19 year old Asian-Canadian Juno nominated pop sensation and former Miss Vancouver Princess, Elise Estrada explores a feminine attraction and has a lesbian fantasy in her latest music video, released recently on Much Music, titled “Poison”. Set off by her first female kiss in a nostalgic 50′s diner, she works herself into an erotic dance frenzy complete with cages, dancing girls, geishas, leather couches and mannequins. She soon is wreathing in a sweaty cage herself locked in an ecstatic dance with other girls. The video pays homage to her inspiration Rhianna, “Disturbia”.
We worked with cinematographer Norm Li and filmed at Can-Am studios in Vancouver on 35mm film. The director was Ali Visanji for ROCKStar Music Corp.
[UPDATE] The embedded link to Elise Estrada – Poison video on her youtube page been updated below.
Award winning director Stephano Barberis posts facebook notes on several music videos, including one we did with his production company Arkadia Pictures, for a country music video artist trio - The Higgins.
UPDATE 2009: The video has been disabled for embedding (probably by the label)
UPDATE 2010: It’s been reposted in HD and can be embedded again, here it is below:
And here are some photos Stephano had posted which happen to show off some of our grip gear:
ARKADIA PICTURES JAN 2009: GI Track & TALCO's 14' MSE Pipe Boom Kit (menace arm) for Ron Williams CSC
Above, our Modern Studio Equipment pipe boom kit (menace arm), which we built into a 14′ length using Schedule 40 Spec aluminum pipe. We placed this on a mambo combo stand with add on studio wheels. We use this thing on just about every music video we do because it is quick to adjusts with ratchets and glides around on a studio floor with ease. Cinematographers love it because it can easily boom soft light in close to the performers face for flattering sex appeal guaranteed to make their agent’s (and groupies) pleased.
You can also see the GI Track we laid for the dolly. This is the cadillac of track because it is rigid and all the parts, including the capping we ride on, is replaceable with bolts and screws without having to ship the whole unit back to the the manufacturer at great expense to us. The track is sturdy enough to lift 2 or 3 lengths connected together at one time for quick repositions, which is always important for the high speed shooting style of music videos.
The photo below demonstrates a lighting setup by cinematographer Ron Williams CSC (the rocket) utilizing several 20′ goalposts and a duvatyne teaser to slow the front light off the background. In this particular shot we keyed the performers with a 12′x12′ frame of Lt. Grid Cloth using 2 10K Fresnels. We wanted the biggest softest light we could create and the largest distance from the background to let it fall into darkness.
ARKADIA PICTURES JAN 2009: An example of goal posts and teasers for Ron Williams CSC.
We’ve been busy over the last year with one of our favorite music video production duos: multi-award winning Director Stephano Barberis and cinematographer Ron Williams CSC, the two creative front-ends for Arkadia Pictures. With these two we’ve had the opportunity to work on award winning videos for CMT and Much music artists. In the course of making these videos we’ve filmed everything from night exterior performances along the cambie bridge, to large outdoor sets at ajatan studios, to elaborate rain and stunt rigging effects, and green screens.
We’ve just found a bunch of their videos online and are posting them below, enjoy.
Anything August – Last Minute (Much Music):
The Yoko Casionos – Loose Cannon (Much Music):
Jason Blaine – What I Can’t Forget (CMT):
Shane Yellowbird – Pickup Truck (CMT):
Aaron Pritchett – Warm Safe Place (CMT):
