Video of the Week: Ninja Tactics

This week's video of the week is called Ninja Tactics. Check out the short video below:



This was made for an Android app competition, and it was a lot of fun to make! I have never filmed anything like parkour before, and so it was quite a new experience for me. The producer contacted some members of the CBR Stunt Team (be sure to check out their Facebook page), and they were great to work with, and very accommodating. They were willing to do whatever we asked them to do, and we got some pretty impressive stuff. So if you're needing any stunts for a movie or anything, be sure to contact these guys.

This was actually the first video I've done where I shot with two cameras, and it was really nice to have the extra coverage. I am going to try to always shoot with two cameras from now on. For instance, there is a shot in the BYU Library where Jeff lives wins the game, and he stands up and does a fist-pump and shouts "YES!". Well, we were "stealing" shots in the library (this means that we didn't have permission to shoot there, so we had to do it quickly), and so we only had one chance at getting this shot. So we set up the two cameras, one directly in front of Jeff that was a little zoomed in on him, and then I stood back really far with a wide lens (the Lumix 14mm f/2.5) to capture the reaction of the students in the library, and we just told him to go for it. The reaction of the students is genuine, as it was pretty quiet in the library at that point. My shot ended up being a bit shaky, so I stabilized it in After Effects with Warp Stabilizer, and now it looks like it was shot on a tripod. Warp Stabilizer is amazing.

The editing was pretty straight-forward. Isaac programmed levels on the app based on the video, and we filmed Jeff playing the app so we could jump back and forth between the game-play and the actual video. The idea of showing Jeff in the library playing the game (where there is no music at all), came up during the editing, and I think it really helps show that Jeff is "in" the game. Below is a screenshot of the Sony Vegas timeline of the finished video.

Click to see it bigger

The shiny treasure thing at the end was made by rendering clouds in Photoshop, and then bringing those into After Effects and animating them to grow and fade away. Those layers just repeat themselves, and then I added a color balance effect to change it to yellow. Then I tracked the glowing orb to the video layer, and wallah! Ninja gets the treasure.

So that's the basic gist of how we did it. Be sure to head on over to the Ninja Tactics Facebook page and "Like" the page, and if you have an Android phone or tablet, go to the Google Play website and download it and get playing!

Video of the Week: The Fight

To the literally several people who frequent my blog, I have decided to spotlight one of our videos per week, and just go through the process of how we made it. So here it goes.

This week's Video of the Week goes to The Fight. We filmed this back around Christmas of 2005 (back when we had a dial-up connection!). Just a bunch of guys fighting with lightsabers. This was originally made for the first ever "Noob Film Competition" at the Star Wars Fan Site TheForce.net, which it won.



We filmed this in an afternoon at our local church. Back then we were shooting on the Canon GL-1, which was an excellent camera. I loved the manual controls on that thing. Anyway. There were only three of us there, and so when all three of us were in the shot, the camera was just on a tripod, and then when Brian "died", he operated the camera.

Props were just the plastic lightsabers that you can get at Walmart, with the blades taken out and 3/4" PVC stuck in there as the blades. I then painted the blades with bright orange construction paint so that the blades would be easier to see in post when it came time to rotoscope them. I then used packing tape (one strip to go up the whole length of the blade) to protect the orange paint from chipping. It's been a long time, but I think I even poured sand into the lightsaber handles and poured hot-glue on top of that to add some weight to the handles so that it was more balanced when you were swinging them around.

The force choke effect was done by me standing on a chair while Tyler acted like he was choking me, and then we filmed a background plate (all with the camera on a tripod), and then in post I just roto'd the chair out.

The opening logo was made in 3DS Max. Editing was done in Premiere, and the rotoscoping was done in After Effects (back then it was version 5.5!), using Ryan Wieber's first lightsaber method. (He has since updated that method with a more precise and less monotonous method). This was on our Christmas break from school, and so I sat down and knocked out the rotoscoping in about 4 days.

We all had a lot of fun making this one, and maybe one day we'll do a sequel?

Some other great lightsaber fight videos include Ryan vs. Dorkman I and II:





And Duality:

So Disney bought LucasFilm today...

So Disney bought LucasFilm today. Below is the video of George Lucas talking about the deal.

