How to Carve a Halloween Pumpkin

Here is a video I made for a class project. While visiting family for my sister's wedding, I enlisted my dad to carve a pumpkin for a training/how-to video assignment. I still don't have After Effects on my MacBook Pro, so I had to create graphics in Photoshop and animate them in Final Cut. I wish I could have spent more time on developing the graphics, but with my sister's wedding (rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception and travel), my deadline was quickly approaching and I had too much to do in a short time. That sexy voice you hear is mine. Please share this with anyone you know who may not know how to carve a pumpkin. It is a great tradition to share with your kids.
Music: Confugium Corvorum by Axis Mundi Actum courtesy of jamendo.com.

Hemophilia PSA: Dillinger

Last weekend I had the pleasure of working with my son, Dillinger, to produce a Public Service Announcement about hemophilia. It was a last-minute visit, so we didn't plan the PSA. It rained on Saturday, but the weather looked good Sunday, so we went to the park across the street to shoot Dillinger's stand-up shots. The footage of him self-infusing I shot in July while on vacation. I also used a photo from a year ago when we had to take Dillinger to the hospital for a bleed in his leg. Dillinger learned his script less than half an hour. He was great. We faced an unusual obstacle in the way of an air show. The only sunny day was the day of a huge air show, so jets were flying by every few minutes and we'd have to wait because it was very loud. Even so, it took us only 12 minutes to shoot the PSA. I am very pleased considering it was unplanned and we were limited by the weather and air show. Dillinger did a great job.

Busy, Busy, Busy

School, work, family... what else can I possibly have time for? Volunteering to shoot the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Golf Tournament at Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kansas... that's what. Yes, I am very busy, but last friday I drove up to Newton to spend a day on the golf course. I had a great time and a great conversation with Ralph Terry, a pitcher from Larned that played for the NY Yankees and won two games, including a complete game, four-hitter, in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series to win the championship. Did I mention he was named MVP of the series? He has a great sense of humor and is extraordinarily nice. By the way, he became a professional golfer after baseball and last friday his team won the golf tournament I shot. Anyway, I have a lot of footage to watch and edit into a short piece for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Web site.

Today I met Craig Barton, the son of W. Frank Barton (as in the W. Frank Barton School of Business at WSU). I went to shoot a Signal Society spot for KPTS. Craig is a great guy and extremely down-to-earth. He had several autographed photos and magazine covers with famous golfers and U.S. presidents in his office, along with oil paintings of late-18th/early-19th century period scenes. He loves history and values the historical programming that KPTS offers. It was a great experience. I'm pretty sure that he is the wealthiest man I have ever shaken hands with.

Tomorrow I continue training. I am learning to direct the Sedgwick County Commission meetings for KPTS. I hope to direct this show and many others someday in the near future, so I am trying to learn as much as possible.

I also love spending time with my family. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, my daughters have gymnastics classes on the opposite end of town. This will be the first saturday that my boys do not have soccer games, however I have a final exam at 8am, then I will be operating one of the cameras at the WSU baseball game that afternoon. On the weekends we all (Amber and I, two boys, two girls and one dog) spend time together, so I keep pretty busy trying to juggle all of these responsibilities.

Keeping Up

I have been experimenting with my new camera.

I am working on several projects at once. I am editing footage I shot with my new T2i from my family's Easter. I think I have a reason to use split screen at a point in this project. My kids and their cousins found a turtle and I captured footage of the turtle walking, as well as the kids' reactions. I think this would be great as a split screen with the kids looking in the direction of the screen showing the turtle. Alone, each of these shots would be boring, but I think as a split screen it can capture the excitement and wonder they experienced and the viewer will be able to see what they were excited about.

