Dafty Video (repost)

12 Dec 2006

Video for Dafty

Over the last week I've slowly been assembling a video for our song Dafty. It has been a lot of fun but also a fairly monumental undertaking. So far I must be a least 60 hours into it and I've only made it up to the break down. I believe I'm averaging just under one hour of editing per second of video time during the chorus sections. Crazy I know.

I must add that I'm blown away with what you can achieve with home computer software. Isabelle bought a new iMac a month ago, and it came bundled with a humble little program called iMovie (which along with iPhoto, iTunes, iChat and our iMac makes a few too many things that start with a lower case "i" and end with a noun or verb in their title). Aside from Apple's penchant to brand all things with an "i", I will say how impressed I am with their software. I confess to being a Mac convert since 1993 so this ain't anything new ok? However, with software that comes bundled with their computer (and this isn't a high end Mac either, the second from the bottom rung iMac), I am creating something that I'm confident will be shown on Much Music - or any other station that will play something from an independent.

I've been shooting footage with a dodgy iSight camera (this item I have no big praise for, it costs four times as much as its PC internet camera equivalent and doesn't offer a single pixel better quality - sorry Apple but you burned us on that one) a Sony digital camera for different quality, and processing everything with the built in effects in iMovie. The cameras aside, this software would have cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars back in the early 90's. It's randon access power wasn't available back then and the time to render the effects would have been 20-100 times as long. Plus the output, which I've been occasionally checking on our TV, is amazing. The video looks as good or better than just about any I've tried to watch in years. But let me confess, there aren't any typical glamor shots, no J-Lo dance sequences, no leaning on Ferrari's or throwing fake money at the hired vixens while aping for the camera. It's VERY low budget, but I'm using the limitations as a production style - something most independent film makers have been doing for decades now. And it's a lot of fun too.

I hope to have the final cut ready by the end of the year. Yes, it is that labour intensive. So, have a look back around December 30th and it should be up on the site to give you all a chance to get a dance in before the years out! Oh yeah, we have started a youtube page now as well. Same stuff, different site. www.youtube.com/ctvvideos

Thanks for reading,

Mark    

18 Dec 2006

DAFTY video-First cut complete

Current mood:groggy

Wow - so after another week of near solid editing I've got a cut together for the Dafty video. Just watched it on the tv and already noticed a few little problems with it but overall it's pretty damn impressive. No more art-school-drop-out images, just rapid fire near-animated cuts, with a lot of flashing things coming at you. Sort of like being at a good night club when you still wanted to dance to the songs that were playing. (how I miss the luvafair).

I think I've got to take a couple days off from it to get some objectivity, but overall, I'm happy. Still a few more hours or tighting up the cuts on a few sections, but the concept is clear and it's powerful. Hopefully you'll enjoy it when I do manage to get it posted online.

Merry Christmas to you all and thanks for reading.

Mark    

(here's the final video we posted way back in 2007!)