The illusionist!

In November I had a chance to swing my camera around for a different purpose: to film a magician (or illusionist, whichever sounds more serious) performing on stage for RGU:Union's Talent Search.

The show was quite a display of talent including music performers, freestylers (Zahed performed there as well!) and last but not least - Radek Makar, who presnted the audience with some quality sleight of hand leaving the jury speachless.

This was a quick edit I composed afterwards

Radek must have liked the result, at least enough to ask me to help him provide video coverage for this week's finals.
I recorded his performance which, as always, was breathtaking and unique especially for a casual viewer.

Despite his superb performance Radek didn't win the final, yet managed to secure third place in the competition which still is a great success.

The best part was still to come though
After his stage time run out, we went to the first floor of RGU:Union and shoot some additional footage.
Despite the limited time and both of us being unprepared and acting 'unscripted' we managed to shoot something which I believe to  be one of my best video works shot up to day.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold, Radek at his best (and me as well, I think.)

We both loved the result however as I have no experience in being a magician (well, duh), there are certain parts which apparently expose too much making him an easy target for other professionals.
So if the clip above is mostly for the purpose of my portfolio, there is another version to be ready soon which is more client oriented (and shorter, while we're at it).

This is a test sequence which most likely will be developed further.





That's it for now.

Streetsport goes visual

And back to work I did go.
It's been a busy week for me, but it paid off with amazing output.
As for the streetsport project I was asked to design a poster for a 'teaser campaign'. Next week we plan to arrange another event which will allow me to take additional pictures and maybe some video while I am at it.

The poster


As of then I had to use the existing media we did get a hold of. So I took an old picture of Zahed (you have to have my word for it) from back when we shot the Freestyle sequence:

Aiming for an 'electrifying' impression I did the 'beta' version which looked something like this:

Following a brief brainstorming session we decided to push the 'energy' theme a bit forward and I introduced several static symbols around the ball. It follows the 'electric' theme we picked up in the title sequences for previous Streetsport movies. I also made the ball spin around giving it a sense of movement despite being under Zahed's foot. How energetic is that?

This step had the lettering slightly corrected.
I insisted on keeping it as simple as it is with no additional information except the website, which I think works well for the curiosity. A viewer is more likely to explore a concept which does not give all the details straight away (hence all the 'check out for more' 'come and see' etc.).
Unfortunately as 'are you game' apparently has some negative connotations (I think that on a long enough timeline one would be able to find some dirty meaning behind just about every phrasal verb there is, oh well).
So for now I am left with a blank template and a lot more thinking behind the word-games.

Hope to see it finalized anytime soon.

The interim show reel

This is what I managed to squeeze out within two days of work for the interim show with an external examiner.
Quite happy with the result but I expect the final video to be even better.

I want to avoid a classic minute-long showreel, at least by the time the video content is as good as possible; the whole inspiration behind the clip came from Ortega Cartel's Lavorama (link below) - they made a 15 minute long video clip for their entire album and included some random footage/teasers/commercials in betweeen the main clips. The whole video is stylized for a tv broadcast with channels constantly swopped. I think this has way more potential to keep the viewer engaged (especially that it makes a whole piece altogether) than a 'cut it up' type of edit.

Anyway this is Lavorama




And I'm going back to work!