It seems like forever ago that I started working on the storyboards for the “Attack of the Tropes.” Checking past blog entries, I see that I started them on January 22. So it really has been a long time. There were a number delays finding a composer. I got the final song delivered on April 13, so it was time to attack the storyboards in earnest. Yesterday, I finally finished the storyboards.

More accurately, I suppose, it’s really an animatic. The boards were put together in a timeline with rough timing, songs, and sound effects. Since the whole movie will be shot on a green screen with virtual sets, it’s important that I have a good sense of camera placement and as musical it’s important that I know the timing of each shot. read more

After shooting some additional test footage, I noticed I was getting a lot of noise–particularly in the blacks. The is a definite no for chromakey. Not only does the noise making keying very difficult, but it makes it even harder to get the keyed footage to match the background plate.

One remedy is to install Magic Lantern on the Canon T3i. That will allow me to shoot on multiples of the native ISO 160. I have, so far, been reluctant to install Magic Lantern on my camera. Sure it’s “safe,” and everyone uses it, but I still haven’t pulled the trigger. read more

During the crunch time when trying to hit the May 11 finish date, I called a lot of studios that have chromakey cycs. My favorite, and the one that I expect to eventually use, is Extreme Sound Production in Van Nuys. Don Mann, who runs the place, was very helpful and super friendly. He also offers a very competitive rate for a pre-lit chromakey cyc.

There is a lot of movement during the laboratory sequences, so I knew I wanted to be able to set up the whole thing as a single set green screen set rather than shooting different parts and trying to make sure they fit together in the final comps. It just seemed like that was asking for trouble. I got the dimensions of the cyc from Don. 19′x21′x19′ with 2′4″ curves on the cyc walls.  That meant that I had to design the lab set to fit within 16′4″x16′4″. read more

On March 27 I received a deadline submission e-mail for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I wasn’t planning on submitting anything to the festival and so, when I was just about to push the delete key, I noticed the submission deadline for films was May 11. I needed a good, hard deadline to get everything back on track and so I met with Nicole and put together a schedule that would allow us to complete on time. It was into the realm of the improbable, but not the impossible.

In order to hit the deadline I needed to complete casting by today, record vocals next weekend and then film on the following two weekends. I posted casting notices, arranged to have my composer agree to the new accelerated schedule, found the right studio space, arranged an audition space and was ready to go. read more

The first of the movie monsters to appear are the giant ants. Projected on the screen they scurry over a rocky ridge. I’ve put together a small test animation of the ants in motion.  I’m aiming for creepy in a B-movie fashion.

There needs to be a pause before the first ant pushes over the jeep. Just a moment where it moves its antennae about. Right now, the ant is lacking in motivation. Maybe a couple of more ants coming over the ridge each the end, too.

Take a moment to enjoy in all of its temp audio glory.

When the giant ants first appear they’re on the movie screen in black and white. While working on some sketches for the rocky ridge, I realized that in a film about tropes I couldn’t invent anything more appropriate than Vasquez Rocks. You will doubtless remember Vasquez Rocks from the episode of Star Trek where Kirk has to battle the Gorn, a ridiculous rubber-suited alien lizard.

Using some projection mapping and a little 2D-post to blend the rocks seam where the foreground rock meets the ground plane, I think I’ve made a fairly convincing recreation of the Vasquez Rocks.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

I’ve been spending most of time lately working with Torin to get timing for the first song nailed down and synced with the existing storyboards. But you can’t have a monster movie without monsters, so it’s time to fire up the monster factory. First up are the giants ants. The thing with giant ants is that they’re a lot like regular ants. Just bigger.

I finished the modeling and rigging. I’m saving the textures and materials for later. Right now, they’re not the priority. read more

After a number of false starts, it looks as if I’ve finally found a composer. While I was off enjoying the sun and humidity in Cocoa Beach, Nicole was busy back in Los Angeles interviewing and negotiating with potential composers. She had the idea of posting on the job board at the USC Music Composition Department. It was a tactic that paid off, we had a number of inquiries in the first couple of days.

Our favorite was a Torin Borrowdale, a student at the USC Thornton School of Music with about 30 short film scores under his belt. We’ve agreed on a payment schedule and he is, hopefully, busy working on a sample for the first song. Torin did have some questions about the actions and transitions during the song, so I said I would send along some animated storyboards the following day. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been working on the storyboards and only had a few done. It was a long day and night of drawing boards. Very long. read more

Unhappy with the first green screen composite test I went back to the original footage to give it a second go. I made a number of changes this time around: lighting, composition, and overall look.

The first change was lighting the scene primarily with IBL. I painted out the green screen from the light probe images before assembly in Photoshop and then setup the rendering to use the image for lighting and reflections. The “practical” lights are still in the scene, but they are now used primarily for generating the shadows. The intensity of the lights are turned down to between 10-12% of their original values. read more

So finally the green screen test. Push the Go! button and dash up onto the stage to…what? I’m not much of an actor. Okay, I’m not an actor at all. I mostly mill about, pretending to look at things that aren’t there. It was about nine o’clock by the time I started shooting and getting a bit chilly. Cold for Los Angeles and certainly cold for me. Back to the camera to check that I was in frame. Close. Adjust and back onto the stage. This time I managed to stay in frame. The footage seems fine and I move on the crane test.

I probably should have done the playback on the 7″ monitor, or taken the SD Card inside to look at what I shot. But I didn’t. It turns out, I’m slightly out of focus. Not much. Not enough that I noticed, but a little bit. This is going to make keying out the edges a bit trickier and the composite a little odd. read more