Proof of Concept #2

This is the Magnifying Glass Test. I will have you watch the video first, then I will explain our process and what we need to do differently:

How we did it:

First, I filmed the footage that was going to be projected, or what you would be seeing through the magnifying glass. So I made an acetate paper guide of a circle so I could better see what I needed to have inside my frame, and taped that to my display. Than I tracked from where the glass would be hanging up on the wall to in front of his face in time with the music. Then, we brought that footage into After Effects, put a mask over the footage so only a circle was peeping through, scaled that down to the approximate size it needed to be for the projection, and then animated it's motion from being hung up on the wall to being brought down in front of Matt's face. We then exported that clip and projected it onto the wall where Matt was doing the choreography that aligned with the projection. For a first attempt that happened really late at night, I am happy with how it turned out because it let us figure out the process that worked best for us and things that we need to do differently next time. Which are...

Things to do differently:

1. First film the actor going through the motions of the choreography without any projections so that we have a template for position and scale (This seems so incredibly obvious to me now I don't know how we missed this step).
2. Use a different lens that has a lower f.stop and therefore can do much better in lower light. 
3. Add a motion blur to whatever is animated so the movement seems much more natural. 
4. Use a better projector (I have an abnormal amount at my disposal) that has a refresh rate that matches the camera's so that flickering isn't there. 
5. Put the projector off the the side and adjust its keystone properties so that it isn't distorted on the wall and so the camera lens can be centered on and parallel to the wall. 

Now that we have the our basic process structure down, the rest of the month will be more storyboarding and proof of concept tests until our week of filming in April. I am also quickly realizing how grateful I am that I have Matt's help. This would quickly be a disaster without him and having his expertise has saved me many tears of frustration. Cheers for progress and successful collaboration!