Category Archives: Video
The Jersey Shore
I’ve had this mesmerizing (for me at least) video clip of three minutes in the life of a seagull on my computer for a few years now and I wasn’t sure what to do with it for the longest time. Then I realized that there really wasn’t anything that should be done to it. I just needed to add some non-intrusive intro graphics, some nice, serene music and let the video play. What is it about this video that I like? The sounds of the ocean breaking on the beach, the plane flying above, the other seagulls flying around, the people on their wave riders coming on screen as the seagull walks off, and, quite simply, life at the shore. I hope you like it.
This video was created using a Flip HD Video Camera, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe After Effects.
The song “The High Heat” can be found in The Wilco Book which can be purchased at Amazon.com and other fine stores.
Updated Brooklyn Nets Promo
Wow! It’s been more than a month since I last updated my blog. I’ve been pretty busy freelancing at Fox Business Network creating on air graphics and teaching myself Cinema 4D. Now back to Cinema 4D! In the process of learning about extruding, lighting, texturing, and animating I figured that I was far enough along where I could actually apply what I’ve learned so far. So I decided to “update” the Brooklyn Nets Promo that I created in After Effects awhile ago. In the original version of the video the Brooklyn Nets logo is flat and there’s no real movement to it. In the new version, I replaced the flat Brooklyn Nets logo with a 3D version and there’s a lot of movement to it (basketball spinning and shield swinging from left to right).
The whole process was a very good learning experience, especially when it came to the integration of Cinema 4D with After Effects CC. I’m a big fan of how you can make changes in Cinema 4D, save the changes, and once you move over to After Effects the changes from C4D are almost instantly reflected. The only issue that I ended up having though was with the “in-box” shaders (textures) that came with C4D showing up in AE. For some reason AE doesn’t recognize the shaders and as a result you get a flat, dark C4D object in AE. I did a little research on the interwebs and this issue appears to be a bug between the 2 programs. The work around was outputting an animation sequence from C4D and importing the sequence into AE for final output. Below is a screen shot from the original video showing the flat 2D Brooklyn Nets logo. Hope you like the update. Let me know.
2013 Asbury Park Comicon
I grew up reading superhero comics. I used to be a real fanboy. John Hulme and I used to walk to the Rt. 1 Flea Market every Sunday, buy our comics and a small paper bag full of greazy French fries, walk back to his house, and then read that week’s pile of books while eating our fries and watching NFL football. Inevitably, I would get kicked out of John’s house because the Jets had lost in some painstaking way or because I had told John the ending of a story before he had even read the comic (the worst example being when Guardian was killed off in Alpha Flight #12). Despite growing up a fanboy, I never really got into going to comic book conventions. I do remember going to two small local cons at the Travelodge in Somerset, NJ where I purchased a Keith Giffen drawing of Polar Boy from the Legion of Substitute Heroes for $10 and a drawing of Cyclops from the X-Men by Dave Cockrum for $25 (that was a lot of money for a 13-year-old!). Despite buying those drawings and the wonderful experience of talking to the artists that drew my favorite comics, comic conventions were weird to me. I just couldn’t get into them; they just seemed kind of depressing.
Why am I writing about this? I’m not really a fanboy anymore but I still love comics (with the hope of someday doing my own). Show me a cool indie graphic novel and I’ll eat it up. Anyway, it’s been a little over a week since the first really big version of the Asbury Park Comicon was held at the Asbury Park Convention Center (the first two cons were much smaller and held at the nearby Asbury Lanes) and I’ve been thinking about my experience ever since. When I attended the Asbury Park Comicon my primary mission was to learn more about working on a professional video shoot with professional video gear at a live event with the guys from Core Studios and in the process, get footage of the con for my buddy and one of the co-founders of the Asbury Park Comicon, Cliff Galbraith.
Two things ended up happening at the con. First, the mission to learn some new techniques about shooting with a professional camera and how to deal with the audio and lighting issues was accomplished (though there’s still SO much more that I need to learn). The Core Studios guys were great to work with and very patient with all of my questions. The second, and more surprising thing was that I realized that this wasn’t a depressing scene like I remembered from when I was a kid. In my wanderings around the con shooting B-Roll video, I don’t think I saw one unhappy person. It seemed like everyone was having a good time – not only the fans but the vendors and the publishers too. Towards the end of the con, while I was shooting video of Cliff interviewing the artists, I realized that the happiest people at the con that day were probably the artists themselves. Cliff and Robert Bruce, the other co-founder of the con, did something that other cons don’t usually do – they celebrated the older artists. The vets were the stars of this con, not a WWE wrestler or a Playboy Bunny or a TV star from when I was a kid. The comic book guys were the stars! Wow! What a concept! The other thing that I realized and that I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere was that this con was affordable for almost anybody to attend. The cost was $12 if you bought a ticket from the con’s site before the con and $15 at the door the day of the con. I don’t think that you can really beat that entertainment dollar. How much does it cost to go see a 2 hour movie these days? $11 dollars? I think that an all-day event like the Asbury Park Comicon for $15 that features the comics of my youth and the kind of comics that I read now can’t be beat and because of that I will be back next year even if I’m not shooting video for the con.
The Core Studios team interviewing the Imperial Guard. For more pictures of the 2013 Asbury Comicon please visit the Meat+Potato Brand Graphics Facebook page.
HPTV
I just volunteered for HPTV, Highland Park, NJ’s local public access television station (Channel 15 if you have Cablevision in Highland Park). I think that this could be a good chance for me to learn even more about shooting video, live sound mixing, and post production. If I’m allowed, I also think it’ll be a good chance to use my After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Photoshop skills to update the station’s “look”, the station’s IDs, and most importantly, create some new content about the people and events in Highland Park. I’ll also be looking into updating the HPTV website, YouTube page, and creating a Facebook page for the station so that the station can be even more connected with the local community.
As for content, once it gets warmer, I was thinking of creating a half hour show highlighting the musicians of Highland Park. A showcase of 3 or 4 musicians playing a few songs in someone’s house or backyard with an interview in between sets. What do you think we should do? Also, I definitely can’t do this by myself nor do I want to (I do have a movie to finish up), is there anyone in Highland Park who would like to volunteer? We’re going to be looking for people who can shoot, edit, and just help out. Or, if you can’t volunteer, do you have any content that you’d like to put on TV? From what I can tell so far, this is definitely a good opportunity to learn how a local public access television station works and it’s a great way to help the community out.
For more information on Highland Park TV please email Gary Leslie at hptv151515@gmail.com.