Hello Again.
So today I'm excited to share with you a music video I shot/edited for my good friends band 'The Chief of Seattle'.
It was especially great time shooting this video. With no budget other than our pizza money, a borrowed smoke machine and a tiny garage, it was really fun getting back to basics and smashing out this performance piece.
Hope you enjoyed it. For more on the band such as new songs and upcoming shows be sure to add them on Facebook
I for one will certainly see you there with a beer and left over pizza in hand.
Later,
Joe C.
Friday 19 June 2015
Sunday 31 May 2015
Showcase: The Terry Caffrey Project.
Yalright.
So its been another busy few months of blood, sweat and post-production. But its all been worth it, because over the next few weeks I will be uploading the next lot of finished projects from this semester. Get in.
The first of these projects is actually a triple bill of something a little different - 'The Terry Caffrey' Project. This collection of short films was created for my 'collaborative brief' at the university of Salford. Unlike the previous project 'The Magician' which favoured an individual approach, this project required me to team up with others on the MA to deliver work for a visiting client.
In light of this, I was sourced by a team working in Children's TV production who needed a camera operator and post-producer for a collection of short adaptations of Children's poems by Terry Caffrey.
This project was especially enlightening because it required me to think outside the box, approaching an entirely new audience (children up to 10 years old) and also working alongside a new director and creative team to deliver 3 very different pieces.
The first of these videos 'Counting Buttons' was inspired by the recent span of heartwarming advertisments such as John Lewis and Thompson. We aimed to capture this style using smooth camera work, slow edits and soft music.
The second of these videos 'Bums' was a bit more challenging, as it was aimed at the youngest age group (3-4 year olds) I had to experiment in order to find a way to make the footage more exciting, so I opted to create the postcard aesthetic, adding a sense of fun to an otherwise dry edit of animal shots. (I also learnt working with animals is not for the faint of heart or those sensitive to smell).
Finally, we created 'No Time for Breakfast', this shoot was especially fun as we readily accepted the childrens input into what they thought best suited the story. This piece also served as the first time I experimented with sound design using pro-tools, as we felt the sound effects needed enhancing in order to emphasise the playful cartoon style.
When I was first drafted for this project, I felt the need to work towards a younger audience was slightly out of the comfort zone of my previous work. However, by collaborating with the excellent creative team and providing my own technical input, we had a great deal of fun making this collection and delighted Terry with what he calls 'his own visual legacy'. Plus, i got to experiment with graphics and sound design, pushing my own skills into areas outside of typical cutting that I hope to expand on in the future.
Thanks for reading guys.
More to come soon.
Special thanks to Meg Nicholson, Zoe Charleson and Emma Laycock for providing me with the brilliant foundation to work with on this project, and for Terry himself for letting us make this collection possible.
So its been another busy few months of blood, sweat and post-production. But its all been worth it, because over the next few weeks I will be uploading the next lot of finished projects from this semester. Get in.
The first of these projects is actually a triple bill of something a little different - 'The Terry Caffrey' Project. This collection of short films was created for my 'collaborative brief' at the university of Salford. Unlike the previous project 'The Magician' which favoured an individual approach, this project required me to team up with others on the MA to deliver work for a visiting client.
In light of this, I was sourced by a team working in Children's TV production who needed a camera operator and post-producer for a collection of short adaptations of Children's poems by Terry Caffrey.
This project was especially enlightening because it required me to think outside the box, approaching an entirely new audience (children up to 10 years old) and also working alongside a new director and creative team to deliver 3 very different pieces.
The first of these videos 'Counting Buttons' was inspired by the recent span of heartwarming advertisments such as John Lewis and Thompson. We aimed to capture this style using smooth camera work, slow edits and soft music.
The second of these videos 'Bums' was a bit more challenging, as it was aimed at the youngest age group (3-4 year olds) I had to experiment in order to find a way to make the footage more exciting, so I opted to create the postcard aesthetic, adding a sense of fun to an otherwise dry edit of animal shots. (I also learnt working with animals is not for the faint of heart or those sensitive to smell).
Finally, we created 'No Time for Breakfast', this shoot was especially fun as we readily accepted the childrens input into what they thought best suited the story. This piece also served as the first time I experimented with sound design using pro-tools, as we felt the sound effects needed enhancing in order to emphasise the playful cartoon style.
