Things have changed .... But for the better - a bit of everything

Hi guys,

First off all I apologise for being quiet on the blog front, certain things changed how ZodiacVFX was run. As you can notice this blog spot is no longer under ZodiacVFX but under Imagine Index.

Imagine Index took a vast step away from what ZodiacVFX was (making short narratives when time enabled us to do so) to a complete new setting. Imagine Index is a fantastic new area (soon to be business) that offers more professional services to clients. 

We offer beautiful wedding videography and are very proud of the work that we produce, but we don't want it to stop there, with new technology and social media becoming bigger and bigger everyday our roles in Imagine Index are rapidly increasing and making the making the ways we work very unique.

One piece of software called "photofiesta" (http://photofiesta.net ) has already changed the way we think about planning and producing events. I haven't used the software enough to give a long review on it, but from what I have seen so for it is absolutely amazing. It allows photographers or events to have content uploaded in real time, by people at the event! This also can have a logo on the pictures to further advertise the event or photographer. I think all that is great, but I think the best thing is that people who couldn't make it to an event, can still see it in all of it's glory, not just a shakey mobile phone picture.

Photofiesta works in a very simple way:-

1) The photographer takes a picture on their camera. 

2) Next the image needs to be put in the folder that photofiesta creates on a laptop. This can be done in real time with a hifi wifi sd card, or the photographer can drag and drop the photos into the photofiesta folder.

3) once the photos are in this folder, the computer software automatically adds a logo of your choice to the picture.

4) This is where it gets good, photofiesta then sends the pictures straight to an iPad with the photofiesta app from the apple AppStore (I believe it's coming to android soon too).

5) People at the event can then view the pictures on the iPad and share them to their own social media sites, further promoting the event and the photographer.

A very good app and I look forward to writing a longer review when I have used it a little bit more.

Imagine Index is using these new apps and technology to really embrace clients and really feel connected with them. I find it fantastic that even after we have handed over work to the clients, we are still in communication. 

Expect big things from Imagine Index, we are at a very young stage at the moment, but we are not going to let that stop us. Enough about Imagine Index now, back to the changes.

I'm not sure if any of the old readers are reading this, I just wanted to let you all know that the old content will not only remain on the blog for reference, but I will still be updating it :) helping people out is a big part of what I do and would never personally stop it. It's why I have a very heavy passion of one day becoming a teacher in the future.

What to expect from this new blog title :-

1) My experiences both personal and business related.

2) Short blogs with tips, tricks and tutorials.

3) Short narrative content being made (not as often as before)

4) My inspirations 

5) reviews on software( both portable and desktop software including production and post production) and hardware including camera and lenses.

6) General Advice

7)  Work that I am proud off.

Thank you for reading this, I know it is a very long post, but I wanted to let everyone know what has happened and what will be happening the future.

Shooting in sunlight

Considering today was a beautiful sunny, clear skied day, I thought it would be quite relevant to post a blog on shooting in sunlight.

When I started shooting I always thought shooting on sunny days would be the best, but I soon realised  it created some problems.

Some things to think about and work arounds.

Just because you are shooting in sunlight doesn't mean you don't have to light the scene properly. Bringing a reflector, a big piece of white card or even a LED light (if you have access to one) can be a great help and make a huge difference  You can use them as a fill or back light, just to enhance the overall look of the shot. Reflectors can be very cheap and are a great way to manipulate light you already have on a set.

This next problem was never a problem I though I would have. When shooting outdoors on a sunny day, it is possible to have too much light. This can always be solved in camera by increasing your shutter speed and lowering you aperture to F 22 or lower. You can leave you ISO on its lowest and you now have a perfectly exposed shot. The problem is you have now lost all control with Depth of Field and Motion Blur, meaning you are left with a shot that has no depth of field and no motion blur ( Can be great for Wide or Establishing shots).

You may be wondering how to combat this? Well the answer is simple, you can buy a "ND filter" ( Neutral Density) for you lens (you can think of this by "sunglasses for your camera") This filter lowers the amount of light entering the lens, meaning you can increase your aperture and shutter speed to get the desired effect you want in the shot. Different ND filters have different levels of exposure reductions so it might be a good idea to have more than one. You can also by variable ND filters which are more expensive but allow you to change the amount of reduction the filter is producing.

