On this page we introduce the Revolution ‘actors’ (everyday people) and their bio’s.
Also an in depth look at the technical side of director James Minchin III technique and influences for the Revolution film clip (care of Planet5d Blog).
![]() | AMINIFU AKA "HENRY BROWN" This is Aminifu (aka H. Brown), who flashed my locks during the video shoot. I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but was baptised in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church at the time Bob Marley Airlifted the Abuna & lesser priests to safety. They were being murdered & persecuted by the Mengistu Regime, and Bob assisted them in setting up churches in fourteen locations outside of Ethiopia. Because of works like these, (including fund raising for African Liberation Movements w/the Anc, Zanu, Unia and other groups), I was installed as head priest of the First Church of Rasta in 1993. I've taken an oath of poverty, but the proceeds from my "Hollywood Hustle" efforts go to finance our Fine Arts Workshop, which features live performers every Friday in Los Angeles. The studio is located @ 3511 W. Venice Boulevard, in Los Angeles. I enjoyed working on the "Revolution" video, because the lyrics are my sentiment, exactly. The people I met on-set were all very personable. I could see that the producers went the extra step to include personalities who somehow contribute to the greater good on our planet. Agency contact: [email protected] |
![]() | ANNIE HSU Annie currently resides in Los Angeles perusing and living her dream of being an artist. She's passionate about music, film & fashion. After living in Sydney, Australia for a year she hopes to travel more of the world and experience the different ways people live. Agency contact: [email protected] |
![]() | CAROL DORIAN-GARDNER I was thrilled and honored to see myself in John Butler's video and i would like to reiterate how fun and gratifying it was to participate. Thank you again for including me! I am a poet, actor and animal rights activist living in Los Angeles. Contact: [email protected] |
![]() | DAVIS NEVES Davis Neves is a multi-media artist & designer: founder of the improv dance company, VJ with Helios Jive, Actress, Visual & Performance Artist. Promotes green living through vintage fashion as suddenly dapper. Advocate of creating a beautiful world. www.davisneves.com Agency contact: [email protected] |
![]() | GREGORY ROBINSON I live downtown with beautiful live downtown with amazing designer girlfriend (graiscale.com), wonderful daughter Chloe and were expecting another little one in March! We like camping, building and football. Contact: [email protected] |
![]() | MASATO SAKATANI Born 1/10/20 in Monterey Park, CA. Educated in Hiroshima, Japan, returned to California as a teen, US Army WWII veteran, Heart Mountain Wyoming Relocation Center Internment of Japanese Americans WWII. Resides Monrovia, CA. First time as an extra. |
![]() | LILLIE HALL Lillie Laraine Hall is a retired Army Nurse Corps Officer who began her dream of acting in 2005. She has done stage and film work and was last seen in a segment of "I didn't know I was pregnant" for the Discovery Health Channel. "Raine" as her family and friends call her, is having fund and enjoying the journey. Agency contact: [email protected] |
![]() | MELANIE HARRISON I'm a model and a writer at heart. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California. West Indies and African American descent. I am a down to Earth person who loves life, music and the Arts. Here is my official website if you want anymore information about me. http://www.honeymel.com and thanks once again for allowing me to be a part of your vision. |
![]() | MIKE PERFETUO I'm an actor with a unique look and a unique soul. I hope one day to make a dent in the industry. Originally from Marshfield, MA, moved to Los Angeles in pursue of my dream. Can't see myself doing anything else. Agent Phone: 805 807 8586 |
![]() | MONTY BASS I am an enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma and also half Muskogee/Creek. My day job is as a Union Studio Grip, currently employed at Warner Bros Studios on various TV productions, acting is also in my blood. I was inspired to get involved in the industry by my Uncle Will Sampson, Mom's Brother, who played 'Chief Bromden' in the classic "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". My Father, respected tribal elder and WWII Veteran, instilled in me the importance of Tribal Traditions, as the video was shot on Fathers Day, it was an emotion day for me and John's lyrics were so close to my heart it was a very surreal experience. Contact: [email protected] |
![]() | ROSSEN BIALOMORSKY About 13 years ago I won a Green Card in the New Immigrants Lottery and a year later found myself at the LA Airport. I thought that i'd won the Green Card, ultimately, so to facilitate or make right the way to the creation of a movie here in LA or because of the fact – elsewhere. Almost 12 years now, i still believe it, but to be truthful my colleagues from the Film Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria are the ones to make movies back there and i only travel to Park City, UT, to watch them compete for Glory (-: So, basically i try to stay out of trouble and to work what every infamous jobs there are for me (the assignment you gave me, friends, was one of a kind and i almost lost it – in efforts to bring something valuable to the table called 'Revolution Underway' of the John Butler Trio and your video clip conception). Still acting, movie making and music are passions of mine as they are for the dominant part of the 'Hollywood' resident. Contact: [email protected] |
“Revolution” music video shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Red
(source: Planet5d Blog)
As many of you know, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II (reviews) and the Red cameras work pretty well together and in this new music video from the Australian band The John Butler Trio, we get to see an excellent example.
