To my wife

Re: To my wife

[quote author=David Jimerson link=board=Clips;num=1081983262;start=0#11 date=04/14/04 at 19:07:24]

Looks like skettalee removed his post.

[/quote]

Something like that. ;)
 
Re: To my wife

I loved the cartoon effect, too. In fact, I would like to have seen it all the way through except for the opening scene and the end. A little shorter might be good. I think your wife will be touched.
 
Re: To my wife

Wow, thanks for all of the responses. I really appreaciate everyone taking time to watch this and critique it. Let me try and answer a few questions.

"Maybe if you tell us more about the nature of your class project, we could be more "harsh" in our critiques. "

The project is really my own. I am on the verge of finishing school so i get to basically work on my own projects. My professor gave the assignment of a technology timeline. It was actually a project to be done in flash, but I decided to do it this way.

I've imported stuff into photoshop frame by frame as well. I haven't done it since because it's time consuming.

I did most of the rendering while I was at work or asleep, so it really isn't that bad. Setting up a photoshop action is a big life saver, unless something goes wrong in the middle of it.

Also, what did you use to keep the camera steady in your car? Please don't tell me that you 1) had it wedged between the dashboard and windshield or 2) have money to blow on some expensive car-stablizing contraption.

I used a $40G arri stabalizer carpod. No, actually I used a tripod and a seatbelt. I have a tripod with manfroto 3205 legs that are separatly adjustable and also have three locking positions so that I can have one leg sticking straight out and the other two legs I can have short and right under the camera for stabalization. The tripod is great for those hard to fit situations. I then wrapped the seatbelt around it a few times. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it turned out pretty good.

I loved the cartoon effect, too. In fact, I would like to have seen it all the way through except for the opening scene and the end. A little shorter might be good. I think your wife will be touched.

i was actually looking at using the footage all the way through the film, but a few things stopped me. First, I just felt that it wouldn't portray the piece the way I wanted it to. I felt that it would be lost to much in the experience of watching footage that looks like a cartoon. Second, and probably the biggest reason is that I would still be running a photoshop action right now going through this thing. I figured out that it took about 25sec a frame to do the rendering. with 24 frames per second and 60 seconds a minute that would be ummmmmm 10hrs per minute times 4 minutes. wow, thats about 40hrs. So I don't see this action becoming a plugin anytime soon, unless Red bullet picks it up :)

I feel bad for your wife, how can you do this to her

Don't worry, we are going away for the weekend and we're not brining the camera. It will be hard, but I think I can make it without my precious.
 
Re: To my wife

First off, I loved it. I thought having everything sped up, the time lapse, and the jumps in time all came together perfectly to drive home the idea of a hectic and busy lifestyle just chewing up all of your time.

If I had to make a criticism it would be that I think it runs a little long...but on the flip-side there isn't any part that I think you should cut. I suppose that blows my chances of ever getting hired as an editor by anyone here ;D but I'm just being honest.

I thought it hit home emotionally too. If I were your wife, I'd be touched. I realize that could sound kinda creepy but you know what I mean.

The animation effect was great. It reminded me of the parts in Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings where the animation/rotoscoping was done really well. (Yes, they are definately few and far between but I swear there are some in there!)
- Eric
 
Re: To my wife

I liked it, especially the timelapse work.  It had a nice style and flow. :)

As far as critiques go...

I don't think I would have gotten the idea of the piece without your explanation in your original post.  It definitely shows 'a day in the life', but I'm not sure if the viewer would really make the connection between your daily activities and technology's hindrances, or the fact that you and your wife don't see each other enough (sure she's only in the first scene, but the message wasn't emphasized IMHO).

I didn't care so much for the effect.  I think the reason is a combo of using photoshop for so long that it initially reminded me of a cookie cutter photoshop effect, and moreso the fact that it looks like the effect used in the intro for the (hopefully cancelled) sitcom, 'Becker', which I can't stand.  But you're right, the compressed version really takes out a lot of the detail in the original frames, so it's hard to judge.

I hope you found these criticisms constructive :)

BTW, good job!
 
Re: To my wife

Yes, I really do appreciate the criticism. I can understand how it would be hard to follow if I hadn't explainded it, that is why I made sure to give the explination. The thing with this piece however is that it is more of an art piece than a short film, ie. it is not really a narrative, more a symbolistic way that I look at my own life. I am actually preparing an artist statement to go along with the piece so that the viewer has that background before viewing it. I would never be able to submit this piece to any shows or anything because I do not have the rights to "Jeff Buckley's" song. It is really just a piece to add to my portfolio. Jive, do you think there could be something else done to the cartoonish parts to make them look less cookie cutterish. I tried to stay away from as much of the preset filters in photoshop just for that reason, I don't like the look of work that just has a simple filter placed on it. I usually am not one for filters at all, infact, if I had more time for this project I would have rotoscoped the footage to get the needed effect. I have a small rotoscoping project on my website under short films for anyone who is interested, www.stefwebe.net
Is there something inparticular about the effect that makes it look that way? Anything you could suggest?
Thanks again for the comments.
 
Re: To my wife

Scharky, that piece is awesome ! I'm not the kind to lavish easy praise on anyone but that's gotta be some of the most original and creative footage I've seen since I've become a dvxuser.com member. I for one would love to know precisely how you achieved the "cartoony" effect in Photoshop--maybe you can do a paper on that some day ?

The general rhythm and beat cut are excellent and there are very few things that I would edit. Possibly the very beginning of the cartoony shot of you in front of the sink, when your head is down, but that's less than a second. The whole mouthwashing scene may be a tad too long, and some of the driving shots actually convey the impression of a leisurely pace rather than haste and stress. How about some more congested traffic scenes, or a shot of you looking impatiently at your watch ?

I also have to agree with Jive : the whole this-"hectiness"-steals-my-family-time thing is not present enough, if that's the message you wanna get across. That could possibly be conveyed in the softer part of the song (around 3 mins in), where you could insert footage of you and your wife trying to have breakfast together but not quite succeeding, or kissing a rushed goodbye on the doorstep, both looking at your watches as you move away from each other with your arms full of stuff, gear, books or whatever...

Those are just a few quick ideas regarding content more than cinematography, which as I said before, is astounding, IMO.
 
Re: To my wife

[quote author=scharky link=board=Clips;num=1081983262;start=25#26 date=04/15/04 at 00:22:57]Jive, do you think there could be something else done to the cartoonish parts to make them look less cookie cutterish.[/quote]

I think that any change would change the tone of your entire piece, and I wouldn't be one to make such a suggestion. As a personal project meant mostly for your wife's eyes, there is nothing that necessitates changing here IMHO. I'm sure she will value it moreso because it was something you did for her and not so much based on 'whether it successfully conveys the intended idea'. :)

As far as Monglane's question on how to get a similar effect, while I'm not certain how scharky did it, you can get a very similar result by using Photoshop's 'Poster Edges' filter (in the 'Artistic' filters menu).
 
Re: To my wife

Since there seems to be a few people who wanted to know how I made the action I have saved the action set as a file so that you can load it into photoshop and use the action. just download the file, open photo shop and open you actions pallet. On the flyout menu click, "load action" and locate the file. vioala. You might want to add an open action as well as a save a close action to the action set, but everything else is int there. BTW, this is set up for dv ressed footage, I wouldnt' recomend that you try it with larger footage without first taking out the beggining and ending immage size commands otherwise they will quadruple whatever picture you have in there. If you have any questions let me know, otherwise I will just have this action posted for a couple of days, so let all your dvxuser friends know.

here you go.

http://www.stefweb.net/Cartoonlook.atn

Jive, I tried teh poster edges for part of this look, the problem is that it really messes with your colors, but your right, it is pretty similar. The other problem is that dv footage is relatively low rez and poster edges will give pretty unsatisfactory results in the low resolution state.
 
Re: To my wife

Just wanted to thank everybody for there input.  Because of time constraints I wasn't able to make too many changes, however I did shorten a couple of the clips becasue a few people said it moved a little slowly.  the project was do last night and I got great comments from everybody in the class.  I told them that I had already had it approved by everybody here at dvxuser.com.  they were like "the who and the what now?" but thats ok, i know who you are and thank you for your help.
 
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