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shiningrye · 7 years

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Baker’s Dozen -1 2016

Please lady, my tinnitus.

It may be a few months into 2017 but it’s not too late to review the year that was. It can be worthwhile to reflect on the past, to celebrate successes and learn from shortcomings, to track your progress and see how you’ve grown, and to dwell and ruminate on missed opportunities while you lie awake in your bed at two in the morning trapped in a nihilistic prison of your own mind.

I set out every year to challenge myself to do twelve projects. These can be paid gigs or just personal projects that I complete, but I try to get one finished a month. I feel it’s a great motivator and a good way to improve my skills and at the very least it’s a good productive outlet. I generally only count projects or goals that relate to filmmaking or digital media to keep me more focused.

Here’s how I did (in order of release/completion):

1. Four Feet Companion Foundation - Pucks for Paws

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The first project of the year I finished was a volunteer gig for Four Feet Companion Foundation, this is a great little volunteer-run organization that provides financial and volunteer support to local animal charities. Being part animal myself, I was excited to take on this project and contribute to this cause. I believe this is played annually now at every Pucks for Paws event which is their big fundraising event that takes place at the Saddledome. Overall this was a pretty straightforward shoot and I was decently happy with how it turned out.

Some challenges were the logistics of scheduling and traveling to the different locations, as well as setting up the shoots alone without scouting the location first. A lot of these challenges were caused by a truncated timeline.

What I learned: Thinking back and rewatching the video, it’s obvious that in one interview the colour was way off. It ain’t purdy.

There were a few issues that I faced.

Mixed colour temperature. I was dealing with three different temperatures (daylight from the window, overhead fluorescents and a tungsten keylight) and without proper gels I really didn’t know the best course of action to take.

I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t have suitable gels or flags and I flew blind into the location.

I dun goofed. Lastly, I made a mistake in setting the white balance.

Mixed colour temperature is a beast that can only be slain one way: Unifying all light sources to one temperature. As Alex Buono (SNL and Documentary Now! DP) says, there’s no tricks around it, you just have to get all light to be the same temperature the old fashioned way. It seems obvious and is relatively straightforward to do, if albeit time consuming. A quick flick of the switch killed the overhead fluorescents, which left the two mixed sources shining. Altering light sources isn’t so bad in a small room, if you have the tools.

But I didn’t have the tools.

Logistically this was the only room we could shoot in. There were no blinds on the window and no rod or frame to clip a blanket too, even if I did have clips. You think a guy without clips is going to have a flag (fabric designed to cut light that can be easily positioned)? Hell no. I also didn’t have large enough gels to cover the window (known as CTO or colour temperature orange, alters daylight to tungsten) or the keylight (CTB or colour temperature blue, which alters tungsten light to daylight). I just wasn’t prepared.

Lastly I made an M. A mmmm-m-m-m... A mistake. Yes. A big fat one. Juicy and all tender-like.

I didn’t change the white balance on the cameras to tungsten (3200K) from daylight (5500/5600K) prior to shooting. To add insult to amateruish injury, the walls were painted in what I swear to be Tungsten Yellow, which just compounded the problem.

You’d think someone who worked for a company as a corporate videographer with a few years under their belt wouldn’t make mistakes like this. But it happens. Or at least it happened to me. The trick is to learn from your mistakes and try not to retread the same territory again.

So how did I learn from my mistakes?

The colour temperature issue may have been avoided if I was able to scout the location beforehand. Short timelines can be hard to avoid, but one thing I would’ve insisted on for this interview would’ve been requesting some pictures

of potential shooting locations. Now they may not be able to accommodate the request in time, but you have nothing to lose by asking. I assumed, falsely, that shooting in houses are all relatively the same which wasn’t the case.

Furthermore, since this shoot, my kit has grown in size to hopefully avoid a similar issue in the future.

The white balance gaffe spurred me to make a consistent mental checklist and run through it prior to every shoot since. The checklist I will share in a future post! A simple flash of my Gray Card or using a Colour Passport also would’ve saved me a headache. Over the past year I’ve learned a lot more about colour correcting and grading.

(Top) Last year I was trying to counter the yellow and orange and then glazed it with magenta maybe as a feeble attempt to make it a bit stylized? I couldn’t tell ya. With knowing what I know now, I could salvage it somewhat (Bottom) but it’s best to not make those mistakes in the first place.

That’s also not the worst of it. To add to the stress of the shoot, embarrassingly I may or may not have forgot to bring the quick release plate for the B cam, rendering its tripod useless...

