jim chuchu {blog}

To the Left...

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:13:14 +0400

In the spirit of cleaning house, this blog has moved
to its new home:

http://www.jimchuchu.com/blog/

The new home will hopefully provide more space
and structure, and be easier for all of you to read.

All the old posts have been moved to the new spot,
and comments have been disabled on this blog.
Thanks for staying with me this far, and please
update your bookmarks. :)

Airbrushing and the City...

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:40:08 +0400

Airbrushing - Again!

After doing the "Maisha" video for Just A Band early this year, I swore NEVER to airbrush a video again. Over the past two weeks, I found myself doing just that for Atemi's new (and first) music video for her single "Speechless".

It was a first time for all of us; her first time to shoot a video, my first time to shoot a video for someone else - but I think it's turned out OK. I incorporated a bit of stop-motion (which turned out to be as exhausting as I'd heard), a little rough 2.5-D animation, some random painting and - eventually - some still photography (kind of).

Atemi was cool about letting me go a little crazy. It may or may not be on TV soon, I'll do my bit to get it onto YouTube soonest. And now, for the record, I'll say it again. I WILL NEVER AIRBRUSH ANOTHER VIDEO AGAIN. EVER. The results are cool, but Jesus; it takes forever.

Here's a couple more screenshots.

Airbrushing - Again!

Screenshots from Speechless

Screenshots from Speechless

Screenshots from Speechless

I'd love to hear what y'all think. Feedback!

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:50:26 +0400

Just A Band in Concert!

I've been having fun with lurid lights and color. Mmmm....
The band is good, too. Check them out on the 1st of August, if you can.

:)

Do DIY Lights Cut It?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:59:08 +0400

As a result of the whole Afrigadget saga (which, frankly, is overwhelming), a question that has come up plenty of times is: "Did it work?", and "Do you have photos that were lit by the cardboard lights?". Here's a unedited photo I took of Mbithi using the two units I made:

There. Nice, clean light.And a top-view schematic of the set-up:

Set-up of the shot above

A - 5-bulb unit
B - 10-bulb unit (with tracing paper diffuser)

Light B casts the softer, more-pleasing light on Mbithi (because of the tracing paper), and light A casts the harder light on the back of his head. This is a setup I frequently use in my photo shoots, the theory works exactly the same with continuous light.

The other question: "Does it work?". Well, yes. I did manage to light the indoor shots that were later used in the Fly music promo, and the light was easier to control than the sunlight that I used in the Maisha and Lalalalala promos (if you watch them closely, you'll notice that the light on the subjects is sorta flickery, like a candle - that was because the reflectors used to direct the sun kept moving around with the wind - a nice, but unintentional effect).

Next I'd like to make a 20 or 40 bulb unit and see the difference.

I made an AfriGadget!

Wed, 28 May 2008 11:24:19 +0400

The good people at AfriGadget thought they'd share my DIY cardboard lights on their site (thanks, guys!).

It's actually a very interesting blog, with lots of innovative DIY ideas by our fellow Africans. We're not only about drought and AIDS, it seems.

Check it out!

I've been angry...

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:51:49 +0400

Lenny - in pieces...

More of the Scratch To Reveal artwork. There's a certain joy to be derived from ripping people into shreds...

I've been busy...

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:42:27 +0400

New music promo for Just A Band - the coolest clients ever. :) Closeup shots in the promo above were lit using the cardboard-box lights I mentioned below.

I've been lazy...

Mon, 12 May 2008 13:46:00 +0400

I took way to long to get the energy to sit down and finish this one. It's the second (and last) video from the shoot last year - which I'll never mention again.

Building the Sun...

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:24:17 +0400

Using lessons learnt from my first video
shoots last year:

1. the sun is REALLY powerful,
2. but very unpredictable,

I set out to build my own personal sun -
controllable, consistent, white light - using
ordinary household equipment. DIY till I
die and all that.

Cardboard, foil and bulb holders...
So, using:

1. 2 cardboard boxes (20/-)
2. 15 bulb holders (approx. 150/- each)
3. energy saving bulbs (the 23-watt 'cool daylight' types - 450/- each. Ouch.)
4. a roll of aluminium foil (approx. 200/-)
5. lots of cellotape/masking tape

I made these little thingies, and got master
electrician Kevin to figure out the wiring at
the back, so that the whole unit would only
need one power cable.

Wiring at the back (and juice to bribe electrician)...

We ended up with two units, one with 10
bulbs (which I figured I could use as a key
light), and a smaller one with 5 bulbs (for
hair/separation/fill light duties).

I added a sheet of tracing paper over the
10-bulb unit to soften its output, since I
intend to stick it in people's faces.

The completed units, tracing paper on larger unit

Even I was surprised by the results. Much brighter
than even I'd hoped, with a nice white light that's
very even. And the units don't get too hot, so
you can really move them close to subjects.

If my math is correct, the 10-bulb unit uses
about 230 watts, and the 5-bulb unit uses 115
watts - and I figure I'm getting much more
light than I'd get from those 20,000/-, 800 watt,
hot-as-hell tungsten lights they're selling in town.

