The Osborne Bum Project Expands To Vimeo

Busy trying to put together a showreel for when I refer potential employers to my videos. Vimeo seemed like a pretty good place top start. Have a look at The Osborne Bum Project as well as 5 of my other Erickson Film Inc. videos.

http://vimeo.com/channels/osbornebum

http://vimeo.com/groups/ericksonfilm

Bum Steer Banter - An In Depth Look

Here I will Explain how the Osborne Bum video, Bum Steer Banter, in which I portrayed all three Dr. Bums on screen simultaneously was achieved.

Video

Step 1. First I filmed the hall scene. I carried the camera with the tripod attached down our basement hall and placed it where it would remain for the film.

Step 2. Then I filmed each part. The young one first, the old second and the middle one third. I’ll get into the how I did the audio synchronization later. I’ve got two main points I want to cover here. The first being the clip of the camera coming down the hall which was being carried by myself to enter into a room where there were three characters already seated also being played by me. The second being how I pulled off the effect of the young one ripping the old one’s red skull cap off. As you’ll see here, when I played the part off the young one there is a green platform with the cap on top of it situated beside him. This was so I could key out the green and the original first clip of the background would show through. And at the appropriate time I simply pulled it off the green platform. Now the hard part was the old one’s contribution to this effect. When I played the part of the old one I attached a thread to cap, which was kept hidden wrapped around my index finger on my right hand. Again at the right the in the film I held out both hands and gave the thread a tug with my right hand which pulled off the cap. That hand was also hidden at that particular point due to my other hand being in front of it. I then sort of merged the two clips together. See the detailed step - by - step diagram below: Click To See Full Size.

The other effect as mentioned above was the camera entrance scene. This was probably the hardest part of the entire video as it took about a week and a half to perfect. Now what I basically did was apply this to the clip of the camera entering the room with the clips of the three Osbornes. The hard part was that the camera entrance clip was moving, so halfway through I switched to a still shot of the in between turn and connected it to the other clips. I then preceded to use After Effects’ virtual camera to pan across the entire image of the connected clips of video in 3D space. Next is the Audio.

Audio

Step 1. The first task that had to be completed was to read the entire Bum Steer Banter script (all three parts) into the computer.

Step 2. I then had to mute out the young one’s part, due to the fact that he was the one I would be portraying first.

Step 3. Next I had to burn that onto a CD as a wav file.

Step 4. The next thing that had to be done was to act out the young one’s part opposite the recording on that CD on my CD player. Note: The camera cannot move once its final position has been established during the cloning process. In FX terms cloning is having one actor portray multiple roles. This is because you would have a ghost image of video due the fact that each part wouldn’t be in line corresponding to the others in appearance. You can only move the camera up and down or left to right to simulate a camera pan. I get into that a bit later. Even then the tripod must remain in its current position at all times. Now back to the audio. Since the camera cannot be moved, I was in a bit of a bind for the simple reason that I couldn’t bring it upstairs to import the footage into the computer to now use the young one’s audio that I had acted out. Now take note MIND YOU, this is not the original reading of the script that I had read into the computer. The reason that I have to use the new audio in the first place is because it is the actual footage that I will be responding to as the other two elder Osbornes. This needed to be done in order for it to be timed correctly. So what did I do? Well that leads us to step 5.

Step 5. What I ultimately ended up doing since the camera could not be taken off the tripod, was to just place my old VHS camera sitting on one of the chairs in front of the scene. Actually it happened to be located in that huge pile of crap you saw on the camera entrance scene. This camera was used to record the scene for audio only purposes.

Step 6. Next what I had to do was take that tape upstairs and import it into my computer and burn the audio from it onto a new CD.

Step 7. After that I muted out the old one’s audio from the original recording that I had read into the computer in step 1, which the young one was speaking opposite to in his scene. This was done because I would be portraying the old next.

