Comments on: Flaming Lips song "Worm Mountain" set to slow-motion Tesla Coil video by ardent fan of both.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“slow-motion Tesla Coil video” would be the appropriate title.
I clicked to watch the video expecting an interaction with the song, didnt find what i expected (it’s always nice to find the unexpected, but in this case, it just felt like two things apart). for more than half a minute I saw nothing… till his faced popped in… great… finally moments later electricity…. and more… and more… camera still didnt move, i fast forward it. nothing. I might as well record a lava lamp, place my camera, slap a random song and claiming a “music video” of some sort.
you put pictures in the end, finally different angles, too bad there is no motion… videos are kind of nice when they show what it does best, movement.
anyway… I’m not trying to be harsh but I couldnt help it and comment on this.
just felt like “slow-motion Tesla Coil video” was a better headline than making a big deal about it being integrated with that particular song.

By: jfrancis

jfrancis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry – not repeating frames. A series of dissolves. Either way, if you didn’t originate the footage at with a high speed camera then it’s not really ‘slow motion.’

You could argue that if you are making new frames using motion vector analysis then it’s slow motion – even though it’s a post process.

By: Thedude

Thedude — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ok jfrancis, I will conceed that it is not true slow motion. I misunderstood your application of “repeating frames”. Certainly there are frames being replicated in the processing, my assurances were meant to only point out that were all perfectly sequenced from one continuous shot and formed without any other manipulation.
In this case i think the effect works and reflects the timing of the music to some degree.
Believe me if i had a high speed camera i would have used it. :P

By: Thedude

Thedude — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for making that distinction clear for me though jfrancis. :)

By: Thedude

Thedude — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

jfrancis . I made the video. It is processed down to 39% of normal rate of speed. Watch the whole thing carefully (especially my leaning in at the begining) and you’ll definatly see there is not a repeating frame in the video. I could post the full speed version if there is still confusion on this topic but i don’t think it is really necessary.

By: Thedude

Thedude — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I love ELO. Grew up on those kinds of sounds. :P They were alway unique. That is also what i love about the Lips.

By: jody

jody — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

An editing suggestion: keep the face out of the picture and coordinate the spark with the vocals. IOW, turn the spark on when the vocals come on, and off when the vocals go off.

By: jfrancis

jfrancis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I used the technique myself to slow Stallone and Snipes to a frozen stop in ‘Demolition Man.’ Because the spped had to be controlled by a curve, at the time, I had to write proprietary software to do it.

The guy across the hall from me did it old school, on an optical printer, when he did the main titles to the movie ‘Dirty Dancing.’

When the speed doesn’t need to vary, the optical method is pretty cool. For a triple slowdown you lay down the frames in this pattern:

111222333444555666777888 (one third mix)
011122233344455566677788 (one third mix)
001112223334445556667778 (one third mix)

and you get all the nice weighted averages.

By: tsm_sf

tsm_sf — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are two mantras in the world; Yum and Yuk. Shit like this video is a pretty good litmus test for yours.

((apologies to Robbins, who should get off his ass and get working))

By: johnnyaction

johnnyaction — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Way awesome!

Mad props to the creator. Be careful!

Oh and really neato full documentary on Flaming Lips on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/91177

They are some cool people and the documentary is interesting.

By: Thedude

Thedude — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Knowledge! Thanks JF! Appreciate you sharing that. :) I’m enjoying making video, however I do need to upgrade my existing equipment to some degree very soon. Seem to spend too much of my budget on Tesla coil / electronics related projects lately.
Not sure that Adobe Premier Pro CS3 offers that much keyframing flexibility but i will try to implement.
Cheers!

By: Thedude

Thedude — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@Anonymous in message above -

I understand that the video does seem quite stationary. Its primarily because the camera is standing next to 150000 volts (aprox.) of radiantly discharged electricity. But to be honest the Tesla coil serves a secondary role to the score of the song by The Flaming Lips. Maybe it says something about my intellect but I find that i find the patterns that the current forms in the air to be mesmerizing at times ( kinda like a fire ).

Not everyone digs it. :P

By: zukalous

zukalous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How many times have you heard the lament that digital media killed the interesting album art featured on LP sleeves?

This is the upside of digital media. Now we get full-motion album art to stare at. I would take this over a cheesy cover like Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman any day.

By: cosmicautumn

cosmicautumn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now they have to figure out how to incorporate this into their live show.

By: jfrancis

jfrancis — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Repeating frames isn’t really ‘slow motion,’ but interesting…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pretty sure those aren’t repeating frames