Christmas 2009, a short break but a lot of work

I've taken a break from blogging over the Christmas period, however I have been hard at work with my time-lapse project, and starting my preparation for next terms projects.

Inspiration... Trapcode

Ive just been looking at the new trapcode website and it has some great examples of work...



MOTOR / AMBIENT REEL from KU-SCHNEIDER on Vimeo.



let yourself feel. from Esteban Diácono on Vimeo.

Lincoln... Media Production 1, B - inspiration 02

Another great time lapse...



This is by A guy called Tom at Timescapes

Work... JSF & BMS idents

I have finished my two idents.

The audio on both have been created using Video Copilots Pro Scores and Designer Sound FX.

The text were created in Illustrator and animated in After Effects.


Jack Shelbourn Films Ident.

This was done with a lot of layer styles. The text was created with a texture using the text as a trak matte. The box's appearance was created using a stroke. The text animation was created by enabling per character 3D and using a ranger selector for the position.




Box Media Studio Ident.

This was created with a lot of vector blur, and multiple particle emitters. The text was blurred on to the screen and then the position was animated.

[I will link the video when it is uploaded]

Lincoln... Media Production 1, B - Timelapse test

Just got back from my first timelapse test. It looks great, im very happy with the results.

I'm going to get planning and head out during the week and get plenty of pictures.

I'm aiming for the piece to be 3-5 mins long...

Work... The Money Shop

For a few years I have been doing Motion Graphics work for FWD.

One client that my work has been used by in The Money Shop,

I create the banners that are played during football matches on the LED advertising screens.

I have done quite a few banners so far and they have been played during many games.

The most memorable game was England's 4-1 win over Croatia in the World Cup 2010 qualifing campaign.

This was doubly special as it was the first time one of my banners had been played, and to top it off my banner was playing as Theo Walcott scored a goal.

My banner work can be seen in my Show Reel on my Vimeo channel.

Lincoln... Media Production 1, B - inspiration 01

I found this on Vimeo just as I've decided to do time lapse.

Its just fantastic, the pans and zooms are incredible.

The shot with the stars in the back ground is truly remarkable.



movie & piano : mockmoon
equipment : Canon 5DmarkII & Nikon D3
place : Pref Gunma, Nagano, and Nigata Japan

Lincoln... Media Production 1, B - Plan

I will write out my formal propaosal soon, but for now I have decided to do my second piece of course work on Time lapse photography.


I will use my DSLR to take images at  timed intervals during a 2-5 hour period.


These will then be placed together as footage in Adobe After Effects.


This will give the impression of footage taken over many hours and sped up.


I will use shutter speeds upward of a second to generate a good amount of motion blur.


I also intent to have a go at panning and zooming.


Unfortunately the University doesn't have a Digital Intervalometer, so i'll have to take each picture manually, which could lead to many problems in the final edit.

Work... 2009 Show Reel

Today I received the sound track for my show reel, so after a quick render it has been completed.

This is a selection of my best work from 2009 (and a few things from earlier).

I'm really proud of what I have achieved so far, and im already thinking about my 2010 reel...

2009 Show Reel...


Thanks to Dexter Prior for the great music.

Work... Green screen studio

Today I was at V Point's studio in Nottingham.

I got to watch a rough cut of the commercial as well as some green screen filming and a photo shoot.

I also got to see the inner workings of a production house, the kind of place I would like to work in the future.

It was a very nice conclusion to a great experience.

Lincoln... Documantary tutorial week 2, with Nick Grey

Today I had my second and final class with award winning documentary maker Nick Grey.

Today we focused on interviews.

We looked at interviewing techniques, lighting set up and framing.

These are some pictures I took of the set up...

Here are my notes from the class.

Interview types:

One on Ones.

• Get under a persons skin
• Understand there world
• Reveal character

Informal.

• Follow some one, chip in questions
• choose moments to ask

Fly on wall.

• Contributers forget your there

Formal.

• Staged
• Suitable place
• Studio
• Home
• Long
• Voice Over
• Quite, good sound
• Easy Edit

Vox Pops.

