In 2001, a film was released entitled Dogtown and Z-boys. Based around a group of skaters throughout the 70′s, the Z-boys being the Zephyr team.
Although it was shot originally in the 70′s it wasn’t released for a long time after that. However it did include interviews from recent years. The film is structured around the influence that both teams had on the skateboarding industry and how they changed an entire sport, but also, how the sport they loved tore them apart.
Dogtown and Z-boys is highly regarded as one of the best documentaries of the sport, it shows skateboarding in a different light, it shows it’s heritage as something surfers would do to bring their sport on land and how the 70′s were at the forefront for creating the acrobatic awe-inspiring sport that we see today.
The film also shows what it was like to be a skateboarder back in the 70′s it was a real freedom and all about having fun with friends. Now a days you see big events such as X-Games and Dew Tour that really publicise the sport. As much as that’s good for promotion of the industry it’s certainly not what it was back in the 70′s, maybe that’s a good thing, maybe a bad thing.
Due to the nature of the beast those decades ago, you were really an elite skater if you were sponsored and if people knew your name,
“We were treated like kings at every place that we went to.” – Shogo Kubo
(Trailer)
Now because of the popularity of the sport it’s similar to the music industry, to stand out, you have to really push the bar as high as you can, you have to do things no one has done before. Although this was the case the Z-Boys and as much as they’ll always have a place in the history books, the stuff they did then revolutionised the skateboarding world, similar by today’s standard of Tony Hawk complete the first ever 900º degree spin in a vert (halfpipe) competition.
Although 12 years ago that was an absolute phenomenal achievement, and although it’s rare, that trick is now being performed by people younger than me.
In the video above you can see the size of ramps now a days compared to those of the 70′s. People do still skate ‘street’ but people also opt to skate half-pipes as well.
Dogtown and Z-boys certainly has a fantastic reputation, as well as the Zephyr team themselves, they single handedly changed the sport even through the downfall in the 80′s and gave skateboarding that ‘daredevil’ kind of a persona.
Although not many films similar to Dogtown and Z-boys existed through the 80′s, there were some famous movies that were based on skateboarding and were made into comedies and dramas, just fuelling the publicity and helping revive the sport.
Skateboarding really started around the 1950′s in California, this was due to surfers wanting to take the sport on land. There’s currently no sole person that created the first skateboard, some have claimed to, yet there’s no real hard evidence so it seems that the sport was created out of the blue. The first kind of skateboards were almost pre-historic, it was a case of wooden boxes with some form of wheel just attached to them, needless to say, the sport along with the evolution and style of the board peaked over several years.
It was in the early-mid 60′s when surf and skate companies started to hold small competitions, not the type we have today but mainly downhill and freestyle tricks where it was a very elegant way of moving and back then was new and different. Unfortunately it was also around this time when, like a lot of things today, the popularity of skateboarding suddenly diminished and seemed to have died out, this resulted in the small companies going bust because there just wasn’t enough demand for it. Somewhat ironic considering skateboarding was m at the time.BUT, there was still the drive, that passion that created skateboarding, although far from the popularity when it first started, small groups of people and clusters still skated, although they had to make their own boards. Dangerous. Oh so dangerous..
Fast forward 6 or 7 years and this is where things got interesting, a man called Frank Nasworthy moved to Southern California from Virginia and he can arguably be called the man that saved skateboarding and if not, he was damn sure the reason for the second boom of the sport. The reason for this was because he came up with the idea for using urethane wheels on skateboards, similar to the ones still used today. This was a huge step in skateboarding because it took away the rough edgy feel and ultimately allowed more control as well as for it to be faster. Soon after though it was the ball bearing that took over which is still used today.
It was in ’75 at a festival in California where things progressed and took another leap forward. This was due to the Zephyr team (Z-Boys) that really showed what boarding could be, how innovative it was and what skateboarding was becoming. In 2001, this lead to a film called Dogtown and Z-boys being produced using archive footage from the 70′s and showing the progression of the sport.
I’m going to take several films from across the 70′s to now and explain what has made them have the following that they have and how styles have, if at all, changed over the decades. Not just skateboarding.