Dorky model displays 5-bulb unit, Kevin-the-wonder-electrician at right

Of course, if you're into swanky-looking gear
which is nice for impressing clients), this
ain't the way to go...

Maisha - A Video Experiment

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:12:00 +0400

I totally forgot to share this here. The video
from the first-ever-video-shoot I did last
year on YouTube.

And no, I don't do videos. Yet. It was an
experiment!

The band's website is now up - where you'll also
find some desktop wallpapers I did for them the
other day.

Behind the Scenes

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:59:30 +0400

Here's a look behind-the-scenes at a
shoot I did with Kate the other day,
and some of the results from that shoot.

It was always fun to see models having
tea with outrageous face-paint/hair on.

Tea, anyone?
Dorky camera guy adjusts hair

Previewing shots with Sandra and Kate

Above: Kate with the Slap Of God we invented
with Kangai (not seen here) - the best makeup artist ever!

Kate and the City

Vampires in Nairobi (Photojournalism and Voyeurism)

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:16:39 +0300

Violence in Kenya

I met a "hard-news" photojournalist the other
day, and he showed me his portfolio. This consisted
of several hundred very disturbing photos from
the chaos that engulfed Kenya in the beginning
of this year.

There were several sequences that ran thus:

- person is marked by a squad of thugs
- person running for his life (very literally)
- person surrounded by thugs, weapons raised
- person's body on the ground, lifeless.

One picture struck me more than the rest - an
extreme close up of the head of a policeman who'd
been stoned to death; his face twisted into a macabre
grin by the force of the blows that killed him, framed
by a halo of blood and rubble.

This world of 'hard-news' journalism is a far cry
from the nice (living) people, makeup and lights that
I'm used to - and it made me wonder about the
voyeuristic nature of photography (emphasis on
photojournalism).

And by voyeur, I'd like to use the definition: "an
obsessive observer of sordid or sensational subjects".

During the chaos, there were a lot of foreign
photojournalists in the country - having a field day,
competing with one another to get the most
horrific shots. They did the same in Rwanda
and Sierra Leone and all the other conflict-ridden
countries. Flying in like spiritual vampires
who feed on bloodlust.

Is it hypocritical to criticise the people who profit
from all that is ugly about us as humans (and in
such a direct manner, too - the most horrific
shots fetch the highest price, obviously)?

And, I wonder what does being routinely in the
presence of such flippant evil do to a person?

Read further:

Interesting post on the Philosophy of photography forum:
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006KGL

Clumsy Me

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:33:53 +0300

I dropped my camera on a cold, hard marble floor
today. Oh, the guilt, the shame...

Thankfully Nikons are rugged little buggers.

Overview: Airbrushing Video

Mon, 7 Jan 2008 20:21:06 +0300

Maisha Footage - Before and after

Airbrushing video is exactly like airbrushing
photos, except for the doing it 25 times a
second on a face that keeps moving around...
I usually use a cocktail of filters to airbrush skin -
blurs, grain, liquify (sp?), dodging, burning -
targeted filtering, I call it. Targeted because
it's only applied on certain parts of a face/body;
usually large expanses of uninterrupted skin -
and avoiding features like the lips, the eyes etc.

Very simple for photos. The problem with video
is the face keeps shifting around, so all the places
I'd usually apply all those filters keep moving
around and changing shape.

Untreated footage
(Untreated footage)

Composited footage
(Composited footage)

To keep track of these changes, I masked those
areas, and animated the masks to keep track
of them (frame by frame, at times. Aaaargh!)

Footage with masks
(Footage with masks)

Once that's done, I'd simply apply the usual
filters and voila!

Final footage
(Final footage)

Screenshots!

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 22:24:42 +0300

Finally, some screenshots from Mena's video - which I'll
show to the rest of Just a Band tomorrow. Will they like
it? Fingers still crossed.

Ungodly hours

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 22:22:16 +0300

Some of the footage for Mena's video are effects-heavy,
and render times can be extremely long. So, what to do
when estimated time of render completion is 3 a.m. in
the morning?
I discovered Free Download Manager which - in addition
to being a great download manager, and being honest-to-God
FREE - is great for unattended shutting down of the computer
at ungodly hours, allowing you to go to sleep and find
finished renders the next morning.

I know, I know - not exactly what the makers of FDM
were thinking, but hey! Free software! That works!

Aaaargh!

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 22:15:53 +0300

It's been 3 weeks of grappling with pixel aspect ratios,
letterboxing, 9+ hour renders, codecs, 3:2 pulldown,
Xvid, Lagarith - who said making videos is fun?
Some lessons learnt, so far:

1. Sony Vegas - bad audio/video sync, no crashing;
2. Adobe Premiere Pro - good sync, crashes a lot;
3. Dirty greenscreens are harder to key out.

Sigh.

Photographic Evidence

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:36:42 +0300

Photos from the shoots on Tuesday and Wednesday
shoots are now up. Check them out:

Tuesday Shoot
Wednesday Shoot

Many thanks to Rahim Kara for taking lots of extra
photos on Wednesay.

Green with Envy

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:15:27 +0300

I mentioned earlier that we were using
a cheapskate greenscreen consisting of bits
of bright green paper stuck onto a cardboard
box.

