Accompanied by narration
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Story Board
Accompanied by narration
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Synopsis
Inspirit Synopsis
The story begins when the protagonist is a young child. During his younger years the protagonist’s grandfather entertains him with tales from a culture he once belonged, done in a similar manner to how a tribal elder conveys the lore of that tribe’s previous generations. The tales would be considered “fantastical” by a modern “western” society perception, yet as a small child the protagonist lacks the need for scientific validity and is uninhibited by cynicism, so the tales have a profound effect on him. Occasionally his grandfather told the stories in front of a gigantic stone where he claimed miraculous feats were performed, although the place only revealed itself to those who truly believed it could exist.
Eventually the grandfather dies but before doing so he bestows the cane upon the protagonist and leaves him the omega of his grandfather’s culture, which not even his parents believe in. The cane isn’t magical in a supernatural sense, rather, it represents the bond between the protagonist and his grandfather, so it has a sentimental value that makes it powerful.
By the time the protagonist has become an adolescent the tales have become increasingly repressed by modern influences. Like most in society he’s been exposed to various forms of influences telling him what he should think resulting in an inadvertent loss of faith in his grandfather’s practices, but not because he wants this but because it’s what society subconsciously dictates.
Several years later the protagonist is cleaning the attic and discovers a chest full of his grandfather’s belongings, inside it he discovers the instructions to perform one of the miraculous feats. The discovery acts as a catalyst that opens a repository of repressed memories thus enabling him to regain some of his childhood belief. Now enthused the protagonist decides to attempt the feat although he doesn’t really understand what it does, regardless he gathers his grandfather’s cane and heads to the field where the gigantic rock is located.
Following the instructions he clears the clouds from the sky to enable the moonlight to shine down upon the stone. The celestial energy charges the stone and once “in tune” by placing his palms firmly upon its surface the protagonist can yield its power
Next he plants the cane into the ground and through heavy concentration summons energy from the stone causing the cane to sprout foliage. He has brief success but soon doubts what he’s doing causing everything to come undone. The cane returns to its original state and he discovers the gigantic stone is now tiny. He retrieves it and returns home wondering whether he made a mistake in his performance or whether just imagined everything.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Crumpled Grass
[...]The only exception is that the grass doesn't get crumpled upon, but I can't blame anyone for not being able to succesfully do that.
Crumble grass wouldn't be that hard to achieve. The reason why I didn't add any disturbance when the feet hit the ground is because the location in the background plate is a well grazed field. So in other words cattle have chewed the grass right down to its roots and compacted the soil making it quite solid. So the only way to "crumble" the surface would be to apply force with something heavy, a lot heavier than Guy anyway.
However, if the ground were softer and the grass were longer it would be quite simple to add this crumbling you write of.
- Open up the background plate in a program like Photoshop and isolating the area where the feet hit the ground.
- Draw a change on the ground (like disturbed dirt or slight grass crumbling) when the foot comes in contact then export it as a new image.
- Repeat the process every time the foot hits the ground.
- Take sequence of images in the video editing program and place them in the exact position beneath the feet in order of least changed to most changed.
That should get you an artificial result, but nothing beats the real thing!
Friday, May 4, 2007
Peter Greenaway
Lumiere & Company
"I do indeed think that cinema is mortal. There is a lot of evidence already that it is dying on its feet."
Peter Greenaway made a 52 second short film for the Lumiere & Company collection of short films. It relates images from the origin of the Lumiere Brothers' first camera in 1895 to the present day.
M is for Man Music Mozart - Vesalius Song
Windows
"Windows" (1974) features narration (provided by Greenaway) over four minutes of shots depicting an English countryside in which 37 residents felt compelled to commit "defenstration," i.e., falling out of windows. The first of Greenaway's lavish "fictional histories," this is a good primer for newcomers and features effective use of Jean-Philippe Rameau on the soundtrack.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Grow Plant Grow
But I've been doing some occassional experimentation with an effect to make a plant to appear to be growing from the ground.
So here's the very first test...
Sunday, April 29, 2007
High Definition Filmming may be a possibility
Guy held a meeting with him at lunch time of Friday 13th so they could discuss Guy's project. I thought it would benefitial to come along and meet Justin - a wise decision and he seems to be an insightful and delightful chappy.
He's also expressed interest in filmming my project too which would be wonderful because the quality of MiniDV video is hurting the realism of my compositing.