One of my friends a couple of weeks ago showed me this video of an amazing violinist, Lindsey Stirling. He said, "Danielle, you have to see this girl. She's freaking amazing." Expecting to see some live performance or a classic homemade youtube video where the girl presses the record button, gives a little introduction, and then plays some really complicated music, I was pleasantly surprised to see such a beautiful and well made video accompany such a talented artist. I could not tell at first whether I was more impressed by the musician or the cinematographer.
The cinematographer, who makes his living solely off of youtube videos, is Devin Graham. I could not find much biographical information on Devin, except that he is primarily located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lindsey and Devin have teamed up to create a multitude of sensational videos since early 2012. My favorite videos tend to be the ones that contain medleys from video games like Zelda and Skyrim. I also throughly enjoy the Lord of the Rings one and of course the video 'Shadows,' which you can watch on the link above. These videos are visually very aesthetically pleasing. First off, the locations are incredible. For the Lord of the Rings video they actually went to New Zealand, where they shot the LOTR trilogy, and for the Zelda video they are in an unspecified location, but it is in the mountains of a beautiful, desolate, area that is absolutely breathtaking. The colors on these videos are gorgeous and highly saturated. The pacing and style of the editing and video effects are fantastic and create a lot of energy. What I also love about these videos is that the cinematographer, Devin, often releases a Behind the Scenes video to accompany the original, which is very helpful in understanding how he filmed it (what camera he used) and how he did some of his stunning visual effects. He often uses his RED Epic, 5Dmkii (which he has now upgraded to a mkiii), and his Glide Cam HD 4000.
Here is another video that blew me away.
For those who don't know, Parkour is when someone finds a route from point A to point B and tries to quickly go from one place to another in the quickest, most efficient, and (sometimes) most entertaining way while encountering several obstacles in-between.
To make this video happen, I love the attention to detail Devin Graham has because he knows if something video game related is done wrong, this could upset the diehards gamers. He worked hard on getting a good costume, score, and making sure that his (stunt) actor played the game for inspiration on how to walk and execute moves similar to the video game character. He also mentioned that he did not get a permit to shoot anywhere because he did not want to close off sections of streets and instead wanted to have regular non-actors in the background because in the video game, this character runs amongst similar crowds. Granted, I haven't played Assassin's Creed so I don't know if he is accurate or not, but if he says that he tries to stay true to the video game, I believe he does whatever he can to closely resemble the game's character in a modern day setting because he is very thorough with all of his videos.
If you haven't seen any of his videos already, you should definitely check them out!
As I mentioned the first day of class, video games are a huge passion of mine. I know that this is a class about film and TV and what not but I still feel like video games can tell some amazing stories that can make you feel just as attached as a great movie or a great show. When I was younger games always fascinated me and I always wanted to play them. It was difficult for a while because since I was a kid, I really didn't have any money. But after a while I saved up and bought my first console, the Nintendo 64 and the very first game I bought was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Little did I know that the first game I ever bought would be considered to be one of the greatest games ever made by many video game reviewers. Upon finishing the game I knew that video games would be something I wouldn't be giving up anytime soon.
Flash forward to present day and it has only become more and more of a passion. Don't get me wrong I do love watching new movies and everything but there's nothing like experiencing a game for the first time. The main reason I love games so much is because you're the one who controls everything. You're the one that decides how long it's going to take to progress the story along and you're the one who makes all the decisions. Now I know that most games have a story that you can't change or anything but it's still a fascinating experience playing through it. The first game where I really felt like I was experiencing something more than a game would of had to have been Bioshock. A first person shooter that came out in 2007. This game was much more than just a simple shooting game, it had a very rich and in depth story that really made you the player feel connected to the world and to the characters in it. Not to mention it had one of the best plot twists that I've ever seen. After the twist your jaw literally drops wide open in disbelief, it's a moment I won't ever forget.
Now I've played plenty of other games recently that I would highly recommend to anyone. The Mass Effect series, Silent Hill series, Alan Wake, Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, God of War Series, Heavy Rain, Portal and a whole bunch of others that I'm just forgetting right now. If you aren't a very avid gamer then I would highly recommend at least trying a couple of these because there really are some great stories to be told here. If you are a gamer and haven't checked some of these out yet then go do it right now because I assure you, you won't be disappointed.
