Oswald in Columbus, OH

Yes, he’s a penguin, and he’s on his way to Los Angeles!! Become a fan of our friend, “Oswald the Penguin,” on Facebook and follow our journey out west. That’s right, baby, we’re going to California!

To follow Oswald, click here!

USC School of Cinematic Arts

For those of you that don’t know, I have been formally accepted to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts! I will be attending the school this fall to pursue my masters degree in Film Production. The SCA is one of the most prestigious film schools on the planet, so I am honored to be admitted to the university.

Last September, I took my first trip to California, which included a simple tour of the School of Cinematic Arts. It blew me away! The facilities, the people, the attitude. Everything was amazing and right in the heart of the film industry. When I returned home I knew what I had to do. I had to get to Hollywood.

One year later, I’m going, and I cannot be more excited.

They're here! The Zombies! Photo credit: Corry Vargo

“The Zombie Opera” Production Days #4-7

Time flies! It feels like just last week that we began production on “Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera.” Now that we’ve wrapped our seventh day of shooting, I can officially say that this show is going to rock! Obviously, I will not be able to discuss too much in great detail (or else you won’t be surprised at the show!), but I have jotted down some notes from what you’ve missed.

May 26: Production Day #4

Our first official zombie: Colleen Bogovich (Yep! Our Mom!) Photo credit: Arvin Clay

Still setup from Day #3 with the introduction of Izzie’s character, we filmed the second half of the scene, which gave us our first glimpse of an on-screen zombie! Arvin Clay, our Special Effects Makeup Designer, put together some great effects for a very scary look.

The Wednesday shoot also featured Jordan Speranzo, 14, playing the role of “Aidan.”

Preparing the next shot. Photo credit: Arvin Clay

Aidan (Jordan Speranzo) and sister Izzie (Liz Rishel) Photo credit: Barry Bogovich

May 29-30: Production Days #5-6

Party on! That’s right, and every good story about the apocalypse deserves a good party, so we set out with cameras ready and a great turnout of extras to create a hopping party scene for the show.

Party Lighting In Effect. Photo credit: Barry Bogovich

An exciting challenge for the shoot was creating the illusion of a truly rocking event. Digging through my past life as a DJ (you didn’t know that, did you?), I pulled out some old lighting goodies from the closet to enhance the scene. My favorite effects include the American DJ “Epsilon,” a multicolored light effect that moves colored beams to the music, and the Chauvet Abyss II, a very unique tranquil mood setting light that simulates running water! Add a strobe light and a fog machine then BAM, crazy lighting!

At the end of the two day shoot, we had captured enough interior and exterior footage of the scene to simulate a really fun setting. To add more realism to the scene, beverages were provided by Iron City, our generous beer sponsor for the show. Thanks to the extras who showed up to get down!

June 5: Production Day #7

Bring on the Zombies! This saturday’s shoot involved one of the most intense moments of the entire show (but we won’t tell you which one!) The scene called for a very large swarm of zombies, and that’s exactly what we got. Our special FX makeup team, Arvin Clay and Jessica Bala, were more than ready to face the challenge, and our extras were more than eager to dress up.

Work of art. Photo credit: Corry Vargo

Photo credit: Corry Vargo

Photo credit: Corry Vargo

Director of Photography Ed Huang and me. Photo credit: Corry Vargo

Me directing the swarm. Photo credit: Corry Vargo

The Sprout Fund Summer Social

This friday, the Sprout Fund held their Summer Social party in East Liberty. As a Seed Award recipient of the Fund, “The Zombie Opera” was provided with a booth at the event where artistic directors Bonnie Bogovich and Liz Rishel spread the word of the show. Music was provided by DJ Edgar Um and Dream Job (these guys were great!). Ed Huang, our director of photography, also made an appearance. Despite the rain, it was a fun time with good music and really great people.

Take a peak at some pictures from the event and a short video of our experience. Thanks to all who made it out. We’ll see you in October!

Planting Seeds from Barry Bogovich on Vimeo.

]]> http://barrybogovich.com/?feed=rss2&p=606 3 http://barrybogovich.com/?p=546 http://barrybogovich.com/?p=546#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 01:26:26 +0000 admin http://barrybogovich.com/?p=546

For ages, technology has been used to help storytellers showcase their work and reach out to their audience in new ways. From film cameras and surround sound and the Internet, the possibilities seem endless, but what if you wanted to blend a live stage show with filmed action on a movie screen? We set out on a quest to find out.

This past February, producers/artistic directors Bonnie Bogovich and Liz Rishel came to me to discuss their latest project, “Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera.” Not only was I already hooked to become a part of an opera based on zombies, but they wanted even more. Bonnie and Liz presented the concept of combining traditional theater with projected video backgrounds in the place of conventional sets. The (insanely awesome) idea would expand a normal stage experience into a multimedia paradise of live actors and cinematic moments that can only be made possible with a film camera.

