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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Just finished a Macro video fully utilizing the RED LINK BRIDGE

Jonathan Petts

Jonathan Petts

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I recently picked up the RED LINK DEV KIT - I really wanted to see different senarious which this bit of kit could be used. One thing that quickly came to mind was Macro work, not having to be near the camera when pressing record or even havign to deal with focus and making the camera judder around.

I have had this idea for a video for a while of "Making big Galaxies small" using chemicals to create some reactions and make some hopefully nice looking images.

Here is the link to the video / For those who cannot view the video here are some stills - http://imgur.com/a/a0ORV

https://vimeo.com/102155679

Any feedback on the video would be amazing as this is the first bit of content I have posted on here :)

I was really impressed with the RED Link - The only issues I ran into was with the 100MM Canon Macro. Sometimes it would decide to cycle between min and max focus - not during a short but when idle which was quite random. It was a huge help not having to touch the camera to start recording as when I was playing with the chemicals I would be testing them and a cool reaction would happen so I could easily start recording and get the full reaction not a few frames of wobbly-ness. Using the focus motor again was amazing, I didnt use any of the clips in this video by I did do some focus pulls in shots ot parts of the frame I liked better and it really meant I could just focus on getting the chemicals mixed right and not worrying about the camera at all really as I had my iPad set-up right in front of me. I really felt like this was a situation that the RED Link could be perfect for anyone else, have the camera set-up and do your thing without having to touch it!

I didnt experiment too much with the in camera grading as I wanted to really do that in post. As each time I change the colour and mixture of the chemicals so I didnt want to have to change it for every shot.

Overall I keep of getting really impressed with this affordable bit of kit. I actually have a short film we are flying out to Vienna for early next month and really going to put it through it's paces on the fly! If you can afford to pick one of these up I really dont think you will be disappointed.



EDIT - Thanks for the very kind comments so far :)

Jonny
 
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Your short draws a lot of parallels with "2001 A Space Odyssey."
In the star gate sequence, Doug Trumbull used very similar chemical techniques to accomplish very similar imagery.
I'm glad to see that these techniques have not been lost.
 
Man, I think what your doing is really neat. I could see myself wanting shots like those for a project.
 
I remember years ago reading about the techniques that were used to shoot Darren Anrofsky's "The Fountain" using paint to create the cosmos. I was amazed how they were able to recreate space using practical effects. Nice work.
 
Nice. My buddy did some effects shots for "Lucy" on one of my Dragons using chemicals and paints. The close up of Scarlett's eye swirling patterns. I'm sure he got some ideas from Doug Trumbull... Doug is still doing these type of effects too... most recently for "The Tree of Life."
 
I just love this and am inspired to do something similar for an upcoming project.

For the glitter (stars) is that practical or composited? Did you invert everything to go from milk and soap to stars?

I am totally into this. Is it OK if I PM you and ask some of the techniques you used?

Unfortunately I only have a 2:1 macro. :(
 
Matt W. said:
I just love this and am inspired to do something similar for an upcoming project.

For the glitter (stars) is that practical or composited? Did you invert everything to go from milk and soap to stars?

I am totally into this. Is it OK if I PM you and ask some of the techniques you used?

Unfortunately I only have a 2:1 macro. :(
Click to expand...

Yes of course, it might be better to e-mail me as I check that more. My email is jonny@thenightfactory.co.uk

I would love to help out and see if I can aid you in any way :)


Jonny
 
Awesome, thank you! I will get at you soon (or eventually) with more detailed questions. Really appreciate it, this stuff looks awesome, some of the closest I've seen stylistically to Douglas Trumbull's work, which obviously I mean as a compliment!
 
I like this experiment - I can also say that I have considered similar things. Watching a cup of miso soup a few minutes after stirring it, I thought, '"Hmm, this would make a good Vine." Still haven't done it, but at least the idea was there!

Anyway, I was only able to look at the stills. My opinions:

Asteria Galaxy: Convincing (still not quite there, but you will no doubt refine the technique)

Langton Cosmo's: Looks like a close-up of some soap bubbles.

The End's Galaxy: Not very convincing. It looks like paint.

The Unknown End Black Hole: The most convincing one of the four.

You need to find a way to get infinite DOF. Needless to say, it's not easy with stills, harder with motion.
 
Karim D. Ghantous said:
I like this experiment - I can also say that I have considered similar things. Watching a cup of miso soup a few minutes after stirring it, I thought, '"Hmm, this would make a good Vine." Still haven't done it, but at least the idea was there!

Anyway, I was only able to look at the stills. My opinions:

Asteria Galaxy: Convincing (still not quite there, but you will no doubt refine the technique)

Langton Cosmo's: Looks like a close-up of some soap bubbles.

The End's Galaxy: Not very convincing. It looks like paint.

The Unknown End Black Hole: The most convincing one of the four.

You need to find a way to get infinite DOF. Needless to say, it's not easy with stills, harder with motion.
Click to expand...

I agree none of the make the viewer think "Wow im looking at a galaxy". It was purely an experiment to see what I could achieve and see if I could get the viewer to think about where they came from, but it's nice to know some go to a level of realism that felt almost realistic. This is something that I will try to fine tune in the future when I have some more time.

But thanks for taking the time to look at the video and the images I provided I really appreciate it ! For the Infinite DOF I was thinking of just doing them on a slightly larger scale and using a a wider prime (As I was using a 100mm macro) to make them feel larger.

Jonny
 
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