-up because budgets dictate that there's less time to light and finesse things the way you'd like to," Pruett explains. "Resolve enables medium-sized boutiques like ours to provide a great color correction environment for clients, and its media management tools are excellent." NICE SHOES "If music videos had a small budget five years ago, they have minuscule budgets now," says Ron Sudul, a colorist with New York City's Nice Shoes (www.niceshoes.com). "With digital cameras they're able to shoot more footage, but they're limited in the number of set-ups they can do. And they often go to small companies for post production to keep costs down." Nevertheless, top artists and labels still prefer to work with full-service creative shops like Nice Shoes. Although music videos comprise 10 percent or less of Sudul's work, he regards them as "interesting passion pieces" in his typical mix of commercial jobs. The recording artists are "a lot more in con- trol of their brand and look" today, he says, which means he often teams with the director and artist in post. "It's kind of cool — the artist will come in and a new flurry of creativity will take us in a completely different direction. The artists are often very savvy themselves, so you have to be ready to pull out all your tricks!" M.I.A.'s music video Bring The Noize, the first official single from her fourth studio album, "Matangi," is a feast of imagery that reflects her background as a visual artist and filmmaker. It blends a monochromatic palette,