I am also shooting a couple of career profiles (video portrait style) that I hope will show students what production jobs are like.
(609:Project 4) I'm profiling Gabe Juhnke, the Production Manager at KPTS, and (609:Project 5) Stacey Jenkins, a producer at KPTS. I am shooting on my T2i and have already started collecting footage. I took my camera to work and got some shots in the control room during the production of Ask Your Legislator. I'd like to get shots of each of them performing various aspects of their jobs: directing in the control room, shooting in the field, editing and directing personnel. I also plan to use some of KPTS's footage in my edit.

I am also planning a video portrait (609:Project 6) of my other boy who has hemophilia. He is 8 and self-infuses... meaning he sticks the needle in himself and is learning to give his own meds. This will be the focus of this video and I may again employ split screen to show him infusing on one screen and on the other (or others) I'd like to show some ways in which he lives a normal life: playing soccer, at the playground, going to school...

I finished editing my Center of Hope video. I'm not completely satisfied with it. I wish I could have captured more shots, but some things were out of my control and I had to work with what I had. Despite this, I learned how to import alpha channels from Photoshop and I was able to experiment with text motion graphics. I wish I had time to experiment with AfterEffects, but not yet.

Anyway, I'm busy... and this is why I have been neglecting my blog.

Center of Hope Video

Here is the first cut of my latest project. Description is below the video.

Center of Hope from Mark Kenny on Vimeo.

A promotional video for the Center of Hope, a homeless prevention program in Wichita, Kansas. Anita Cochran is the reporter. I shot with a Panasonic DVX, but also used some footage Anita had, and edited this piece for a fundraiser event. I created the graphics and shot the interviews with Bill, Brenda and Amy, as well as some of the B-roll at the Center of Hope office downtown. The interview with George and most of the B-roll at the Center of Hope was provided to me and I simply edited it into this video.

Hollywood Video

Hollywood from Mark Kenny on Vimeo.

Went to Hollywood and Santa Monica in August 2009 for an Inhibitor Summit. Shot some home video on a Canon FS22. Hated that camera, but last night I decided to edit a little piece to remember the trip. This was very challenging since I didn't shoot it for a project, it was just random shots while we were out. I didn't want to miss the moment by trying to get "money" shots.

'Pachelbel Kanon' by Detroit Illharmonic Symphony. Courtesy of BeatPick.com.

World Hemophilia Day Poster: Design 2

Here are some variations for my second design.  This design does NOT promote a walk, or any other fundraiser event.  It simply raises awareness of hemophilia by announcing World Hemophilia Day.  It takes place on April 17th every year, regardless of what day of the week it falls on.  This happens to be my daughters birthday, as well.

World Hemophilia Day Poster

OK!  I saw a LIFE magazine and decided I was going to use this design for my poster.  I changed the name of the magazine to WALK, since the poster promotes a fundraiser walk.  I used the hemo globe I designed as the centerpiece of the cover and then just input the information I wanted to share in traditional magazine style.  Here is a look at my poster and the LIFE cover that inspired me:

Hemaware Adds My Life With Hemophilia Video to Site

The National Hemophilia Foundation launched a new site for their publication Hemaware this month and they asked me if they could post my video to the site. I am very happy that a project I had almost given up on took a turn for the better and has reached so many people. My hope was to raise awareness of hemophilia by showing how it affects a person in one specific way. I would like to produce many more in a series that highlights the impact it has on specific aspects of a hemophiliac's (or caregiver's) life. I am very excited that Hemaware liked it and posted it to their site for more people to see. On a technical note, I noticed that the video was sized much smaller and compressed even more, so when you click full-screen it is bad quality, but I understand they must consider file size and space on their servers.

I have also been asked to allow the Hemophilia Federation of America to post it on their site and am working those details out now. Hopefully it will be on their site very soon and the video gets the exposure I had hoped for.

