Waiting 2B Scene

Tag: Resources

  • TBT: Morning Prayer, Music Video (Cowper)

    We are used to video imagery that has been heavily edited – or perhaps furiously edited is a more apt descriptor. So I find it refreshing to stumble upon something that is quite different. It is in that frame of reference that I offer you my latest #TBT.

    Coming from the ear-wormingly good Cowper all the way back in 2011, he was joined by creatives Matthew Redlich, Jaymis Loveday, Daniel Graetz and Jen Dainer to record and film both video and audio for the song Morning Prayer. Recorded in a single session at the flood-destroyed Graetzmedia studios in West End, Queensland, Australia, Loveday went on to make some visual magic with a bit of know-how, and a weird party trick. As he wrote,

    “To achieve a perfect focus pull over the 4-minute staring contest, I modified the camBLOCK moco system to control a follow focus whip. This clip was the first shoot to utilise this technique. Several months later, camBLOCK shipped their official focus/zoom motors.

    There is no trickery in the single-shot nature of this piece. Cowper really can keep his eyes open for that long. In the dozen or so takes we shot, I think he blinked in two of them.”

    Up until the guitar solo, Loveday tracked the position of the reflections on his right eye (left on screen). Then when the solo kicked in, he switched it to track the position and rotation of both his eyes. The final effect? Mesmerising.

  • Video Montage: The Turn Smile (Dissolve)

    If you were to ask just about any serious cinematographer for their thoughts on stock footage, the general consensus would be one of derision. In a digital age where content creation is often more important than the complaints of said cinematographers though, using stock footage is a tool you might want to seriously consider. That advice is not without a warning label though.

    Back in April the team at No Film School gave us 6 awesome reasons to consider using stock footage in our work: the cliff notes version is that,

    1. It’s often cheaper and easier than shooting something yourself,
    2. Hollywood uses it,
    3. It’s ready when you need it,
    4. Not all stock footage looks like “stock footage”,
    5. You don’t have to travel everywhere or pay for permits, and
    6. Guess what — stock filmmakers are filmmakers too.

    If you have never heard of Dissolve – it is a stock footage provider, though their branding works quite hard at differentiating itself as a provider of better quality stock than you might get elsewhere. By and large, I like their stuff. With that being said, their own array of stock collages (of which today’s clip is just one example) prove an important point… too much of a good thing really can be terrible! For me, it also highlights this fact: some stock footage really does just look like stock footage – even when you have a better quality stock product!

    Some stock – like the turn smile – just has that look about it. And you know what? That is okay. My point is that if we can stay somewhere between the extremes of outright stock derision and attempting to create a piece using only stock, we might be surprised at how handy – and effective – some well placed stock footage can be.

  • News: Kenyan Film Made on Mobile (BBC)

    It is really easy to think that we need to have the latest and greatest kit to make movies and videos. And I mean really easy (#firstworldproblems). But I read a wonderful story today that was a timely reminder.

    While there are DJI Osmo‘s out there, or Lily, or the BMPCC – or whatever else takes your budgeted fancy – these are all just tools in a filmmakers/videographers arsenal. And much like a toolbox, sometimes you just need to pull out something that can get the job done… like a mobile phone.

    When was the last time you tried to make something videographic without all of the bells and whistles we are used to? Maybe this story will inspire you to think outside of your box this week.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35075188

  • Blog: Best Free Editing Software

    People, it’s time to share some free stuff! And by free stuff, I mean my opinion and a lifetime of collected information, as that is really all I have to offer.

    I was chatting with one of my Australian friends in New Zealand, and he asked me what I thought might make for decent FREE editing software. I think that any self respecting screen junkie like you and I ought to be able to have an answer to that kind of a question.

    If you think that a “good” answer to that question is either iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, you may need professional help.

    As it stands, I don’t use the free stuff. I am media-professional that is a PC-based (*gasp*) Adobe CC user (*double gasp*). I know, I know. I just happen to like having a powerful machine for a fraction of the cost of an Apple equivalent, and I like the interconnectivity afforded by the suite of Adobe products. Nevertheless, there is some pretty powerful stuff that is available for free: and today I want to offer you the same two suggestions that I gave my friend.

    1. Blackmagic Design: DaVinci Resolve Lite.

    This is my number one suggestion by far. To be honest, Resolve has a reasonably steep learning curve for the beginner: you won’t create a masterpiece by simply playing around with it for an afternoon. With that being said, a masterpiece is possible if you’re truly interested in learning how to harness all the power that Resolve can offer.

    Despite being the Lite version, there are hardly any features missing compared to the Studio version. Sure it won’t do multi-camera editing or 3D, and you don’t have access to some minor features such as noise removal, but other than that, this is the same stuff the big boys use.

    1. Lightworks.

    Lightworks has been used to create Hollywood movies such as The Wolf of Wall Street, so it has some credibility. Like Resolve, there is a free and a pro edition, with the main difference being the output formats and the resolution (you are limited to 720p with the free version).

    The editing tools in Lightworks are powerful though, and even though both versions offer a limited range of special effects like transitions, TV programmes and Hollywood movies rarely use anything other than fade from/to black – so it shouldn’t be a problem. Aimed at professional video editors, it is a fascinating tool. It doesn’t do a lot, but what it does is pretty excellent.

