Action footage

[Ian Stark]

I've just been watching an episode of that cheery show 'Air Crash Investigation'.

In a segment of the reconstruction of a crash, where passengers are evacuating the plane, the style is very jittery - very much like the opening half hour of Saving Private Ryan and the action scenes in 28 Days Later. I'm pretty sure you all know the style I'm trying to describe, even if I can't put it into words! It's perfect for highlighting confusion and panic and I'd like to recreate it in a music video I am shooting at the end of August.

My question is this - is it possible to recreate that style in post, ie with footage shot normally? I'm not so interested in how to achieve the bleach bypass look, just the jittery effect, ideally using Vegas (or After Effects).

If it can't be effectively done in software, can someone guide me as to how to shoot my footage in that style (I use a Canon XL2, in case the moderators wish to move this thread). I know it's a shutter speed thing but I would welcome your advice as to any other camera settings I should be thinking about.

Many thanks.

Ian . . .

[Jon Fairhurst]

That style uses a fast shutter and (possibly) dropped frames. You can drop the frames in post, but if the shutter was too slow when filmed, you'll get motion blur, rather than a crisp strobe effect.

[Ian Stark]

Thanks Jon.

Dropped frames? Do you mean removing one out of every x frames shot? Are the dropped frames replaced with an empty (black?) frame or have I got the whole thing wrong?!

[Jon Fairhurst]

I'd replicate the frames. Black frames also work, but the result will be darker than you'd probably intend. The idea is that it looks like a series of snapshots, rather than like smooth, continuous video.

[Graham Bernard]

Try this Ian:

1] Highlight sequence you want to work - for testing make this like 5 seconds?

2] Go> Tools > Scripting > "Render Image Sequence" and choose the parameters you want: Directory; File names for images; your Start and Stop will be entered automatically; the type of still JPEG or PNG . .and then there is the Step Time! This is the "gap-time" between each capture. At 25fps - for PAL - try something like "10" = 00:00:00.10 . This will give you 2 and a bit captures per second.

3] Import this sequence by Import Media > Folder ( where the image sequence is) > Select the series of images > Check "Open still image sequence"

4] Place imported sequence on timeline

Grazie

[Ian Stark]

I love it. Thanks guys for both bits of advice. Looking forward to putting it into practice.

Ian . . .

[C.M. de la Vega]

in addition to Graham's input, you can use the Vegas Quake script to give it a hand-held, shaky feel to it.

http://www.vasst.com/search.aspx?text=quake

[Jim Montgomery]

Ian

In After Effects you can try the Wiggle expression in the footage's position property.

Jim

[Terry Esslinger]

Using Grahams methods but then setting the parameters to render just 1 frame per 30 frames I created an extreme fast motion where 30 seconds of video is played in 1 second. I'm not sure about the numbers but it is extreme fast motion without using envelope or rerendering several times. Of course it is more time lapse than fast motion as it is not smoothed out. Could be useful in some situations. And , of course, there is probably an easier way to do it. It seems like there always is.

[Graham Bernard]

Terry, I like the way you are thinking. Neat idea to change the frame rate.

Grazie