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MOTION POSTERS or how I learned to stop worrying and love the AR

Remixed by Jorge

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I've had some requests on the workflow for my Motion Poster.
So here's the scoop on my approach. YMMV.

I use my regular editing software which is Final Cut pro. Not sure how it applies to any other software.

I load my movie clip and create a sequence which i will use later. I label that sequence SEQ NORM.

then I create a second sequence. This is a modified custom sequence. The motion poster is a sequence of 1280 x 720 on its side. So i go to the sequence's settings and make it a custom setting and make it 720 x 1280. that part is pretty simple. I call it SEQMOD.

but at this new custom size it is very hard to edit or to even visualize what part of the clips to use.
so what i do is go back to SEQNORM and create on a second video track a matte shape of a vertical rectangle. i make it 30% transparent and now i can see the shape of the poster and the images that will fill it.

The attempt with a Motion Poster is not to create a vertical trailer. As Alexx Henry puts it "think attraction and not distraction." The conventions of a regular movie trailer don't work on a motion poster. It starts to look like noise. so what Alexx's saying is not to use an mtv style montage of shots.

And the other challenge is that all the footage available is whats on the finished film.
we can't hire the talent to pose for the motion poster. A familiar challenge for us faneditors.

So i wanted to use a minimum of shots that would convey a story within the shot and not within a context of shots. As I scanned through the film I thought about James Cole. My impression of him is that of a prisoner: he's persistently caged: by the police, by the asylum, by the hospital. even his regular life in 2035 is that of a jail. Hell his entire life is a time loop were he witnesses his own death.
So he should be alone. Isolated.

And that's when I came upon the shots of Cole before the scientists. In those shots he's not alone but looking at it through the matte shape vertical rectangle I could tell that the new framing allows me to crop out the image.

I selected 3 shots. A wide, a medium and a close up. I delete the rest of the movie except for those 3 shots.

I also delete the audio and use instead a track by NIN. I've always admired Trent Reznor's stuff. Specially what he did in THE SOCIAL NETWORK. I have in mind something haunting yet weirdly familiar.

The next challenge is that the shots are not long enough. even with a slow-motion of 30%.
So the trick I use there is I duplicate the slow motion clip and then reverse motion it. once you put the 2 clips together you get a longer shot that has movement, as opposed to a freeze frame which might still work but is totally devoid of movement.

I use this duo shot 6 times in the sequence. I nest the shots together and then add a slow camera zoom to sell the illusion of one continues shot. If you watch carefully you can actually see when the shots reverse direction.

I do this to the wide shot and to the medium shot. The close up is reverse motion so that Cole leaves the frame. All this editing is being done in SEQNORM.

But now that the seq is in good shape I delete the v2 matte shape. Then I cut and paste the clips into SEQMOD.

Since the source clip movie is not the new Aspect ratio or size, i have to blow up the clips to fill the new vertical image. I also have to reposition the images and fine tune the slow camera zoom of the shots.

The graphic text has a gaussian blur added at the start. add a fade from white.

Now once happy with the result I follow this guide to take it to compressor pro. the only difference is that in the inspector window click on Geometry and go to Dimensions.
Then type 720 and 1280 respectively.

and here's the result.

To learn more about Motion Posters watch the Alexx Henry presentation. It's all good but if you are impatient jump to 24:40


check out ‪the original kuleshov expiriment‬


here are some of my favorite Motion Posters. There seems to be some issue to posting these in the forum. Somehow they are forced into a different aspect ratio.
So you are better off going directly to vimeo and checking them out there.


THE OTHER GUYS


TERMINATOR SALVATION
 

TV's Frink

You Catch On Pretty Quick
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These are really cool :)
 

elbarto1

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whoa. thats slick dude!
 
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