Hipstamatic - NYC

Hipstamatic - NYC, a set on Flickr.

Clicked on my iPod Touch..

First TV show

It was like 9:30am I got a call from a friend of mine asking me if I could be one of the camera operator for a TV show at 11am in midtown Manhattan. I went to bed only at 5:30am. But few things which really dragged me to accept this:
-First TV show
-Arabic
-Decent pay
-First time with HPX2000

And there was a big/medium sized Jimmy Jib inside the studio.
Here is the video of its operator testing it.... (and my finger in the frame.. Ugh! CINEMATOGRAPHERS THESE DAYS)

This is is ME standing by the camera mounted on this big boy..

Welllll.... I was not ready for the picture or I could have pulled my tummy in..... Thanks Tony(the one who shot this picture/the other camera operator/my good friend)

And this is my machine.... HPX2000

Ok, Im not into the camera review this time since I didn't play much with it. The settings were already decided and set. 

So ya, we shot an episode and I had no idea what they were talking about since it's an arabic. I was just following live orders from the video booth. It was fun. It's just that my frame was static MOST OF THE TIME- just on the host. I was asked to frame differently couple of times - din't work much though because of a tight frame. 

All I did was - stood by the camera, framed the anchor, pressed record, chewed my gum, got my pay cheque, back home.

Cheers!

Death By Analog - In A Cage

A music video, shot last november where I was the dolly grip. I didn't know that Im going to be the editor for the same as well. YES! I edited this after 3 months of production and here you go.



I got a call from the director(Eduardo Alcivar) this february asking me to edit this. I took like less than 2 weeks. I also animated the title from the logo he designed for the artist.

Even after it's done, it has been like couple of months then and now, finally, I got the permission to blog/vimeo this.

-FCP for editing and AE CS4 for some color corrections, title and credits
-I also used the plugin Twitch from videocopilot
-Photoshop CS4 to re-create the logo

Watch it in HD and with good speakers/headphones. FEEL THE BEATS!!!

Feedbacks appreciated :)

mailrgl@yahoo.com

How-answered; and Occam's razor

I wrote on videocopilot forum to get an answer for this
http://rglpictures.blogspot.com/2011/04/how.html

and here you go:
http://www.videocopilot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=56733

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

HOW???

Watch this shot (02:47 to 03:40) from Erin Brockovich - Forte Come La Verità


02:47 to 03:40

I mean..... HOWWWW????

I doubt on 03:27... or even the whole thing is really shot and some little compositing and awesome sound design to make it look real???

Thanks to my friend Sripal Sama, who shared this with me and we came across some interesting ideas and had a good discussion on the same.

Please text your thoughts to
mailrgl@yahoo.com

Follow Me!

New Pop up buttons 'Follow Me' has been added to the blog's right panel to catch more of my stuff in Vimeo, newly joined 'Flickr' Page and in Facebook...

Stay tuned!

Sneak Peek..

Its been a long time since I posted something. So I thought of sharing what I've been working on lately.

Its a music video directed by my friend, Nick M. Holmes. Shot on Red One.

Im using 'After Effects CS4' for keying and effects. 'Mocha for After effects' for tracking. Its been really hard since they didn't have the VFX supervisor on set and so it took me DAYS to cover the flaws.
And I have to tell you, KEYLIGHT 2.0 is THE plugin for keying in After Effects. So versatile.

I might be posting more on this project before they permit me to post the music video itself in the blog/vimeo.
More topics, More surprises coming soon...

Been busy - for a good reason...

Death By Analog, a music production made its next song 'In a Cage'.

Iam so happy that I worked on both production and the post for this project. I was the dolly grip and editor.

It was shot on REDone and Canon 5D mark ii.
Directed by Eduardo Alcivar Gonzalez(NATAS)
DP by Tyler Chong.

Here are some screenshots from the project...

The video will be up online as soon as we get the permission from the artist. Can't wait to upload it.

