MMJ V

I enjoyed watching Brandon Li’s  Hong Kong Strong. It is a film about the madness and beauty of this seemingly incredible city in the days leading up to Chinese New Year. Recently, Brandon joined YouTube and started posting cinematic vlogs. If I had to describe what kind of editing skills I’d like to learn in the future, this video would be a perfect example.

His Baja Vlog starts with a beautiful beach drone shot. At 0:06, an L-cut let the audio leads the picture and continues playing over the beginning of the Mexican Music band sequence. Through the first 10 seconds, we acknowledged where he was, what he did and what is his vlog about.

Start from 0:28, he cuts one shot to another where he uses flip and zoom transition to make the sequences change dramatically and smoothly. I saw a lot YouTube tutorial about how to make this particular transition. We can definitely use it when we switch locations from point A to point B.

A 0:43, he filmed his girlfriend from the back (medium shot), flip-flops in her hand (close-up shot) and arriving at the beach (wide shot). In his tutorial video, he explained how he does the fast zoom effect by using Beholder gimbal. From 0:57-0:58 is a perfect example of his signature zoom-in effect.

At 1:03, Action / Reaction shots heighten the action of the scene, as the camera shifts POV between Brandon’s camera and the tortilla making process. If you listen carefully, Brandon added Whoosh Transition Sound Effects when the tortilla was flying/flipping.

At 1:09, he slows down the speed of throwing and flipping the tortilla. At 1:25, he cuts back to the Mexican Music Band. With the acceleration of the music, the film becomes more rapid and compact. At 1:34, the music suddenly came to an end, the video flips to another sequence.

Instead of using slow-motion, he chose fast motion to speed up the road trip with fast zoom/swipe effect. I have to say, “wow, so cool.” However, the fast motion did cause some dizziness.

From 1:53, he cuts between the running and a variety of different scenes (roof, goats, cactus and sunset). At 3:58, with further accelerate the rhythm of the music, the film becomes faster and faster with fast zoom-out effect.

Brandon uses a lot of editing techniques that are not always needed for a simple video blog or a low budget documentary video. However, those stunning effects could help us to create a beautiful cinematic effect video.

More about Brandon’s editing style and gears:

What frame rate he used in his cinematic vlog:

Hong Kong Strong: Director’s Commentary:

 

Gioacchino Petrpnicce: ” The terminal part of the human arm located below the forearm, used for grasping and holding and consisting of the wrist, palm, four fingers, and an opposable thumb. My purpose was to not cover the entire subject of hands. I think that the possibilities are way too wide. I was mostly interested in how hands inspire me.”

I choose this video for a blog post is because I absolutely love the combination of Slow Motion, Fast Forward, and Normal Speed Effects along with the beautiful detail shots. One takeaway from this video is to rethink the value of how to use close-up shots effectively to a beat.

This video starts with a detail shot of the typewriter. Each click matches with the beats of the background music, In the Hall of the Mountain King. After it finished typing the title of the video, it fades to black.

Followed by a close-up shot of lighting the matches. At 0:16, L-cut let the audio leads the picture and continues playing over the beginning of the Polaroid camera scene.

0:19, POV of the hand. It cuts back to the guy’s face with the shadow of his hand.

This video uses a lot of detail shots and super tight shots to demonstrate different hands activities. The natural light in this video is amazing. It also shot in various viewing angles which make this video fascinating and unique. At this point, you get the director’s point, “This video about hands is awe-inspiring.”

There are a lot of match cuts in this video. No matter you are rotating the basketball or spinning the globe, the director cuts from one shot to another where the two shots are matched by the action or subject and subject matter. Another takeaway from his video is the effectiveness of matching cuts, we can definitely use this technique for sports video, music video, cooking video, etc.

At 2:17, with further accelerate the rhythm of the piano, the film becomes faster and faster, almost three different actions in one second. With the piano performances come to an end, the film also comes to a close.

I absolutely love the detail, close-up shots in this video. What struck me was the director’s editing skills: the face-paced match cuts with the beats. This film deserves me to see it again and again.

