Track & Jib Arm Test

Just a few pics from the last track & jib arm test. All available here.

Storyboard Test & Friday

Just thought I'd upload a few of my test storyboard shots now I have the interior sets more or less built. These pics can be found in the photobucket album here. In other news, just to clarify we are booked for 10-12 on Friday in the visual studio with the track & dolly plus a 570. Chris said we can mark the floor out with chalk so we can basically setup abby's living room to see how the track will work in there. I also think it would be a good idea to use track & jib arm for the shoot in the kitchen, where the camera is following Seb's Father as he approaches Dolly from behind.

[EDIT]

Don't know why it only posted the first 4 storyboard images. Anyway, the rest can be accessed by clicking the link above.

Forest & Bedroom Test Shoot

The usual set of a few sample shots from the forest test shoot, as well as a few shots from the setup we used in my bedroom.  Have bought 4 of the B&Q little cloudy glass lights which look really good!  Only £22 too!  All photos available here in decent quality.

Archie's in Love

Following on from our chat about possibly using a really upbeat, chirpy song for the final scene of our piece I started thinking about the ending of Deathproof, where the girls basically kick the shit out of the guy and chick habit is played over it. Thought it was the same kind of idea- a messed up situation with an innocent cheery tune over the top. Just thought I'd share!

Test Shoot & Demos

All the test shoot shots are up on photobucket as usual here. Have linked a few below.

Cinematographer Video

Just a link to the Cinematographer videos we watched today.

Part 1
Part 2

Latest Screen Tests

Pics from the latest screen tests are now available here. Just been having a look around on youtube and there are quite a few useful videos on lighting that are maybe a lil easier than just reading text in a book.

Also - this pic turned out quite cool:

Dolly Zoom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y48R6-iIYHs

have a look at this... it's a technique I'm really keen on using.
A x

I've uploaded everything from our location scouting yesterday here. Am also making a quick overlay on google earth if anyone wants to see where we were. Will email it to everyone later.

True Blood Opening Titles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTQzVFZ68z8

The opening titles for True Blood... I think they are the best titles I've ever seen on a TV series, and I think there's a few ideas we can take from them. I really like the fast cuts that they use, for instance the sudden cut to the boys mouth when he's eating. Also the end 5 seconds are really effective- the quick cutting and blurry, film-like shots look brilliant. This maybe something we could take some inspiration from?

Stylistic Ideas

Just been looking through a few films for ideas or how they did things that we want to do.

First film is 300, which basically seems to over-expose loads of the shots, so a lot of the background, foreground, or even parts of the actors are very white. They also seem to have some crazy high contrast ratios/really intense S curves.


Next there's old wilson from Castaway, as an example of how to add personality to an inanimate object (Archie...). Just a couple different shots of him that i mentioned before, how he starts off as really clean and plain and boring and through Tom Hanks customising him, he gains a whole personality of his own.

Collateral I really liked because it takes two characters and completley isolates them. It seems to achieve this partially through the music used, but also through the way a lot of the film is shot with objects obscuring the actors faces (reflections on the window in the first shot, or part of the cab in the second). It was also shot almost entirley on digital rather than film, to achieve a cold look. All face shots are also done at high zoom, to give a narrow depth of field.

Lastly, there's the trippy feel from Fear and Loathing. Apart from all the drugs used, they seem to achieve this partially through using an old film look, but also through using loads of dutch angles on the camera. I cant take screen shots of it, but the camera also bounces around a lot, as though its not mounted on anything. Similar to 300, they seem to use really high saturation and bright back-lighting.


Quite a few more movie stills up on the photobucket site here.

Dolly?

A photo of my friend I randomly found on facebook. I like how it's overexposed and (I think) was taken with a disposable camera; the rawness of the colours is really effective. It made me think of Dolly... thoughts? A x

More South Downs Pics

Just linking a few more south downs pics that I mentioned today, a couple showing the sea in the background and one I messed about in photoshop with (obviously way more than we would want to, but just as a stylistic direction).

Really nice lighting feel in the first two pics. Both taken in November 2007. (Click em to make them bigger!)




Cant remember what I did to this last one and its way too intense, but an idea to think about in terms of how we want the final thing to look.

Camera manual download

Hi men,
I've downloaded the DSR 570 manual from here: http://www.retrevo.com/support/Sony-DSR-570-Camcorders-manual/id/2090dj299/t/2/ if anyone fancies looking at it.
I've been going through all the things that came up to day and have noted down all the solutions so next time we shoot we should be able to set up even quicker :)
A x

South Downs Photos

Some pics from the downs taken during first year. Possible locations for Archie.





Rest of album available here.

First blog :)

Ok, so here's our wonderful blog where we can exchange ideas, write down notes, post visual research (photos, videos etc) and suggest links that could help us in the researching stage of our project :)

A xx