Here are a few more live action re-filming tests. I'm not quite sure if this is achieving what it is meant to, but I'm quite happy with how #8 turned out. I think it feels much more 'in the space' and I like how I got the lighting to change as my grandfather's photo appears. I'm trying to not overthink it, since I know that it is meant to be subtle but I hope I am on the right track. Luckily these shots are relatively quick to create and render out so I can continue to experiment until I feel the shots are right.
Hi Dee - a couple of things: I'm wondering if you could try a more extreme placement/camera relationship to some of these images - so, forgive 'practical metaphor here' - but let's say you've projected this footage onto the surface in Maya... I'd like to see some examples where you position the camera filming the projected surface much more perspectivally - so the camera pushes towards the image very gently, but the orientation of the surface being filmed in relation to the character is much more extreme/ spatial - imagine that you're standing very close to the far end of a cinema screen on which this footage is playing, and you point the camera at the screen from your relative position, so you're looking 'along' the screen from an oblique angle - the effect would still be a 'full bleed image filling the frame - but you'd get a sense of foreground, mid ground and background too - which you could augment with lighting - i.e. with the back end of the image trailing off into shadow, or the foreground etc. I think the key here is to get a sense of perspective into these images to stop them feeling like 'walls' across the picture plane.
The other thought I had in terms of creating some additional 'glue' by which you can transition between your various shots. I think you should consider creating some close-ups of your fluorescent lights wherein we watch them flick off and on; these could be extreme close-ups or nicely perspectival distortions etc - the point being that you allow these sequences to flick between the image and actual blackness as the lights flicker. If you recall the sequence in Red in the DB district when Yellow appears, the ability to use the black space to cut to a brand new sequence - or to intersperse subliminal cuts of the forthcoming shot into the 'flicker' - can be a really dynamic means of transitioning. These shots could have a float to their cameras as per everything else. In addition, if you were to create some similar shots where we just looking at the bricks as a nearby light flickers, you would be able to cut between the light shot as it flickers to black, cutting to a brick shot as we see the off-screen lights flicker, and then within those shots cut to the next in your sequence - coupled with sound, I think this would prove to be a really dynamic means of moving from shot to shot - not each time, but if you create these 'glue shots' I think they'll make your editing processes super straightforward. Let me know if the above makes sense.
Hey Phil, I've been attempting to do that in regards to the screen appearing as though you are looking at it from the far end - in these shots it's like that and I pushed it as far as I could while keeping it full bleed. The limiting factor to this is having to keep it full bleed, once I put the camera in some more extreme positions there's always one corner that is no longer full bleed...or I need to zoom in so far to keep it full bleed I cannot move the camera much without moving off of the focus of the shot. I'll continue to try, but I've just been struggling to keep the shot full bleed, focused on the main subject, and move enough to make it feel 3D enough.
... and the other approach would be to use the lights to create 'white-outs' - so like that trope in films when you see a lightbulb or neon light suddenly flare in its intensity, or have it strobing, so in effect, you end up with complete white frames you can use as 'step-changes' in terms of slamming in a new shot. I think a combination of 'black frame' flickers and 'white frame' flickers would all be useful and would give you lots of options in the editing room.
Hi Dee - a couple of things: I'm wondering if you could try a more extreme placement/camera relationship to some of these images - so, forgive 'practical metaphor here' - but let's say you've projected this footage onto the surface in Maya... I'd like to see some examples where you position the camera filming the projected surface much more perspectivally - so the camera pushes towards the image very gently, but the orientation of the surface being filmed in relation to the character is much more extreme/ spatial - imagine that you're standing very close to the far end of a cinema screen on which this footage is playing, and you point the camera at the screen from your relative position, so you're looking 'along' the screen from an oblique angle - the effect would still be a 'full bleed image filling the frame - but you'd get a sense of foreground, mid ground and background too - which you could augment with lighting - i.e. with the back end of the image trailing off into shadow, or the foreground etc. I think the key here is to get a sense of perspective into these images to stop them feeling like 'walls' across the picture plane.
ReplyDeleteThe other thought I had in terms of creating some additional 'glue' by which you can transition between your various shots. I think you should consider creating some close-ups of your fluorescent lights wherein we watch them flick off and on; these could be extreme close-ups or nicely perspectival distortions etc - the point being that you allow these sequences to flick between the image and actual blackness as the lights flicker. If you recall the sequence in Red in the DB district when Yellow appears, the ability to use the black space to cut to a brand new sequence - or to intersperse subliminal cuts of the forthcoming shot into the 'flicker' - can be a really dynamic means of transitioning. These shots could have a float to their cameras as per everything else. In addition, if you were to create some similar shots where we just looking at the bricks as a nearby light flickers, you would be able to cut between the light shot as it flickers to black, cutting to a brick shot as we see the off-screen lights flicker, and then within those shots cut to the next in your sequence - coupled with sound, I think this would prove to be a really dynamic means of moving from shot to shot - not each time, but if you create these 'glue shots' I think they'll make your editing processes super straightforward. Let me know if the above makes sense.
Hey Phil, I've been attempting to do that in regards to the screen appearing as though you are looking at it from the far end - in these shots it's like that and I pushed it as far as I could while keeping it full bleed. The limiting factor to this is having to keep it full bleed, once I put the camera in some more extreme positions there's always one corner that is no longer full bleed...or I need to zoom in so far to keep it full bleed I cannot move the camera much without moving off of the focus of the shot. I'll continue to try, but I've just been struggling to keep the shot full bleed, focused on the main subject, and move enough to make it feel 3D enough.
Delete... and the other approach would be to use the lights to create 'white-outs' - so like that trope in films when you see a lightbulb or neon light suddenly flare in its intensity, or have it strobing, so in effect, you end up with complete white frames you can use as 'step-changes' in terms of slamming in a new shot. I think a combination of 'black frame' flickers and 'white frame' flickers would all be useful and would give you lots of options in the editing room.
ReplyDelete