Sheep as Spice
After my far too lengthy exploration of Monkton & Sarre Mills in my last two posts, I decided it was time to get back to some movie making.
Assuming that when finished my Smuggler’s Leap movie is going to be of somewhere between 5 – 10 minutes duration, will it hold attention for that length of time?
It has occurred to me that given that most of the action is going to consist of Smuggler Bill being chased on his horse, this could be rather tedious and that most of the variety will come from the scenery, sound effects and background music. Of course camera work, lighting and for close ups facial expressions will also contribute.
The challenge seems to be to find other ways to spice up the scenes a bit. Static props play their part, but I wondered if I could liven things up a bit with some not quite so static props. Already I have some trees whose leaves move in the wind. Was there anything else I could try?
Having read some articles on the historic husbandry of Thanet, it seems that wheat, barley and sheep would have been prominent in the landscape. Of course I can have a shot of some wheat swaying in the wind, but what about sheep?
A search of the Reallusion Market Place identified several sheep offerings. I chose to purchase the Small Hordes of Sheep pack.
I don’t know what sheep do at night. Do they stop grazing because it is dark? Do they lie down and go to sleep? Sleeping sheep might not be too dynamic. On the other hand a flock of sheep scampering over a field might be unlikely at dead of night. I decided to do a short proof of concept shot where they are simply standing and bleating.
Of course it is a bit dull when they don’t bleat and you can’t hear the horses, so I purchased a few appropriate sound effects and incorporated them with the iClone generated clip using Pinnacle Studio 16.
Based on this I am pleased with my purchase and the movie of Smuggler’s Leap will certainly incorporate some bleating sheep.
Tony