GW PRODUCTION: CREATING THE ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE

Alongside the archival photos of Ben Wright and the Global Warmning movement I wanted to add some moving image footage of the time to bring Ben Wright to life a little. This could then be added to the TV News package to show off ben some more to the audience.

Planning and Pre-production.
To try and super-impose his head on existing archive footage would be too complicated so I decided to shoot some original footage and then try and age it. I needed to source a period or older looking location and costume and props chair and book too see below.

Production
The main issue with this was that it had to be done at the same time as the photos so I only had about 10 minutes to do it with  Tom my actor. I sourced some period looking costume trousers, jacket and shirt from the late 60's early 70s and used my front room as a location which does have an older feel if not exactly 100% period authenticity. I also found an old chair and a book for Ben to be reading.

I also wanted to get across the fact that he was quiet and shy unlike Joseph Griffiths his partner in setting up the movement. Whilst I did not want him to be studious I concocted a scene where someone unseen catches him reading and proceeds to annoy him ending in him waving them away slightly amused/annoyed. In keeping with the era I wanted to make the footage feel like it was shot hand-held on an old standard or super 8 camera. Time would not allow me to actually do it this way (although a have a couple of Super 8 camera) so I shot it loose and hand held with a fixed focus and loose on a DSLR. The lighting was natural throughout.

TOM EDIT SUPER 8 FX DEMO from Jon Saward on Vimeo.

Post Production
The post production was where the look all came together. The process is outlined below.

• I edited a couple of the clips together in Adobe Premiere Pro to create a 20 second mini movie. I wanted the cuts to be jumpy as though the film was edited in camera in two short bursts. 
• Once this was done the process was to add some film grain to the clip to give it an older feel. I tried some effects from software packages, to add noise and grain and hairs on the film BUT these looked too processed. 
• So I found some old super 8 footage online of a clear super 8 leader running through a projector with no image but just the noise, grain and dust on the film. I added this on top of the footage of Tom and it gave it that old feel and even the power of the light changed and it added this change to the clip of Tom. It is easy to overdo these effects and restraint was needed to not go over the top.
• I also experimented with colour. Old super 8 film has a highly saturated colour and I wanted to add this to feel to the clip. After lots of experimentation a mixture of playing with the contrast and brightness, changing the colour balance of the red and green shadows and some red channel blur got the effect I was after. 
• Finally I made the screen image ration 4:3 as it would have been back when it was supposed to have been shot.

I was pretty pleased with the effects and seeing Ben "in action" did bring his character to life and also capture a little of his personality. The effects do come pretty close to replicating super 8 footage from my original shots although the best way obviously would have been to have shot on Super 8.