Been a bit tired the past two days, which is why I haven't updated. I'm past the halfway mark of importing clips. Looking at the footage, its very plain to see that I and Brandon have a bias towards shooting. It would seem as making it into a video is also a competition in itself. I can't speak for other shooters, but here's what influences me (from greatest to least) to shoot drivers as well as anything else really: 1. A consistent display that is visually stimulating: Always nailing the hammers or being on the brink of destruction 2. Knowing me personally: Not an easy task since I'm rather anti-social and have anxiety issues 3. Being unique: Show some personality/creativity, a glimmer that stands out from the rest 4. Have a vagina: Kind of a given
Kyle and his Corolla are a spitting example of this (well except the vagina part.) Smooth every run and really goes after the wall. Also, down with Kill Team. Also, doesn't drive a 240. See the vid here:
More importantly, I have been debating back and forth if I should use a letterbox or not. Since the farthest my camera zooms is 140mm, most of my shots are very far away. This gives a lot of unwanted "dead" space above and below the subject. Letterboxing will put more focus onto the cars and also gives me the option to move the footage up and down slightly. That way I control the subject. However the downside is that two big black bars cut out a lot visually. It takes away from atmosphere and limits the depth of field effectiveness. It's possible to use DOF and blur to more subtly guide the viewer to the subject even in post. Til next time
As a matter of fact rendering is one of my most favourite parts of editing. The computer does all the work while I play GT3 or surf the web. Altho smooth cam can be quite a bitch when it comes to drifting. It works awesome for skating and people and shit. I guess drifting is too fast and it doesn't know what the hell to stabilize half the time. Sometimes it gives good results, but most of the time it makes it worse than the normal shot. It's always best (for me at least) to manually stabilize in AE, but that's a big pain. I appreciate everyone's support, which is unfortunate because I became rather akin to my somber disposition.
Tonight was a short night, but I managed to capture 50 more clips over a couple of beers between doing some cleaning. Being the procrastinator that I am, I allotted myself 15 minutes to produce a quick edit and escape from regular responsibilities. Basically just having fun with music and time with basic editing. In retrospect it kinda makes me wanna puke, but perhaps it may be acceptable to some sort of audience, somewhere, sometime. There is always the possibility of spitting out a video in one night and it still probably being accepted just as well as spending weeks on, but that's just not what I do. Well, see the 15 minute edit here:
In starting this build, I feel it will become one more for those who follow this rather than one for the video itself. I will be doing and adding things that I basically would not normally do. I myself am probably not exactly a prime example of how video production works, but hopefully can offer some insight into what goes on behind putting a video together. Maybe it will give you a better eye for this shit, or maybe a worse one. I am open to any suggestions, or inquiries, or criticisms, or hateful racial slurs, or beef jerky, or whatever over the course of this project. Just remember tho, the editor has total control of what the audience sees or doesn't see...
Fuck it, I'm gonna try something different here. This is the story of how this video is gonna come to be...
So I called off work Saturday so I could wake up at fucking 5:40am to meet up and roll to Kilkare with Zerolift. Packed my bag up with the following: Panasonic GH-1 M4/3 Camera (shooting in 720p 60fps) Stock 14-140mm Lens Canon f1.8 50mm Sigma 28mm Mini-Wide Canon HV20 Camera(shooting 1080i 24fps for time lapses i suppose) Glidecam Should Mount with pistol grip and rails Generic Shotgun Mic $12 Tripod cuz I didn't wanna lug around a shit heavy Bogen I prolly wouldn't even use Charger and cords Extra Sd cards and Tapes
Brandon came with to shoot with his Canon 550D with stock lens, some 300mm lens, and some crazy ass fisheye. I don't understand all this photography shit really. I'm a video guy. In fact, I didn't take a single still the whole day(any stills in this build will be Brandon's or taken from video.) Actually, I don't even like filming. Editing is my thing.
Anyways, I wake up to a frigidass hella-windy day with about 2 hours of sleep only to be fueled by energy drinks. I felt like total walrus shit with those ugly black/brown fish picking at it to say the least. I started testing my equipment only to find my Glidecam is weighted for the camera only and not my rig and did not bring any additional weights. So I ditched the shoulder mount since the Glidecam is more portable, has a quick release, and can also act as a tripod. Even with Mega O.I.S. on and destroying my sorry excuse for a battery, the glidecam seemed to be the only reasonable way to get a somewhat steady shot. Shoulder mount might have worked, but its both cumbersome and uncomfortable.
Walking around in grumpy as hell mode, I see drifters and their shinnanigans (such as pictured below lol) as well as an army of other soul stealing individuals and their media counterpart machines (however, I think Mark was the only person with a solely video capturing device so props to that.) Troubled by all that surrounds me and the current condition, I relinquish from social activity and basically stick to recording of only vehicles, those of which have no judgement of a tiny Asian kid with what would appear to be an unnecessary amount of equipment.
Lines of smoke begin to form on the echoing track as the temperature raised slightly. Honestly I was so pumped for this event to happen, but I found myself filming it only out of sheer boredom and the hopes of having something to edit... someday. Even now I draw a blank, but eventually something made me think, well I'm here, might as well make SOMETHING out of it. Perhaps it was all of the rubber inhaled, or perhaps it was repetitive nature filming at this track so often. Either way, I managed to get 2 hours worth of video spanning near 300 clips of footage. I've just now started to import said clips, and I'm actually kinda surprised at how they turned out. I feel that when I film an event, I don't really get to experience the event. When one eye is focused on a 3" lcd and the other has a skewed view of the environment, its not really something that can be "taken in" as opposed to just a normal spectator. Viewing the captured footage is somewhat of a newfound Deja Vu and even moreso the images captured by another person. Brandon has 917 images/videos that I grabbed from him, each familiar yet awkward.
So upon leaving the moment the event ended, I have put off editing the video(now also being a distraction from putting effort into the video.) I have captured about 50 of my 300ish clips. A tedious task of deciding what is worth taking of valuable disk space and/or being a hindrance to production. Out of what I have reviewed, I do have a somewhat positive feeling towards this project. A project which my only reward will be self satisfaction and the satisfaction of a handful of viewers. Yet, that pleases me.
One shot (out of what I captured so far) that stands out to me is a shot of Bill Cook. Quite cleanly executed run and not terribly filmed. I went ahead and applied some image stabilization and color processing to the clip. All in all it took about 30 mins, which is about normal. I do that for just about every clip that makes it into the final draft. If you think that is dumb, well it probably is. But sometimes its worth it whether you can tell or not. In the image below, the box in the middle shows the normal clip. The one on the right is the edited image. The final video can be seen here http://vimeo.com/11068048 .
