Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Monday 16 November 2016

Today I finished shot 2 of scene 6 in after effects by adding in the cgi set from blender (a blend swap product). I fitted it in with the scene and perspective then added all the lighting.

I then moved on to shot 3 where I started on the masking, I created the first 2 masks and started key framing mask 2 which was small and took a very little time. Mask 1 was quite a big chunk of the picture frame and I did 4 to 6 key frames. Then I exported / rendered shot 3 to the cgi add on folder ready for the cgi set add on project. It will be a background and reference for the cgi SET set up.

I opened the blend swap set in blender 3d and loaded up the background video / reference. I got the set up i wanted and rendered to the folder.

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Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Thursday 12 November 2015

Today I did loads of editing in the 3d software, B;ender 3d on a model set from blend swap. i rendered it and prepared it to go in to scene 6 shot 2. I’ve also created and uploaded a new trailer to youtube. And finally I’ve done a load of pr and stuff

Director’s Weekly Production Blog:- General update from last post to now

Up to now, the trailer is up and running with the 2nd one being uploaded as we speak.

Also mainly I’ve been slowly editing Scene 6, which is a much bigger visual and sfx / cgi post production operation that originally thought. I have been doing mainly the PR and Marketing and getting distribution and PR plans tied up, updated and finalised.

However due to personal and family illnesses, things have been stopped to a rest and stagnated. I was very annoyed and put back by this but things have kept going by doing little tiny things and starting to progress again. By this i mean I’ve been doing all the prep and loose end tiring work possible and getting blend swaps CC (creative commons) content and etc.

UPDATE AND URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT

The film is now to be released on Friday 8 January 2016.

This is instead of Friday 18 December 2015.

This is due to edit progress and the need for more space to get the finalised distribution cemented.

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Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Tuesday 3 November 2015

Yesterday, I was still recovering a cold, so I didn’t do much work apart from spreading PR and messages about the trailer. I sent links and updates to the cast and crew. Also before my day started officially, I did LAW OF ATTRACTION – MIND WORK aka a plan or todo list of ideas for pr and marketing for trailer and Facebook page.

Today I started by confirming that I was going to get a load of creative commons 3D stuff and etc off BLEND SWAP. I also started by opening the After Effects project – Scene 6 Shot 2.

I worked on the rotoscoping and masking on shot 2 and got over half way through the frame count of 11 out of 19 frames, when I was experiencing technical difficulties. While rebooting the project I sorted all the resources folders.

Apart from the cgi and 3d elements to be added in and the eye effects and eye key framing, shot 2 was complete (complete for today).

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Control Loss Trailer Official

Director’s Daily Production Log – Friday 30 October 2015

I opened my Trailer project in Final Cut Pro X. I then started by messing with the effects, taking them all off and starting from base again, this is because rendering was really slow and messing up. I know this could be taking the jip (p**s) a bit but yesterday I had a brain spark in the bathroom and felt I didn’t need sound effects for this trailer just music. Plus I will probably make more bonus and advertising material in all forms so this could just be a trailer with music. Also in this brain spark I was thinking of other trailers which led me to this conclusion.

Don’t get me wrong, I know exactly all the effects I want and transitions etc, but starting from scratch may help a bit. I finally managed to get started on it fully and add effects however I found two different and better looks and effects that were closer to what I wanted.

I tweaked and key-framed the effects on each clip. I did all the transitions and added all the music and then finally I shared it to the destinations.

Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Thursday 29 October 2015

Today I am focusing on the trailer of the film.

I started this morning by doing drafts and narrative breakdowns plans for the trailer; this was continuing on from yesterday when in the late evening I had some late inspiration.

I downloaded sounds and music for the trailer and for all film too.

I did all the text and transitions and then I got all the clips in position and for the duration i wanted. I added and experimented with the effects.

This is all I did for today. I still have to tweak effects and add sounds and music, which won’t take that long at all.

Look out tomorrow for the trailer !!

Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Wednesday 28 October 2015

Firstly I opened up After Effects and the Scene 6 Project. I started and attempted green screening with my footage, on Shot 1,but was having problems. While struggling with keying and masking, i re examined set set-up and thought it actually would look fine with tweaking and colour grading and lighting add ons and effects and light colouring.

