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Yellow Rage cameo in new – Magnetic North – Taiyo Na – Jin – Music Video

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When I think of Philadelphia based artists that have endured and have made a difference in people’s lives I think of the Spoken Word duo Yellow Rage. Both Catzie Vilayphonh and Michelle Myers who make up Yellow Rage are phenomenal artists. I have known them for many years and I am fortunate enough to have been there from the very beginning before there was even a Yellow Rage. Both Catzie and Michelle were a part of the Something to Say writing and performing workshop that I led over ten years ago and since then they have been a force to be reckoned with in the Spoken Word scene. Their mix of hard hitting poetry is both personal and socially conscious and they have never been afraid to put themselves out there even if it makes an audience feel uncomfortable. And most of all, they are both some of the most giving community based artists out there who teach, inspire, and give back to the community so it is an honor to work with them on a music video cameo appearance in the new Magnetic North – Taiyo Na – Jin video called “I GOT MY”.

The actual music video only uses just a few seconds of the Yellow Rage segment so I thought I’d highlight some of the footage we got with the new indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB which was a key success in giving us the unique birds eye perspective on all our shots.

I’ve already mentioned it before but the indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB is the ideal compact jib on the go. I think the indiGO-JIB works so well in the music video format because its easy to setup and easy to operate and gives you a lot of creativity not to mention instant gratification. In fact, our youth from our Tech Apprenticeship program at the Asian Arts Initiative are really learning how to use it quite well. All the Yellow Rage footage we shot for the music video was in fact all set up and operated with the help of youth and young adults with little or no experience. Because of the fun we had using the indiGO-JIB we are planning on shooting one of Yellow Rage’s classic poems, “I’M A WOMAN NOT A FLAVA” later this summer.

Here are the three different versions of the Yellow Rage “I GOT MY” segment. Enjoy!

“I Got My”
Magnetic North / Taiyo Na / Jin

Cameo Segment: Yellow Rage, Asian Arts Initiative Community

Filmed by Youth from the Tech Apprenticeship Program at the Asian Arts Initiative

Cameo Segment Directed by Gary San Angel

Camera: Panasonic GH2 in ETC mode
Lens: Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount
Rig: indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB

Yellow Rage Cameo – Magnetic North / Taiyo Na / Jin – Music Video Version 1

Yellow Rage Cameo – Magnetic North / Taiyo Na / Jin – Music Video Version 2

Yellow Rage Cameo – Magnetic North / Taiyo Na / Jin – Music Video Version 1&2

indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB roars with Philadelphia Suns Lion Dancers

I have been training a group of teens and young adults in both technical theater and live event filmmaking at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. At each session I invite local artists to perform in our classes so that our tech apprentices have a real world opportunity to design lights and shoot film. This time we had the Philadelphia Suns Lion Dancers perform their beautiful Chinese New Years dance and we filmed them using our GH2 and indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB.

I’ve used a jib crane a few times and they give you spectacular looking shots but I personally don’t like using them because they are huge and bulky not to mention take some time to setup. The last one I used I couldn’t get the weights just right so the camera was always too top heavy. So when Tim told me he had created a portable jib arm perfect for smaller DSLR cameras that was easy to setup and light weight I was pretty intrigued.

The indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB when folded down is only 38” long and can easily be packed in a bag and taken from the streets to the wilderness. When fully extended and with the front camera/monitor plate attached you get a little over 8’ of reach and when placed on your fluid head and a 4’ set of sticks you’ll have your camera up 12′ in the air.

My total set up time took me fifteen minutes to get my camera and tripod balanced and working. One of the big reasons for this is that Tim did a terrific job in creating levels of adjustments on the telescopic arm and at the weight level end to get the jib arm balanced just the way you want it. Typically with a jib crane if you are slightly off alignment its because the floor or your sticks are not level. When this happens the adjustment to get it level is a pain.

With the indiGO-JIB its very easy to get the camera pivoted so its level because you can loosen two top and bottom knobs on the telescopic arm and hand torque the camera until its level and then screw it down. This allows one the flexibility to shoot the camera nose down or nose up. You have a degree and a half front and back movement allowing for quick level shooting and a lot of creative angled possibilities.

Balancing the camera with weights is pretty easy. You can purchase the 4 liter plastic containers that you can fill with water or dirt or use your own weights. Whatever weights you decide to use there are a number of adjustments on the jib arm that allow you to get the camera balanced just right.

I have done a lot of playing around with the indiGO-JIB both with the prototype model and the production model and the fine tune adjustments is simply a solid home run here.

The students from my class really just had a ball and were able to setup, balance and operate the indiGO-JIB quite well. We shot the Philadelphia Suns with a Panasonic GH2 and the Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount lens using the GH2′s ETC mode. I’ve already posted about this lens and its wonderfully sharp and a nice pairing with the GH2 and indiGO-JIB. For some of the closeup shots of the Lion Dancers we used the Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 12.5-75mm f/1.8 c-mount zoom lens. It’s nice and sharp on the tele side but a tad soft on the wide end but still fun to use. The nice thing is that we switched lenses a lot and we easily balanced the rig by unlocking and sliding the weights to the right position in just a few seconds.

