Blog Archives - Barefoot Hallucination

Barefoot Hallucination

Ok...so I reshot it.

2/14/2012

I honestly couldn't stand watching the floor wobble like they were in a bouncy castle. I think I missed some of the cool that was part of the first take, but this one is a tad less wobbly. I still have a few more scenes left then I am done. This is taking way longer than I think it should have. If I didn't spend so much time not working on it, it would be done by now.

Anyway, here is the second take, for your amusement or judgement. Whichever.

that background, by the way, is dark green in real life. I really need to learn how to make the colors not wash out without making the whole thing look yellow.

Another one bites the dust....

2/12/2012

And another one in the can. :) I am on a roll. This one worked out ok. I am unhappy with the floor movement, but I like how the rest of it turned out. I photoshopped the rock. I held it with tweezers then cut them out in post. Not great work, but not bad. And evidence that it happened:

I spent 4 hours on that little bench. It was supposed to be a period looking chair. As a side note, that kind of chair isn't good to try to build with balsa wood. If I had the right tools I would have made it out of craft sticks. The legs kept breaking. Even after I started shooting. Most of the bench movement is actually the thing falling off it's broken leg. But it worked, and it matches the audio, kind of. I am going to have to break the audio up into sections and put them in to get the timing right. I used to do that with Final Cut when I had a Mac. AE doesn't do it, and neither does Windows Movie Maker. They both allow audio to be added, but only in one chunk and you can't put it into several tracks and move it around till it is exactly where you want it. I am currently researching options for that.

I also made a decision about the babel fish. there is no water in the bowl. It looks kind of cheesy that way, but it won't mush before I am done with it. And I won't knock it over and spill it on the paper floor.....again. Yeah...the big bulge in the middle is the result of me knocking over the fish bowl and spilling water all over it. I don't remember where I got the rock floor from, and I can't find it. I thought it was printable tiles for D&D, but I can't find the site.

Ah well. I have yet to decide if I want to work on this some more or call it a day. I feel accomplished. I have been working on this since 7am....again. I used to work 5:30am or 6am, so it will probably take me a while to be able to sleep in again. I have to make some final decisions about this last scene then I have some props to make still. Maybe I will do that tonight.

Progress...I guess

2/11/2012

Next part is now done. I am rounding the bend now. I have a few more scenes to do, then I can assemble it and do the audio. Here is evidence of progress:

I have been working on this since 7am this morning. I am now tired and have a headache. Going to take a nap then work on the next scene.

Best laid plans of mice and men....

2/7/2012

So it turned out I ran out of several essentials today, including toilet paper and coffee. Shooting plans were derailed to take a short shopping trip. Which by bus means 4 fucking hours. I gotta get me a man with a car. :P It is now 5:30pm, and I have to get up at 5am, so I most likely won't get much done tonight. I prefer to shoot at times when I can get the whole scene done at once. It helps with continuity if I don't turn off the camera. I now feel like I am just making excuses for why I have not finished the video yet.

On a sad note, the babel fish died. I noticed the yellow paint was flaking off in the water, so I attempted to remove him with my tweezers. He mushed badly. He became pasty white goo with flaky yellow bits. I am guessing he wasn't made of plastic as I had presumed. I have 3 more. I have a feeling if I attempt to use them they will suffer the same fate as Anatrax (the original babel fish). He hasn't been in the last few scenes as I couldn't figure out how to place him organically to the scene. I replaced the fish reference with a stone with the Roman numerals for 42 on it for those scenes. I really wanted to add him in again for the book scenes that are coming up. Maybe I will risk it and in the credits pay tribute to the non plastic plastic fish mushed during the making of the video. It really is kind of gross looking.

Ok, I am going to set this up, and if I feel I have time I will shoot it, and if not I will wait until I have enough time to do the whole thing.

Back to work. :)

Update, bitch, moan, sigh crash.

2/6/2012

Grr arghh. I have to throw the whole next bit out. It did not work at all. Interesting idea, but no dice. So now I get to start over with that part. Yeay me. I didn't fail.....I merely found another way not to do it. :P I was going to try to reshoot it today, but I am too tired. I still have to work crap job until Friday, which means early mornings. Tomorrow I don't have to work the contract job so I will have all afternoon to work on it. I suppose instead of stewing over my major fail (which I may share later for a laugh, when I feel like I can laugh at it), I am going to watch British TV and go to bed. Eat a little bit of leftover birthday cake. I wish I wasn't allergic to alcohol. This would totally be a beer night. Or pina colada night. Sigh.

I also want to find some swinging background music for the video. As of yet I haven't found anything that fits the audio. I will probably find something in the public domain and record it on my mandolin to avoid copyright issues. Thanks to my mother I have a huge repertoire of classical music that I can play. Or I may go for something Celtic-y or Renaissance-y. Exactly how does one determine if a piece of music fits or not? What are the criteria? Hmmm.....

Squee! It worked!

2/3/2012

So I did end up reshooting Scene 2, but I won't post it here. You get the gist. Mainly I am posting because I just finished the next few and I am really happy with how they turned out. Last post of the day then time for bed. Maybe. Or maybe more shooting. I don't know. It is only 9:30pm.

Anyway, here is what I am so chuffed about:

It turned out better than I thought it would. I think it's kind of cute. I am now half way through. Thinking if I work at it I can get it all shot tomorrow and get to editing it and maybe have something posted by the end of the weekend. That would be awesome. The micro words were done by my illustrious roommate. If you pause the video you can kind of read it from time to time. It is a bunch of Douglas Adams quotes in Latin, written out 10 Commandment style. :)

Scene 2. I think....

2/3/2012

I have finished Scene 2. I think. It is about half a second too long. I am hoping to fix it when I put them all together. The towel and flowers move, but he is walking around so close to the towel I think that will be ok. Opinions?

Bits and stuff

2/2/2012

It has been over a week since I last posted. I have been so good, too. A lot has happened in my personal life to delay the video and posting. After several bullshit things that happened at my part time temp job I quit. I told the temp agency I wanted to move on and they asked me for 10 days. So I have been scrambling to try and see if I can get myself a permanent position to replace that income. Hopefully the temp agency will find me something else, but I am not going to count on it. I am currently in a part time contract with a non profit, which does not pay enough to stand alone but necessitates replacement job also be part time. I have several plans in the works, so we shall see what shakes out at the end.

And....today is my birthday. Which puts me one more year over 35 and another year closer to 40. Today I am going to watch Groundhog Day, laze in bed, go do my non profit contract job for a few hours then wallow in cake with friends at a local dessert shop. I used to love birthdays, but as I get older I realize the things I wanted to do with my life most likely aren't going to happen. Every new birthday that passes becomes a reminder of what I will never be. Maybe this year I will change that and celebrate what I might possibly do. Or not.

Tomorrow I don't work anywhere, so I plan on working on video again. This part is the second and third sentence. I have a new scene for about every other sentence. As it changes subject quickly, that makes it about right for 4 to 5 second scenes. The sentence is "Early attempts were dogged by hardware problems. The hardware was rock based, which meant that it was heavy, cumbersome and above all very hard." Remember the title of the audio is Getting The Book Invented Properly. I have made a rocky background so it will look like they are in a cave. I have made a grey table and found several flatt-ish rocks for them to carry in and get buried under. Getting this to work properly shall be a challenge but one I am up for.

Tomorrow.

Now...Groundhog day. :) Happy bloody birthday to me.