    And that is it. I know that I’m not giving you easiest to use options here – but that was never the intent. The point was to show you that there are two incredibly powerful editing tools at our fingertips – and they will cost us nothing more than the time it will take to learn them. So long as we are willing to pay that price, the potential outcomes are amazing.

  • Short Film: The Foley Artist (Feast Films)

    If you are an amateur videographer, you may never have heard of Jack Foley. In our digital age, we seldom have to consider making sound effects for ourselves. This has not always been the case, however. In a time before you could download unlimited audio files off of the Internet – sound effects for radio dramas, films, and television actually had to be created.

    This shouldn’t surprise you, but props and sets don’t usually react the same way acoustically as their real life counterparts. Jack Foley understood this, and it was where his genius shone. In an effort to lend a more realistic sound-scape to a production, he developed a process whereby authentic sound effects could be created in real time alongside the footage. It also proved to be an excellent means of supplying the more nuanced sounds that microphones would miss anyway (the rustling of clothing, or the slight squeak of a saddle when a rider mounted his horse). Such was his aptitude, fellow workers say that the results of a Jack Foley session were as good as editing together twenty audio tracks.

    Jack Foley has been dead for almost 50-years, but the technique he developed is still a popular option for professional productions. And in a lovely homage, those who employ his technique are still known as foley artists. Thus we finally make it to the crux of today’s post. While informative (hopefully), it is a chance to share an excellent short that takes us on a little journey with a fictional foley artist. I am sure that you will enjoy it.

  • Short Film: Light & Shadow (Weiss)

    Wow. That is the best place for me to begin talking about this piece. Just wow.

    Commissioned by the film-making camera accessory giant Zacuto (and shot simultaneously with Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012), this 20-minute Emmy-winning piece by director Steve Weiss – Light & Shadow delves into the creativity and passion of more than 30 of the most legendary cinematographers of our time.

    If you are interested in film, television, online video, or pretty much any kind of visual storytelling – then you need to have this in your life. You really do. It is seriously inspiring.

  • Video Montage: The Breaking Bad Wide Shot (Luengo Ruiz)

    One of the things that I enjoy about film and television is seeing how different directors and DP’s style their work. Even if we have never consciously considered the styling used – once it has been pointed out, we will generally have an “oh yeah!” moment. This phenomena is precisely why I enjoy the following clip by Spanish editor Jorge Luengo Ruiz.

    Inspired by an interview with DP Michael Slovis of AMC’s Breaking Bad fame, Luengo Ruiz highlights a key stylistic shot used throughout the show by montaging them all together into a short 4-minute piece. Care to guess what it is before clicking play?

  • Video Blog: Shooting on an Old Lens (Mathieustern Production)

    Ever wondered what might happen if you attached a really old-school lens onto your mirrorless camera? I have. Fun fact, Mathieu Stern (Mathieustern Production) has wondered about this too.

    Releasing the first part of his new web-series on Monday, Stern – a French web video producer and photographer based in Paris – is focusing solely on what kind of “weird” lenses can be mounted on a mirrorless digital camera. The premise is simple and elegant: what visuals can come of such mismatched pairings?

    In this first clip, Stern tests a 1910 folding camera lens on a Sony A7II: going through several steps, an Eastman Kodak Kodex / Topaz Boyer Paris f6.3 120mm is finally let loose upon the digital landscape! If you’re familiar with the properties of old lenses, you probably won’t be too surprised by the look of the final footage. Nevertheless, I still find the finished result nostalgically pleasing.

  • Video Essay: Echoes of Mad Max (WhoIsPablo)

    Australian Director George Miller decided that he did not wish to do a remake or retell the Mad Max story – rather, he wanted to update the universe and the wasteland. He even asked his wife Margaret Sixel to edit the film, even though she had never edited action before. his logic was that, “… if a guy did it, it would look like every other action movie.”

    Even though 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road is technically an independent movie in the series, it was always a matter of time before someone put in the effort to see whether there were visual echoes between the original Australian New Wave trilogy (1979, 1981, and 1985) and the 2015 release. The good news for fans of the original series is that despite 30-years between drinks, as well as all his intentions to give the world something fresh in Fury Road, a Miller film is a Miller film – and there are echoes in abundance. I hope you enjoy the comparisons as much as I did.

  • Video Essay: The Hero’s Journey (Animation)

    Joseph Campbell wrote a classic cross-cultural study of the hero’s journey back in 1949, and since then it has inspired millions. Like Star Wars, the film it helped inspire, the book was an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world. And this theme has enabled it to remain as relevant through the years as when it was first released (it hit the New York Times best-seller list in 1988 after it had become the subject of a PBS television special, The Power of Myth).

    For me, stumbling upon a re-run of the PBS series was the first that I had heard of it. It’s kind of eye-opening stuff, and it has keys to wonderful narrative-developing principles that transcend culture… and yet, whenever I ask people about it, what is apparent is that it is still very much unheard of.

    Well for my circle of friends and followers, today that changes. You won’t need to read the whole book just yet (though you should). You won’t even need to watch the PBS special (though it is worth while!). Start here: this fantastic little cliff-notes animation work by Iskander Krayenbosch will break the ice for you. And trust me – it is just the kind of teaser that can get you interested in finding out more.