What has Billy Ray been up to since his ol’ achy breaky heart blew up? Maybe his daughter Miley knows.

Producer – Scott Maio
Writer, Producer, Director, Photographer, Editor – Aaron Jenkin

Cast:
Billy Ray – Scott Maio

Crew:
Production Assistant – Mike Kniewel

Notes:
This was put together as a viral video to promote my friend Scott’s new company, brainlesstees.com. BT is a fresh website selling funny t-shirts that are all original.

The Watanabes are looking for a female friend for an upcoming music video. The chance of finding a girl, about 20 percent.

Band – The Watanabes
Song Title – 20 Percent Chance
Album – Independent Social Power
Label – BabyBoom Records, Available at Tower Records, HMV, CD Baby and Apple iTunes

Credits:
Producer, Director and Editor – Aaron Jenkin
Written by The Watanabes and Aaron Jenkin

Cast:
Duncan Walsh – Himself
Selwyn Walsh – Himself
Ashley Davies – Himself
Flavio J. – Himself
Stefan Samuelsson – Himself

Notes:
I spent the last couple of months editing a music video I directed back in March. Here’s the link to the video on YouTube if you’d like to rate it. I’ve also included the real story behind the video. This was my first video on my new Canon 5D Mark 2; what do you think?

Follow on YouTube

The Watanabes are a European Band, living in Tokyo Japan, writing music and performing live shows. They just released their album “Independent Social Power” available at Tower Records and HMV stores. You can also download their music over at iTunes.

I hope you enjoy the music and consider buying the album because these guys deserve it. Not only do they pour their hearts into their music, but they’re great guys to be around too. I had so much fun making this video, and I’m not just saying that. If I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t say anything at all! It was good working with people that cared.

The Experience:
The story in the video is pretty much what happened in real life. Originally our video was about a girl who’s lost something special to her and the band finds it and eventually returns it. We were to shoot it over the course of two days. We had locations picked out, storyboards, all of the band on board, and a nice girl lined up to play the lead. I even bought a new camera, the Canon 5D the night before the shoot to really get everyone excited.

Talent Problems:
On the first day of shooting, our star canceled on us. She was very apologetic and promised up and down she would be there for day two. We quickly adjusted our shooting schedule, and shot everything that DIDN’T involve her. With high hopes we gathered for our second day of shooting and our girl canceled on us once again. At this point we were dead in the water with no well thought out backup plan; not a good position to be in. The band and I sat down at a restaurant and completely rewrote the script. We decided to make a video about NOT having a girl for a video. It seemed more fun, and felt right for the bands personality since it is in fact difficult for “gaijins” (foreigners) to succeed in a serious relationship in Japan.

Technical Problems:
To top off the difficulties, after the first day of shooting I realized that my new camera had a flaw. Something was wrong, and the footage was coming out with a reflective looking reverse image on the right side, covering about a 5th of the total image. When you watch the video, it’s not hard to miss, but it’s most noticeable on the fourth shot. For most shots, I was able to crop it out, but for this shot, we left it there as a bit of a personal reminder of what happened, and because it kind of looks cool, plus Ash the bassist was playing his heart out and the band insisted the shot stay. On day two of shooting, I figured out a way to minimize the effect, but it severely limited what I was able to do with the camera and meant I had to shoot everything on a fixed 24mm lens because for whatever reason the problem was least noticeable at this range. During post production, I cropped out the reflection out of most shots so much of the footage was salvageable. I posted still images of my problem on several Canon forums but no one had ever seen anything like it. I sent the camera to Canon, and they quickly realized the problem. Somewhere on the assembly line, someone forgot to remove the protective clear plastic piece covering the chip sensor. I imagine this plastic is supposed to be pulled off before the camera is sealed up, but it wasn’t. Before sending it to Canon, me and my Director of Photography friend Brian Levin tested the camera, inspected it, and couldn’t figure it out for the life of us! This plastic thing must have been nearly invisible. I’m just happy the camera works now!

Despite all of the problems, we put together a video that everyone involved is happy with. The band is happy, we’re planning on making another video this fall, and that’s all I can ask out of the whole experience!