Howarth Creative

A project collective of video and music by Chris Howarth.

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The Itsy Bitsy Spider Rap - BASHO & friends original

Another cartoon I created for BASHO & friends! More to come soon...

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BASHO & friends: Colors

Check out this cartoon I made for BASHO & friends, a children's program to help kids learn different languages. Fun times ;-)

For more information on BASHO & friends, check out www.bashoandfriends.com.

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Fan Favorite Contest from HTC USA & Film Racing

If you have Facebook, you should check out this link --> https://www.facebook.com/htcusa/app_383113661745785

It's a Fan Favorite contest where you can watch all of finalists of the 24 Hour Film Race and vote for your favorite. When you vote, you're also entered for a chance to win a new HTC One X smartphone! Cool beansio!

Check it out, and put in a good word for "The One That Fell Off the Wall" ;-)

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24 Hour Film Racing 2012 - 1st Place in Denver!?

The One That Fell Off the Wall from Howarth Creative on Vimeo.

UPDATE: For the time being, I have been asked to take down my video until after the final September 15th contest. Sorry.

On May 18 - May 19 I participated in a 24 hour film competition hosted by 24 Hour Film Racing. Having sold the old camera to help pay for my recent move to Boulder, I decided to try my hand at animating in lieu of my lack of equipment. The rules of the competition were that you had to make the film within a 24 hour window and follow these specific guidelines: Theme: One Prop: The number one Action: Listening to music It took me about 17 straight hours of sitting at the computer using Photoshop, After Effects, Sound Booth, and Premiere Pro to make my animation in its entirety, from conception, creating graphics, animating, recording the voice over, editing, and rendering.

A few weeks later I was excited to receive an email notifying me that I had been selected amongst 10 other Colorado filmmakers to have my entry screened at a premiere in Denver on June 28 at the awesome Mayan Theatre. Whilst attending and watching all the great entries, I was fortunate to make some connections with other local filmmakers (my main goal of entering the contest in the first place), as I never imagined I would even place in the top 3. Crazily enough, when the top films were being announced at the Denver after-party, I was amazed to hear that my animation had been voted into 1st place! I ended up winning a $50 gift certificate for the bar we were at (that I tried to share with everyone at the bar), a bucket full of random apparel, and my entry moves on to the next round of the competition in New York City. Here's to some good times and supporting local artists!  

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Alex Pinto Trio - Many Mansions

I recently finished editing this video for my friend Alex Pinto of a performance he did way back in November at Viracocha in San Francisco. With the help of Tim Howarth and Tim Finn, we filmed Alex's set with two Canon 7D's for close ups and a Canon XH-A1 for the wide, as well as a Zoom Hn4 for the sound. Although the main goal of this shoot was to film the show, the challenge was that we ultimately wanted to edit one of the songs into a music video -- we just didn't know what song. This was a little tricky because our 7D's have limited space in the amount of continuous footage we could capture on the cards.

Essentially, short of purchasing several larger CFs, we opted for capturing a bunch of "generic" close ups throughout each song of the set in hopes that we could use the footage regardless of what song we ended up featuring in the end. For unique shots, we tried to rotate the 7D's on the fly for filming solos and whatnot for each song. Tricky stuff for filming within a small space with low light where the only communication we could use between cameramen was with hand gestures, but I think the end result came out alright! Be sure to check out Alex Pinto's website and listen to his music. It's cool beans!

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Holly Drives to Boulder & Climbs a Mountain

Here's a video I made for funzo of the drive from the San Francisco Bay Area to Boulder via I-80 in an old school Volvo 240 DL. Twas good times! Equipment: Canon 7D

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Sphero Basics - An Interactive Video!

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Recently I've been working on several projects with a new tech start-up called FlixMaster. FlixMaster's goal is to bring online video into the modern age by creating tools for users to make their videos seamlessly interactive for the audience. Think of how DVD's work, with interactive menus and being able to skip to different chapters and whatnot, and apply that model to the online world. That's more or less how FlixMaster works. The above link is an example of one of the uses of FlixMaster's technology, where owners of the Sphero robot can navigate through online instructional videos of Sphero's basics. 

One of the things that most impressed me about the FlixMaster technology was the ease of use of their tools. Basically you upload your videos, drag and drop them onto a grid, then connect them by creating paths. Within the videos you can add pre-made or invisible buttons that navigate to either videos or external links, as well as giving instructions to the video on what to do when it reaches the end (i.e. Freeze frame, Loop, Go to another video/link). It's this feature that I think sets FlixMaster apart. Unlike Youtube button links where they're only clickable during the video, FlixMaster gives you the ability to make a looping menu or freeze frame that repeats/holds until the viewer selects an option, essentially giving the user ultimate control on how someone experiences their videos. This eliminates situations something along the lines of somebody randomly stumbling on the 4th video of your series before seeing the other 3 segments or what have you. Also, FlixMaster is built in HTML 5, which means many fun times for interactive video on mobile devices. Cool beans for sure. For this project I created the motion graphics and music for the menus, as well as the animated buttons that pop up during the various segments. Be sure to stop by FlixMaster and take a look at what they're doing.

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The Deaf Pilots - Down in Flames - Music Video

Here's a cool project my brothers (Jonathan Howarth and Tim Howarth) recently completed with a local band called The Deaf Pilots. My favorite thing about this video is the mixed use of motion-tracked CG with the grimy look of a "grind-house" type of film. Kind of a juxtaposition of old and new school films.  It's a good example of the professional level results an independent film maker can achieve these days with little to no budget. For this shoot they used a Canon 7D and After Affects for all the motion tracking and animation. Check out the original post here.

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Canon 7D Slow Motion Test - Terrabang Studios

This is a video my brother Tim Howarth and friend Tim Finn of Terrabang Studios made to test out Twixtor. Twixtor is a plug-in you can get for certain video editing programs (they used After Effects) that enables you to simulate the type of slow motion footage you might get from a high speed camera. Below is what Tim Howarth posted on Terrabang about the project, or visit the original here.

Finn and I decided to head over to the Concord Skate Park to meet up with a friend of ours to see what we could capture using the 7D at 60fps and some added digital slow motion, courtesy of After Effects and Twixtor.

We shot for about an hour and a half at various shutter speeds and using a couple of different lenses.  Then we spent about 2 hours editing and working out the slow motion.  We took the 60fps shots and interpreted them back down to 24fps, giving us true slow motion.  We’ve done this overcranking effect with real film before, and wanted to see how digital compared.  If we wanted some additional slow-mo, we implemented Twixtor.  Do a little bit of color grading, throw some cool music on there, and it’s ready for export.  I don’t remember how long rendering took, but that’s irrelevant anyway.  Here you have it, a quick and dirty but fun little test.

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Music of Sorts

Here are some music projects I have worked on, either composing, playing, producing, or all of the above. Feel free to download and use them if the option is available!

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF RAY GALLE

The original score to The Manifestations of Ray Galle was composed in a few days and performed and recorded entirely by Chris and Chris of Ray's Apathy. There's a strong theme throughout the tracks, and they fit perfectly with the awkwardness of the main character and his "condition." The tracks range from the strong and full theme of Wake Up and See Things to the bare and simple last track of105. Hopefully you can find a creative use for the tracks in your project or build on top of what is already there.

2CENT DIME FOR A PENNY'S THOUGHT

Admittedly, 2cent Dime for A Penny's Thought was one of the strangest films we've ever made. Based on the short story by P.J. Jenkins, the film follows four individuals who...nevermind. In keeping with Mr. Jenkins' very strange style and storytelling, each track is named after a day, which has to do with a character, which has to do with a theme, which has to do with...nevermind. Nobody knows what happened to P.J. Jenkins. He was a reclusive guy anyway, and we only had the pleasure of meeting him once. Even then, some rumor that he sent a body double, or an android, because Mr. Jenkins has not been seen since the 60's. Only one blurry photograph of him exists. He will forever remain a vague mystery, much like this film. Enjoy the score, composed in two days in a basement with no chairs and the main theme influenced by Jon Brion. It came out to be one of our favorite scores.

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2012 MLK Day of Song & Service

I edited this video when I worked for the Center for Music National Service to showcase the service day's participants and events. Overall there were 10+ hours of footage that had to be made into a 3 minute video. The day was fun and inspiring! I strongly encourage people to get involved with their communities and dedicate time to volunteer in service. Also be sure to check out the Center for Music National Service because they are an awesome non-profit! Equipment Used: Canon 7D, Canon XH-A1, Zoom H4n

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East Bay 24 Hour Film Festival - 1st Place Baby!

This was team Robot Destroyer's (myself and my buddy Chris D.) entry into Oakland's 2011 East Bay Express 24 Hour Film Festival. The competition was to film and edit a 3 - 5 minute video in 24 hours while following specific guidelines and using props that were provided the day of the competition. We placed 1st, which was probably the happiest day of both of our lives. Equipment Used: Canon 7D

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Short Documentary from the Past

Robot Destroyer (my buddy Chris D. and I) spent 2 weeks with Medea Sirkas documenting this legendary San Francisco Bay Area dance group at Rock the School Bells 3 and Pro-Am International Hip Hop Conference in 2010. Equipment Used: Canon XL2, Sony Mini DV handheld camera someone loaned us

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An Old Music Video

This is an early music video I made for a friend in Richmond, CA. The video isn't that great because we had some missed communications in scheduling, so what was supposed to be a planning day for the video ended up being the day we shot everything. Although I'm not too psyched with how the video turned out, I do think it has some cool rotoscoping/CG effects. Equipment Used: Canon XL2

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Random Videos I had a Part In

To get the blog posts rolling, here are some random videos I had some part in.

This video was my brother's, buddy Chris D.'s, and my entry for the 2009 HP You on You Commercial contest. We decided to enter the contest primarily to test out our new camera and try out some software. In the end, we didn't win the grand prize, but we did manage to win an awesome new laptop! Equipment Used: Canon XL2

Another video made with my brother and Chris D. This trailer represents our first attempt to make a short film. It didn't really turn out well, but we definitely learned a lot. My part in this was sound, animation, and music (that's my Arcade Fire rip-off song you hear in the trailer). I'm particularly proud of my flying Loch Ness Monster animation you see at 0:12. Equipment Used: Canon XL2, Rode NTG-2 Shotgun Mic

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What is this?!

This is the start of the new Howarth Creative site, a project collective of video, music, and other fun things I may or may not have worked on!

The old Howarth Creative site used to be an online portfolio specifically for web design. As times changed, so did the projects I focused on. I’ve since realized that I spend most of my projects working on video media and music. My intention for this site is to serve as an up-to-date project study (blog) for the media projects I am involved in now-a-days.

Thanks for stopping by!