Minor experiment: mini ocean 2: the implimentation of tokusatsu
expanding from my past experimentation with my mini ocean tests, i decided to use my extra time booked out for the tv studio to fully realise the tests previously by introducing new elements and lighting and the introduction of a shaku prop.
As previosly mentioned, a shaku prop is used in a tokusatsu film to help with effects that can be done on a smaller scale, to do a scene which could possibly be too dangerous for the actor themselves or even movement in which the suit cannot do itself. for example, take this scene (above) from Godzilla raids again (1953) in which close up shots of the two monsters as the suits themselves were not fitted with the mechanisms required for movement such as snarling, quick head movements or quick reactions.
In my piece dubbed blackout, i decided that this type of prop would be suitable for a simulation of the creatures tail to breach the murky sea and then slam down to signal its arrival. The tail prop was constructed from spare foam used to create the armature, with my reasoning being that the tail would only be seen as a silouette, but production design lectuer john noble had an idea to help it match my armatures tail. One of his students named Hayley Syson has been working on a marine based project and had a mould of a tail. By combinding my rough foam tail with liquid latex had led to a more convining shaku prop, with a rough texture and an alomost identical paint job.
With the tail created and the stage recreated i then fitted the tail with invisible thread after thicker wire proved to show the thread used, ruining the illusion. I then began filming the test shots, with different lighting to see what looked better for the project with the results shown below.
In the test i had filmed at a higher framefrate at 60 fps (frames per second) so when it came to editing the piece together, i could slow down the footage for more slow, pndering and heavy movement. I did however face one major issue during filming, that being the carboard situated around the stage to avoid water splashback started to dissolve into the water and also began to deform around the base. However this turned out to be an advantage as it helped mask the bottom of its containter but at the same time the warped cardboard had moved compleatly away from my framing, making the footage unable to be used in the final project.
Even though the experiment cannot be used in the final piece i still believe it was still worth doing to prove that tokusatsu based effects can still be done in the envirmonet and with the materials i have at hand.