In preparation for shooting "Cat in a Hat" I probably should have given my cat magic sleepy potion, since she jumped and hopped around like a maniac. (You can read about the shoot here.) However, I immediately saw the speed potential, and by that, I realized how comical it would look in fast motion.

For the shoot, I really had two things going on: I was acting as photographer (of the cat) and videographer (filming it). My problem: how do I document that?

Well, I own a second smaller video camera, and I used it to film myself filming myself.

The screenshot to the left is the smaller camera's view. I am talking into my main camera and standing in front of a painting in my living room. (You can see any screenshot in full size by right/control clicking it.) The screenshot on the right is the same view as seen via the main camera.

My goal in this shoot and video is to show how to set up a basic photoshoot for a cat, dog, or even a person using things you can pretty much find in your house. To that end, I kept the video running the entire time I set the shoot up to show how I did it.

Since I was running around the entire time, I did not use a handheld microphone and instead opted to have my shotgun mic pick up all the sound in the room. Later when editing the video, I used all the sound from my main camera and muted all the sound in the secondary camera.

Because I knew I'd be syncing up the sound on a second camera, it was imperative to keep both cameras running the entire time. That way, I could sync up one spot (I clapped my hands before I started) and know with certianty that my lips would be moving in time with my voice regardless of which angle I was showing at the time.

Although I had mapped out where the cameras were going to be before the shoot began, I discovered that the room wasn't quite as wide as I thought and so I wouldn't be able to get the view I wanted unless I moved it somewhere else.

I actually propped the main camera halfway up on my coffee table and put it behind me while I took some shots. The perspective is actually great: you can see me behind my still camera snapping away while my assistant, Jenny, played with the (annoyed) cat.

Because I decided to go "funny", I listened to quite a lot of Kevin MacLeod's music before deciding on one of his Silent Movie Scores, Plucky Daisy. It fit perfectly with my cat's antics.

Speed can be used effectively in movies, usually for the dramatic effect: the hero dives for the girl (slow motion); the bad guy gets blown up (sped up); the main character sees his dog about to eat his slippers (slow motion with added slow sound as he says "noooooo!"); special effects science fiction movies (slow motion as the hero dodges bullets).

Most of the time, you really shouldn't notice how the speed of the film is changing. The effect should be subtle yet compelling for whatever reason it is being used.

However, there is always an exception. In my case, I sped it up so much we're flapping around like clowns... which, of course, was what I had in mind.

When adjusting speed you can either chop your video into pieces and then adjust it one piece at a time (the speed will just suddenly JUMP) or you can keyframe a section to have it slowly decelerate/accelerate.

Since I was going for comedy, I used the first option.

In the sections where Jenny and I are setting up the table and the cats are jumping all over the sheet we were trying to hang, I put it at 400%.

You read that correctly: four hundred percent. The result is an obvious zipping, bouncing, and ridiculous looking section.  You can see this done quite a bit in video where you can see, say, houses being built or flowers growing. (They'd be sped up way more, actually!)

The remaining sections of video are only at 200%, which is obviously "fast" but in a choppy dumb looking way that fits the music and makes the cat look even funnier. I used one regular speed section to match the music for about four seconds, and then ZIP! off it goes again.

Since this was essentially documenting a photoshoot, I also included some of the pictures I took (all of which can be seen on my Flickr stream here). The problem with going from moving video to stills is that it's.... still. It's jarring if you leave it like that.

Therefore, I used an obvious transition (the turning cube) and then actually moved across the image itself á la the Ken Burns Effect. In iMovie, there is a nifty built in feature where you just click and tell it where to zoom in and out, but in Final Cut it's not quite so easy. I keyframed each image to adjust the scale and center position, and ta-dah! same thing in about the same amount of time. Keyframing individual parameters on video is something that really makes me wish I had a screen the size of Texas to play with.

When it was all done I had a four minute, twenty-nine second video. I exported it from the program into .m4v, which is a small file type that looks really good. Since standard definition video can look really terrible when compressed (the interlacing and scaling is the culprit) I am quite pleased with this format in general.

