Just Another Day

I've got to get my clothes ironed and my bag packed. I'm going to do a sleepover at Ken's house. Oh, and we're going to make a movie. This weekend is the Orlando 24 Hour Film Festival and we've got work to do. If you don't know, this is an insomniac film competition. The key word being "insomniac", meaning no sleep. I'm cool with it because I don't sleep much anyway, so I might as well be doing something productive...aside from watching Top Gear.

We've done these kind of competitions before. In fact, our success with a 72 hour competition helped to add fuel to the Cloudy Logic fire. An insomniac competition is simple. You're given your requirements (genre, character, dialog and props) at zero hour and you've got 24 more hours to make a movie. Pretty straight forward, huh? I implore all up-and-coming filmmakers to participate in an insomniac competition because it's a great learning experience. Plus, at the end of it, you have a film.

I'm going to try to keep status updates via that Twitter thing as the day progresses...if I'm not busy doing other things...a lot of other things. I'm really looking forward to it. We've got a lot of talent behind us this weekend. Not just with our film skills, but with everyone helping us. Cast and crew alike, I can't put into words how much it means to me to have so many people dedicating their time to our endeavor. I certainly hope we can put together something worth their personal investment. I think we will.

I've still got a bag to pack and get to bed. Ken is expecting me at 7AM, so I should consider turning in early...IF I can shut down my brain. For now, here's a few things to take with you on your way out:







Sleep tight kids.

Lock, Stock and a Designated Marksman Rifle

I don't know if I've ever mentioned in this blog, but I like to play the occasional video game. I'm no super gaming geek, but I do know my way around a Halo map or two. I've always been a fan of first-person shooters and when you toss in some good old fashioned internet-based multi-player action, then things start to tingle. I own a Xbox 360 (my fifth one, and not because I have five of them either), but I haven't turned it on in a while. I think I'm going to have to dust off the controller soon though. Especially when I see stuff like this:



Saw that tonight while watching Justfied (which is getting a LOT better, by the way).

Lock and load, ladies!

This is Crazy Cool

I know I keep dropping Andrew Kramer's name in my blogs, but I'm very fond of him and his skills. His latest blog had something that blew me away, and I suspect, after watching this, others will be equally blown:



Crazy! Check out the BTS:



Perchance to dream...

Just Plain Old Good Upbringing

I've got great kids. Seriously. If you know them, then you know I'm not just talking like a proud parent. I really do have plenty of reasons to be proud of them. This isn't a blog about how awesome my kids are, but about how they've picked up on some of my film making skills. They both have an eye for things (probably because I'm always talking about how something was shot or edited). Anyway, Jordan, my oldest and future Airman, told me about a pretty cool video he saw on youtube recently:



I've got to figure out how keep my kids on the payroll.

Even I Have Heroes

Well, not in the classic sense. Sure, I love the heroes in comic books, again not in the classic sense (The Boys, Preacher and Wormwood, to name a few...thanks Matt!). I'm not talking about those kind of heroes, I'm talking about the kind of heroes you look up to. The ones you want to be when you grow up. Someone I'm adding to my list of people I want to be when I grow up, is Andrew Kramer.

If you've read my blog, then you should know who Mr. Kramer is. He's the brains behind all of the badass tutorials on videocopilot.net. The stuff he's taught me about After Effects gets my creative juices aflowin, and soon they'll ooze from all the orifices in my big head...including that little spot in the corners of my eye sockets.

I've recently subscribed to Andrew's blog and I was going back through some of his old ones, when I was surprised to see he is the guy behind the opening titles to one of my favorite shows:



He also did the cool "retro" version which aired on April Fools Day:



Find out more about those particular projects from the master himself. I've watched your Basic Training Tutorials a few times and now I'm comin' for ya Andrew!

Check

Many moons ago, CLP worked on shooting footage for Murphy Lee's single "Check". It was a lot of fun because it was the first time I worked that closely with a hip-hop star, not to mention a Grammy winner. It was really cool to work with Murphy Lee and Kyjuan of The St. Lunatics and Derrty ENT, along with the rest of the crew who helped to make this a possibility (even though between you and me, I think Ken deserves a LOT of credit for kicking ass and ensuring shooting even happened). I definitely learned a lot from that night, as it was my first big time music video production. Hopefully, we'll get to work with them again soon.



