How we made Agent Orange

Jef-Aram Van Gorp and I joined forces as the Belgian Boomsticks and we produced our first YouTube short. In this post I explain the how we made it all happen.

The Idea

Jef-Aram and I are fans of shorts like the ones made by Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch. They are low budget, have decent enough effects and have often great stories. 

Since making shorts is fun we decided to give it a go ourselves. Guns and action are always well received with the YouTube public but we wanted an original angle on this so Jef-Aram came up with the idea of using bananas as guns just like kids usually do. To extend this a bit we added the double barrel leek to the arsenal.

With the general theme being fruit and vegetables, sugar and salt was quickly added as the so called drugs as these are bad when eating them in big quantities.

We consider this a hobby project so we had only limited amount of time and resources to complete this next to our full time jobs.

Equipment on set

We both have some filming equipment so we threw everything together for this shoot.

Camera's:

• Panasonic HVX 200
• Nikon D7000
• Canon 600D/T3i
• GoPro Hero2

Sound:

• Rode VideoMic Pro
• Rode NTG2
• Rode NTA2 (studio Mic for additional sounds)

and also some tripods and the Edelkrone Pocket Rig (Link to Edelkrone Pocket Rig review).

The HVX 200 is an older camera so it was the limiting factor resolution wise. 720P is more than enough for YouTube so we decided to stick to that. 

The biggest problem when shooting with different camera's is color balance. Every camera has it own characteristics so we had to solve this one in post production. We did make the mistake to shoot a bit overexposed. The H264 codec in the DSLR's is a lossy 8bit format and does limit the things you can do when color channels get clipped to their maximum value.

We left out any footage from the GoPro camera. Although we had some cool shots, the angle was so wide that even the shadow of the camera man filming with one of the other camera's was in view. Since we don't have a clip on LCD screen for the GoPro it was hard to estimate what we were shooting exactly. Something we need to prepare better next time around.

A screenshot from the GoPro. Although it looks cool it is useless because the shadow of the camera is visible in the lower left corner.

The microphones did give a good results. These are condenser microphones with a cardioid pattern which helps just getting the voice of the actor and not so much the environment. Luckily for us there was not too much wind that morning. It was -15 degrees Celsius though which made it hard to manipulate the small knobs on the cameras without our fingers freezing off.

Music and Sound FX

All music is royalty free. We bought these some time ago at a big discount. This is a good way to get cheap music which does not infringe on the youtube copyright rules.

The sound FX were free samples on the net. These were also royalty free. When you grab files from the web, make sure to check their license before using them.

Post Production

Post production consisted of cleaning up bits and pieces we didn't want to have in view after all, adding muzzle flashes, some smoke, a bullet hole in my head, a bit of blood and the orange disks which we use for the glasses of Agent Orange. The effects are quite rough but they'll do the trick when everything is moving fast.

Using compositing to clean up the plates is really powerful and it is not too hard to do. When something is just visible for a couple of frames it easy enough to copy the background from a couple of frames before. If the camera is handheld it is a bit trickier but nothing a tracker cannot solve.

The banana in the lower left corner came a bit too early into view when Agent Orange points it to my head.  It was easily repaired by taking a part of the wall two frames earlier.

The Muzzle flashes and dust clouds come from the Action Essentials 2 pack from Video Copilot. The pack is not to expensive but I am sure you can find free muzzle flashes on the web. Check if they got an alpha channel as it makes compositing them over your footage much easier. If they are against a black background it is easy enough to pull your own matte.

The blood spatter is just a paint splatter image we pulled from the web. We created a matte, gave it the right color and made it blurry. Since it sticks to the lens, there is no need to track it in.

Frame without the blood spatter.

Frame with the blood spatter and the hole in my head.

The more tricky effects are the ones you need to track over more than 10 frames. Both the oranges and the bullet hole in my head do move around. We started with a full 3D track but everything moves so much that it would become a nightmare to clean up the jumpy tracking points to get a solid track.

So we switched to the classic four point track instead. We let the computer do the track but every so often the computer got totally lost and you have to correct it manually. The perspective change was done by hand as it was just quicker to do this for a couple of frames then for the computer to try and figure it out.

Oranges fixed with gaffer tape to the glasses. Didn't look very cool so we had to replace them in post.

Oranges replaced by a clean image.

What's next?

Jef-Aram and I are already working on the second short. Make sure to stay tuned. You can do this by following us on twitter or by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

Links:
Belgian Boomsticks YouTube Channel
Jef-Aram's Blog

Frederic's Twitter Page
Jef-Aram's Twitter Page

Review: Edelkrone Pocket Rig

There is an update to this post on the hinge issue of the pocket rig. You can read it by clicking here.

The Edelkrone Pocket Rig.

Although this is a VFX blog I also like to talk about film equipment. Especially when it is the cheaper kind for the Indie film makers. Edelkrone is a Turkish company and has come out with some nice new rigs and the Pocket Rig is definitely a new concept in the world of camera rigs.

