I'm making a quick video to accompany a song.... for this Sunday Night!
I've got a vague scene idea in my head of a busy high street scene with people walking, sped up to fast motion, but with one person walking in real time or even slow motion amongst them. I visualise the fast motion shot to be slightly smeary leaving trails, maybe even a bit blurred. The slow-motion/real time figure would be crisp and distinct.... but I'll take what I can get!
I've seen other amateurs do similar shots and wondered how to attempt it myself?
I currently have 3 main methods of approach I'm contemplating (but you might have better suggestions). Either:
1) Use two separate shoots using a camera on locked tripod, and try to superimpose the shots in post (One shot sped up other at normal or slow-mo).
2) Try to film both in same shot, with a very slow moving actor amongst the crowd. I'm assuming though that although simpler in post work, would actually look quite naff when sped up.
or
3) Take lots and lots of footage on a locked tripod of a much less busy street, and overlay multiple streams of fast-mo footage to make it look busier, and then one stream of my slow-mo guy, which might make it easier to composite the slow-mo shot in without being able to clear the street to film him in isolation.
(I might even try filming all 3 and decide which works best in post!)
It would be filmed on the local pedestrianised high street with just one helper (to be my slow-mo guy), and normal (unsuspecting) shoppers to be my backdrop... so can't direct the crowd!
It will be filmed by me on my Canon XM1 & edited on Liquid Edition this week, and completed for showing by Sunday evening... so no time to mess around... I just need to make it the best I can in the time! I guess the better the shot is thought through before filming, the less work to do in post.
If it all goes to plan and is simple enough to film and edit, I might do another similar scene too and have the person walking down a street with fast motion blurred cars.
If it ends up looking too hard to do or looking too cheesy, then I'll back off to a simpler idea with cross dissolved scenes (between fast-mo & slow-mo) to convey a similar message/story concept without the tricky compositing or filming!
So, how would you tackle this? Any advice in setup, filming or compositing/editing would be gratefully received...
Thanks
Mike
(It's been a few years since I did any video work, and posted here... but great to see old familiar faces are still posting).
I believe the most common method is the one you described in option 2. You have to get the slow mo guy to think in terms of being a stop motion character and do everything in small, step by step movements.
The other option would be to film very early in the morning when there was no-one around and then film the same scene without moving the tripod when the road was busier later, but because it is dark so late this will not probably work - in any case when you overlaid the two tracks you would probably get people walking through the slow mo guy.
If it is needed for this weekend then I think you need to get out there and start practising for number 2 - as soon as he has got the movement correct it shouldn't be too hard.
Good luck! Would love to see the finished effort.
My guess is, the slow walking guy will look thunderbird wooden when speeded up, you'll also have onlookers gawping at the apparantly motionless guy blocking their path.
Easiest option - Why not have him stood still/reading a magazine framed to one side of the picture, then speed up.:)
My guess is, the slow walking guy will look thunderbird wooden when speeded up, you'll also have onlookers gawping at the apparantly motionless guy blocking their path.
Easiest option - Why not have him stood still/reading a magazine framed to one side of the picture, then speed up.:)
Or a really slow turn of the head with really slow blinking is a bit easier than slow walking
Yep! Make sure the blinks are reeeeeal slow. It's hard not to blink when being filmed, but if it's speeded up it's a big giveaway. Too much and it'll be like popeye on acid :D
Some good thoughts there. I had assumed that option2 would look wooden and false when speeded up, but it makes the post process so much simpler it has to be worth giving it a go.
I'll probably try to get out to a do a filming today and see what I get. I'll film a combination of options, so I can play with them all in post and see what works. If it hasn't worked, I can learn from the test shots and be able to film again but better (hopefully).
I really want walking guy though, as that fits the "story".
My wife reckons it wouldn't matter if people walked through slo-mo guy either as it gives it an 'other worldly' look. Not sure myself, but I can try it out and see what I get.
