Marco Menestrina's Blogshttp://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/Mon, 28 May 2012 18:57:49 GMTExposureRoom RSS Feed Generator v1.0enTHIS IS ROCK AND ROLLWed, 21 Jan 2009 07:59:54 GMThttp://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/383/http://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/383/
Glauco contacted me already in September with the idea of making a video and, after a few weeks of brainstorming (which also included Glauco's good friend and lighting technician extraordinaire Davide Pedrotti) we  came up with the idea of the cage, the fluorescents, le UV paint/lights and the snails.

Having a budget very close to zero, to get a hold of a huge cage covered by almost a hundred red fluorescent bulbs was incredibly challenging; in fact every single fluorescent lamp that you see, we built it from scratch: all the bulbs came from waste deposits (Glauco managed to get over 200) then bought the spare parts and assembled/wired them one by one. This made it much more affordable than buying the regular fluorescent light system they sell in the stores. As you might have figured, this was one TEDIOUS job and if it wasn't for all the people that dedicated their free time to help us, Glauco and myself would be still wiring the bulbs by now. Thank you all very much!

You really should check out Vetrozero at myspace.com/vetrozero they are quite an exceptional band, and some of the most inventive and dedicated people I've ever worked with.

CREW

CONCEPT: Marco Menestrina, Glauco Gabrielli, Davide Pedrotti

PRODUCTION/DIRECTION/CINEMATOGRAPHY/EDITING: Marco Menestrina

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/CAMERA ASSISTANT/DOLLY GRIP: Matteo Scotton

GAFFER/CHIEF LIGHTING TECHNICIAN: Davide Pedrotti

KEY GRIP: Massimiliano Bassetti

PLAYBACK: Alessandro Mattedi, Fabio De Pretis

RUNNERS: Simone Gaio, Cristiano Brunelli, Mario Zanella, Lorenzo Marchi, Marco Palombi, Ivan Cristellotti, Francesco Palombi
 
 
For production sketches, set photos and more please visit www.marcomenestrina.com
 
 
]]>Music VideoMusic VideoVetrozeroAlps AtmosphereThu, 07 Aug 2008 09:39:37 GMThttp://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/287/http://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/287/
I will go through the "when" and the "how" though. Alps Atmosphere was shot over a period of three weeks while I was at my own home town (after about two years) Trento: a nice town surrounded by the Alps. The locations were chosen with great help from my grandfather Ettore, an extremely well experienced alpinist.

Going up the mountain with the camera, adapter, lenses and tripod is a hell of a work out. My new backpack helped a lot for that matter (actually, without it, the project would haveprobably not happened) it is the Kata HB-207.

The weather was either very hot or very cold. I had to do a few time lapses twice or even three times because thewind would shake the camera a lot. So I was forced to put the Miller legs on low configuration and put weight on them to make it steady.

Also for Alps Atmosphere, I already knew what song I was going to use and how I was going to edit/grade it while shooting, so the post work felt smooth and natural. The song is Atmosphere by Joy Division, a band that I am very fond of.
 


]]>ShortSony EX1AlpsEX1ItalyShortSonySummerFinnish SummerThu, 10 Jul 2008 22:19:01 GMThttp://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/261/http://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/261/ 
The beauty of Finnish summers is due to the fact that in countries of such latitude, in this time of the year, the sun barely sets. The consequence of this phenomenon is a stretching of the famous golden hour to quite a few hours. Between 8pm and 11pm you can see this marvelous soft, yellow light and these long crisp shadows "crawling" on the ground and everything looks fantastic. This also pushed my to do many time lapses, which I believe are pretty effective for these kinds of setups.
 
Most of the stuff is shot in the countryside around the city of Tampere (the city that you see in all the second portion's shots), the fire ceremony is part of the celebration of mid-summer (called Juhannus). My main idea was to portray the stillness and peace of this country, that I am very fond of.
 
 

 
]]>ShortSony EX1EX1FinlandFinnishShortSonySummerNOT THEM - FEEL IT YET MUSIC VIDEOSat, 07 Jun 2008 10:35:28 GMThttp://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/232/http://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/232/

Yesterday, 6th June 2008 I graduated film school and today, in a few hours, I'm catching a flight back to Italy.

That known, last Saturday (May 31st) I was at a wrap party for a music video (which will be soon uploaded) and I was talking to my friends Nelson and JC aka "Not Them" soon after their live performance, about the possibility of shooting a music video for them before I left. I said yes right away since I really enjoyed their performance and, on top of it all, the more I shoot the happier I am.

I then realized that that week two major things were supposed to happen: graduating and moving back (which is a pain in the butt considering that it's ALL the stuff I've had for the past two and a half years that needs to be shipped on the other side of the pond. Ah today it's going to be a tough day).

In any case, we decided to shoot it on Thursday, right after Grad Fest in about four hours. On Wednesday night we did about an hour worth of pre-production and I explained them my ideas about a long dolly tracking shot backwards and them riding in their neighborhood as paperboys, delivering music instead.
On Monday I also received in the mail my new glass: Leitz 16mm F2.8 and I thought that a fisheye like that would have worked perfectly on a track like that because it would amplify all the movement. To increase the movement effect even more, I decided to shoot it at 18fps with the playback slowed down to 75% so, when reproduced at 24fps the lip sync would still be on the spot but their motion would be much faster and strobysh.

Everything worked: the cops didn't bother us, we had quite a crowd to shoot with, I got to borrow the dolly from school, golden hour helped a lot (although it was about 105F degrees...) and we managed to shoot it in four hours fitted in a very hectic schedule. About 24 hours later (during which there was also the graduation ceremony), I had the edit and the color correction completed.

It's been a blast, everybody had a lot of fun and Not Them loved the video.

 

]]>Music VideoFeel It YetMusic VideoNot ThemSony EX1 new firmware?Fri, 23 May 2008 17:36:41 GMThttp://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/224/http://exposureroom.com/members/MarcoMenestrina/blogs/post/224/Some weeks ago I heard that the new firmware for the EX1 was soon to be released... but, to my knowledge, it hasn't. Anyone has any news about this?

I would also like to know what will the new features be... Personally, what I think would make the EX1 a much better camera is the possibility to change format and frame rate from the Direct Menu. These two functions are buried in mutliple menu layers and it always takes a long time to change them: being able to change frame rate and format quickly, with a flip of a switch, would allow to capture shots that you would otherwise miss while navigating through the menu.

Is there a forum for the EX1 or Sony in general to gather customers' suggestions for things like this? Who should I talk to? Customer's service? If you have any ideas or agree/disagree, please comment.

Marco

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