Smalltown

Got up at 5am to capture the “scene setting” shots.  It’s dark at 5am.  Real dark.  However thanks to the magic of the Canon 5D Mark II I was able to capture quite a bit of light. Captured over 30mins of footage and quickly edited down to 45secs with quick grade on some shots.  Still need to get this down to 15secs.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• Sound: Ambience captured with seperate Panasonic 2 Channel Dolby 
• ISO: 6400
• Soundtrack: Beachhouse Track: 06 Childhood (This is a temp soundtrack - I’ll change it out every day)
• 100 Day Project: Day 1: 5:15am

Not entirely sure if my camera settings were correct.  First try in low light.

*Apparently the default tumblr video upload was a bit crap so I’ve now updated with Vimeo.

OK, I shot a lot of footage this morning.  Most of it rubbish unfortunately.  Having some real issues shooting indoors in low light.  Too much digital noise.  And so today we have some very simple footage of Noah sleeping.  I’ve put no grade on this at all.  It’s unedited as I shot it - the lighting effect was created with one simple light, camera in one hand, light in other.  Might post some of the other stuff I captured at a later date.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• Sound: Ambience captured with seperate Panasonic 2 Channel Dolby 
• ISO: 1200 (I think)
• Soundtrack: Where the Wild Things Are (Movie Soundtrack) Track 13 Food Is Still Hot
• Lighting: Blue Monster Nightlight from Ikea.
• 100 Day Project: Day 2: 5:45am

Not the most successful footage but it can be used as cut aways or filler if need be.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: 1200
• Soundtrack: Not sure actually - something random from my library.
• 100 Day Project: Day 3: 6:15am

Didn’t have the Canon again today.  Used the old Panasonic instead - with mixed results.  I was after a bridging shot of Noah sleepily opening the door of his room as he does everyday.  He didn’t look at me though for some reason.
I might try this shot again tomorrow morning with the Canon.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Panasonic TZ7 HD
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: Rodriguez: Can’t Get Away
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 4: 6:45am

Today (being Saturday) was devoted to capturing some of those hours I won’t be able to get while at work.  I had the luxury of as much time as I needed and as it was raining my subject matter was forced inside for most of the day.  This has of course resulted in too much footage.  I’ll know better next time.  

It’s going to take a few hours to edit this into something succinct and I’ll post the results later this evening.

Update:

OK, so I ended up concentrating on only 2 segments of footage in the end.  I’ll revisit the other 45 minutes of footage at another time ; )

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: 1200
• Soundtrack: Bressa Creeting Cake: Palm Singing
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 5: 8:45am

Focused on capturing Noah out and about for the 1-2pm time period.  Pretty chaotic shoot at the supermarket.  Rendering out now and will upload in the morning.

 OK, so I’m discovering (obviously) that the capturing bit is quite straight forward.  The edit, render, compression and then upload is taking up to 3 hours.  Need to stream-line this shit.  And to be honest, I’m finding it difficult to be economical in the editing suite as I don’t want to throw any of the footage away.  It’s my son for goodness sake and it all looks good to me!  The edits are getting longer and apologies to anyone following this but until I figure out how to be little less subjective with my subject matter we’re stuck with it.

Note on the soundtrack:  This sequence works with almost anything (Terry!) but especially with Been Caught Stealing by Janes Addiction.  I thought it was a bit obvious though.  I could post multiple soundtrack versions to demonstrate how a soundtrack seriously influences the visuals but it seems a little indulgent at this point in time.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II & iPhone 4
• ISO: 400
• Soundtrack: Bloc Party: Hunting For Witches
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 6: 11:45am

OK, back into the regular schedule again.  Normal morning routine - brushing teeth. Before breakfast.  Don’t worry - we’ll brush them again after breakfast as well.

Just noticed an accidental vignette appearing in the left corner.  Not intentional but a nice effect.  I’m finding that shooting with the Canon is getting “unexpected” results.  Which I like.  When you shoot with a Red or similar you get the expected clean, filmic look (don’t get me wrong, the Red is a beautiful camera) - but I’m getting lens distortion and exposure flashes that are making the process really interesting.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: 400
• Soundtrack: Hmmmmm.  Can’t remember
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 7: 7:00am

Another day without the Canon - full day green screen shoot in the office - and not really anytime to capture footage of Noah.  Made the most of the fact that we were actually capturing footage of Noah for a Telecom job we’re working on.  Not a lot of quality footage here and it probably won’t be used in the final film.

