Berlin Test Footage

Berlin Test Footage from Richard Hunter on Vimeo.

During a visit to Berlin, I shot a large amount of footage for the purpose of post-production manipulation. The material explored the themes of movement, architectural forms, contrast, perspective and ‘found’ typography. Whilst it was not my main intention to use the video clips for a ‘normal’ edit, I decided to roughly piece them together in order to explore and familiarise myself with the range of content.

The colour palette of the piece is naturally influenced by the climate and choice of locations. I was aiming to shoot mainly architectural material with a view to superimpose manipulated graphics or footage in postproduction. The cold weather worked in my favour allowing me to capture urban structures against bleached-out skies (useful for future keying) and more defined contrasted elements like roads and street furniture. I Intentionally shot the material ‘flat’ and colour corrected/treated the footage to intensify the contrast and give a cinematic feel and I feel the exterior shots are more successful than the interior in achieving this. However, (as previously stated) it was not my intention to use the material in this form and the treatment was somewhat quick in application.

In terms of editing I roughly structured the narrative around locations and reacted to the chosen (sourced) audio track. The intention of the body of visual work I will eventually create with the source material is that it could be used with my own production and that of others interchangeably, so there needs to be a connection with the ‘mood’ of the audio without necessarily being exclusively linked. The reversed sounds and digital glitches are reflected in frequent slow motion and reverse effects (again, intended as experiments that could possibly lead to future refined pieces) and the staccato/chopped editing (such as the train motion at 3:00) make further reference to the digital genre of the audio.

The typographic elements appear less frequently that I intended in this piece. This is mainly due to the nature of the captured source material. It was my intention to avoid the clichés of graffiti and focus on ‘relevant’ type. The selected clips in this piece are from signage and display scenarios with an intended final use as overlays in future work. I particularly found the animated symbol projections (2:28) effective and intend to experiment with colour reversing and speed manipulation in future. Again, the robotic/digital sequencing of the info screens (1:29) fits with the audio track’s genre.

In terms of the architectural theme, I shot material in line with my photographic visual research (see separate blog gallery). The cropped compositions balance large areas of negative space with minimal industrial outlines. The upward perspective (3:34) and the ‘block colour’ skies somewhat naturally give a superimposed/collaged feel and dominate the frame. I intend to use this effect in shorter layered clips in final work. Overall the edit allowed me to familiarise myself with the material and was particularly useful as my previous moving image work has been more commercially focused. The visual organisation of themes generated a great deal of ideas for future and final pieces.