For the past few weeks, I’ve found myself devouring any information I could find concerning editing & post production techniques, special effects and shooting using a green screen.

The reason being that I have a lot of ideas for scripts, particularly some action movie style shorts, but I wasn’t sure I could pull them off, given that they would require certain effects. I wanted to do some test shoots, the first of which resulted in the above improvised short film of sorts; ‘The Game‘.

Over the course of the past month; I’ve slowly taken over a corner in our kitchen, gathering bottles and containers, funnels, hoses and lots of red food dye. Most recipes for fake blood require corn syrup and as of yet I still can’t find a place that sells it. So I did a few experiments and despite a couple of failed attempts, I finally made a batch that looked realistic enough, at least for a quick head-shot which is one of the first things I wanted to test out.

With everything ready to go for the effect, all I needed was a victim and with nothing better to do on a Sunday evening, I asked Daw if he wanted to drive me out to Jenkinstown Woods and get shot in the head!? How could he refuse!? We drove to Jenkinstown, picked a suitable location and spent the next two hours being devoured by flies!

I wanted to try out some other effects as well, namely shooting ‘day for night’ but unfortunately I picked the longest day of the year to give it a try. The sun was shining late into the evening meaning the effect wouldn’t work properly, and the darker I made it in post production the more I lost my head-shot effect, which was the primary goal of the test shoot.

Instead of just shooting the effects, I wanted to piece it together into some sort of short film, not just a static shot with blood flying. The fun part was that it was only a test shoot, it didn’t have to make any sense whatsoever and there was no point in going for more than one take.

So we started with some running shots, I also wanted to try a sort of visual delay effect but it didn’t quite work out for me so I scrapped it in this case, it needs more planning. Shooting on a Canon HG10 on a miniDv steadycam, we shot the running stuff; the long grass proved quite tricky to run through, if I wasn’t falling over then Daw was, or something as simple as a long blade of grass could push the counter-weight and ruin the shot. Once the two of us were truly sick of running we moved onto the dialogue.

Given that there was no script, we quickly made up two lines of dialogue to help explain the preceding effects; not that they make any sense but that was kind of the point of them in the first place!? I shot Daw’s closeup and then he shot my closeup. For the two shot I simply put the camera on a tripod. Then we shot the C/U of my hand as the gun, I did bring a fake gun but thought it was funnier if we didn’t use it. And finally we shot the head-shot effect.

With the camera on the tripod and Daw in position, I hit record then moved in place kneeling just out of frame beside Daw; counting “3,2,1,BANG”; he let his head fly back and I sprayed the fake blood onto the tree behind him. After reviewing the shot, we didn’t even bother going for a second take, I had what I needed.

Once I had the footage roughly assembled in Final Cut Express 4, I added three pre-generated digital effects; the muzzle flash from my “handgun”, a burst of blood from Daw’s forehead for the initial impact just before his brains ejected out the back of his head onto the tree and if you look really close at my fingers after the headshot you’ll see some whisps of smoke before I throw the weapon away.

With the effects in place, the next step was colour correction; given that I spent no time worrying about lighting during the shoot there was some noticeable differences in shots, beams of sun light were constantly coming and going through the trees. I cleaned it up as best I could then transferred the rough cut to my editing mentor Alan Slattery; who showed me the wonders of Magic Bullet; general post production techniques & colour grading.

Losing the idea of “day-for-night” and instead playing with the levels of green in the footage for a “House Of Flying Daggers” style of colour grading. To top it off and give it a more film like feeling, we added letterboxing to 2:35 and changed the frame rate from progressive to inter-lacing.

Following that, I found suitable music, using the royalty-free jingles that come with iLife and before I knew it the test shoot was looking more like a short film than I ever expected it to. It’s my first successful SpecialFx test shoot and given that this was shot on a budget of say… maybe €20 for blood ingredients and materials, it certainly won’t be my last. I get the feeling things are going to get very gorey over the next few months.

As usual comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

For best results watch ‘The Game‘ in HD.

