DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Watch Frank Sinatra Brought To Life With A Hypnotizing 2.5D Parallax Movie

Dec 15, 2015 by Udi Tirosh 2 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

If Frank Sinatra was alive, December 12th would have marked his 100th birthday. For this occasion Universal Music released a movie featuring the legend made by filmmaker Basti Hansen to promote the “Ultimate Sinatra CD Box”. Here is the cool thing, Basti did not want to use the ‘same old’ footage that have been seen-to-death again, and given complete creative freedom from Universal Music he created “a fun experience” from old Sinatra photographs. We asked Basti to share his thoughts about making the movie.

Why Parallax?

Working for Universal Music on this Sinatra movie was a pretty fun experience. I was given pretty much complete creative freedom which opened up so many options for me. It means you can play around, explore and try new things. Of course in the end you have to have something amazing for your client, so it’s kind of a fun pressure. The only constraints that I was given is that I had to work with this set of old photos of Sinatra.

I put on Frank Sinatra really loud and tried to soak up the atmosphere of the old photographs, trying to image how it must have been to be in that room while they record. I thought how cool would it be to dive into a photograph and all of a sudden things would start to move. This is when I realized I don’t want to show the photos in the video, I want the viewer to be in the photographs and that I could do that using the Parallax effect – rebuilding the atmosphere and depth.

sinatra-01

How did you select the photos?

I was given about 30 high resolution scans of old medium format photographs. A good Parallax effect has some prerequisites, like the ability to separate the background and good separation of one or more subjects. Between the ones I liked and the ones that made sense to work on, I was left with 10 photos which composed the final edit.

sinatra-02

How long did it take to complete the clip?

Each photo had to be processed individually. It has to be separated into layers, animating the layers with After Effects and finishing up in Premiere. The scenes have between two to five moving layers + Particle Systems and additional Dust layers to convey the feeling of depth and “being in a room”, plus the slight puppet animation of the characters. All and all it took me between a few hours and a day and a half to finish each scene and about a week to finish the entire movie.

What does the process looks like, how is it different from making/editing a movie

Working on a Parallax piece is more like working on a movie than editing an image. I tried to build an atmosphere in the clip so the order of the scenes as well as individual camera moves are orchestrated to provide a coherent feel. There are many decision that are similar to those of a director and a DP: how the camera moves, how many dust/particle to add to the scene, who is moving and how, how long is the camera move and how does it fit the score.

At the end, it is important to remember that it is not about the Parallax tool but about creating an atmosphere, and this is a lot like making a movie.

sinatra-03

What tools did you use to edit the clip?

I used the Adobe CC suite: Photoshop for isolation and layering, After Effects to create the 3D environment, Particle Systems, animating the layers and the virtual camera, and Premiere for putting it all together. I would usually start in Photoshop and then import the PSD layers into After Effects, then send the entire composition to Premiere to edit to the music that I mixed in Audition. Here is the cool thing though. It takes a lot of back and forth to fine tune and time things right on a project like this, especially in the end – the beautiful thing about Adobe’s tools are, when I made a change in Photoshop it was immediately updated in After Effects therefore in Premiere which makes it really fun tools to work with.

Thanks Basti, Hope to meet again at Sinatra’s 150th birthday.

Thanks Udi

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Watch As An Old, Damaged Photo Is Masterfully Brought To Life Watch mushrooms grow in this hypnotizing timelapse How To Do A 2.5D Parallax Animated Photo Effect Using Only Free Software BTS Look At How The Mesmerising “Parallax” Superbowl Commercial Was Photographed

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Basti Hansen, Frank Sinatra, parallax

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.net

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

« Japan Introduces A Drone Hunting Drone – Nets Rogue Drones In Mid Air
The Evolution of Cameras and Portraits in 11 Images »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Comica CVM-VM30 is the world’s first wireless shotgun mic
  • Everything you need to know about science/technology photography
  • How Fujifilm survived while Kodak didn’t
  • Use these two simple methods to remove skin shine from portraits
  • Improved Sun Moon Expert app gets you perfectly timed sun and moon photos

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy