Archive for the 'Professional Project' Category
pro project paperwork
it is easier than i thought to create this effect. i created two ‘adjustment layers’ and then selected two ‘lens blur’ effects.
i left a gap in-between the two layers to leave a strip in focus and then added a mask to both of them which i feathered (by a few hundred pixels).
i then enabled time remapping to speed up the image – squashing 12 minutes of footage into 8 seconds. i also created an adjustment layer for the saturation and contrast levels. increasing both of these gives the image that toy, model like look and combined with the timeremapping it could be mistaken for a stop-motion animation.
mark will be adding the typography to footage after i’ve done all of the above to them. here’s an example of a finished edit (without the typo):
today we went to christchurch to shoot some timelapses from the church tower. i had managed to get special permission for us to be taken up the church tower. it was higher than i thought it would be and was also very windy. we had manfrotto pro tripod that seemed to do the trick but a sandbag or two would have been useful. most of the shots are fairly steady and we manged to get about 5 different shots.
two stills of the setup:
left – the may look unstable but it was actually ok. we did have to stay be careful where we walked while the camera was rolling as the planks wobbled when we stood on them.
right – we had difficulty viewing the screen on my camera because outdoors in midday sunlight it is highly reflective. i composed the shots using the viewfinder first, before changing over to morror lock-up / live view mode.
below are 5 unedited screenshots of the footage:
the constant movement of traffic between the georgian architecture made this a nice shot. its a shame about the ugly building behind the church but that will almost certainly be a blured out area of the image
we initially thought this would make a nice shot because of the constant movement of the people through the gate. however when we played it back we realised the gate was quite ugly and there wasn’t really enough people moving through the shot to make it usable. the shot actually looked better with the gate composed at the top of the image but that would mean the foreground of the image would be the graveyard which would not have really been appropriate.
there was plenty of people walking through the park as well as a few boats moving in the harbour for the 12 minute duration of this shot. there’s also a big open space in the middle where the typography will fit nicely. this one’s definitely winner.
i haven’t actually sped this one up in after effects yet so i don’t know exactly what it looks like but i think the boats gradually float towards the land and then back out. we were running out of time with this one so only had it the camera rolling for about 5 minutes. because the movement is so slow we really needed to leave it running for longer but i think this will still be a usable one. like the park shot it has a big open space where we can float some typography.
this final shot is probably one of the best – lots of traffic passing over the bridge – could probably put the text on the bridge or maybe on the front of the castle.
bright blue day – update
when i was away mark and cat did some timelapses of the poole quay area and went down by the studland ferry crossing and captured the ferry crossing the water. apparently they were both at sunset so these shots would probably work nicely at the end of the video. strating off with bright midday shots and gradually getting darker is now part of the plan. they also went down the christchurch, which apparently is very scenic but they said the shots they got won’t be usable. as i discovered from my test shots, you nearly always need elevation for the tiltshift affect to work. they mentioned there was a big church tower that would be good to shoot from. i phoned the priory earlier and have managed to get special permission for us to be taken up their on tuesday afternoon. we’re only going to have 20 minutes, maybe 30 max at the top, so we’ll have to be well prepared.
bright blue day – inspiration
there’s been lots of tiltshift style videos made in the last year or two. the coachella festival video is one where the effect has worked especially well. mark thought we could integrate the typography into the video, the same way it appears in the credits at the end of this:
to integrate it into the shot so that it looks like part of the scenery may prove to be quite tricky and will may require working in maya. so thats the plan. we going out tomorrow to scout potential locations and if the weather holds out, hopefully bag some shots. its important that its sunny and ideally clear blue skies for the shooting. from doing the tiltshift test shots a few weeks ago, i know we’ll need a good sturdy tripod, a telephoto lens and to shoot for a duration of at least 4 minutes.
bright blue day – meeting
bright blue day finally got back to us last week and we had a meeting with them yesterday in their offices, in poole quay. they liked our ideas and gave us a fairly clear idea of what kind of video they wanted. they recently updated their website and have slightly moved away from the seaside/beach theme. the website has a more contemporary feel to it so we’re going to do something along the lines of that. they liked the idea of using typography instead of showing examples of their work. they showed us the two fonts they use on their new website and requested that we only used them. one of them is ‘Georgia’ and the other is ‘Museo’ which is one they had designed especially for them. they also gave us a list of words and phrases that we could use:
- Everyday brilliance
- Energy
- Excellence
- Rigor
- Fun
- Ambition
- #3 UK integrated agency (they suggested this would go well at the end of vid)
- Everyday – doing what you do but a little bit better (this terrible – it doesn’t really make sense so i doubt we’ll use it)
so the plan now is to shoot some tilt-shift style timelapses of the area. (forgot to mention that they’re proud of where they’re located (poole quay) and wanted all the shots to be of the area as well as bournemouth / boscombe / christchurch area). so yeah tilt-shift style timlapses of the area with typography consisting of some of the words/phrases above. and in the style of either georgia or museo or even both.
pleased we finally met them and now looking forward to cracking on with this project!
we’re still awaiting a reply from bright blue day but we’ve continued to develop the idea. initially we intended to project examples of their work on beach objects (ie. beach huts) keeping in-line with their beach theme on their website. we thought if we could get some footage or a few more stills (like below) that this could work nicely. we probably would have done the projections in post, as opposed to using an actual projector.
we went down to the beach to get some shot of the huts and to work out where and how we’d project on to them. below is a screenshot of the unedited footage
during the shooting we realised it would be quite a difficult thing to do and couldn’t think of a variety of shots that would work for the idea. mark and cat made the suggestion that we should maybe use some sort of typography instead of examples of their work so we started taking shots that would work well with typography.
we were pleased with deck chairs because it they fit the beach theme of their website.
i found it difficult to envisage where the typography would go in these shots but mark and cat were fairly confident that it would work ok. after this shot we decided to call it day so that we could reflect on the new idea. we didn’t want to make the mistake of shooting loads of stuff for an idea that we not certain we were going to pursue.
redweb – meeting
unfortunately i wasn’t present for the meeting with redweb but mark and cat went along to meet with david burton (the directing manager of innovation). we had previously discussed the ideas that we’d suggest to them and done our research together. from what was reported back to me david liked the idea of doing an ‘apple profiles’ style video. the company have recently won awards for being the ‘most innovative digital agency’ so he wanted us to base the video around innovation.
cat and mark said they looked around the work place and that it was a large company with a variety of rooms and work on display. not what they had expected apparently but still suitable for type of video we were planning. david told them the best days for us to shoot would be ‘hack days’ which, are days where the companies developers, designers and people with ideas gather to build ‘cool stuff’. the plan now is to shoot on thursday and friday this week.
personally, as cinematographer / camer op’, i’m going to research some documentary style footage so that we use similar shoots throughout. if these videos are to look professional it is vital we turn up on the day knowing exactly what it is we are trying to do.
bright blue day have not yet got back to us. although we’ve already written and sent the treatment to them we’ve started developing the idea a bit more. mark mentioned shooting some tilt-shift style shots for the video. i thought it would be a good idea to do some test shots, so i went out the other day with slr (and a very unsteady tripod) and shot some timelapses on and around the beach. i sped them up in after effects with the ‘time-remapping’ tool. i bumped up the contrast and saturation on all the videos to give them a that model like look. and of course, added the two lens blur masks leaving a strip in the middle of the shot remaining sharp. the first one, shot from the pier turned out the best.
i think this one worked well because i was on an elevated level to the subject i was shooting (the people). the best tiltshift stuff i’ve seen has always been shot from a great height with the telephoto end of the lens. there are however some problems with this shot. the camera moved very slightly over the 3-4minute period i had it rolling for. it tilted down because the tripod i was using couldn’t take the weight of the telephoto lens on the front of the camera. it’s worth bearing in mind, if or when we shoot some more tilt-shift style shots that we will need a heavier weight and steadier tripod .
i did not shoot this one from an elevated level and as a result it doesn’t work in quite the same way. the image is just too flat for the lens blur to look realistic. if we do pursue with the idea of using tiltshift for bright blue day or one of the other promo videos, then we we’ll have to shoot from a height. the camera also moves on this shot but that is partly because the tripod was on sand.
this one was also shot from the pier but doesn’t work quite as well as the first one. this is down to the combination of it being a much shorted duration (50 seconds sped up to 8 seconds) and the movement of the people. for the tilt-shift to work well there needs to be a fair bit of movement amongst subjects. this is also worth taking into account went shooting more stuff in this style
bright blue day treatment
TREATMENT - BRIGHT BLUE DAY
We have had a number of ideas for the promotional video that we will be making
for your company, but there are two that we would like to propose for your
consideration. The first idea is that, following the prevalent theme of the beach
and beach huts on your website, we will go down to the beach and film in the
early evening while using the beach huts as a canvas for projecting 3D images
and examples of your work. There could also be the opportunity for members of
staff to take part in this and make it something interactive that they can join in
with to convey the idea of a company that works together well and have fun
whilst remaining hardworking.
Otherwise we have also had the idea of filming some content during the day
along a similar theme (and any 3D projections added digitally in post-production)
and editing the colour levels of the footage to dull most colours and in order to
saturate the blue levels of the sky in order to create a literal Bright Blue Day. We
would also keep the levels up on the digital work so that the viewer sees it
clearly. Filming on the beach could also give us the option to give the footage a
vintage feel and create an interesting effect that would not normally be
associated with promotional videos; therefore helping it to stand out more
amongst others.
As a means of displaying this video we are working on a web platform that will
feature a directory of advertising and design companies within Dorset. This
includes a simple map of the area with animated landmarks and your company
will have a spot on it where the user can scroll over and see the video content
that we have made for you, as well as others in the area. This will be useful as a
means of promoting yourselves to other companies, potential clients and the
general public. We are also hoping to work on the option of having QR codes
printed into the MeetDraw book that is due to come out, so anyone with a
smartphone can view your video on the go or hold it up to a webcam to be
redirected. These codes could also be added on to business cards or any printed
stationery that you use.
