Starving Artistry

First Day with my Sony FS700

// August 14th, 2012 // No Comments » // Video

I eagerly anticipated the UPS guy today, because he was bringing me my new baby, the Sony FS700.

Grainy picture courtesy of iPhone

I immediately set out to figure out how to work the slow motion, which is one of the main selling points of the camera (in addition to the 4K sensor). I’m hoping that it will add a ton of production value to the music videos I do in the future, as well as an extra something special for the wedding videos I have coming up in the Fall and Winter.

In any event, the only people home were Harry and Daxter. And by people, I mean dogs. So I ushered them out back to have some fun. Check it out:

The first thing I was struck by when I brought it into the computer was how sharp it looked right out of the camera. I’m very pleased with the way the footage looks. The only time it looks soft is when I miss focus.

Afterwards I had to do some real work, but got back to the camera when Tay came over to throw a bottle on the ground. We did this at the maximum slow motion the camera can do, which is 960 fps. I put it in after effects to do a comparison, but you can’t set the video to play back at real time, so I had to approximate what real time was. The first portion is “real time.” The second is the 960fps played back at 24 fps, and the final portion is slowed down even more in after effects.

When recording at 240 fps (10x slow motion) the camera films it in gorgeous full HD. When shooting at 960 fps, the resolution is significantly lower. I shot outside where there would be plenty of light, at ISO400 and it still looked noisy. I scaled it down to 480p, and it looks acceptable, but I can’t really imagine a situation where I’d use this in real life.

Also, here’s a straight out of the camera still shot. The camera can do stills in addition to video. It’s not going to replace my 5D mkIII, but it’s a neat feature, and shows how big that sensor really is. No RAW, just jpg.

The camera came just in time because Rites of Ash is coming over tomorrow evening to record some stuff. Even though we’re only shooting against a white backdrop, it will look great and super crisp on my new camera. Can’t wait!

Colorful Smoke Writing

// August 13th, 2012 // No Comments » // Video

Look! I wrote my name in smoke! Smoke is such a pain in the butt. I’m looking to use it in the ROA intro video i’m about to film, but can’t quite decide whether to go with particle generated smoke (as in this video) or element-based smoke (aka, real smoke composited into the shot). For now though, I found this cool thing in After Effects which traces your mouse or tablet so you can track your mouse. Neato.

Rites of Ash & 3D Modeling

// August 12th, 2012 // No Comments » // Video

I’m working on doing up a new intro video for the Rites of Ash live show. These guys have a killer live show, and I’m stoked to be able to add to it! This is a proof of concept to try to show them how it might look if the band members all dissolved and then formed the logo.

Killing Me

// July 9th, 2012 // No Comments » // Video

Throughout June, I wrote, directed, and edited a music video for the DC area band Rites of Ash.

It was a great experience and I’m proud of the product. Even so, I learned so much on this shoot that I can’t wait for a new project. Back when I shot my music video for Ben Powell Sketchbook, it was a very fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type shoot. Plus, I couldn’t be behind the camera for any of the performance shots. This time, I was armed with my new camera (5D mk III) a complete story board and shot list, and Taylor as my trusty PA!

Me working with my text-based storyboard

Actually, since Taylor accompanied me on all the shoots, she kind of chronicled the process.

Photo by Taylor
Back on June 11th we were in studio shooting the band on the white screen. It was at Union 206 in Alexandria, VA. It was incidentally, one of the first very hot days of the summer, and unfortunately due to the large studio’s proximity to the outer doors, hot as balls in that room! The studio lights didn’t help.

Photo Courtesy Jackie Garcia Photography

After we shot the band, we threw up the green screen to shoot Alex, taking advantage of the large open space we had at the studio. I threw on some green gaff tape to help with tracking points so we could get some motion into the green screen shots. Adobe After Effects CS6 has an amazing new 3D camera tracker. It was a risk, never having done a shot like that before, but it was worth it!

Photos Courtesy Jackie Garcia Photography

Pic by Taylor
Day 2 of shooting was supposed to be in a large warehouse-esque space. Somehow we wound up shooting it in weird looking closet type space because at the last minute we were denied access to the warehouse. Unfortunately that meant I had to recompose all the shots I had planned and work around a room that was only like 5 x 12. At least it looked sufficiently seedy!

