Fun ideas?

angevin1

Hi there,

I have landed a fun little gig. I am charged with creating a 1915 film look. Silent, B&W, no music but with script/text in the frames with the actors. I hand constructed the CG Castle that needed to resemble no castle that can be found. Already Shot a huge set of concrete Steps that my actors are going to be performing on, and inserted into my composition. I chose these steps for simple back-ground reasons; to cut down on any masking and so forth. I already have film scratches overlaid and their opacity varies in this "opener/Establish" Shot I created.

SO really my question is what kind of fun things might you include in the production?

The scene happens at midnight. I have recently purchased two fresnels and will have some reflectors on site. Plan on casting a moon-shadow onto the actors if I can get away with it.


Other ideas?

Cheers, and thanks in advance for any and all ideas.

tw

ziggy53

What is the basic genre, premise and storyline?

Will you be adding frame jitter and speed effects to simulate the old hand-crank shutters?

Lens vignette?

Ragged frame edges to simulate wear and tear on the film stock?

Faded film and contrast variations to simulate old processing?

DavidTO

For inspiration:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8K9AZcSQJE

ziggy53

DavidTO wrote: »

For inspiration:

The Artist Trailer 2011

I "love, love, love" that musical score.

Too bad Tom's project doesn't allow a music track.

angevin1

ziggy53 wrote: »

What is the basic genre, premise and storyline?

Will you be adding frame jitter and speed effects to simulate the old hand-crank shutters?

Sterling! First thing I thought about was hand cranked film. and now that you mention it I need to find a Tute that will help me with that effect. I've only increased and decreased speeds down here and there, nothing to make it a bit jerky! So I need help there.

The Genre: classic revenge tragedy. I'll let you draw (The Bard) inferences. Trying to avoid it being too Googleable, just in case.

I have the Short intro already composited but each time I try and bring it to YouTube it doesn't handle my Fog well at the beginning of the film. I may try uploading it into a gallery so you can see what I am starting with.

Thanks for the ideas. I do think this is a fun assignment. Getting paid makes it better!

angevin1

Here's an early rough draft. Begins with the Wide/establish shot in Daylight. Segue's into night and then lights the stage ( the set of steps) followed by Fog rolling in. I really liked it when I had a dark purplish tint to it signifying nighttime coming on as well as the orange glow of my flames, but they want to stay with B&W. Fog is better and totally changed in my latest Comp, just haven't rendered it yet.



Thanks,

angevin1

DavidTO wrote: »

For inspiration:

/QUOTE]

That is so neat!! Wish I could get a gig doing one of those era pieces! But, as you know in that early day of film, 12 years difference is huge. And like Ziggy said, no music, which....is what it is. I love Harvey Weinstein and glad he is back!
Thanks, David~

ziggy53

angevin1 wrote: »

DavidTO wrote: »

For inspiration:

/QUOTE]

That is so neat!! Wish I could get a gig doing one of those era pieces! But, as you know in that early day of film, 12 years difference is huge. And like Ziggy said, no music, which....is what it is. I love Harvey Weinstein and glad he is back!
Thanks, David~

The weird thing is that most silent films "did have sound", it was just in the form of live music (often a pianist) in the theater. The live music added to the mood of the scenes and, as the movie progressed, the musical accompaniment would change according to a paper musical score. Often, the musical score would get separated/lost from the film as the film traveled from town to town, so the pianist would have to "ad lib".

A long-deceased relative of mine was such a pianist and I remember her stories.

angevin1

ziggy53 wrote: »

angevin1 wrote: »

The weird thing is that most silent films "did have sound", it was just in the form of live music (often a pianist) in the theater. The live music added to the mood of the scenes and, as the movie progressed, the musical accompaniment would change according to a paper musical score. Often, the musical score would get separated/lost from the film as the film traveled from town to town, so the pianist would have to "ad lib".

A long-deceased relative of mine was such a pianist and I remember her stories.

Nice Story on your relative. Bet you wish you had photos of that!

And yes, I actually do recognize that most of them had a live sound when presented for viewing and so forth, but my client wants no sound. Which I feel is a missed opportunity.

angevin1

Update
Update: If I can keep my fingers off of the workstation and stop adjusting this composition, I ought to be thru with it. Here below is it in it's entirety. Please do take time to watch, and C&C if desired.

Dan7312

I really like it, whatever that counts for:D.

I think the font you are using looks right for a 1920's silent. But it looks like it is layered on top of the simulated film noise/degradation layer so it is completely sharp and clear which looks out of place. It should be underneath that layer because the the text should be noisey too... it was part of the film.

