After I finished my shoot, I put together an assemble edit. This has shown me a clear picture of what style my film has turned out to be.
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Post Production - Sound Design update
Posted by Muttl3y at 07:13 0 comments
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Sound Design Research (post story development)
After focusing on the visuals for so long, I decided it would be best to put that same focus into sound design.
Posted by Muttl3y at 11:58 0 comments
Building Suspense
During the last few weeks I have been looking into creating a story visually. My aim in this film is to create emotions of suspense, fear, laughter and sorrow.
Posted by Muttl3y at 10:21 0 comments
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Inspirations
Posted by Muttl3y at 16:22 0 comments
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Scene Design
From the early stages of creating my idea, I have had a very clear image of what I want the film too look like.
As the film is more part of the fantasy genre, I decided to look at fantasy films, video games and art work to help forge the image in my mind into an achievable film look.
Posted by Muttl3y at 08:04 0 comments
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
New Project - Drama
I have decided to do a drama for my first film, to make a change from the more documentary style I did for my last film.
Posted by Muttl3y at 09:11 0 comments
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Update
A lot of research has been happening so I haven't been able to do this blog for quite some time.
Here is an update of what I have learnt:
- Shoot in the middle of nowhere as light pollution causes too many troubles on shoot.
- Be prepared to stay outside for a while, this includes bringing spare batteries!
- Low aperture is key (f2.8 works best)
- Do not have an exposure over 15 seconds as the video will not look smooth.
- White balance to incandescent to give the sky a blue colour
- Do plenty of test shots before you begin the time lapse to make sure composition, colour and exposure is how you want it.
- Mockmoon2000 suggests using 6 second exposures and layering the time lapses in adobe after effects with a composite (screen) on the layers to brighten up the image.
- Be aware, but do not be afraid, of noise.
I downloaded a program called star trails and had a play around with making a time lapse with it. I used the photos I had taken from someone's farm out in Cheadle.
I also obtained adobe after effects and I am currently in the process of looking how to export my time lapses in the smoothest and highest quality.
I plan to do 3 nights and days of shooting with the Nikon d3 this weekend and I will edit a draft version of the documentary by Tuesday. This is the make or break shoot for the film so wish me luck!
Posted by Muttl3y at 12:01 0 comments
Monday, 2 March 2009
Interval Shooting Timer Test
My test shoot of the stars did not go as planned because the weather let me down, however I did get a chance to look at the peak district at night and it seems a suitable place to go for my shoot.
As I could not test the interval shooting timer on the stars, I decided to do a time lapse of Mark and Sorcha. Here is how the shoot turned out.
Posted by Muttl3y at 13:10 1 comments
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Update
Blogger isn't letting me upload photos for some reason which is annoying.
As good as this is in terms of cinematography, I don't believe it is necessary to have so much movement from the camera.
At the moment, I am looking into creating moving star trails and have had a bit of help from this guy.
I hope to have a test shoot tomorrow in which I can try creating a video with a smooth star time lapse and also enough photos to create a star trail time lapse.
At the moment I am developing shot ideas and structure to my documentary, as well as finding music influences.
Posted by Muttl3y at 11:43 1 comments
Monday, 23 February 2009
Test Shoot on the D3!
This weekend, I got a chance to go back home and try out taking photos of the stars with my dad's nikon d3. I tried using the 6400 ISO but there was too much grain in the photos. The best look I managed to achieve were by using 400-500 ISO, f2.8 and a 13 second shutter speed. The only problem with this is that when I put it into a movie, the video will look jerky. I may have to sacrifice a little bit of grain so that I can put the shutter speed at around 3-6 seconds.
Posted by Muttl3y at 03:34 0 comments
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Testing 1..2..3
Posted by Muttl3y at 09:47 0 comments
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Technical notes
This guy did a few tests and said "All was shot on a Canon 20D SLR (ISO 400, F-Stop 5.6 and 25 second exposures)."
I have read that ISO 400 the common ISO for night sky photography to avoid any grain in the pictures. Anything lower than 400 would be even better, this will have to be something for me to test out.
He also mentions his editing together of the photos for a smoother look " I just took approximately 300 photos
and brought them into Final Cut Pro at 2 frames each."
In terms of the exposure, I think I will use a variety of different exposures. In this next video, the guy does a star timelapse with a long exposure which makes the stars look as if they are falling bombs from the sky. A great idea (though possibly ruined by his choice of "colour changing" edit) which gives a great effect.
Posted by Muttl3y at 16:37 0 comments
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Stars in my eyes
Having a look over the internet and speaking with a few people has taught me that I will need to "film" my star shots with an SLR camera.
Mockmoon2000, my youtube inspiration, released a new video! I have been trying to look into what techniques he uses to create these time lapses and because he writes everything in Japanese, things aren't going too well. Google translation can only take you so far.
All I know is that he is using a Nikon D3, a camera my dad uses, and he takes a photo roughly once every 6 seconds. Watch this in HD to do it justice.
I have also come across a few websites with tips on "Astrophotography". The first website is by a girl in california who uses a Nikon D70, which is the camera I have! There is hope! The second link goes into a lot more detail about the technical aspects of photography of the stars.
http://digitalphotographyblogs.com/2008/07/30/capturing-the-night-sky-the-milky-way/
http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/4064/how-to-astrophotography-101.html
Posted by Muttl3y at 14:02 0 comments
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Inspiration continued
I found a few videos on youtube of a HD Timelapse of various landscapes. They are really beautiful to watch. Footage from mockmoon2000 check him out
Amazing footage but the questions for me are:
- How can I incorporate this concept into a documentary?
- Is this even possible within the stoke-on-trent area?
Posted by Muttl3y at 17:44 0 comments
Friday, 23 January 2009
Documentary - Preparation and Inspiration
Here are a few documentaries that have inspired me.
http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/archive/the_lift_player.html
The Lift - Marc Isaacs
Such a simple idea and works really well. The characters are hilarious, tragic, scary and just plain bizarre!
UFC Primetime
This is more or less a hype video for a UFC fight happening next week, but still falls into the documentary category. The production values are inspiring as they really help to show the different approaches to training both of the fighters have.
I like how the documentary "rules" are broken in terms of the framing and character positioning in the interview sections e.g. the characters may be framed to the right and look right as they are being interviewed. I also LOVE the handheld shot of BJ Penn going in and out of focus at the 00.41 mark.
Planet Earth
What more can I say!?
...more to come!
Posted by Muttl3y at 06:42 0 comments
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Film finished! ... for now at least
My first drama has finally been completed and assessed. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the results!
Next I will be making a documentary and will try my best to record the production on this page.
Posted by Muttl3y at 06:39 1 comments