Ninja vs Penguin

Ninja July 31st, 2007

Looking for a gift? Or some cool inky art for your home? Get a Sam Hiti commissioned drawing for only 50 bucks!

Here are some examples of his work:

Links:
+ Commission a Sam Hiti original
+ Check out Sam’s blog
+ Watch drawings battle til the death on Fist-A-Cuffs

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Penguin July 31st, 2007

Now, for the fun part! Actually shooting your film.

1. White balance. The first thing you want to do after you’ve taken the lense cap off and turned on the camera, is to white balance the camera. This is especially important if you’re shooting inside or using ambient light. Some ways to white balance are, to use a gray card, the lid from a Pringles can, or a white balance card. Put any of these objects in front of your camera, and hit the white balance button. Done! If you don’t have a white balance button, see if your camera has presets for different lighting conditions, such as, fluorescent, day, etc.
2. Use a slate. Sometimes known as a clapper board, it’s one of those things you see at the beginning of the shot with the shot number and the take on it. When using a slate, make sure that the information is clearly visible on the camera. Also make sure you’ll be able to see the motion of the clapper. This will make editing much easier because you’ll be able to see the shot information without have to actually watch the footage. Make sure the slate is in front the camera before you start shooting.
3. Use a shot log. Print the shot log provided below and make sure you have a pen. The key information you want to capture on the shot log is the scene, the shot, and the take. At a minimum, write that down! If you capture if the shot was good or not, even better. If you can capture the times that you start the shot, that would be fantastic! If you storyboarded, use the same shot numbers from that. If you end up shooting stuff that isn’t on the storyboard, just start one after the last shot in the storyboard. On the template, you’ll see a column for “code”. I use this column so I can quickly see which shots were good, and which weren’t. I use an “X” for shots I know I won’t use. And an “O” for shots that were good.
4. Rehearse the shot. Before you shoot any actual footage, make sure you walk your actors and crew through the shot first. Hopefully, your actors have their lines memorized. This will also give them a chance to warm up and for you, as the director, to give them direction. Your cameraman will also be able to see where your actors are going to move so they can track them. Or if you have a pan or zoom sequence, they’ll be able to show you what that will look like before committing any of it.
5. Call quiet. Give people a heads up that you’re about to start shooting. You don’t want to mess a shot because someone didn’t realize it and started talking in the background.
6. Call camera. You do have the slate in front of the camera, right? Good, now call camera. This is the signal for the cameraman to start recording.
7. Call action. Give your slate person a chance to run out of the frame. Wait a bit, and let the actors know that they should begin.

Tomorrow, part 2.

Here’s the file: shot-log.pdf

-Penguin

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Penguin July 30th, 2007

Now that you have your cast and crew, it’s time to storyboard. You don’t have to storyboard all at once. With the shooting schedule in hand, you should be able to storyboard before the shoot.

1. Go through your script and mark your shots. As the director, you will have a special version of the script. When initially printed, it will look just like everyone else’s. But as the director, you need to know when to cut from coverage to coverage. Based on the dialogue and the action, you’ll be able to determine what parts will be part of which shot. So take a red pen and draw a small horizontal line at the beginning of the shot. Next, draw a small horizontal line at the end of the shot and connect the two lines (at the center) with a straight vertical line. Label the beginning of this line with the type of shot you want. Is it a medium shot? Is it coverage of a specific character? Is it a cutaway to emphasize that something has happened? The idea, is that you can quickly look at the script and see where your shots are going to happen without having to refer back to the dialogue.
2. Print out copious amounts of the provided template. Below, you can download a PDF of a storyboard template. On each sheet, you’ll find 8 boxes formatted 16:9. You are going to shoot 16:9 right? Of course.
3. Start drawing. Yeah, your drawings are going to suck. You’re a writer! You’re a director, not an artist. That’s fine. Label your drawings if you have to. The point is, you want to be able to convey your ideas to your crew and your actors.
4. Draw on the right. Your natural inclination is to draw in every box in order. Resist! Instead, draw in only the boxes on the right. Why? Because if you realize that you need to insert a shot, you’ll be glad to see an empty box to the left. Sure, this may use more paper, but you’ll save a lot of time redrawing every board again. It’s especially bad if you’ve filled all 8 only to realize you missed a crucial shot after frame 7. No good.
5. “Walk” through it. Done with the scene? Took almost an hour? Go back and walk through it. Make sure your shots make sense and help tell the story. Can you add or change a shot to increase the dramatic effect? Can you remove a shot to tighten the pacing?
6. Write down shot numbers. If you’re using my template, you’ll conveniently find, above each frame, “Scene: Shot:”. Fill in the appropriate information. It may seem tedious, but when you start shooting and slating, you’ll have a good reference to work off of.