They write a check, I get a check and cash that!

When It All Comes Together Nicely

I think I've mentioned a few times how tough it is to juggle the many pieces of making a good film/production. You're trying to tell a story, visually, and you want to keep the audience not only interested, but engaged. You'll need a story worth telling (but aren't they all?), you've got to get the right shots, and even if you get the right shots you still have to edit it, and score it, and fix it, and pound your creative abilities into it until you're left with a quivering bloody messy mash of ideas, imagination and dreams. Hopefully, when you're done, it looks something like this:



I watch things for production value now. Top Gear puts out stuff that is very high in production value. I've become a fan of the show and I try to catch it as often as I can just to see what little crumbs of knowledge I can gather up and chew on for a while. The Veyron vs. the Typhoon video is a really good example of how Top Gear invests time and effort to ensure the audience member is not only captivated by what they're seeing, but it also makes them FEEL the experience. I felt my ears rushing as I watched it, like I was either in the car or the jet or a spectator on the ground...it felt like I was there. And THAT, my dears, is how you become a better filmmaker. Make your audience feel it.

Holla.

Speaking of Demo Reel

In the last blog, I mentioned how I need to get working on our new demo reel. I've been working on it, but there really is a buttload of footage for me to go through and most of it is damn good. Our first demo reel was good, but we were still kids when I did that one. Everything was new and shiny and wonderful.

By the time I did the second demo reel-ish thing, I had lost some of my innocence and grew a few more grays. I may be a veteran in age, but not so much in overall experience in the film making game. But we've got a ton of great film and I can't wait to share it with ya'll...all 2 of you.

Plus, one of my heroes, Vincent Laforet just put out his new demo reel and it tingles the loins while pleasantly inspiring motivation:


I'm out.

Gettin' My Learn On

I've really got to get working on our new demo reel. We've got SO MUCH footage since the beginning of the year, I've got a lot to sort through and edit. Plus, I'm learning all this cool stuff in After Effects, I want to demo some of my prowess. Here was something I did a couple weeks ago just to experiment with titles, 3D spaces and depth-of-field:

My original attempt at making that was with using Particle World in After Effects, but unfortunately it does not recognize depth-of-field...which sucks! I've already put Red Giant Trapcode Particular on my wish list. So, to overcome Particle World's deficiencies, I had to do each title individually and manipulate the DOF via a camera in a 3D space. Turned out pretty cool, especially after I did some fine tuning and added the sound effects.

Ken has taken us a step further to becoming too legit to quit:

I hear if you have a CLP magnet on your vehicle, it will appreciate in value.

On other Lowrie news, Ken and Bren sent me this pic from Pensacola, where they've taken the camera to get some sunset footage:


I can't wait to get my hands on it! I mean the footage. Not the camera...or Ken.

Stay tuned!

Just a Few Thoughts

I know I keep taking these hiatuses from blogging and everyday, I intend on doing it, but somehow it just gets put to the wayside. I know I've got to get better at doing it. We'll see if this attempt proves more successful than others.

A couple weeks ago, we released the music video we did for Cutty Lue's remake of Just a Thought by Gnarls Barkley. This video spent a lot of time in post production as I wanted to learn how to give the footage a certain look. It was very time consuming, but I learned a lot about doing some cool effects with Magic Bullet and After Effects.

One of the things I've been doing by default, with both stills and video is basic color correction. Make sure your blacks are black and your whites are white, no pun intended. That is where you start.

After that, I played around with Magic Bullet and After Effects. I was finally able to find the look I wanted via Magic Bullet's Look and Misfire filters. Made the render times, damn near forever, but it was worth it. Here is a quick clip to show the difference between the raw footage, color corrected, and finally with the Magic Bullet effects.

Just A Thought - Color Correction Test from Willie Sheely on Vimeo.

I'll get back to blogging more often...I promise.

Stay tuned!