If you enjoy watching Petronicce’s video, here is another one for you !

The producers behind Throw, a short film by Early Light Media, created a compelling story that gives viewers insight to the subculture of “throwing”. The film has earned multiple awards since its debut including The Directors Award at the Mountain Film Festival 2016 and the Special Jury Commendation at the 2016 Port Townsend Film Festival.

The intro to Throw utilizes a variety of techniques to propel the action and increase the audience’s emotional involvement. The sound design makes a statement on its own that helps grasp our attention from the first shot––setting the emotional tone of the story. The intro evokes a dreamy sentiment with acoustic instruments featured in the soundtrack.

The audio was instrumental in the overall feel of Throw and the work of sound designer Nick Sjostrom was fundamental to the film’s overall success.

I have an exclusive interview with Sjostrom where he discusses the process of gathering and mixing sound for Throw.

 

The Intro: Slow, steady, and loud

From (0:11) to (0:27), a lone harp plays while the camera slowly tilts up to reveal Coffin Nachtmahr––one of east Baltimore’s best “throwers” as he applies black eye makeup. “I wasn’t like all the rest of the kids,” the yo-yo star says. An abrupt loud but low-pitched sound complements a fade-to-black (0:33) that transitions viewers to the core of Nachtmahr’s story: “People pick on me for just being me,” he says.

A fade-in framing Nachtmahr’s room shows everything from science fiction figures to an empty bottle of Jagermeister. The adjacent window seems to be closed, however we hear a breezy gust of wind roll through (0:37). Nachtmahr’s talents are revealed via a descending drone shot as the music fades out and all we hear is the monologue and the intense “throwing” of the yo-yo back and forth riding along what he describes as his “security string” (1:03).

In the subsequent sequence, a high-pitched sound getting progressively louder is employed to evoke suspense; the audio demands full attention and has viewers wondering why Nachtmahr would “probably not be in the best place,” had it not been for “throwing” (1:09).

As the aerial shot continues to descend on the subject, the sound of the yo-yo slowly fades out as the high-pitched noise gets louder until it is the only audible component (1:20). An out-of-focus medium shot framing Nachtmahr throwing his yo-yo toward the camera lens “stamps” the “O” in the title that reads, “Throw.” A low piano note releases the tension evoked in the audio track by directing our attention to the title; meanwhile, the high-pitched sound effect disperses from the story. “You just throw it out of your hand and once it’s out there, you can do whatever you want to do with it,” he says.

I was lucky enough to speak with Sjostrom (who is also an ADR mixer for shows like House of Cards and Scandal) about the impressive sound design in Throw. He took time to answer some of my questions about the development of the award-winning short doc in our Q&A:

THROW from Early Light Media on Vimeo.

Q:      What did you know about the subject matter of Throw before you began working on the sound design? How did that change over time?

A:      I knew nothing.  Darren and Dave sent me a rough cut of the film just to give me an idea of what I was getting into a month or so before I had their final cut to work to.  As far as what I knew about Coffin and yoyo stuff, I knew nothing.  I’ve seen Coffin performing in Baltimore a couple of times since the film was made, but I’ve never actually met him.

Q:      Do you typically go into a project knowing what you’re looking for or are you recording several sound bites in the field and then you plan out their use in post?

A:      All the dialog in the film was recorded by Darren and Dave, I wasn’t along for the shoots.  When I got their locked picture, I was able to spot through and plan out what was usable from the production audio and what kind of sound design was needed.  I have a pretty good sense for what is in my sound effects library and what I’d need to build from scratch.

Q:      How do you decipher when to use sound effects instead of music and vice versa? At what point in the story did you employ the highest number of audio tracks at a given time and why did you chose to do so?

A:      Darren and Dave sent me the film with music that they chose already laid out in the timeline.  There were lots of spots where I edited their music choices to make them fit with the flow of the story or hit the picture edits.  Also, there are some sound effects elements that are “musical” that I added and blended with the music they provided.

