Post Production: Editing Live Action Sequences

Editing Live Action Sequences:

Today, I officially started piecing shots together into the first sequences of the short film. As the rotoscoped sections are still in progress, I began with live action. For example, in the scene where Lucy looks through the keyhole "Lucy's Dream", the shots have been blurred and altered to have a cooler, misty looking effect in order to imply that what the audience sees is a dreamy vision. Using temperature and compound blur settings, the picture above shows the original shot (left) and the edited piece (right).

Also during production, I took two shots of the same scene but with different white balance settings. This is because these scenes will be shown twice in the film; once in a dream and again in the real world. For instance, the shots above have two different white balance filters applied. The one on the left is daylight and the other on the right is indoor lighting. 

Production: 2nd Location Shoot

2nd Location Shoot

Today was the 2nd day of filming on location. I selected Donisthorpe woodland trails and Conkers Water Side, Moira. The purpose today was to complete the scenes for the dream that the rotoscoped character has of a better reality. Also, the ending scene of the main character redrawing a sketch with a more optimistic outlook.

Post Production: First Scene COMPLETE

First Scene COMPLETE:

After rotoscoping every frame of the live action shot, the first animated scene for my short film is complete. It's the scene that transitions from animation to live action, a vital point in the films plot revealing that the main character's cage was nothing but an illusion.

Production: Creating visual effects with food colouring

Creating Visual Effects, with food colouring:

Whilst I'm at home for the Christmas Holidays, today I had a go at creating some of my own visual effects for my short film; using food colouring and water. Quite simply, I placed my Cannon 100D camera close up to a clear bowl of water in front  of a plain white board, prepared two types of food colouring and separately filmed them being poured into the bowl.

The concept of this idea for visual effects came from the exhibited film Everything and More  by Rachel Rose. In the film, Milk and oil was used to create a nebula effect to link to the film's narration from a former astronaut on the topic of Space.

With this footage, I intend to alter it in post production to make it more 'mystic looking. The concept of this is to be used whilst the main character is dreaming inside their cage of black and white. Dreaming about this colour and brilliant swirling clouds shows what they would long for outside their cage; if they had the courage to step out of it.

Production: 1st Location Shoot

1st Location Shoot:

Today I began filming on Location at Staunton Harold Reservoir outside Lount. The purpose of today's shoot was to capture scenic footage to use in between the scenes with the lead actress walking in the woods. Using the appropriate white-balance settings, exposure and aperture, I wanted to create a cold misty scene; complimenting the frost and dew on the ground and in the trees. The intention for these is to make it seem like a dream, something that's a vision inside the lead actress' head (when the rotoscope version of her is dreaming.). Likewise, for the scene at the end of the short film when everything is 'real', I intend to use settings on my camera to create a warmer positive feeling.

Post Production: Beginning Rotoscope Animation

Beginning Rotoscope Animation:

After aquirring the raw footage on shooting day. I began the process of rotoscoping the scenes. To do this, I first loaded the video into Photoshop, cut it down to the appropriate shots needed, then converted the video to PNG frame files. After this, I had each frame to begin tracing over using a graphics tablet and Manga Studio 5. 

Production: 1st Studio Shooting Day

1st Studio Shooting Day:

Today was the first official shooting day for the visuals of my project. I hired out the 1/2 cove photography studio at the university and hired several items of equipment ready for today's shoot. Such pieces included the Cannon 600D camera, an accompanying tripod and dolly for use of tracking shots.

 The purpose of today was to capture my main actress against a plain white background for the scenes in my film that are meant to be on a 'sketchbook'. This is so that in post production, I can carry out a method of animation called rotoscoping. This being drawing over the actress' figure to create an animated version of her at the same frame rate as the raw footage.