Claudio Miranda, ASC talks about “the making of” Maroon 5 and Cardi B’s GIRLS LIKE YOU music video on which he was the cinematographer—using Sony VENICE, motion control, programmed lighting, 250 takes, manual focus and more. The video has been viewed more than 48 million times. 

Claudio explained, “The way Director David Dobkin conceived the shoot was to have actors coming in at different times but to make it feel like everyone was there at the same time. So, we decided to design it as a motion control round track shot.

We knew we had to get all these actors at different times, because they would never be available on the same day. It turned into a five-day non-consecutive shoot because of talent schedules. We plotted where everyone would go so they could interact with each other and the lead singer, Adam Levine. Motion control (MoCo) was really the only viable option.

To hold the MoCo two shots, we used the Sony VENICE camera’s dual base ISO of 2500. I had a beta firmware of version 2 at the time. The added depth of field definitely helped get everyone into focus—close up and far away. But we still had to manually pull focus on every take. read more…