Lessons

Lesson Info

Shooting for VFX

So now we're going to talk about shooting for effects going through and starts going go through a few things and then we're gonna cut too green screening but that's the basic idea behind created creating atmosphere different things like that that you could do like the fog cigarettes, rain anything that you can kind of fill your scene with the up your production value but dark don't you? We'll talk a little bit about the effects this was more like a checklist of things that have when you're doing it a lot of it's common sense stuff so but a lot of it's overlooked teo so just going to go down the list so you want a printed list of shop especially here like working with people grieving for yourself so you could stay organized so even like yeah, you're gonna have your shot list be one affect shot list so you could just go down the list and that's kind of like what we did with the dobie in the frog or anything pretty much it's like we have ten shots check it off and then a camera report for...

shots we don't have a camera report is camera port is so yeah, I can report this is and bigger stuff it's a really big deal special if you're working with like cg self, you want to mimic the camera so you want to write down every single thing about that camera you wanna write the size of the sensor the type of lens you're shooting with the iso settings have stopped everything and you want it for every single shot because I especially want to mimic real life that's exactly how it is like tomorrow michelle you guys a shot a composite shot thing but it was the same things I just he did this human shot thing and I'm like give me all of your settings because even the lighting it's the same thing so it's not like this magical world in cg anymore everything is based off of like, real life okay tape measure that's important and it seems obvious but special if you're working like a modeler someone you want to know oh make this thing ten feet tall, okay? Where do I put it in the scene? I don't know in fact bring the camera we'll just bring it it's on both sides record have my coffee can't carry about yeah so I don't know if you guys see this little marker here if you ever wonder what it is that's the exact place over the sensor this guy so a lot of times if you're measuring stuff out like I know your first thing's probably like oh measure from the camera but you want a medal from right here because although light's coming in here this is where the information's being recorded that's what this market is lots of high end cameras you're going to see it and this especially comes into play if you're working with like a match move artist so it's going to track stuff they need this guy they want to know exactly where it is in the scene I worked on stuff where I just had to mimic still shot and all I did is I just can't measured what's the distance to the actual object the distance to the light's recorded the lights the lights size record how high it was on the table that it was on just anything like even if you're like ok, the main thing is going to be happening ten feet from the camera will if you're just looking at the food did you don't know what ten feet is so at least you could say ok, this is about like the ten foot mark and then you could tell the cg person and they're like all right, this looks about right once they bring it in so that's it's just important have a tape measure just for anything even if it's they're doing a set extension you're like ok, this needs to be we want to cut off the top of the make it twenty feet higher working you just want a tape measure so I can think of a million things this is good to have on hand okay, so trackers for camera track jamie that tape because we're going to do this in a second, give me the black tape so if you're hearing camera tracking, this is a really quick method is trackers like, I know if you guys use moka, that doesn't really apply to this situation, but say we're just tracking for naevia space like, okay way just want to track this an x or a triangle is a good option or they say ali, I've never done an led because you's a little led lights, they don't really cast so much light out, but with camera trackers they love these sharp edges of contrast so that so it's really good to have triangle you'll even see him sometimes you'll see it'll be like a circle with squares and and then triangles they love these little sharp edges and it's not just like what do you want to take this and put it onto the samba? Because it's not gonna be able to see it? The point is that it needs, like a very good point of contrast to track so that's another thing notebook for whatever the hell I mean, honestly like for whatever that was it's just it's just good to record anything and then shoot smart, which kind of goes backto yesterday and I was telling you guys about all like oh the boom mikes in there don't do that don't do stuff like that just keep track of everything don't you don't assume that something is going to be easy don't let someone else assume that's going to be easy just shoot smart and then again be mindful here's high and budget which goes with that don't let someone tell you like do this it's totally fine and that's not going to be fine gonna cost you time and money so that's another thing so even going back to the printed list of shots go down the list be smart with now okay this is going to be something that I'm gonna ref and tomorrow so make a mental note of it this is just for the first one is if you are keeping track the shots you want the sequence which would be like the name of it so magical pony scene that sounds like something we would make the shot numbers to say you have we have five magical pony sean's okay this's going to be shot number one of the actual like effect shots and then the take so keep that mind because this is just to keep organized for the actual recording of it the next one is different and I'll explain the minute a good thing to do is like see how have ten ten ten twenty ten thirty the reason for the actually got this idea from my one friend and it's skipping everyone so that if you have to fill in another shot you could just do let's say ten zero five so then that we could fill in or even ten zero one so it's just a good wayto like dew in between stuff now I'm gonna go over the second one tomorrow again but just to give you a heads up the same two of the same the sequences shot number and then the type would be is a modeler compositing effects whoever it's going teo so that would be the shot type in the name of the person which is obvious and then the version and usually you want to do it's smart to do like version zero zero one unless I mean I doubt you're gonna go into the hundreds but that's just something to keep in mind but definitely definitely definitely keep track of those um and the reason it doesn't have a take in the second one is because by the time you give the artist you surely have chosen that they shouldn't be worrying about what take it is the take that's just for the actual when you're shooting it and then I just have examples like s o s yeah one thousand won twenty five then I felt I put my name on the file type oh I didn't have the type and then it would be dot whatever file it is so that's justin example and that's what I already told you by the time it's handed over issue ready they don't have to worry about the take so how many? How many of you do the effects I know you do well says the effects but do you do it as if that's what you want to do where you do because you have to because I do because I have to write you do because you love it so most of us aren't the effects artist nor do we want to be the effects artist but this stuff is still insanely important which is why I'm having start talk to you guys about even though this isn't the effects class because eventually you're going to get work with the effects artists because it's not just spiderman that has the effects in it even the most indian films I have shots in it that are fi effects that you never even realize they were david knight replacing car headlights what else could you think of just simple things? This movie that is yet to come out smiling it's called north of hell I had teo they literally were like we have I don't what the scene was but there's people in the background there like we need cops running up with flashlights so we had these guys and I had just flashlights and that's always like it's subtle you're not like oh, I'm blown away by it but it's still they needed it and I just need a lens flare very simple things even my film proximity because oftentimes I don't really want in your face thie effects when I'm doing something that's more serious and I want you to get diving too, especially when you're on a low budget quick turnaround scale, the higher you get, the more likely it's not going to be great because of either deadline of money like that little thing that start was showing us yesterday, but proximity has like fifty two the effects in it but really you can only think about maybe three that you know off, but there's a thanh of others that are living in there that you don't know exist so it's really important as filmmakers with how films are done now for you to know how this stuff works and know how the effects artist work so you can treat them correctly accordingly and work you know in tandem with them in a way that makes sense to them and that won't kill your deadline. So even though you personally won't use this it's really important for you to know how it works so you can direct them later on because that's a bit of everything for a director is you need to know what everyone's doing so you could direct it they have no idea what the effects artur's artist is doing you're just like a do a thing and I'll be over here can't really direct that. Just in case nobody knows the difference. Like you'll see special effects and visual effects, special effects is like what they just like the old school. I mean, they still do it. Collision, anything in camera would be special effects. Anything on a computer is visual effects don't think like like even if it's a simple a green screen, it would be visual effects don't think has to be like island question. Uh, apparently the cat me of motion picture arts and sciences haven't I figured that out yet, but it's true it's, very true, but let's jump into the green screen, but josh let's, get the camera over here. Let's, move these tungsten lights out of the way. But that's the basic idea of just not really something again that you guys need to know about the shot tracking a ce faras you using it for yourself, but just understanding how visual effects artists work. So you khun better run your crew.