2012 in 2012 seconds

Well, it’s nearly 2012.

The year that has it’s hyped up apocalyptic ending, it’s world of change, the year that everything is happening. 2012 is apparently going to be the biggest year in terms of technical advancement, but also the year of global reset and financial strain. “It’s going to be a difficult year,” the politicians say, “businesses are going to have to try harder to stay alive.”

Already it’s not sounding great, and there’s only 2012 seconds left of 2011, (but now there’s far less, I don’t write posts in milliseconds.)

There’s all these people standing upon the social networking clouds, shouting down their feelings as the last moments tick by, “What’s your New Year Resolution?” , “Glad this year is over.” , “Bring on 2012.”  However, I’m not sure I follow this feeling of excitement, and as for a New Year Resolution? Another promise to try to keep with myself which I’ll end up forgetting after the hype of the new digits calm down.

To think that a year is just a name that we’ve slapped onto the Earthly rotation around the sun. Which doesn’t add up when you look at the time . . . because if that’s the case, it may already be 2012 technically, it may already be that the Earth has made its full rotation already, because we base days on the light, and the years on our position in the galaxy, they don’t match up.

But as much as I’d like to complain about my off-topic confusion, I have to question myself…

For right now I sound like an absolute full-blown nutcase, just reading back on my post I feel like it’s just a measly reason for me to say, “See, I was there the moment the year ticked 2012.”  I can feel my uncertainty, I want this new year, but I don’t want it, both forces crave but hate equally.

I don’t want this year to end.

Because I know, just like every year before, we’ll all change again.

We’ll all act differently, feel differently. Now that the hierarchy has shifted it’ll be a realignment of character, and as much as this intrigues me to see who we’ll become, what we’ll all act like. It makes me question if I am the same person each year, or if I’m simply a new person trying fill in, the acting replacement.

 

Thanks for reading this short piece, obviously my brain is degrading due to the oncoming turmoil of 2012 . . . may just be the lack of sleep.

 

Until next year.

 

Ben.

 

VidLog

VidLog: Kortal Mombat Action Scene

For the finale episode of NeWs!, a comedic school news show displayed in a few of the assemblies in 2011, we had an epic action scene in the style of a console game beat-em-up. We actually started this probably 4-5 weeks before we actually started preparing the final episode of NeWs!, and it’s just as well too, because the amount of time that went into this video was more than a thousand sponges could even dream of soaking up, well if somehow, some nuclear experiment went wrong and gave sponges the ability to soak up time itself…

Nonetheless, this improvised video took shape the more we filmed it. The brilliant action/comedic mastermind of Ollie was the true inspiration for the video, as we filmed he would include extra ideas, “Yeah I so Alex you can like run at him, and he’ll step back and then you have to stagger towards him okay?” When we all had all seen the foam head in the drama room, Ollie instantly knew we could use it as part of a violent effect. So working it all out on the move, I decided whether or not the effects were possible or not, and then figured out a way we could do them. Alex and Alex, our fighting aliases, recorded a series of grunts, groans and Aaaahhgghs for the “game”, I guess the fact that these sounds repeated throughout the video really helped it feel like a video game, although . . . didn’t really at all.

Now just to give you an idea of how much this video was mashed with effects and colour, look at the above photo!

Every single scene of video had to be individually motion tracked, then the sky would be replaced, the video would then be “cartoonised” slightly, followed by multiple harsh colour correction layers, a few little textures were added along with the HUD, which was made in photoshop, AND finally in a few parts of the video, a dragon was also added flying in the sky. Not many people noticed the dragon… oh well, but it still helped add some atmosphere to the video.

Surprisingly the beginning bit with the menu was made before the rest of the video, my reason for doing so is because that was the fun part.

Some other things that were added into the video, although it probably wasn’t worth adding them in, was a few castles at the beginning. In the video world this method of adding things into the background is called set extension, but it’s also known as matte painting. It’s where you merge a photo or video into one to make a new structure, landscape, etc. This method is used A LOT in shows like Merlin, Terra Nova, Doctor Who . . . But particularly Merlin.

The images I used for this are in Public Domain, this means they are Royalty Free, or in more simpler terms, I can use them for anything I want, commercial or otherwise, without having to worry about people suing my arse into a thousand pieces. Because I quite like my arse in one piece.

