I’ve been working on a papercraft iPhone holder concept for a while now, turns out simpler is better.  This version was created to be able hold a variety of mobile devices and is adorned with a special May Fourth decoration. Please Enjoy the Boomcity_iPhoneholder_May4_2012 Bonus Gift!

Just Download, cut, fold and glue!

Take a shot looking down a street, where you can see the sky in the background. Take a photo of just the sky at sunset. And take a med/close up portrait of someone.

Combine all three together. Do touch ups on the portrait and put it in the in the foreground. Mask out the sky from the city street and insert the sunset behind it. Use adjustment layers and masks to colour correct the whole thing to look as if it was shot at the same time.

Additional challenges could included removing all the power lines, transit cables, and phone lines from the city streets. Or even all the cars or people (take multiple shots from the same location so you end up with enough coverage of the street).

What about reflections? What about shadows? Take it as far as you like.

For years I’ve been working on a circular graphic based on the circle of fifths. This is part of that research.

I handcrafted this a few years ago after inspiring myself when I was teaching graphic design at BCIT. Hopefully inspired students too.

It’s hard to witness  how much effort we put into making each shot as accurate to the movie as possible within the time frame we were working under. We both work full time at VanArts and have our families, so we had to scrape together a couple sessions of production time and get it in the can as fast as possible. As Ken was filming one shot in one room I’d be madly cutting, folding and gluing more prop pieces for the next. He’d often excitedly call me into the room before shooting where I’d see a mess of masking tape, cardboard and construction paper holding the production together, but when I’d look at the back of the camera and see how close we were to the actual shot I’d return to construction giggling giddily.

As you can see in the screen grabs below and if you were to compare the other 44 scenes you’d see that we pretty much nailed every single shot we did.

Of course we couldn’t have all the fun. On our second major production evening I had to bring in the kids to see the making of and get them to be a part of the mini-movie as well. They had a blast helping set up all the characters for the grand finale scene, whichif you watch you might spot a few non-muppet  ’guest stars’ including Jack Skellington, Bob and Doug McKenzie, Gumby, Painter Smurf, Yoda, and the papercraft R2-D2 I keep on my desk at work.

All in all I’ve very proud of our little production and very pleased to have been shortlisted for the top 24 (out of 88) and extremely excited to hear about the gala just down the street at club 560. If you want to see more behind the scenes photos check out the rest on Ken’s Facebook Album (public).

Now, for your part! Click the link below and choose our video as the fan favorite!

http://vancouver.virginradio.ca/FFF2012/Top24.aspx

Muppet Movie in 60 seconds.

Ken and I sitting behind the figures set up for the final scene. This image has been altered, the figures are not to scale, and I have WAY more hair than that. The lights make me look bald in that photo.  No, it’s true. I’m that bald.

I’ve held a boompole for 2 hours in the cold, gripped a reflector on the side of a cliff, pretended to jump off the side of a cliff, actually jumped off a 15′ dock (with a busted ankle), been buried up to my neck in an abandoned outhouse, can’t even fathom how many 36 hour stints I’ve pulled just to get it in the can on time…I’m happy and proud of this vast and broad collection of knowledge and experience I’ve enjoyed for these past 15 years but even happier about all of the talented people I’ve gotten to work with and meet. They continue to inspire me and impress me with their successes and productions.

Recently the following educational video was brought to my attention. A friend send word that my name was in the credits of a film they were shown during a film studies class. I went online to check it out, you can get to the result by clicking the image below.  I feel pretty good about seeing this. As an independent media producer most of my work goes unnoticed and unseen as many projects are for internal use, have a limited release or as in the following example, there is no trace of my contribution except by watching the credits in the film and the film itself being a short experimental animation that doesn’t fit into the average theater or even television format.

I met Richard Reeves at the Gulf Island Film and Television School in the mid-nineties and was honored when asked to mix a soundtrack using sound samples he’d created by scratching the audio track on some 35mm film. This was a major moment for me, I was cutting analog glitches and pops into a soundtrack for a film that was made with no camera called ’1:1′. Then to top it all off I was paid and even more honored when I worked on another soundtrack for a 72mm animation he was embarking on. Richard Reeves is a Canadian treasure and I’m so happy to see his work being used in education and wish there were more venues for short films like his, as much as I enjoy Hollywood action movies, I respect treasures like the works of Richard Reeves so much more.