I appreciate everyone's feedback and help with promoting this video. You can see it at the following links:

http://hemaware.org/community-pulse

http://hemaware.org/topics/community-voices

Designing a Poster for World Hemophilia Day

This is the centerpiece of my poster and this is how it came to be:

I posted an image of the graphic that the World Federation of Hemophilia provided for use in promotional posters, but I wanted to create my own take on it.  First, I envisioned a 3D globe that better represented the hemophilia world.  I think of the color red (representing blood), not blue.  I had an idea to create a clipping mask of a crowd of people in the shape of the continents and to make the water red, then create a 3D sphere with this image.
I found a good image of faces painted, each with a flag representing a different country.  I made modifications to fit my purposes.  First, I eliminated the borders from the faces image I found:

Then I found a map of the continents to use to create a clipping mask:

I placed the map image on a layer below the wallpaper of faces.  I selected all the white areas of the map layer and deleted them, leaving only the black shapes of the continents.  Then I chose the faces layer and created a clipping mask to get the image below:

Next, I found a water texture I could use for the oceans:

I changed the hue and saturation to make it red, then placed it below the layer of faces to place the water behind the continents:

I have Photoshop CS4 Extended, which has 3D capabilities, so I flattened my image (to one layer) and made a 3D shape from that layer.  Since I am making a globe, I chose a sphere shape.  At this stage, I began following a tutorial I found at psd.tutsplus.com:

I added 3D elevation/topography and clouds to my globe:

Finally, I added a shadow and reflection.  Now I have completed the centerpiece of my poster:

I have several ideas I want to try out next.  I thought about creating some paper dolls walking to the globe from the left, going around the back and appearing from the back on the right side, then walking along the surface of the globe in a (-shape and ending with one sanding in the vicinity of Norway.  I also thought about having paper dolls holding hands in a circle around the globe, but since the poster will promote a fundraiser walk in Wichita, I think the walking paper dolls are more appropriate.

Poster Ideas

My first idea was to do a poster for the IMAX show: Vikings: Journey to New Worlds playing at the Cosmosphere. I am of Viking and Celtic stock and I love Viking design. They were great artists, so designing a poster using these distinct designs would be fun. I searched for some cool backgrounds and images, but found very little that coincided with my ideas, so I will throw this bone out tomorrow in class.

I have found an alternative that works better. I am going to design a poster for World Hemophilia Day (April 17th - my daughter's birthday). There will be a fundraiser walk in Wichita that day. They provided a set of materials, including a logo graphic, for use in designing promotional materials, so it works out great for me and hopefully I can help out the local organizers.

Making the Final Cut

I like to upload my first cut before deadline and share it with several people to get feedback. I always get good feedback on how to make it better. I make the changes and decide which cut I like best and then upload the final cut. Vimeo makes it easy to replace a first cut I uploaded with a final cut, without losing any comments or likes stats.

In My Life With Hemophilia: Brandston I scrapped my original outline after I filmed all the shots I wanted. When I reviewed my video, I decided that my son showed enough personality on film to carry a much more focused portrait of his infusion, rather than a collection of shots from many aspects of his life. I decided not to use the interview with Amber, his mom, and to let him narrate instead. The video and his narration added an emotional aspect that was far greater than anything I had planned, so I was very pleased and became excited about the project (see earlier post on Poop Project when I was frustrated).

After getting feedback on the first cut, I took some advice and ended the video with a close-up of my son saying the last line: "This is my life with hemophilia." Many people also asked questions about hemophilia after watching it, so I added a graphic at the end of the video pointing viewers to www.hemophilia.org for more information.

Although I have a process, sometimes the project takes its own course and it winds up better than I planned. It is important for me to be flexible and open to ideas, because ultimately it is the viewers' response that tells me if I achieved my objective. If I need to make changes to do so, it just makes my video more effective and me more successful.

My Life With Hemophilia Video

I uploaded a video portrait of my 5-year-old son, Brandston.  He has severe hemophilia with inhibitors and receives infusions at least every other day.  This past week he received an infusion every six hours.  It was a rough week.  Besides the stress associated with my kid going through all this and not being able to play, I got real sick and didn't get to do something special with my valentine, Amber.  I had originally planned to tell a story from Amber's perspective as a caregiver, but when I reviewed my footage I didn't like the way the interview footage looked.  It was typical and boring, so I decided to let Brandston tell his story about getting infusions.