I then moved on to shot 2 and started masking and etc. I tried to work out how to get a load of plug ins down loads cgi add ins / objects and set etc as a possibility to add on to my stuff. I will get free use and creative commons stuff from places like blend swap etc.

The rest of the day (work day) was spent working out the trailer for the trailer dead line of this friday / saturday coming. As i am far behind on my whole editing but have the key scene and stuff for the trailer. I just need to get sound effects and make a trailer score and then create it for friday. I will pend rest of the week focused on the trailer then finishing the edit. At first I was really struggling to think how i was going to get film done with visual effects, sound dub and music scoring still left to do by this coming week end  – especially this friday – and to get trailer made and uploaded for the same day on youtube it seemed an impossible task. I really thought i failed myself but had a brain wave this morning and remembered My film release is december in vimeo on demand and video on demand sources by december to january, (obviously i hadn’t forgotten my distribution plan just I was thinking I needed whole video to be complete before i did trailer as thats how my last video project at uni happened). However I realised that I had all material for the trailer complete as was my last resort plan. I also had a breakthrough in my trailer ideas and design and set myself the action plan and target i mentioned above for trailer. My film is not far off being finished – especially this visual effects stage – its just that the scene I’m on is the second big section to work on and bugger scale stuff which is quite a challenge for me. However this whole thing is so fun and challenging that i love the growth the work has caused me.

Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Tuesday 27 October 2015

Firstly I reviewed the scene / sequence finished yesterday, Scene 5 / Sequence 5. Because of a few problems I had to re-render again. While waiting for render to finish and to preview, I worked on my sound mind map. This was only a small mind map as I pretty much knew what I wanted. Also while waiting for previews of clips to load etc, I started the music mind map too. Again this is only a small one as I know pretty well what I want in the music.

I previewed Scene 5 (also call sequence 5 but I’m sticking with scene and no) and noticed a couple tiny mistakes and errors that need tweaking. These include an eye effect for the villain that appears on screen when it shouldn’t and a missing eye effect key framing section on a bit where I didn’t realise needed it until looking over the footage again a couple times. This is annoying but should be quick to redeem.

While on a short coffee break, I completed the music mind map.

I corrected all the errors in Scene 5 and rendered it again. While waiting for render, I previewed the next scene sequence to make notes for the next edit and visual effects. I then previewed scene 5 again just to make sure.

I set up Scene 6 project in after effects, and created some materials and add ons and visual effects in blender 3d. I then set up the 6 shot pre comps and imported all the resources. I also looked over the whole scene 6 to get a feel for how to work the visual effects and etc. I know what I want, its just adding it on and how to work round the footage etc.

Director’s Daily Production Blog:- Monday 26 October 2015

Hi, Its been a few days and I’m back at work with Edit 4 SEQ 5 (aka Scene 5). This is a long one to work out all the visual effects and etc. Today I am focusing on getting as much of this edit and the whole edit done as quickly and as well as possible as my deadline is Friday 30 October 2015 along with trailer release. This is a really tight deadline and looks impossible, but Im a filmmaker with a lot of belief in Law of Attraction, so it can be done.

Firstly I am focusing on Shot 12 (before i referred to shot no as mini seq …). Here I am adding in an effect to the character’s eye’s – the villain’s eyes. This means a lot of key framing and visual effects fun. Well for me I just stick TV on with most haunted on the free view box and semi watch it while i work; it actually makes me work seemingly faster and keeps me sane. I Had a few problems with the key framing and movement of this add on effect but on second attempt it work better than planned.

Next I moved onto shots 13, 14,15 16 and finally 17. These (barre 14) were all just light add ons and ufo lights. Shot 14 was another eye effect key framing sequence. All the shots were tiny so they took way less time than i expected so I sped through them all.

Finally for this scene / sequence, I got it all to the render Que. and wait for render. I did scroll through to look over quickly. I reviewed footage and realised a shot where I missed an eye effect and key frame session in an earlier edit of this scene as I hadn’t completely decided to go ahead with it 100%.

I altered what I needed to and re-rendered it.

Thanks, come back tomorrow for more Behind the scenes talk etc.