When I was first drafted for this project, I felt the need to work towards a younger audience was slightly out of the comfort zone of my previous work. However, by collaborating with the excellent creative team and providing my own technical input, we had a great deal of fun making this collection and delighted Terry with what he calls 'his own visual legacy'. Plus, i got to experiment with graphics and sound design, pushing my own skills into areas outside of typical cutting that I hope to expand on in the future.
Thanks for reading guys.
More to come soon.
Special thanks to Meg Nicholson, Zoe Charleson and Emma Laycock for providing me with the brilliant foundation to work with on this project, and for Terry himself for letting us make this collection possible.
Monday 23 February 2015
Showcase: The Magician VFX Shot - a reflection on 'fluff'.
Hello.
Recently I completed my first piece of visual effects compositing for my MA in Post-Production at salford university.
The brief was to create a shot based on the concept of 'The Magician', creating and combining all elements into a unique composition. Not only was I encouraged to think about the typical VFX trickery, but also to consider production and sound design in a way that would enhance the overall piece.
At first, I thought this was crazy, as I thought to myself:
'Why should I have to do that? I should be focusing on my effects, surely it is the directors job to sort all the fluff out beforehand'.
So, in an early version of the project, I produced the main trickery of the levitating book and called it a day. Mission accomplished.
But during playback, I was unhappy. Something felt off, whilst the book levitated invisibly, I could still see the wires in my mind.
It was then I realised the true nature of the task at hand.
The emphasis on the production design was not an unneeded demand. Instead, it was the very core of what would make the shot work.
The test wasn't to use the tools at my disposal to create a simple magic trick. In fact, the trick was the most unnecessary part of the shot. What my shot was missing, was a sense of place.
And so, I dove in to my composition, adding the moving bookshelves, artificial lighting and dust to enhance the location. I Added the typewriter to add a suggestion of character, and colour corrections to blend him into the library. I found the oldest door I could find (my parents bathroom) and recorded its creaks, and I worked with the music, pinpointing the highlights in the score and timing the action accordingly.
The trick soon became my last concern, as i strived to build a sense of place through these subtle background elements; I discovered these are the things which make great VFX shots work.
And so, whilst Directors can still create a lot off fluff on set, I plan to spend much more time in the future adding my own, and enhancing, not overlooking, the fluff I am lucky enough to work with.
Here is the finished project, with an included breakdown of the composition, whilst its not a masterpiece by any means, I'm proud of it as first attempt at a composition, and i am incredibly grateful for the lessons it has taught me.
Thanks for reading.
Joe C.
Recently I completed my first piece of visual effects compositing for my MA in Post-Production at salford university.
The brief was to create a shot based on the concept of 'The Magician', creating and combining all elements into a unique composition. Not only was I encouraged to think about the typical VFX trickery, but also to consider production and sound design in a way that would enhance the overall piece.
At first, I thought this was crazy, as I thought to myself:
'Why should I have to do that? I should be focusing on my effects, surely it is the directors job to sort all the fluff out beforehand'.
So, in an early version of the project, I produced the main trickery of the levitating book and called it a day. Mission accomplished.
But during playback, I was unhappy. Something felt off, whilst the book levitated invisibly, I could still see the wires in my mind.
It was then I realised the true nature of the task at hand.
The emphasis on the production design was not an unneeded demand. Instead, it was the very core of what would make the shot work.
The test wasn't to use the tools at my disposal to create a simple magic trick. In fact, the trick was the most unnecessary part of the shot. What my shot was missing, was a sense of place.
And so, I dove in to my composition, adding the moving bookshelves, artificial lighting and dust to enhance the location. I Added the typewriter to add a suggestion of character, and colour corrections to blend him into the library. I found the oldest door I could find (my parents bathroom) and recorded its creaks, and I worked with the music, pinpointing the highlights in the score and timing the action accordingly.
The trick soon became my last concern, as i strived to build a sense of place through these subtle background elements; I discovered these are the things which make great VFX shots work.
And so, whilst Directors can still create a lot off fluff on set, I plan to spend much more time in the future adding my own, and enhancing, not overlooking, the fluff I am lucky enough to work with.
Here is the finished project, with an included breakdown of the composition, whilst its not a masterpiece by any means, I'm proud of it as first attempt at a composition, and i am incredibly grateful for the lessons it has taught me.
Thanks for reading.
Joe C.
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