Another thing to watch out for is shadows, if you have a long outdoor shoot, you will end up fighting against the moving shadows. This can also be the case if clouds are moving and blocking the sun every now and again. A solution would be to shoot in shade or stageically place your talent and shoot smartly. Whilst on about clouds, it may be better to shoot on a overcast day, this will stop the problem of moving clouds and shadows, the clouds work as a giant diffuser!

IM Warfare

Being annoyed on IM? Follow these steps to fight back!

1) Type *Volume* to distract your attacker?

2) Are they still fighting back? End all arguments with *Shoot*

If you like this video, like and follow us on facebook and twitter. :)

Learn by Doing + Greenscreen Tutorial

Today was a nice day shooting the start of our first series, How to light a greenscreen. The video is here, any criticism would be greatly appreciated.

I think a good bit of advice to follow with this would be to get out there to learn. You can read and watch all you want about lighting a greenscreen, but it comes nowhere near to actually doing it yourself. Once you start , if you make a mistake, dont worry, try again and avoid that mistake the next time. There you go you will have learnt something from the mistake. Practice makes perfect and you can learn alot from making a mistake.

So stop making excuses, go out and make a film, you will learn so much priceless information you will use on every shoot. And if it isn't what you expected, go and try again.

Follow on twitter : @ZodiacVFX

Need help?

A very busy this week for ZodiacVFX, we are going to be filming 3 short 2 minute pieces and bring some tutorials.

We are going to show you how correctly light a green screen both in and outdoors. We will also go through what kit we use and why, and how you can make your own accessories for cheap. I am going to do a tutorial for putting a hole in a wall in after effects, similar to the effect in one of out upcoming videos "captcha IRL"

So a very exciting and informative week for us and hopefully. Going to get back to posting daily and hopefully show more hints and tips.

If student filmmakers need any help with anything tweet us or email me at daniel@zodiacproductions.co.uk and we will try to help out, can be any aspect from pre to post production.

One of ZodiacVFX's main areas is to provide high quality help to new film  makers :)

Coverage is Key

One of the best tips ZodiacVFX can give for a set is to get as much coverage as you can. There is nothing worse for a editor to be stuck with a sequence which cant be pieced together. When I am on camera for ZodiacVFX we do the action the full time in all the shots, this enables us to have all our shots from our shotlist in full, not just the bits that we thought we would need. A downside to this is that it can take a bit more time to complete, but it will help so much when you get to post production.

As Zodiac we learnt this hardway and because of this some of our first productions lacked the outcome we had intended. Coverage is key.

Another way to get coverage, is to shoot multicamera, this enables the action in the shots to be exactly the same and therefore smoother to cut to. Downsides to this are; access to cameras, limited positions on set, not getting in each others shot and making sure the cameras match up. If you know these downsides you can then work on them to make them work for you

Remember you can never have too much footage but can always have too little.

Know when to cut

When your footage starts rolling in, the final part (and in my opinion the most exciting) of production begins. I think as editors it is really important scenes and shots are cut if they don't add anything to the production or narrative.

This of-course is easily said than done and can be quite upsetting seeing a shot you feel is great not make it into the edit. It becomes especially harder when you have filmed that shot as well but it is a duty of a editor to make the feeling and flow of a narrative using only shots they need.

Also trust your editor, the editing can make or break a production and there is art to it, you have to be able to feel the ryhthym and pace of the piece, once this can be done your audience can be manipulated how you want them too, whether its an emotion of happiness, fear or sadness.

Trust your inner instincts and if you feel a shot is held to long or doesn't add anything to a narrative, cut to a alternative angle and enable the story to flow on.

Get out there and make your films :) I would love to see anything you guys make.

Lenses for student/new film makers

Getting into the film or even television can become extremely expensive. Especially if you buy your own kit, with the boom of DSLR's shooting HD footage has become somewhat cheaper. The problem is a filmmaker never has a full kit and quite often has to find ways to use what they have efficiently  or even make their own DIY builds (See my previous post on this) http://zodiacvfx-dan.blogspot.com/2013/02/diy-filmmaking.html.