As for track count, it’s roughly 30 audio tracks.

But, the workflow of this type of project can make that number not really represent the complexity of the session.  All dialog is comped to mono, there are stereo ambiences (room tones and background effects) in every scene and occasionally surround 5.1 ambiences, 5.1 hard sound effects and abstract sound effects, music is upmixed from stereo files to 5.1 and then there is further processing on the stereo and 5.1 groups.

Q:      How much of the sound in Throw is synched and how much of it is found using a sound library and mixing them in the design? In other words, can you explain your process for collecting audio and then producing the sound design in the piece?

A:      Dialog is from production (there was no ADR).  They did a great job of getting clean dialog on the shoots, and I was able to de-noise anything that would have distracted from the dialog.  Almost all other sounds you hear were created in post production.  And almost all of those come from sound effects libraries that I use every day.  At my studio, our sound effects libraries are very very deep- so the craft comes in finding and manipulating sounds to match the picture for either realism or abstraction.  Sometimes, a library just doesn’t have a sound you need.  For example, even though we have lots of skateboard sounds in the library, none of them quite lined up with the timing of Coffin’s tricks.  For that, one of my colleagues rode a skateboard outside of my studio and I ran alongside him with a microphone.  On the other hand, sometimes the real sound isn’t as convincing to the audience as an enhanced sound.  A yoyo doesn’t actually make much noise as it’s spinning, and any background noise from the city really got in the way of using the production sound for the yoyo.

I used a lot of spinning fan or turbulent air sounds filtered and manipulated to give the impression of the yoyo string.

Also, since much of the footage is in slow motion, I was able to take a lot of artistic license in creating sounds that weren’t realistic, but played up the artistry and drama of what was happening on screen.

Q:      You three did a really nice job of changing the tone of the music to change the feel within the piece. Each scene transitions to the next very organically. Are there any of these moments that stood out to you? What is your process for finding the music that fits the tone?

A:      Of course, Darren and Dave get credit for the bulk of the work on music.  Together, we did fine tune the edits to make those transitions as smooth and dramatic as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et3j-ZsZ-k8

BBDO New York has always been on my radar for great ad videos. Deceptively touching Judo Kid from “Dad Insurance for Fearless Dreams” embraced the reality and takes us back to remember our first dreams. The reason why I want to write a blog post about this video is because the relationship between the father and son speaks to me. In this less than 3 minutes’ video, it created an emotional bond between the story and the viewers. Absolutely a bonus point for this ad video.

The video starts with a scene, the father carries a package walking into a house with police car’s siren in the background.  It foreshadows for the neighborhood bullies and judo uniform. We can see the director is building the story arc.

The first sequence is about the boy Mateo watches flamenco dancing video in his bedroom. A wide shot illustrates how much he loves flamenco dance with all kinds of posters on his wall. At 0:05, a close-up POV of the video Mateo is watching. At 0:08, camera shifts back to Mateo.

At 0:24, the dark, scary music starts playing in the background after Mateo realized his father bought him a judo uniform instead of a flamenco outfit. We as the audience know how much Mateo loves flamenco dancing. However, every story never goes as what protagonist or the viewer wanted.

At 0:29, neighborhood bullies’ voice over the soundtrack. We watch his father protect him as he walks past the bullies. The arc of the story is climbing. At 0:36, POV of the moving bus. Camera shifts back to a medium shot of Mateo’s mixed feeling face. At 0:39, a wide shot of Mateo and his father on a bus heading to judo practice.  We all know how we Mateo’s feeling, to do something we don’t want to. This story creates a strong sense of emotional connection between the story arc and the viewers. 

At 0:44, the rhythm of the video becomes faster follows Mateo through his judo practice, where he struggles at first, to bigger and bigger competitions.