Editing wise, does anyone know if Liquid Edition has the ability to do a track matte type thing from a blank background frame (to isoate fast -mo people from background in option 3). It would need to be looking for the differences between a frame of plain background and a shot with a person/people in, so I could subtract the constant background? I'm sure I've read about it, but can't remember the name of the matte type.
Thanks everyone. Keep the ideas flowing... and I'll keep you updated on progress.
Mike
Oh... and if the slo-mo guy is there and people gawk at him looking odd, then that might add to the story too... as long as they don't stop too long to look themselves!
I guess I'm pretty fluid about the final outcome, as I don't have too much time to be picky! It started as a simple idea that I then 'developed'... with only a little time to achieve it. If I can pull anything watchable from it, I'll be very happy. If I can make it look awesome, I'd be ecstatic!
Mike
Other options = Cam op walking backwards facing the model while walking through the crowd may take the gawkers eyes off the distraction. Synced with very slow paces it should be effective.
Walking behind the model as they weave very slowly through the crowd. A head and shoulders shot close up, will stop bystanders walking between the two.
What about filming guy walking down the street being followed by someone holding a makeshift greenscreen behind them? You could then cut this person out in post and as long as you reshoot the scene straight after without coming off tripod then you could combine the two shots - couldn't you? Or do I need to buy a different type of mushroom??
Andrew Kramer on videocopliot.net uses a small greenscreen to isloate the individual here:
http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/ae_effects.html
and also in the animation tutorial.
Might be useful...
I've used your option two several times. It takes an actor with exceptional movement quality (I ended up using dancers) to make it look natural. They need to practice, be filmed practicing, watch that back and refine their movements - ie how they walk - from what they've seen of themselves on screen. It's really not easy to walk naturally very slowly, but when it's done well it looks great.
Thanks everyone, some brilliant thoughts....
The ideas are building in my head... but so are the questions! Arggghhh!
One quickie before I go out to take first shots. Should I be shooting in Frame or Field mode on the XM1?
The final output will be direct from Computer AVI file to Video Projector (using Deejaysystems Video VJ2 live video mixing software) mixed live to match the live performance of the song.
With the fast-motion shots, will they come out better with fields or frames? (bearing in mind the frames mode on the XM1 is a kludge... albeit a reasonably good one!)
Thanks again
Mike
no green screen options?
EDIT: lol - was too slow in posting. :)
Well... I did some filming yesterday... and I now need to take a look at it to see if it is any good (but work got in the way today)!
I ended up being my own actor... and trying the slow walking myself.... not sure how good it'll be... I suspect I'll have a slight "waddle" to my walk, as it is really difficult to walk slowly without swaying from side to side to keep balance on each leg! I hope it is still usable without being too amusing!!!
I let the tripod do the filming, and left my wife with pushchair, guarding the camera.
I took plenty of plain "people" footage too, to be able to try options 1 & 3 if my waddle is too wobbly!
I just need to work out how to get it all composited in a way that is quick and efficient and gives me the result I was after. Commotion isn't working for me (the clips come in blank), so It looks like I'm stuck with Liquid Edition 5.62 (as v7 is only just on its way to me)... and anything I can do with Virtualdub & Avisynth.
I was hoping for options 1 & 3, to do a "difference matte" key to be able to overlay multiple layers of people on top of each other & me going slow... but that looks to be out of the window now... unless anyone knows a free plug-in that can do it.
Looks like it could be a late night! Will play with my footage and decide if I need to refilm in time to do some more tomorrow.
Any compositing tips will be most appreciated. I'm hoping for a nice blurred edges & motion blurred effect on the fast-motion stuff, so that the slow-mo guy can stand out more.
I'll keep you posted... and hopefully by the end, have some usable footage to show off to you!
Mike
Can't wait to see the results!!
I took the footage on late afternoon Thursday, and finally got to look at it properly last night. I took it on frame movie mode on the XM1, so I didn't have interlaced fields to mess with in the post processing. I think that was a wise choice.
