BORDERLINE SHORTS - 'Last Man Standing' and 'Head'

Last Man Standing Finished

Penultimate green screen for 'Last Man standing'

Nearly there.

Just need too garbage matt between the legs.

G

'Head' DVD slideshow

This is the slideshow from the 'Head' DVD, Music by Mark Pover, Lyrics Danny Cawley.

Latest 'Last Man Standing' backdrops etc

Old Puppet Heads

In the quest to find a way of making puppet heads look old I came across this product:

Applicraft 'Craquelure'

http://www.applicraft.co.uk/painteffects.php

there was only 2 dusty pots on the shelf of the shop and the person selling them told me that she had used them on some polymer clay boxes she had made. Thankfully I checked the web site for fuller instructions as the process she told me she had used was totaly wrong. Anyway I applied the 2 part 'lotion' as per the applicraft instructions to this Punch head I have just made, finaly bringing out the texture of the crackle with some Windsor and Newton raw umber light. Although it appears expensive for what it is You would get a lot of heads done for the quantity.
You can see the results below.

 

 

'Head' article for IAC website

'Head'

 

Conception and Birth

 

I don't know about you but externalising personal visions at 25 frames per second is very hard for me.  As each frame is digitally captured I feel like I am giving birth to some unholy monster that has its own direction and purpose.
The short film 'Head' was no exception to this and had morphed over the two  years of its life cycle from a one line horror flick to a dark dystopian dream.
Myself and Bob Vine had spent the best part of a year working on 'Last Drop' which was an attempt to purge ourselves of the gangster genre after Bobs 'Car Park'. We felt we had  reached a point where we needed to push ourselves further than the technical and acting difficulties that we had encountered on 'Last Drop' . We had 'made our bones' as Moe Green had put it in the 'Godfather' and it was time to explore a different world.

'Head' had languished (some may say festered) for a year and although the central narrative of the sad pathetic creature trying to rid itself of 'something' and then trying to find 'meaning'  which the 'feel' of the film hangs on remained the same, the industrial look and soundtrack of the film evolved as we planned it.

Planning ( Do we have to do this ....YES)

When we have an idea we start by flowcharting it, this enables us to structure the logic prior to scriptwriting and storyboarding.
This process is fundamental to the success of any project and also allows us to improvise in shooting and post without loosing direction, in effect we try to design out operational and technical failure to enable us to concentrate on the creative side of things. The devil is in the detail and in film making you cannot be too organised. We always cover any locations with photographs which are inserted into the storyboard and for this purpose we use either Keynote, or Frameforge.Any script items, direction or camera moves are included in the story board.
If we have CGI or green screen scenes we will make mock-ups and test these prior to shooting as often some things will work better than others. We use Celtx for scriptwriting more ambitious projects with a lot of dialogue which also has the ability to incorporate pictures and files. Celtx produces the script in a format that is familiar to most actors.
Also at this point we will try to get a feel for the soundtrack which as far as we are concerned is more than an equal partner to the visuals and plays a major roll in setting mood, style and significance.

Myself and Bob have worked together on a few films and music videos over the past three years and have come to understand how each other works. We both use Apple Mac technology and our systems as far as software goes are mirrors of each other. This makes life a lot easier and gives us access to Apples powerful and dedicated video editing and music production tools.We both work on all aspects of pre-production and one or the other will take a lead in pushing the project forward, The tasks are divided up into the various skill sets that each of us has.

We are both reasonably competent at camera work and sound recording in the field and in this film Bob handled the comping/montage side of things in Shake and Motion, I handled any other green screen layering effects and editing inside Final Cut Studio Apples NLE application and composed the soundtrack. We find the work flow of these applications easy to use as even Soundtrack and Logic PRO 7 integrates fully with FCP.

Bob works full time for a international company in their design team (I freelance) , this means that I will normally pick up any other jobs like preparing DVD's looking after the Blog entering films into festivals etc.
At the end of the day its teamwork which provides synergy to the project and enables you push forward with the project, its give and take and if you don't get on then you have to find someone else to make films with.

Who the hell can we find to act in this film.

In previous films we had used actors who were friends of friends and came from amateur dramatic backgrounds. Although this worked reasonably well we were sort of stuck with who we had, we never auditioned, I think we tried to shoehorn some of the actors into parts that on reflection they may have not been entirely suitable for. This was an important lesson. We decided that we would have to take more time and care in actor selection in the future.