Along with that  (obviously) comes Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and any other company that Uncle George has made along the way. This is big news in more than one way.

First, Princess Leia is now a Disney Princess. Yes. It's happening.

Second, Disney has announced that Star Wars: Episode VII will hit theaters in 2015, with two more movies to follow. Yes, yes, I know that it sounds like a thousand years away, but still. It's coming.

Third, Disney is not going to ruin Star Wars. A lot of people have been fussing that Disney will ruin Star Wars, and that their childhood will be ruined. Well, I think that we hit rock bottom with Episode II, and so the only place to go is up!  Did you know that Disney also owns Marvel? Oh, and did you know that Marvel just made an awesome movie called THE AVENGERS (which, I might add, is sitting comfortably as the third highest grossing movie of all time)?!? Also, I don't recall seeing Micky Mouse in that flick, or, for that matter, having ANY Disney overtones. Get over it people! This is not going to ruin your childhood!

Personally, I am excited for new eyes and fresh ideas for the new Star Wars films. I also hope that one day they get around to making the live-action Star Wars series they've been talking about for years now. I really, REALLY hope that happens.

Park City with PixAir Productions

It's been a while.

Just a quick update: Last weekend I had the opportunity to head up to Park City with Brian and Nick from PixAir Productions to help film some aerials for the Park City Chamber of Commerce. I hacked my trusty Panasonic GH2 and brought it along to shoot some B-roll for them. It was a really fun, although long, day.

Below are some frame grabs from my GH2.

Our first location was at the Jordanelle Resovoir, filming some paddle-boarding and then a family in a sail boat.

Our next location was in Deer Valley, filming a family riding some horses on one of the trails. We had to do a test with the helicopter beforehand so we would know if it would spook the horses or not if it flew close to them. Luckily they were okay with it!

And our final location was at a golf course.

And last but not least, a shot of Brian piloting the RC heli.

So anyway, it was a lot of fun shooting stuff for the Park City Chamber of Commerce!

Zucchini Cookies Video

The other day my wife acquired a rather large zucchini from my sister in-law. Well, it's been sitting on our counter for the better part of two weeks now. But the other day, Kristina found a recipe online for zucchini cookies. Sounds kinda weird, huh?? Well, I have been wanting to get back into the mode of making little videos for a while now, as life has been kind of crazy for the past few months. Well, my wife found this zucchini cookie recipe (which turned out to be pretty good!) and I decided to film her while she made it!

Zucchini Cookies from Bills Films on Vimeo.

Below is a screenshot of my Adobe Premiere timeline of the locked edit.

What it looks like while you're editing

So I wanted to shoot this in a way that minimized the human aspect but focused more on the process of the cookies being made. If that made any sense, then you win. Something. To do this, I used my wife's Canon 60D with the 50mm f1.8 lens to get a very shallow depth of field, to direct the viewer to what I wanted them to see. Most of this video was shot in the f/1.8-2.8 range, so as to keep the nice bokeh in the shot. Music is graciously provided by Chopin.

Also, there's one shot in this film that was not shot with the 60D, but with my Panasonic GH2. If you can spot it, then you win something.

Review: The Dark Knight Rises

What follows is my review of Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises'. First off, let me say that this is a beautifully-shot film. Props to Wally Pfister for the excellent cinematography, and bringing the IMAX film format to a narrative film in a bigger way than has ever been done before.

The film starts off with a bang, with the introduction of Bane as our (main) baddie for this film. This introduces us to his intelligence and his ferocity, and his willingness to do anything to get what he wants. Everything he does is a means to an end, and he is willing to sacrifice anything to get it done. I thought that actor Tom Hardy, who portrays Bane, did a fantastic job of bringing out that ferocity, even from behind a mask. Yes, his dialogue was a bit muffled and hard to understand at times, but I think that is meant to "deepen" his character and give him a past. My quip with it is that they didn't really go in to why he had to have the mask (other than it holds the ever-present pain at bay). Bane shows his intelligence through his speech, and then shows his menace through his brute strength and physicality, not caring who lives and who dies, with two exceptions: Bruce Wayne, and Miranda Tate. He wanted to keep Wayne alive in order for him to see his city, and everything he has stood for, get destroyed, and he kept Miranda Tate close because of their emotional connection, which you don't find out until the last 15 minutes of the film. I thought that Bane was a good match for Batman, both physically as well as mentally in this film.