Now, you’re ready to shoot!

Here’s the file: storyboard-template.pdf

-Penguin

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Ninja July 30th, 2007

Good morning! It’s 4:23 AM EST, so I think that counts. I came across this Sagmeister letter the other day. It was very touching + had some good advice, so I thought I’d share:

Steven Heller told me. I cant say I didn’t expect it, I had just put it off into the future, thinking good old Tibor isn’t doing so well at the moment but he’ll be around for a long time. It makes me very sad.

You know it anyways, but still: You were an incredible influence on my life and my work. Before I went to Hong Kong you told me: “Just don’t go and fucking spend the money that the ad agencies pay you. If you do, you’ll be their whore forever.” I didn’t spend it, remained free and got a nice New York apartment out of it.

Before I opened the studio your advice was: “The toughest thing is not to grow. Everything else is easy.” Turned out true too. Only you could blow such a large amount of smoke up my ass in your last note. Thanks.

Well, I surely send you lots of love, you’ll be in my heart and mind forever, you incredibly strong man.

from Stefan Sagmeister’s letter to Tibor Kalman when he learned Tibor became very ill

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Ninja July 28th, 2007

I’ve been going in a different direction with my latest blots. After hanging around my compy for so long, I just wanted a nice breather. I’m enjoying my late nite, erm, early morning inking.

I printed out 4 copies of the supplied blot (just in case I messed up).

The first one became the right eye.

The second became the left eye. This one was tricky because it would eventually need to get flipped horizontally, so I had to ink the reverse image of the eye.

Ah, then those crazy lips. Penguin’s always teasing me because I draw women with really full lips. I’m very happy with the way they came out. That bleeding, marbled bit in the lower lip is great—what a happy accident!

I goofed on the nose. At first I was going to rotate the blot 90 degrees clockwise and transform the main curve into the hanging tip at the end of the nose. But I didn’t like it (+ not wanting to waste paper), so I turned the longest curvey bit into the nose.
Then I scanned in the separate parts + pasted them into one document in Photoshop.

Using the polygonal lasso, I chopped off the lower bit under the right eye. It was kind of distracting.

Then I flipped the left eye (Edit > Transform > Flip horizontal) + removed the stray bit using the same method as the right eye.

Now for the fun part. The Liqufy filter! Go to the Filter drop down menu and choose “Liquify.” I left the settings as they were and just adjusted the brush size as needed. The left eye isn’t in proper perspective, so I pushed + schooted in the parts to make it look right.

More of the same. Adjusting the lid because it’s too high up.

Ah, so I messed up. The reflection in the pupil of the left eye doesn’t match the one in the right. So I used the circle marque, selected the reflection from the right eye, hit (apple + j) to duplicate it onto another layer. Moved this dupped piece over the left eye, scaled it down (Edit > Transform > Scale), merged the layers down (apple + e), + then used the clone tool to fill in the missing bits.

And there it is.

Now for that ugly nose. Still using the polygonal lasso, I selected the part that I wanted for the nose + deleted the rest.

After scaling it to the proper proportion, here it is.

The lips were a lil’ off. The left part next to the cupid’s bow (aka the snot duct) was too high. So I used the Liquify filter to push it down a bit.

By now, I was thinking of Audrey Hepburn + Funny Face. Not my fave Audrey flick, but still, she’s GOOD! I absolutely <3 Audrey! I felt that this piece could benefit from some texture. I tore out a page from Travel + Leisure magazine + wrote out a line from the opening credit song. It’s funny because I forgot how to write cursive. Total brain fart. I’m so used to printing or typing, that I had to stop + think of how the letterforms went.

I scanned + pasted this into my working Photoshop document. I changed the blending mode to Multiply + this is what I ended up with.

Bah, that seemed too severe + the background type was fighting with the image. I then ghosted back the image by lowering the opacity to 50%.

I decided to ditch the type. Less is more. Here’s the final!

Happy inking,
Ninja =)

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Penguin July 27th, 2007

Rating: 4/4 stars

Sunshine, the new movie by Danny Boyle, who also brought you 28 Days Later and Trainspotting, tackles the sci-fi genre. I loved 28 Days, so I was looking forward to seeing what he’s done to the sci-fi genre. By no means, is this 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I would say that it’s definitely up there.

