How to create layers in the film which need alien environmets

Creating layers in Si-fi films is all about bringing different shapes. Our current project is based on an unknown planet and its hard to create a planet environment from scratch. On the other hand it is easy as no one can say how it should look and we can create the location as we want.

After searching some art work, I find the use of circles and some straight lines the artist create three layers in the scene. The fore ground, mid and back ground. By doing that artist try to bring the 3d elements and feeling in there 2d work. I am also planning to bring that same feeling and elements in my work for this project.

The first picture is the perfect example, as there is a fore ground  which is dark so the eye will not focus on it but still it will create the distance and keeping the object closer it will create the feeling of vastness on the other layers.

The main focus is the middle as it is in the focus and it is the most brightest part of the scene.

By making the background big and out of focus it will create more depth and will give the feeling of lost in a big area.

The artist had also used the shape of circle to its max.  and bring the feeling of balance in the picture.

 

The second picture is a good example of creating a perfect landscape by not keeping the land equal. The land is never in the same level and lots of people do the mistake of drawing a plain land which kill the illusion of reality.

 

60p for cinematic game trailers

One of the thing which make video game trailers different from film trailer is frame rate. In film where we try to bring some motion blur to make it more realistic on games the developers try take off as much motion blur they can as people demand more smooth game play.  Now a days the minimum standard for any game is 30p but with the launch of ps4 its gone to 60p as many players enjoying playing games in 60p on ps4 and they love the experience. 

 

                                                                                       Recently Hobbit was shoot on 60p and one of the criticism it got, that it looked like video game and that what we want.  We want our trailer to look more like a video game rather than a film. I think so if we shoot it in 60p it will help to bring that feeling plus it will be better to key the scene as there will b no motion blur. 

Breakdown of of video games cinematic trailers.

After watching hours of cinematic trailers I come up with this break down sheet of video games cinematic trailers.

1. It start with a narration and shows the location of the setting with a bird eye view.

2. Introduction of problem, the world is about to end….reasons, alien attack , pandemic , darkness consume world( demons) and corrupt government. 

3. Introduction of the hero/protagonist with a heroes shot. 

4. Introduction of the villain/antagonist. usually never shown completely ( always hidden in the shadows) Either can see the eyes or some parts.

 

5. shows the weapon used in the game.

 6. Actions with narration like last hope, saviour, only you can save the world  and how humanity can survive   etc.

Experience during this year

Last year was ok as my learning curve goes but this year is being really good, when it comes to learning. I think so I had grown a lot and I think so it happened because I listen to my critics in my class by patrick and try to implement now. Now I dont shoot any stuff, I think for every thing the composition, the depth, the exposure the lighting to the mood and how the story should flow.

I want to become a Director and a Cinematography as both of them tell stories, one through the eyes of a actor and one through the lens. I had two goals in  the beginning of this year to improve the skills of my cinematography and direction and I believe I had improved in my cinematography and I will keep on striving to improve more and now my next year goal is to improve my skills as a director and polish my cinematography skills.

I am happy to achieve what I had during this year  journey.  I learned more and it will be helped full for next year. Being in all the shoots helped me and doing a green screen movie also helped me to prepare for any future green screen projects. I also learn the importance of collaboration as it is very important part of film making. A film can be ones Idea but if if collaborate and ask right people for the critics we can bring more layers and depth in that idea. This summer I will try improve my skills more. There will be enough time to do more research and and do some shooting. I will continuos to write my blogs through the summer as it will be a nice thing to reflect back and see where I was and what section I have to improve more.

Script to screen

As it happen with lots of film, that it changed ones I edited and screened same happen with my film but the story looked better after the edit as there was potential to change the story in the post as it was green screen and voice over was there . Thanks the Patrick and Callum which helped me to shape the story well.

                 After seeing the final product. I think so the pace was too fast. There was no breathing space in that. I need to give some space to feel in moments in some scene so people can feel the situation and the character. Specially  after the death of Allan I should have put a gap between that scene and the kid stabbing Michael scene as it happened very fast. Still have to find the right music to suit the pace of the movie but now I will have time to seat with a composer and get the music according to the pace.

Work flow for my film

When I started editing my film . I edited in premiere and then linked the files from premiere to after effect but When I comes to rendering, I start taking very long time and start shutting down.  I should have done is separated as it would be easy on the computer to handle it as the ram in the computer are not that high to handle to separate software at same time.  Ideally I should have used one of the editing suits but it was booked. I have loaded all in my hard drive so I can use two computer but the same problem happen with my hard drive to connecting two software. Next time ideally I should use one at a time and then exported it to work on the other. Even 30 sec. of cut is taking 20 mints just to render in the time line.

Experience as a DOP on others shoot...

My first shoot was Matt's shoot.  I had a chat with Matt earlier, regarding his video . Ones I reached the set, I changed the set dressing as the piano was in front of the shadow screen. The second thing I did was try to bring the set to more 3d as compare to 2 d just move few things around . The shoot was shot so used to camera BMC and BMPCC.  There was still some problem as I didn't use the monitor and BMPCC screen was pretty small to see it properly.

The second problem was one of the lead was not do at dancing, So I ask them to do contemporary dance and try to focus more on the girl and the shadows rather than the man guy. My shot selection was difficult due to that but I still try to get a story out of it by only choosing angles which was more from focus on others and on good movements. I enjoyed my shoot with Matt as I got some interesting shoots and will be good reference for future music videos.


The second shoot was with Dan, It was easy as I had got with him in the location and kind of knew what shot I wanted to do . I enjoyed my shoot and I was happy with my cinematography, expected the gip shot as the HDMI cable of the moniter was not working, So I gussed the shot and the space for using gib was very narrow but we move inside due to the bad weather and it was a on the spot decision.


The third was with Dough's second day, It was hard for me as I didnt knew the actions of the actor properly but I was in stick so it was alright.

The third shoot was of Lana's film. I am not sure of all the shoots as Matt did share with him but the shot I discussed with Lana  before turns to be really good.  She had a trippy sequence and I did some research and come up with a plan. I used the reference of Mean Street where the camera was riged to the actor and the same reference in a music video where the camera was rigged to the actor but I diced to change it a bit and told lana that I will use Gopro riged in a dolly. We couldnt find dolly so I decided to riged in a trolly and lucky Ash was in the set and he riged gopro for us. The gopro have a wide distort angle (fish eye ) and I just pushed the trolly around Plus I used lots ok Bokeh effect as a cut away for the scene as they were very trippy. I was just a little bit unhappy with me in the last shots as I was very tired and I was using long lens on a handheld without a IS but lana wanted a handheld movements in it. Hope the shots will turn out to be good.