1/4"-20 on a lightstand is there for this reason, right?

I’m not proud.

Yeah I could’ve balanced it on the tripod head. But I did have the sense to know that gravity wins every time.

Tip: Always check your kit before you leave. Another tip: I didn’t get bogged down and give up with the amateur-hour move, I looked at what I had and used it to jerry-rig a solution. If it’s stupid but it works, it ain’t stupid. Even if it still looks stupid.

2. PONOS Apparel

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Had a good time shooting this one: a web commercial for a local athletic apparel company. Shot it in a day and overall it went smoothly. Had a quick and dirty shot list that was flexible so it was fun improvising sequences and putting it together in the edit. Loved working with the director, who made shooting it a breeze.

I believe a student who attends at a local highschool created the music.

Challenges were some of the shots such as running nearly full tilt with a Glidecam but I think they worked for what it is. This is where a gimbal or Steadicam or even a vest and arm attachment would’ve made light work of it.

What I learned: I would’ve made some different editing choices now. The part that really sticks out to me now is in the deadlift scene I’d remove the ‘jump cut + crash zooms’ on the kick beat. They’re unnecessary! Sometimes I get an idea in my head and I want to run with it, but it’s easy to trap yourself in a tunnel. So ideally I should’ve taken a step back and let the edit breathe a bit before committing. Also I need to watch my exposure and ratios. The final shot (which is also the thumbnail above) the highlights are too hot and it’ll bug me forever.

3. John’s Tongue is Not Long

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I had a strong urge to shoot a short so I whipped up a poem and a video idea about one of my roommates at the time, John, and his short tongue. After shooting it, I thought that the poem idea lent itself better to a song. So I enlisted the help of Chris Koehler to help put this song idea in motion. I was hoping he would take one look at the lyrics and jump at the chance to sing such glory. But alas he encouraged me to. I love singing. Alone in my car. The sing-songy genes of my ancestors were weeded out long ago. Perhaps it’s the reason why they emigrated? But I had fun and I think Chris did too. I’m stoked with how the song turned out, he killed it.

Challenges were I didn’t storyboard this or even really shot list this, just kind of went through the lyrics and shot what I thought fit. This made for a bit of problem solving in the edit but it actually wasn’t bad at all and I enjoyed making it fit.

What I learned: The idea was to shoot the first half before John went in for surgery (his wee tongue was causing him discomfort) and finish it off once he has a glorious normal length tongue. I realize now however that this doesn’t come across in the lyrics or the video. My talented director and animator buddy, Jarett Sitter provided some indispensable feedback with just one constructive comment, “I wish he had a ridiculous over-the-top tongue in the last scene.” As soon as he said it I knew I dun goofed.

One of my screenwriting profs said the ending has to be worth the price of admission. (paraphrased, he actually said the ending has to be the best part of the story to make it worth it. i.e. shit ending = shit story). Rewatching my own work is tough but it’s the best way to learn, and when I watch this I realize there’s no click at the end, no spice that holds the rest of it together. Adding in something over-the-top like that would’ve made it a lot more effective as a whole and would’ve fit with the style of the video no problem. So the lesson here, no matter how silly your project you set out to make, consult with friends and revise the script a few times before setting it in stone, you’ll get a better product at the end.

4. GRIT

GRIT is a non-prof that educates kindergarten-age children with disabilities. They requested a slideshow be created so it could be played at their annual gala. Me not settling for just an average slideshow decided to give it a little flair.

Challenges were the flair. I used a fairly common plugin for After Effects (AE) called SureTarget, and needless to say I ran into some problems. I love Video Copilot. They’re a fantastic resource and their plugins are great. So I’m not going to complain about a free, 7 year old plugin. But I will tell you of my tribulations. I’ve used the plugin with success a few times before, but it was used on older versions of AE. It was also used with fewer pictures. This video required about 80 photos/clips to be used, which was also another challenge to try and fit that within the allotted time. I believe the combination of debatable-compatibility with the newer version of AE and the sheer amount of assets proved a nightmare. I don’t even want to look back at how many hours I spent trying to fix the weirdest issues both in animating and rendering. It was too many for what should’ve been a relatively straightforward project.

What I learned: Sometimes you just learn in the middle of production that something just doesn’t work. Due to my stubbornness I refused to demote the slideshow to a generic (worse) program to deliver something. I problem solved and problem solved to find a solution that worked. However, I have put the plugin to rest for good now. It was a good sendoff as I was tired of using it anyway.

