We were never quite able to do my original project in the 10-week timeframe so I ended up with this. This is the pre-production (and goofing around) of my film that I hope to do.
Produced in association with Frames Film Project.
Mindmapping/artwork by Kat Thorsen and Jennifer Lyons. I guess this could be alternatively titled as “Jen Hold a Camera and Gets the Frames Staff to Mindmap for Her”.
Things I learned
How to use a Mac
More Final Cut Pro 7
Final Cut hates MP4s
Converting and rendering take a while. Get used to it.
Shooting in 1080HD isn’t really worth it if you have to shoot in .mts and are editing in an older program. 720HD in AVI is good enough. (I don’t know if it’s p or i – I have an Olympus E-PM1)
Changing light is a pain when your camera can’t change exposure while video recording
I don’t canter THAT much but for some reason it seems like a lot of footage is of canter… Also the jump here was the first jump since 2008! (I don’t usually jump because I am a chicken). Also disclaimer: there is a giant eye in this lol! 😛 I don’t find it freaky….
The footage came from a variety of sources hence the highly variable quailty. It’s also not chronological because I don’t know….lazy editing 😛 . Maybe another time.
Yes, the Tony is the SAME Tony. He’s a magical colour changing grey horse! (He’s probably white now…)
Oh and yes, the minis have names: Spot, Shadow and Winterhawk but I’m not sure in which order.
Main Footage taken at 3 main barns: Greystone Stables, Country Lane Farm and Pony Pals Stables (all Delta). Additional footage/stills taken at Tiny Tales/4 Seasons Equestrian, Emerald Stables (Langley) and somewhere in High Point in Langley (trail ride).
Footage/Photos taken by: my mom, Leora, Catherine, Kim, Trisha and me.
All horses in this video: Tulla, Tony, Czar, Shorty, Sparkles, Ray. Minis (Spot, Shadow, Winterhawk), Remmy (still only), Pilgrim (still only – that 1 trail ride).
I’ve known him for 7 years. I may not have ridden him during that time, but I know he was always there. But now, I’ve moved onto a school horse at another barn (same coach). I will miss him. I do miss him.
He’s 26-27 in the video (except for older stills). Footage from 2013 and Jan 2014. I don’t ride him anymore…I tried but he was still wasn’t sound enough.
This one is different as it’s not a riding video! (I don’t have much riding footage anyway…no one to take it!) Last year (and this year) I spent some time taking some footage of him mostly loose.
Attempted colour grading/colour correction by me. I don’t really know what I’m doing (was going for something warm though) and my current version of Premiere is very old (CS3) so I couldn’t find effect presets for it.
I found this song one day. I’m not sure exactly how but I was scouring the internet (what else is new?) but I almost instantly related to it. It was written for Hercules (1997) but cut. Now I’m not Hercules by a long shot (I’m so wimpy!) but I instantly related to the themes of unbelonging. It’s a very positive, perhaps even empowering song for those who don’t feel that they don’t belong with the comparison to a shooting star. I’m sort of surprised it’s not a hit on WrongPlanet (I lurk but I’m not currently a member) or something.
I’m always searching for a place to belong. I haven’t found it though…
I know the sync is a bit off…it was hard! Any tips? My first Kinetic Typography to audio. Somehow it’s slightly less bright and with a crappier quality than it was before (WTF? Same export settings, same file) but whatever….
Cut song from Hercules (1997). Performed by Boyzone (Stephen Gately). Lyrics by David Zippel and music by Alan Menken.
Known issues:
An “e” went funny…I don’t know what happened there. Too much of a pain to fix.
There is one small lyric segment wrong (a word/few words) since my source sucked..see if you can figure it out. Too much of a pain to fix.
I don’t know why the text is sorta blurry….they were vectors layers from illustrator…so I don’t know why? I think continuously rasterize was on too…..
I also don’t know how or why the text seems a bit darker…but it’s still ok I guess.
I might fix sync issues later.