Step 8. Now I had to play the old and use the audio from that recoding on CD and talk opposite to it. You see I can’t just simply read the script and mute out each that I was currently playing and speak opposite to them. I just wouldn’t be timed right. You must be speaking to the actual recording’s audio from the film of the part. I only used the original recording’s audio of the script that I had read into the computer as a reference for the young one as a reference for the young one, since that part was being portrayed first.

Step 9. Step 9 was simple. Well simple to understand in this video. Not simple for me to do because that who entire process had to be repeated once more for the middle one’s part. All in all that had to be done about 2 & 1/2 times. Now I know what thinking, 2 & 1/2, how do you figure? Well it’s not a full 3 due to the fact that young one only had to respond to the original reading of all three parts of the entire script that I had read into the computer and burned onto a CD. Now we’re not done with the audio yet. This leads me to the 10^th step.

Step 10. After all three parts had been recorded, I could now bring the camera upstairs and import the footage into my computer and begin to edit it. Now I can’t just simply use the three separate video clips in they’re current state for the reason that they have the CD recordings opposite them playing also. I wanted just the actual Osborne’s audio that was being portrayed in teach particular clip, not the CD in the background with it. If I left it the way it was you would hear triple the audio for each part. You’d hear the actual video of the Osborne that was speaking plus, you would also hear that same audio in the other two video clips on the CD. So that brings me to the next step.

Step 11. What I had to do next was extract the audio from each video clip and mute out the CD recording of the other two opposite the part to which I was currently playing. I then had to line it all up to the video.

Step 12. So you wouldn’t be able to tell where the audio had been muted I had to add a subtle feedback-buzzing hum over the whole video. If I didn’t do this, it would sound like the audio just completely disappears entirely. Plus the camera makes a slight humming sound and the furnace was going in the background, so all that would just disappear. So what I did was record just silence on my computer for about 30 seconds and duplicate until it reached the length needed for the video, which was a little over 5 min. I then amplified the volume of it to replicate as much I could the camera’s feedback. By the way did you know that feedback on audio devices is supposedly the sound left over from the Big Bang. Just thought I’d throw that little tidbit in there. Now you might be wondering how I got them to talk over each at same time. Pretty simple actually. For example, when the young one and the old both say simultaneously, I was practicing for my show. I simply muted that line out on the old one’s part from the original script reading. I also muted it out on the old one’s audio on the CD during the filming of the young one’s scene. I still had the audio from the video to use in the final footage and overlapped the two audio files in the editing program iMovie. From a technical standpoint they can never truly overlap in audio, meaning you could not speak at what is supposed to be the same point in time during the filming of each clip. But there are ways of getting around that as I have just explained. That wraps up the audio portion of this behind the scenes video. By the way after I filmed this the first time I fowled up the part in the video where the young pulls the old one’s cap off and you guessed I had to do everything I just said here a second time. Each time took about 8 hrs.

View The Finished Result Here:

A Bit of Video Magic

Last year, on the 20th of September, I was hired to film a wedding. I decided to share one particular scene from it, due to very intense editing that was involved. There are two videos here of the same shot, the second one being an edited version of the first. I have combined them both into the same video. The scene was of the bride's dance with her father. I used two cameras, one for a close-up and the other was located on the opposite side of the room capturing a far-shot of the same scene. The scene started out with a full sized version of the close-up shot and then divided into a split screen, displaying both the close-up and far-shot simultaneously.

Unfortunately, a waitress crossed in front of the far-shot and stayed with the back of her head to the left side of the screen for the remainder of the shot beginning about 2/3 of the in after the screen splits. So what I basically did is made it look as though the waitress never appeared. The first one called Don & Jenn's Dance is the original shot I created in Adobe After Effects, with the waitress's head blocking the screen. The second one entitled Don & Jenn's Dance (Edited) is my complete revamp of this shot, in which I removed her from the frame.

At first, I was at a loss as to what to do about this issue, along with the bride's grandmother crossing the screen at the same point in time at a further distance. Then it hit me, Osborne Bum! For those of you who know who Osborne Bum is, you may be wondering what he has to do with this. Well, I just applied the same principle that I use to duplicate myself onscreen as the three Bums, called masking, to this problem. The only challenge was that when I film the Bum videos, they are all planned out and set it up accordingly to create the effect I want to achieve. This was not planned at all, so I had to do it from scratch. It was the hardest thing I ever did by far. Nothing before or since has come even close to the nearly two month ordeal it took me to pull this off.

Since I was using the cloning method to resolve this, I kept ending up with two of the groom's mother, Marie, in the background. She happened to be situated standing on the left side of the big wooden pole in the middle of the screen. When the waitress came in, her head covered Marie. This caused a major issue due to the fact that Marie eventually turned to the right and walked behind the pole and came out the other side of it and became visible again. This was a problem because I had just used the clip of her standing next to the pole, prior to the waitress blocking her and layered it over the waitress's head along with earlier and later footage from the shot. As a result, when she walked behind the pole which was no longer visible at this point, I ended up with two Maries. I had basically cloned her in the shot. This hurdle plagued me for days, when I realized that I had to take the footage of her in mid-turn which was still visible and combine it with the clip I had of her from the earlier point. I then key-framed her movement to animate her turning and walking behind the pole. I had to use a still clip of the pole and place it in front of this or else it would appear that she walked in front of the pole and not behind it. She then appeared on the other side.

Luckily the photographer happened to take a picture right in between the initial entrance of the waitress. I used the camera flash as a transition to combine earlier footage of them turning and spliced it with later footage. This was then reversed, slowed down, warped to match the shape of the original and ultimately cross-dissolved back into the correct place in time. Also since there were camera flashes going off, when I replaced the side of the screen that the waitress blocked, it didn't flash since the footage wasn't from the same point in time. Half the screen remained dark. So I had to manually add each flash back that the photographer took. The last thing I did was to add in the reflection of the bride and her father back on the floor. This needed to be done because the floor was for the most part a still clip, from an earlier point in time.

View Video Clip Below:

Ryan's Alter Ego (Meet Dr. Osborne Bum)

ABOUT

Dr. Osborne Bum is a character I created in junior high school and further developed while attending high school. The story progressed over a four-year period and included aspects of Steve Irwin, Chris Farley, The Three Stooges, (hence, the opening logos which are modeled after Columbia, the studio that housed The Stooges) The Looney Tunes and The Ren & Stimpy Show.

CHARACTER HISTORY & CREATION

Dr. Bum is depicted at three, different ages throughout his life: 32, 67 and 92. Osborne Bum can appear articulate and intelligent or senile and wacky, depending on the stage of his life. There is a long story behind the character. He has a PhD in Zoology and hosts a show, along with another zoologist named Dr. John (Jack) Mac, called "Wild Discovery," after the defunct show with the same name from the Discovery Channel. I called the channel, The Explorer Channel. From ages 32 to 67, Dr. Bum went on expeditions to a place known as Acromeglia—which was taken from a Ren & Stimpy cartoon episode. My former high school friends would play the parts of the animals he would encounter. We used their first names for the names of each species, basically to make fun of our very low budget. I got the idea from the Tree Geezer in the same Ren & Stimpy cartoon. It was like mixing Steve Irwin's animal encounters with a Ren & Stimpy mind-set.

At the age of 67, a much fatter, bumbling Dr. Osborne Bum retired from his expeditions. He began hosting a variety show called, Osborne Bum & His Big Fat Bum. This show covered a wide range of topics and featured Osborne's two brothers, as well. Each week, Dr. Bum would discuss his former adventures, as well as political events, the art of cooking, hunting, fishing, and bird watching--which resulted in the death of the bird, instead of simply watching it. This show was derived from the combined influences of Chris Farley, The Three Stooges and The Looney Tunes.