Also I don't think silents layered the text on top of the scene, they dropped in a clips with white text on a black background. Have you watched Fritz Lang's Metropolis? That might give you some more ideas. It's available on demand from Amazon Instant Movies for 3 bucks, and probably others. http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Metropolis/dp/B004R0LJ5E/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1320331756&sr=1-1

angevin1 wrote: »

Update: If I can keep my fingers off of the workstation and stop adjusting this composition, I ought to be thru with it. Here below is it in it's entirety. Please do take time to watch, and C&C if desired.

angevin1

Dan7312 wrote: »

I really like it, whatever that counts for:D.

Hey Dan, counts!

Yes to all of the other you wrote. Unfortunately I couldn't convince my client to allow me to put the words on Words-Only plates. I would have HUGELY preferred that and I think that aesthetic would work better. She ( the client) also likes the words loud, proud and up front versus hidden within the layers and I think I do too, simply because we are not using those separate plates to display the text. In fact I think the only real thing that does bother me is trying to read the words AND watch the film simultaneously.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Dan7312

Would your client allow you to stall the film (i.e. repeat the same frame for couple of seconds) while the text is showing? I think that would make the text even louder and prouder . But the key thing is that it would would eliminate the trying to watch and read at the same time.

But in any case she who signs the checks and all that. Neat gigthumb

angevin1 wrote: »

Hey Dan, counts!

Yes to all of the other you wrote. Unfortunately I couldn't convince my client to allow me to put the words on Words-Only plates. I would have HUGELY preferred that and I think that aesthetic would work better. She ( the client) also likes the words loud, proud and up front versus hidden within the layers and I think I do too, simply because we are not using those separate plates to display the text. In fact I think the only real thing that does bother me is trying to read the words AND watch the film simultaneously.

Thanks for your thoughts!

angevin1

Dan7312 wrote: »

Would your client allow you to stall the film (i.e. repeat the same frame for couple of seconds) while the text is showing? I think that would make the text even louder and prouder . But the key thing is that it would would eliminate the trying to watch and read at the same time.

I never thought of that Idea only because...I never thought of it! I admit to really not wanting to continue to futz with this....

gees, lets see...how many layers?

Last count: 282 layers, movies and lights in total.

I don't know if she'd balk at this or not. and in truth about the only way to know is to do it, render it and give her the final say. I think I will look into doing a small component and see what I think of it first.

thanks for that idea!

Dan7312

282 layers, wow! For the simple stuff I do it is rarely more than 10.

If you haven't stretched a frame out before this is how I do it. I found the Adobe doc's not very enlightning about doing this.

Move the cursor to the frame you want to stretch.

disable all the other layers.

Take a snapshot (little icon that looks like a camera)

That will be saved as a png file.

Import the file the snapshot saved into the project.

Turn the other layers back on.

Make sure the track you took the snapshot is the only one selected

Insert (not overlay) the png at the cursor (don't move the cursor from where you took the snapshot)

The will cut the clip and push it out to the right to make room for the png. The png will be 2 seconds or so long, but you can stretch or shrink it as you need to.

fix up the effects layers to cover the png


Of course there are a ton of variations on how to do this...

angevin1 wrote: »

I never thought of that Idea only because...I never thought of it! I admit to really not wanting to continue to futz with this....

gees, lets see...how many layers?

Last count: 282 layers, movies and lights in total.

I don't know if she'd balk at this or not. and in truth about the only way to know is to do it, render it and give her the final say. I think I will look into doing a small component and see what I think of it first.

thanks for that idea!

angevin1

Dan7312 wrote: »

282 layers, wow! For the simple stuff I do it is rarely more than 10.

If you haven't stretched a frame out before this is how I do it. I found the Adobe doc's not very enlightning about doing this.

Move the cursor to the frame you want to stretch.

disable all the other layers.

Take a snapshot (little icon that looks like a camera)

That will be saved as a png file.

Import the file the snapshot saved into the project.

Turn the other layers back on.

Make sure the track you took the snapshot is the only one selected

Insert (not overlay) the png at the cursor (don't move the cursor from where you took the snapshot)

The will cut the clip and push it out to the right to make room for the png. The png will be 2 seconds or so long, but you can stretch or shrink it as you need to.

fix up the effects layers to cover the png


Of course there are a ton of variations on how to do this...

Wow would be right! Thanks Dan. I will give it a try. I am not sure I want to go thru with it, but I think it's worth doing to try it!