 At 1:29, a wide shot shows Mateo’s unremitting efforts to train judo. At 1:58, the story takes an unexpected turn. After Mateo has gained enough skills, strength, and confidence from his judo classes and competitions, his father gives him another package, flamenco outfit. Here it is, the peak of the story arc : a father gave his song the greatest gift anyone could give another person – he believed in his son, Mateo. #dad’slove

After the father and son’s hug, the mood and rhythm of music changed dramatically. From the dark fast beat into a high pleasant pace. Mateo heads down the sidewalk again, he’s walking by himself without fears.  

In this two minutes and thirty seconds’ short film, it brings an emotional demonstration between a father and a son. We often asked our story, “is this a story.” This typical father-son story comes from real life, bit by bit it creates a strong emotional connection along with the story arc.  Sometimes, there is no need for us to use a lot of dialogue or superb post-production. What we need is to bond with people and dig into the humanity.  Show don’t tell.

More : http://creativity-online.com/work/american-family-insurance-dad-insurance-for-fearless-dreams/47809

This Adidas Spec Ad was made by third year German film student, Eugen Merher.  He shared it with Adidas before and after production, but they were not interested.  Recently, the ad went viral to over 9 million views and I was drawn to the universal emotion of the piece.  Essentially a story without words, with the exception of the end tagline, subtle details (i.e. 0:08 chest-rising sigh), music, and techniques, like pacing, color, soft focus, convey the story with no need for narration.

The story is of an older man living in a nursing home, bored (sitting on bed with blank stare, eating routine breakfast while TV drones on in background), yearning to set his spirit free.  Nostalgic for his youthful running days, we see him looking out the window, as a runner passes by in the yard, his running memorabilia on his bedroom walls.  The discovery of a pair of old adidas trainers in a locker shifts the tone of the piece as sadness turns to hope.  The protagonist sets out to run, only to be stopped by facility staff.  

As he becomes more determined to run; the filmmaker employs humorous detail, like the potato-sack bench press and an onlooking resident mindlessly watering his TV, to bring levity to the otherwise somber mood.  

At 0:57 we return to the opening shot of protagonist staring gloomily into space as he sits on his bed, but his gaze shifts as residents enter with his shoes.  A moment of transition.  The music and mood open up, as residents line the halls, cheering him on, in slow motion, as he finally runs the length of the hall and outside to freedom.  Action / Reaction shots heighten the emotion of the scene, as camera shifts POV between protagonist and spectators.

In my research I discovered, in an interview by AdFreak, that Merher’s video was set aside without much thought as he quickly moved on to keep up with new school assignments.  But recently, he showed the fake advert to someone in the industry who suggested putting it to different music.  The transformation was immediate.  In the words of filmmaker Eugen Merher:

“I had forgotten about the ad by last March, but then we showed it to Sebastian Ritzler of e+p films and he put in some new music by my favorite composer Alex David. All of a sudden the ad became magical in a way. It was entirely different. Sebastian said, “The music will make or break the ad.””

The video is a great example of the significance of sound design.  To read more about this viral video and how people are responding to it, check out Huffington Post article Student’s Adidas Commercial is Everything Advertising Should Be.

https://vimeo.com/194112395%20http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/curing-blindness-meet-a-doctor-transforming-thousands-of-lives?source=searchvideo

‘A Chance to See Again’ is featured in National Geographic’s online short film showcase.  It was created by Blue Chalk Media, and commissioned by SEE International, as part of a series featuring work the organization supports in Namibia.  If I had to describe how I’d like to use my MMJ skills in the future, this would be a perfect example; telling stories of inspirational people and organizations making a difference in areas like global health, social justice, and human rights.

This moving piece is narrated by Dr. Ndume, who fled during apartheid, received her education abroad, and later returned to her country as an opthamologist.  She provides free eye surgery to people who have gone unnecessarily blind from cataracts.  The film uses natural light, music that gently underscores natural sound, and beautifully integrates still images.  The images and narration blend to create a lyrical and thematic effect (great example ~ 5:00 – connectedness, dancing, transformation).     