As I said in my first post I’m adamant that it all depends on the sector that people work in and the result they want to get. Some might want the fisheye style with just flips, tricks and grinds, where as someone more professional, maybe filming for a classier film, may want a completely different look to the footage that they shoot.
Films in particular will be, Dogtown and Z-Boys, Video Days, Hot Chocolate (maybe), Beautiful Losers and either both or just one of Life Cycles and The Art of Flight.
After downloading the demo and trial versions of both Magic Bullet Suite and Twixtor, I took some footage from earlier in the year and put it in After Effects to have a testing session with both new pieces of kit. The first video below is a sample of using the new equipment, obviously this very far from what a potential final outcome would be, however it gave me a chance to muck around and get to try out the software a bit. As the description of the video says, there’s still lots to Google for a solutions that need to be solved, however I felt very comfortable using the new plug-ins for the first time.
Twixtor was certainly the more complex of the two to use and I’ve not really grasped it yet, but considering it was done without tutorials I was quite happy with how it turned out. If you look at the second video below, the first clip is much more blurred and certainly not as smooth as the slow motion clip using Twixtor, granted that isn’t perfect either, however it does have a cleaner effect.
Magic Bullet Suite, so far I’ve only touched on Magic Bullet Looks, but I REALLY enjoyed it, I felt so much more comfortable using Looks instead of Apple Color, there was a simplicity to it that really isn’t matched in Color, yet still gave the freedom to create what I wanted. Off the top of my head if I recall correctly, Color is the more professional standard of the two (don’t quote me on that!), however Looks really did the job well. It came with a lot of presets but the colouring in the test footage was manually created, again no use of tutorials, merely just jumping and having ago. Whether Color is the more professional standard or not, I’d still like to learn more of the software and make use of it, more software I know, the better! But at the moment it’s not a priority.
Speaking of Magic Bullet Suite and Red Giant software, I received and e-mail reply from their sales department confirming that the academic 50% off discount is applicable to people outside of the US and that I still qualify (£257 down from £516!). This has certainly given me a lot think about and I’m really considering buying the sweet, I’d still like to really make use of the trial version though and find tutorials throughout the Christmas break to see if it would be worth it.. So far though, it certainly looks appealing!
Ok, so throughout this blog for my Major Practical Project I’ve mainly been talking software, examples of what I’d like a achieve, similar styles I’d like to replicate and so on and so on. I feel that I have found some fantastic examples for specific areas, I’ve found great overall examples of what I’m aiming to achieve, I think that my project is feasible and more or most importantly, I feel confident with what I’ve learnt while doing this research.
I would gladly raise my hand, well not necessarily gladly, but I would certainly raise my hand when it came to self reflection about previous projects. I think lying to yourself let alone the people that are there to help you become visual artist would arguably be the stupidest mistake I/you could make. It’s why throughout the past few years at university I’ve grown in confidence and that’s helped me in self-anlaysis. What I’ve tried to show so far is that I can detail where I’ve not so much gone wrong, but where I’ve lacked knowledge and skill, where I’d like to improve on that and of course, how I can get to that future improved state.
As I opened this blog post, I said I’d mainly talked software throughout the research and what’s out there that could benefit me. However I’ve not really delved into hardware or I guess they could be classed as accessories, although that definitely doesn’t sound right. Anyway, you know the story if something is worth the price and is an investment then I’ll probably look in to finding away of purchasing it, although this has been mainly applied to software (Adobe Master Collection, Final Cut Studio etc), it’s also applicable to hardware. When I knew video was something I wanted to go into, I was set on upgrading my equipment, which happened earlier this year.
Originally I had a Canon 450D but through hours upon hours of research and comparing products I eventually sold the 450D (for probably more than it was actually worth) and purchased a 550D. As much as I like filming on a DSLR it’s also the fact I still have a strong passion for photography and even early this year, to now, my 550D was certainly a wise investment. I think the reason I like to purchase products instead of borrowing/hiring/renting them, is because it’s available day or night at any given time. I also feel it’s to do with not having the guilty conscious, although it’s probably a multitude of reasons there’s something about knowing a piece of kit is yours and there’s no extra hassle.
