Kyle Roberts had the idea of taking Static on tour by visiting Oklahoma landmarks or places easily recognizable.

My friend Chad Huntington at the Bricktown Water Taxis has always been great to work with, so I thought we could put an acoustic artist on a boat for a Static session. It turned out better than anticipated. The audio is outstanding, given the 20mph winds on Tuesday. Also, the sunlight through the trees captured by the Canon 7D with 14mm lens provides some dramatic images.

Equally impressive is Denver Duncan’s vocal range. His falsetto is right on key.
]]> http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2011/11/04/static-denver-duncan-on-a-water-taxi/feed/ 1 http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2011/10/21/sugar-free-allstars-at-the-okc-zoo-ghostbusters/ http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2011/10/21/sugar-free-allstars-at-the-okc-zoo-ghostbusters/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:46:28 +0000 davemorris http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/?p=2591

Above is one of the more addicting themes in pop music, “Ghostbusters.” We shot the Sugar Free AllStars at the OKC Zoo last week.

Final Cut Pro timeline of Static Holiday Sessions edit

I caught wind of this idea last Monday, an email from PR ace Rob Crissinger to entertainment guru George Lang:

What would you think of coordinating a small “Static Christmas Concert” at Blackwatch Studios in Norman. It would be a one-hour taped show where performers sing their favorite Christmas song in front of a live audience of family and friends. Performances could be interesting pairings: Matt & Joe Stansberry, Sherri Chamberlain & Graham Colton, Daniel Walcher & Skating Polly, Dr. Pants & Jabee, etc. doing their take on a Christmas classic.

Now that’s a great idea.
Some emails were exchanged. George and I met. I then met with the advertising crew with thoughts of a sponsorship. We called Jonathan Fowler at Fowler VW in Norman on Friday morning. Jonathan immediately saw the value and cool factor.

Crissinger worked the angles for a venue over the weekend. We landed on Urban Roots in Deep Deuce, just north of downtown OKC after learning Blackwatch was booked on Monday. The artists were already scheduled, it made sense to switch venues instead of trying to reschedule 12 artists.

On Monday morning my crew included David Jones, Todd Fraser and Kyle Roberts. Billy Davis created some Static Holiday Sessions animations to use in post production.

We began shooting just after 11 am and had five videos shot by 1 pm. Cami Stinson and Cara Black recorded “Silent Night” with organist extradonaire around 3 pm.

I left the footage compressing overnight Monday: we shot about 32 gb using three Canon 7D cameras. We captured the audio using two Zoom H1N recorders, there was no audio board. We had a light kit, but mostly relied on the good natural light the Deep Roots Studio provided. Pretty bare bones set up.

Including an introductory video by George, we had seven videos to edit Tuesday. Monday wasn’t a day off by any means, we still had our day jobs of the usual OPUBCO video production both in studio and field, including crew off for the holidays.

I finished the final video, Cami Stinson and Cara Black, around 9 tonight. Created a quick pre-roll for Fowler VW of Norman.

And watched the social media take over.

You can watch all of the videos at static.newsok.com, including the Holiday Sessions and the previous sessions recorded by Tanner Herriott. We debated using the black and white look (removed the saturation, reduced the black levels some) that Tanner used, or going with the color. Finally we landed on staying with the look that Tanner had used.

Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd

And why wouldn’t it?

The always cool Flaming Lips‘ frontman Wayne Coyne along with keyboardist/sonic wizard Steven Drozd breezed into the OPUBCO Studios last night. They were accompanied by the dapper George Lang.

Who knew George wore ties?

All for a season-ending taping of Static, our award-winning music video series, dreamed up mostly by videographer Tanner Herriott.

For more details from Tanner on how he produced this segment, go here.

With keyboards wrapped in yellow duct tape – not that you can tell by the black and white videos – the Lips broke out some awful Christmas sweaters for the event. Wayne answered George’s questions. Then they performed a dramatic reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. And then performed Silent Night and White Christmas.

Wayne Coyne, dramatic reading

And why wouldn’t they?

Wayne has been in the studio a lot – there was this time, and this time, and then there was this. And he’s one of the most charismatic entertainers we’ve been fortunate enough to have as a guest.

Always good for a laugh just listening to his perspective on life. And he’s lived an interesting life.

Interesting enough to know you can pull off the multi-bizarre effect of bullhorn and bad Christmas sweater to result in a new take on Christmas classics.

All in beautiful 16:9, HD, black and white.

The Oklahoman’s George Lang stopped by the studio this morning to debrief about last night’s session with The Who’s frontman Roger Daltrey.
]]> http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2009/10/22/roger-daltry-stops-by-acmuco-george-lang-stops-by-opubco-studios/feed/ 0 http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2009/09/07/knux/ http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/2009/09/07/knux/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:10:09 +0000 davemorris http://blog.newsok.com/davemorris/?p=1195

Here’s the most recent version of Static. George Lang interviewed The Knux this summer while in Tulsa at DFest.