vfxcompetition

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DoP Compilation (Competition Brief)

The quality of the upload is really annoying me, so I have now uploaded it to YouTube, please watch this one instead, it looks far better than the Tumblr version! 

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Compilation of all the projects I have worked on over this project (that I was DoP on), I have tried to include a clip from everything.

Apologies for the ghastly compression, tumblr doesn’t like big files, and then compresses the files even more when you upload them 😡

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Evaluation

Best. Project. Ever.

Okay, so you may be thinking, “you’re on a visual effects and motion graphics course, and you have just done a project where you have done none of that, why are you even here?!” Well, let me explain... 

I really enjoy compositing, its a huge problem that needs solving which I love, and I am happy to key green screen footage and stick it all together. However, as much as it enjoy it, I hate sitting at a desk all day everyday in a dark room. I don’t mind doing it every now and again, but the prospect of going into a career where I will be doing exactly that, dark room, in front of a computer, all day, everyday for years doesn’t fill me with excitement. The idea of the stuff I would get to do is exciting, but the fact that I would have to sit in the same place looking at a screen all day just isn’t for me. Its something that I have only began to fully realise recently - which maybe I should have realised a while ago (for every project I’ve done, I have always changed location after a few hours of working, coffee shop, desk at home, desk at uni, someone else’s desk...) I can’t sit still in the same place. Which is also disappointing for me, because I really do enjoy comp, the advanced compositing module in the second year was by far one of my favourites. 

But then there is camera. I think its safe to say, and I’m pretty sure that anyone who knows me would agree, I am happiest when I have a camera in my hands and when I am filming. For this project I have been into uni nearly everyday for the past two months, usually getting in between 08:30 and 09:30 and going home between 16:00 and 19:00. I’m was either testing cameras and equipment, setting up for a shoot, shooting, or de-rigging from a shoot. I have achieved so much over the last few weeks, completed double the amount of projects that I set out to do. I collaborated with second years! (progress), made some new friends, and figured out who I would and wouldn’t work with again. I wish I had kept a record for the amount of equipment I have borrowed over the last three years, everything from connect 2 bookings to off the books loans, because I’m pretty sure I would have broken records. It would be unusual if I didn’t have some kind of camera on me that I have borrowed (I currently have two that I have borrowed as of writing this). So I think that with a degree of confidence, my future career will lie within camera, whether that is me working on set, or of a small production company where I still get to dip into VFX and colour grading at times, or something completely different. Who knows, I certainly don’t at this point, but I will be incredibly surprised if by the end of this course I end up not doing something camera related. 

I’d also love to know how many projects I have filmed or helped film over the last few years (this project it was about 16), so I would be surprised if the total number of projects I have worked on is anything less than 30 over the past three years (I have a feeling it is a lot more).

Which brings me onto the evaluation of this project. 16 projects, over 24 days of shooting, with 1.82TB of footage shot. Its been long, and exhausting, and data consuming, at times frustrating (not mentioning any names), but I have loved every second of it. I have worked with some truly talented and amazing people over period of this project. It has been a real honour to collaborate with a lot of the people I have worked with on this project, and I’d love to work with some of them again. I think that some of the footage that has come from this project, not just from what I have shot, is some of the best I have seen in my short time at this University (I hope the lecturers would agree) that the quality we are now able to deliver is mind blowing.

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Bad take, but an example of the shot

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Equipment List - Svein and Adrian 2

Sony A7sII

Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f/4

DJI Ronin-M

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Svein and Adrian 2

Super last minute, they needed a shot with the gimbal. So I helped them out.

It was at a really nice pub called the Cricketers.

Simple shot. They also needed another by the river, again super simple. Only took an hour.

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Jessica 

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Equipment List - Jessica

Canon C300 Mark II

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L

Manfrotto 504HD

KinoFlo Diva (x2)

KinoFlo Celeb 201

ARRI 150, 650

Softbox

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Lighting Plan - Jessica

Space light for lighting green screen and floor, and also fill. Two divas to fill in the gaps on the back of the green tree. Celeb 201 for fill and soft box for key. ARRI 150 boomed out to create a hair light.  

This was a clean beauty look. 

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Jessica Hayes

Again, just a lighting and camera set up.

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Equipment List - Svein and Adrian

Canon C300 Mark II

Atomos Shogun Inferno

Zeiss 18mm T*3.6

Manfrotto 504HD

Dedo kit (x4)

ARRI 150, 650

KinoFlo Celeb 201

KinoFlo Diva (x2)

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Lighting Plan - Svein and Adrian

Main subjects in the centre, two space lights just filling and lighting the background and floor. Two kino divas to fill in the gaps in the background. An ARRI 650 for key (emulating a sun), dedo for fill, celeb 201 for fill and a 150 to fill the other side.

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Svein and Adrian

For this project I just did the lighting and quick camera set up for them.

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Equipment List - Peter

Canon C300 Mark II

Atomos Shogun Inferno

Small HD 501

Zeiss CP.2 15mm T*2.9

Zeiss CP.2 18mm T*3.6

Manfrotto 504HD

ARRI 650

Dedo kit

Kinoflo Diva (x2)

Kinoflo Celeb 201