Voting has opened on Round 6 of Busker 2009; the Kilkenny 400 busking competition in association with KilkennyMusic.com. As of last night, four new videos are up online and open to public voting so don’t forget to cast your vote for your favourite busker.

Round 6 saw the return of Pete to the Market Lane (he’s been in every round so far but has yet to win the public’s vote). He was joined by Shane in the ButterSlip (making his 3rd appearance) and Liam outside the Bank of Ireland on Parliament Street (making his second appearance). Pierre (above) makes his debut into the competition (making it our 2nd Harp on the streets for the competition).

As always one of these buskers will walk away with €200 so don’t forget to cast your vote. The videos are now online and open to PUBLIC VOTING on Busker2009.com.

If you think you could do better then why not register for the competition which runs until September, there’s a further €1000 up for grabs in the final. You can watch the videos from Round 6, cast your vote or register for the competition on www.Busker2009.com.

The official launch of The Battle Of The Bands 2009 is also underway, registration is now open with this years competition taking place throughout July and August. The competition will run for four weeks, including the showcase final performance from last years winners South on Sunday August 16th.

As with the previous two years, I’ll be providing photographic (and possibly video) coverage of the competition, along with sponsoring a photography package to this years winners. Full details of prizes will be announced in the coming days.

Full details about registration for the competition can be found on BattleOfTheBands.ie.

NOTE: For best results view the above video in HD.

Plans are being made to get the sound mix and final cuts underway, given the amount of work that still needs to be done, it’ll probably be about two weeks before the first episode of South - ‘The Making Of Insula‘ appears online.

Personally I can’t wait to have it finished; my first real solo-project has taken quite a lot of work but even at this stage I’m really happy with the results. Every single aspect of the project; from operating the two camera shoot by myself to cutting the episodes together has been an awesome way of “learning by doing” and I can’t wait to see what people think.

As I cut through all the footage one of the hardest things was having to let go of something good; cutting footage out for one reason or another, usually time constraints.The overall structure follows South in the Mill Studio throughout the recording process for Insula, but it will pay particular attention to some songs more than others.

I made this decision from the start for several reasons, mainly due to the sheer volume of footage I would have shot over a two week period, on two cameras covering guitar, bass, drums, vocals and all the in-between stuff. At present I just wouldn’t have the ability to edit it all. We’ve also got lots of plans and ideas for videos for certain songs so there’s no point in saturating everything with too much coverage.

In the case of previously unheard (and awesomely titled) South track ‘Zombie Attack’ which will feature on their debut album; I only had one single take during the recording of the song (it wasn’t on my list). That being said, the song is awesome and I really wanted it to feature somewhere in the whole thing and so I’ve cut together a second trailer (above).

The new trailer offers a sneak preview of what ‘Zombie Attack’ sounds like, direct from the mixing room in the Mill Studios. Featuring Alan Dawson on drums, Thomas Donoghue on guitar and Ken “For the ladies” Farrell on bass as the lads from South were laying down a rough version of the song before tackling each individual instrument. This is the only time you’ll hear any preview of ‘Zombie Attack’ before the album gets released as even the above footage won’t appear in any of the episodes.

You can also check out my brand new promo shot here on the Oss237.com homepage. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts; the entire shoot was also my first real attempts working with off-camera flash triggers and the new shot is another addition to what I’m being told is “my style”. The usual camera display type thing with focus thrown on the background and sharp on the monitor (on a Canon XHA1), shot on my 50mm with my SB800 positioned across the room, full power directed at Ken’s hands as he plays the bass. I’ve add some textures afterwards in the same style as the first promo image. Check it out here.

As always any feedback or criticism would be greatly appreciated. Plenty more coming soon!

Please watch the above video in HD for best results.

Things are gearing up for a Summer on the road as The Lions Mane and South announce tour dates around the country in association with MyMusic.ie.

Both bands have just released a list of gig dates; which includes performances in Kilkenny, Dublin (Whelan’s), Cork (Fred Zeppelin’s), Carlow (The Tavern), Waterford (Twister Vicks) and you can rest assured there’s even more dates to follow.