When it comes my last project (yes, again it’s being mentioned!), one thing I felt I’d have benefited tenfold from is if I had a proper stabiliser for the moving shots, which I didn’t even put in the final shot as the ‘Opteka X-Grip’ didn’t exactly help a lot. Partly my fault for skating on shoddy ground near the beach, partly the governments fault for bad paving haha. Anyway, I know that footage that was used in my assignment was static and that’s something that I remember getting drilled into my brain as a first year by Sharry Harper not to do. If a shot has a pan or a slide, it really gives a scene a much better polished feel to it, something I’ll admit lacked in the assignment. Since then even amateur videos that I’ve seen, particularly on Vimeo, have either used some form of a rig, a slider or a dolly.
Really nice shots of sliders being used to make a shot look smoother can be seen below.
If you watch the examples, you can see how the sliders really smooth out shot and give it a certain finesse that you wouldn’t really find from a static shot. A slider is certainly something on my wish/to buy list for the future as the results speak for themselves. I feel they’d certainly give a nice effect in an action sports based video such as my project.
Now I’ve done quite a lot of research into sliders and looked at varying prices/compatibility/stability/reviews/life length and as much as I’d love to purchase a Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly, somehow I really don’t see my wallet or bank balance stretching to $650/£419, I can dream though. However in recent weeks I’ve come across, cheaper and MUCH more affordable sliders, although with the vast majority of things that are done cheaper, the build of the item may not be as good but the end result will likely be the same.
One particularly well priced slider I found was the indiSLIDERmini that’s priced at $170/£110, obviously a much cheaper product but according to reviews it certainly isn’t the worst one to buy that’s on the market. Now I certainly don’t consider myself a professional and most certainly have a professional budget, but according to some reviews, such as the one placed below, it certainly does add that je ne sais quoi quality to films.
“While the indiSLIDERmini may not be the professional’s choice due it’s tolerance issue that I mentioned, I think it’s the ideal choice for many filmmakers and videographer’s who are on a more restrictive budget or who have other places that they would also like to spend their money – fast lenses, fluid tripod head, steadicams, Z-Finder, extra batteries, memory cards, shoulder rig, etc.
This product is most likely aimed at the new cinematographer who is now using digital 35mm camera’s like the EOS 7D or 5D Mark II. Speaking as someone who has dived head first into cinematography, I can tell you that the cost of acquiring the right gear can be very very expensive – so when an affordable product comes along that provides me the opportunity to add additional production value to my films, I am more than thrilled. “
- Ron Risman, CameraTown
Other than sliders, I’ve also been digging deep into looking at Point of View cameras and how, if at all I could incorporate them into my film. Specifically and if I do purchase one, it would most certainly be a GoPro camera. Throughout my research into helmet cameras, they’ve arguably been on top each and every time and considering their price, combined with a good use of post-production skills, there have been some really amazing pieces crop up on Vimeo and YouTube. Below are a select few videos that over the months I’ve favourited/liked and for a change I really won’t need to say a lot, the possibilities with a piece of equipment and the additional items that could be purchased are pretty much endless. Although I’d like a GoPro for personal use, I’d have to consider the possibility of functionality for my major project, is it something that’s a need or something that’s a want? Either way, it’s quite a phenomenal piece of a equipment and definitely at the top of Head camera and Point of View industry.
In one of my previous posts I started to talk about software and maybe purchasing more than I already have if it would help me. After staying up late last night I found out you could download trial versions of Magic Bullet Looks, I would have assumed this but I wasn’t entirely sure. However, what I DIDN’T know is that you could download a trial of the entire Magic Bullet Suite. Being a little bit exited, I hastily downloaded the demo of the Magic Bullet Suite, which to my surprise was just under 200mb to download! What really made me act like a geeky child on Christmas was when I found out you could download one to three items from Red Giant Software (creators of MBS)!
Obviously being a trial version, they’ll be watermarks/time limit etc, but I feel that if I use the trial time effectively it could really sway me into buying the package. Now as I was on the download form I also downloaded Trapcode Suite, I’ve never used Trapcode before, however I have heard very good things about it, especially in the second year at university.