We made the decision to use two of the on-line film community websites Shooting People and Talent Circle  to find a couple of suitable actors for 'Head'. I placed a brief advert with a very short synopsis of the film onto the websites, we had no money to pay actors but we offered expenses, and within 3 hours I had received 49 responses, fantastic!!!

We knew we wanted a certain look for the characters in 'Head' so we trawled through the actors pictures and looked at their show reels until we found what we were looking for, contacted them and set up a meeting in the Coal hole in London's Strand. Tim and Iannis had previous films under their belts and were also involved in writing screenplays. Both had experience of 'edgy' roles and were certainly up for what we wanted from them. We had a couple of further meetings prior to filming to read and discuss the script and work out the logistics of the shoot.

Location, Location, Location

Where do you find a cellar in a factory ? Bobs 12x10 lock-up garage. We dressed this a week prior to shooting the opening scenes making a nest for factory man In the corner of the lock-up and placing the various homemade props around it. The shoot went as planned.

Two weeks later we did the scenes along the river, its important to walk the route that the actors will follow at least a week prior to filming as there is nothing worse than finding that an area is closed off or someone has dug a big hole where your actor is going to sit. In the case of the underpass scenes the local council had removed most of the graphitti from the walls two days prior to us arriving and other than being pestered by the local 'loony' the shoot went to plan. We even got time for a pint afterwards.

On the subject of multi-location shoots I would suggest that you should try to get them all in the can as soon as possible. 'Last Drop' had too many delays due to the fact that we couldn't get all the actors in the right place at the right time due to their other commitments. There was a delay of 15 weeks between the shot of Vince in the bathroom and him entering the garage (and almost a year between him leaving the garage and dying in the street) this can cause continuity problems which you may have not considered.

Its important to stress to the actors upfront about their commitment to your project. Always have contingency for such events. The locations are as important as the actors and should be 'auditioned' as such, we will photograph or video area's and process them with the sort of look and feel we have decided the end product will have, just to make sure it all fits together.

Two weeks, darkened room, coffee..............

We both feel that modern audiences are now quite sophisticated and will not accept poor production values even from 'amateur' film makers.
The post-production element of the project is potentially the most creative part and should not be thought of as just the chore of linking all the clips together but more as a virtual pallet of images and sound. This is where the synergy of soundtrack, visual effects and graphics come together,  where that old saying "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" really does mean something.

Understanding both visual and audio elements of your editing tool set and studying film and TV techniques will improve production values. Reading books from the likes of Walter Murch In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing and Mike Figgis Digital Film Making can help enormously. There are thousands of books on the subject and the ones written by actual filmmakers are the more valued ones. There is no substitute for the real thing and although we both have differing tastes, we both visit the cinema to see at least 20 films a year.

We had something like 3 hours of raw footage from the head shoots,  we use a clapper board at the start of each shot because we record sound separately on a Tascam HDP2, this kit combined with a Sennheiser K6 system and muffler enables us to get high quality sound.

After identifying and marking the clips in the Final Cut Pro capture system I then batch capture them and synch the sound files from the Tascam in the time line. This takes a bit of practice but after a while I found the easiest way is to do it visually (looking at the wave forms and pulling the clips along at the frame level).  When I had completed this I discarded the on camera microphone audio and locked the new visuals and audio together. I finished this part of the job by colour correcting all the raw footage. A rough assembly was made from these clips and any cutaways that were filmed on the day. We are a bit obsessive with planning and storyboarding so we know how the film will be put together and the final look and feel the film will have (this we agree on at the start of post).

This assembly formed the basis for the film and I layered the green screen and special effects on top. Even with a pretty organised time line the post on 'Head' was a was about 13 full days due to the excessive rendering times for the final special effects.

Nothing is quite what it seems in the film and Bob produced the furnaces in 'Shake' from photographs taken in the Science Museum and some of the external locations using composites of industrial building pictures around the Thames Barrier. The matte paintings were done in Photoshop and either incorporated in Motion or Shake with green screen elements (the head flying in space for example).

When all of these elements were in place it was time to start putting the soundtrack together. The soundtrack for 'Head' ended up being 25 pairs of stereo tracks layered on the time line. Most of these are industrial drones prepared in Propelor Heads Reason using the NN19 digital sampler and various industrial noises I have recorded. There are also samples from one of my favourite audio sites The Freesound Project.

