That’s when the idea for doing 2.5D animation came to mind. I’ve done it once before in a contest video that I did for Kiva.org (didn’t win or even make finals in that one).

After perusing Sewanee’s Flickr page I came up with several photos I thought would be good for this affect, because not every photo may be ideal for this effect.

Working in After Effects

For example, I was looking for photos with only one or two foreground elements which I could remove in photoshop and then place back in a 3D environment that I make from the original. After a lot of photoshopping, the trees were the most difficult, I used the vanishing point filter in photoshop and then brought that file into after effects to finish the job. Videocopilot has a tutorial on this effect here.

It is fairly tedious work to get the camera movement looking natural and to stay within the bounds of the vanishing point image created from photoshop. I enjoyed working on this project and hope you enjoy watching it below and beneath it compare it to the original photos from which I created this video:

Aerial over Sewanee

Rebels Rest first image

Rebels Rest with snow, faded into from the other one.

The cross, the tree in the foreground and low shot made this a good one to use.

Spencer Hall, I had a choice to make since there was a person in this one, I froze the snow in time, then hand animated the person walking at the end when I 'unfroze time' at the end of this clip and the snow started falling again.

Fulford Hall

So as not to have the same delima from the Spencer Hall photo, I just completely removed these two girls walking.

I liked this as the closing shot because it brought you inside and I could create walls with the vanishing point effect where every other photo was so open being outside it only had two planes and this has 5.

I recently made a blog post about my trip to film at my alma mater Sewanee: The University of the South. I was hired to create three more videos for them and above you can see the first one in this next series.

It is a short vignette on Coach Robert Black, who is also a Sewanee graduate (C’89) and now the head football coach. He is an incredibly nice guy and I really enjoyed interviewing him and filming their practice. It was a beautiful day to film and the sunset just really set off the images at the end of filming when practice was winding down.

What was fun about that day was that I interviewed Coach Black in the morning and English Professor Dr. Reishman in the afternoon. Coach Black’s father also attended Sewanee and Robert told of a story that didn’t make the video, but included all three of these people.

When Coach Black’s father passed away he was going through his father’s old books and noticed one that his father had used in college. Robert had his own copy of the book because he too read the same book in Dr. Reishman’s english class when he was a student.

What Robert found to be incredibly powerful about finding this book of his father’s is that his father underlined the same passage in the book that he had when they were both students during their times at Sewanee. Although Dr. Reishman didn’t teach Robert’s father, he taught Robert, and still teaches at Sewanee. Robert explained to me in my interview with him that he mentioned this story to Dr. Reishman and I know they must have both enjoyed that very Sewanee moment.

Robert also mentioned he had Dr. Pamela Macfie as an english professor as well, and now she is his neighbor (see my video on her HERE).

What was incredible to me was Robert told me this story, not knowing I was interviewing Dr. Reishman in just a few hours later. When I spoke to Dr. Reishman I mentioned my interview with Robert and he recalled a story or two about Robert as a student.

I love places like Sewanee that have such rich histories of relationships that span generations and not only are these histories merely present, but they are cherished and nurtured. Yea, Sewanee’s Right!

Being an alumnus myself, I know my way around the 13,000 acre campus well and with it being ranked the most beautiful campus by the Princeton Review this year, it makes for some picturesque shooting.

I was scheduled to shoot the football practice for some B-roll footage for the interview I would do with Coach Black, the head football coach, the next morning.

It was my first time out with my Manfrotto Monopod and I love it! I don’t know what I would have done without it considering I shot most of the practice with my 70-200mm lens and that my video tripod is heavy! The monopod was the perfect accesory to tote around. I could move quickly from one location to another and get stable shots from a distance without have to lug a massive tripod around and constantly try to balance the three legs every time I moved.

The monopod that made my day.