The first two acts are a revelation. The third act, gets a little derivative plot wise, but the acting is so good, and the cinematography is so good, and the editing is SO GOOD, that it doesn’t matter.

I just finished watching it and I had to look up the times to see it again. This is something you have to see on the screen. I called up Ninja, and we’re going to see it tonight. It’s that good.

-Penguin

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Ninja July 27th, 2007

Whatever, Adobe®! Talk about spoilsports! Yesterday morning, Adrian sent this link on Adobe® Photoshop® trademark rules (it’s pretty funny). Example:

CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.

INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

He also sent me a sneak preview of his illo for an upcoming book. Apparently it’s going to involve some snazzy 3D process. Holograms? Lenticulars? Pop-ups? Embossing? He’s so cryptic. I can’t wait to see it published!

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Ninja July 26th, 2007

After I downloaded blot no. 14, I was pretty certain that she was going to be a lil’ geisha girl with bent knees, serving a hot dish. The curves of the blot were going to be the folds in her kimono.

But when I sat down to ink it at 3 AM (I keep some strange hours), I kept seeing eyelashes. In the back of my mind, I was probably thinking of Audrey Hepburn’s Funny Face photo taken by Richard Avedon.

Music link (courtesy of Verve records):
+ clip of Audrey Hepburn + Fred Astaire singing S’Wonderful

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Penguin July 26th, 2007

1. Cast actors. In most cases, your cast will be your friends. People doing you a favor because they love you and because they love to watch themselves. And sometimes, you’ll have an idea of who will be playing what part as you write. Nothing wrong with that. But there will be scenes where two or more actors will have to be “close” to each other. This becomes an issue when you have romantic interactions. Some of them may just not be comfortable, because of age or some past history, to portray it on camera.
2. Scout locations. As easy as it might be, not everyone wants to watch your living room for an hour or so. Go out, find places that have interesting backgrounds to shoot. Maybe, your script calls for a specific location. Where ever it is, take pictures for reference. If you can have a model to stand in for scale and positioning, it’d be even better. This is a great way to start visualizing things in preparation for storyboarding.
3. Work up a budget. Let’s see, how much money do I have in my pocket? Zero. Done! That was easy! But seriously, whether you’re shooting in film or on video, stock costs money. If your cast and crew are willing to work for “free”, you still need to find a way to keep them happy on your long shoots. Food is cheap(er) and makes everyone happy. Props, other equipment you may need for the shoot. Try and plan all this out before you start shooting. You may find that a key prop is just way out of your price range. Now would be the time to go back and rewrite.
4. Write a shooting script. You know who your actors are, you know where you’ll be shooting, now you want to “lock” you script. From this point on, scene numbers WILL NOT change. Page numbers WILL NOT change. It’ll be much easier to print just the changes for your cast, instead of reprinting the whole thing. This way, when you talk about scene 32 on page 45, everyone will know what you’re talking about.
5. Make a shooting schedule. Take every scene you’ll be shooting and put them into Excel or some other spreadsheet application. Next to each scene, put a column for:
   • day/night
   • location
   • INT/EXT
   • date column, you’ll use this to write what day you’ll be shooting on
   • a column for each of your actors
   • a column for any expensive rental, say a dolly or crane (treat these like actors)

   Now, go through your script, and if the actor is needed for the scene, put a mark in their column. Now, you can easily see and sort the requirements for your shoot. If you’re renting a space, you may have to schedule that shoot on that day. If your actors can only work on certain days, work around it.

Phew, that was tough. But now, you’re ready to storyboard!

-Penguin

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Ninja July 25th, 2007

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration.

My brother just sent me this youtube viddy today. It looks A LOT like my blot no. 12 + friends (even the coloring is similar). I hadn’t seen this when I was making my monster friends, so it’s just a weird (but cool) coincidence. This catwalk is worth checking out—the visuals are stunning.

Barcelona animation studio Devin + Danish multimedia production agency Vizoo created these animated projections for Diesel’s catwalk. They explain a bit of the process:

“The visuals are projected through a series of ‘foils’ into mid air, so you see the images in mid-air. The models can then interact with them and walk through them. We used plastic foils placed at 45-degree angles so that the projected light from the ceiling goes onto a foil, is reflected on to another and then into the air.

We worked it so it had a real catwalk feel and so that you could view it from both sides: You can see the models, the holograms and the public from both sides. It’s never been used this way before as the technology has just been used in the corporate world before, for sales presentations, and the visuals have always just been viewed from one side. So we set up two rigs instead.”

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