So something unusual recently happened, I was hired to direct a short film. It was a lot of fun and I was given lots of freedom to do what I wanted. It recently got into the children's section of the Toronto film festival, so I'm planning a small trip to Toronto in April, which I'm excited about.
I didn't realize it at the time, but I lifted the idea of shooting through smeared glass in the movie "The Assassination of Jesse James..." I wanted the images to feel like illustrations in a children's book that faded off the edges of the frame, so in several of the wide shots we put 4x8 sheets of clear plexiglass about seven feet in front of the camera and smeared out the trees and things with Vaseline. Because we had a budget and time we were able to play around with stuff like that. It was a really fun shoot. Unfortunately we quickly found out this technique was pretty easily replicated in post, but it was still fun.
Here's a trailer to the movie and below are pics with the plex and Vaseline...
The trailer looks great so do the frames with plexiglass!
Next time you will have to test prisms in front of the lens and 138mm diopters in front of 80mm lenses! They work really well!
Also, the rectangular glass which is used on microscopes.. If you direct either the sun or a hard / spotty light at the edge of it, it creates very interesting disturbances!
And nothing beats in-camera effects!
Good luck in Toronto! You should send it to the Galway Film Fleadh or the Cork Film Festival over in Ireland! !
Looks really great Justin! I think the effect looks a bit heavy handed out of context, but I'm sure it works well in the flow of the story. Hope we get to see the film
Right on fella's, thanks. I do like the in camera effects, but this one was pretty easy to replicate in post, so it was hard for me not to think we wasted a little time on set. But like I said, it was a lot of fun. Miguel, sounds like your suggestions would be harder to do in post. If I ever do something like this again, I'll definitely try something like that.
The still frames were actually from a test day that wound up making it into the movie, so I think we were a little less aggressive on the actual shoot. But I will say, Satsuki, I've certainly never been accused of being too subtle
I'll PM you for sure, Richard. I would love to meet up if you got a sec. I've heard the city is great, and I'm really looking forward to checking it out. You'll have to tell me the best dinner spots.
I'll PM you for sure, Richard. I would love to meet up if you got a sec. I've heard the city is great, and I'm really looking forward to checking it out. You'll have to tell me the best dinner spots.
I don't eat in Toronto very often very often, but when I do, I dine at the Keg Mansion.
Hopefully you will not mind stepping over a homeless person at every turn, and seeing garbage all over the place. Oh but of course Toronto is better than a big US city because we have socialism
Oh you'll be fine, knifings have seen a 13.8% reduction, kidnappings are down 12.7%. The police chief of Chicago once laughed at Toronto's murder rate, 50 a year in Toronto is considered to be a disaster. The Chicago police chief was facing 500 a year.
After we screened at TIFF kids we had a handful of festivals ask for the movie, but one of the more interesting was the Museum of Modern Art in New York. They asked to purchase a copy (think we can just give it to them ) to screen in their Family Films program which was created to help introduce children to the "richly varied world of film."
So does this mean I can call myself the big "A" word? Just kidding. I would never be that pretentious