Normally if you’re getting Royalty Free images it will cost you, thankfully I found this great site: http://www.public-domain-image.com/ which has a wide variety of photos, free for use in anything. There’s also another large collection of stock photos at PacHD.com

“Ben, what about the awesome throwing effects?”

I noticed that everyone started cheering when Ollie tossed the first Kortal Mombat fighter into the air, so they evident ally thought it looked cool. So the question is, how did Ollie throw Alex that far into the sky?

Well it turns out, we didn’t throw nobody. The benefit of this kind of effect, is that it’s over pretty quickly, plus, because of the fast movement you can use a lot of blurring to hide your video editing tricks. As you can see in the image above, the shadow of Alex looks considerably dodgy, but because this shadow is only visible for about a second, it doesn’t really matter that much. All eyes are being drawn to the guy getting picked up. But that again is another trick.

I used a still frame of Alex lying down with his leg up and key framed (edited frame-by-frame in the video) the picture so that it followed Ollie’s clenched hands as he pretended to throw someone. Speed the action up enough, and hey presto! In fact, every punch, kick and swing in this video were sped up to make them look more violent, a technique also used in many action videos, a technique which I picked up by watching Freddiew‘s YouTube video “Whose gun is it anyway?”

I bet you feel ripped off now! When Ollie ended the video with a dramatic head-kicking, it turns out that it was all a big rouse. As you can see in the image above, it’s that foam head I mentioned earlier in the post. Okay, so Ollie kicked a foam head instead of Alex’s REAL head, but what about his body? It’s clearly visible behind the head . . . and it is missing a head!

I’ll tell you now that we didn’t get a life-size replica of Alex and lay it on the ground with the fake head. We did something a lot more computery. (I make up words, get use to it.)

I got Alex to lay on the ground for a little bit so that I could get a single frame of JUST him. Then we got him out of the shot, making sure that the foam head was placed EXACTLY where his head was, (Though as it turns out, that didn’t really need to happen.) then Ollie kicked the foam head out of shot.

The still frame above of Alex lying there was motion tracked ONTO the grass, then with a little bit of rotoscoping and editing the effect of his head being kicked off was produced. Thankfully it was another one of those fast startling effects that allows you to be a little bit sloppy, you’ll notice in the image of the foam head the masking I did to add the still image of Alex in wasn’t perfect, because it didn’t need to be.

Well, hope you enjoyed this VIDLOG, another little insight into how much I really need to get a life.

I find it interesting that I wrote this VidLog on the 29th of December, when the first VidLog I wrote on the 29th of November… oh drat, actually not anymore, because it’s just gone 12:05 AM . . . that just screwed up my endnote. Anyways until the next VIDLOG…

 

Ben,

Merry Christmas

Well, It’s officially Christmas day.

I really don’t feel like writing anything at the moment, yeah, pretty poor effort for someone that’s supposed to be a blogger. But if you are interested in reading something… here’s a SOSE assignment I wrote about the Christmas Ceasefire back in WW1. The task was to watch a movie called Joyeux Noel and then write a letter from one of the soldiers. We were trying to feel what they felt, see what they saw, and smell what they smelt . . . in about two pages.

My letter, I decided, was going to be from one of the Scottish soldiers, I even included traditional (as traditional as a Google search can conjure) Scottish language in the assignment, hope you enjoy reading it.

The Ceasefire
To my dearest children and my sweet Annabel,
I’m hoping that ye’ve been having a wonderful Christmas; hopefully ye don’t receive this letter at a time where Christmas has long come and gone.  It really shames me that I was unable to be there to watch each of yer gleaming eyes dart over that beautiful Christmas tree ye sent me a picture of in our last letter, it certainly looks far greater than any of the decorations we have here in the trenches. Then, there is a bit of snow. Yesterday there was the sound of crunching ice beneath my feet as I walked down the slimy mud floor of the trench, holding onto my cup of slightly-flavoured hot cocoa. I gazed around at all the small decorations hanging all around the pit that we’d been held hostage too, reminding us all that despite the war, it was Christmas, and we were somehow meant to feel festive about it.
“Want me to feel festive? How about they send us some decent food?” None of this scaffy rubbish I’ve been eating for the past week. I’m about to finish the last of my hot cocoa, and quite frankly I’m glad that’s the case.  Derek reckons that Continue reading “Merry Christmas”
NeWs!

