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www.postmagazine.com 21 POST AUGUST 2017 he value of music videos can't be stressed enough. Popular recording artists rely on them to promote new or upcoming releases, to shape their image, and to feed a hungry fan base. Lesser-known acts use them as a tool to get in front of new audiences. For years, in our coverage of the format, Post has been hearing from industry pros that there's no money to be had in the business of producing and posting music videos, and that budgets are smaller than ever. However, the same expectations remain high for quality products. This month, Post takes a look at the produc- tion and post of a number of recent music videos, spanning a range of musical genres. Here's a look at some of the recent offerings and the work studios completed for them. ALEXANDER JEAN: PAPER PLANES Indie duo Alexander Jean, made up of BC Jean and Mark Ballas, recently released a new music video that was inspired by their wedding nuptials. Directed, shot and edited by Lightfield Lewis, Paper Planes incorporates footage and stills from the cou- ple's wedding, along with additional footage shot around Los Angeles. Lewis was originally brought in to shoot the couple's wedding. His Dead Hearts video from a few years back went viral and has garnered much demand for him as a wedding videographer. Alexander Jean decided to write an original song to accompany the wedding footage, resulting in the "Paper Planes" single. "I didn't want it to just be a slide show," recalls Lewis, who shot the project using a Red Dragon. In addition to the wedding shoot, he coordinated a number of other locations, including an LA riv- erbed and a swimming pool to which he added a black tarp to give it the look of a dark lake. "We shot three days," he recalls. "I wanted to shoot one more, [but] we got what we got." Lewis called on Adam Unruh of AGrip.net for a number of crane shots, including those in the pool. Footage was shot in 6K and for the edit, Lewis converted it to Apple ProRes for cutting within Final Cut Pro 7. RedCine-X and Artbeats were used for color correction and to create some of the film burns and color bleeds. In addition to the song, audio from the shoot is heard on occassion too, bringing viewers into the special event. "Editing is my main thing," says Lewis, who spent approximately two-and-a-half weeks assembling the video. "I delivered it right down to the wire." The final video was delivered in HD. — By Marc Loftus THE AFGHAN WHIGS: ORIOLE Oscar Oboza, colorist at Nice Shoes' Minneapolis location, recently completed work on his second music video for The Afghan Whigs. Oboza, whose room is located within Volt Studios in Minneapolis, initially collaborated on the band's Demon in Profile video, which has a dark and mysterious tone. The new Oriole video is much lighter by comparison, with a softer and more dreamlike look. Amy Hood directed the video and also stars as its naïve hero, who finds herself in the middle of a cult's human sacrifice. The video's producer Avtar Khalsa brought in Oboza to help achieve its final look. Oriole was shot on a mix of formats, including 16mm film, and with Sony's F7S and Canon's 5D. The look of the video's clips range dramatically. Some are grainy, others are shaky and still others are overexposed. Both color and black & white footage is used. Certain scenes have the look of a video monitor. And lighting ranges from outdoor, to indoor, to candlelight, to club lighting. "The inside of the house has one look," notes Oboza, who contrasts it with the outdoor sacrifice scene at night. A lot of work, says the colorist, was trying to figure out where to use the dream- like softness. Oboza uses a Baselight system to perform color grading. In this case, he worked with the raw footage, which was sent back to the editor for assembly. His studio is equipped with a 4K LG OLED display that matches the monitors in all of Nice Shoe's other facilities. "It's a labor of love," he says of the occasional music video work he gets to collaborate on. Oboza estimates that he spent over 16 hours on Oriole — time that was spread out since the client was not attending sessions. "There is a trust factor," he adds, noting that they let him do what he specializes in. "They are mindful of my time. I enjoy the relation- ship and will take my time in relation to the budget, but you try to move it along." — By Marc Loftus VAN WILLIAM: REVOLUTION Songwriter, performer and former Port O'Brien frontman Van Pierszalowski is stepping out on his own with a new project. Under the name Van William, his first solo project — The Revolution — is set for release next month on Fantasy Records. The debut video for the four-song EP's title track, "Revolution" features esteemed Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit. "'Revolution' started as a song about the anxi- eties of being in a relationship, where both people want to fix its broken parts, but disagree on the means," says William. The video for it, directed by Grant James, is passionate and touching. "It's an emotional perfor- mance delivered by Van, as well as Klara and Johanna Söderberg (First Aid Kit) within the confines of a black void," says James. "The focus was to compose moving portraits of the artists that express the meaning behind the lyrics of the song as they go through an emotional journey individually and together. The result delivers a variety of raw and striking imagery that balances the fine line between high fashion cinema- tography and keeping our subjects grounded in their own natural aesthetic and realism." To create the look and mood, James worked closely with DP Vance Burberry, who relied on an Ursa Mini Pro digital film camera and Video Assist 4K monitor/recorder for the shoot. Burberry, who has shot music videos for Guns N' Roses, Pearl Jam, Santana, Coldplay and more, also used DaVinci Resolve Studio and the DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel for color grading. "We went with a black and white look to help emphasize the photography and story as much as possible," explains Burberry. "We wanted the look to evolve as the story progressed, so it was essential to have strong photographic images to work with, which T DP Vance Burberry says the B&W look helped tell the story. A host of Blackmagic Design tools were used for Van William's Revolution video.