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Jordy here for cinecom.net and we're back with another Copy Cat Friday.
The series where we recreate a film or editing technique.
And today we're having a look at Believer from Imagine Dragons.
They have a spectacular lighting show in that clip
and most of it is done through lasers, star curtains and other special lighting.
We don't have those things, unfortunately,
so we came out with recreating these lighting effects using a projector.
Definitely not the same results, but you can create some really unique sceneries with this.
It's actually an idea we got from lighting manufacturer Aputure,
who also run a YouTube channel and they have made an introduction video...
...to using a projector as a creative light.
I'll leave a link to it in the description below.
We started off with the top shot and attached the projector and the camera on the ceiling.
We are aware that this is not accessible for everyone,
but after this we'll have a look at a more practical setup.
Next we would create a grid inside After Effects.
These where just simple lines on which we've applied a glow and animated the position.
In the middle we had a black square as that would represent our fighting area.
You can also find different shapes or abstract backgrounds elsewhere.
We got a few from Canvas, which is a video pack from Rocketstock.
They're sponsoring todays episode,
So, thank you Rocketstock.
It's a collection of 100 loopable backgrounds in different styles.
You can combine them, change their colors and more to create unique projections...
...or other visuals.
You can visit the first link in the description below to find out more.
The projector had to be straight above us, so that we would cast minimum shadows.
Through an app on my phone, I was able to change the settings of my camera and hit record.
As a test, we also tried to recreate the lighting from the colored panels...
...in the clip from Imagine Dragons.
I had some cheap LED panels laying around on which we attached some gels.
Since the panels themselves didn't looked so awesome as in the clip,
we decided to keep them off screen.
But it did created this nice reflection of colors on the floor and on us.
You can also fill the room with some smoke.
Just make sure it's not too much, a little mist is more than enough.
The light from the projector will cast on it as well,
so having a little smoke will add more depth to the scene.
The next shot we made was a more simple rigging.
The projector is going to create a background for us.
Here we needed to avoid any shadows, so...
...try and place the projector above the talent or from a side.
In the clip you would see these lasers coming from behind.
Again, we don't have lasers,
so I downloaded a few stock clips and projected it on the wall behind us.
To light the talent, we used one tungsten fresnel on the side
to make the talent appear warmer and thus creating a deeper contrast with the background.
We did the same thing with the fight scene,
only here we would use small dots like from a star curtain in the back.
Now, you can find such stock clips if you would search for keywords like bokeh.
And by the way, you can find all links to everything we used in the description below,
even the animated grid that we created ourselves.
The shot where Yannick was sitting in his chair worked best with some smoke again.
It gave more depth to the fake lasers that we were using.
We even tried to put the projector behind him, but that didn't worked out too well.
The best results came from actually projecting on the wall behind him.
For the final step, we're bringing everything in Premiere Pro.
The top shot is pretty static,
so the first thing I wanted to do is add some fake camera movement to it.
With the clip selected, head over to Effects Controls...
...and under the Motion property create a keyframe for the scale and the rotation.
Then move a bit further in time and rotate the clip a little.
Then adjust the scaling until you don't see those black edges anymore.
Now it looks like the camera is coming down while turning,
which is a cool effect in a top shot.
For the color grading, I had to create lots of contrast,
as the brightness of the projector wasn't too much.
The surrounding had to be dark, so I first decreased the exposure a little and then the shadows.
Then I increased the highlights a little and the whites a lot.
If you still need to add more contrast, you can still increase the contrast slider too.
This way, the lines from the grid became more prominent.
If necessary you can also play around with the temperature and tint sliders to change the hue,
as the projector could give a weird color cast.
And that's all there was to it!
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Thank you so much for watching,
and stay creative!