I think that for a Batman film, there needed to be more screen-time for Batman. Yes, this is Bruce Wayne's story, but I still think there wasn't enough of the Dark Knight in this film, of him actually being Batman and kicking the baddies' butts. I feel that, especially after he came back from "The Pit," we saw the Batman that we are all used to seeing: one who won't take any gruff from anybody who threatens his city.

I think that the real star of this movie was Michael Caine, who as we all know plays Bruce Wayne's Butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred has always been there to be Bruce's mentor, the one who will is full of wisdom. And this film was no different. Alfred had a few of those moving speeches in this film, which really grounded the film emotionally for me. Michael Caine is the perfect Alfred Pennyworth. Kudos to Christopher Nolan for recognizing that he'd be amazing. Speaking of amazing, Alfred's speech to Bruce's parents' graves at the end of the film. Wow. If I didn't know any better, I would think that he was Bruce's own father. I digress.

This film introduced us to a new character, that of Selina Kyle. Though she is called a "cat-burgler" in the film, there is actually never a mention of her being called Catwoman. To be honest though, when I heard that Anne Hathaway had been cast as Selina Kyle, I didn't think she could deliver and stand next to Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, (spoiler!) Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, etc... But she did. And she was really good in her role! Once again, kudos to Christopher Nolan for knowing exactly who he needed to fill this role.

And Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Most of us know him from back in the day when he was Roger in Angels in the Outfield. Now though, he's been caught by Christopher Nolan and has been through Inception and now TDKR. Levitt plays rookie-cop John Blake, whose circumstances are very similar to Bruce Wayne's. Except that Blake isn't a billionaire. And he's not Batman. Yet. John Blake had a ton of guts to do what he did. He was basically the only cop on Gotham's streets, and he's the one who kept the rest of Gotham's Finest alive and passed them news while they were all trapped underground. Great performance, and a lot of symbolism for his character as the film wound down.

One of the things I loved about the film was it's soundtrack. From the sound effects to the musical score, it was intense the whole way through.

One of things that I have loved about The Dark Knight universe that Christopher Nolan has created is that it's believable. Yes there are some things we scratch our heads about, but overall, it's realism is astounding. It's gritty and visceral, and it feels real. I felt as if Gotham pulled me in and wouldn't let go for a heart-pounding three hours.

I give The Dark Knight Rises a 9.5/10. Hats off to Nolan and his team who have realized the Caped Crusader in the Dark Knight Trilogy. I just hope WB doesn't reboot it in a few years just to milk the cash-cow.

Disclaimer

I like movies.

I like mostly everything about movies, from the story to the editing, the music, to the art direction. I can't remember a time when I didn't like movies.

The reason I needed to get this out (at 3am!?)  is because I am going to see Christopher Nolan's new film, The Dark Knight Rises, with my wife and a few friends at the IMAX theater this evening, and then I will write my thoughts here on this blog. But first things first.

Christopher Nolan rarely misses. In fact, of his (relatively) short filmography, I can't see one bad film. Now I use the term 'bad' loosely, because, of course, every film has its quirks, its moments. But that's besides the point. Christopher Nolan is good. In my opinion (which everyone is entitled to), he is one the best film directors out there right now. Nolan  is mentioned in the same breath as Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, and is practically a household name. He puts the story and its characters first and foremost in his films, and then complements them with stunning visuals (ala Inception). I wouldn't see The Dark Knight Rises on anything but IMAX the first time around. (And you know what? I am actually looking forward to the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, simply because Christopher Nolan had a hand in writing the story).

I feel like I needed to get this out because I like movies. I enjoy plunging into the world of the film and seeing how it all unfolds.

With that said, stay tuned for my review.

Okay, here's the idea...

I tend to ramble on, sometimes in public forums across the internet, and so I thought it might be nice to have a place to keep those ramblings and provide one-stop shopping to the literally several people who might be interested in them.


Stay tuned for miscellaneous thoughts on digital cinema, movies, new camera technology, and whatever else is on my mind at the time. I'll try to avoid telling you what I ate for lunch or other such customarily blogworthy events. 


EDIT: Stay tuned for my thoughts about The Dark Knight Rises.