5. Phantasmagoria

I got the chance to work with Tia Halliday, a local artist, in capturing video of her project, Phantasmagoria. The idea behind it was to explore the relationship of the body to sculpture and painting. The scope of the project was impressive: using dancers from Alberta Ballet to contort their bodies and hold positions inside fabric sacks to be photographed digitally and with a medium format film camera, both in studio and on location outside.

Challenges were I haven’t done much in the way of abstract video or at least capturing abstract art. So getting myself well-versed and acquainted with the project was the first step. The rest fell into place in the weeks leading up and on the day.

What I learned: this was a combination of behind the scenes videography and capturing the imagery first-hand so it was good experience being able to shoot both.

6. Cancer Crusher Flash Mob

This was a short social-media-focused piece. It was relatively straightforward, and fun since I didn’t know exactly what to expect until it was happening.

Challenges the lens I used is not my favourite but it’s versatile for fast-paced shoots like this, it’s just a pain in the ass to pull focus on, and my hope is to invest in a better zoom eventually. During this shoot I felt like a hummingbird with all the people and action going on, that for a couple shots I cursed at myself in the edit because I didn’t hold frame long enough and missed context because of it.

What I learned: For fast fly-by-seat-of-pants shoots, just need to remember to breathe a beat or two longer on shots.

7. Cancer Crusher 2016 Main Event Recap

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This was the main event for Cancer Crusher where you could win prizes, eat, drink, listen to music, and smash fruit! This was a blast to shoot and I had a great time putting it together.

Challenges were not much different from other event videography gigs. Smaller venues can be a little more challenging to get the shot but there was time to get everything I felt I needed to. As always music is a challenge to find. I think I found something that captured the fun spirit with it hopefully not being too stock music-y.

What I learned: it’s always great to stretch the videography muscles so just getting more experience is always welcome.

8. Sally Shapiro - If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind

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Directed by the aforementioned Jarett Sitter, this music video was fun and a very rewarding challenge to work on. It combined 3D assets - both still and animated, and 2D illustration and animation. My job was editing the video and combining those two sources to make them come alive.

Challenges were obvious. It was a fairly large-scale project in terms of scope (3D animation combined with illustration) and size (it’s a long song). 3D animation is a very time intensive process on the back-end especially, so if there are any changes, you have to prepare for hours (days) of rendering time. Due to the size of the project, the 3D guru, Evan, Jarett and I had to work simultaneously (picture us sprinting across a canyon, where one person is laying down slats and the other two are tying rope, trying to build the bridge as we go). So while consultations were frequent, the nature of it was generally only the big picture could really get nailed down. Figuring out an efficient workflow was key to the success of this project.

What I learned: I love compositing so getting a chance to get some more experience doing it was great. It was very rewarding coming up with solutions to the challenges some parts offered.

9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Lost Twentysomething Series

Last year I finished shooting five shorts that have been an absolutely labour of love. These have consumed my headspace for the past year, but it has been such an invaluable experience both personally and educationally. I’m pumped to see them coming together. Braden Paes along with my friends and family have helped me immensely in getting them produced. There have been challenges and tons of learning opportunities and in the coming weeks/months I’ll post more about them. In the meantime, I am steadily chipping away at them in post, hoping to have something to show in the early summer.

BONUS 14, 15, 16. Escape, Trillium, and Shasta Keychains

My dad’s little business, Camping Treasures is growing in inventory every month! The past year he needed me to draw out the dieline for three different trailers, the Escape, Trillium, and Shasta, so they could be made into 2-sided keychains.The designs have even been shrunk for wine glass charms and earrings. Take a look!

Conclusion

I haven’t written something this long since graduating university, but aside from shaking the rust off, my motivation for writing these is mainly self-serving. Overall I think I’m a patient guy but I often catch myself feeling like I’m in a rush, that I’m not progressing as much or as fast as I’d like, so I like looking back to reassure myself that I have been staying on track, learning, and applying what I’ve learned previously.

If you managed to get through it all, I sincerely hope that it maybe helped you do that thing you want to do or allowed you time to reflect on your own progress over the past year. What are you proud of? What challenges have you overcome and what have you learned from those challenges? Post in the comments or keep them in mind as you crush 2017!

I have started a new career this year which leaves me with less free time (except for right now), so instead of looking at quantity of projects finished, I’m going to be celebrating and looking at the smaller victories over the year.

