Michelle Tofi

Very happy to finally release this video for Amzo’s “Spotlight” (apparently it dropped without me noticing a little while ago - too busy on the feature shoot for The Watcher Self I think). 

I’m very happy with how the video turned out - especially due to the limitations of crew.  We shot the entire thing as a collaboration between myself and gaffer Simon Olney, with some production assistance from the multi-talented Kim Verma. Big thanks to dancer Shannon Tella for her incredible contribution to the shoot. Enjoy - and please watch at 1080 for full HD effect!

CrumplePop ShrinkRay X - Free for a week!

I love CrumplePop.  Despite having issues with their initial set of plug-ins not playing well with FCP7 (My fault, not theirs, and they refunded me!) I’ve been loving the releases they’ve put out for FCPX, the still much maligned follow-up to their old Final Cut system I’ve grown with and loved. Having people like them come aboard the FCPX love-train has helped me enormously to embrace the ‘X’, and with a killer promo like this one you’d be mad not to give them a go.

ShrinkRay X from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

Yup, those awesome folks over at CrumplePop are actually giving away the full version of ShrinkRay X - the FCPX friendly follow up to their awesome ShrinkRay for FCP7 - for absolutely free this week. You can read everything you need to over at this page but once you’ve read that price tag, what more could you need to know?  It’s already installed on my copy of ‘X’ and I’ve toyed around this morning with some old footage shot on high. So far, I love it. Of course everyone needs to eat so after the 23rd of November it’ll be back to its regular price of $75.  Seriously, grab it now, right here.

View high resolution

I shot some footage for a music video on a rooftop in East London yesterday, as always shooting my raw footage using Technicolor’s excellent Cinestyle picture style for Canon DSLR’s.  I love the heck out of that little plug-in.  Above you can see what it does - drains your raw footage of its contrast and colour saturation enabling the editor/colorist to get the best out of the footage in post.  I hope you can appreciate which of the above is the raw footage and which has been coloured! 

Keep an eye out for the full track soon :)

I’ve been exploring Tilt Shift for a little while now, watching its use in advertising and music videos (and now, the fabulous Tilt Shift iPhone App) while enviously wishing I had the skills to incorporate it into one of my shorts. Today, however, fuelled by the twin motivators of having nothing to do and the internet at my fingertips I leant out of my window and shot a few seconds of footage before throwing myself into Apple’s Motion & Final Cut in order to knock up a tilt of my own. The video above is the result.

Now, on reflection I realise to get a better ‘toy box world’ look I’m going to need a telephoto lens and a higher platform from which to shoot, but I’m pretty pleased with the look of this. Especially when you consider what went into it. Here’s a before shot from the raw footage: 

Add to that image about 15 minutes in FCP and 15 more in Motion (maybe longer with rendering times factored in) and you’ve got the following: 

Anyone with a basic knowledge of editing can probably guess what went into this; e.g. tripling the speed then utilising FC’s Strobe to even out frame rate at a steady 30fps, exporting to Motion to layer the footage then using masks to add blur where necessary and sharpen the cars, before finally sending back to FC for vignetting and colour processing - vital for bringing out the rich over-saturated colours common to many Tilt Shift films. I’m fairly happy with the result and can’t wait to get out in town with my Canon 550d and a couple of lenses to shoot something better. Expect more Tilt Shift work soon! For now, check out The Vimeo community’s selection of excellent Tilt Shift shorts, there’s a huge collection with some real gems waiting to be discovered.

Shooting the sh*t

So today we shot two exclusive new videos for Betasaurus, a look at the upcoming Nintendo 3DS and a tongue in cheek little look at software ideas that are great in concept but fail in execution. All this of course means a ton of editing for me, which is always fun because that’s where I really get to put my spin on things. A little preview of our video to come: this time we’re throwing our own take on the Geddan meme into the mix, with Adam freaking out with his trusty DS in hand. It’s an epic dance-splosion you will not want to miss! Yeah, I said dance-splosion. You read it and now it cannot be unsaid. And now some Geddan for those who don’t know what they’re about to feast on:

If that hasn’t got you excited, I don’t know what will. Maybe you have no soul. I can’t help you with that. Regardless, apologies in advance for some image quality issues. Sometimes we like to kick back old school style and crank out the handycam. This was one of those times. I do hope you will check back though, for our video will be online soon!