Making an OwlKitty video can feel
like assembling a puzzle, in that the first step is laying out all the pieces and see what we're working with. So before doing anything, the first step is to watch the movie over, and over, and over again, and select all the shots that I feel need to go into this parody. By the way, rewatching Titanic, gave me a newfound appreciation for all the visual effects that went into it. Truly remarkable work for the time. So, just like the last behind the scenes, I'm going to take you through every shot and show you how it all came together in edit. Okay, right off the gate. This first shot is actually
one of the most complicated ones. I knew I wanted to jump right into the video, and what better way to do it than with this line, which I think really sets the tone. But those of you are really familiar with the movie, will know that the shot actually goes into a pretty tight close up, leaving no room for Lizzy to appear in his arms. So, before even bringing in Lizzy,
I've had to extend the background, give him a torso, but also, and that's the crazy thing, I've had to shift his whole face
so that he says the line sooner than he did in the actual movie. Oh, okay. Now we're actually finally ready to bring in Lizzy. And before I begin,
I do want to mention something quickly. All the shots where I have to hold Lizzy in my arms are actually pretty complicated. And unfortunately, this video has a lot in them. So, bear with me, it's going to get technical. In this first one, I'm holding Lizzy, but I also have to rotate at the same speed as Leo so that I could then track and pin my shoulders to his. So ultimately, I ended up picking this take, but it could also have been this, this, or this. All of them are decent takes. I just thought that this one was cute. Okay, this next one is very straightforward. Leo looks one way. Lizzy looks back at him, and to get that really adorable face, all I did was play with her for a little bit. In this case, with a mouse on a stick. That easy. Okay, this next one took significantly more time, and there was a version that I made using this take, but it wasn't quite as cute. However, I really liked this one because she had big eyes. So in order to make it work, I ended up having to repaint all the different elements in Photoshop, including her little paws, and then I created a 3D camera in After Effects. But in reality, this is how the shot actually looked. Cutie. Okay, this shot was super important to me. And like a joke, it's all about anticipation, and good timing. So once I've blocked it all out, I had to really figure out how to make it work visually. And that one had a ton of tiny details, like Lizzy's reflection in the water, the fog and scratches on the glass, and even the shadow on Leo's face. Adobe, please sponsor me. Okay. All right. Here we are. So this shot was one of the most talked about in the comments, and it quickly became one of my favorites. So let me try to break it down as best I can. So the first step requires a bunch of rotoscoping which is tracing Kate Winslet's outline
every single frame and using After Effects' Content Aware
Fill to fill in the background. Of course, if you look at it closely, it's a little bit clunky, but since it’s so fast and will be out of focus, it's not that big a deal. All right. Now comes the fun part. So just for you, I set up a camera in the corner of the room, and since I don't want to have to do more than one take, you can start to see me practice. Okay, for real this time. This is probably one of the silliest shots I’ve ever had to film, and I know that Lizzy doesn't love it, but the great thing is, we only had to do it once. And now that I have the spin, I just need to bring it back into the shot and match the rotation. Just like that. Okay. So this next one is actually the one
that everyone's talking about. And in reality, it's a lot simpler than you'd think. So the entire time, Lizzy is just sitting on a box, and all I have to do is lift her up slightly with my arms, while Olivia gets her attention with a toy so that she looks into the camera. All right, just like that. So far, pretty simple. Now, part two. All we need to do is open her mouth just the one time, even if it's quick. That way, we can attach it to the previous shot. And to do that, very simple, we just give her a treat. But by the way, there's a lot of really good faces in there, especially slowed down. We'll probably use them in a different video. All right, now that we have our shot, let's go into our editing software. BorisFX, Thank you for the free license of Mocha Pro! And by tracking Lizzy's face, I'm able to attach the mouth from the second take onto the first one. Honestly, when I first saw it, I laughed out loud. And the final step is to bring it
into our spinning background. Add a little bit of wiggle on the fur. And last but not least, remove the green. which reminds me, this video is brought to you by the color green. Green! It's a nice color. And it's great for special effects! That's right! We still don't have any sponsors. So if you'd like to support us, since we can't monetize our videos, Thank you, Celine Dion. Please go on our site where you can find cool shirts and postcards. Or just hit the tip button right here on YouTube. Thank you. All right. I'm just messing around. In reality, I could not imagine doing a parody of Titanic without including this shot and the one after. They are the most famous,
the most memorable, and in fact, I did try to make that second one
a few years ago with... ummm... moderate success. What's particularly challenging about
this shot is I could not simply just remove Kate Winslet from the shot
without also losing half of Leo's body. So I put on my long coat and suspenders, and here I am awkwardly trying out the outfit just to see if it would work. But importantly, what I also needed
was the sun and lots of it. And luckily, we've had an unseasonably nice and sunny winter here in Portland, Oregon. But I knew I only had one take to get this one right before Lizzy would start to hate me. Well, maybe two, if I bribe her with a treat. that one actually turned out to be pretty good. Unfortunately, and I don't know it yet,
but the way I'm standing isn't working. The angle is wrong, and my coat isn't shaking the way it needs to be. So the next day,
I went back out for some reshoots. If you look at the shadow, you can see how I'm shaking my coat with my left arm. Okay. Now, after deleting Jack and Rose from the shot, all I have to do was bring this new body back into the edit and swap my head with Leo's. Et voila! Finally, what I need to do is bring Lizzy back in from the previous shot and make sure to match the lighting and shadows on her fur. And hopefully, it turns out better
than it did two years ago. And finally, I'm going to end it on the last shot, which is a really silly drawing that I made of Leo holding Lizzy. And so here's the footage of me literally trying my best. And that, my friends, is four years of art
school really paying off. And after I put it back in the scene, Kate Winslet made this face, which I thought I had to use because it really tells the whole story
and brings it together. And so I thought it was really funny
to end it on this note. And I want to end this behind the scene with a HUGE thank you to all our Patreons, who truly make this work possible and have been since day one. We really couldn't do it
without your support. So thank you. And for everyone else, please like and subscribe to our channel, that way you'll be the first ones to know
when the next video drops. Merci a tous.
