The Perfect Run
As per my previous entry, I present my motion piece for last term!
I really liked the concept for this piece. It started off at around 8 pages of storyboarding, then got bumped up to 10 after talking with Cory. Sadly, I wasn’t able to execute precisely along the lines of the storyboard as I had hoped due to limitations on money and time, but all in all I’m rather pleased with how it turned out. The graphical style of the backgrounds is one that I have been toying with this term greatly in numerous other projects (many of which I have posted here).
To create the piece, I first sketched out my ideas via storyboard, then on the computer with my tablet. Then after finalizing my bluescreen videos with the alpha channel attached, I did a final environmental design and coloration of the world using illustrator. Ultimately my bluescreen footage was pretty good, though not perfect as I had a number of places where rotoscoping was required (and not enjoyed, I can assure you). I shot all the outside footage myself, even the skateboard shots. For those I ended up just leaning down on the board and holding the camera steady to take the shots. It wasn’t easy and I kept seeing visions of something going wrong and breaking the $1800 or so camera, but it was ok! I feel a little bad about the audio design as it was the last part of the project that I did. As a result, it was rushed and not mastered properly. However, I do think that it came together fairly well and that the simplicity of the solo guitar for the alternate world is really nice. I wanted to have only the music in that section, but it became clear that sound effects would be needed as well, so I kept them limited and light. The skateboard audio is some that I recorded myself using a handheld recording device. I made use of the slight hill in front of my apartment to record the audio on, but it took me 3 runs down (and then back up!) the hill to figure out how to actually record. That aside, I captured some good sound.
I think it was a successful project despite needing to cut out shots, rushing at the end and all the other foul things that happened. I hope you enjoyed it!
April 24th, 2007 at 6:11 am
If anyone is wondering, I have confirmed that no Aaron was harmed during the production of this film. Okay, well maybe a lil mentally but not physically.
Hehe, just kidding Aaron – I’m crazy about the skateboard shot, not only the coolness of the angle – but the fact that you had figured how to work around the boundaries that hold us back from getting that “perfect shot”.