Examples of Smallgantics

One of the only famous examples I could find of smallgantics is its use in the opening for BBC's Sherlock, in which it is used to show famous areas of London.

This is a good example of smallgantics that I found on YouTube while doing research, it looks at a wide variety of locations and achieves the effect very well.

The science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principle#/
media/File:Scheimpflug.gif

The science behind this effect comes down to the depth of focus and how it is faked to change perspective. The technique creates a false depth of field around the subject with blur added in during post to create the illusion that the part in focus is tiny.
It uses the Scheimpflug Principle seen in the image, named after an Austrian army Captain 'Theodor Scheimpflug', which looks at the idea that if the subject plane is not parallel to the image plane, aka the camera is at a higher, then the image will only be in focus along a certain line.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/
d/dd/Z-buffer.jpg/220px-Z-buffer.jpg

The other science behind the technique of smallgantics is z-buffering or depth buffering that is applied through the blur effect. Z-buffering uses black and white matte areas to add or show depth of subjects inside 3D graphic rendering software. In the case of smallgantics editing you draw a black and white matte sequence around the object in the scene then assign the focus parameters.

Smallgantics Basics

http://bentimagelab.com/work/

The technique is a variation of the Tilt Shift technique in photography transferred onto moving image. This was first done by a company called Bent Image Lab who used it for a music video they were filming at the time. All they did was apply the same principles from the photography technique to the video footage which is achievable through various video editing software.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/44/07/ad/
4407ad66b375cd9e5a03b842e5e8a861.jpg

The basic principle is to take your shot from a high angle and from quite far away from the main subject of your shot. The high angle is essential to the effect as it makes the audience look down upon the subject as you would a miniature figure. The distance also helps add to the effect as it makes the subjects much smaller making it again more believable. A balance of high and distance is important to ensure the technique can be properly applied.

http://cdn.iphonephotographyschool.com/wp-content/
uploads/Tilt-Shift-iPhone-Photos-16.jpg

In post production the main thing to do is to add the lens blur effect or to create the out of focus parts of the shot. The blur saturates the whole shot minus the chosen subject and a small window around it that should create a blurred foreground and background, the non-blurred part of the shot will become the miniature.
To add to the effect it is also a good idea to saturate the colour of the shot more intensely to simulate a more of a painted look.
For moving image it is also often practiced to remove frames of the footage or film the footage as a time lapse to create and less fluid movement so it looks like anything moving within the frame is stop motion rather than live action.

Smallgantics

I found this interesting technique while looking through a list of interesting techniques for films and television. It is a combination of both how the footage is filmed and adding some effects to it in post production which will be interesting for me to try out as I am not an editor but would like to expand my knowledge to at least a basic ability to manipulate my own footage.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4907371580_88124df6c2.jpg

Smallgantics creates the illusion the subjects inside the shot are miniatures, tiny versions of real life objects. I find this a very interesting and unusual effect and would like to try and achieve it.

Ideas

Ideas for minor project.

Minor Project

For minor project we have to think of an idea that will expand our skills into an area we have not before explored and that will provide us hopefully with some helpful ideas or skills for our final major project. We then must produce a video or physical object to present in a 20 to 30-minute presentation.