Impulse

It’s always entertaining to watch as an adult cartoons that I’d seen as a kid.  It can be very disappointing (which is why I’ll never re-watch the classic Speed Racer cartoons).  Sometimes, though, it’s fascinating: seeing all the little jokes and subtext that no child can decipher.  Chicken Little just blew me away.  Sure, it’s the story of Chicken Little, but the political overtones are huge.  Watch it and think about politics over the last 10 years, or the recent economic crisis (or any recent crisis).  It’s a good example of how we retell stories to teach ourselves, and how to make a clear political point using creative media.  (Thanks to 4HWW for reminding me of the cartoon).

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Politics at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "RAAM: movie editing continues"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , My creative work at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

John K (of Ren and Stimpy fame) wrote an excellent post on the construction of cartoons.  Even if you are like me and can barely manage drawing stick figures, this post is worth reading.  He breaks down the fundamentals of cartoon design and what makes good drawing better than bad.  If you enjoy animation at all, this is required reading.  You’ll never look at cartoons the same again.  (link)

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Cool Art , Craft and technique , Creative resources at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This video (via The Long Tail) summarizes a lot of things I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s also a very cool piece of visual communication. I love how they edit text - it’s this manipulation that communicates more clearly their message than the text itself does. I like the graffiti feel of writing in every little text box they can find - again visually showing their message that the web is a participatory medium.

Continue reading "The internet revolution"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A well edited film works by anticipating your curiosity. Just when you start to wonder, “What happened with Han Solo?” the film cuts from Degobah to the Millennium Falcon. The same mechanism works even within a scene. One character starts to say something shocking. Just as you wonder how the other character takes it, they cut to a close up of that character’s face. It is almost as if the film is wired to the movement of your eyes - flicking between characters as your eyes move around.

Continue reading "Reading your mind with film"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , Writing at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before shooting RAAM, a seasoned documentarian told me, “shoot plenty of B-roll”. Man, they weren’t kidding. While editing RAAM, I’m finding that I need way more establishing shots & B-roll. Establishing shots are wide shots that show you where you are: main street in a tiny desert town, etc. It’s a type shot called “B-roll”. B-roll shots also include other little details that are handy in visually describing the setting or event: a sign showing the city’s name; close up of hands working on a bike; etc.

I have some B-roll, but not nearly enough. As a result, it’s hard for the viewer to figure out where we are and just how desolate some of these places are. It also gives me fewer editing. B-roll is an excellent way to hide other mistakes: if there’s some camera mixup while someone’s being interesting, you just cut to the B-roll for that section while leaving the audio on for the original shot, then back to the original when the camera is good again. The audience things you were showing some interesting detail of the conversation when you were really covering your butt. Less B-roll means less to cover your butt, and that just ain’t pretty.

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’ve finally gotten back into editing the RAAM video in earnest. While doing so, I came across some clips that illustrate some of the points from my series on video vs stills.

Continue reading "Camerawork and editing RAAM"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , My creative work , Photography at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let’s take a look at the ways that the temporal nature of film changed the ways I work.

Continue reading "Video vs still photography, pt 4"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , Photography at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Enough with the technical, on to aesthetics!

Artists compose images using the elements of light, color, geometry, perspective, depth of field, and frame placement. This is true of all visual arts including still photography and video / film. Video and film have one additional, unique element: time. It seems obvious: movies, move; pictures don’t, however, I’m finding it’s really much more subtle than that.

Continue reading "Video vs still photography, pt 3"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , Photography at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Last time, I described a few technical differences that make video more difficult than stills. Video has a curious advantage over still photography, though: Because there’s less you can control in video and because the medium is inherently lower quality, videographers tend to be less technically fanatical than still photographers. Videographers understand “close enough”, thus freeing their mind for more creative things.

Continue reading "Video vs still photography, pt 2"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , Photography at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first started doing video, I thought it would be an easy transition from still photography. They both capture light through a lens, iris, and shutter. One moves; the other doesn’t. That’s no big difference, right? Wrong. I’ve been surprised by how very different these two media are. I’ll be detailing these differences in a series of upcoming posts. For now, let’s start with some technical differences.

Continue reading "Video vs still photography, pt 1"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Movies , Photography at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

My buddy Dave pointed me to The Virtual Director web site in response to my post on digital technologies in art making. The folks behind TVD are working on making motion capture technologies affordable and simple to use on low budget movies. I think this is great work and will make for some interesting new movies, however I do not believe it’s the end-all, be-all that mocap enthusiasts think it will be.

Continue reading "Motion capture: Acting with balls"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Casual commentary , Craft and technique , Movies at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I like to learn by doing rather than by taking classes. I made an exception, though, for Brian McDonald’s story structure class at the Richard Hugo House. In our last class, Brian pointed out that all stories have the same seven parts: “Once upon a time… and every day… until one day… Because of this… and because of this… until finally… and ever since…” Even with the blanks empty - thus creating a story about nothing at all - it’s still a satisfying story. After class, I wandered over to a local Tully’s after class to catch up on some reading and happened across Pop Occulture’s summary of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Campbell’s archetype follows Brian’s structure exactly. From Pop Occulture: [my bits in brackets]

Continue reading "Story structure, Joseph Campbell, and chocolate disasters"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Writing at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "What makes a story?"

Posted by Rob McKaughan in Craft and technique , Writing at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)