Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Filming in the Big Wide World

My plan for filming was simple. Set up a camera in the middle of town in a busy location so that the back ground was filled with activity. Then animate in the fore ground with the 8 models.

It would have been nice to do some shots with the model in the back ground but that meant taking a shot, running to the model, replacing it, then running back to the camera, hoping it was still there. And a 2 inch model can’t really be seen from to far away.

I was forced to use the only camera available to me, my phone. I like this camera and have always used it for all my pictures, but found that because unlike a camera it doesn’t have any where to attach a tripod, it wobbles a lot when animating.

I solved this problem rather ingeniously by using a clamp to hold the camera steady. My poor phone was tightly secured into the clamp, which had a large flat base to keep it steady.

My first test shied away from the outside, but turned out to be one of my favourites. I shot it out of my bedroom window, which despite not having much action, has caught the clouds moving with the guy as he passes.

I filmed in several locations around broad mead in the centre. There where thirteen locations in all. I know this area very well so I had no overall plan of where to go, but knew in my head some good locations to film.

When I found a location I would sit crossed legged on the floor, set up the camera to get a good shot, got out the models and started animating.

In all it took 2 days to shoot the whole film. I feel the best locations were the ones with the most activity in the background, such as the escalators and the bus stops but I also like the slower more natural movements like the water and clouds, and the traffic lights where interesting because they change colour every frame.

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