After Effects and Illustrator CS3 with Premiere to use the Adobe Media Encoder. Also I couldn’t figure out to use the camera (most tutorials are for more recent versions) so I had to scale/rotate the element itself instead!
Some of the video (the close up bird) has me manual focusing (with just the lcd screen and no assist) with a manual lens (Yashica 50mm) for the first time but to be honest it doesn't seem to be that much worse compared to the auto focus. Sorry for a bit of jello effect – forgot to turn image stabilization off and I did it handheld.
Shot with an Olympus PM1 with an m.zuiko 14-42mm (most clips) and the budget 50mm Yashica DSB F1.9. (close up gull). If it's choppy it might be due to the "stabilization", the conversion of some of the clips and/or your internet connection/behaviour of your browser.
Species: gull, mallard duck, wood duck, pigeon
Music: Shine – Vienna Teng (I usually try to use creative common tracks – while this track is not creative commons, her new material is and this is a just a random personal video).
Sorry not much new footage. Mostly just a rehash. I just don’t have any, especially with riding. Maybe I need to get a tripod…but even then my camera can only record 25 minutes at a time and I don’t know how much Czar is into tripods and so on…so I don’t know about that. My mom likes to video me doing nothing much lol.
The shaky first person stuff is mine. Image stabilization would have gave me an epic jello effect. Hopefully not too dizzy…but you try doing something AND holding the camera steady at the same time.
Apparently, great equine cinematic masterpieces are not created by a team of one, with a camera (with no video image stabilization) in one hand and a horse in the other…. (ah, but I don’t have friends so…).
First attempt at colour effects (cross processing in this case)
Personal video Not a poetry or artsy video. Nor it is it particularly wonderful or artsy.
I haven’t made one of these for a whole. Taken 2012/2013. Was going to use this year only but didn’t have enough footage. Sorry about the jello vision in some of the newer clips, my mom doesn’t know how to use my camera and it was too complicated/I forgot to teach her to turn off the image stabilization during video at the time. Also somehow there is no video of my doing anything else besides walk/trot/canter….I do leg yield too! Eeeeh, that’s about it….
Music: Citywide Rodeo by The Weepies
Yes, I know I suck at lunging (still learning) and getting onto horses (no excuse for that, really…)
Horse: Czar (and one clip of Shorty)
Commentary/Rambling
I was originally going to use stuff from 2013 only but I didn’t have enough footage.
I don’t know. It so often feels that everything is a fight. A fight to the death – a fight for life, a fight to get what you want, a fight for everything and everybody. And everything seems so far away.
I often feel that I’m not good for anything. There doesn’t seem to be any particular skill I excel at. I suck at some thing and am okay at other. But just okay. Not great. Just okay.
Though I’ve been riding for about 11 years, it doesn’t feel like I’ve really…done anything I guess. I’m still the rider I was many years ago. Granted, yes, I’ve been riding school horses once per week for the last year but still. I haven’t jumped since around 2008, and never got that far anyway (I think I cantered 2′ courses for 2 months) as I don’t know anymore really. I was tired of failing. I like riding on the flat better anyway. Less thrill, less spill (until you get chucked off) and a lovely way to put fixative qualities to use (other than freaking out).
I do hope that things will be great, will be just as imagined. But the just seem so far away that I….don’t know. But this is a ride, not a fight. There’s no need to resist right? But I feel like I’m clinging, desperately afraid that what is going to replace what I know would somehow be worse. But this is a ride right? Put your heels down and ride straight, even though sometimes it’ll all go flying through the air again.
As for this fall and beyond? I’m trying not to think about it. I can overthink things until the cows come home (and then ride the cows). Tired of being stuck in places that I don’t seem to belong. Tired of bouncing off the walls. Tired of everyone being better, somehow.
But it’s also hard when you’re not even sure if there is a horsy future ahead. Horses are expensive. Collecting large quantities of monies is difficult – possibly impossible. I’ve never part-leased or leased period, yet alone owned for that reason. Sometimes everything seems impossible.