NeWs! Finale

The NeWs! Finale ended off the series, and the year, with a creepy, yet loud and clear: “BANG!”

The NeWs! Episode Finale was shown on the final day of school in 2011. That’s December the 21st, and guess what, it was a great success.

In the NeWs! Finale there was:
  • Open Day Segment
  • Action Scene: Ollie the Hacker
  • Action Scene Preview
  • Athletics Carnival Segment
  • Randomie: “Bash Him”
  • Gavin’s Head Shaving
  • An Emotional Ending

Hosted by Mikayla, Sam and Alex, this year’s leavers, the episode ran us through the Open day, the Athletics Carnival, an all new Action Scene, Randomie, Head Shaving and a dramatic heart-touching ending. Without a doubt the most well put together episode of the NeWs! out of the entire 5-episode series, all the feedback we received was EPIC.

Thanks so much to everyone that supported us through the series, we do hope to return in 2012.

Episode Screenshots:

This show was hosted by:

-Sam, Alex, Mikayla
Runtime:
13:50
VidLog

VidLog: The Future Of Cheating

Welcome to my first VidLog! To be honest I just kinda made up the word VidLog . . . probably someone else out there already using it, but nonetheless. I’ve decided it’s in both mine and this site’s interest that I actually write about the videos I produce, it’s more interesting to you, more interesting to me so everybody’s happy.

This is one of the videos that I filmed last holiday when I went to Tasmazia. Although the video didn’t exactly turn out as I’d imagined it, it’s still pretty neat and gave me some practice for effects I’ll probably do later on. I won’t give you a run down of the story line, basically because at 1 minute it’s really not a long twisty-curvy blockbuster.

Watch “The Future of Cheating” here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipKGO0VrcbA

Okay now onto the basic stuff about it!

The Process

I first had the idea of a maze-y video when my family informed my of a holiday trip we’d be going on in the school holidays, Tasmazia, a large activity maze in Tasmania’s northern half. I had the idea of the maze retracting to the sides, the maze ripping apart to form a passageway . . .

As it happens, the film making process results in many of your ideas going down the toilet. What you imagine and what you end up filming and editing are two entirely different things. This video didn’t turn out as good, nor as visual as I’d hoped. For example, instead of having the maze rip apart to form a doorway I went for the cheap easy option of just blinding the viewer with so much white light that it covers up the fact there’s no real decent vfx.

Nonetheless. Unless you work with Adobe After Effects the rest may seem a bit bizarre, I would explain it further, but meh.

The first thing I did was import all of the footage I’d filmed while I was on holiday and cut it all up in my video editor to set the basic idea of what I wanted, I could always adjust it later if I wanted to remove bits. The next step was to colour correct the footage to add more depth and really set the feel of the film, as you can see in the image below, it really changes the look of things from that home-filmed cam video into that defined movie-look.

Here’s another example of how much the colour correction can make a bland dull video into a sharp characterized image, just the amount of colour in the leaves and floor gives the video more life. After the colour correction I moved onto the effects, the bright light was just a shape with a feathered mask, and a blend mode of add. Then I added a few distortion effects in an adjustment layer so that the whole video reacted more to the supposed cheat.

I also added various elements to enrich the video further, these include smoke elements, dust and debris to make maze look like it’s misty, also to add more life to the massive gateway being formed within the maze.

Next I set to work on the futuristic holographic display. Above is an image of the first version, a real simple interface, which I actually prefer to the one I ended up adding to the video. On my iPod Touch I quickly opened up a drawing program and on a black canvas, drew 3 white dots that I could use for tracking. I really only needed two in the end, but I’ll now know that for future reference. The reason I drew the tracking points on my screen is so that I could track both the rotation and the scale of the iPod as I held it in my shake hand.

After applying the tracking data to a null layer, I created several 3D objects, and using the null layer I’d just created, made these objects stick to the iPod effortlessly. Then I just needed to animate them by turning on motion blur and also by setting the opacity to “Wiggle.”