Here’s a breakdown of the scenes and techniques:

0:00  Symbolically, the film begins in relative darkness, using silhouettes and available light streaming into mud huts to show blind people living in relative isolation and stillness.  The radio announcement they are listening to, for an eye clinic, serves as a hook for both for the video and to get people to the hospital for free treatment.  Medium and tight shots are used, creating an intimacy and setting a somber tone.   

0:36  Woman is picked up from her bed, shots become wider and lighter as we see blind people being led, by children and family, away from their homes in the village.  Movement is introduced.

0:55  Shots in cars and on the road as eye patients are en route to the clinic.  Arrive at hospital marked with a wide establishing shot outside, and then inside, where patients line floor mats in a huge open room.  Scene closes with a fade to black (1:06) as radio announces “This is your chance to see again.”

1:07  Narrator, Dr. Ndume is introduced and her personal story begins to unfold, with cuts between interview and black and white vintage stills from apartheid and civil war.  There are two different interview settings.  The Dr. wears scrubs while sitting on a patient table in a hospital room and street clothes in another room that may be an office in the hospital.  Both are medium shots with subject looking directly into camera, with depth of field / vignetting used to minimize background ‘noise’ and equipment in the rooms.  I thought the black and white photos were strong in illustrating the hardships of her youth and what the country had been through – they also punctuated her statement about different education offered for blacks vs. whites.

2:07 strong tight shot of Dr. Ndume’s hand gripping a barbed wire fence, opens to a medium shot of her overlooking a countryside scene, reflecting on her time in refugee camps and then going to university overseas.

2:49 Clinic setting, we see various shots of patient interactions with Dr., operating facilities, equipment.

3:19 Series of killer stills / patient portraits

3:52 Rack focus to illustrate the nature of the work

3:56 End Scene with fade to black

3:58

REVEAL: removing of eye patches

Celebration: Ululating, smiles, dance

Benefits: narration of what patients plan to do with their new site

5:04 beautiful culmination of the story.  Brings together the themes of connectedness and transformation as the Dr. dances alongside her patients.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO4k2lLXiT8

I thought this piece of journalism was really interesting coverage of how corporations are taking advantage of poor countries. I’ve always wondered what the incentive is for poor government to allow businesses that harm their people, economy and environment, and this perfectly addresses that.

The video begins with vague images with text flashing over them, while a woman’s voice narrates some of the story. At first it seems like one of those videos where the images have nothing to do with the story, they’re just representations of what’s being said, but if you watch a little long, it begins to look like the people in the images are the real people in the story. I wouldn’t personally start a story this way, but it hooked me, and I enjoyed it. So, I think it worked.

The video then starts transitioning to video that looks older, maybe from another source, but it’s all relevant to the story, and actually does a good job of showing how long this issue has been going on.

Beyond the multimedia components of this piece, the investigative journalism, by Buzzfeed, was really good. I never knew about this secret court before watching this.

So, I came across an awesome list of short films on Youtube featuring famous actors, which lead to Michael Cera’s Youtube page, which is littered with awesome short films his made or been featured in.

“Failure” begins with Cera sitting in a chair and eating something out of a bowl, then a jump shot shows us Cera getting up and leaving the room. I’ve been trying to use the jump cut, most because I like breaking rules, but my attempts aren’t working out.

I thought this film make good use of the jump cut for a few reasons, mostly because watching someone eat isn’t very interesting, and moving past it as soon as possible is nice.

I also really appreciated the minimal use of lighting. It was produced by Daniel Kellison, who also produces Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman, which probably means some really cool gear was involved. I’d be surprised if they didn’t alter the light at all, but the esthetic of the lighting gives an impression that the film is low budget, which I think works for this piece.

Most of the shots are also pretty shaky, which seems to be intentional, because it looks like it’s on a tripod in some shots, but it definitely added to the indie-film esthetic.

Once Cera leaves the room where he’s confronted with a strange woman (Aubrey Plaza), at the bottom of his stairs. There’s a cool shot from beside Plaza, looking up at Cera.

