With a brilliant display and talent and planning, street artist Sofles and Selina Miles from Unity Sound and Visual joined efforts to create an epic dubstep music video. While Sofles spray paints the walls of abandoned buildings, a hyper time lapse precedes him, wrapping around walls as he works through different areas. How did they do it?
Although no behind the scenes has been released for this video and their process of filming, Candy Glass Productions offers a little insight into how dynamic movement can be achieved in their CN Tower Video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PFUyxbh_ed0#!
It is clear Selena Miles most likely did not shoot by walking in front Sofles such as described for the CN Tower video. Instead, it is more likely that a stabilized camera was set on a dolly or some other wheel driven vehicle while the time lapse progressed. Once the work was done, the images could be stabilized and strung together in Photoshop.
What are your thoughts on how this technique was accomplished?
I've tried something similar for the 2011 FStoppers video competition. I was doing it handheld or with a tripod. I was using a 4 fps Canon Rebel so handheld shots were wonky and fixing it in post at 24fps playback would be so painstaking. But with some kind of external camera stabilization and a camera with a faster burst rate it might be possible to get something that video software stabilization might be able to fix.
Doing it with a tripod is quite possible though. The thing is you need to be methodical when shooting, make sure you're moving the tripod straight and use a tape mesure to be sure the distance you're moving between each frame is the same as it's much easier to fix wobble than it is to fix changes in movement speed.
As to the dubstep video posted, I think he was probably using a tripod as the only jitter in the video is from side to side and weird paths, never up and down motions. Maybe he had somekind of dolly underneath to make the moves easier. It looks to me like the frames were manually fixed though. - Not for the faint of heart.
Here's my youtube video for those interested. Looking back, it's quite long winded and I'm not sure all of the techniques are worth while. If I had to do it again, I'd probably use a tripod and be methodical with the moves when shooting and try fixing stuff in Photoshop rather than fixing with video tools made to reduce shake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll2t27Z8rcE
a dolly? did you notice how rough/uneven the floor is? its littered with debris, would have to be tripod or monopod... and a lot of post production
Simple - shoot on tripod, stabilise in adobe after FX - warp stabiliser tool.
eg:
https://vimeo.com/50577172
warp stabilize is a godsend.
What a waste of some great photoshoot locations
I agree!
More like changed some photoshoot locations. I don't see why you say they were wasted? I would LOVE to shoot a car or a couple in some of those rooms.