There was one last surprise in store for me though, as I was calculating the price of the software from USD into GBP and thinking to myself if it would be worth it, if so probably a purchase after Christmas rather than before, came across a little gem that spoke about academic prices. 50% OFF. Half-price on everything on the store. Although it doesn’t clearly state if this academic pricing is for those outside of the US, it has certainly caught my attention if so. I e-mailed Red Giant’s sales team and should hopefully receive a reply on Monday, if the discount is applicable internationally then I may very well have a future purchase on my hands for the entire Magic Bullet Suite!
Being $799 (£516) without discount, you can see why it would be a tough decision for me to really commit to buying the entire package, a saving in itself rather than individual plug-ins. With the 50% off student discount though, it takes that down $399 (£257), ok so it’s not exactly the 50% discount in terms of the exchange rate, but £257 is a damn slight more manageable to cough up rather than £516.
Another piece of software that has for many months caught my attention and that I’ve been dying to own is Twixtor. For people that don’t know, Twixtor is a piece of frame interpolation software that lets you slow down, speed up or change the frame rate of your image sequences.
“ In order to achieve its unparalleled image quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence… employing RE:Vision’s proprietary tracking technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.”
Twixtor is something I’d loved, I can’t stress that enough, I would have loved to have had during the final assignment in the second year. This is partly due to the fact that a lot of my video was slowed down, not a massive amount, but for some clips it was slowed down to about 75% or so if I recall, maybe more, can’t entirely remember. Either way one regret I have was that I was using the Final Cut Pro speed changer, which literally just slowed down the footage. So as happy as I was with the final product, the bits using the speed changer did look a bit blurred as there was no frame interpolation, which unfortunately disappointed me quite a bit with the overall effect.
Like Red Giant giving access to trial versions of their software, RE:Vision who created Twixtor have also allowed the same. Bonus! Soon after downloading the Magic Bullet Suite and the Trapcode Suite I was promptly downloading the Twixtor trial. Similar to Trapcode and Magic Bullet, Twixtor is software I’ve never touched but admired from afar shall we say. Now that I’ve downloaded three new pieces of software I’m looking forward to experimenting with them with unused footage from my second assignment last year. Although it won’t be new footage, it will be similar style to how I want to shoot my major project and hopefully I’ll be using the full versions of the software for it. So I’m hoping they can be considered to some degree ‘prototypes’ or promos.
Several videos I’ve seen have used Twixtor to perfection, give or a take a slight bit of warping here or there. Included in the examples is a video by a friend of mine and same year student, Alek. His video really uses Twixtor as the focal point of the video, however in my project I’d aim to be using it just to tweak the footage slightly, for instance in the Dogboarding video in an earlier post, they used it to a limited degree yet the video really impacted from the way it was implemented.
Also a video that was created for Concrete Circus.
Completely unrelated to my subject area but still a good use of Twixtor.
Alek’s
Rickard Bengtsson
I could probably post about a thousand and one more videos as great examples using Twixtor, for now though, I’ll leave it at four. As a bit of a rough guess/estimate (guesstimate), for now I’d say this just about covers the software that I plan on intergrating into my major project.
Continuing on from visual effects, animations, graphics etc etc (I felt this needed a new post). In my last post I spoke and detailed how minor uses of motion graphics can enhance a video without destroying it or overpowering it, however, it can be used in the correct circumstances with this ‘overpowering’ feel to it if it’s a major part of the video. Obviously in the previous examples they were their and put in just to spice up the videos, to make them different and to add a different dimension to the video, yet the focus being on the entire advert itself.
Throughout the summer I was searching for action sports videos on Vimeo and YouTube, partly for preparation for the third year, partly just because I actually enjoying watching other people’s videos and getting ideas and techniques from them. In the middle of August a few days after my birthday my brother phoned me up and told me to turn on Channel 4, he didn’t explain what it was he just said he knew it’s something I’d like, guaranteed! He was certainly right, I absolutely loved it and still do now. It was a an hour long documentary based around young talented film-makers and being paired off with, as Channel 4 called it ‘urban sports stars’. The show being called Concrete Circus.
In the past Channel 4 have produced some phenomenal sports work, especially as terrestrial channel that isn’t exactly their focus. Previous work includes Jump Britain, Inside Incredible Athletes and Jump Britain.
In the program it’s based around several sports, Flatland BMX, Trials Biking, Skateboarding and Parkour/Free Running. At the end of the show each final film is shown as well as a special combined film featuring all the athletes.
Here is the trailer for Concrete Circus
As well as the full program on 4oD if anyone is interested.
Getting back onto the subject, as much as I really enjoy watching all of those videos individually, there was one that really stood out for me, especially in the sense of motion graphics being the forefront front of the video. This is a video I thought really utilised graphics and made quite a different sport video. Now although animation is far far from my strong suit, I wouldn’t mind finding several tutorials and potentially trying them out over the Christmas break. If they go to plan and work quite well, I’ll have to consider the possibility of using them in my major project, for now though, if I use any animation I’m probably favouring the previous blog entry. Subtlety being the focus instead of making it very effects heavy.
Something I truly learnt a lot about last year in Video Production was just how much really can be achieved in the post-production process and how altogether it can change the dynamics of a video. Although I did a bit of typography and then for the the later assignment more focused on the finesse of a film, something I was interested in was motion graphics as well as animation and how they can enhance promotional videos or advertisements. I didn’t quite the chance to experiment as much as I would have liked to last year, so I’m hoping to make amends with that this year. Although I did a fair amount of research into tutorials and the basics of motion graphics I didn’t quite get to incorporate them into my final assignment as much as I would have liked to.
Throughout the summer I came across and somewhat accidentally, found some videos that uses graphics and animation to propel the video to a higher standard without overusing it and ultimately destroying the video. In particular I found a two part commercial video on YouTube to promote the X Games event in California.
Other than the nice colour grading and well synced with the music I feel that the slight animations give the video that extra edge, without them it would have probably still been a decent advert but it gives a comic book style edge to it that changes the complexion of the video.
Anyone that knows me, should know that I’m a huge hockey fan (Ice hockey of course!), a couple of months ago I was browsing Vimeo and I think it may have even be on Twitter that I came across it, but here’s a video I found that talks about hockey but it’s the graphics and the attention to detail that really make the film. Yes, it’s somewhat funny the lack of knowledge people know about hockey, but it’s really how the animations give the extra ‘something’ to video and make it interesting (1407 individual animated frames. Wowza!).
It’s these sorts of videos that really use animation and graphics in a simplistic sense, yet they really effect the overall feel of the video and as I stated before, takes it up a notch and makes it that bit better.
I think that if I do enough research and practice, I can potentially learn some critical skills that will give my eventual final piece something extra in the visual department, without using using animations in an overzealous manner.
Something I came across earlier in the year was a really fascinating piece of footage that was shot for the surf company, Ripcurl, as an advertisement for them. I believe I first viewed this back in February or March and the initial time I saw it, it completely blew me away. Obviously as I’ve become more aware and knowledgable of the industry it wasn’t that hard to figure out how the achieved it.. Plus having a ‘behind the scenes’ thumbnail pop up straight after as a related video may have been just a bit helpful and obvious.
Since I first saw this way back when, I’ve also seen it crop up in a number of videos and each time it still fascinates me and maybe because it’s done so well, but each video just seems to do the bullet-time effect to perfection. I wanted to try this throughout the summer but to have done it correctly, I seriously lacked in equipment. As a side note, other than the effect itself, I really thought that the short but informative title sequence at the beginning was impressive, a segment of my second assignment last year that I’d like to improve on for my major practical this year.
Below is the behind the scenes footage and they talk about shooting the promo video as well as the bullet-time effect itself. What’s really interesting is that Ripcurl worked with the guys from TimeSlice Films. Tim Macmillan, who works for TimeSlice is supposedly the inventor of the bullet-time effect, which most notably was used throughout The Matrix series.