Because I made this video for my own person project, I did NOT include production credits at the end, as I do most of my pieces. Since I was acting as producer, director, cinematographer, editor, and host, I figured eyes might cross trying to read it all :)

However, I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to Jenny Arcenas, for all her hard work trying to get my cat to be even more cute.

ENJOY!

In preparation for the videocasts I will be doing this year, I worked on my first one just this week.

Although I have set up eight other videocasts (featuring other photographers and what they do) I went to work on one I could do immediately, which is myself doing a shoot.

As I didn't want to film myself doing a shoot of a person, I decided it would be rather fun to photograph my cats and video the process.

Normally, I use the word "shoot" when referring to taking pictures, but saying "shoot my cats" just tends to come out wrong. This particular post will only focus on the photoshoot itself. Another post in upcoming weeks will focus on the video process.

I decided to shoot in my living room. I chose this because this particular room has a large set of patio doors that I could open up and use for diffused sunlight. Since the day was overcast, that worked perfectly. I put up my portable 6' table directly across from it. A dining room table would work equally well.

Since my goal in this shoot was to work without "studio stuff" I used two bowl-style lamps for light. You can pick these type of lights up at any home improvement store. I criss-crossed them to dispel shadows, and I used the Gary Fong puffer over my camera's built in flash. That way, I would have the fill light I needed, but I wouldn't blow my picture out.

The infamous "seamless background" isn't as hard as you might think. In my case, I used heavy white fabric that I basically pinned up to the wall! You can get the same effect using a white sheet, as long as it's thick enough. I pinned it to the wall and then placed it on the table, making certain that there wasn't a crease- it curved from the wall to the table. (For shots with people on it, you'd obviously have it draping to the floor.)

Immediately, I discovered the fabric had been folded up in its bag for too long, and it had huge creases in it. I put my assistant Jenny to work ironing, and she fixed that problem. The background doesn't need to be perfect, but not having huge crinkles and wrinkles in your background is pretty important in this case.

Initially I used my portrait lens, the 28-70mm f/2.8L but decided to go with my longer lens later- the 55-250mm f/4. I regretted that decision and I will explain why!

Since I was trying to go sans flash as much as possible, the longer lens didn't have a wide enough aperture to stop motion. To say that even simpler, it was like suddenly my camera wasn't fast enough. Have you ever taken a picture and it came out blurry because the person was moving? It was like that. When I changed lenses, my camera couldn't keep up with a moving subject (because I didn't have enough light).

And that cat moved. She was fine mostly- sniffing the background, climbing into the basket, inspecting the roses- but as soon as the clothing props were out, all bets were off!

The victim subject of the dress up was my eight month old kitten, Kitiara. Her nickname is Weasel-Cat, because she has a long face and super lithe body like a ferret. Weasel was fine until Jenny put the hat on her head. Immediately the cat was flopping around, twisting and kicking. She wasn't afraid of it, but was more so annoyed that something just got put on her head.

With my shorter portrait lens, I managed to capture a great photo, seen at the top of this post. When I had my long lens on, every shot was out of focus and blurry. If you're taking pictures of your own pets, use a shorter lens! If you don't have a camera with interchangeable lenses and you've got your flash off (which I recommend) your solution is going to have to be using every light in your house to get it bright enough for your camera.

Weasel also was very unhappy with the sunglasses. Both the hat and the sunglasses were purchased from a craft store, and were actually doll clothes for eighteen inch bears. Poor Jenny patiently tried putting the sunglasses on Weasel... and Weasel bit her in the finger. The one shot I did get with the sunglasses has the kitten moving forward and aiming for Jenny's finger.

Last but not least, I wanted to have my cat in a red feather boa. Why? I have no idea. I thought it would be cute, which it was, for about five seconds. A word of advice to people photographing their cats: cats think feathered things are dead animals and will go primal.

So, after the cat hunched up, growled, hissed repeatedly, and then ran down the hallway with her "kill", I decided that the photoshoot was successful! All the photos from that shoot are on my Flickr page, or you can browse them in the player below.

If you have any comments about this shoot, or have a question about it, please feel free to ask it in the comments section and I will reply there as well.