Notes From Notes From Halfland

Howdy, blog readers!

Significant updates here to let you know.

INSIDE: Understanding more and working better with my natural psychological makeup. Coming to terms with the limitations I have and coming to realize that constructs such as Time are beside the point.

OUTSIDE: Dick Kaneshiro (1/2L Hero and now my Director of Photography) has been coming over Sundays to help me with building and filming. The surprise was how many creative solutions he has been able to contribute as well. Not only that, but he has already gorgeously FILMED the live-action beach sequences for me that are so wildly superior to ANYTHING I could have ever imagined 32 years ago when the project screened across my imagination.

Dick is a true surfer and, as such, travels to the California beaches nearly every early morning he can. He goes far into the ocean, which I can't begin to picture myself doing. Even if I made it to the beach (which, in reality, I could never do anymore, as I'm bound to go no further away from home than I could walk back from due to panic attacks), even if at the beach, going into the ocean deeper than my toes would be impossible. But for Dick, he loves it. 

He has a nice GoPro, and while out the other day, he spontaneously took it by a handle, carefully turned it upside down, and dipped it into the still seawater. He just let it film under there for a few and then carefully took it back out. He slowed the footage down, color-graded it, and we just about fainted when we ran it back. It looks for all the world like the most expensive special effect underwater shot any big movie studio could have spent months rendering. There was the perfect seaweed forest, the perfect debris that sparkled like a bokeh overlay, the ideal transition into the water from above the surface. I'm seriously telling you that this shot is the shot for the film.

Here's the very first frame of it as a tease:

We call it a "Moving Monet"

He and I excitedly storyboarded the whole beach sequence that day for him to shoot alone, and Dick had already now shot and sent me multiple tests of the exact camera moves in the style I needed, including the dreamlike montage effect between clips as the camera discovers the large mermaid on the sand.

And here's a rough mock-up proof of concept (in progress) Dick made for chasing the mermaid's tail under the surface:

Today, he also sent me a stunning shot of small waves rolling onto the shoreline from the sand so we can Luma Key in the mermaid tail slipping into the water as the camera follows her in.

I bought two sizeable seamless fish tanks today to get the shots of a silk-tailed underwater puppet (I'll be making this week) that will be filmed. Dick proved the concept on Sunday with a scrap of silk attached to a stick dunked in the tallest carafe I could find on hand (see above still of it). He filmed on my action cam from underneath, and we composited it into the seaweed shot. It was so stunningly gorgeous for the film I could barely believe it.

TECHNICAL: As a result of all this activity, I'm learning DaVinci Resolve fundamentals in a creative animation category on LinkedIn Learning for free from a Public Library educational program Dick told me about (if they use LinkedIn Learning, you can possibly take top-notch classes online at no cost, check with your local library).

So, Halfland's new workflow now currently goes:

Shoot animation with LumixS5➤Check critical focus via Panasonic Tether app➤Frame grab with Dragonframe 5➤Frames write to M2Mac Mini➤Batch process in Adobe Lightroom if needed➤Grading/Compositing/Editing/adding Sound in DaVinci Resolve➤Render out on web GIF maker to MP4s.➤