Final Video

The finished video can be viewed on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIXXa7f56Zc

Filming in SIF

Have now got most of the filming I need for my final project out of the way now that the large green screen has been installed in SIF. May need to book a few extra sessions but I am going to wait and see what is needed as I start putting the project together. 

....and even better news, I have finally managed to digitize my footage onto a format that is compatible with my computer. I am really happy about this as I have had a lot of problems in this area. I have been working in the edit suites and have finally found a combination of size/quality/format that will work perfect for my film. Fingers crossed!

Making the Set...

I have just finished making the set for my final project. I have made a simple house out of cardboard in which I wish to composite myself into using green screen footage. I hope to achieve a quite comical, quirky effect. I am still considering whether to use real-time footage in the scene, or to speed it up to create a humorous feel.

This is the house I have created as a background for the piece:

After photographing the house, I have had a quick go at editing it in After Effects to get a rough idea of what I envisage the final piece to be like:

I would like to add various assets digitally (i.e. garage door, main door, background) to create that contrast between reality and an imaginary world. In reflection I will probably photograph the house in front of a green screen background so that I can just key out the background colour for a neater result; trying to erase the inside of the windows was very time consuming and does not result in a clean effect...hence only one of them is finished!

Footage Problem

I have had some difficulty getting the film footage off the camera tape and into a format I can take home and edit. It seems that that the files are either too large to fit onto a disk and are not formatted correctly to go on a hard drive. Hopefully I can resolve this problem asap so that I can get on with editing the footage.

Experimentation for final project

Over the weekend I booked out a Sony Z1 camera, a reflect media kit and a set of dedo lights. The reason for this was to experiment with some ideas I would like to incorporate into my final project.

The idea for my final project: The purpose of the project is to create a short film about yourself using the green screen equipment. I have decided to create a miniature cardboard environment (e.g. house, car etc) and portray my life using the cardboard props. I aim to film myself in front of the green screen, key out the background, then layer the moving images over the cardboard background hence creating a miniature world.

I used a friend to experiment with some of the shots I wish to show in my final film. These include driving a car, using more than one vision on myself in the same picture, and changing the background. I am going to experiment with editing this footage so that I can figure out problem areas and see whether the effect works before filming the final version. 

I was surprised at how large the reflect media screen was. This was useful as it mean means that I could get quite a lot of the body into the shot.

Stop-Motion experiment

This is a short stop motion experiment I did at the end of last year. It uses a program called istopmotion2. 

The footage is a little blurry as it was filmed using the built in camera on my macbook.

Lighting Exercise

To enable us to get more familiar with the green screen & lighting equipment, we were set a lighting based exercise. We were each to take a turn both operating the camera and also in front of the camera. The aim was to create a different lighting effect (e.g. horror, daylight etc.) for each person through manipulation of the backlights, camera angle etc. Hand held lights and coloured gels were also added for extra effect.

For the exercise we used a Sony-Z1 camera, 3 dedo lights, a keno flow and a handheld light. We were expected to put into practice the proper use of white balancing, focus, exposure and framing.