This is one jib that I know will be loved by students and pros alike and should be used as a teaching tool from small humble video classes to film schools everywhere because it’s portable, affordable, and easy to setup and you get some amazing results.

Philadelphia Suns Lion Dancers – Chinese New Years Dance

The Philadelphia Suns Lion Dancers perform a Chinese New Years Dance that is traditionally done during the Lunar New Year. The Suns Lion Dancers visit restaurants, businesses, homes, and special family functions in Chinatown to give good fortune and blessing for the coming year. Usually, you must provide an offering to the Lion with fruits or vegetable.

In the dance the Lion is offered food but then must spit it out because it can not consume any physical food just the spiritual sense. After the eating ritual, the Lion then sleeps and then fully awakens and ends the final dance by bowing and bringing good blessing to the home.

Main Lion Head and Lion Dance Instructor: Peter Louie

Rear of Lion: Kevin Leong

Camera: Panasonic GH2 in ETC mode

Lens: Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount

Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 12.5-75mm f/1.8

Rig: indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB

Filmed by Youth from the Tech Apprenticeship Program at the Asian Arts Initiative

Crew: Han Lin, Jaime Tat, Jenny Tat, Ty Givens, Jonathan Bennet, Kaitlin Dugan, Steve Calvarese, Loc Ngyuen, Charles Ramirez

indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB will soon be an essential part of the indy music video

Tim Ovel is at it again. First he democratized the follow focus with the indiFOCUS by creating a high quality independent-built follow focus unit that could be used on camera stock lenses without the need for gearing. Next he changed the slider scene with the indiSLIDERpro allowing you to purchase a slider that does not bend or flex for the price that you would have once paid for renting one. Now, Tim has changed the jib crane landscape forever with his new indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB.

The indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB is practically a jib arm in a bag. It’s a portable jib arm that folds down to 38″ which is about the size of an average tripod and when fully extended you have a little over an 8′ height extension with the camera plate attached. Most jibs are out of the price range of the average indy filmmaker. They are traditionally bulky and heavy and a super pain to set up and transport.

The indiGO-JIB is quite the opposite. In fact, you can mount the jib arm on an inexpensive Manfrotto 503 fluid head. You can balance out the your 10 pound camera in just a few minutes and counter weight your camera with either standard plate weights or purchase the 4 liter water containers that you can fill with water or dirt.

Imagine being able to take a jib with you to the wilderness and beyond. The sky’s the limit with the indiGO-JIB and for $349 it’s a jaw dropping incredible price. Simply put you can not be with out the indiGO-JIB on your next film. Seriously, this jib is designed so well with adjustments to give you the proper counterweight and the ability to get some creative shots that you would not be able to do with your average jib arm. I have a feeling this little guy will be snatched up by folks from the indy filmmaker on a tight budget to the heavy hitter industry DP.

I had a chance to use the indiGO-JIB for a high profile music video. The director asked me to not show the footage until the MV comes out in May so I thought I’d share some footage of our pre-shoot. I had a team of youth and young adults work with me on the shoot. They are a part of the Tech Apprenticeship program at the Asian Arts Initiative which I run every Sunday to train students in theater and film production work. They are a little green but they did a stellar job and it goes to show you don’t need to be an expert to use one.

The 8′ indiGO-JIB with my Gitzo sticks extends the arm to a reach of 12′. I needed to get even higher so I placed my sticks and jib on top of a few cafe tables which gave me an additional extension giving me a total height of 14.5′. What jib arm do you know that can easily be placed on top of a cafe table and still be rock steady?

We used the Panasonic GH2 in ETC mode with the Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount lens. This is such an ideal combo on the indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB because it is so small and lightweight. In normal creative film mode the Navitar 6mm 1/2 c-mount lens is quite small and you get a very large peep hole effect when you look through your viewfinder but in ETC mode it fits the frame perfectly with only a little vignetting and a slight soft edge. Because this is a flat field lens you can get incredible sharpness when moving the jib from a very tight extreme close up on your subject to that of a very wide establishing shot.

I had forgotten to bring a field monitor so I merely stopped down to f/4 and used a ladder to check focus at 14.5′ high and then brought the jib arm down to 2′ off the ground and our subjects were in focus as we moved the jib from ground to ceiling. It’s an incredible lens on the GH2 and combined with the indiGO-JIB is perfect for doing music video work because it gives you incredible range. With the indiGO-JIB you have fluid movement and wonderful shots to discover as you use it from extreme close up to long shot.

I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to test out the prototype version of the indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB for a little over two months now and it has been nothing short of amazing. I know it will crack a smile from the big boys because is can do so much in this little frame. I’m sure we’ll see it being used on reality tv sets, narrative films and even more music videos. I mean why not? We’ve dreamed of doing these shots since we started watching movies.