This certainly is a challenge (especially when using an iPhone) but I’m enjoying it.
oh, and another happy accident I just noticed - at the end of the footage it looks like Noah is lip synching to the song! 

Capture details:

• Shot with: iPhone 4
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: MIA: Born Free
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 8: 6:15pm

Once again no Canon (my fault this time - left it at the office).  Could have used the trusty old Panasonic but more interested in what I can quickly capture with the iPhone at the moment. Obviously can’t get any depth of field and the white balance is all over the place so I think this might be the last day using it.

Capture details:

• Shot with: iPhone 4
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: The Bird & the Bee: I hate Cameras
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 9: 7:15am

We have friends staying from London which has created a little bit of chaos in the schedule.  Really hard to get them out of bed and moving this morning so that I could capture something a little more engaging than 2 kids eating breakfast.  Again.  But I guess I have to be content with I can capture at the moment.  I only have small window of opportunity before I have to leave for work. Perhaps it’s time to get some more pick ups of other objects to keep this interesting.

Also, tried shooting in B/W today.  Mixed results.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (cont)
• Lighting: Natural
• 100 Day Project: Day 10: 6:45am

I’ll add notes for this tomorrow but as you can see it’s gratuitous use of lens flares.  All shot on the iPhone 4 with no grade.  Needs more of a refined edit.

Capture details:

• Shot with: iPhone 4
• Sound: Ambience captured with seperate Panasonic 2 Channel Dolby 
• ISO: Auto
• Soundtrack: Not sure
• 100 Day Project: Day 11: 6:45pm

So it’s been a while since I put anything up here.  I’ve been capturing footage everyday (which is the point of my 100 day project) but don’t have time to edit and post at the moment.  I imagine there will be a flurry of activity over the next few days though…

OK, moved to Posterous because tumblr was being a pain in the ass.  Let's see how it goes...

I've been fighting a war with technology over the last few days.  Mostly losing to be honest.  Anyway, playing catchup - been capturing everyday and although I got some footage mixed up for a while there I'm back on track.  Day 11: Cut away or detail shots of toys.  Pretty boring tuff but all adds to the library of footage.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: 1600
• Soundtrack: Joe Gibbs: Fist to Fist Rub a Dub
• 100 Day Project: Day 11: 6:45pm

Not sure what actual day this was shot but it was in the Day 13 directory so I'm guessing it's right.  Noah - getting all punk.
Trying a different way of grading on this footage - still using After Effects but not my usual method.  I quite like the result.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: 800
• Soundtrack: Stiff Little Fingers: Wasted Life
• 100 Day Project: Day 13: 4:45pm

A little bit boring but it all can't be guns and explosions ; )
Could definitely do with an edit down as well - might re-look at it further down the track.

Capture details:

• Shot with: iPhone 4
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: Phoenix Foundation: Bleaching Sun
• 100 Day Project: Day 14: 5:30pm

Quick capture of Noah Vs the Computer - usually a little more dramatic.  Nothing special here to be honest.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: The Beta Band: Squares
• 100 Day Project: Day 14: 5:30pm

It's taken a while to capture this footage.  Finally, after many failed attempts here is Noah having a melt down.  And a mild one at that.
I'm hoping that I'll capture a full extended 1 hour meltdown on camera at some point.

Soundtrack.  First time I've used live voice thus far - had to be done.  There were a lot of obvious tracks I could have gone with but at the end of the day it was a toss up between "Where is my mind" by The Pixies (a very fitting title) and "I'm so tired" by the Beatles.  Worth noting: anything loud and hardcore also works here...

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• ISO: Automatic
• Soundtrack: Live + The Pixies: Where is my mind.
• 100 Day Project: Day 16: 6:30pm

So, we caught the train from the old Glen Eden station into New Lynn.  Noahs first train ride.  He loved it until we had to get off...
This footage has been sped up x3.5 to fit in 40 mins of edited footage.

Capture details:

• Shot with: Canon 5D Mark II
• Soundtrack: Ocean Colour Scene: The Day We Caught the Train.
• 100 Day Project: Day 17: 10:30am