Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Video Sketch Two: Learning After Effects and Shooting Styles!


I've been busy at work learning After Effects over the past two days and have gotten just enough experience to give a shot at tracing lines over a car! So far, I've had many conversations discussing the need to develop a way of communicating over video that will translate what goes on in my mind when I look at a Cadillac. I've learned that the project should turn into some film or visual media that will basically help other people "see what I see," and that is a hard thing to communicate. The goal has been to find a way to shoot video of a car that will help an audience experience a car as realistically as possible. Here is a second attempt at this. The quality is rough, but I've already learned a lot from it.

Here's some views of Cody's 2007 CTS:


Cadillac Study Test Two from Mike Herbert on Vimeo.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Cadillac Design Evolution Preview

Last spring I began my study of Cadillac's brand language and styling by creating a styling evolution video that shows sketches of a Cadillac sedan from one of its earliest iterations, such as 1917, and show it "grow up" through the years until its current design in 2014. This is a preview of the work in progress:



Cadillac Design Evolution Preview from Mike Herbert on Vimeo.

Off Topic: Albania Trip

Last summer I spent a month in Albania filming videos for Josiah Venture, we have many videos being edited from the trip, but here are some of the ones we have done so far!

Here's our site:
http://www.filmgrace.org


60seconds from Grace film crew on Vimeo.


The Stories - JV Albania from Grace film crew on Vimeo.

The Story



The first semester of my final year of school has just begun! Lots of research, experiences and learning behind me, and much more ahead, only now its time to start doing something with all of it. Over the course of the next 3 months, this will be the place where my story is recorded. In the world of film we have something called "raw footage." Its usually flat-looking, not inspiring and still needs to be fixed, but its fresh and exciting because its new and genuine. This is most likely how this blog will look to most people, photos may not be edited, videos may be rough and drawings may need to be fixed, but my hope is that its interesting.

The plan for the semester is to be working on a film that works as my design thesis. Design thesis projects at Columbia College are very problem-solution oriented, and they generally always involve a product that will result at the end. My project is a little more ambiguous than this, because I'm hoping to blend my two majors - Product Design and Film/Video - into a solid project.

What I'm planning on doing is to make 4 different things, and create a film project that not only explains it all, it becomes as valuable as the things I've made themselves.

The projects may be mainly a styling exercise, but the film should illustrate the styling exercises in such a way that instructs us all what styling and designing is, as well as serve as an engaging film in and of itself. Just like Batman! (actually, not really like Batman, but hopefully more of a story than most car commercials)