Alvaro Posadas

___ from Alvaro Posadas on Vimeo.

I don't know why I like this guys stuff but I do. Simple and complex and incredibly digital, check it out.

Zen and the Art of the Focus Puller

I read about film and film production a LOT. Probably more than any sane person would want to read about anything. When I get onto a set or start working on a some post production I like to feel that I am prepared, that I know everything it is possible to know about what I am going to be doing. But this knowledge is only a crutch, something to fall back on if everything is going wrong.

Video and Audio

I recently did a Pro Tools 101 course. Audio is a little outside my remit as a pixel wizard but I've been a musician for a while and have recorded my own music and obviously I have to deal with audio when editing so it wasn't a completely alien territory for me. What struck me is the amount of similarities between digital audio and video, both technically and in the way you work with it.

Low Poly Animation

Here's a video for everyone who is thinking the photo-realistic Avatar approach to CG is the be all and end all of animation. This video chooses a low poly aesthetic that looks really cool and gave the filmmakers the chance to focus on what's important in any film, the story. They give you like 10 seconds to start caring for the character (which you do), and then plunge him into danger, and then they tip the whole thing on its head. Excellent piece of cinema, check it out.



Pivot from Pivot on Vimeo.

4 Days with the Canon 7d

Following on from my last post about VDSLRs I thought I'd talk a little bit about "From the Former Republic of Czechoslovakia with Love", a short film I was DOP for. 

VDSLR

No this isn't a post about some new STD, I am of course taking about Video DSLR Cameras, or to be more specific, DSLRs that can shoot HD video.

Codehunters and Complementary Colours

Codehunters from axisanimation on Vimeo.

I just saw this short animation film and thought it was worth sharing.

Born of Hope and Lens Adapters

Last year I graded my first feature, a Lord of Rings fan film called Born of Hope by Actors at Work Productions in London. It was an epic project (excuse the pun), that had me deal with every problem I'm likely to face as Online Editor or Colourist.

Invictus

Visual Effects can easily be seen as something only ever used in Sci-Fi and Action films, but the art of Pixel Wizardry can be used in much more subtle ways than sending people into outer space or blowing stuff up. It can enhance any drama by giving the director the power to create or enhance things that he would otherwise have to spend huge amounts of his budget creating in production. Invictus, Clint Eastwood's latest staring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, used an immense amount of rotoscoping and crowd duplication to fill the rugby stadiums with the 10s of thousands of people that should be there and the audience doesn't even notice, which is exactly why it is so good.