I just had a major deja vu moment while writing this. . . . whoaoaoaoah!

So after all that I just fixed minor problems and started adding the sound.

I recorded the computer’s voice myself, using a freeware program called Audacity. Using a combination of equalization and high-pass filters you can make a radio-electronic sound. But apart from that I made sure that anything I said twice sounded exactly the same as last time.

Finally using a mix of free sounds from PacDV.com, along with those from my royalty free collection, I added swishes, beeps and ambience to the video.

So there we have it! Hope you enjoyed both the video and this VidLog, do subscribe to me on my YouTube channel or create an account on this website if you enjoy this content!

See you next time,

Ben.

MyState Film Festival: VOID

I briefly mentioned the MyState Film Festival in my last post, and here’s the official follow-up.

This year MyState Financial ran its student film festival again, I do believe it’s their 10th consecutive festival so far, but I could be wrong about that. Anyways, this year I started work on my entry, starting on it a bit later in the year than I should have.

Before you read any further in this post, I suggest you actually watch it, that way I won’t tell you anything about the story that will ruin it for you. =) Here it is:

Titled VOID, my film leaps into the empty space between parallel universes, a sci-fi theory about “Universal Bubbles.” This clear zone if you like, is said to contain absolutely nothing. Empty nothingness, referred to as the Void. Now that you’ve seen the video already you may even be thinking:

“Ben, there was dust and mist floating around outside in your video, did you make a mistake? Shouldn’t it just be pitch black?”

Technically yes, but since it’s sci-fi, anything’s possible. I like to think about the dust and mist as a transportational [made up word] side effect.

The Orb Explained

If you’re one of those science y people who for some reason want to know how a non-existent, fictional device works, well. I’ve written here my little blurb about what the orb is, and how it works.

The main idea with VOID is that the orb is an inter-universal transportation device, which teleports all lifeforms within the container of presence into the void, and from there you can teleport into any universe you like. The void essentially acts as a junction. The reason the students were still inside the classroom when transported into the void is because the orb sustains a “static image of the last container of presence,” basically the room is just a still hollow snapshot to ensure that the passengers don’t get too alarmed, keeping in mind that this device isn’t intended for use by the human race.

The orb has a few fail safes in place to ensure that the ‘flight remains safe.’ One of these safety features is the container lock down. Since the orb is sustaining the life of all passengers by emulating the previous container of presence (I bet you’re getting sick of that phrase), along with being the only way to actually exit the void, it has a built-in fail safe to prevent it from leaving the room. Should the orb pass more than 20cm beyond the container an energy field will kick into action, assuming the worst, the container fully locks up, preventing any exit from the container. Although this feature seems to be in development, as the orb was catastrophically propelled away from the barrier.

The orb emits an electronic current to keep the virtual room stable, and if touched by a life form with an electronic current of its own, the orb will quickly change its method of power to ensure that no harm comes to the life form holding it. As clever as this may be, depending on the life form the method of power the orb changes to might not be strong enough to sustain the container. Luckily this wasn’t the case for our universe travelling homo-sapiens.

There really is a lot of interesting things to spot in this video, (apart from the many glitches and cast members vanishing here and there) one of the things that many don’t notice at the end, is the change of cup. The reason Jake notices that they’re in the wrong universe, is because the teachers coffee cup changes, and although it didn’t really come through in the video, he also noticed that the teachers handwriting was a lot neater.

But apart from that the story-line is actually quite interesting if you can figure it out. I’ll probably do another post about the video after the film festival is over. Those that never noticed will probably go, “Oh yeah! I see!” . . . Who knows, maybe you’ll just yawn.

I really would like to revisit this project at some point and correct all of the errors that I couldn’t correct in time for the due date. But nonetheless, I hope you enjoy/enjoyed watching VOID, and good luck to everyone else entering the competition.

I personally don’t expect to get very far in the competition at all, yeah there’s a nice story line if you can pick it, and yeah there’s a decent effect or two, but it’s not consistent, some parts are so shabby and the sound quality is terrible . . .

Anyways, until next time readers.

Ben,

(P.S. This is what I was talking about in my last post, I really want my posts to be more interesting like this one, this is the direction this site is heading from now on)