Okay, let’s recap: Real people on stage in front of a prerecorded video projected on a movie screen

As the project’s director of video production, I was immediately faced with some exciting challenges:

1. How do we create images for video projection that can ‘interact’ with our actors on stage?
2. What format should we shoot on? (Resolution? Focal lengths?)
3. How do we compose these images in a way that produces the illusion of realistic, life-sized characters? (Distance from action? Height of camera?)

The answer to practically all of these questions was simple: Try it out and see what happens. So I grabbed my trusty Canon Rebel T2i DSLR and started shooting scenes with my brother/video assist expert, Brian Bogovich.

The first test involved a large living room setting where we experimented how far the camera should be from the actors. With the screen of the theater being about 10′ tall, we knew that a 6′ tall person should look slightly taller than half the frame (see the above image). Based on these facts, we shot the following scene, placing the camera 10′ away from the actors, and at about eye level for a person sitting in a chair.

18mm at 10' away

Yikes!! Immediately after the camera stopped rolling, we realized that at 18mm, a person standing 10′ away from the camera would look like a monster! So in take #2, we reshot with the action 15′ away and BOOM! Perfect height.

18mm at 15' away

At this point, we were feeling okay, we had some room on the left for the action to enter/exit the frame, and although the right side still looked too close for comfort, it would probably be cropped off anyways. This past monday we borrowed a space and a projector to see just how realistic it was. The results were surprisingly good!

Scene Projected

With a simple projector displaying onto a wall exactly 10′ tall, the action in the foreground (15′ away from our camera) looked just about right. As you can see in the above image, my figure looks like I can take a sit right there in the folding chair (if only I wasn’t digitized!). Liz in the ’stage’ area could walk close to the projection and fit right in. (Note: The projector we will use in the theater can project within 3′ of the screen, our test projector could not do this so we just placed on a table)

Still, something wasn’t exactly perfect. We were seeing way too much floor, and Brian’s figure in the background was too high on the screen to be realistic. I determined that the issue was the height of the tripod at the time of shooting. After a couple tests we came up with a better combination: 18mm, 15′ away, 2′ 9″ high.

18mm at 15' away 2' 9 high

Notice the height of the far door (about 7 feet tall)

We quickly threw the clips into our laptop and took a look. With the camera being slightly lower than our previous test, the floor appeared lower in the frame. And now the final test. Projected on screen with real people in the foreground… Success! I think we’re onto something here.

So there you have it, our magical formula for creating a fictional world behind real live actors. Although the test footage is rough (and green, yuck!), you can expect something very cool growing from this test in the future at the live show, “Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera” coming to Pittsburgh in Fall 2010!

Liz Rishel as Izzie from The Zombie Opera

“The Zombie Opera” Production Day #3

It was an exciting day in Zombie Opera history. Not only did we see Liz Rishel’s character, Izzie in full costume and makeup, but we also began using the latest trend in filmmaking formats: The HD-shooting DSLR.

First off, “Izzie” looked stunning with an outfit designed by Liz Rishel herself, a killer wig, and makeup by the talented Lily Wasik. All I can say is “Wow”! It is such an excellent feeling when to see characters finally coming to life! Sunday’s scene involved some very intense moments, and Liz came through with a great performance. We will keep the momentum up rolling into wednesday’s shoot for the second half of the location.

Izzie

With the “news footage” segments behind us, production has turned to a more “cinematic” approach. For this reason, I wanted to achieve a look that had the characteristics closely identified with Hollywood cinema: Shallow depth of field, customizable film ISO speeds, and a true 24p frame rate. Eventually I realized to that we would need to stray away from conventional video cameras. Enter the DSLR.

Rebel T2i in action

Armed with my new Canon Rebel T2i camera and a lighting kit, we began tests for Sunday and Wednesday’s night scenes. The DSLR afforded us everything we were looking for. Customizable shutter speeds, aperture, film ISO speeds, and 24p frame rate at full 1080p HD. With its small size, it also gave us the ability to get into tight corners, such as the scene’s hallway setting.

DP Ed Huang and myself in the hallway corner.

Once the lighting was in place, the shoot went very smoothly. Arvin Clay, special fx makeup mastermind joined us on set as we prepared for our first zombie footage coming up on wednesday. It should be quite an interesting experience. More to come this week!

Arvin helping Liz with her makeup

Photos by Corry Vargo ©2010

Leo pulling a kick flip

Skateboarding. It’s aggressive, it’s graceful, it looks great in slow motion. So we hit the town with my Canon T2i DSLR camera, two boards, and some Red Bull to see what we could do.