WATCH FOR IT!!!

Cheers!

Ninh Commercial

The commercial for a fashion week in NYC, I recently worked as Gaffer and Editor.

Edited in FCP and I did some advance color corrections in After Effects for some shots. Hope I could find some time to make a color correction breakdown video. Yes, its definitely worth making one cos it has some really cool tricks..

Directed by Eduardo Alcivar Gonzalez

DP : Tyler Chong

Please text me what you think..

Have a good one!


PS: The lens flares are made during production with a flash light.

Fix it in post? - EXPENSIVE

For all the filmmakers and cinematographers out there.....

PLEASE HAVE THE VFX SUPERVISOR on set when you are shooting something which involves VFX

than paying him or her extra hundreds fixing the mistakes in post on top of the effects...

Yes, even when you know how to shoot the vfx shot, you might not notice the leaks of the problems since you will be busy focusing on rest of your stuffs or you might think that what you've done is good enough to do the effects on.

THINK ABOUT IT :)

Sanitizer to remove permanent marker

Right!! But Im not sure if it could remove really old marks...
Doesnt mean that you can take it to the set when you are ACing.. Get dry erase instead ;)
Cheers!

Motion Control

In the field of movies and TV production, motion control refers to 'precise and repeatable control of the camera movement, focus, zoom, iris..' Its been widely used in movies and commercials these days. I'm not sure about TV series since I dont watch TV at all :)

Here is a demo reel from the famous motion control company, Pacific Motion Control




To explain better the standard possibilites of motion control technology, watch these 4 parts of Mark Robert's Motion Control Demo..

Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 3  -  Part 4
But, for viewers from USA and some other countries, WMG has blocked Part 3 due to copyright issues (Sad!)


As you have noticed, its majorly used for VFX where on the post production end two or more clips are composited into single clip and the effects work seamless..


An interesting example...



This was shot at 600 fps with Phantom Gold HD camera. I came to know from the blog of Vincent Laforet(the DP of this commercial) that he has used 225,000 watts of light, f 2.0, 360º shutter. HELL YEAH! still a very little amount of light reaching the sensor. Check out 'behind the scenes' here.

But the point is... Motion control was used here to do multiple shots with different focus points.

"You’ll notice one shot where the actor puts his foot down from the cab – `and the actress is running towards him.   Getting them both in focus at 600 fps wide open would have been impossible.   Here is the magic of Motion Control + a great post house to splice them together seamlessly." - From his blog


And this one down here with the use of time-slice technology....



No clue how they did it.. I came up with so many possibilities... but check the discussion about this on VFXTalk.com here.

And to add the awesomeness to this, the camera data saved on either end can be used on the other. For example, let say you have a 3D previz of your shot. The camera data can be exported from the 3D applications and imported into the motion control system. And, it works the other way too. The motion control camera can export camera data into the 3D applications for 3D modelling, matte painting, compositing, etc.. HOW COOL?


Check out more cool stuffs here.

Now, watch this clip..It is from my semester film I shot when I did Cinematography in NYFA..



This could be done using motion control. But instead, I merged 3 different static shots in After Effects and created a camera to pan. You could actually see the attachment(flaw) towards the end on the front wall- a thin vertical line.. Thats because of the light change when I shot the third(right-most) clip when I asked my crew to sit on the bed. I didnt realize that they cast shadows over that wall. Quiet easy to fix, but too lazy :p
 Text me to know more on how to make shot like this. Pretty easy and could be done just with a camera, tripod and a little knowledge in After Effects. This trick can be used to make so many cool shots as long as there is no dolly which creates the 3rd dimension and its not possible to attach the clips in post unless the very same camera movement is done in precise timing in every shot. Thats the reason motion control evolved.


Alright, I think we have enough to cover the basics. I will try to find more technical side of this, may be some post production works of the footages shot with motion control. Later!