There’s a really cool sequence when Cera clumsily drops a glass bowl and breaks it down the stairs, with piece of glass tumbling down towards Plaza. The camera goes from a medium shot on Cera, to a closeup of the bowl breaking, to a panning shot of pieces of glass rolling down the stairs, until Plaza’s in the bottom right third of a really cool horizontal shot of stairs.

Overall, I thought this was a really cool short film. It’s interesting, considering the ending, but some of the comments said it’s in reference to the two actor’s personal rivalry. (Google: Aubrey Plaza Red Carpet Rage)

Johanna Under The Ice – NOWNESS from NOWNESS on Vimeo.

Sounds of wind lead the opening image in the Ian Derry’s video about Finnish freediver Johanna Nordblad, in a beautifully shot film under four minutes.

I had only skimmed the summary on Vimeo before clicking play, so I had no idea what to expect: something about cold-water treatment after a bicycle accident. But as I watch, I kind of felt like gasping for air as I watched the protagonist hold her breath in ice cold water, literally.

What struck me the most about the short film, however, was the use of color or lack there of.

At the start, the viewer sees mostly wide shots with Nordblad walking on snow from a considerable distance to the camera. Everything looks black and white: dark trees contrasting bright snow.

A medium shot of her head and shoulders and a super-tight shot of her eyes briefly reveal other colors, but I feel the simple color choices accentuate the coldness the viewer will soon feel from the images.

The viewer hears Nordblad explain she almost lost her leg after an accident before starting cold-water treatment. That’s while you see her a few shots of her using a metal saw to cut into ice below her feet.

Just after 1:10 in the film, she dives into a lake, without any oxygen tanks and wearing a single large flipper that fits here two feet — sort of like a mermaid.

The underwater scenes add the blue to the film. It appears that the bright snow above the ice serves is the only source of light for the underwater camera as the viewer watches her swim while holding a single breath.

Several underwater shots are again taken at significant length away from Nordblad as the light reflect from her goggles. It makes it look like her eyes have lit up in the dark cold water.

However, my favorite moment comes when she exhales a bit releasing several bubbles that get trapped under ice.

When she returns to the surface, you again see the tan color of her face, and bits of blue appear in the sky. Among the final sounds you’ll hear are her breaths, a symbolic contrast to the wind at the start of the film.

Valsa das Máquinas, Paramount Têxteis from grafikonstruct on Vimeo.

Music and detail shots are the name of the game in Valsa das Maquinas, a 1.5 minute video that flies by the first time you watch it.

Made by Grafikonstruct, a multiplatform studio in Brazilian, the video syncs an original waltz composed by Lucas Lima as the viewers sees really cool images of a textile plant. Musical notes are precisely edited to the movement of machine parts that you can’t help but notice the intentionality of the musical composition.

Within the first three seconds, you’ll hear the quick strikes of piano keys match the percussion-like movements of a machine. As you hear the introduction of the full compliment of string instruments at 15 seconds, you’ll see a the textile plant’s variety of threads and strings dance back and forth.

I counted 25 shots for the 1:31 second video. All the cuts between shots are fast without any transitions.

Most of the details in each shot have shallow depths of field that are subtle, and you have to really pay attention to see what’s out of focus in each shot. That’s because the producers do a good job of making the eye focus on what’s important in each image. The machines appear to be under soft lighting. However, there are some shots with shallow depths of field, such as in the 53^rd second.

The camera stays motionless in all but one of the shots as the producers let the parts do the movement. It’s only until the 23rd second, where you’ll notice a huge roll of thread unwinds, can one pick up slow camera movement to the left that must have been shot from a mounted position or the movement created in post production.

The only natural sound you’ll hear comes at the end of the video. That’s when the waltz ends and the viewers hear the sound of the last machine and see final textile product made by Collezione Paramount.

All in all, it’s simplicity and synchronization makes the experience fun to watch.

And by the way, if you’re Portuguese is not up to date, the video’s translation means “Machine’s Waltz.” My headline’s translation: Who knew machines can waltz?