#bakersdozenminusone #filmmaking #goals #project goals #film goals #new years goals #new year resolutions #shortfilm #videographer #video production #makingmoves #video project #filmmaker #neverstoplearning #ohgodthistookallday

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shiningrye · 8 years

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Bakers Dozen -1 2015

It’s that time of year where we all look back and appreciate what we accomplished, what we didn’t, what we learned, what we didn’t, the good memories shared with people, and what to look forward in the next year. As an aside: I’m not a huge fan of New Years Resolutions as a sole venture, I think if you’re going to make a goal you should start it as soon as possible and make some continuously throughout the year! Sure, having a new goal for the new year is nice and clean and convenient but speaking from experience I’m sure it adds more stress than benefits. Having it on such a clean date makes it too easy to see when you’ve missed a day or how little you’ve gone before relapsing!

With that said, last year I started up Baker’s Dozen -1, a yearly challenge (not a resolution, a challenge. See? Different.) to push myself to work on projects and goals during my free time. Although I started it with the intention of having a list of strictly personal projects, I relaxed my own rules since when working on client projects I don’t have the time to work on personal stuff, as well as I always learn a ton from doing client gigs.

“How can you change the rules?! Just like that?” you ask? Because

I AM THE LAW.

My idea was if I could finish 6 projects in a year I’d be a happy camper and it would be a good benchmark, if I did more than I would be super pleased, and if not it would give me the opportunity to see where the holes were.

2015 was a great year, I learned a lot and got to work on some pretty cool projects. This was the first year that I didn’t have any web development duties (aside from my own) or different project focuses, other than video from clients. I noticed how much more time I was able to focus on video and motion graphics versus previous years. Felt good. Anyway at risk of boring myself with this introduction I present to you my results of my Baker’s Dozen -1 2015.

In order of release / completion:

1. Johan Agebjorn & Young Galaxy - You Passed Through

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I was fortunate enough to work with the talented Director Jarett Sitter on a music video for Paper Bag Records featuring Johan Agebjorn & Young Galaxy. It was a combination of shadow puppets and live footage with a ton of compositing work to integrate it all together.

The idea was to make a dream-like, stop-motion-esque rough around the edges journey and it was a pleasure to work on. This was also the first project I shot with the Sony a7S.

2. My Symbol

As I was wrapping up work on my demo reel I passed it along to the aforementioned Jarett, who gently brought to my attention my original symbol that I use to brand my work. Under closer scrutiny I agreed with his critique and realized it didn’t work, or it could be more effective with some changes. At that point I felt I had to create a new one from scratch. I was anxious to get my reel and site up, but I had to take a step back and spend time on this. Thankfully I was able to lean on my support system and got valuable opinions from friends and family and used that to craft what you see above.

3. Codygiles.com

This was the year I finished overhauling my site. My previous site, although I was really proud of what I had accomplished: a hand-coded and slim portfolio site, it was a heavy-handed (get it) task to update it. Plus it wasn’t mobile friendly. I was hitting my limits of the time I wanted to invest in web development, I didn’t want to delve too deep into the power of HTML 5 so it was time to say goodbye to web. I wanted updating to be as painless as possible but still have the ability to customize and adapt my site to what I needed. Although the theme I chose is not perfect, I am happy with what I have so far and will live with it for a couple more years at least. Speaking of which I should probably update it sometime soon here..

4. 2015 Demo Reel

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Coinciding with the relaunch of my website I released my 2015 demo reel. I was also able to include some compositing work I did for the You Passed Through video from this year. Starting with my first reel (2013 I believe) I included the season with the intention to release a second one the same year, in this case winter. One day it may happen. One day.

5. MindFuel

I had the opportunity to work on some title designs and lower-thirds for MindFuel (formerly Science Alberta). It was a rewarding project to work on. Examples will likely be included in my 2016 reel.

6. Cuba AKA The Canadians Are Coming - travel video

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I had such a blast shooting and editing my Europe travel video that I had to do it again when I travelled to Cuba. This time however, instead of a point-and-shoot, I brought my a7S. With so many different shooting conditions it taught me more about the camera in that week than I did the previous month total. Watching this again just now, the rolling shutter and lack of internal stabilization still eat away at me like those scarabs at the end of the Mummy (SPOILERS). C’est la vie. Oh and did you see who was peering at me at 1:15?

7. Beakerhead Launch 2015

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Jeez I totally forgot to post about this one when we finished it. Served as a videographer and helped edit this piece together for Beakerhead, a local art / science festival held annually. It wasn’t as warm of a day as we’d hoped but it still was a blast hearing from an astronaut and GZA!

