It’s a New Year! Great time for a kick in the pants to get those filmmaking/ productivity/ learning resolutions fired up. In the effort to help you (and me) get on our feet right off the bat, I present a very inspired filmmaker working with alot less than most in creating great work. Folks, Kendy Ty.
Heard of Kendy? Amazing stuff, self-taught, shooting with minimal gear and capturing fantastic images that tell stories. Here’s a bit about Kendy’s live action short doc/ narrative, Real Fighter: “This is a documentary short film about a french Muay Thai boxer. He’s been becoming really famous in France. They all talk about him on the newspapers, on TV and even in the streets. That short film had been made with 0 euro budget, with friends. No lights, no steadycam, no expensive cameras. Just my Canon 550d with a Rode video mic and the same lens (a Sigma 30mm f1.4) The sound is not very good because of the Rode Video Mic, but I think it fits to the documentary style. Story, Direction, edit, DOP, VFX, post production by Kendy Ty”. Zero budget, a Canon 550D DSLR, one prime lens, a Rode Mic for audio and a whole lot of heart. How’s that for inspiration?
Kendy’s also got a few After Effects tutorials for you ( read; free ) over at Creative Cow.com, a literal bastion of free creative tutorials for most every filmmaking software package in use– well, most I know of and use, anyway. Neat thing for me, is after seeing Kendy’s films, I wanted to know more — his process used in achieving the look of his pieces, etc. Come to find, like the rest of us mere filmmaking mortals, he learns this stuff as he goes. Fantastic. Check out his simple, effective, inspiring short, SPIDER– the apex of minimalism for a shoot, then a work out in After Effects. Great stuff.
Do yourself a huge favour and check out Kendy’s collection of coolness on Vimeo. Great stuff, minimal gear. Whole lotta talent. Inspirational boot in the butt to kick us all into gear- what say ye? -M
Marc Lougee VFX Supervisor 