Ladybug video : Making of...
These are the completed videos...
This blog entry outlines the background to the video.
So I decided to test what sort of appeal ladybugs have.
I asked Matt Gerber (an engineer and aspiring song writer) if he was interested in creating a song for kids. Ladybugs would be his inspiration.
He took on the challenge and wrote a cute little song about a dancing ladybug.
They consented, on the understanding that the little girls name was kept private.
Deciding that I wanted to have the little girl dressed up like a ladybug, I asked Courtney Wagener if she was prepared to make a costume for the little girl.
We sketched out some ideas...
We also designed and made a second costume, just in case the little girls brother got jealous of the attention and wanted a costume too...
Turns out that the lad wasn't interested in dressing up like a ladybug, so I shot some footage of the little girl running around in her costume, and I started to work on editing the video.
Then Matt disappeared into Canada somewhere!
I couldn't get a peep out of him so after a few months I was desperate to keep the project alive. I contacted Elanor Barker (who I knew from a still-born musical film I had been working on) about writing a song that I could lay down under the half finished edit .
She and her song writing partner Rita Bratovich, took up the challenge. They wrote a song based on the footage that I bought back from NZ.
Then suddenly Matt reappears and so now I'm making two videos :-)
I started making this piece with bits of footage that were discarded from the first film.
It soon became apparent that I would need more content and looked into shooting some more footage of the little girl in her ladybug outfit.
Little girls tend to continue growing and she had by this time expanded beyond the ability of the costumes seems to hold her in.
A new angle was required so I approached Helen Wagener with the idea of constructing a ladybug character.
Inspiration
I had this YouTube video that was getting a lot of hits...I asked Matt Gerber (an engineer and aspiring song writer) if he was interested in creating a song for kids. Ladybugs would be his inspiration.
He took on the challenge and wrote a cute little song about a dancing ladybug.
Production
So now we had a song, and this being a piece intended for toddlers, I approached some friends about the possibility of using their child in a online video.They consented, on the understanding that the little girls name was kept private.
Deciding that I wanted to have the little girl dressed up like a ladybug, I asked Courtney Wagener if she was prepared to make a costume for the little girl.
We sketched out some ideas...
Turns out that the lad wasn't interested in dressing up like a ladybug, so I shot some footage of the little girl running around in her costume, and I started to work on editing the video.
Post
I used CS6 Production Pro to edit and clean up the footage including camera stabilization (I ran into a few difficulties with the plug-in which are detailed here... after-effects-warp-stabiliser-issues )Then Matt disappeared into Canada somewhere!
I couldn't get a peep out of him so after a few months I was desperate to keep the project alive. I contacted Elanor Barker (who I knew from a still-born musical film I had been working on) about writing a song that I could lay down under the half finished edit .
She and her song writing partner Rita Bratovich, took up the challenge. They wrote a song based on the footage that I bought back from NZ.
Then suddenly Matt reappears and so now I'm making two videos :-)
The sequel
The second video will be using Elanor's song.I started making this piece with bits of footage that were discarded from the first film.
It soon became apparent that I would need more content and looked into shooting some more footage of the little girl in her ladybug outfit.
Little girls tend to continue growing and she had by this time expanded beyond the ability of the costumes seems to hold her in.
A new angle was required so I approached Helen Wagener with the idea of constructing a ladybug character.
Some prototypes...
After constructing a few prototypes, we decided we liked our ladybug which was wrapped in the same fabric the girls costume was cut from.
The final model was shot as a rotation with a series of 'stills' which I imported into Adobe After Effects.
Bouncing between Premier Pro and After Effects, I constructed an interplay between the little girl and the ladybug.
After constructing a few prototypes, we decided we liked our ladybug which was wrapped in the same fabric the girls costume was cut from.
The final model was shot as a rotation with a series of 'stills' which I imported into Adobe After Effects.
Bouncing between Premier Pro and After Effects, I constructed an interplay between the little girl and the ladybug.
The completed video is absolute magic! Truly beautiful work, Dave. The collaboration of talent was impeccable.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gypsie :-)
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