Liam Bailey - It's not the Same

Just kick back, relax, and start your weekend with Liam Bailey. A wonderfully cinematic music video brought to us by Alexander Brown.

Add Vintage Color To Your Video Footage

So a really popular thing going on right now is making video footage look more antique and vintage.  There are a lot of expensive softwares out there with presets that will help you do this, like Nick Campbell's Vintage Film for Looks.  But I figure why spend the money on something you can do easily yourself?

The easiest way for me to think about it is, how do I achieve this effect in Photoshop when working with a still image, and then how can I translate this to video. Well I just happened to find a tutorial on the Tuts+ Network in the PhotoTuts section. Click here to find it.

After going through that tutorial you will notice that a lot of the effect is achieved through playing with curves and then adding a few adjustment layers as you see fit. In short, experiment. So I went into Color with a piece of footage I shot camping last week with my HD Go Pro camera.

The first thing I did was take the curves and mimic exactly what the tutorial showed me (see above).

Next I just played around with adjustment layers and effects to get the look I wanted. As you can see I mimicked the tutorial's Magenta hue adjustment layer by adding a low opacity Magenta color to the effect hierarchy and I just added some grain to give it a more dated feel (see above).

Voila, it is just that simple. Some other things to keep in mind are keeping your contrast low, or lowering it. I eventually want to add some vignetting and blur for depth of field.

Toronto Urban Film Festival

I am thinking about entering the Toronto Urban Film Festival. It's an interesting festival where everyone enters 60 second silent videos and animations. What is especially unique about this festival is that it reaches 1.3 million daily commuters on the ONESTOP TTC subway platform screens. This year's guest judge is Atom Egoyan. Check out his work here.

I want to submit my video "Dizzy Redux". I don't really have the time to create something specific for TUFF and this video can be trimmed to a minute and lose its sound without hurting it too much.

Bar Night

Well it's finally here! Episode 2 of Mean Mug + Slim. I had to squeeze this one out because of lack of free time but I'm glad I could finally finish it off. I think with each episode I am becoming a little more aware of my capabilities. I think my next episode is going to explore more experimental shots and try to really up the cinematography of these short animations. I hope you enjoy.

Bike Lanes

Casey Neistat has a lot of interesting video work on his page. This is one of the more hilarious entries as of late. I don't want to spoil the ending so just watch and enjoy.

Marlowe

This is a fantastic documentary from ALCHEMYcreative showing how powerful and compelling stories from ordinary people can be. I think that is what makes this piece so relate-able. As for production, I love the style they shot the interviews in, great quality and highly engaging. I also have to give a shout out to the music. Adding "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros to anything really gives an emotional K.O. punch.

Metronomy - The Bay

Beaches, babes, sun, sand...just a few things that make up the tropical paradise that is the setting for Metronomy's new music video by the David Wilson Creative group. I must say I love their creativity when it comes to shots and their use of overlapping shots is also intriguing. Rock on.

100

A wonderful story of Virginia's 100th birthday. Randy Chia really hits the mark with a touching story about family and friends. His shots really lock in on key moments and I think everyone could benefit from this piece.

Destruction Dave

If there is one thing I know it is that you have to take time to enjoy the little things. This video is definitely one of them. The machine gun wielding lunatic is my good buddy David Ayling. Check out some of his own personal work here.

Early Innings

Simply a beautiful documentary. It just goes to show that one does not have to have a major league team to have a major league documentary (one of my cornier lines). But corniness aside this is a well executed story created by David Targan with solid cinematography and editing by Rod Blackhurst.

Bare Bones Films vol. 3

I tried to find out a little bit more about Bare Bones but their website is as abstract as their show reel. There is some truly inspiring, abstract, and inspirational work among this piece (check out the video one vimeo for links directly to particular artists.) Some of my favorites include Ruff Mercy for the quirky and extremely blunt text animation, Hayley Morris for her abstract and mind bending video, Dave Prosser for his unique style and animation, and James Wignall. However, my favorite is most definitely Dave Prosser. His animations were truly unique and made me laugh.

Wet-on-Wet

At first I liked this video simply for its premise.  A fun idea just documenting water in all its many fun forms.  Then I found out it was shot entirely on Go Pro hd 720p 60fps to 24fps.  That took my excitement to a whole new level...I need to start using my Go Pro more!! Thank you Vitúc!

On The Road Again

It's always difficult to post, let alone work on personal stuff from the road. I wanted to push out my second episode of Mean Mug + Slim before this week but I just couldn't manage it. For now all I can give is a still frame.

Don Hudson

Who can't relate to this? I am going camping this weekend and this is just the picture to get me excited about it. Hopefully I will get a few good shots as well. Check out more from Don Hudson here.

Joseph Pierce

Written and directed by Joseph Pierce this short animation dives deep into the problems of a particular family. However, I think we can all relate on some level. As the film progresses we find out more and more about the vile underside that lies behind a beautiful picture. This is only emphasized by the crude but purposeful quality of the drawings. Brilliant idea and brilliantly executed.



Another example of Pierce's work. This one depicts a failing comedian as the audience turns on him. Pierce's ability to accentuate a moment with a quick shift in facial expressions really take his animations to another level.

Looks That Kill

I am really starting to be blown away by the amount of mind blowing animations people are coming out with these days. The blend between 2D and 3D is becoming almost impossible to tell with the naked eye. This little retro piece directed by Kevin Dart and Stéphane Coëdel is just another example.

Lisa Stang

I can't describe her work as anything but timeless. Check out more here.

'New York In Motion' Documentary Trailer

I suggest all you aspiring motion graphics designers to take a look at this and continue to follow it because it sounds pretty interesting. This is just a trailer by Graham Elliott on the motion design industry. He took the time to interview 50 of the top players in the field so you need to take the time to watch this.

Battles - Ice Cream (Featuring Matias Aguayo)

This is a really fun music video from Battles for their song Ice Cream which is on their forthcoming album 'Glass Drop.' I love the quick cuts, at one point I actually thought I was about to seizure and that's always exciting. Check out their site here and get some more.

Dripped

There are a lot of things I like about this animation from ChezEddy. The animation is fantastic, and you can really tell how much went into each shot because each shot is its own painting. I thought the textures really emphasized the whole style of the video. Also the music and mixture of 2D and 3D were well done.