Soho’s Concrete and Axis Films have jointly collaborated to create footage for the first music video for X-Factor G4 front man, Jonathan Ansell’s debut new single entitled ‘Now we are Free’. More significantly, the promo was shot entirely using the brand new Red One camera and marks what is believed to be the first Red-derived project to go through Soho, writes Andy Stout.
“This new alliance between Concrete and Axis Films ensures that new technology such as Red One can be fully supported without any compatibility or technical issues between shooting and post production. We expect it to have a dramatic effect in providing feature film quality images that are completely accessible to the corporate and entertainment markets.” states Paul Carter, MD at Axis Films.
The 4k and 2k files from the camera were “digitally developed” at Concrete in its state-of the-art Soho facility. Concrete provided standard definition clips for the offline process and full quality files for the final online and colour grade, which took place within one of Concrete’s Mistika HD suites. The tapeless workflow provided an instant data conform from offline to online and realtime colour grading, thus requiring no further processing or rendering.
David Cox, MD at Concrete explained: “The images from the Red camera were great to grade from. They initially had a flat feeling similar to film that had been scanned. However, they contained a rich depth of colour that allowed very accurate colour picking, and this is important for music videos where it is common to apply a different treatment to the artist’s skin tones.”
In making the video, Axis Films provided on-shoot support and accessories for the Red One camera which shot in 4k to attain a depth of field with a look and feel similar to that of a 35mm film camera. Slow motion shots of the video were also incorporated at 2k.
The video was directed by Stuart Gosling and produced by Gail Davey for Universal Music. It was edited by Guy Morley, one of Concrete’s senior editors and then graded with visual effects added by David Cox.
The final word goes to Producer, Gail Davey: “We were thrilled with the final outcome. The video looks terrific and the whole process with Concrete and Axis was extremely smooth-running.”