My Life With Hemophilia: Brandston (Enhanced Audio) from Mark Kenny on Vimeo.
This is a video portrait of my 5-year-old son, Brandston. He has severe hemophilia A with inhibitors and this is just a glimpse of what life is like for him.
The music featured is "Ceremony" by New Order, and is available for download from iTunes.
The audio has been enhanced for the comfort of your ears.
I was inspired by the videos I watched for our silent film projects.  I particularly wanted to use the Joelseph "interior POV" shot.  I liked the way he put the camera in the luggage (and trunk) in his first video.  I decided to do that in this video when Amber was pulling meds out of the drawer.  I also liked the way Jake mixed up his shots in his video, so I used that as inspiration when shooting this project and I ended up with some good options.  I couldn't resist the Rik Dubiel "over the coffee mug" shot that he showed the class in his coffee video, so I used it to look down over the drawer of meds.  As I mentioned, I shot an interview with Amber, but decided that I wanted to depart from the interview-style video and just show Brandston's infusion and let him narrate it.  It is a portrait of his life that gives a good overview of how having hemophilia impacts his life in his (every-other-) daily routine.

Video Portrait: Living With Hemophilia

I have two boys with severe hemophilia A with inhibitors. This means that their bodies do not produce enough Factor VIII clotting factor in their blood. Inhibitors make it hard to treat because they combat the medicine used to treat hemophilia. In short, they bleed and bleed... and their bodies try to reject the medical treatment. This affects their joints regularly... their ankles and knees especially. They swell and become very painful. As you can imagine, this affects their lifestyle. They cannot play hard-contact sports like football. Their options in life are limited. Hemophilia affects not only the patient, but also the caregivers. I plan to get footage of the differences that hemophiliacs and their providers experience on a daily basis. I have flexibility: I can tell this from the patient's perspective, from the caregiver's perspective, from the treatment provider's perspective, or from any combination of the three.

Obstacles to this project are: bad lighting/environment (my messy home), legalities (home health agency's permission), learning the features of a new camera (borrowed a Panasonic DVX from KPTS)

Using interviews and B-roll, I hope to get a good testimonial that can be used by the hemophilia community (ex: Hemophilia Federation of America's Voices campaign: http://voices.hemophiliafed.org)

Here is an outline of info I plan to gather (or draw out of subjects):

1. Diagnosis/Finding Out (first thoughts/feelings...)
2. How it changed life (career, finances, priorities...)
3. Treatment
• What did they need? (medicine, doctors/nurses...)
• Obstacles (cost/money, insurance, geographic location/resources...)
• Who helped? (non-profits, state...) How? (support, education, healthcare...)
4. Home Health Care (frequency of treatments/visits, relationships...)
5. Hemophilia Treatment Center (burden, services, experiences...)
6. Expand on Education (summits, conferences...)
7. What Would You Change
• If you could change anything, would you? What? How? Why?
• What needs to be done? What can be done? (dreams and reality)
• How can legislators help? (what powers do they have? what can they change?)
• How can you help? (how to advocate for change)

Triste (The Final Cut)

I tried to add a white vignette and some filters to give my dream sequence a whimsical feel, but without success. I even created a white vignette as a graphic in photoshop, but even though I matched the pixel resolution, FCExpress cut the top and bottom of it (ruining the blur). The effects were freezing up during playback, so I ditched them. I finally gave up and used a black vignette over a desaturation filter during the dream sequence. I also grouped those shots and cut the guitar, so hopefully it communicates my concept better.
Here is the final cut:

Triste (Final Cut) from Mark Kenny on Vimeo.