Day 3 of shooting took place on the streets of Falls Church, right outside of where that Hoang’s Asian Fusion restaurant is (or outside the old hollywood video if you prefer). We were nearly running out of shade by the end of that shoot, but fortunately we made it!

Day 4 actually took place in Taylor’s parent’s basement. It basically looks like an apartment, so it worked for just about every shot we needed. Too bad the A/C upstairs was busted, so once again we had to film the final shots with Alex dying in 85 degree heat, WITH studio lights on! Blech.

Catch the video up top if you haven’t seen it yet, and please leave me some comment love on this post, if you’re reading this!

More motion tracking testing

// June 3rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Video

Pretty amazing new feature. I like it.

3D Camera Tracking Test

// June 1st, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Video

A real rough test to see if I can figure out this new 3D camera tracker in After Effects. Seems to work pretty well, maybe when I set up with more space and a human subject I can actually put legitimate trackers in the frame instead of my drum throne and light stand.

The drum throne was masked out, that’s why you don’t see it. I didn’t bother masking out the light stand since Harry is covering it, it would be too complicated of an edit for such a simple test.

Thursday Video Shoot

// April 5th, 2012 // No Comments » // Video

First, let’s start off by seeing Daxter’s new bed he made for himself under MY bed:

Bed under a Bed

He’s sleeping in my under-the-bed storage thingy. Crazy dog.

Anyway, we had a video shoot out at GSA today, so I thought I’d post a couple of pics of our setup, since I took the time to snap a couple.

Green Screen

CFL Lights

BOOM mic + Teleprompter

Martin manning the audio station

It was a smooth shoot, and I lit the Green Screen like a boss. Super even lighting, made for an awesome key. We did two CFL lights through softboxes onto the backdrop from about 7 or 8 feet away. Then one CFL light as a key light and one Halogen light with a blue gel as the kicker.

The biggest stress of the day was operating the teleprompter. It’s stressful to keep the pace up with the actors reading from the script! You don’t want to ruin a take by going to fast or too slow… and since it’s only connected through bluetooth (it, being the iphone remote control for the ipad teleprompter app) there was a lag between what I was doing and what happened on the iPad making it very easy to accidentally overcompensate.

But, it went off pretty smoothly. One more day of shoots tomorrow, then it’s edit time.

Cinetics CineSquid

// April 4th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Photo, Video

CineSquid

A while ago, I put some funds into the kickstarter program to fund this suction cup camera device. The way they pitched it (among other applications) was a way to mount your camera to your car. They (the company is Cinetics)couple their suction cup device (the cinesquid) with the Gorillapod Focus (flexible tripod).

I mounted Taylor’s t2i to her Civic (please, risk my 5D mkIII on a test?? And on my NEW car? I don’t think so) and took it for a spin around the block. Here’s the video. I’d be interested to try it out again, mounted more securely for a faster spin, maybe with an IS lens to stabilize some of that vibration.

Here’s the vid:

And some more pics from the week:

Stock Music

// March 19th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Music, Video

So I know I haven’t been posting a lot recently. Most of it is for good reasons!

Reason 1: I got engaged.

I’m sure if you read this blog, you’ve already seen the video and some basic photos I took when Tay and I got engaged. Here are some photos that never quite made it to the blog from when we went out for our celebration dinner:

The Grill At Morrison House

Flowers Delivered to the Table

Enjoying Some Wine!

Dessert

Reason 2: Mass Effect 3

Yeah, you wish Tali looked like that

Now, I know this is not necessarily a good reason, but this series of games has been amazing, and Mass Effect 3 is no different. The only difference now is that I have to fight Tayor for Xbox time so that we can both play. I’m happy to say that I finished the game, and it was a great ride… except the ending. I can live with it, but it is a bit of a let down.

Reason 3: Work

I’ve been hard at work these past few months growing my photography business (we’ve nearly booked up every weekend in Sept / Oct!), and doing some video production work.

Martin Workin’ the Cam

While I can’t really share the videos that I’ve been working on, one neat side effect of me doing these videos is it gives me an excuse to write stock music to use. So here are a couple that I came up with, just real generic corporate sounding tracks:

So there you have it. I’ve been hard at work, just unfortunately not on selling music. But I’m so thankful for the video opportunities that have been popping up. Here’s hoping that they continue.

Blow Cover

// October 15th, 2011 // 3 Comments » // Video

Has it taken me nearly 5 months to record and edit? Yep.

Is this song culturally relevant anymore? Probably not.