Proposal with Film Test 1

Create a short film using plastic army men to tell a story. The video will be accompanied by music, most likely Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. It is meant to be slightly comedic. There will be minimal human acting in the film in order to keep the production schedule from being delayed. Sound effects will be used extensively in the production. The film will recorded on location in either the IMM building or on Cromwell's fourth floor. Video will be no longer than two minutes


Raw Footage Test 1:

This is a simple clip that was captured during the first recording session. It's scene did not make it into the final production.

Production Log

Ye Olde Production Log

November 10^th:            Idea for video. Graham is singing about taking life, there is a person walking across a crosswalk, cut to a car coming fast down the road, there’s a blackout and then a crash.

November 11^th:            Got video today. Unfortunately I’m completely soaked through. Perfect day to film, especially with Agwe’s song about the dangers of driving in the rain. Going back to the room to change.

                                    P.S. Oh yeah, also finished the storyboard PSD. Just have to make it one image for the blog.

November 13^th:            Its going to kill me to say this but I’m scrapping the previous video idea. Professor Sanders gave me a great idea. The new idea is as follows:

·      With the tune of Wagner’s Valkeries

·      Army tank with infantry

·      Camera swoops down

·      Tank is damaged

·      Men go flying

·      A anti-aircraft cannon fires

·      Plane/helicopter crashes

·      Someone walks into the room

o   Goes to sit down

o   Abruptly stands up

o   “Crashed”helicopter is in their seat

November 16^th:            Today I got everything filmed. It’s now taking place in the lounge instead of the IMM building. Nick Ferrante helped me during the last part so now it’s a guy walking down the hall.

November 18^th:            Imported everything into FCP and got the first draft of the video done.

November 22^rd:             I got most of the video editing done today. I got most of the sound effects and major editing actions done. The last few things I need to do are finish the credits, find music for the credits, and just do some fine tuning with the audio.

November 30^th:            Done, done, done! Today I finished the video. The credits are finished, with a single image slide in Photoshop being the title sequence, with the audio track being the intro from a Mumford & Sons tune. I have decided not to enter this into the December 3^rd IMM show, not sure why.

December 4^th:            Updated the blog for the first time in months, it seems. Put the storyboard image up. I’m debating whether to put the actual video itself. Probably after the final I will.

Storyboard

Warning, LARGE PHOTO

If your internet is bad for looking at very large images, do not open this photo!

This is the storyboard for my final video project. The reader should begin the sequence in the top left corner, and then follow the black arrows in the center.

Video!

Video is going well. With the story board complete, filming shall finish soon.

Next post will include a preview of the storyboard

Intro to Digital Media Portfolio

Introduction to Digital Media

Portfolio: Al Gaillard

This portfolio deals mostly with photo manipulation or color manipulation in photographs. With my recent development of color manipulation techniques I began to expand my base of knowledge by experience.

 The first portfolio piece began as a picture taken by myself.  The current image was developed by raising the contrast of the building, and overlaying the clouds over a dark background. Something interesting that kept me busy for a while was the building. Every time I raised the contrast, I kept getting a black comic-book-style border around the building’s steeple. I ended up selectively desaturating the edge of the selection and blurring it.  The second portfolio image was inspired by some simple geometric drawings, with variations of two colors.

The third image is a simple color correction of Cromwell Hall. It was created to welcome in the fall season as the leaves begin to change on campus. The hue and saturation were the main tools to change the trees colors. The building had to be manually removed from the hue, as it became a light green color. The fourth image was inspired by Obama’s “Change” campaign and a desire for a parody. The subject is a charismatic leader of a organization bent on world domination. The four-color scheme was challenging but satisfying once finished.

The fifth and sixth designs were pictures from my Seattle trip. Piece five is an experiment in color saturation and how it effects the perception of the picture. I found that the increased color of the brick buildings led the eye to the focal point, rather than relying on the bird to do such. Piece six began as a color correction piece and became almost an expression of alien design. It was very hard to successfully blend the foreground to the background, so I took it to the other extreme. The Seattle Space Needle became a pulsating space ship abducting the subject (myself) under a dappled sky.

I quite enjoyed this segment of the class. I enjoyed working with the pictures I took and manipulating their colors. It was quite interesting how changing a picture’s color scheme changed how the eye traveled to the focal point. Something I feel that I could do better work in is merging elements from one image into another, and especially, taking better photographs to begin with. I plan on taking a photography course next semester, and practicing photography to help remedy this.

Portfolio 1

Portfolio 2

Portfolio 3

Portfolio 4

Portfolio 5

Portfolio 6

Another photograph from paintball. The same player, but from two different photographs, merged into one.

Layer masks proved their use in this project and it was a constant effort to mesh both figures into one useable pose.

Over the past week the weather has been, less than cooperative. The observed building is the spiritual center on campus with color alteration on the clouds.

On a side note, this photo was quite troublesome. Whenever the contrast changed, a solid black border appeared around most of the tower. Many hours were spent desaturating, burning, and dodging the architecture. And don't even get me started on the trees....

The first shot in many of the paintball portraits. 

Subject is myself with color editing and a visual effect on the lens of the mask

Kane Propaganda Poster

Inspired by 0bama's campaign poster and Kane, from the Command & Conquer series.

The original portrait was removed and was then replaced by pure color planes and a separate background.

An Early Fall

A small color correction piece I made of Cromwell Hall. I changed the tree's colors and made the sky a more vibrant blue.

Al's Life Story

Hello reader!

I am Al Gaillard, a student in Interactive Multimedia at TCNJ.

I've been involved in visual design for a few years now, ranging from making signatures at Halo2board.com to creating graphics for clubs and forums across the net. I'm looking forwards to learning more about website design and coding this upcoming year here at TCNJ. 

-Al Gaillard