A short, silent film (no dialogue) inspired by the lyrics:
My life is endless burning
on a thousand dead desires.
It is about how people dream of becoming many great things in life, but usually end up doing something quite different. I decided to tell it from the perspective of a tree. He wanted to be a bat, or a fence, or even a bench... but he was cut down and burned to ashes instead.
I grouped the dream shots and put a vignette over desaturated video to make this footage distinct from "reality." I also cut 14 seconds... including the beautiful guitar.
The music featured is titled "Love Theme" by Daniel Bautista, courtesy of jamendo.com.

Behind the Scenes of Triste

I wanted to tell a sad story. I also wanted to challenge myself to include the basic elements of a drama: a protagonist (a tree), an antagonist (a man), conflict (the tension between the tree and man, building to a climax) and resolution (however sad it may be).

My original idea was to tell a story of someone (representing many people) who had many dreams that never materialized, leaving him feeling rather unfulfilled and haunted by his sad reality. I visualized a man being tied to a post over a pyre, reflecting on his dreams from childhood on through adulthood... each one taking the form of the individual pieces of wood that comprise the pyre. The fire would burn him, but never destroy him... just cause endless suffering. Even death would fail to save him. In effect, his abandoned dreams were the source of his endless burning and suffering.

When nobody stepped up to be the star of that production, I tried to think of this story in more abstract terms. I began to envision this story from a tree's perspective. I used trees and objects to create an obvious link between visual elements: wood. I begin the story with a variety of shots of trees, then begin to show objects made of wood.

I shot this with a Sanyo FH1 in 1080i (although I thought I had set it to 1080p). I created a list of collection requirements (see earlier posts) based on a storyboard I sketched out. I collected my shots and found others "on location" that I liked. I only had troubles trying to collect a few shots chopping down a tree. I zoomed in on a piece of cut wood to get a shot of my axe striking the bark. I also had to get shots of the pieces burning in a fire, so I had to shoot a fireplace (which I don't have). I went to my in-laws' home (where I shot most of the other footage). First, I shot ashes... then the fire.

I had most of my footage early on, so I began placing shots in a sequence that I felt provided a variety of compositions, motions and vectors. In addition to the soundtrack, I used simple techniques to add texture and drama to the video. I used shots with cast shadows to add drama, zoom-ins to increase tension, slow-motion to build tension and jump cuts to jolt the viewer... all in hopes of building tension and reaching a climax (when the tree got axed). I also used my focus settings (although I could not adjust while I was recording) to add texture to some otherwise boring shots. I did a few different things, most of which I mention in the tips post from a few days ago.

My favorite sequence is the build-up when the camera shows 1st-person POV picking up the axe, then the tree's POV watching him approach. I wanted to use slow-motion to draw out the fear and jump cuts to jolt the viewer (and shorten the sequence). The axe swings in front of the camera as he walks by, then it returns to the 1st person POV (walking through the woods to a tree). I used slow motion again for the axe chop.

I ended with a POV shot of the man walking toward the fireplace to place cut wood onto the fire, shots of the fire burning (jump cuts to wider angle shots), burning embers and ashes. I used an audio clip (suspense accent) and black screen in the final shot to jolt the viewer one last time, making them both sad and uneasy at how life can play out so much uglier than we dream it will.

I hope the viewer understands the main concept and experiences a short emotional ride, ranging from relaxation and serenity to (minor) anxiety to sadness and uneasiness.

Click on the Vimeo button to the right to watch Triste in HD.

Short Shot Progress: Idea #3

Last I posted, I was planning on burning someone at the stake for my video. Leaping from that last step, I have decided to tell the same story from the perspective of wood.

The idea is that trees, representing humans, grow up dreaming of what they will become. Some dream of becoming a guitar and touring the world, rock-star style, while others are content to become a bench or some other type of furniture. The sad truth, however, is that most just get pissed on by animals or chopped up by humans for firewood and roasting wieners. The latter being every tree's worst nightmare.