By the age of 87, Dr. Bum, became a loud, senile, gray-haired, grumpy, old man and ended his program. After being broadcast for twenty years, he was too old and senile to keep it going. He was then given another show to fill in an empty time-slot on public television entitled, Osborne Bum On Talk. That program was like a late-night talk show, gone horribly wrong. Osborne would be trying to interview a guest, but something always seemed to prevent it from going smoothly. In one episode, his stage crew would repeatedly shut off the main set lights and shine a bright stage light in his face. Another common occurrence was paying off security and attempting to "take over the show." Sometimes Osborne would be plagued by both predicaments at the same time. Dr. Bum continued to host the show for the next five years, until he reached the age of 92, when he retired from public life. He died five years later at age 98.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN

Dr. Osborne Bum (Age 32) a.k.a. "The Young Osborne Bum": The very first Osborne Bum character was created from my imagination while filming with a few friends. On the morning of April 19, 1998, we were fooling around with my new video camera. We started referring to one of the guys as a species that had a defense mechanism of highly toxic methane gas. We pretended that some of the other kids were the natives of the land. While I was filming, I stated, "We are in the eastern part of South Africa, mind you. Very strange jungles. I am your host, Osborne Bum." My guess is as good as anybody's, as to where, why, or how the name came to me. It was an epiphany. Osborne Bum was born. Originally, the character was silly, with a speech impediment, and spoke in a high-pitched voice. I later dropped the speech impediment and gave him a much more serious and well-educated tone.

Dr. Osborne Bum (Age 67) a.k.a. "The Middle Osborne Bum": Bear in mind, the middle Dr. Bum was actually the last one I came up with in order of creation, after "The Old Osborne Bum" -- see next section. The old one had two different revisions--the latter of which was created after the middle one. The Middle Dr. Bum was first introduced while filming a movie called The Geezer Part II (see Dr. Bum (Age 92) for The Geezer Part I). I decided to make sort of a prequel to The Geezer, with Osborne appearing younger than the old one, but older than the young one. The Geezer series was comprised of Osborne recollecting his adventures from years past, with a heavy-set, balding, bumbling, half-senile Dr. Bum. That particular Dr. Bum was also the first to be featured wearing his trademark red skullcap to hide his baldness.

Dr. Osborne Bum (Age 92) a.k.a. "The Old Osborne Bum": Later the same month, The Geezer Part I was produced. Time-wise, it was filmed closed to the video in which the original version of the first Dr. Bum was formed. The first version of the old Osborne Bum depicted characteristics similar to the original version of the young one, such as the high-pitched voice and speech impediment. While I eventually removed those mannerisms from the young Dr. Bum, I changed the old one's persona, as well. This occurred about a year after the birth of the original character in 1999. The very first time the old one made an appearance he wore a black robe with a red sash. Other standards in his appearance are his trademark coke bottle glasses, a very long beard, and a white strip of hair, which I simply placed on the top of my head. His look was totally revamped, with the exception of the robe and sash. He then donned the cap-- which had been previously introduced with the middle one--only he was completely bald on the top of his head. To compensate for his baldness, he grew his hair exceptionally long on the sides, causing him to resemble Larry Fine of The Three Stooges. His beard was also a bit shorter than originally depicted. Osborne's personality had greatly changed from the original old one, as well. The old Dr. Bum became a loud, grumpy, boisterous, senile old kook, who had no patience for anything or anyone.

Note: The original reason all three Dr. Bums are able to appear simultaneously is due to a mutation. A big-foot type of Cyclops creature bit Dr Bum, while on a hunting expedition with Dr. Mac. He mutated into half-man, half-beast and roamed the forests and jungles of Acromeglia for 20 years. He was later found, at the age of 87, and restored to normal by his former assistant. This occurred when Dr. Bum was attacked with a nuclear weapon, in order to prevent him from destroying a particular species in Acromeglia. He was not only restored to normal, but by splicing his genes, he was split into three separate versions of himself at varying ages. I am currently reworking this part of the story to make better sense. I will be writing a new, updated explanation about how Dr. Bum manages to appear alongside two other versions of his character. Stay Tuned!

View Video Samples Here: