Another part of the ‘finishing’ story is the animation of still
images. Termed ‘rostrum’ and regularly undertaken by the industry stalwarts Ken
Morse in the UK, and Ken Burns in the US. The two Ken’s would painstakingly
film photographs using a moving overhead rostrum motion camera, which would
then be transferred into the video edit as moving image. These days this
process has a more digital workflow.
As with colour grading, digital rostrum can be straightforward,
but also can be cleverly incorporated into the narrative to enhance the ‘emotion’
within a film. The simplest is a pan across an image. However, I thought
carefully when looking through Andy Cave’s photographs that Producer and
Director Paul Diffley had assembled for his feature length documentary ‘Distilled’.
To add a bit of flair, albeit subtly, a simple dissolve between
images became a matched shot. That is, the image was rotated to achieve a
dramatic perspective when it is first presented to the viewer. This continues,
and matches a portion of the image which follows it. Either matching the
horizon of the image, or in the case below, the summit ridge and rock wall.
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| Simple rotate and dissolve using matched frames |
Paul had stated that he was looking for a bolder statement for ‘Distilled’ so I looked at adding moving
elements to otherwise static photographs. Thus bringing them to life, so that
the whole documentary became a moving image, rather than video interspersed
with still images. This method was used in the following sequence, where the lens
glare from the sun at high altitude is animated and continues into the next
image as they rotate and dissolve into each other. Once again with a matched
summit ‘horizon’ for added effect. This required the second image to be
extended so that the summit line had enough ‘head room’ and could be
superimposed over the first image (the sky in the second frame was very slender
in the original Andy Cave photograph compared to the second frame in the image below).
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| Rotate, animated lens flare across the dissolve with matched frames |
Once Paul and his co-editor finished the edit, I finally
had my first sight of the visuals, as up until then the audio that had been my only
reference at that point, it became clear to me that Andy Cave’s story needed a sequence
which illustrated his Himalayan expedition to Changabang in 1997, which is the
main focus of the latter half of the documentary. Since no moving image was
available I suggested to Paul that a montage of this climb be created to allow
the audience a breathing point from the moving image. I set about deconstructing
a photograph from a high altitude camp with the intention of revealing the
objective of the expedition team as it would be seen on the first morning after
their arrival at the camp. Something I myself had experienced on my own trips
to places that had been years in their planning.
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| Deconstructed photograph, animated to create perspective, and an introduction to the next 'chapter' |
As work on the documentary progressed I mentioned to Paul that
we hadn’t used a really good image of one of the members of that expedition and
that we really could do with using it since the latter half of the story
mentions him specifically. Paul suggested that we should use it in the opening
montage, as if the climber was looking out of the tent at Changabang and its
fateful summit. Brilliant! In true film-making style this image would form an ‘echo’
to where the narrative was leading.
 |
| Typical two-shot, subject and their point of view |
Another poignant use of digital rostrum was in the culmination
of Andy Cave’s expedition, where one of the team members is fatally avalanched.
I felt that this required careful, but specific attention to heighten the drama
and illustrate the voice-over of Andy describing this tragic event, and its immediate
aftermath. I felt the original images were not orientated to reflect the desperation
of their situation, so I mirrored them (see first two photographs below and
compare them to their original orientation). Combined with animated snow to
simulate a more creative dissolve to white effect in between jump cuts, beginning with the
unfortunate Brendan Murphy looking right. The end of the upwards pan then matches the eye line of an image selected to illustrate the dejected feeling of the remaining team members. This also was reversed with them slumped looking into the left of frame to maintain this eye line and create a more negative
orientation than the original. Watch George Stevens' ‘Shane'’ for an example of this simply use of film psychology.
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| Animated images, orientated to convey the emotion described by the voice-over (frames 1 & 2) |
Towards the end of my work on ‘Distilled’
Paul presented a late addition into the edit following our discussion about a
too great a jump from this low point in the film’s narrative to the final ‘act’
and closure. He had decided to insert a beautiful timelapse sequence shot by Matt
Pycroft which was shot one winter evening of Ben Nevis from Anonach Mor. This
served as a transition to the last part of the film. I suggested that the
epitaph to Brendan in the previous scene should do more than dissolve and Paul and I agreed that this must be very subtle, given it's purpose. Dan
Jones created a simple, but effective animated text whereby the text become part
of the stars as they track across the night sky in the timelapse, leaving one behind before the rest of the letter fragments fade out. Title designer Dave Halstead responded quickly to provide the original font in the title style. It was a nice team effort that perhaps mirrors in
a very small way that exhibited on the fateful retreat down the
mountain with Brendan.
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| Animated text overlays two dissolving images, whilst animating the fade to combine with the second image |
‘Distilled’ will now
be doing the rounds of film festival having won the People’s Choice category
against stiff competition at Kendal Mountain Festival on 17th
November 2013.
Meanwhile you can buy a download of the film for Christmas direct from Hot Aches for a discounted price of £9.99 using the special code 'Fridge' BUY HERE
RRP £14.99 (Offer ends 20/12/13)
Meanwhile you can buy a download of the film for Christmas direct from Hot Aches for a discounted price of £9.99 using the special code 'Fridge' BUY HERE
RRP £14.99 (Offer ends 20/12/13)
More information about Hot Aches Productions films can be found on their website http://www.hotaches.com
Kendal Mountain Festival http://www.mountainfest.co.uk
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