“Perhaps the freshest innovation to play across entertainment screens in the last 15 years is frozen time, an effect created and named by Tm Macmillan of Time-Slice Films. The effect came to widespread attention in the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix. Viewers marveled as bullets sliced through the air all around Keanu Reeves while the camera revolved around his frozen image.”
“From commercials, frozen time moved on to feature films, most visibly in the Wachowski brother’s Matrix trilogy (Warner Brox.) The visual effects personnel on that film used hundreds of Nikon cameras on a curved rigging to duplicate the look of Tim’s frozen time. The feature film world definitely took notice, and the film received a 1999 Oscar for visual effects.”
Other than The Matrix series and for me personally, the Ripcurl promo, the bullet-time effect has been used in what I believe is a Channel 4 advertisement from either last year or the year before. You can briefly see a clip of it at 1:27 of the behind the scenes video. TimeScale’s work can be seen in their 2009 Demo Reel.
The bullet-time effect is something I’d certainly love to attempt even if it was on a much smaller than 52 camera scale. I feel what could be a setback is probably the rigging of the cameras and linking them together to get a simultaneous shot. I have however heard of good tests with the use of frame interpolation if people have limited amounts of camera. The rigging itself would also be a bit of a pain to achieve however I’ll also be discussing that in a future post.
Below are a list of other videos that I’ve seen using the bullet-time effect and have been quite inspirational to me. Most noticeably/recently the X-Games 17 (summer ’11) promotional video with the use of GoPro’s.
Something that I’ve been racking my brain for is to try to come up with a sort of story or at least a plot in the project that averts the attention from ‘this is a cliché skating video’, which is my ultimate goal to achieve. Other than doing a good job of course. I feel that one reason why I’ve been a bit panicky coming up with a narrative is because I hadn’t really seen it done. As creative as I can be, in this case I think I’ve felt quite closed off and I couldn’t really get my brain into motion. For the research I’ve generally been working from using past experiences and finding other ideas from previously viewed items and taking segments of other people’s videos and thinking to myself ‘how can I expand on this?’ ‘how can I take this and use it as a launch pad?’.
There has been one truly standout video that I’ve seen and is ultimately a perfect piece of of research for me. A couple of weeks ago I came across a video on Vimeo called Dogboarding, this was suggested to me by Claire Burns who knew what I’m trying to attempt to create for this project.
This video from start to finish is the epitomises my project. It’s a skateboarding video. There’s a unique concept and twist to. It’s shot beautifully and fantastic camera work. There’s some wonderful colour grading which really gives the shine to the video. It’s not over the top and in your face. It’s fun and up beat, the music really has a strong part to the video, as well as that, it’s just overall really visually impressive. Now the After Effects and the way the dogs faces have been mapped on is quite wonderful in itself as it blends quite naturally, even in the slow motion segments of the video.
The video really is so well done that, although I don’t plan on using dogs in mine, it proves that there are skating videos out there that really can be given their own unique twist to them.
The soundtrack plays a major part of this video and has really made me think about what I’ll choose at a later date for my film.
Another thing that inspires me from this video is the colour grading. When I showed Shelley the video during a tutorial with her recently, she immediately suggested that it may have been graded using Magic Bullet Looks, grading software to give it the ‘film look’. I’m currently in the process of trying to haggle and nag people for a copy if at all possible. I think after looking through tutorials and researching it, it would be more suitable for me to try to use pre-created colour graded segments (presets), which still give the flexibility to make it unique instead of using Apple Color and doing everything manually. As much as I enjoyed Color last year, I didn’t really feel comfortable enough with for my major project, however if obtaining Magic Bullet Looks is impossible then I’ll have to really find out how to utilise Color to my situation at the time.
I’m also researching into the differences between Magic Bullet Looks vs the entire Magic Bullet Suite. I’ve always been someone that tries to make the right investment and even if there’s a strain in my bank account I’ll make an exception if it helps me out in the long haul, even if that means going deeper into my overdraft. For instance, Canon 550D, Apple Final Cut Studio and Adobe CS4 Master Collection. Throughout the coming months I’ll have to really decide if I should spend another several hundred pounds on software.
