thestoryofjory.com

I finally watched The Social Network last night, just in time to appreciate its winning 4 Golden Globes.  What took me so long, you ask? I’m not entirely sure, but it had a lot to do with my personal opinions about Facebook, the knowledge that the film was not exactly a true story, and of course my own experience building a social network.

But all my misgivings about the film were completely transformed by one scene:

My heart just about exploded when I saw the tilt-shift. I love the effect in photography,  but there’s just something mesmerizing about seeing it in video.  It’s also sped up just a little bit, which gives the whole scene a model-like effect. There are a few tutorials out there about achieving the tilt-shift effect in post if one can’t afford the $2,000 price tag for a TS lens, but it’s definitely not beginner stuff. Also, I’m relatively certain that at least part of the film was shot on DSLRs, but I can’t find any source to confirm this suspicion just yet.

I’m also a sucker for changes in depth of field.  I agree it can be overdone, and it seems to be the effect du jour of late, but I think it’s totally appropriate in this scene.  I think the difficulty of the sport is emphasized when we see the rowers moving in and out of focus, and we get a feel for the importance of the race when we see the focus placed exactly on the row boats in an extreme wide shot.

The color of this scene is like visual candy.  When going for a dramatic effect like tilt-shift, it’s extremely important that your colors are consistent throughout the frame.  The greens and yellows are appropriately vivid against the muted, dramatic blues and grays of the sky and water.  In this case, the color matched the mood of the scene very well, and no one looked orange! Finally, I loved how the Peer Gynt remix added to the excitement of the race.

This scene changed my overall opinion about the movie. Utimately, I think the story is just okay; but the photography and attention to detail and getting things right technically made me really appreciate the film.

Did you see it? What did you think about the movie and/or its accolades?

Wow.

IgniteOKC was an absolute blast.  All the planning and hard work that went into it definitely paid off – I think everyone who came had a great time, especially those of us on the leadership committee.  I’ve been hard at work today preparing the individual videos, and it’s given me a chance to experience it all over again!

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to be on the other side of this project.  24 hours later, I feel just as excited as I did a few hours before.  I think that’s due to the fact that every single person I met last night had so much energy and enthusiasm (and it didn’t matter for what) that I couldn’t help but be inspired to do my best.  I’m really proud of this event and all the people with whom I had the privilege to work bringing Ignite to Oklahoma City.

Of course I have many more thoughts on the matter, but I’ve got to get back to editing the video!  In the meantime, here’s a video from NewsOK.com’s Tanner Herriott covering our event!