The Architect and the Painter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXbrQEPyqiQ

The Architect and the Painter is a documentary about two famous American designers (of buildings and furniture) Charles and Ray Eames. She (Ray) was a photographer and a painter. She created a set of stackable, decretive cards using photos of random colourful objects and designs. I use them in my title sequence. In the documentary the title designers use these stackable cards as a design device but they put stills of Charles and Ray from the film on the cards instead of using the actual designs. The style of the title sequence reflects Eames style and aesthetic. The font used is a decorative 1950s style.

'Mid century modern' describes a period of modern design in the mid 20^th century .  The music in this title sequence also reflects this period.

All these and my own have a retro, old fashioned look. There are no flashy hi-tech graphics. The images are traditional looking.

 

Ask the family title sequence

Ask the family is a 1970s quiz show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjprLNd9BCk

It uses retro images and old fairground style piano music to create an old nostalgic atmosphere. Its quite cosy and non threatening because this is a family quiz show.  This sequence kind of reminded me of my title sequence because of its old film look and the pastel colours.

3D flicker effect fail

My initial idea about how my title sequence would look included an effect that i saw and admired from another film maker called Sirus F. I call the technique the 3D flicker effect because that is the impression it gives. I have phased and played back then video many a time to try and figure out how he does it. Two still frames flick back and forth however the frames are the same as opposed to flicking back and forth to different frames. this is hard to explain so i have included links to two of this filmmakers films.


3D flicker effect were it uses same frames but in different positions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chwxT4vt_7s



flicking back and forth using different frames. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjPxo_HoKCo


One of the mistakes i can see that i made when trying to pull off this effect was that i choose to shoot a subject that had no movement. The next mistake was the fact that i made to much of a big change in position which meant that when i flicked between the two frames it looked extremely jerky. another factor that caused my experiment to look bad was the fact that my light wasn't big enough to fill the whole frame (you can see the edges of the light.)

Plexus 2

http://aescripts.com/plexus/

Plexus 2 is an after effects plugin that allows you to create animated particles and lines. You often see them used in sports adverts and SCI FI films. It cost $199 so it is way out of my budget but is something to keep an eye on because it might be useful in the future. There are loads of tutorials showing you the amount of things you can create using it on you tube. 

Title sequence that influenced me

https://vimeo.com/124545160

This opening sequence was created by a group of animators and graphic designers. i think that it is advertising an design event rather than a film or TV show. The theme for this sequence was evolution so they have used a lot of stock footage of cells and particles through a microscope. The text is really well designed i loved the way it is animated and how the o breaks off in evolution as if it is a cell dividing. I took inspiration from this sequence as most of the shots are tight close ups so it creates more of an abstract feel to it. Also i liked the way the text wiggled - i used this effect in my title sequence. One day i would like to be able to use complex typography as seen in this video so i did some research and looked at one plugins that you can buy for after effects. I found quite a nice one that you can use to create animated lines and stylized patterns called Plexus 2.

Fractured Memories

Here is a late post showcasing my documentary about me film i was assigned to make. I called it Fractured memories because it re-enacts parts of my childhood. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zafsi6ehac6l2pp/alvy%20documentry%20about%20me%20export%201.mp4?dl=0

please download the link above ^

House of Cards

House of Cards is a title sequence i created for a light hearted family drama.

House of Cards behind the scenes

This is a picture from the set of my title sequence. I laid out the cards on a white piece of paper of a flat desk and used a tripod looking down at the scene. Some shots were tighter than others because every now and then i zoomed in or out on the lense. I did this to try and stop the shots from being too repetitive and to create some diversity.

Believe in the Dream cricket film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhJkS0dymYw

Out of all of the cricket films i have made this one is my favourite and the one I'm most proud of. It had a bigger budget to most of the other ones and i worked in the Verri Media office with a film maker called Alex Wykes. I worked as a camera assistant on the two days shoot and he used a C300 and a ronin steady cam. I then edited the footage and made the film in there office using there set up (they had three monitors that all worked together when using premier.) They had the grading plugin called Magic Bullet which i tested out and really liked the effects you could create such as the weird light streaks as seen in Interstellar. Another element that i really admired in the making of this film was using the ronin steady cam. I loved how it made every shot smooth even when running with it in your hands. I also like the fact that you can download an app for it and move it around using a phone. One day I want to get one for myself as they are an ideal way of stabilising shots.

Green Screen Test

Craig said the class were doing green screening in provational skills lesson today and by coincidence me and jack had been on a shoot the last weekend which involved keying. We got our friend to wear a purple morph suit and we filmed him walking through south bank on a 5D mark iii. Some shots we filmed him walking backwards so that when you reverse the clip the public are walking backwards as he walks towards the camera. On Monday afternoon me and jack decided to cut together a little bit of it and came up with this. Some of the problems we had were that the keying sometimes caused bit of the overlay to go on things in the background. To fix this I created an inverted mast and key framed it so that as the figure moved it stuck to his body.


Here is a dropbox link to download if the video is not good quality.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdzhlnulie2yzot/123mrk%20export%205.mp4?dl=0

SSE orangutang advert

I love these SSN adverts featuring this SGI orangutang. I think that one of the things that makes it is the music; it gives a warm, nostalgic and Christmasy feel. It is really nicely shot i love the use of blurred lights as it is advertising electricity. 

Mood Board

Day vs Night 

A short 1 minute film about contrast in the North Laines for Stage 1 on my film making course.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Film Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

I have mixed opinions on this film. It is different to the average cheesy blockbuster because in this, the girl dose not survive and then hook up with the boy. He even lies to the veiwer reassuring and explainging that the girl does not die at the end.

There are alot of interesting camera techniques used in this film. Firstly i notied quite a few shots that were held for a long period of time for example a close up of the boy and the girls face as they sit beside her bed. In this scene the same shot is held for about 2 minutes as they have a conversation. there is a lot of silence in this scene as well which you dont normally see in films. another framming technique that i noticed was that in most scenes when the boy and the girl are in the same room there is a lot of dead space. Maybe this is suggesting that the film is not aminig to show them being romanticly involved but more focusing on there freindship.

Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine:

I found this documentry interesting. I really liked the archive footag cut with the "what a wonderfull world" song. The cctv footage and 99 emergancy calls was really powerfull and shocking. Also it kept your intrest by including animations while stating facts. One fact that really stood out to me was when they were showinig the amount of deafs caused by guns in all the different countries. England's was 60 and the USA was 11,000. I like how the creators of the film subtley take the mic out of some of the idiots they interview. For example when they are interview the man who shows off about sleping with a hand gun under his pillow he says "you should be carefull you get a lot of wacko's out there" and then the camera cuts away. I also like the animation where they explain how much "fear" white american have because it really made sense.

Before I watched this I didnt think about how out of hand Guncrime is in America. But now i realise that it is, i am gratefull that England does not allow the right to bare arms.