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
camera
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.
https://www.facebook.com/controllossfilm/?ref=hl
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: Wednesday 21 October 2015
Hi, Here is the next edition of my production blog which is now a daily / an every time i do an edit post edition. This is a production log of my (creator, writer, director, producer, editor and camera / sound op: Sophie J Lees) work on the film Control Loss.
Firstly, today, I started by opening the project and composition of EDIT 4 SEQ 5 in Adobe After Effects. I had created this with the time and format and had imported the base footage of the sequence clip. I then did the base colour grade of day for night, exposure and master saturation.
Next I split the base footage at every shot cut / angle change or in one case a light change, until I had 17 clips / shot sequences (aka i will refer to this as mini seq) to work with individually. Why do this? Well for some reason m gut told me it would be easier to edit like this, also from past work and research on after effects tutorials on youtube had also given me this idea. At this stage I turned the 3D tab on for each mini seq so i could work with the lights later on.
Then I pre-composed each mini seq so that it would keep each area of edit focus clean and organised and would streamline my work flow. From research, plus my own experience with editing other EDIT 4 SEQs earlier in the edit process, I found this work flow to really work and be really time saving in the long term.
I made a clock face and key framed to a new mini seq image size so the time stuck om the clock well as motion tracking and stabilising tracking were not seeming to work that well at all and taking up way too much time. I did 2 mini seqs with ambient light and a spot light to give a moon light leaking in.
I then did a mask on a tv and created a static interference effect but due to unexpected error had to cut the rest of the edit short for today / this morning at least. I managed to correct the situation and error via closing and restarting on an auto saved older version which was quite up to date, thank god. So this meant i got to complete the effect of the flickering tv static effect. This was on mini seq 6 out of 17 mini seqs.
After all this drama and relief I edited all the mini seqs up to mini seq 10 which is a more complex sci-fi lighting effect set up plus other effects. The mini seqs I’ve done so far were just tweaking lighting and so on.
Major Announcement – Equipment
Hi, Writer and director Sophie J Lees here. I have a major announcement about the equipment of this film.
All equipment has now been ordered and is awaiting to be dispatched and delivered. This is very exciting as it means that pre production will be completely done soon and the shoot can go ahead next month as planned.
I got the equipment on amazon and my DSLR from Argos. This means my whole kit cost around £710 – the camera was about £290 from argos and the rest was £420 from amazon. This is a fraction of the cost of a full on industry kit with the top top high end equipment.
Keep looking out for other announcements and updates and the Behind the Scenes Director’s weekly Production blog edition will be released tomorrow.
Director’s Weekly Production Blog – Friday 27 March 2015
This week has been quite quiet and mainly focused on tying up loose pre-production ends and PR and Marketing. This is really all, the only other stuff worked on is planning production schedules and etc.
This has been due to me having other work and projects for my portfolio and charity and other clients.
The next blog post will be next Friday 3 April 2015
Director’s Weekly Production Blog – Friday 6 March 2015
Hi, Sophie J Lees (writer, director & producer) here again.
This week I have finished all the scripting and have finished / finalised the script and narrative. Originally it was going to be a 10 minute single camera epic of a sci-fi focusing on the sleep paralysis elements tied to and along with an alien abuction followed by an alien possession. However as I was scripting the final scene treatment, I saw how long the build up to and the abduction event was (3 mins script time) and I was inspired to cut it down & simplify the narrative to a 5 minute single camera drama focusing on sleep paralysis and the abduction event itself. This confirmed itself as a great idea through research and the more work I did on it. I finished 3 drafts of the narrative script and finalised it on the third draft. I then did the shooting script as I wrote the shot treatment.
I also started buying equipment, a dslr camera. Through research and budgeting, I realised and decided that a small crew and a single camera dslr drama film would be the best to get the look and style I wanted as well as ease and money savings we would get. This also led me to decide that I would also be the editor as my skills also lie in editing etc.
Finally this week I did: sound, music and visuals mind maps, ideas and notes. Along with the preps for the branding relaunch, vlog and pitch video.
Keep looking out for the vlog and pitch video which will be uploaded soon I promise. Also my next edition of Director’s Weekly Production Blog which will be posted on Friday 13 March 2015.
Thanks & bye.
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