Nuit Blanche - What's real??

Great piece of work by both the director, Arev Manoukian and VFX artist, Marc-Andre Gray.

And watch the making of this award winning film HERE.


Cheers!

Trapcode Particular - An Overview

For all the After Effects artist, this is one of the super versatile tools...

RED GIANT Software™, creator of this plugin, came up with the version 2.1 which has really cool updates...

And, for After Effects, I think people would agree with me that the other products of Trapcode Suite are not as great/versatile/useful as Particular... In fact, I would say, we can even create almost everything in Particular what the other products do..

Alright, enough texting..... Here we go....

Starting off with my FAVORITE :)

Click here to go to his Vimeo page.. If you could notice, he has used particular in his other videos, Polar and AVP.. Check 'em out ;)

And this one is pretty cool...

A simple algorithm, but the way the particles are manipulated is gorgeous.. And it really goes along with the pretty music...

And now, MY TURN ;)

(drum rolls, please!!)

...

...

Shot by Eliane Wong Seoane, an artistic cinematographer/photographer from Peru...

And the model, Crystal Clear Waters, another talented cinematographer from New York.

Yes, the extended smoke was made using Particular..

The theory behind this tool is based on real life particle...

Definitions of particles on the Web:

• particle - atom: (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything
• particle - a body having finite mass and internal structure but negligible dimensions

 

And even the workflow in making these effects obeys the definition of particle system..

1. Emission properties like particles/sec, position, emitter type, Velocity, etc.,
2. Particles properties like shape, size, opacity, life/sec, color, rotation, etc.,
3. Physics(gravity, wind, turbulence, etc.,)
4. Aux System (used to send secondary offshoots from the main particle; fireworks, for example)

Knowing what you trying to make with this plugin, makes the job really easy and practical. In a way, its like designing life to your particles...

I have been using Particular for some of my projects these days... Rain drops, debris, title fx, harry potter'y magic wand effects(yaaaa!!! :D) and I have to admit that, its really, REALLY hard to make water effects though it is classified under the same particle definition... But hey, im not saying its impossible.. You know how dynamic the water moves, right? :p

And these days, its majorly used in making some cool title effects.. Here is a youtube flick..




And check VideoCopilot for more really cool effects and even great tutorials on VFX.. Best site to learn After Effects.

And to all the filmmakers and VFX Artists out there, its a powerful tool to reduce production expenses and to make some cool and realistic effects if its used wisely ;)

PS: "Particular is used in motion pictures like Spider Man 3 and Angels & Demons." -Red Giant

Matte Painting

This is always one of my favorite subjects to talk about...

And one of the best examples to understand the power of matte painting, I always refer the demo reels of 'Hatch', an awesome visual effects company, to my clients and friends..

Click here for the Hatch Demo Reel Page

And these are couple of my recent projects based on matte painiting for thesis project of my friends from NYFA.








Here is a good discussion about matte painting definition on mattepainting.org
http://www.mattepainting.org/vb/showthread.php?t=2616

And click here to watch another interesting matte painting challenge breakdown...

Hope this gives a good idea about matte painting and how to save money on travel for locations. So find a good vfx artist and save money ;)

Good Day!

Great Start

Yes, as the title says.... a really good start for the new year....

-New blog
-First day on set of this year... Worked as 2nd AC with the best crew(my classmates from NYFA) and met some really interesting people from the cast too..
- Really pretty soft snow to start the day for the shoot..
- Some interesting projects lined up already for January.

Iam really excited about 2011.. And 2010 was one of the best years in my life... Met some AWESOME people from around the world. Worked with great cinematographers, special effects team and really cool crews...

I've been learning SO MUCH for last few years on visual story telling and special effects. And, its been my long time plan of starting a blog to share all my activities. So finally, I thought like, if I could find time to facebook, why not this?

Alright folks, I will keep things updated now on. Spread the word...

Rock and Roll :)