Film Intro Credit Idea [Keelan]

Here is a mock up of a credits sequence that I created using Adobe After Effects. This isn't the final idea, this is just an addition to Elliott's credit mock up, therefore we will have a few to choose from.

However, after creating I did think that it would be better to super impose the credits into the film rather than using an actual credit sequence as it's not normal that is done in short films.

Credit Mock-up - Elliott

Here is a mock-up I have made for the end credits and title card sequence for our short film. It isn't the final idea yet but, as well as helping me get back into editing, it helps give an idea of what the credits may look like.



The awful drawings do seem to go well with the opening to Se7en,
so that's something.

Unfortunately, to help better tie in the film with the promotional poster I want to use the same photos of our actors in each. This means that until my group gets together to make the assets, I have had to bust out my 'mad-1' art skills and use some weird/creepy drawings as placeholders. They would probably fit right into some horror film about a mentally-challenged artist, but don't quite cut it for our film.

Although the use of my art degree was nice it did make it quite hard to gauge what the final piece would look like, despite finding the mock-up very useful for developing ideas. It also helped me to find 'bugs' such as this insanely annoying one that made the whole video jump around like a Jack Russel on meth.


There was no cause or reason for this glitch out and the only solution was to move to a different editing software and start all over again (First problem I have ever had with Sony Vegas 11.)

The audio can be found here and is from a very small Youtuber I know who does not mind anyone using his music yet produces some very good stuff. I picked it because, with some alteration, it started to sound like the music that is often used for the credits in recent action movies (the new Die Hard in particular) and because the somber start seems to compliment the ending shots of our film.

The black on white credits will also lend a great effect to the piece, contrasting it to the many that use the standard white on black slow crawl. When looking for a good credit font I also received some great advice about this from a VFX expert on one of the better film-making websites saying:

If white is to be seen over a large area, like a white background instead of a black background, or a large dominent shape is white, then bring it all the way down to around 75%. Yes, indeed, the big "white" bar on NTSC color bars is actually only 75%! 75% looks slightly gray on a computer screen, but quite pleasing (not blaring) on a video or film screen, when it is the dominant color.  

 I was unsure about this at first because the off-white colour looks pretty bad on a laptop screen but after watching back on a TV it turned out to be great advice, the brightness is not as annoying or uncomfortable as with a large amount of pure-white light and that way makes the credits much easier to read.

Thanks to Red Giant for their Unmult plugin which I used excessively when making this.

VFX Breakdown #3 Graphic-Match transitions - Elliott

This is a very rough test of a technique which would be useful in the final project (in eye-destroying quality as I was in a rush for college), which allows me to emphasise a transition between two scenes or locations in a very cool way like in several blockbuster shows. (Sherlock is a great example as they are a fan of this transition)

The first shot is a great example of what can be done with the very same effect I used.

The bed transition though (as seen here) requires a rather higher budget

The yellow shape in this picture is the mask I animated

To make this effect I filmed both shots (kitchen and bedroom) with an identical left-right panning motion and tried to make the colours of both doors match as closely as possible. Unfortunately this was hard to do due to lacking a thousand pound camera tracking kit (meaning I had to shoot by hand) and the different lighting in each area.

To combat the lighting difference I had to use my least favourite form of editing (because I'm terrible at it) - Colour Correction. I did this in After Effects 6 (a great program which I have got since last year's thriller opening) and adjusted the hues and hightone colours of both shots to match in the middle.

It's a graphic match. ahahaha no.

To make the effect I used a mask and keyframed it to move with the edge of the bedroom door, then feathered the hell out of it to make the edge between the footage less noticeable.

I then used slow-motion and time-stretching to make the kitchen shot move at a slower speed, all within AE, This was particularly challenging and made the editing take much longer than it otherwise would have but, luckily, I don't think I will have to do this with the other graphic transitions me and my group have filmed.

Elliott's Epic Blog Headers

Like the Tibetan monks I am on a constant mission to better myself. while Monks shave their heads and sing Kung-Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas I choose to better myself with Tight Ass Blog Banners (and singing Kung-Fu Fighting.) As I've spent far too many hours making these things I've put up this post to chronicle the journey of that little bit at the top of the screen, from the shittest hype to the hypest shit.

The Original Gangsta - The first blog banner featured a boring name panel and low resolution photos cropped from our first group pic. Also subliminal spiral design. Nostalgic.

The Hat Trick - The photos got progressively weirder over the holidays and after deleting the crocodile we now have hats as well. Merry Christmas, yo.



The Dark Blog Rises -  Unfortunately I have now accidentally embedded the hats into the actual picture so no chance of getting rid of them for a while.

 The Gritty Reboot with some sweet effects captured as stills from Action Essentials 2.
The smoke assets and new name text came out great because of the way semi-transparent stuff can be edited in paint.net.

The Muzzle Flash - My first forray into prop making all for the sake of that one sweet shotgun picture. nice.
I've stuck in a muzzle flash and the title is screened on top of the gun to pull everything together.

The Frosted Flakes With the first day of filming comes the chance to eat Frosties in the name of cinema, we took the chance.

The Hype - Although it's a shame to see the amazing shotgun go, it's worth it to put the new photo center stage. I put out some new minimal titles and with some fancy rotoscoping gave the whole thing a 3D effect by putting some of the smoke and titles slightly behind the main pic AND I could finally get rid of the stupid hats.

Elliott Ridley

VFX breakdown #2 Focus pull and Camera Flare - Elliott

I covered both of these effects in preparation for my AS film last year, but due to equipment constraints was never able to use them in the finished product.

      

An example of a 2-shot that would
benefit from a focus pul

This year I have a laptop and my preferred VFX software (AE) so I should be able to finally make use of these effects. The focus pull will be very useful for a variety of shots that we have planned, especially during the poker scene where I hope to use it to show reactions in a two-shot, which is much more dynamic than
the normal way of taking a separate shot for each character's reaction.

While a separate camera could be used to do focus pulls without VFX the hassle of carrying two cameras and trying to get both bits of footage to match means this is a much more efficient way to pull off the effect. Another bonus of this effect is it can be used to achieve very technical shots like dynamic (moving camera) focus pulls such as this example from Jurassic Park.

experiments with different stages of lens flare

You can see more detail on both effects, including how I made them, on these posts:
Camera Flare
Digital Focus Pull