I have listed my collection requirements:

WS of Trees (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles (some still and some motion)
MS of Trees (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of Trees (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
*Vertical elements

MS of Guitar being played (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of Guitar being played (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
MS to CU of Guitar being played (:10-:20) zoom and pan to finer details (wood grains)

MS of Furniture (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of Furniture (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles

MS of Outdoor Bench (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles (some still and some motion)
CU of Outdoor Bench (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
*Wood planks are horizontal (I can juxtapose these with the vertical trees)

ECU to MS of Hatchet w/ Wood Handle (:10-:20) zoom out from grain to see hatchet (tree killer)

WS of Man w/ Hatchet walking toward trees (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
MS of Man w/ Hatchet walking toward trees (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of Man w/ Hatchet walking toward trees (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles

WS to ECU of Man w/ Hatchet walking toward camera (:10-:20) from high and low angles
*The object is to create drama by using slow motion and music crescendo to build tension (the tree fearing that it will be chopped for firewood)

WS of Man w/ Hatchet chopping tree (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
MS of Man w/ Hatchet chopping tree (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of Hatchet striking tree (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
ECU of Hatchet striking tree (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles

WS of chopped pieces of firewood (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
MS of chopped pieces of firewood (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of chopped pieces of firewood (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles

WS of fire burning (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
MS of fire burning (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles
CU of fire burning (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles

CU of ashes (:10-:20) from at least 2 different angles

I started shooting footage Monday and continued on Tuesday, but my camera acted like a real bastard and did not work, so I have to try again tomorrow to finish collecting these shots. I'm hoping for clear skies... at least no rain... and preferably above-freezing temperatures.

I plan to not only mix my shots, but I'd like to juxtapose elements in the shots, such as placing a shot of the vertical trees next to a shot of an outdoor wooden bench with horizontal planks. I would also like to learn some time-shifting techniques, so I can use this feature to add drama. When the trees see the man approaching with the hatchet, I can use slow-motion to build up the tension. The climax is the hatchet striking the tree and the resolution is everything the tree feared... not becoming a guitar or other cool utility, but burning to ashes.

It is a sad story. It also shows the process of how a tree becomes firewood... and eventually ashes.

Short Film Idea #2: Burning

OK. I am creating a short film with no dialogue for my interactive media production class. My first idea was to do a cycle of life story that answers the question What happens when we die? from the perspective of dog food. Although I can envision great video, I am reluctant to include this in my portfolio. Since I do not have time to create several new productions for my portfolio, I have decided to explore a new idea, inspired by some really depressing lyrics.

My life is endless burning
on a thousand dead desires.

It means that when we are kids we say "I want to be a firemen," or "I want to be a baseball player," and a million other things. Throughout life, we change and someday we look back and see all the dreams and desires we left on a shelf unachieved. Sometimes we even feel like we are dying a slow, painful death fueled by our failures or our lack of ever chasing those dreams. In these lyrics, even death refrains from ending your misery... it simply allows you to suffer endlessly. If we had only pursued more of them, the fire might not be so miserable.

I have an idea of what I want to do to visually represent this, but before I do the first thing that comes to mind, I am going to sit down with a pen and paper and create a cluster of words that come to mind when I think of the words burning and dreams. I will link these words and create a visual map of interrelated ideas that I may be able to use when determining what kind of shots I want to capture and use. I may end up doing what I thought of first, but a least I will have explored more options.

My first idea is to capture shots of some of the dreams or desires I left behind, either in symbolic form or literal. Then I'd like to represent them on something I can burn, like a piece of paper (perhaps a ripped paper on which I write the dream/desire) or a photo. I can build a small-scale pyre of toothpicks surrounding a stake to which a representation of me (my life) is attached. Then I will set it on fire and watch it burn. It would be great if I could use something that doesn't burn up, so the fire burns, but doesn't destroy me. I also thought about using my kids to demonstrate all the desires and dreams by dressing up in all the costumes and outfits of the things they want to be... then burning representations of them at the stake.

To try and fail is at least to learn; to fail to try is to suffer the inestimable loss of what might have been.
— Chester Barnard