We're always producing something! What's happening at IMX?

Star Wars Ottawa - Green Screen debut!

Thursday, 02 September 2010 15:49 | Written by Rob Baldwin |

As a follow up to our last post about Green Screens, Let's take a look back to the Star Wars Ottawa fan film produced by IMX and NX Martial Arts. It was our first big Green Screen project! Hard to beleive it's already been 2 years since we produced our Star Wars short film! It seems like just yesterday I was up until 2:00am video editing, guzzling down some red bull and coffee... hey wait a minute, I DID do that last night!!! ...but that’s another project and another story! :)

Watch the Movie Here!

View all the photos in our Flickr Gallery!

How did this project start?

Basically, it’s a combination of two passions! I, Robert Baldwin am a hardcore Star Wars Geek and a local Ottawa filmmaker. So when I heard that Atom Films was hosting a Star Wars video challenge and that the winners were chosen at San Diego Comic Con... not to mention that one of the awards was the George Lucas Selects award! (BTW, he’s the creator of Star Wars, if you didn’t know that, leave now! :P) Well, needless to say, I had to do this!

The Magic of Green Screens!

Monday, 23 August 2010 15:45 | Written by Rob Baldwin |

Green Screens (or Blue Screens) use a technique called chroma keying which removes a specific color value from a video and replaces it with an alpha channel (transparency). You can then add whatever you want to the background and after a few adjustments, the transformation can be seamless.

Click to watch our green screen video!

This technology used to be reserved for big hollywood productions with lots and lots of money!

However, it is now available for anyone to recreate this effect at home and for cheap!

Making your own Green Screen

All you need a big green backdrop (flashy green bed sheets work well, or you can use several sheets of fluorescent green bristol board). If you’re a little more hardcore and willing to spend a bit of money, you can purchase actual chromakey green backdrops from various stores (anywhere from $60 to $200 depending on the size).

Mr. E - Magician, Teacher, Superhero!

Thursday, 19 August 2010 17:48 | Written by Rob Baldwin |

Check out Mr. E's brand new video!

2 Time Canadian Magic Chamption Eric Leclerc (shh... don't tell anyone!) is unveilling his brand new educational show for kids.

The Mysteries of Mr. E

IMX had the opportunity to produce a couple promotional videos for Mr. E and we had such a fun time doing it! Filming with Eric was like having our own private magic show! ...for FREE! We filmed Eric's interview in our IMX green screen studio and then superimposed him into his own virtual magic stage!

Check out The Mr. E Promo Video here!

Screen Caps:

Are You Smarter than a 6th Grader?

Tuesday, 22 June 2010 19:21 | Written by Rob Baldwin |

We just finished some work with Marc Cashman (@wrlessmerchant) of AGS Advanced Software Inc. It was awesome, we created some fantastic flyers and a great video! Check it out:

Wireless Merchant and CRM Lite are two great point of sale Apps for Blackberry created by AGS... but I'm probably not describing it correctly... watch the video... all you need to know :)

Never a dull moment!

Thursday, 06 May 2010 13:20 | Written by Rob Baldwin |

Never a dull moment when you mix martial arts stunt training with visual special FX! That’s the core lesson featured in this small IMX featurette. On Sunday May 2nd 2010 following instructor training at NX Martial Arts, Hardcore Ottawa Stuntman André Givogue and myself (Robert Baldwin) decided to work on different stunt moves ...just for fun! :)

Jumping off a 15 foot tower of mats and filming it was the first step. For our special effects, we chose a brilliant set of pre-keyed explosions from the Action Essentials II from VideoCopilot.net. Add some minor color adjustments and some camera shake and you’ve got a stunt shot worthy of hollywood action movies!

GET TO THE CHOPPER!!

Rob Baldwin.

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