We’ve been chatting with Rod Blackhurst who teased us with this intro to the video and so we begged for more info – which he provided (after the video)
I shot it with 3 5D’s and 2 RED’s. The only RED footage that made it into the piece are the dancer overcranked shots and then the portraits at the end.
The video is styled after Irvin Penn’s portraits. We shot custom Monochrome settings in camera that I ran by Shane Hurlburt before shooting. Next to no post correction. After all we were trying to make it look like Penn’s work.
Director | James Minchin III
DP | Rod Blackhurst
My friend James Minchin III and I recently collaborated on a music video for the Australian group John Butler Trio. The idea was to originally present a large series of portraits illustrating a wide cross section of humanity, hoping to illustrate the point that beneath our skin we’re all really just the same; we all seek happiness, prosperity, truth, peace, etc.
John Butler had been inspired by a series of Irving Penn portraits. While Penn is known for his fashion photography it was his portrait work with ‘characters’ against an often gray backdrop that served as the visual inspiration for the video.
It appeared that Penn often shot in an attic, studio space, or courtyard with only natural light. From the start I knew that I was going to need a lot of daylight not only because were were going to shoot some 48fps, and because we liked the quality of daylight on digital formats, but because I wanted to keep the ISO low. We had decided that the only way to shoot this video in one day was to be shooting a lot, e.g. 5 cameras rolling all the time.
We had decided to shoot on 3 Canon 5D Mark II’s and 2 RED’s, mainly because we had personal access to those cameras, and it would allow us to keep the budget in check. The setup we settled on was three cameras in the ‘front of house’ position, the straight on portrait shots. They were stacked on top of each other so that the sight line between the three wouldn’t vary. The WIDE, ‘behind the curtain’ shot we called it because it revealed the edges of our backdrop and a little bit of the space in homage to Penn, was the RED A with RED 18-50mm shooting around 28mm. The MEDIUM, ‘fill frame’ that always kept our subjects on the backdrop, not revealing any of the space, was a 5D with one of the new Zeiss ZE 50mm primes. The PORTRAIT, the straight down the barrel tight portrait shot, was RED B with a 50-150mm shooting at 150mm.
Then off a few degrees on the side were the POKE + PLAY cameras, one 5D Mark II with a 300mm Canon L series lens, and one 5D with a 70-200mm Canon L series lens that was on a slider.
For our KEY I used 2 4K HMI’s knocked down with some unbleached muslin and a 12×12 film tools grid. Being fans of single source lighting and while this was a lot of light we were still shooting the 5D’s at 200 ISO around f/5.1. I was hoping to get down to 100 ISO on the 5D’s only because in recognizing the limitations of the Quicktime codec, we weren’t going to do any color correction on the 5D’s. But because there was so much movement with our extras and with the band performance we didn’t want to shoot wide open at f/2.8 just to give the AC’s some room with the focus. So through some tests I had created a scene file setting for the 3 5D’s where by we shot monochrome in camera eliminating any need for any post color timing changes. We managed to run this idea by Shane Hurlburt ASC as he had advised my friend Mark Pellington to do the same. The RED’s weren’t an issue as I knew that we had some latitude in post. When we shot the 48fps we were underexposed a stop on the RED’s which we fixed in post.
In addition to the giant soft box there we two Image 80′s hung overhead just to provide some slight separation from the backdrop, and also to create a slight pooling effect on the ground and around the person. It’s a subtle look and while it broke with our single source intentions it did look good.
Our shooting process was a little tricky because we recognized in order to present the idea of we are all different but all the same we needed to have some strength in the resolution of the video. The way we did this was by rolling secretly on all our extras as they walked on and found their mark. We would let them stand there awkwardly and nervously without any direction while we talked and subtly rolled on their insecurities. The majority of the video is made up of these moments. We would then key the AD to step in and call everything together. And then we would shoot the powerful to camera portrait moments that are at the end of the video.
The shoot was powerful and brought out the best in our extras and our ‘movers’. The ‘movers’ danced to music that they typically wouldn’t be dancing to yet this illustrated the point in the song that humanity can in fact move as one.
Rod, thanks for helping readers know how the video was shot!
hey. can you tell the name of who appears at 1m10 ?
thank you
Love this song