A full day working on the Masculinity Two Video. I needed more footage for the choruses and I wasn't happy with the first take of Marius at the computer screen, so the first few hours were spent recording this footage. A lot of time is spent getting every aspect correct; the lighting, the costumes etc. The lighting, framing and camera focus are difficult when filming along. This scene took three full takes, and after reviewing, another two.
Lighting is especially complex because even slight changes can mean the difference between darkness or far too bright. Everything must be perfectly set. This is one aspect of filming I rather enjoy, the cinematography, perhaps this is the painter in me.
In the afternoon, the editing and converting. Frame by frame, note by note. I decided to have swiping transitions, sliding one scene over another, which involves a lot of maths in AviSynth, exact frame numbers etc. It's time consuming but not difficult beyond that. After a full day of this, the final video is perfectly timed, but, looking at the final result, it is less slick in parts as a result. The music is so rhythmic (thanks to my special mock-human drums, this music is not digitally regular) that sharp changes in the images seem to work best. The music itself has lots of contrast between loud and silent too, again intentionally, so the images must mirror this.
Here is a scene from the start. I wanted a flickery line effect and did this simply by using white noise, and expanding it from a mere 20 pixels or so to fill the screen width, creating darting bands of light and dark like a dancing barcode.
This video will take several more days. After five days work, I feel that I'm only halfway though, and lots of new footage is still needed. This is my last important creative hurdle though. After this is complete, I'll celebrate, schedule the single release, and get back to the album as a whole.