8. Wedding #1

This one has no photo because it hasn’t been publicly released but I shot a wedding (and a second one!) for the first time this year and it was great videography experience. It’s all very exciting, you have to be at 110% throughout the day, it’s all go go go and by the end you’ll be lights out when your head touches the pillow. It’s like hunting, hunting and prowling through the reception, looking for that good reaction shot and angle of drunk Uncle Joe. I appreciate and have a lot of respect for wedding videographers (and photographers), but I don’t see myself trying to break into this field. My services will be for close friends only!

9. Wholesale Sports - Owen the Wild

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I edited and graded a promo that the talented erik in design shot for Wholesale Sports. Loved the shots in this one. Made it easy to put together!

10. Finished the Art and Science of Digital Compositing

Yes this counts. Don’t you dare tell me otherwise. I AM THE LAW. This 630 page behemoth is actually a very good read, Ron Brinkmann has some personality that carries across through the pages that helps you wrap your head around some technical concepts. This book is the bible for visual effects, especially compositing. Although visual effects and compositing isn’t my main focus, it’s probably my favourite thing to do in After Effects, even more than motion graphics. These days I feel you do have to act as a bit of a one-man or one-woman band, or at the very least, have an understanding of all aspects of the video and film pipeline. That is where I’m thankful my major in school had a lot of breadth so you could gain a bit of experience across the board. I actually got this book for one of my classes three years ago and have been meaning to read it cover-to-cover, and I finally did!

11. Jam Proc

Click here to view video - I’ve hit the 5 video post limit (maybe I should split this into two parts?)

This was honestly some of the most fun I had working on a project this year. I wanted to make my friend Jam Proc an intro title animation and surprise him with it. Another friend, Andrew, already whipped together a great wordmark and image for his cover photo and profile picture earlier this year, and I wanted to build off of that. It’s got great style, a retro 80s vibe that would be a lot of fun to center around. I had an idea and got to it! I knew it needed some great retro music, and instead of licensing a stock song I decided to make it myself. I looked online for a MIDI sequencer and found a great one, Soundation. Now I don’t have much in the way of music theory, just one intro class in first year under my belt - but I kind of know how it works. So it was just a bit of trial and error, and adapting what I do know -- not the most finessed way to make a song but I was laughing out loud like a maniac as it was coming together.

First I used Push It To The Limit as the energy and feel I wanted, so I matched the tempo and basic beat to it. I found the chord progression for Pachabel’s Canon as I knew that is the basis for a lot of pop songs since, well, Pachabel’s Canon. I don’t know piano so just looked up how to do the chords on Google and played with the timing until I had a bare track. Then just built off of that and fleshed it out until I had something I liked. It was a lot of fun because I got to experiment in something I always wish I could do (music production) and there was no expectations for this so it was very relaxing!

12. Eva’s Initiatives

Click here to view the video

This was a very rewarding project that I worked on for my company, a pro bono initiative for the non-profit Eva’s Initiatives based out of Toronto. They help and provide resources for homeless youth and their families. A disproportionate amount of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, and this piece which I wrote and animated was an introduction piece for workers in the shelter system to get an idea of what these youth may have faced in the past. I have included it in this list because due to some unforeseen circumstances I had to take charge for it at certain points throughout the year so it would see completion. Nick Johnson provided the art direction and initial illustration, while Andrew Rodger illustrated and provided the graphics for the rest of it.

13. Bonus! Boler Keychains

This one’s not exactly film related, but I wanted to share these! My parents have always been very outdoorsy and into tent camping, but over the last couple years they have graduated to trailer camping, specifically Boler’s and other single axle fifth-wheels. They’ve spent many days camping in their Boler in the last couple years, including me back in 2012 when my Dad and I spent 3 weeks travelling up trough the Yukon and Alaska with a Boler towed behind. Well apparently these have quite the cult following and my dad wanted to share his love of these as well as provide resources for other Boler owners. He’s now become very involved in this community and in doing so wanted to create an item so others could also enjoy all things Boler! So he got me to make the die for these two sided keychains, one side is the front view and the other is a rear view of these iconic trailers. It was rewarding seeing these come together and especially see my dad when these arrived, giddy as a kid on Christmas day!

If you too love Bolers you can buy one of these here ;)

As I said I am super happy with what I’ve accomplished this year. I am excited for what the next year will bring, currently have 5 projects on the go all in different stages of completion, so will be excited to keep finishing them as I look ahead.

What are some of the challenges (okay.. resolutions) that you have lined up for yourself next year? Would love to hear them! Wishing you and yours a happy new year, and all the best in 2016.

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