Using my midi keyboard I doodled a small theme that appears a couple of times in the film just to change the mood of things. The track used at the start of the film is a piece by Geraldo called 'I'm confessing' and the final track is 'Forgotten Dreams' by Sandy MacPherson at the Blackpool Tower organ.

These two pieces of music (especially the Geraldo one with the added heavy distortion and reverb) takes me back to my childhood as I struggled to hear the radio through the bedroom wall just before falling asleep.

When the rough edit was complete I used Genarts Saphire filters lighting plugins to apply the night effect to some of the later shots in the film and a Magic Bullet plugin to desaturate and control the gamma of the black and white sequences. Finally a tint, animated visual noise and CHV-Electronics film grunge (hair, flicker, dust) plugin was added for the final edit. The colour of the scenes that take place in the tunnel were based on the colour of the lighting in the 'Saw' horror movies.

'Head' was filmed in HDV 1080i but looks as if its 8mm film, that's what we were aiming at. The story evolved over a year from a man waking in bed and finding something odd in his wardrobe (the original idea) to a creature caught in a bleak desolate landscape who's only escape is into another world of uncertainty and horror, until he is released by confronting what's inside the box. The seed is now free to go and populate/infect other dreams/universes.

'Head' is all a dream of course and should be viewed as such, more of a audio visual experience than a straight forward piece of film making. There was also an opportunity to pay a small homage to two people who have influenced my film making and thinking J G Ballard and David Lynch (the Brothers Quay are also standing somewhere in the shadows).

I am re-editing the soundtrack with a sound scape from fellow collaborator Mark Pover a composer from the UK which will be finished sometime in May, it is quite exciting visiting this world again and seeing new colours and moods generated by the new soundtrack .

It was an interesting journey for Bob and myself technically and creatively and although the films we have in production at the moment are a million miles away from 'Head' it will be interesting to return to that universe at some point in the future.

Please note that the version of Head at HypTV does not include the opening and closing tracks as mentioned above.

 

The Borderline blog

 

 

 

New stills from animation w/e 24th February 2008

No colour grading or 'look' on yet.

The red spray is similar to that from the 2nd Unreal tournament game.

stills from 17/02/08 + new video assist gizmo

Some new pictures

Various Animation shots from last week w/e 3rd February 2008

Shot for Stikfas

Opening Stikfa animation model

Finished head

'Stikfa' animation short and head in an oven

Opening scene

Unfinished tree for 1st Stikfa fighter

Head in an oven

Download skeleton_small_sample.mov (only need the 1st bush blowing past) when its got the music wind and slightly out of focus bird flying in the background should be OK.

G

Meet Mr Krispy Kreem

Textured skin done by rolling a black peppercorn across the surface.

G

Heads coming thick and fast

another practise head

Polymer clay texture transfer test

This tile is made from the same stuff that the heads are made from. It has some textured items (areas from a picture frame) pressed into it. Its then coloured and sealed. Photographed with a back light (orange picture) and front light (blue picture) photographed at big res's these can then be used as part of montages, backgrounds etc etc. These shots were hand held on the little sony camera so not that sharp. they look a little like fossils.

G

This weeks work

I finished the animation wooden dolly

I did some tests for the short 3 min animation featuring Marks song 'Airshaft' the title will be something like '27 Fragments' (the number being the amount of  related clips).

 

I started on another puppet head (getting a bit better at this) and when I finished it I realised it looked a bit like a cross between 'Craig' out of 'Creep' and Keith Richards.

All in all quite a productive week and I am doing the opening shots for 'Fragments. today.

G

Greenscreen replacements for 'Stikfa World' background intro

A happy new year to our 3 readers

Basis for the 'perpetual machine' for Mechanica Perpetua

Pre 'Grunge' version.

G

PS A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO OUR 3 READERS :)

New Eltham after dark test

I should be able to start the SB Wed/Thursday.

Latest tabletop test.

This is a still photograph processed with some SFX. It was taken with a Nikon D1 and a Tamron 90 mm Macro lens. The DOF is too shallow although its f64 at 2 seconds on a tripod. Filming on a video camera (1/3 chip) will give a greater DOF which would look a bit more realistic and it requires a pan/mini dolly shot (B&Q draw front and castors).

