Poster vfx

I wanted the poster shot to feature a poster in which a character would be moving in time with the music. I again used the keylight effect to replace the green screen, I found a daft punk poster which would match perfectly with both the style of the soundtrack and the characters taste based on the other aspects of her room. I then masked out their heads to bring them into seperate layers from their bodies in order for me to make their heads bob to the music by kefir among and repositioning them. After this I added a glass image to the poster and lowered its opacity to make the poster seem more realistic. Once done I added in a front view image of the room to make the blue screen a mirror aswell as adding the waveform again to the whiteboard for continuity purposes.

Whiteboard vfx

For the whiteboard shot I wanted a waveform which would react with the soundtrack so I added the waveform effect within Adobe After Effects and linked it with the correct section of the sound track. I also realised that there were crease marks on the wall ruining the aesthetics aswell as making the whiteboard look as though it was in the corner of the wall. I removed these creases using the clones stamp tool which resulted in the shot looking a lot cleaner.

Sony headphones advert

After editing the rough cut for my sony headphone advert, I exported all the shots which required vfx in a PNG sequence in preparation for Adobe after effects

Green screening

The first shots I edited were the ones raquirong chroma keying, I started of with the static shot by simply adding the key light effect and adding images in the layers behind. I tried to find images which would look realistic as a background for the characters bedroom, e.g. A lit up street at night. I also added a window frame and gave it a brief couloir grade for it to blend with the surrounding wall of the set. I then repeated this for the other to green screen shots however these were in motion so required a 3D camera track or a motion track. I ended up using a 3d track for the green screen which was at a slight angle as it would simplify things. I used a motion track for the one which was in a simple face on position.

Ready for export

I have now finished colour grading within the time slot in which we had the online suit booked. I leveled out the gain, gamma and setup in order to crush the black in the surrounding background. This also brought out a golden tint to the sand sequence, after this I added any secondary colour grades which were needed, such as the water in the water sequence gave of green hoghlights to the dancers face. I simply brought out the blue to give it a more sea like blue. the dance sequence is now ready to be exported into both a QuickTime DNxHD format aswell as a h.264 for the web version.

Final cut

I have now imported all the vfx and title sequences, I will now be in the stages of making any final tweaks to the flow of some sequences before moving on to colour grading.

Rough cut

I have now finished the rough cut and showed it to my lecturer for the second time. I received some feed back that suggests that we should create more of an infinite space within the background, we felt as though the best way to do this would be to mask out the borders of the dance area which are visible in some of the shots, this would potentially add to the spotlight effect. To achieve this I sent the shots which needed masking to the vfx team by exporting them from avid into a PNG sequence.

Editing the dance piece

Next I began to edit the dance piece by element in the same chronological order as the script. I also added any resizing or minimal effects where nessasary. After each element I intend to send an aff export of the piece to the director in which he will write notes and send it back for me to receive and act on his feedback as I have already done with sand.

Importing into avid

Today i imported the footage from our dance shoot into avid via ama link, once done I imediatelt began to organise the footage into separate bins to make it easier when searching for specific shots, I also renamed all the shots after it's scene and take number as well as adding a brief description of each shot.

Last day of shooting

The last day of shooting was another success, we managed to shoot both the sand (as planned) aswell as the remaining air close ups we missed. We also used the tracking dolly to shoot the transition sequence again as we had developed a new idea in which the dancer waves the fabric over the lens from the water sequences to match cut to the air sequence. I repeated the routine of reviewing the dailies and also ama linked the files into avid in preparation for the edit. 

2nd day of shooting

We have now finished our second day of shooting which was the water element. Today I had to step up due to a member of the group being absent due to an emergency I had to operate the camera for a great deal of the shots which was unexpected. We managed to get all the shots we wanted. After the shoot I again took the SONY EX3 home to review the dailies and then report back to the producer.

1st day of shooting

Today we finished our first day of shooting which was the fire and air elements, it was a successful day. Throuout the day I have been operating the light setup aswell as taking any notes which may come to use for post production. I have also taken home the footage to review and check for any shots we may of missed or any errors but also to create back ups on my PC and an external hard drive. The producer has given me the camera log and the shot list to compare the dailies to, I will then report back to the producer to inform her on the level of success.

Swipe Idea inspiration

The main inspiration has been gathered from my essay in which I studied the Matrix. In this essay I explored the relations between Buddhist beliefs and the narrative of The Matrix, the main aspect which inspired me most was the Samsara. Samsara is the Cycle of birth, death and intermediate bardo state. This arises from ordinary beings who are fixed on this constant cycle in which they cannot break free of unless (in Buddhist views)  they follow Buddhist ways.

I found as though this relates to the virtual reality which technology is now creating today in such mediums as video games, the constant development in interaction and realism allows gamers to become deeply immersed when controlling an avatar, which in some cases can be customized to add their own personification to the character. These fictional worlds are used as respite to hide the truths and darkness of the real world. Based on the history of this development in technology and social interaction if the development carries on, there could potentially a virtual world which people can dip in and out of without having an avatar of themselves.