Desktop Warfare

After almost an entire year of production/procrastination, Desktop Warfare is complete. I had a lot of fun with it actually. I shot the film last year, and unfortunately I forgot about all about it. It wasn't until I found it squatting in my hard drive that I began to finish it. And I am really pleased. The effects look decently real, and the collaborative sound effects are just as good. The only thing I regret is the camera I used. In some scenes it looked like I filmed it with a potato. It was my webcam. I was experimenting with onion skinning which I must say was WONDERFUL, and the only way I could do it was with the webcam. Unfortunately the webcam is the only camera I have that can hook up to a computer. It was so much easier and looked so
much better between frames. The issue will be resolved eventually. As some people say: baby steps.

Desktop Warfare from Trellis Haynie on Vimeo.

I've Seen Enough of Green

 I'm starting to hate green-screens. I've pandered around with my most recent video project tirelessly, and the color keying is absolutely AWFUL. It's like picking up a toothpick with a pair of tweezers being held by another pair of tweezers. It can be done, but it is difficult. Now the deadline is fast approaching, and I'm still fiddling around with it. The next few hours are going to be long and hard. It's annoying at best.
And on top of that my laptop is really choking on rendering this stuff. It's like a diabetic trying to eat an 8 foot MarsBar.

InkBlood

Over the past week in my graphics art I've been working on an image, and it's finally finished. What started out as a bored sharpie doodle evolved into something AWESOME. It wasn't too complex: just your average four-armed ink alien. I drew it on paper sometime in July, during one of the many hours I spend barred in my room. I started with the head, as I always do, and soon the rest of the body followed suit. And frankly, I've been fussed at before by multiple people for doing that. Of course, I try to follow their advice; drawing a quick basic sketch-skeleton and then merely adding details. Unfortunately I seem to draw worse that way, and drawing the head first gives me almost a theme for everything that follows. I feel it's almost a much more fluid system of channeling ideas to paper. Almost like a comedian performing improv. Sometimes the best ideas hit like a train with no warning or preparation. I'm proud of it frankly, no matter how much the rest of my family laughs at the connection I have drawn between the phrase "ad nauseum" (latin for 'to sickness'). The black ink reminded me of death and illness, and also the black plague, so i figured it was perfect for the title.

Skydiving Rig

In my next video project, I need to create an effects that looks like a person is skydiving. There is a problem though: finding out how to make it look like someone is floating in front of a green-screen. I have a theory on how we should do it.

The basic idea is to take an office chair, remove the back rest, and wrap it in green construction paper. As the subject is filmed, someone below oscillates the chair with a rig around on the floor; spinning it and moving it in a circular motion. And to give the impression that I want, i'll need to put a fan in front of his face to make his hair act like its being blown. Either that or I make him wear a hat. The illustration below shows what I mean, however crude it may appear

My Anatomy Presentation

Here is my "PowerPoint presentation" on a skin disorder we were each assigned. In my case, it was seborrhea: a special kind of rash. This video didn't take long to make, and writing and recording the script was pretty seamless. Anyway, I had fun with it and here it is.I got the idea from watching "Zero Punctuation" on youtube, but decided to make it a bit simpler than his hilarious videos.


Seborrhea, I Adore Thee from Trellis Haynie on Vimeo.

Documentary Failure

I was once tasked with creating a documentary on something. Being lost for options, my friend and I decided to do paintball. We got there, and right there things started spiral down the crapper.Nobody wanted to do an interview, which in documentaries B-roll is incredibly important. Without it, the film would be like a twelve year old's essay on giraffes. Anyway, here is pretty much the only thing worth showing off. I had an idea for a neat introduction where I introduce the subject matter, put down the mask, and get shot a few times. As you might be able to tell from the video, it hurt a lot more than anticipated. It's still kinda funny to watch.
Documentary Intro Failure from Trellis Haynie on Vimeo.

Storyboarding

            Storyboarding is an extremely important part of video production; just being able to write down your ideas, plan it out, and know exactly what needs to get done is incredibly helpful. While professionals can hire people to pretty up their drawings and make them look nice on paper, I don't quite have that luxury. Therefore, most of the drawings seem like they were walked on by a chicken with muddy feet. But it doesn't have to look good. All this is is a way to express my views and instead of having to describe them individually to everyone who's in on it. And in a lot of occasions, if there is a large amount of not-talking in the film, then it may also double as a script. Bottom line is, storyboarding is important
         The following images are scans of my storyboarding for my latest project entitled "Idle Hands". This video features a kid alone at home who dreams of skydiving. And I do apologize if my handwriting's a tad difficult to decipher. I'm really the one who is going to read it the most anyway.
Click HERE To See The Storyboard

Fat Lip [Sum 41] unoffical Music Video

Here is a music video I did a while back. I got the inspiration in class one day when I was pretending to take notes, so I wrote down song lyrics. The idea stuck with me for that as a music video, so I went home, sketched it out, and here's the final product. The interesting thing with things like this is that they require very little planning, and in the end that's how I've always been. The video took about three times as long to edit as a normal video mainly because the timing had to be really on track, and even now I still feel like it isn't quite as in-tune as I hoped. Eventually I got sick of hearing this song, which I think is something music video producers all go through, and frankly I was relieved when it was finished. Frankly speaking my computer isn't exactly built for this kind of work-you may have seen one of my previous posts describing the beginning of building a new one-and it took a while to render the video each time. But, lo and behold, it is finished.