FICTION ADAPTATION: GETTING TO GRIPS WITH AFTER EFFECTS

Prior to beginning this unit I had not used Adobe After-effects before so this was an entirely new experience for me. It was first brought to my attention during our montage workshop in which I was made aware of the 2.5d technique where you take a still photograph and through the use of photoshop and after-effects create a moving image. I came to discover that After-effects can be a great tool which I used more than one for my final Fiction film.

2.5d is something I explored for the workshop a few weeks ago and I found it to be very effective at bringing to life still images. It is like a completely alternative medium somewhere between photography and film. When it came to making my fiction I wanted to portray the phone boxes, but not in the standard point and shoot way. One of the first things I said to myself once I chose the poem Red Phone Boxes was that I wasn't going to use a real phone box in any of my film. This was purely from a stand point of being different and original.

Now to go along with the 2.5d I wanted to do something that would be surprising and unexpected visually and so I thought back to when I tried doing light photography a couple of years ago. I was inspired by the photos I had seen others do, an artist I looked at was Darren Pearson a.k.a Darius Twin who specialises in this type of work as an art form doing light paintings as they are called. Here are some examples of his work:

As seen above this technique has quite a range of possibilities which is why I decided it would be an interesting way to show my phone boxes without actually showing a phone box. I haven't seen this kind of thing in films or television so I thought that would give me even more of an original touch.

I think the results I created were quite succesfull as it demonstrates the same style as Pearson at a basic level. This also shows me that it is pretty easy to achieve if you know the right steps to take. This technique combined with 2.5d has produced some really interesting dynamic shots created from still photos with the help pf after-effects.

After doing these I wanted to create a short sequence at the start of my film in which you would be taken deep into the woods. So I took inspiration from the film which uses a technique called Fractal zoom or Infinite zoom shown below:



This clever technique is effective in moving through a setting quickly whilst taking in the surroundings, which is why I have taken on the challenge for my opening shot. I had to look into some tutorials on Youtube, but once I found out the simple steps my basic knowledge of After-effects did the rest. It is amazing what you can find on the internet to help you learn these techniques like this clip here which helped me learn the fractal zoom:



So I have to say the thing I have learn't most in this unit is how to use After-effects and I believe it can be a real big influence on my future work.