Having spent most of June sitting in front of a computer, I’m really looking forward to getting out and touring with both bands as they push their debut albums nationwide.

I already have plans and ideas for plenty of on the road photo & video content which will keep me busy throughout the Summer.

But first things first, I have to finish the videos and photos I’m currently working on, all of which will be appearing online very soon.

Make sure you don’t miss out this Summer; check gig listings for The Lions Mane on MySpace & Bebo and gig listings for South on MySpace & Bebo.

Further information and announcements will be made through MyMusic.ie later this week.

Last night, I finished the full length rough cut of South ‘The Making Of Insula‘, at the moment the entire project is running at about 50 minutes.

The full length assembly proved to be a bit of a nightmare; the songs (that are being featured) were cut together first, then it was a matter of assembling the rest of the footage and putting it in some sort of order and structure. Given that there was no script, it was like trying to put a huge jigsaw together without knowing what the picture looked like!?

Different instruments playing different songs were recorded on different days throughout the two week process, it meant having to bounce around the time-line quite a bit to keep it all together.

After watching the full length rough cut last night, I’m very happy with how everything is looking so far. I’ve made plenty of notes; mostly footage that can be shaved down or cut completely, but overall it’s starting to take shape. For the fine cut, I’ll be looking to cut the running time severely; at least for the online version.

My initial hopes were for four online episodes but I met a couple of problems along the way and at present; the plan is to separate the current cut into 3X10minute episodes to be released online. Which means I’ll be cutting about 20 minutes off the web version; I will be editing a full length version but I’m not quite sure what will happen with it, if anything!? We have a couple of ideas floating around but there’s no need to go into them yet.

Tomorrow, I’m getting a crash course in colour-correction and after effects, the plan is to clean up the full cut before separating the footage into the episodes. There’s also the sound mix! I’m not entirely sure how long all of this will take but I’m happy that it’s moving along on schedule.

Last night, I cut together a new trailer and pending a meeting with the lads from South this weekend; that should hopefully appear online in the next few days.

Voting has opened on Round 5 of Busker 2009; the Kilkenny 400 busking competition in association with KilkennyMusic.com.

Four new videos are up online now, so don’t forget to cast your vote for your favourite busker.

Round 5 saw the return of Pete in the Market Lane. He was joined by three new contestants; Adam (above) outside the Kilkenny People office on High Street, Neil in the Butterslip and the first band of the competition; Chaser down beside the Bank of Ireland.

As always one of the buskers will also walk away with €200 so don’t forget to cast your vote. The videos are now online and open to PUBLIC VOTING on Busker2009.com.

And, if you think you could do better then why not register for the competition which runs until September, there’s a further €1000 up for grabs in the final.

Watch the videos from Round 5, cast your vote or register for the competition on www.Busker2009.com.

NOTE: For best results view the videos in HD.

It’s been a few weeks since an update on ‘The Making Of Insula‘; whilst I haven’t had much time editing the videos for the past week, I can say that most of them are now at rough-cut assembly stages.

I’ve got one more segment to tackle; the footage has been synced and I’m going to try out yet another style for this video, with each of the episodes having a slight difference to cutting patterns and style based on the songs themselves.

I’m hoping to have them fully assembled in the next week or so before doing the fine cuts and then looking at some colour correction and after effects. Then a proper sound mix. My “to do” list is still fairly long but I’m happy that the project is running roughly in time with approaching deadlines.

As it stands the tracks for South’s debut offering are in the final mixing stages, soon to be mastered. South should also be announcing the launch & tour dates very soon, so keep an eye on their newly revamped MySpace.

Two weeks ago I did a series of photoshoots with the lads with the intention of shooting the cover & promo material for the album. The first shoot took place on a Saturday night, transforming my sitting room, moving the furniture around and confiscating every moveable light source I could get my hands on to test different lighting techniques and ideas. Shooting on a 19-35mm wide angle lens (thanks Ken) for the first time. The resulting photos & behind the scenes videos may never be seen!? I’ve still got a lot of work to do on them and the content may just be too funny. Maybe the less I say about it… the better!?

The following Sunday we hit the new HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny), continuing with the same ideas from the night before we shot a series of cover possibilities. The shoot was my first shoot using a Canon 5D using a EF21-105mm macro zoom lens with a full studio lighting setup behind me. And although I can’t publish any of the shots online yet, rest assured they’ll be coming in the next few weeks.

I have uploaded a sort of teaser image from the studio shoot, a bit of filler until the rest goes online, a brand new behind the scenes shot from my studio shoot with South. Shot on my Nikon D80, 19-35mm wide angle lens, on a tripod, using the timer. Then a bit of playing around with texture layers.

Check it out here, plenty more coming soon.

Photos from the fourth round of Busker 2009, the KilkennyMusic.com busking competition in association with the Kilkenny400 celebrations, are now online and viewable in the KKM Gallery on Flickr.

Voting has closed on Round 4, with Annie Chambers announced as the latest winner. She’ll walk away with €200 and now has a chance to compete for €1000 in the final.

The competition runs until September so there’s still plenty of time to register. You’ll find all the details on www.busker2009.com.

Check out the videos from the first 4 Rounds on the KilkennyMusic YouTube and my photo coverage of the competition on the KilkennyMusic Flickr.

Round 5 kicks off this Saturday so plenty more videos and photos on the way soon.

It appears, when I tried to give away two free downloads of The Lions Mane debut offering ‘Strands‘ in a previous post, I asked a question that nobody could answer!? So I’ll make it a little easier on people, especially Dave.

All people have to do to get a free download is; tell me why they deserve it? The best two comments on this post by 6pm Friday evening will win.

Now, I on the other hand have pretty much been listening to ‘Strands‘ non-stop over the weekend, working away on some concepts for music videos and visuals.

The above video is an early experiment for one of the concepts, scaled down for testing; my first time shooting with a light box for product shots, falling back to my 18-135mm lens (which hasn’t been used in about a year).

Keeping the concept simple; the light box on the table in the kitchen with three construction lights surrounding it, playing around with some fake blood and any props that were nearby.The track used is ‘Leaf‘, the lyrics inspiring the title and idea behind the shots which you can see here on the Oss237.com homepage.

As I’ve said, it’s only an a quick test shoot for things to come but as always any comments, feedback or criticism is greatly appreciated.

I’m giving away two free downloads of the Lions Mane debut album ‘Strands’, to be in with a chance to win just leave a comment telling me why you deserve it. It’s that simple!

Vultures episode 5: ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’ is now online and as always free to watch!

The fifth installment of the Mycrofilms web-based detective serial was my second outing as a director, and from the feedback I got at the cast & crew screening last night it appears to be one of the most popular episodes so far!?

Following the lengthy 10 week shoot for episode 5 & 6, I had a huge backlog of work and commitments to other projects, meaning I didn’t take part in the editing process for the episode. I’ll hold off from going into any details about the episode, for fear of spoiling anything, but after watching it myself for the first time last night I have to say a huge kudos to editing wizard Alan Slattery for doing another damn fine job.

The episode is far from without faults, but in my opinion, it’s one of the funniest and best paced episodes so far; with the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. contacted by a mysterious fugitive on the run from the authorities. The fugitive in question is in possession of a secret microfilm belonging to the rival Pinkerton agency. Except he doesn’t know exactly where he put it!?  He suspects it might be inside him!? And it could be a floppy disk… or a USB key. He’s not sure!?

Can V.P.I. strike a blow to the Pinkertons before they’ve even opened? How do they get the microfilm from the fugitive? And who is this Natalie Blaise we keep hearing about? All is revealed in ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’.

As always any comments, criticisms or feedback on the episode would be greatly appreciated and check out the brand new VPI promo shot here on Oss237.com.

I’ll have plenty more Vultures photos & Director Diaries on the way in the coming weeks. For now, sit back and enjoy Vultures Episode 5.