Continuing my project for Motion Design, I was asked to animate a further 5 seconds of footage to accompany the sound provided last week, but the footage had to include some long exposure light trails, and I had to appear in it.
I experimented with several ways of creating light trails with long exposure photography, from using LED poi, to sellotaping acrylic tubes wrapped in coloured film to the end of a torch. I also decided to use off camera flash to help freeze my own movement after I had 'painted' shapes with light.
The hardest part of this process was to compile all the images in Premiere Pro, in time to the audio file. It had been too difficult to listen to the audio file as well as having to press the wireless shutter release, run round in front of the camera with a light source to create the light image, and then get back into position in time for the flash to go off.
As a result I ended up piecing the footage together after the fact.
When the video rendered there were a few frames that seemed to glitch for no apparent reason, I even went back into the Premiere Pro file and there was nothing obvious that caused them, and they vanished when I exported the film again. I liked the effect so much I decided to keep the video, glitches and all.