https://youtu.be/ptob6J880OA
Shriven is a new project of the goth / death rock variety featuring members of Leper (Skot Shaw and Colleen Davick) and Anti-World System (Michael Perlmutter.
While new music isn't quite available to the public, Skot messaged me about creating a short promotional clip. The idea presented was having a coffin open with the look of a horror movie.
I sought out some free domain or stock footage but all the coffins I came across seemed too nice and clean. As I thought about how to make this work, I looked at a small coffin we had sitting on the bookshelf and it seemed as though it had the design and the less polished appearance I felt would work with the horror movie concept.
I had acquired this coffin from a Kickstarter project by "Steve Taylor And The Danielson Foil" and inside the coffin were pictures of each band member as well as a bunch of super balls and some other odd things. At first, I completely emptied out the coffin. It felt too empty though. I decided to add a picture and decided to go with the one of Steve Taylor. The pose was pretty perfect I thought. I ended up putting the super balls back in to lift the picture a bit so it wasn't quite so flat looking.
While I intended to keep the focus somewhat soft, which I did achieve on what would be the primary clip I used, one of the clips had pretty clear focus. I hoped the soft focus also would obscure the image enough for anyone who might recognize the coffin or who is inside.
I would be adding, the bad film, bad tv, vignette, and old black and white effects and so I figured it would be enough to obscure who was in the coffin. The coffin perk from the Kickstarter was a DIY craft so I don't figure there should be any real issue with regards to copyrights should Steve Taylor or any of the other artists in the band happen to see this clip.
I didn't want to open the coffin with my hand...that would reveal that it was not a real coffin as well as how small it was. I decided to tie a thread around the latch and pull it open. I did three different takes of this. I wanted to have a shot of when it fully opened that showed the entirety of the open coffin. At the end I made it slam shut as well using the thread. The coffin sort of jumps at that point. I tried to make it look like something inside was struggling while pushing its way out. I think I did achieve that. The thread I used was fairly thin, black thread. While it is mostly hidden, I can see it in the end result though I had hoped the effects would make it essentially invisible. Oh well.
Shriven is a new project of the goth / death rock variety featuring members of Leper (Skot Shaw and Colleen Davick) and Anti-World System (Michael Perlmutter.
While new music isn't quite available to the public, Skot messaged me about creating a short promotional clip. The idea presented was having a coffin open with the look of a horror movie.
I sought out some free domain or stock footage but all the coffins I came across seemed too nice and clean. As I thought about how to make this work, I looked at a small coffin we had sitting on the bookshelf and it seemed as though it had the design and the less polished appearance I felt would work with the horror movie concept.
I had acquired this coffin from a Kickstarter project by "Steve Taylor And The Danielson Foil" and inside the coffin were pictures of each band member as well as a bunch of super balls and some other odd things. At first, I completely emptied out the coffin. It felt too empty though. I decided to add a picture and decided to go with the one of Steve Taylor. The pose was pretty perfect I thought. I ended up putting the super balls back in to lift the picture a bit so it wasn't quite so flat looking.
While I intended to keep the focus somewhat soft, which I did achieve on what would be the primary clip I used, one of the clips had pretty clear focus. I hoped the soft focus also would obscure the image enough for anyone who might recognize the coffin or who is inside.
I would be adding, the bad film, bad tv, vignette, and old black and white effects and so I figured it would be enough to obscure who was in the coffin. The coffin perk from the Kickstarter was a DIY craft so I don't figure there should be any real issue with regards to copyrights should Steve Taylor or any of the other artists in the band happen to see this clip.
I didn't want to open the coffin with my hand...that would reveal that it was not a real coffin as well as how small it was. I decided to tie a thread around the latch and pull it open. I did three different takes of this. I wanted to have a shot of when it fully opened that showed the entirety of the open coffin. At the end I made it slam shut as well using the thread. The coffin sort of jumps at that point. I tried to make it look like something inside was struggling while pushing its way out. I think I did achieve that. The thread I used was fairly thin, black thread. While it is mostly hidden, I can see it in the end result though I had hoped the effects would make it essentially invisible. Oh well.
After capturing the three takes, I began to work on the editing. I created two title files of the band name, "Shriven" and an announcement of "coming soon..."
The audio clip I was given was 25 seconds long. The video clip I chose to be my primary clip was set in place and I played the audio to get a feel for where I might want to position it with the coffin opening. As I got that figured out, I decided to layer from the other clips over the primary then adjust the opacity to see through it. I cut a bit from each then faded them out to be the primary clip a few seconds before the coffin opening. After the initial jerking motion to simulate the struggle of opening it from the inside, I added the band name text with its "ghostly" effect to appear as the door is opened. I moved the closing of the coffin to coincide with the end of the audio clip and set the "coming soon..." text to also coincide with the end of the clip.
At the beginning and end, I added the film sprocket stock footage for additional old horror movies aesthetic and with everything seemingly set in place, I began to add the effects. I used gradient colorize for the black and white appearance. Next I added the "bad tv" spaced out randomly through the clips also randomly adjusting the settings to make a different appearance for each use of the effect. I layered the effect usage as well making different setting adjustments at different levels. I added the "vignette" effect to give additional "blur" around the edges. When I added the "bad film" effect, I decided adjust the setting of the effect and semi-randomly switch it up as the clip goes along. Overall, that effect ends up being fairly subtle comparatively, especially once the file is compressed for YouTube or other online streaming.
In the end, I captured what was asked for. I showed it to Skot first and while he is pleased with the result, he had a slightly different idea in mind. I also shared with Michael who also expressed he was pleased with it.
So there is now a small taste of what is to come from Shriven.
Special thanks to Steve Taylor and the Danielson Foil for their Kickstarter perk which came in handy as a prop!
Filmed at home in Southside Chicago using a Canon Rebel T6. Edited using Final Cut Pro on a Mac Mini. Filmed and edited by Joel A. Swanson.
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