Today Peter was telling me about a homebrew 'Criterion Closet' that was shot at his store. If you're a long time reader of this blog you might remember the model I made of Movies 'N' Stuff a few years ago. Some interesting picks, and you'll see a bit more inside Peter's store. If you're a movie lover in Ottawa, drop by the store. You won't regret it.
The interior shots of the video store were done on a 'set', not inside the actual model. I did it this way so that it was possible to take unencumbered eye-level photos of scenes inside the store. I wasn't too sure how this would work, so I built a set of the easiest and most important section of the store, the main video wall that contains new movie releases as well as new American and British tv shows and a section dedicated to movies from the Criterion collection. The wall was photographed in sections: one photo for each rack and a few others for the posters at the top. These photos were then rescaled and pieced together - no doubt there is an app out there to do the hard work, but it turned out to be not too difficult. Set scene photos were shot with an LED light block held over the set to provide fairly uniform illumination. Is it cheating to use photos for the racks and models for the figures? Probably, but I find the contrast between the two elements interesting, and it's getting closer to producing the kind of feeling I'm looking for.
That's the new release wall of movies and tv series along with mucho discs from the Criterion collection. The wall is a photo composite of images taken inside Movies 'n Stuff here in Ottawa, and scaled to approximately HO - it's a little larger so the discs are a little more distinct. It's a great place.
It's not selective compression, more like heavy duty editing.
There's a bank on the corner and the wall facing the parking lot has windows. The movie store is windowless for all the DVD racks, but I did keep some of the larger signs that face the cars as well as the roof corner shape.
Lighting is provided by 2 strips of LEDs. There are holes drilled in the front wall, behind the sign to light it up. It's not too bright, but in the dark it's quite effective.
There's no streetcar here, but the bus does stop right outside, so one could imagine it on a streetcar route...
... if any pass through the End of the Universe :-)
