NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STORYTELLERS COMPETITION

This is a competition hosted by National Geographic Travellers magazine and their corresponding online presence. Obviously the emphasis is to be on travel and "telling a story" The competition has several categories including Video, Photo and Blog. Naturally I decided to submit a video

For an earlier competition I had created a video that contrasted the stone and water environment of Georgian Bay Ontario with that of Iceland. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the outcome, partly because I had to tailor the video to the specifications of that competition

But I liked the original idea. Both areas are defined by the interaction of stone and water; the Canadian Shield of the Georgian Bay and volcanic rock of Iceland. In both cases one is impressed by the power of water that has carved and shaped the stone of thousands of years. This is the story I wanted to tell

I already had the shots I wanted so I fiddled around with the structure of the video. At first I was thinking of traditional travel videos that use narration to tell their story. I wrote and self recorded some voice over but was not satisfied with the result.

I have always been about, when possible, letting the visuals tell the story and use music as the structure. For a competition like this one must have the rights to the music you use; and although I think Moby is a terrific guy and he was generous to permit some of his music to be used for the Vimeo competition last year, I didn't want to test said generosity. So I created my own soundtrack in Garage band

Music bed goes down, video gets edited to it; nothing terribly complex here, just contrasting the two locations. But it still needed a little something. So instead of using narration I just created a few simple title cards: White lettering on a black screen. I decided to work with a black screen instead of superimposing or "supering" the titles over video. I wanted to keep a good pace to the video, I wanted to keep it moving, and white on black is less distracting, the titles can be quickly and easily read without disturbing the rhythm of the music.

The soundtrack is more than just music. When not using a voice over, I always feel you have an opportunity to layer the audio, to use that soundtrack as a kind of narration. So along with the music I have ambient audio, that being the sound associated with a clip, like the sound of the waterfall. I also striped in (an old old video editing term that means inserting sound under a clip) audio not tied to a clip; there are boat sounds and general water sounds recorded elsewhere that I blended in with the song itself

I was not satisfied with my first interpretation of this concept but I'm happy with this one (as happy as I ever am with a video) I have no idea if this video will be successful in the competition. I know they will be receiving thousands of entries and frankly I find the brief of "tell us a story" to be incredibly vague. So when I enter something like this, I just try to make the best video I can by my own standards within my interpretation of the brief.

Officially entered now, we'll see what happens.

ONE MINUTE FILM FESTIVAL

My little video Forever was selected as one of 60 films shown at the festival du film minute de lille in France on Dec 3

I don't know the total number of entries but I do know that the 60 were paired down from something ...

No idea how the video has fared, but it was shown at the festival live in front of hundreds of people and for a panel of judges

I'll keep you tuned

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MY OWN VIDEO

Thursday, pretty much on a whim, I decided to do a video for the One Minute Film Festival. No, it was not the video that will feature various version of me, that's still waiting on logistics.

I was mulling over a concept and realized I could do it using stock footage from my Moby video and some shots I could do right here at the house.

I wanted to do a video addressing the idea that you can capture and preserve memories or images or ideas ... like a video maker may do. We can record something and preserve it but that very act aren't we already altering? It's an old concept, about the very fact of observing something already removes it from that moment.

So I decided to use some of my footage of Moniquea, record a little voice over of an obsessed video maker and lead up to a shot or two expressing the futility of making something unique.

That was the idea but when I was done, I think I came up with something different. Now, I could have considered this a failure and gone back to the drawing board, so to speak, but I kind of liked what I had. The one minute time constraint is very interesting. I imagined that it would require a great deal of discipline but at least in this instance, it became something organic.

This particular video festival allows you to enter five different films so I thought What the Hell, let's go with it. I would appreciate feed back on this one; after all, it surprised me as much as it may you.

"Forever"

60 SECOND FILM FESTIVAL: 2 CONCEPTS

So I have ideas for a couple of ideas for the Sixty Second Film Festival which closes around the middle of next month. Don't get excited, we all know what can happen to my original ideas.

The first idea is just a little humorous idea where I get play around with a few video concepts in which I've dabbled before, but I want to take it a bit further. The idea is perfectly me ... I mean, really me. As in there will be five characters in the video and I will be all of them. At the same time. You've all seen this, it's a very old idea in both film and TV. The basic idea is to have me on the left side of the screen and me on the right side of the screen at the same time.

It's not a very complex technique to pull off. Basically what you need to do is set your shot of whatever set you intend to use, take a long shot of the set as its empty, then film the two shots; me on the right side then me on the left. In Final Cut I will lay the shot of the empty set on my bottom, or base layer. Then stack the two shots of me, so that I have three shots on top of each other. With just a two shot I can use the Crop tool, wiping away half the empty shot, to reveal both aspects of me. With five me's, it becomes a bit trickier, I will have to use the Crop in accordance with a garbage matte. basically drawing an invisible frame around each character so that all the backgrounds blend in seamlessly.

The post aspect is rather simple. But for this to work, it's the shooting that is the key. If you don't shoot it properly, you can't "fix it in post"

There are a few keys to properly shooting this:

1) Tripod. You have to shoot this on a tripod. Your camera cannot move at all, in any of the shots or the illusion will be shattered. That background is like your canvas, it cannot move or change a bit.

2) Framing. This goes very much with the first point. You have to frame the shot working out where all the instances of you are going to be then lock that shot down. Once it's framed you can't changed it so you really need to be sure you have it right.

