Now I really hope that this one proves to be good. Spike Jonez in charge and Maurice Sendak working with the production, so it should be. I know it’s a little off topic for this blog, but anyway…
It really seems to bring to life the vivid illustrations of the book. Now waiting for the big screen adaptation of the very hungry caterpillar. Maybe not.
I must be feeling bad about not updating the blog for a while, as I’m knocking out lots of posts in the last day or so, but just remembered that I’ve got to put this video on here. Saw it a week or so ago, I think linked from the Motionographer website.
Wow. Wow. Wow. It’s not often that something this great comes along. I’m always impressed when people can put such strong characters together with animation. Especially in a pared down simple style like this. There’s no real facial expressions to rely on, but the sense of drama and emotion is very impressive.
There’s a great sense of minimalism with the dialogue as well. I don’t only mean in the excellent soundwork by David Kamp, but in the scriptwriting, which catches you off guard and intrigues the viewer.
David also has a great experimental style with heaps of innovation thrown in for good measure, and at the end of the day this is a film which works on all levels, from creativity, innovation and great storytelling which connects with the audience.
Watch it. Click one of the images below.
Links -
http://www.davidoreilly.com/ http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/27/bb-video-david-oreil.html http://motionographer.com/features/david-oreilly-interview-please-say-something/
A great video which lovingly recreates classic moments from the Watchmen Graphic novel/ comic and puts them into a He man/Jem -style 80’s cartoon, complete with cheesy theme music. Very funny if you’ve read/seen watchmen, lots of great in-jokes. A real labour of love. Thanks to Ron for this one. As he said to me… Pure brilliance.
Scottish Screen has produced a guide for all you budding filmmakers out there. Nicely put together by Nigel R Smith, it details the festival circuit , awards and digital distribution. Well worth a read for the serious filmmaker.
check out this link for general info
http://www.scottishscreen.com/content/sub_page.php?sub_id=177&page_id=33
and this link for the download of the guide.
http://www.scottishscreen.com/images/documents/short_film_distribution_guide.pdf
The web is a great resource for learning software, and I’ve pulled together a few of my favourite Free resources for learning After Effects. Adobe After Effects is post production software for Motion Graphics, Compositing, Visual Effects etc. After Effects is a bit of a beast in comparison to video editing software, and although a bit tricky to get your head round initially, with a little practice you’ll find out why so many people use it.
So I’ve included below some of the best sites for AE tutorials and resources. Of course, you should remember that a tutorial should be a starting place, something where you learn a technique or process, but you should alter and adapt it to suit your needs, rather than slavishly copying it.
Hosted by the inimitable Andrew Cramer, Videocopilot offers a wealth of easy to understand tutorials covering Motion Graphics and Visual Effects. This is certainly the best place to start off if new to After Effects, as his excellent Basic Training will get you up to speed. http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/
Jerzy Drozda Jr presents an interesting selection of tutorials, often more detailed than video copilot, but not quite as accessible. Jerzy also follows them up with an interesting array of plug-ins. check out the 3d shape extruder for example, which fixes the eternal problem with After Effects – making text more solid.
A new kid on the block, but very good. A well updated resource with loads of new tutorials daily. It looks like their aim is to link to every tutorial of merit on the web. There’s a lot of After Effects on here, but obviously lots of other visual effects software as well.
Another new one, and also very good. The quality is very good, and they pay people to publish their tutorials so if you have a great idea then you could make a few quid.
Harry J Frank is an old hat at this After Effects game. Very good for Trapcode plugins and expressions, he also does a great range of detailed paid for training. Also while I’m at it you should check out the Trapcode site to see how great their plugins for AE are and they also have some good tutorials as well.
Lots of add-ons for when you get a bit more advanced. Scripts add floating windows for a multitude of uses. Check them out and bolt them on.
Sorry – I’ve got a bit bored now, but here are a few more links
http://www.ayatoweb.com/ae_tips_e.html
http://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/adobeaftereffects
http://www.maxafter.com/tuts.htm
http://vfxschool.blogspot.com/
http://www.aeioweyou.blogspot.com/
http://www.adobeforums.com/
A great experimental audiovisual piece by Candas Sisman, Edicisum features a soundtrack by Isambard Khroustaliov. Lots of macro, very rich use of colour and real experimentation with the relationship between sound and image, it certainly ticks the box for me. I’d like to say more, but this will have to be a quick one. I’ll let the video do the talking.
Also check out his other works at his vimeo page.
