One of the most fun scenes to shoot was the Lime bike scene. It was at the end of a very long day. We didn't want to shoot another scene but we knew we needed to just do it. So we piled in a truck with Austin Glass hanging out the back with a MOVI and just ran up and down a bunch of streets near the water front in Seattle. Sometimes those last minute thrown together production decisions just work out. This time it defiantly did.
There were several challenges involved with getting the dolly shots to align in post for the compositing required for the video concept. We had to take calculate where the camera should be as the song progressed and make marks on the dolly rails to keep us on track.
For the third shot when Dan was playing guitar from multiple spots on the porch in the same frame, I had to layer 4 different takes of Dan on top of one another.
ISOLATE
First, I animated a rough mask around Dan and any of Dan's reflection in the window as he moves around in each take.
BACKGROUND
Then I slapped in my background and made sure it was aligned with the visible elements of the isolated shots.
FOREGROUND
Finally, for the foreground shot where Dan its on the railing, I used Mocha Pro to rotoscope around the edge of his body and guitar so that the layer behind him blends into the scene.
COMPOSITE
Once everything is masked, and aligned, there was only one thing left to do: put it all together for the final shot!
Dan Young, who performs under the name Lonely Benson, wrote his thoughts on the project on his website, lonelybenson.com.