Well here it is folks the democratization of the jib starts today. Damn it Tim! You did did again! Filmmaking is supposed to be expensive and unattainable. LOL! No really, kudos Tim Ovel for making another wall crumble.

Now people go out and make your dream films a reality!

Pre-Shoot test for Music Video

Filmed by Youth from the Tech Apprenticeship Program at the Asian Arts Initiative

Camera: Panasonic GH2 in ETC mode

Lens: Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mountRig: indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIBCrew: Ty Givens, Uyen Le, Mary Seng, Kaitlin Dugan, Johnathan Bennet

With Music:

“I Got My”

Magnetic North / Taiyo Na

indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB – Steve Calvarese

a gary san angel film test

Why Do We Suffer
Written and Performed by Steve Calvarese

Rig: indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB prototype
Lens: Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount lens
Camera: Panasonic GH2 Extended Tele Conversion (ETC) Mode

This Winter I have been training a group of teens and young adults in both technical theater and filmmaking at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. What makes the process unique is that I invite local artists in the community to perform in our classes. The tech team designs lights, works the camera and shoots a short live video for each participating artist. At the end of the day, the trainees get a real world tech experience and each artist gets a filmed version of their live performance.

For this session, I was fortunate to have Philly based Spoken Word artist Steve Calvarese perform a new monologue he was working on called “Why Do We Suffer”. In this piece Steve brings home some insight on the plight of the homeless. I wanted the camera to represent the POV of someone who is scared to look in the eye of a homeless person. For this shoot, I wanted to test out the new indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB which is a portable light weight jib arm perfect to use for a small DSLR camera.

I wanted to see if we could use the indiGO-JIB in more of a steadicam fashion which would allow me the ability to have quick lateral camera movement as well as varied low to high fluid camera angles perfect for what we needed to make Steve’s piece work.

I wanted to also pair the indiGO-JIB arm with the Panasonic GH2 and the Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount lens in Extended Tele Conversion (ETC) Mode. The Navitar 6mm c-mount lens in ETC mode fills the frame with no vignetting and is a flat field lens so you have edge to edge sharpness from lanscape to macro. It is one of the smallest lenses I’ve used on the GH2 and one of the widest and sharpest. I’ll be posting a follow up post on both the indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB and Navitar 6mm c-mount lens very soon. In the mean time, you can at least see a little bit of the jib arm and lens in action here.

Artists Notes:

“When writing “Why Do We Suffer”, I wanted to address the sociological phenomenon “invisible minority”. What the mass media projects as “experimental reality” leaves the viewer to question if these people exist. A lot of times, the answer is no. We ignore these people on our daily encounters. They are kept hidden because they are perceived as deviants in society. As a result, we become complacent with this being the new norm. I also wanted to gear away toward minority being strictly a race issue. In doing so, I break the story into three different parts: homelessness, being Muslim, and someone living in jail.

In the video, I embody a homeless person who is telling his/her story of how he/she is perceived as a bum. Because of this label, certain stereotypes are evoked. One of the more common ones is a person having a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia. Since this stigma is implanted into our minds, we keep our distances. I think partly because we are fearful of not knowing what might happen if we approach him/her. We then marginalize these people by blaming it on culture. As an artist and an individual who encounters homeless people almost everyday, I wanted to unmask this preexisting stereotype and others alike by telling a story about a person who is just like us. Regardless if the person is homeless, he/she has a story that needs to be told. I am hoping that our views will shift and that we see homelessness not as a disease, rather a lifestyle resulting from poverty.”– Steve Calvarese

Why Do We Suffer

Written and Performed by Steve Calvarese

Part I

Can someone give me a sign please?
if they could mind read
and if the blind can see
then possibly, they’ll see
my Sharpie
isn’t dark enough to write
the words
What’s the meaning of life, uh?
trying to be heard
but they’re not bold enough to free me, from the hurt
my net worth,
a piece of cardboard
telling my thoughts from the core
of my stomach
I can barely stomach
these infinite minutes
counting like seconds
to breathe
out of poverty
just another target, trying to pass go but this isn’t monopoly
everyday of the week
I suffer from this weak
economy
please, before I finish
I want you to listen
for a small fraction of a second
a victim, from the world promises
falls in fractions, of my image
isn’t what the world sees
my hands, bleed
from praying,
saying the cause is public housing
minimum wage
traps us in chains
displacement, misplaces our names
from our face, facing
race and racist comments
for being homeless
like the cause for property value going down
I just close my eyes lids
I’m invisible, as it is
to begin with, the physical
we are out of it
another swallow of oxytocin, some klonopin
to ease their pain, but we are the ones who are sufferin’
it’s all a hustle isn’t it
musclin’ until life drags us in
under the system, wonderin’
if they’ll ever wake out of it
© 2010

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