You can follow me on Instagram @marcdowningphotography.
So yesterday I received my new phone because my old phone died, and I decided to get Instagram on it! I've been hearing about this Instagram thing for months now and to be finally able to use it has been quite interesting. It's completely different to anything I'm used to in Photoshop. In Photoshop you have complete control over everything and can tweak pretty much everything until it is exactly how you want it. Comparatively Instagram is incredibly simple- offering up 20 or so pre-made filters- and is very user friendly. The outcome usually ends up looking like something taken by an old broken moldy camera. It's all really quick and easy and doesn't take nearly as long to produce an image compared to editing on photoshop. I am really enjoying it!
You can follow me on Instagram @marcdowningphotography.
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So now I am about two months into college, and so far it has been going really well! I'm doing well in all of my classes and I am learning more and more about filmmaking each day. A few things have been keeping me busy! First thing: Learning to mix audio Audio production has been very interesting for me, and when I say interesting, I mean difficult. The actual mixing of the audio I find very fun, but the difficult part to me is the recording of the audio. Background noise has been very difficult for me to control while I record, so I end up recording in a completely controlled environment and adding in the ambience later. Using Pro Tools has been very fun to learn, and I will never listen to music the same way again. Second thing: Friends My room has become the hang out room on our floor, everyone walks in with their laptops in their hands and proceed to set up shop. Minecraft is usually played, currently there my friends are in my room playing it together. This college dorm life has been a great experience for me. Everyone is not afraid to be themselves, and there is a lot of fun to be had because of it. I've met a lot of talented video makers, writers, photographers, and actors and it's only been two months! I have a few projects in the works in terms of film production and hopefully I will upload more photos soon!
So, a few weeks ago I got the opportunity to film something using a new camera! It isn't mine, but I was able to borrow it and I should be using it for more future projects as long as I have access to the camera. That aside, I used this opportunity to color correct for the first time. My roommate is also editing this video, using the same raw footage. From what I've seen it's completely different, but pretty amazing in its own way. This is the first time I've ever done the effects for a video completely on my own without any help. I like the muzzle flash reflections on the skin and the color correction a lot in this video. I hope you all enjoy the video!
Hello! I'm taking photos again! I haven't in a while because I've been really busy! I've almost completed postproduction of another test video I'm making. The video is the first time I've shot something using a Canon and the first time I've color graded! I'm almost done I just need to find the sound effects to add to the video and then I shall upload! I've also began preproduction on a music video and a larger action movie! I'm assembling a fig rig and such for more video production! These photos were taken due to a fog machine, which created interesting lighting. I love the hand shot because it is so high in contrast! I hope you enjoy it!
FOR A HIGHER QUALITY VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/49097387 This is the first time I have ever used special effects in any of my videos. It was a very interesting process! First off, this video is meant to be more of a proof of concept video over an actual short film. There's a reason for this: I am starting a film production crew on my floor, the film floor. We will begin pre-production on our first actual short film most likely next week. But for now here is the story behind this film. I was talking to my RA and somehow the conversation got into making short films. We briefly talked about a short film that we could create but that involved a lot of special effects and I was unsure if I could do them. Later that day I got a few people together and my camera to make a effects test. I was the camera man and a co-director. My friend Sam was the other co-director and I made all the effects. We did a couple of rehearsals so we could get the action scene choreographed and so we could figure out the shots. We had no script, and we initially went into it expecting it to be just an effects test. However, a little narrative formed as a set up. The shoot took about an hour, including rehearsals and blocking the shots. We got all of it shot and I went straight into editing. I had two main effects to do in this video: the gunshot and the lightsabers. I did the lightsabers first because I thought they would be the most challenging, so I had my roommate show me how to do them and I key framed them in. My roommate was by far the biggest help in this video for showing me how to use After Effects. The masking was the most difficult part for me and by far the most time consuming. After that I did the gunshot, which is the effect I'm most proud of. No masking involved but I motion tracked the smoke when I panned the camera. After all the effects I exported it and uploaded it, and on my computer it is exported in HD but when I uploaded it to youtube it seems to only show up with a max resolution of 480. That's why I put the vimeo link as well, since it ended up being of higher quality.
So club rush was today at my college. Guess what? There's no photography club! Of any kind! So I'm trying to get a group of people together to try to make one! The worst thing that could possibly happen is that I get a group of people together and take photos. Which I did yesterday! These photos are spawn from that adventure. It was a lot of fun. There's a gigantic garden area with plants, turtles, ducks, and alike near where my dorm is so I shall be going very often! One of my friends took a photo of me taking a photo of a small leaf, which is the first one in the gallery
This wednesday I moved into college. It's such a exciting time! I'm majoring in film and hoping to minor in photography so my content produced will only increase. I have spent the first few nights not taking any photos but yesterday I decided too and here are the results below. The area around and in my college should provide interesting photos for me since it's not exclusively nature. So far I'm really enjoying this experience.
I recently got a new computer that can edit and export HD footage. This ability makes me incredibly happy, and I tested it out by re-editing a short film that I never got to finish called, "Fingers Crossed". As a film it is incredibly silly and makes little logical sense, but it is entertaining! I had to stop shooting because it started raining, and after that I never returned to it and thus it was never completed. Also some of the acting is pretty horrid, but it was all in good fun! The original edit: Here's the re-edit: Recently I went to San Diego and got to take photos at the beach and at the Old Town in San Diego. I have always loved taking photos at the beach because people always seem so happy or mysterious there. I've found it really interesting to take those type of photos. After the beach I went to Old Town where I encountered various types of entertainment which all revolved around western themes. I took a photo of a Cowboy and the snouts of horses. My personal favorite is the horse photo because of how it seems to glow from all around. I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do!
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UpdatesMarc DowningA film maker and photographer based in Southern California. Archives
February 2016
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