I took all the footage I could need for all 3 compositing methods in one long 25 minute clip... on a fixed exposure. Unfortunately the footage I needed for option2 was from the latter half of that time, and the available light was already much darker than at the beginning of the 25min shot! Ideally I would re-film on a brighter day, but it's market day today, so leaving it until Sunday afternoon would be cutting it very fine, so I'll probably have to stick with what I have now and fix it up.
I was feeling quite despondent last night.... I really looked very waddling & odd in my walking style when sped up with no other processing! I was also struggling in Liquid Edition to get the right sort of blur & motion blur on the footage to meet my vision (in my head!).
After some web searches, I settled on using VirtualDub to pre-process the video.
I applied the following filters in this order to the real time footage:
Levels: Dialled up the black point and lowered the Gamma & White point. Give it a dreamy look, with plenty of black shapes.
HSV: Dialled up the saturation way up, to put some colour back in my dull footage
(the problem with filming so late in the afternoon in poor light and in changing exposure conditions).
Box Blur: Radius 6, Bicubic 3. Gives the distinctive look to the people I was aiming for. Much more like vague people shapes, than identifiable individuals.
Temporal Smooth: Carry some motion from the people into surrounding frames.
Motion Blur: Similar to above.
With that processing, the footage suddenly looks like it could be usable!
I still want much more trailing blur in the motion, if I can apply it, but reading around what I want to achieve, suggests I would need to use AviSynth for that, and I don't know if I have time to get my head around that program having never used it before!
I have then taken the footage into Liquid Edition to apply the time warp. I've got two versions... one at 3x speed and one at 3.5x speed. I prefer the fast people from 3.5x and the slow guy from 3x speed versions!
I would like to accentuate the slow guy some more... so I might try the amazing colour replacement & correcting tools in Liquid to try and isolate me better. Fortunately I'm wearing a Red jacket, and most other people seem to be wearing dark colours! I want to give slow-mo guy some "zing" to help him stand out.
I now need to work on the story flow and make the footage fit the shape of the song, so it enhances the music, rather than jarring and distracting from it.
Looking for a good free "sped up cloud" shot on the internet (the weather here will not allow me to film it!), to use interspersed with some fast car footage, and the fast people shot (with slow-mo guy).
Anyway, it's getting there.
Help still needed:
Link to good cloud footage
Any advice on getting smearier trails behind my fast people.
A time machine to give me another week to work on this footage!
Thanks everyone....
Mike
P.S. I look forward to sharing with you all the final outcome... if it isn't too shameful! ;)
Clouds - TL - half way down page.
http://stockfootageforfree.com/category/time-lapse/
NTSC HD or SD - so will need converting for PAL - but it's FREE!
Browse around the site - there's a lot of free clips.
Dave,
Thanks for the link. I'd just found some really great cloud shots on the BBC motion gallery, but all the clips seem to have a watermark on them and be low quality.... maybe I am missing how to get the full res versions of them. (I know some are paid for at higher resolutions, but even the free ones seem to have the watermark).
Anyway, the site you linked to seems to be a great resource... one for my bookmarks.
Mike
It all went very well. Thank you everyone. Lots of very positive comments.
I had hoped to make a video track for each verse & chorus, so I could sync the key parts of them to the live music using DeeJaySystems VJ2, but in the end I ran out of time, so I just made a simple complete video for the whole track (based on a rough timings of the song - as told to me over the phone).
I ended up being a few seconds out over the length of the song as performed on the night (could easily have been a couple of seconds the other way on another night) ... but nothing anyone would have noticed... (except me - and it really bugged me!)
I'm hoping I can get a recording of the song, with permission to upload it for you all to see & hear... but failing that, I will upload just my visuals. Give me a day or two to catch up on stuff I had to postpone whilst cramming the video shoot in between normal life & work, the I'll get it uploaded!
Vimeo seems to be the most impressive video upload site quality wise (compared with the likes of YouTube)... I'm assuming I can get a free account with them to upload to. Anyone recommend anywhere better?