• Street
• Public
• Ask open questions, yes/no answer

Setting up an interview:

Camera.

• Set up/Positioning

Lighting.

• Soft light
• position
• set up

Framing.

• Shot size
• Eye line

Respond to director.

• Have signals
• plans, for zooms etc.

Audio.

• Mics
• Boom, Neck
• Use of questions
• Voice over

The Edit.

• How will it be cut
• Direction
• The Line

Style and Mood.

• Lighting
• Camera in View
• What mood?
• Colour
• Darker
• Brighter

Location.

• Pick it well
• Cutaways
• Able to control the interview

What not to do:

• Don't set up a camera and equipment without informing about what you are doing
• Don't let the interviewee wait around
• Don't encourage unnecessary bystanders 
• Don't fire straight into questions
• Don't give evidence of own insecurity's
• Don't be unprepared
• Avoid interruptions
• Don't forget the interviewee's name or important details
• Don't ask closed questions
• Don't as too many questions in the same sentence
• Don't be to relaxed, watch your posture
• Don't give verbal feedback
• Don't ask irrelevant questions
• Don't write things down as a person is responding
• Don't make the interview to short or to long

Rules:

• Know what the film is about
• Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
• Build Rapport
• Active Listening
• Interview for the edit

Hints:

• Plan the questions
• To produce responses
• answer in whole sentences
• wait at the end of a response, for the edit or for the interviewee to add something
• Questions can be skeptical but not sarcastic
• Maintain eye contact
• Listen to the questions
• use follow up questions
• interview for the edit
• sound bites
• Don't give control to the interviewee
• Listen to the subtext
• Use researchers when possible
• Use silences
• breathing room
• wait for answer
• interviewee's dont like silence
• Ethics
• fair
• represent fairly what they say in the edit
• inform the contributers the truth
• Opportunism
• Take opportunity's

It was great to have these lessons. Nick was a very nice man, and i learnt a lot from him. He always listened to my ideas with enthusiasm, although perhaps with a look of confusion...

Work... Romford filming, Conclusion

I learnt a lot from the team at V point as well as all the hands on experience I was allowed to have.

I really enjoyed it, and I'm going to investigate a career in commercial advertising.

This is a picture of Maria, the model used by The Money Shop, and myself.

Work... Romford filming, Sound

Audio had far less time spent on it, but was treated with as much importance.

The store was near a bus terminal, so filming was done with this in mind.

Recording would only be done when the sound recorder was happy with the audio.

Recording was done with a boom mic as opposed to a neck mic.

Work... Romford filming, lighting

The thing that took the most time was setting up the lighting.

So many lights and tequniques were used.

A lot of the lights were standard Red Heads, but the also used a 1K Blond and some smaller lights.

Gels and reflectors as well as diffusers were used.

Reflective surfaces were replaced with matte ones, such as posters, and a lot of time was taken to remove 'hot' spots and shadows.

This was set up per shot, so took up much of the day.

Work... Romford filming, Intro and Camera

I was in Romford on Sunday and Monday filming the 'behind the scenes' of commercial shoot for The Money Shop, in the new Romford Branch.

I was working for a company called FWD who are the agency behind the commercial.

The production company involved was called V Point, from Nottingham.

This was my first hands on experience of  a commercial shoot and I was blown away. The amount of time spent on every little detail, with lighting, make up, hair, movement, script. It was great.

I spent the two days watching, taking notes and learning as much as I could.

Every one was great, and willing to answer all the questions I had.

I took a massive interest into the camera. It was a great piece of kit. I really began to understand the practical uses of having a monitor to view the shots with, especially with 4 or 5 people wanting to look at once.

I was also introduced to XDCAM HD, the hard disk recording method for broadcast quality Sony cameras. Its similar to a Blu-ray disc, but in a casing like a large UMD.

It was great as it was similar to the hard disk system on my Sony Handycam, but with higher capacity, faster write times, and the ability to store the disks on a shelve. Which for me is an advantage over SDHC or P2.