Is there much more satisfying than watching a cloud of ink slowly morph in shape as it drops through clear water? (Yes, probably.)
But this has certainly been satisfying to shoot.
Here are some quick screen grabs of how it’s looking..
Over the last couple of days I have been experimenting with filming the ink as it flows in water. Watching for its characteristics and adapting my lighting, focus and steady hand to get the optimum results.
My end goal is to overlay the swirls and bursts over a close-up vocal performance for the music video
I’m making.
It’s a dark brooding track so I want to reflect this by inverting the colours of the ink turn it all black and white.
Ideally the best outcome is that it looks weirdly kaleidoscopic and resembles a sort of erratic Rorschach test.
In the edit I’ve added a mirror effect so the ink appears to be originating from the centre of the screen with a mirrored images of the flowing ink reaching the outer of the frame.
It works well but there is lots of detailed tweaking of timings involved!
How have I been shooting it?
I set up a little tank against the white backdrop in the studio.
I used a small animal transporter box from home to house the still water upon a table, just the right height for my tripod to be on its lowest level.
I used two lights; the most powerful being used to wash out the background and the second to backlight the ink to give it some definition/pop.
I’ve actually been shooting everything in 4K 422 10 bit ProRes for maximum visual control in post production.
All on a GH5 with external recorder.
This is actually the first full project that I’m shooting entirely in 4K!
I wanted to have a real world project to see what my computer can handle and as it turns out my computer is a beast!
My 4K clips are playing in real-time, on multiple layers, with full effects and transitions - all without rendering. Phew!
It’s been great so far and the overlays over the vocals are starting to look mental. Mission accomplished.