And the collaborative group between Experimental filmmakers and musicians at Not Applicable
This is an astoundingly exciting and creative area of moving image production, and something that has been growing smaller and smaller in the category cloud (on the right, just under the strip of videos) on my blog, just because I can’t think where to start writing about it. But I’ve abandoned it for too long, so here’s part one of a (hopefully) long running series of posts…
We now increasingly expect to see interesting visuals when we see a gig or go to a club. As video projectors get cheaper and brighter, more and more clubs can afford to have them installed, and as more and more people enjoy seeing exciting visuals, it becomes the norm. It has also been breaking out of the club and gig environment, with very interesting work now in art installations, public displays, fashion shows and events of every kind. Then when you invest in a number of screens and use the space more fully you can create beautiful compositions that take us away from the single boring rectangular screen we are used to seeing in our homes.
Example – YSL Triptych – Click on the above to see an interesting use of three screens for a fashion show (Credits here) (Article here). Once we can break away from the convention of a single screen then great possibilities are afforded to us. Multiple screen installations look fantastic, and give us another option to play with, as the image on a screen is affected by what surrounds it.
There are a lot of applications of visual material. One obvious use is in gigs, and a couple of examples are below. First, Charles Lee and Dstrukt have posted their visuals for the Linkin Park world tour. These are generally themed around a song. In this case “We used Flowers to represent the progressive growth/development of a teenagers personality.”
Second, Etienne De Crecy Live 2007 Transmusicales de Rennes.
Due to the nature of a video projector, we can choose to change the image at a touch of a button. In contrast a film projector would need to be turned off, the film changed and then started again. This opens up great creative possibilities for everyone from musicians, filmmakers and artists. If laptops and cameras are being used to provide the visuals, rather than just playing them off a dvd player, then you can have a level of interactiveness and experimentation that can be really exciting to play with. A wealth of software is on the market for producing live visuals/installation. There is also a thriving scene with fans and forums helping each other.
Enough for now. I feel happy that I’ve scratched the surface, but there’s so much more to say. Hopefully soon.
Crikey, another one over. I haven’t made any resolutions, but I need to get fitter and do more creative work. So I’d better get on. Before I do, a quick post for this amazing video. If you ever needed any inspiration as to what to do with the 300,000 spare tea-lights you have stashed away in a cupboard, then check this out.
This is something that really shows what Machinima is capable of, and how it can be used as a viable filmmaking medium. I’ve not been overly keen on most that I have seen, but this really has a high level of emotional impact and it’s moody, minimal nature is great. It features a couple of characters in a bleak snowy landscape, but it is really the sound where this comes alive. A great deal of work has been put into the soundscape, and watchers of it should really think about this, and apply a higher level of sound design to their own work. In reality, very little happens, but by employing a few simple cinematic principles (albeit to a high level) this piece draws you in and takes you somewhere else.
This has won the Best of the Fest Award at the Machinima FilmFest 2008, and as well as watching the film, you can also read an interview with the filmmaker by clicking on the picture above.
Thanks to SubmarineChannel for this, and remember to visit their site for lots of interesting creative video work.
Read my post on Machinima for a bit more info on what it is
Slitscan is a photographic technique which creates interesting results by stretching movement over time.
This is done by masking off the lens so that only a very thin strip of light enters. Instead of taking a standard photo, the film is wound through the camera, so that the end result is a long strip which changes over time. In the example above the person slowly rotated and thus showed all angles of their head. An easy way to understand it is to think of a photocopier or computer scanner. A bar of light scans or copies the image over a few seconds to create a full image of what is under the lid. If you put your hand under the lid instead of a piece of paper, and move it about as the scan is made, then you get a strange stretched out hand.
It was reportedly first adapted for moving film use by Douglas Trumball for the superb ’stargate’ special effects in the film 2001. various footage was processed to create the bizarre ‘trip’ sequence, including aerial shots flying over landscapes.
Slitscan was also used by Zbig Rybczynski in his 1988 film The fourth Dimension. Can’t find a copy of it on youtube, but come to one of my sessions and I’ll show it to you.
It remains a technique that is widely used in experimental circles and lots of people have fun playing with it. For more info please click on the links below.
http://www.mefeedia.com/tags/slitscan/ – a great collection of slitscans
http://caseypugh.com/slitscan – plug in a webcam and see
http://vimeo.com/438009 – casey’s example
http://www.flong.com/texts/lists/slit_scan/ – great looking resource.
http://processing.org/discourse/yabb_beta/YaBB.cgi?board=Exhibition;action=display;num=1213382538 – processing slitscan code
