Create Karaoke Titles in Final Cut Pro X

I needed to make animated karaoke titles for "You Make Me Alive," the music video I directed for Portland-based dance rock band The Slants. Apparently there are several programs specifically for titling karaoke videos, but the Mac options aren't great, and I wanted a solution in Final Cut Pro X, but I couldn't find a tutorial. It turned out to be pretty simple.

1. Use the custom text preset to create a line of text with the color and position that you want.
2. In the video properties dialog for the text, add a shape mask, change the shape to a rectangle, and reduce the falloff.
3. Go to your beginning frame, add a keyframe, and position the center of the mask to the left of the text, and pull the right edge of the mask so it's on the left side of the text as well.
4. Go to the end frame, add a keyframe, and position the right edge of the mask so it covers the text.
5. Select a color for your mask. I made mine purple. 

Playback and you should have a simple color-changing title. This way is a bit tedious for a whole video, but I only had to do a few sections of, so it was worth it. You'll have to tweak the keyframes if you want the animation to speed up or slow down. 

The Slants "You Make Me Alive" Music Video

Here's the video for The Slants "You Make Me Alive" music video that I directed. Shot in Portland and Seattle, including Voicebox Karaoke Lounge. It was a great shoot with a fun band. Check out their music!
The Slants

Polaroids

Here's a few pics that were inspired by Man Ray. I came across a short series in a portfolio book of his that focused on an artist figure. These were taken right when Polaroid stopped making their instant pack film. Fortunately Fujifilm still makes a similar product. I prefer the Fujifilm for it's finer grain. That's Douglas doing the modeling for me. Sometimes he's a little stiff, but he relaxed a bit for me.

Another Adaptation?

Another short story I wrote. I'm thinking this would have to be animated:

Blood in the Bolognese

 Every accomplished cook who knows a damn about Italian cooking has a recipe for Bolognese. The official recipe begins with a mirepoix, a combination of onions, carrots, and celery that forms the basis for a lot of Italian and French cooking.

I had the ingredients out for my Bolognese and was just getting ready to dice up the carrot when it leapt up, snatched my santoku out of my hand, and slashed me across the forearm. It wasn’t a deep cut, a mere scratch, but my blood splattered across the counter backsplash as the celery hurled my teapot directly at my head. I barely managed to duck out of the way as the teapot smashed against the refrigerator, showering me with glass. I grabbed my chef’s knife and parried the onion, which was now armed with a serrated bread knife it snatched off the magnetic rack. I leapt backward out of the kitchen, snapping a kick at the carrot, knocking into the sink. The celery threw the mortar and pestle at my face as I slid across the floor into the living room. I threw up my arm and gasped in pain as the mortar and pestle smashed into my forearm. I reached up on the coffee table for my art history book and flung it at the celery. It tried to jump out of the way, but my throw was too quick. The book snapped the celery in two. The onion screamed and raced at me, bread knife raised. I parried the blow and smashed the onion under my foot. My eyes started to tear from its fumes as I bounded into the kitchen. The carrot was just climbing out of the sink as I got to it. With a flick of my knife I sliced it in two. I turned to see the can of diced tomatoes tightening its grip on a pair of steak knives. I lunged for the can opener…

There’s blood in the Bolognese!

Adaptation

Recently I tried adapting a short story I wrote into a short film. Here's the story.

Nowhere

            She was in one of her moods again, I could tell the moment I walked in the kitchen door.

“Where on earth have you been?” my mother shrieked at me. I rolled my eyes and sighed. Parents are always so nosy.

“Nowhere,” I replied. My dad, seated at the kitchen table, looked up from his newspaper and took a sip of coffee.

“Welcome back stranger,” he said.

“Nowhere?” my mother continued her rant. “You’ve been gone a fortnight! We called the police!”

“Honestly mother, who says fortnight?” I said, pouring a glass of water from the faucet.

“Don’t you give me attitude, Ed don’t let him give me attitude!”

“Don’t give your mother attitude Sid.” My dad didn’t look up from his paper. My mom stared out the kitchen window.

“I suppose that’s nothing as well?” She snapped. I followed her gaze outside where Bob was picking through the rosemary.

“I guess so,” I mumbled.

“Sid, a flying saucer landed in my herb garden, and you and that thing get out of it and it’s nothing? What is that thing anyway and what’s it doing to my rosemary?” she demanded.

“The flying saucer is actually more of an oval. That’s Bob; he works for the Galactic Council. He’s sort of a sheriff for this sector of space. He collects culinary herbs from different planets as a hobby,” I replied, watching as Bob collected sprigs in his tentacles.

“Oh his name’s Bob is it?”

“Well his actual name is unpronounceable for humans.”

“What in God’s name were you doing with him?”

“It’s no big deal mother.”

“It’s no big…Ed, seriously, help me out here, “ she turned to my father. My father took a sip of coffee.

“Being abducted by aliens is serious Sid, answer your mother,” he said, his eyes scanning the sports section.

“Fine,” I said. “I was just picked at random to defend the merits of humans. Whether we should be allowed to continue inhabiting the Earth or if it should be destroyed by the Galactic Council.” That made her pause for a second.

“And you expect me to believe you’ve been gone for two weeks defending the Earth from total annihilation?” She had her arms folded and was tapping her foot.

“I expect it’s about as believable as an alien lawman picking rosemary in your herb garden, but there ya go,” I replied, gesturing towards Bob as he lurched back aboard his ship. The hatch closed and it lifted off without a sound and zipped off into the atmosphere.

“Oh lord,” my mother sighed. “My basil is ruined.”

“Saved the world, eh?” my dad said, looking up from his paper. “How?”

“Oh, hit ‘em with a couple millennia of art, from Polykleitos to Michaelangelo. Gave ‘em a bit of Shakespeare next with a little Pablo Neruda on the side. Then capped it off with Beethoven’s 5^th,” I told him.

“That’s my boy,” he said. “So that did the trick?”

“Nope,” I replied. “Turns out they love reality television and Earth is the only planet that produces it.” My dad shook his head.

“There’s no accounting for taste,” he said, turning to the business section.

“I hope Bob fed you, because I’m not making you breakfast,” my mother said. “And you’re going to school today.”

“I’m not hungry,” I said and stomped to my room to get my backpack. I said goodbye and went out to catch the bus and barely managed to get to school on time. Everyone stared as I walked in the classroom. I sat down at my usual place next to my friend Derek. He leaned over to me.

“Dude, where the hell have you been? “ he whispered. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

“In outer space, defending the Earth from total destruction,” I said. He threw up his hands in mock surrender.

“Whatever man, don’t tell me.”

Starfield Timelapse

My first attempt at a night timelapse:

High Dynamic Range

Here's a couple experiments with HDR photography. The one in the backyard is a blend of three separate RAW images, the one of Pittock Mansion is three exposures taken from one RAW file.

I know HDR can be used to achieve a more subtle effect, but I like the cartoony aspects of these.

Star Photography

I took a stab at some star photography the other night. I took these shots from the back yard. Focusing was a bit of a challenge at first. Lens is Canon 18-135 3.5 IS, aperture wide open, 800 ISO. Light pollution is an issue. Can't wait to get away from the city to try this. Apparently, focusing on foreground elements will focus the stars as well.