Overall, I’m very impressed with how the footage came out. With the sun going down fast and available light quickly disappearing on us, I was worried the footage would come out dark. However, the little Rebel held up and we still got some beautiful shots.

What I learned: From the beginning of the shoot to the end (with no light at all), I noticed how critical focusing becomes with the iris wide open. As we kept filming, the camera was opened at f2.8 almost the entire time, which is why a good bit of my shots came out blurry.

Give the video a look and let me know what you think!

Maybe Tomorrow (T2i Slow-mo Test) from Barry Bogovich on Vimeo.

After preparing some test shots for “The Zombie Opera” last night, I had some free time to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while: Photograph stars.

Now from a video standpoint, I am still scratching my head regarding how to film stars. However, the Canon Rebel T2i, being a superb still camera, affords any user the ability to perform long exposures, as I demonstrated in my low light test posted earlier this month. This is by no means a new idea, with long exposures existing since the advent of film. But it’s certainly a new world for me!

By using the Rebel on my tripod and setting to expose between 15 and 25 seconds, I was able to capture some cool galaxy moments (posted below). Obviously there is more to learn as most of my photos turned out blurry, but for first steps I am pretty psyched. (Most of the blur was from bumping the camera while pressing/releasing the shutter button, which can be eliminated with a good timer remote – coming in the mail soon!)

[View with PicLens]

Reporting live from the Oakland Zone!

“The Zombie Opera” Production Day #2

Still feeling good from last Sunday’s shoot at Duquense University, we rolled straight into Saturday’s production in Oakland. Blue skies and a nice bright sun got everyone in the mood to create one of the most difficult scenes for “The Zombie Opera.” The shoot was another success!

Production for the simulated newscast included a wide variety of talent and several challenges. Not only did we need to shoot seven different actors (while singing!), we needed to create a convincing riot with less than a dozen extras.

Nathan shooting Tommy (Soldier) and Mike (News Anchor)

With the scope of this scene, we shouted an “all hands on deck” order. Joining our crew on set was Nathan Fullerton (camera and assist), Matt Reese (assistant director), Jill Egyud (extras coordinator), Marjorie Rishel (script supervisor), and fight choreographers Sean Martin and Keith Leonard (not to mention a handful of really great production assistants coming and going throughout the day!).

As the day went on, the complexity of the scenes increased. By far the most difficult challenge of the day was directing the riot/fight that breaks out. With the help of Matt, Sean, and Keith, we were able to organize a congested group of extras around our talent making the area appear to be extremely crowded. In reality, there was no one else behind them, but with the help of a few close camera angles by Ed, the scene looked like chaos; exactly what we were looking for.

But that’s not all! Thanks to some good old choreography by Sean and Keith, the action of the fight scene came to life. The technique used a system of star stickers (yes the kind your teacher gave you in 2nd grade). By using the stickers, each actor knew if they were an intimidator or running for their lives. After watching the shots play out, the riot came off very realistic and convincing!

By 6:00 we had all of the shots we needed, but with some extra juice in the camera’s battery, we decided to let our fight guys have some fun. In half an hour, we simulated enough head bashing, gut punching, and body flipping to really amp up the scene’s hysteria. Kudos to the extras that hung around for the final minutes (especially those who didn’t mind a bit of fake blood)!

Thanks to our cast and crew for an action packed shoot!!

Here we go!!

Today marks the first day of production for “Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera!” For those of you unaware, “Evenings” is a brand new film/stage production that will be coming to Pittsburgh in Fall 2010. As the director of video production, I am more than excited to be a part of this creative and highly ambitious project!

Shooting began at Duquesne University’s Media Center. The small television studio with a news desk and green screen provided the perfect backdrop for the show’s newscasts. Our crew consisted of Bonnie Bogovich and Liz Rishel (creators/artistic directors of the project), Ed Huang (Director of Photography), Evan Miller (Production Designer), Brian Bogovich (Script Supervisor), and Ashley Birt (Production Assistant). In front of camera was the talented David Egyud, who performed practically flawlessly throughout the day.

For today’s production we decided to shoot with Ed’s JVC HD100 HDV Camera. The style of this broadcast-inspired camera produced the perfect images required for the newscast mockup. Audio was captured with a shotgun boom, but due to the nature of the project, the majority of audio in these scenes will be remastered with new music tracks for the stage presentation.

At the end of the day, we accomplished all of the shots we wanted to get (and in record time). Looks like this project is off to a great start!!

More information on “Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera!” can be found here.

(We’d like to send a special thank you to Duquesne’s Media Center staff for their amazing efforts to supply the space for our production. You guys rocked!)