More Inspiration

I have been looking into using time lapse in order to tell some kind of story. In these videos, they have used time lapse photography techniques to tell a drama.

Winter Timelaps from Zbigniew Debicki on Vimeo.

The Ambience Affair - Devil in the Detail from Souljacker on Vimeo.

There is a very Tim Burton stop motion style to the movement of the characters in the 2 music videos. It creates a very surreal image and is very interesting and engaging to watch a human move like that. I would like to test this movement out at some point soon to see if I can achieve something similar.

In the winter time lapse video, I like the sequences where the character is "still" and the rest of the world is moving, I could possibly experiment with this technique if I chose to go down this road in my solo project.

Initial Ideas

I have struggled to come up with any ideas I wish to pursue in this final semester. I came up with drama ideas, documentary ideas and experimental ideas. I was even considering making a music video. All of the ideas I had come up with I liked but didn't like enough to pursue them.

I want to create something which I will enjoy making and be happy with the result. I spent last evening looking through vimeo videos for inspiration and came across this video called Isenseven - TIMES.

This video is basically a montage of clips which a group of guys have filmed during their travels. The film doesn't say anything or aim for a deeper meaning but is very entertaining to watch.

Isenseven - TIMES from Vincent Urban on Vimeo.

I really love the combination of split screen and great cinematography along with really catchy music. The film is enjoyable because it's fun and expresses someones personal journey in an engaging way.

I showed this to my collab partner Tim and he said he most enjoyed the parts where the shots matched, otherwise it felt very jarring. I agree with this point and would look to experiment with matching different angles of a location/person in the same shot.

I also love the colours in some of the sequences as it makes the image as a whole very beautiful to watch.

Some of the transitions are really well done in this piece. Its nice when images seem to blend into other sequences and it is also good when one contrapuntal image appears and leads into another sequence.

New Projects - Ideas Generation

So far I have no real strong ideas which I want to pursue but I am being inspired by lots of different things. I'm just going to put a few clips of influence to see if they will spark any ideas:

more to come...

Initial 5D Tests

Here are the different 5D tests my peers and I have done before we began pre production.

A Walk in the Woods - A Lensbaby 5D Test (HD) from Andy Parker on Vimeo.

Daisy Gets Wet! from Andy Parker on Vimeo.

5D Mark ii Post Production Workflow

Here are the videos, in order, of the workflow I will be using.

They cover:

-Converting the H.264 files to .mov files using pro res to make the footage editable.

-Converting the footage from 30p to 25p

Canon 5dmkII workflow Part 1: Importing for edit from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

How to convert Canon 5dmk2 footage from 30p to 24p from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

The Orton Effect

After speaking with my mum about Photoshop effects, she told me about the Orton Effect. This effect is creates a blur in the image whilst keeping the sharpness of it. It is used to create a dreamy feel to the image. This would work very well for my poster and dvd cover.

Here is a video tutorial:

It's a very simple but effective method of creating the dream like look. I had originally tried to used a diffuser filter for my film to create that look but found it was too blurred. Using this effect, I can control how sharp I want the image to be making this a much more practical method.

Also, there is a group on flickr.com dedicated to this effect. There are some great pictures of forests done with the Orton effect. It seems to work great with forest scenes which is exactly what I will be trying to recreate.

Post Production - Sound Design update

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.

The assemble edit indicated that a soundtrack would be required in order to further the story and help create that emotion in the audience.

I have managed to find a music composer who seems enthusiastic about the project and has made some great suggestions about the theme and style of the music piece.

We talked about the idea of giving the Spirit of the Forest her own music piece to help the audience identify when the character is near and to enhance her mystical look. We both showed interest in Hans Zimmers portrayal of the Joker in the Dark Knight. For this, Hans created a droning sound to unsettle the audience and to help introduce the character. Here, Hans explains his methods and reasoning behind the piece:

The music will help create the suspense I wish to create in the spirits scene.

I also asked for a score to be written for the final scene of my film. After watching my assemble edit, I felt that there wasn't an atmosphere of fear and this was something I wanted to create. I think that the music will help communicate to the audience that Ben is scared during this scene and bring a lot more meaning to the images.

For the general theme of the music, I have asked for it to be very ambient. The composer aims to use the sounds of the forest along with wind chimes to create a music piece almost representing the wind and the forest.

I sent him this theme from Zelda as a reference for the theme and style I wish to create.

The final touches need to be made for my films sound design. Various foley sounds need to be implemented and I also need an ambiance track to layer in throughout the piece. For this I plan to record different ambiance tracks from different areas of the forest and maybe add a subtle electronic hum to help create an unnerving feel in the audience.