I have been looking for a DSLR shoulder rig for quite some time now and when I saw the demo video for the Pocket Rig I was immediately enthusiast about it's size and portability. You can easily order the Pocket Rig from the Edelkrone online shop and currently it sells for $299. I also ordered the handles which are $149 and fit perfectly on the bars of the rig. It is delivered by DHL and when the items are in stock your order will arrive in two days (when living in Europe). Take notice that these prices are without taxes and VAT. Expect to get a bill from DHL. Belgium for example ads 21% VAT.

The box and its contents.

The extra handles.

The box of the Pocket Rig is made of sturdy carton board and contains foam to protect the rig during transport. It holds the rig in its collapsed form and an allen key but no manual. Then again, when you have watched the demo movie from Edelkrone once, it is not hard to figure out how it works. The extra handles came disassembled in bubble wrap and are easy to assemble.

The Pocket Rig is made out of black machined aluminum. Whit its 550g (or 1.2lb) it is not very heavy but it does add 30% extra weight to your DSLR which is definitely noticeable. In its collapsed state it is not much bigger than a battery grip. There are some rubber pads on top which prevent the rig from sliding around when it is attached to the camera and protects the camera from scratches. The screw for attaching the camera sticks a bit out and is attached to a big wheel which sticks out on the front and the back. This makes it quite convenient to screw the rig to a DSLR. I also tried to screw it to a Panasonic HVX 200 which is quite a bit bigger than a DSLR and it did work nicely.

The stock folded out.

It is easy to unfold the stock and fins which are hidden under the base plate. The fins can be used to push the rig against your shoulder or it is possible to use them as a clip on a belt when you need to shoot from the hip. The stock itself is a bit longer than 10 cm (4 inches) but can be extended to 30 cm (a foot) with two screws. This way it is possible to watch your DSLR display directly or to attach a viewfinder which you can press to your eye.

Unfolded rods.

There are two folded industry standard 15mm rods underneath the stock. These rotate on a hinge and can be locked into the forward position with a ball bearing locking system. It is possible to mount an extra handle and a follow focus from any brand at the same time on these rods but they do seem a bit short to add a complete matte box system on them though.

Under the rods there is an extra plate with a hole which can be used to attach the rig to a tripod. Together with the rods and the follow focus it becomes a very powerful combination which usually only more expensive rigs have at their disposal.

The Pocket Rig with screwed on handles.

I did get some extra handles as mentioned above. These are also made out of machined aluminum and have good rubber grips. They can slide along the rods and each handle can rotate a full 360 degrees so it is highly adjustable. I noticed that the handling of the whole rig becomes more stable with these handles.

My opinion on the Pocket Rig
I had the Pocket Rig with handles trough a test run when shooting for a project with my Nikon D7000 and had also other people have a go with the rig.

I applaud it's extreme portability. It is indeed very small and easy to stow away in a regular backpack. Although the weight is noticeable it is light enough in comparison to the rest of the kit and it does add a bit of stability to the whole. Since it is made out of thick aluminum it is also very sturdy and can withstand bad handling quite well although I do recommend to be careful as the camera on top will not like such treatment at all.

The whole rig with a camera attached to it.

The rods are absolutely great. This is what makes the Pocket Rig stand out. When not needed they fold away very neatly and are hardly noticeable but folded out they add great functionality. Handles or a follow focus are the obvious add-ons but there are more options like a monitor or even a matte box. Do mind that they are not very long so if you got a big lens like the picture above then the matte box is probably a no go. It possible to unscrew them to add longer rods instead but then it defeats its portability feature.

There is one feature missing in my opinion. The hinge of the stock is on the right hand side which means that when you press the rig hard against your shoulder it has the tendency to collapse to the left. Something like a ball bearing locking system as the rods have would have been convenient. Time management is essential on a shoot and you don't want to redo a perfect take because the rig just collapsed at the wrong time. It doesn't mean the rig becomes unusable but you do need some training to get used to it, then again all rigs need some training anyway.

Conclusion
I think this is a great product and although it is not the cheapest it is reasonably priced. Just a pity that the hinge has no locking system as that would make it perfect.

Update on the hinge (10 March 2012)
My biggest issue with the Pocket Rig is that the hinge is a bit loose and it that it has the tendency to collapse when firmly pushed against the shoulder. While posting this blog in a pocket rig thread on the dvxuser.com forum it came to my attention (thanks to Nick_K for spotting this) that there is a solution to this problem.

Three screws to adjust the hinges

In the picture above you can see three black screws of which two of them solve more or less my problem. The hinges become much harder to move when tightening these screws. Screw 1 is responsible for the vertical rotation. Screw 2 is used for the horizontal rotation. Out of the box screw 3 was already tightened and is not needed to control the rotations. The allen key for tightening the screws is provided as you can see in one of the pictures above.

Although I am happy that there is a remedy I have two remarks on this issue. The screws are in logical positions so you can figure it out by yourself but I have the tendency not to experiment too much by unscrewing things. It would have been great if there was a little manual or at least a link to an online pdf file to explain this. The second remark is that when you tighten the screws too much it becomes harder to fold the whole rig so it is important to find a good balance there.

If you ordered your rig before 01/01/2012 it is likely you will not have this option. The good news is that Edelkrone will send you a free upgrade piece. Check this link to order it: Pocket Rig upgrade

Links:
The Edelkrone website
The Pocket Rig on Vimeo

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