Tilt-shift video fun!
March 11, 2009 5:06 PM   Subscribe

Tilt-shift video fun! Timelapse video of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras by Keith Loutit. [previously]
posted by UbuRoivas (29 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow! That is excellent!
posted by aubilenon at 5:13 PM on March 11, 2009


You almost expect a giant hand belonging to a stop motion animator to come into frame and adjust the tiny figures.
posted by cazoo at 5:22 PM on March 11, 2009


I favourite this for two reasons: I think it's awesome, but more so because UbuRoivas made a post.
posted by gman at 5:24 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


Psst! Hey Australia! Mardi means Tuesday.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:29 PM on March 11, 2009


This turns out to be extremely awesome. But, uh, can I still say that I think that the fake "tilt-shift" technique is way over-exposed? It's been posted to MeFi at least 4 times and I think every amateur photographer has used it by now.
posted by grobstein at 5:54 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'm still trying to tell my brain that the forced perspective is fake, but my brain keeps telling me that it's a fantastic world of little plastic people.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:59 PM on March 11, 2009


Thanks! It's so much easier to stomach teh gay in miniature form.

(with copious amounts of sarcasm, please)
posted by pmbuko at 6:12 PM on March 11, 2009


Only had time to watch the first few seconds....all I can say is...sweet. That's really cool.
posted by Xoebe at 6:13 PM on March 11, 2009


Psst! Hey Australia! Mardi means Tuesday.

Yes, but it's Australia, so everything is reversed. Winter is summer, water goes down the drain counter-clockwise, everyone is upside-down, people think Vegemite is delicious. Days of the week are not immune to this effect.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


Tilt shift is definitely in style these days -- for example the title sequence for Dollhouse used it, and I'm sure there are other examples on TV. It reminds me of how BSG kind of started a wave of shaky/gritty hand-held camera style in late 2003 or so, and now it seems like practically every show on TV (with the possible exception of multicamera comedies) uses it. (Yes, I'm sure it was around long before BSG, that's just when I remember it starting to build a crescendo.)
posted by Rhomboid at 6:22 PM on March 11, 2009


*This looks like too much fun. I wish I could make myself tiny and project myself into the scene. I would scoot around the street with a tiny feather boa and a wee bottle of booze, having the best tiny stop motion time ever.

* I really want a miniature gay pride parade action figure set. I want mine to have a complete set of Drag Race drag queen action figures.

* I also hope nobody is taking this too seriously and giving up being gay for lent, though that would make Easter amazing. I can only imagine the egg hunt that would ensue.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:31 PM on March 11, 2009


(Yes, I'm sure it was around long before BSG, that's just when I remember it starting to build a crescendo.)

I'm thinking it was Dogma95 when I remember seeing all that shaky cam.
posted by cazoo at 6:33 PM on March 11, 2009


(Yes, I'm sure it was around long before BSG, that's just when I remember it starting to build a crescendo.)

Blair Witch Project is supposed to have opened up the trend.
posted by grobstein at 6:55 PM on March 11, 2009


But, uh, can I still say that I think that the fake "tilt-shift" technique is way over-exposed? It's been posted to MeFi at least 4 times and I think every amateur photographer has used it by now.

My understanding is that Keith uses actual tilt-shift lenses. Certainly he claims to.
posted by markr at 7:04 PM on March 11, 2009


The bokeh on the shots (particular on the specular lighting) suggests actual T/S lenses. Possible, but much more difficult, to fake.
posted by i blame your mother at 7:58 PM on March 11, 2009


My bad then. The fake technique has really exploded, though. =P
posted by grobstein at 8:12 PM on March 11, 2009


gman: this post has the collateral benefit of keeping 'gay' at the top of my most-used tags, which is great for confounding people
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


I find the "lesbian" tag more confusing, myself.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:15 PM on March 11, 2009


They looked like fake tilt-shifts to me, but if they are fake they're really good. In some of the shots you'd see banners in the foreground that were blurry at the top but in focus in the middle, while with a real tilt-shift camera they'd be entirely out of focus.

Look at the picture 9 seconds in, where you have the bikers all in focus, but the crowd entirely out of focus, even though some members of the crowd are the same distance from the camera as some of the bikers. Or look at the two parallel poles 56 seconds in where they get blurrier as they get higher, even though the distance from the camera wouldn't change that much.

On the other hand, if they are fake, the guy did a good job of picking good settings so that they would look 'right' with the fake tilt-shift effect.
posted by delmoi at 9:17 PM on March 11, 2009


Or does a tilt-shift lens just let you select part of an image to be in focus? I always thought they just changed the depth of field.
posted by delmoi at 9:20 PM on March 11, 2009


Hmm, reading the Wikipedia article, it sounds like you can actually do a lot of different things with tilt-shift lenses, including selective focus.
posted by delmoi at 9:29 PM on March 11, 2009


Yeah, I think you can rotate the focal plane more or less freely relative to the sensor / plate, so things that objects about the same distance from the camera need not be equally sharp in the image.

The image intersects the focal plane, whereas normally an in-focus image is (supposed to be) a segment of the focal plane.
I'm kinda bullshitting
posted by grobstein at 9:35 PM on March 11, 2009


Days of the week are not immune to this effect.

Days of the week in Australia are named after our sporting heroes and screen legends and popular food items. Tomorrow for instance is "Boonie" - but confusingly the same day next week will be "Snags"- I was born on an Artie Beetson.

No one in Australia actually enjoys Vegemite, but we eat it our of respect for the diggers who had no such luxuries.
posted by mattoxic at 11:50 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]


Just like a real life Rick And Steve.
posted by cerulgalactus at 3:40 AM on March 12, 2009


Artie Beetson is the name of the day in NSW & Queensland only.

In other states, that day is called Ben Cousins. It's very popular, because on that day McDonalds gives its customers all the Coke & ice they can handle, and then a little bit more.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:51 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]


I find the "lesbian" tag more confusing, myself.

says the moustachioed sheila

posted by UbuRoivas at 4:35 AM on March 12, 2009


Even though it looks like the jury is out on whether it's fake or not in this thread, I'm going to stick with fake - Photoshop lens blur is pretty good at faking the bokeh, and the blur appears to be more a function of static 2D location, and not the dynamic distance from the camera. I could be wrong, of course, but I don't think so.
posted by hanoixan at 9:01 AM on March 12, 2009


(Yes, I'm sure it was around long before BSG, that's just when I remember it starting to build a crescendo.)

I'm thinking it was Dogma95 when I remember seeing all that shaky cam.

Blair Witch Project is supposed to have opened up the trend.


I think Law & Order was one of the first (or at least among the more notable and influential) TV shows to use shaky-cam. But really, it's just an element borrowed from Cinéma Vérité and the news to add a sense of realism.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:30 AM on March 12, 2009


Shaky-cam in popular film? At least as far back as Jules and Jim, people.
posted by Shotgun Shakespeare at 11:40 AM on March 12, 2009


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