The scene requires more  branches and rubbish and the 'Lichen'  bushes need to be darkened. Due to the DOF problems its difulcult to pull a key (also the screen needs to be blue for this shot). an idea could be to create the car shot and then a further 'in focus' shot that can be matted behind.

Further rusting is required on the car I used (which I found in the road last week, discarded by some 'rich' kid).

Gill said that she expected to see someone jump out the car with a gun.

Rust preperation treatment.

Video file here   

Stikfas Mobster test using FXhome (updated 16th December PM)

Here is a first test for the stikfas 'Mobster model' I have since sorted out the walking movement. I have used MB LS 'Berlin' preset and FXhome to do the muzzle flash. Also my first ever animated focus pull at 0:08.

G

Video File here

PART 2

Same sequence with some added bits:

Rain (NTSC clip from det films streched but seems to work OK)

Bullet hits HD

Blood splat NTSC

and a short sample with some real HD muzzle flashes

PART 2 video here

g

Stikfas 'Fighting' and 'Theatre' animations

I won't put any of the Stikfa's tests up as they are a bit crap (I have included a couple of stills). I'll wait until I have more experience with these and have something decent to show. I have the full idea for the short it only lasts about a couple of minutes.

Stikfa website

Walking around Covent Garden
Pollocks Toy Shop
I had an idea for another short animation that features a toy theatre I have posted a file that just has some opening ideas (like a bit of a palate of colours and sound) I'll talk to you about it Bob when I see you this week as the clip won't make much sense. Pollocks is owned by Derek of Derek and Mavis fame from 'Coronation Street' "Oooh I don't really know"

Video File sample

G

Animation/Camera test

I used the Canon XM2 on this test as the Boinx software doesn't support HD. the video is a looping sequence with the 1st part being anmated at 25 single frames a second the 2nd part being at 12x2 feames a second (2 still frames taken without movement between them don't worry too much if you can't see the difference). This latter technique is better, it slows things down a bit. The green screen was only illuminated from a side kitchen window so it was a bit dirty and pulling a key on SDV is not as good as HDV but I don't think that will matter much.

Issues.

1. I need to finish off the top of the head.

2. The head (and especially the hands need to be painted with matt varnish as they are picking up green screen reflections, the lighter clothing and the fur that Michelle put together were a nightmare unfortunatley, I suppose you learn these things as you go. The current clothes are from a Doctor Who model.

3. I'm not sure now if I need to make a dedicated background as the photos work quite well and I can make them more 3D by using PhotoShop layers I like the flatter image as it looks more theatrical and we can do more with the pictures and have more choices.

4. Need to sort out the greenscreen lighting I have a couple of 50 watt halogen lamps that I can use.

Its starting to take that Quay/Svankmayer eastern europe 60's look which I'm quite pleased about, so a good exercise on the whole no doubt more challenges next week.

G

video file 33Mb

Some mockups for title cards

Model and camera test for animation

latest 'lil dom' reincarnation pictures

I have taken a creative descision and decided finally against the beehive haircut (which incidently took me quite a long time to work out how do do and fashion it) I have decided more is less and 'Lil Dom' will have a lobotomy of sorts. Dropped the head on the floor yesterday and the nose broke off....superglue is great and the nose is no longer running. As I said  before  you have todo this stuff to work out what you want and especially how it will look on camera.

G

human animation test for "Eavesdropper' (working title)

Ancient Anglo-Saxon law punished eavesdroppers, who skulked in the Eavesdrip of another's home, with a fine.

A very rough test of me moving around in stopmotion.   Human animation

British museum visit

Keytest 7 & 8 (update)

Similar shot (mock up) to the original video but a bit more snazzier.

G

Keytest7

keytest8 wings of fire

Gill having a cup of coffee in the cafe at the top of the hill

Avery hill 9:30 am

The V&A wrought iron section

key test 2 and 3/4/5/6 (updated again)

Keytest 3 is just playing with backgrounds getting an idea of what will work, what the colour and texture of the film should be, how many layers I may need and what I may need to photograph and hack around in PS,  studio speaker sound on this one. theres a drop shadow on the sleeve of the straight jacket. I'll be making another visit to the V&A either the end of this week or next. The background in 3 is just a tester.

The size for your images Dom is 1440x1080.

keytest2

keytest3

Keytest4

keytest5

keytest6 no reason the drums are small other than trying shots out. please note none of these files constitute final scenes in the video.

h.265 has desaturated these clips quite alot the originals are quite colourful

G