When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Friday 25 March 2016

Filming! I think I loooove it!

Well, it's no secret I haven't posted anything in awhile! I sort of took a leave of absence. Probably not the best thing to do on a blog, but I decided to try some new things. Still related to my work, but just sort of a new direction! Most of the jobs we have done, have had NDA's, so that kind of made any posting difficult, and I got side tracked by my other ventures! Jody and I also did some traveling in the States, and she ran the Erie marathon, qualifying her to run the Boston Marathon next year! We also got to re-connect with our friends from Germany, who we have had the misfortune of losing touch with over the many years that have passed!

If you don't follow me on Facebook, I will update you here on the project that has occupied most of my existence outside of work. I have been pouring myself into the film-making world. Not the prop end of things, we do that already, but shooting and directing. Nothing glamorous like being hired by a top notch production company, but just a few of my own personal endeavors. The first attempt was a complete disaster, sort of. It was to be a short film about quad-copter drones, but shot like a documentary, as if they were alive, and thriving in the world. But it quickly became impossible to film. They're far too small to shoot, and when you are  close enough to them to recognize any of the characters, you can't keep them in frame. Add wind, location issues, and all the other headaches........well, it was time to move on.
So I wrote a short movie trailer, for a film that doesn't exist. This way, I get all the fun of shooting, without having to deal with script continuity, as well as wrapping everything up at the end!
I really am happy with the final outcome. It involved learning software, how to edit footage properly, syncing audio, compositing effects (largely to key out a few things that no-one noticed were in the shot at the time :/ ) The list goes on, but wow, what an experience, especially when I get to decide on everything. Which isn't always as awesome as one would think!

We made most of the 'specialty' props, and a big shout out to my buddy Joe, who also had a huge hand in the making of this little film trailer. Both on props, and planning and acting, so thanks again Dude!




For a short little video, it took a ton of work! From writing, production design, lighting, blah, blah, blah. We shot the bulk of it in one night, from sunset to sunrise, and had a small crew of about 8. There were some pick-up shots after the initial filming, which also added more time to the project as well.
So I think for the rest of this post, I will attach some images of the whole process, in no particular order!
Thanks for comin' back again!
8)
JWO