I’m really looking forward to using this on my first wedding shoot this month for these same reasons. I would say it’s a ‘must have.’ especially for the price, you can’t beat it. The gun-grip telescoping trigger is pretty darn convenient as well. Although, Yuri Arcurs calls it a ‘piece of junk’ that’s what he shoots with, so it can’t be that bad. This video is where I first heard about this monopod:

The other piece of gear I was excited about was the Westcott 28″ Apollo soft box I have recently blogged about HERE. I used it with my constant lighting setup and it seemed to work really well. Here are two stills from the interviews I used it in, straight out of the camera, no color correction:

Notice the catch lights in his eyes. I turned off his office lighting, pulled down the shade on the window over his left shoulder, and placed the soft box camera right.

The soft box is camera left with a massive window camera right. The soft box just evens out the lighting and since it's daylight balanced there aren't weird colors on his face. His office lights were incandescent but they were not very bright and up fairly high in this high ceiling room.

Interviewing Tips:

I learn every time I shoot. Usually I just hope I am not relearning a lesson But here are a couple tips for interviewing people that I’ve found helps:

• Tell them from the beginning what to expect (what topics you’d like to cover, how long it will take).

• Instruct them where to direct their attention and answers (at you, usually right next to the camera, but not looking into the camera).

• Be quiet. You want to encourage them with head nods, not by saying “oh yea” every minute and disrupting your audio.

• Notice when the interviewee is struggling with an answer or is getting long-winded and change the subject or ask another question. Sometimes they’ll just keep talking because they’re trying to give you the sound bite you want.

• Ask your interviewee how they would be most comfortable sitting before you start, because you would like for them to stay in the same plane of focus so they don’t get blurry every time they fidget.

• Avoid doing interviews standing up, people like to sway and shift their weight. It’s hard to keep them in a third of the frame and keep focus (if you’ve only got manual focus like my 7D).

• Avoid doing sitting interviews in chairs that can tilt, swivel, and roll (or just be aware of it).

• Do be prepared with questions, but also be open to new topics that might also be interesting as the interviewee is talking.

• Keep the video rolling even after you say, “we’re all done,” because some times they’ll quickly remember something or be more casual speaking once the pressure is off.

I’m currently editing the first video about Coach Robert Black and will be posting it to vimeo to Sewanee Annual Fund’s account in about two weeks.

Here is the final video I made for the Sewanee Annual Fund, third in the series. (see the first and second one)

Support Dr. Potter, his research, and what’s best about Sewanee with a gift to the Sewanee Annual Fund today! Go to GiveToSewanee.com to make a gift online or mail a check to 735 University Ave., Sewanee, TN 37383. Call 800.379.1179 with questions. Thanks! Our year ends June 30th!

You can give to Sewanee by going to this link: www.GiveToSewanee.com. Their goal is to have as much class participation as possible, which means even giving a little bit helps. I know I will be before June 30th, when their year ends.

I used the Rode VideoMic hooked up to the Zoom H4n for the audio – there will be some noise reduction to do as the HVAC system was on full humm during the interview. I also got a chance to use the Glidetrack. One thing I got burned on was the 12 minute limitation of the Canon 7D during the interview, I missed about a minute of Dr. Haskell talking. BUT, with doing the audio separate, I still captured the audio of it, even though the 7D video burned out after 12 minutes, another bonus to using separate audio with DSLRs!

Haskell and owl skeleton

Photo from Glidetrack's website, I have the longer version of this

We interviewed in the new (year old) Spencer Hall. It looks like a great place to have class and study – plenty of room and natural lighting.

Spencer Hall

I was happy with the images I got out of the 7D today, everything you see here are screen grabs from the video footage, except that picture of All Saints which is part of a timelapse. Stay tuned for the video, it should be up and viewable by the end of the month! And the other’s will follow in the next few months – Yea Sewanee’s Right!

The 'hero' shot of Haskell

Darwin's Garden - has a path that warps around it in proportion to the geological periods

Sewanee Seal

Morgan's Steep Sunset

All Saint's Chapel at sunset, this is part of a timelapse