Here’s a visualization of what rhythm games/music trainers of the future might look like:
There’s currently a trainer/game for midi keyboards called Synthesia that is already similar. What we have here though is visualization of integration of an augmented reality heads-up display for the “piano roll” style of note scrolling. Bemani’s Keyboardmania is also very similar – it would be interesting to see if any Keyboardmania players picked up real piano skills, but my money’s on the fact that most players of that game probably had some previous piano instruction to begin with (look it’s an Asian thing ok).
I’m not sure if the guitar/bass visualization would necessarily work without a wider fretboard that could be projected above the real fretboard for note comprehension. Additionally, the bars might benefit from having numbers to reinforce which fret needs to be fretted. Also, this method does not address what bends, pinch harmonics, or other more advanced guitar techniques would look like. If we’re working in 3d space, a bend might be represented by the note “widening” as it goes into the fretboard, but it would be difficult to convey exactly how far the bend needs to go.
Drums face the problem of a single plane of reference for where the downbeat is. This visualization is admittedly almost unusable as a training technique, but golly it sure looks cool.
Production on this video was pretty basic – just shot some plates from a rough POV perspective of me running through the various instruments of the song. Then, in Photoshop, I created a super long image for Brandon to lay in for the correct notes. The song is composed very specifically in such a way to minimize a lot of work in the post production (guitar solo basically sticks to one note, e.g.). Post wise, it’s simply a matter of matching the notes with the plate, where I played along to the song.
Here’s a link to the Zazzle store for a poster of Power Hour: http://bit.ly/PowerHourPoster
I recommend the large size – it’s what I’ve designed it for. Also, I strongly don’t believe in crap like our YouTube channel URL all over our products – that ruins the design. This poster is 100% pure – no extraneous branding, no extraneous self promotion. Just promise to tell people where you got if they ever ask (nobody will ever ask)
Also, for those of you who have COMPUTERS, check out a desktop image (massive resolution – 2560 x 1440, which is 16:9)
I got an email from Logan, fellow Jedi A-Hole, a few days ago wherein he suggested we do a parody of Kanye West’s Power video. We kicked around some ideas and settled on the idea of Power Hour, i.e. the drinking game where you take a shot of beer every minute for an hour. Rather than the religious symbolism that’s all over the original video, we would have party dudes, frat guys, popped collars, and keg stands.
Rather than start out with my visage, we thought Logan, who looks like the ultimate party dude frat guy anyway, was far better suited to be the centerpiece of this hedonistic moving painting. I shot an email to Destorm, the Coolest Dude on YouTube, who hooked us up with the song parody track. A quick trip to Ramirez’s (an awesome liquor store nearby) for the keg and Smirnoff Ices and we were set to shoot.
Since I don’t actually drink, I had to have a lot of the various drinking games and terms explained to me. All in all, it was a very educational video!
This one was basically Brandon thinking “what if we did red flower petals as blood hits?” because it would let us be ridiculously violent, yet not appear so because it’s, well, flower petals. We went from there – sunflowers for muzzle flares, flowers shooting up with the ground hits, general 70s look and vibe (although the G36 is most definitely not a gun from the 70s). Once we got the VW Bus, it was on.
For this shoot, we wanted to put the Canon 7D through its paces in a very fast, run-and-gun scenario. Due to skew issues we also shot with the Panasonic HVX200 for any effects shots where we knew we would need to do 3D tracking for. We’ve heard nothing but love for the 7D, and after trying it out here, I have to say it’s not a very good camera for action.
The biggest issue is that we need to be at f5.6 to f8 in order to catch all the action without having anything go soft. In my opinion, shallow depth of field is overrated. For people sitting around and basic dialogue, it’s great, but when there’s a lot of stuff going on, you can’t afford to have things soft. I think you lose a lot of the visceral feel if you’re forcing your audience to pay attention to various details by controlling planes of focus, especially given that depth is a big part of defining space.
The problem with shooting at 5.6 or 8 is that you’re forced to crank the ISO, which makes the footage noisy as hell. The low light of the 7D is great, but that’s assuming you’re shooting wide open, which allows the ISO to be at a more reasonable level. Additionally, the skew killed handheld shots, and also killed any shots where I move quickly in frame – there’s a shot where I jerk my head back and the camera is dead steady but my face is warped due to my speed
Final verdict on the 7D is it’s a great camera for shooting movies without a lot of action or a lot of movement. Everyone’s gone so far into the “I love shallow focus” side that you have totally unacceptable crap like one eye in focus but the farther eye out of focus. Pick up any American Cinematographer and you’ll find that movies aren’t all shot at f1.4. DPs will use f4 or f5.6 all the time because sometimes it’s nice to see things in focus.
As a side note, I will say that I don’t think we did the best job with being clear with space here. There are a lot of shots I think we should’ve got – after we shoot the ceiling, the camera should dolly from the kitchen back over to the main room to make sure people understand that we’re coming back to the room that we started in. As of now, it’s a little bit disconnected. Kevin’s house didn’t lend itself to good wides outside, so we compensated by playing this scene more as a “siege” sequence. Ideally, we would be able to see up to the road where Rico pulls up from the room we start in to lock in exactly where everyone is from the start.
New vid!
Wondering if this one’s any good? Check out this review of the video from my mom!
The batting cage, that is.
I might add that this is easily my favorite thumbnail of all time. You’ll notice I’ve enhanced my biceps area to more accurately reflect how I think of myself.
New video!
Behind the Scenes:
I’ll occasionally highlight videos that I think are super awesome here that you guys have sent in. Today, we’re going to look at a masterpiece of ingenuity:
This is the kind of “get out and shoot it” attitude I love – so what if you don’t have prop weapons? Make them out of cardboard and use those instead! Stay for the sweet cardboard tank, too!
I got all kinds of crazy ideas, but the problem is YouTube doesn’t really give me a good idea of what my audience looks like! So I need your help – if you have a moment, please fill out this brief 10 question survey. It’ll help me get a better grasp of your interests, and will allow me to make even more kickin’ rad videos. Thank you! I really appreciate it!
99% of all guitarists do not survive the fall off Dave Matthews Peak, the splintered remains of their Yamaha acoustics and worn, browned strings littering the ground beneath.
The ones that do have a long period of thankless chop building ahead of them, which is paid off when they become True Bluesmen.