Will it work?

Manjeru in action

The shot above was taken on the second day,
and the screen had taken some beating by that
time - hence the folds. But it looks promising, no?
Building the Cheapskate GreenScreen(TM)

1. Stick bits of green paper on cardboard:

2. Prop cardboard against suitable stand (such
as neighbor's car):

3. Place subject in front on the screen:

4. Resulting footage:

which allows one to cut out the background
and put something else (more interesting)
in place. For example (quickie example! Excuse
the unfinished-ness):

This is all theoretical, of course. I'm yet to
see the footage to find out if it'll work.

Fingers ever crossed.

A Time to Reflect

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:03:30 +0300

I'm really impressed by how simple-looking
gadgets can have such a massive impact on the look
of footage. Take the sun-shade reflectors
I keep talking about. Now I have the photos
to prove that they work. Methinks the look
below would have been impossible without
the reflectors, or artificial light.

Ciru, with reflector
There's a variety of these sun-shades that have
a silver foil on one side, and gold foil on the
other side. Those would have been perfect
for these shoots, because I have a feeling that
the gold foil would cast a warmer, gold-ish light on
the subject.

For whatever reason, they were not in stock
- so we had to be content with silver-on-0ne-side,
silly-illustration-on-the-other-side varieties
(we could have had kinky beach babe illustrations,
we chose Santa and some rubber duckies instead).

Using the Reflectors:

1. Get some dork to hold them in place:

Some dork holding reflector open

2. Place them directly opposite to the sun's
rays, below the subject:

Using the reflectors - overview

Subject without:

Shaddy without reflector

and with reflector:

Shaddy with reflector

Cooool!

Guerilla Arsenal

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:42:33 +0300

Being an amateur/cheapskate/dummy (delete
where appropriate), I'm using ordinary household
objects as substitutes for professional filmmaking
gear.

Inspired by people who think like this.
Some examples:

8,000 bob collapsible reflectors? I'm using the
sun-shades they use in cars to protect them from
heat. 200 bob each (MPPS or Motor Boutique).

5,436 bob muslin green screen?
I'm using bits of violent-green sheets of A3 paper
stuck onto a refrigerator carton. Sure, it sucks
and it's fiddly, but it costs 50 bob for 2 sheets of
the paper (Nakumatt). And the carton was free.

Gazillion bob wind machine?
Two large sufuria covers, operated by enthusiastic
friends taking turns on either side of the cast.
Free, if you don't count buying the friends lunch
afterwards and apologizing for cheating them
that making videos was glamorous.

And so on. Will it show in the final product?

I certainly hope not. Fingers crossed.

One Down...

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:49:13 +0300

Having just finished Mena's shoot, I can already
say I've learnt two things about video shoots:

1. Makeup takes forever to do.
2. Cast and crew get hungry REALLY fast.
3. Unripe plums are really sour.

Behind the scenes photos will be up tomorrow
evening.

A Checklist for Pretend-Filmmakers

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0300

My checklist for today's shoot:

Camera...check.
Spare batteries...check.
Lots of Mini-DV tape...check.
Car sunshades as reflectors...check.
Lots of bright green paper as greenscreen...check.
Two huge sufuria covers as wind machine...check.
Makeup and props...check.
Cast...check.
Crew...check.

Butterflies in stomach...check.
Nagging feeling that I've forgotten something...double check.

Treatments

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:40:00 +0300

Being my first ever video projects, I'd like
to keep them simple. For Mena's promo, a
simple singer-with-backdrop treatment
will suffice.

Mena

If I'm lucky, I'd like to play around
with light tracing; have someone draw with
light. But I won't promise anything.
For Manjeru's song, I'd like to experiment
with long takes. Manjeru doesn't like appearing
in videos, so he's appointed a doppelganger -
a guy called K1.

My 'crew' consists of the band itself and our
friends contributing their time for free. Holiday
spirit and all that. Shooting for the two promos
is back-to-back; Mena's shoot on Tuesday
(tomorrow!) and Manjeru's on Wednesday.

I'll try to take as many pictures as I can.
Crossing of fingers continues.

Plunging into the Deep End

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:32:30 +0300

I'm on holiday, and to keep from going mad
I've decided to try my hand at making a
some music promos armed with a tiny (fits in
the palm of my hand!) camcorder, enthusiastic
friends and some random 'guerilla-film' gear.
The promos are for two songs by two very
talented people: Maisha, by Mena and Lalalalala
by Manjeru. The songs were remixed by Just a
Band (of which I'm a member - it's complicated).
You can download them here. Legally. Honestly.
We like to share. :)

I've decided to document my progress just for
fun (and to pressurize myself to deliver), and
I'll share the things I'll inevitably learn along the
way. Crossing of fingers ensues.

Light. Color. For sale...

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:20:21 +0300

I capture light for a living.

Mustafa

Happy "I'm Outta Here" Anniversary!

Sat, 8 Dec 2007 23:02:00 +0300

On this very day last year, I went to work, printed my
resignation letter and swaggered out of the building.
It was exhilarating (I don't think anyone noticed, but
still...).