3) Blocking. This follows the point number two. You have to think what your characters ... all of the "you's" are going to be doing. You need to be careful that one shot of you doesn't overlap the other. I am no matting wizard and I am no After Affects pro and that's the kind of digital firepower you would need to get as complex as having me shake hands with me .. that ain't happening for this project. But I do want to be able to have conversations with me so I have to know where each instance of me will be in the shot so I can turn as if I'm talking to Victor ..... damn, I could never do this drunk

4) Location. This is important as well. Firstly I need a set large enough to be able to accomadate 4 or 5 of me moving around without overlapping too much. I also need something that I can evenly light, you want to avoid flickering shadows etc. I won't be doing this outside. Besides moving light situations there is too much that can move in the frame, interior is easier.

So I'm seeing if I can shoot in one of Collette's schools, like a corridor , that will give me space and allow me to enter and exit the shot off screen. Stay tuned.

The second concept is still very much nascent. It hinges on Pirandello, a theatrical conceipt of which I am extremely fond. It's a kind of illusion; I am about to fool you, what you are about to see is dramatic, it's not real, but by the time I'm finished, you'll forget that.

The concept involves memory, images, and our attempt to capture the former in the latter. It's becoming what, for me, is a pretty typical production; I will need an actress but she won't really have a character and she really won't be doing anything. Gosh, they line up at my door for these parts.

Anyway, those are the plans. Let's see if any of it pans out

SIREN

So, one has a plan but we all know about plans ... especially with me.

Time and personal circumstances curtailed me from making the video for the song Siren, for the Kmag Video Competition, that I had originally conceived.

So it became a challenge to get the video done in just a few days, without onscreen talent, and of course with no budget. My interpretation of the song remained the same: A woman pushed to the breaking point by indifference and making a sudden break and would she be missed at all.

In this version of the video, my camera became the actress, as did dozens of unknowing women in the streets of Toronto. Once again, my city was essentially a character in one of my videos.

This competition had no restrictions on with what format the video had to be in. My original idea was to use the Canon XL1 and shoot it in standard def, mostly because with that camera I have a lot more control over exposure, focus, contrast etc. But when this became another run and gun production, the Sony Handycam became my weapon of choice. As did Collette's Nikon D-80 SLR.

I'm happy with the final product; it's shot at 30 fps (frames per second) instead of 25 fps so it looks like video, not film. Some of the interior shots could have used some colour grading but I was not going for the "film effect". To the contrary, I played with some of the shots to make them more "video like" with almost the colour saturation of old VHS.

Many of the shots in the video have been affected and I'm hoping that these affects/filters add to the language of the video. With the exterior shots, the crowd shots specifically I wanted to create a sort of unsure, unreal, confused impression ... the camerawork should add to this inpression as well.

For the interior shots I built filter effects that (hopefully) give a sense of nostalgia, or things left behind, perhaps even a dream like effect.

Watching the video myself I began to wonder if I have some kind of fetish for ladies shoes ... but the intent with these shots was to give the story a more universally female skew.

I'm not completely happy with this finished product but the deadline is fast approaching and I could have fiddled with it forever. But I am also happy with it, I think it conveys the emotion of the song.

You tell me







HD version here

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION PART TWO

A few months ago I decided to create a video for the Are We Connected film competition sponsored by Amplify Me in the US

It was one of my typical on the fly productions and I had fun making it

I was just informed that the video won third place in the festival. That finishes just outside the money but very exciting nonetheless. At this point I have no idea how many videos were entered in the competition, there could have been three for all I know.

I don't care. Don't mess with my bliss

My little video, or a segment from it, will be included as part of the film festival Amplify Me is hosting in Florida on Sept 22. So that's good news

Bad news is, this only encourages me to keep cranking out these videos. Speaking of which, I better get back to it

If you haven't seen Are You There, here is the low rez version, for the hi rez version, please click on this link

Are You There

OK SIREN, SHUDDUP, I HEARD YA ALREADY

OK, I've never claimed to be bright ... all right, I have claimed to be bright. But not sensible.

I kept thinking of the song Siren from the Bungle Music Video challenge and I can't get it out of my head. I pretty much talked myself out of my original concept for the video and with only a week to go, it really be impossible now to execute.

But perhaps there was a reason why I backed away from that idea. (Yes I'm trying to justify my own procastination, it's pretty much what I do here) That original concept took the literal interpretation of the song, of a woman breaking away, discarding her past and needing to be alone, and expanding on it slightly by using several actresses portraying the same roll ... but still keeping things pretty literal.

As I began to consider actually cranking out a video I thought: How can I do this without actresses, without locales and keep true to the essence of the song. And it struck me: I didn't want to do this literally, it was what I was rebelling against. I want the same feel of the song, make the singer's plight more universal and what better way to do that than without any characters at all ...

Stop. Put the phone down. Don't call the looney bin. I'm alright. Well, as alright as I've ever been.

I was thinking too big before. I was thinking in terms of a real production, one that would be produced by a real production company. I ain't none of that. I'm just me, the Idiot with A Camera. I want to do things gonzo, I want the challenge of being shoestring, that's what I like about these challenges.

So here I go. Four days to go. My Sony HD cam, Collette's Nikon, some props at the house, shooting in the city ...

Buckle up.