Big Creative on a Little Budget

What started as an exploration in creativity quickly became an exercise in overcoming budgetary and environmental obstacles. Some key elements to take note of :

1. The sky, in all of the scenes, has been completely replaced with more dramatic, time lapse footage.
2. A flock of perfectly-timed ANIMATED birds fly over the scene. (In reality, there was only one bird that appeared in any of the footage we shot.)
3. Weeds and other elements appear to grow out of the cracks in the street.
4. The trees on the horizon have been removed.
5. The color of the piece is now uniform and reflects the otherworldliness we wanted to achieve.  In reality, the changing light during the shoot dramatically modified the colors and light in each scene.

See below for more details and an animated movie that slowly reveals the many layers involved in crafting the final piece.

Tools & Techniques HD 1080i cinematography, undercrank blur (an in-camera effect), light reflectors (the only way to economically control the lighting), HD editing, After Effects, Photoshop, 3DS Max and Cinema 4D.

Obstacles Budget (there wasn’t one), Traffic (but they all waved), a lone walker (who transformed into a speed walker when she realized she was in the shot), crop spraying (he also waved), less-than-perfect clouds (where are those Biblical Clouds when you really need them?), constantly changing light levels, the inability to (economically) light the scene, a line of trees in the distance that really bothered Dan and having to deal with really uncooperative talent. View the animated transformation: