Over this lockdown time in the UK I've been surprisingly busy with work.
Right now I'm in the middle of shooting/creating a space-themed music video for a metal band. So I've spent a lot of time in my garage space, experimenting with setups to create organic looking visuals to display some lyrics as well as integrate some headshots that the band sent me (which they filmed at home and sent to me)
The below setup features the camera in the foreground filming a pane of glass to the left, which is reflecting an imagine from a monitor (on the right/middle)
There are better photos showing the set up below, but the general idea is that the animated lyrics are reflected in to the glass, which means I can use the transparency of the glass to insert smoke, glistening 'gem' stars and use light on either side to create a trippy 'space' feel.
As well as lens-whacking and creating cool little anamorphic style lens-flares (like J.J Abrams) using fishing wire..
It's still very abstract in feel, but we're going for the tone of a blackhole swallowing the cosmos feel.
It might be big budget ideas, but it at least gets the experiments going.
Here's what my basic setup looks like, with the lights on.
It's been really interesting play in light and reflections.
It's an age old trick, dating back from the Victorian eara and used extensively in clasic early films like A Trip to the Moon (from 1902) by Georges Méliès.
I love the organic way of in-camera visual trickery.
Along the way I've been filming lots of behind-the-scenes bits with my GoPro, talking through the process.
I think I'll work with the band in releasing these as stand alone interest piece videos.
Lastly, here's a shot of me working on another day from a different angle:
I think you can see the glass a bit better in this one.
I'm keeping busy, still creating, still making an income.
I've got a corporate edit job on the go too with some clips that have been sent to me, as well as another music video to edit - so I've got my work cut out!
Take care everyone, more updates to come :)