It's known that both the camera and lens impact the quality of the image, but ultimately you can have a fairly cheap body such as a 550d or even a 60D like myself and its the lens that makes the difference. I remember watching a Corridor Digital video in which they said the captured image is only as good as the glass it passes through. This is where the problem is for student film makers, decent lenses are usually 100's of pounds especially if you are looking at Canon's L series. 

So how can you work around this? Well there are many cheap good lenses out there, of course they aren't going to be the same quality as the expensive ones but for starting out they do the job. The canon 50mm prime 1.8 is not only cheap, but it provides amazing results for the price and I think it should be part of a new film makers arsenal. My first lens was a sigma 18-200mm 3.5-6-3 lens, at first I struggled with the lens as I realized to get a decent shot, I had to have my ISO turned up in the 1000's, I was quite dissapointed with the lens, but as I learnt more about lighting, the lens became quite useful again, like I was saying it wasn't the quality of an L series, but the shots looked great and soon made it into the edit. With properly lit shots, I could shoot with a higher shutter speed, lower aperture and a lower iso meaning the shots came out as intended and allowed me and the crew to manipulate focus how we wanted too. Like I was saying on my previous post, using lower quality kit, in my opinion forces you to learn how to use the kit properly, so when it comes to having a L lens, you fully understand how to use the lens and manipulate different things to get what you want.

So if you are a new film maker don't let your equipment put you off, you can make a movie on almost any camera, and most computers come with editing software. Get your kit together and make the films you want to, don't fall into the trap of "We will make the film next year when I get some new kit" film it now and make it happen.

DIY Filmmaking

I have always found that starting in filmmaking demands alot from people, and its something ive grown to love. The countless list of things to do during a production absolutely amazes me. I love how a spark of an idea can develop into something so powerful it can affect 1000s of people.

I also love the creativity that comes with making low/no budget productions. I remember when I first got my DSLR I made a shoulder rig out of PVC plastic, it wasnt the sturdiest thing but it did its job. I find that learning on something imperfect makes you truly appreciate how to use that object. I remember when being taught about depth of field, the cameras where pretty useless and to achieve the shallow focus, we had to stand meters back, zoom in, have subjects meters away from each other and then we still only got a minute DoF (probably due to the small sensor) the aperture was wide open too. I found learning under these circumstances enabled me to truly understand how to manipulate focus, it's great now I can pick my DSLR up and achieve a nice DoF, not only that, I know now how to manipulate it and use it to my advantage.

So new filmmakers don't let expensive equipment put you off making a film. Use what you can to achieve the affect you want. There are lots of cheap materials to do this and even reuse stuff you don't need anymore, old rollerblade videos make good wheels for a DIY slider. Trollies also make good (but shaky  dollies. Use your imagination what you used to create your world and apply it to the real world to help you get the shot you need. 

So stick with it and use your imagination! 

ZodiacVFX Introduction

Hi Guys, my name is Daniel and i'm a creator and member of the YouTube channel ZodiacVFX. On this page I am going to post about our happenings and any tips and tricks I come across.

ZodiacVFX is YouTube channel in which a crew of 10 create, make and showcase their ideas. Every member is ready and excited to get the channel going. It is really a brilliant atmosphere to be in. It's really interesting working with a big group and teamwork is such a powerful element. We all get along really well and take into consideration other peoples ideas and thoughts. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and we hope through making these videos we can increase our skill set and leave university with what we need to succeed in the Media industry.

Before we was a ten, myself and another member originally started the channel. We managed to create a couple of videos which was the basis of the channel. Mr Matte was out first video, every week we hope to release a better and more visually pleasing piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLOmMonPHY0

We have started to film some videos for the channel, we try to film 3 a week in between University. We film a Vlog called Fstop, a short video and a Behind The Scenes to go with that video. Our first Vlog went up this week and featured the baftas.

We have also been working on a video called Captcha IRL and I have been doing the VFX for it. It has been a great challenge but like any shoot, I have learnt so much. I have been using Video Copilot's Element3D to complete some of the shots, I must say that the plugin is absolutely amazing and I think its going to completely change the way people use After Effects. This is what I created using the plug-in.



The video is a weird one, we follow a student in his ordinary routine but we quickly see something is different when captcha codes begin to take over his life.

This is a brief overview of the channel if you like what you see, connect with us on our social media accounts.

Twitter : @ZodiacVFX

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zodiac-VFX/195947747093349Youtube : ZodiacVFX