Day 229 / Soap Bubble Psychedelia Redux

Last night I really should’ve worked on my song for MCRP (because it’s due tonight!) but instead I had scheduled this creative thing long ago with a friend and co-worker named Jeff Ponchick.  Ever since he saw my video from “Day 212 / Soap Bubble Psychedelia” he expressed an interest in doing it as well.  I told him that I’d be completely willing because I felt like I jerry-rigged that particular shoot and what I had captured wasn’t as good as I thought I could get with a more professional set-up.  So, we made a date to try again.  I’m always jazzed when someone is interested in playing a part in my creative things.  He was super helpful.

When I did it last time I used this chunky foam to line my bubble holder which resulted in a lot of little streams of liquid traveling down the bubble plane.  This aggravated the colors and made them swirl around very quickly making the video quite erratic.  This time I improved on the method and used a thinner and smoother foam which resulted in a calmer bubble.  That way I was able to capture smoother blends across the color spectrum and the movement was much slower and sweeter than before.

Even though I had the correct equipment at my call it was still a very challenging thing to capture.  We realized that the issue stems from my lens.  In order for it to focus on the plane of the bubble it needs to be very close.  This unfortunately places the reflection of the lens directly on what I’m filming and makes the colors disappear.  We attempted to remedy it by creating a small white paper reflector and taping it to the end of the lens, then pointing a 650 watt light at it from the other side.  It worked in part but not well enough to capture the vibrant colors that the giant softbox was giving us.

Still, in the end I think I was able to capture the kind of stuff I was looking for.  This video is much more representative of the kinds of other-worldly things you see in the interference of a soap bubble.  Watch how the color shifts so smoothly one color to the next and how it slowly gravitates to the bottom before breaking up and ultimately popping.

I wish I had more time to edit the video because I loved all of the footage.  I made the editing process easier on myself by throwing in a bunch of dissolves.  You know what they say, when you can’t solve it – dissolve it.  
 
The song selection was also a tough decision on this one.  Ultimately I decided upon using my modular patch from Day 199.

Enjoy!