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
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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:- 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: 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.
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SHOOTING NEXT WEEKEND
Its been a while since our last post.
Its been all go wrapping up Pre-Production and getting towards Production and the shooting days.
But now we are almost there.
We are counting down the days and we now only have 8 days (including today) to go.
Keep an eye out on saturday 27 June 2015 and sunday 28 june 2015 for production shot and the shooting gallery.
Thanks for reading and look out tomorrow as the WEEKLY DIRECTOR’S PRODUCTION BLOG will be back.
Director’s Weekly Production Blog – Friday 10 April 2015
Hi.
This week had been quite busy yet relaxed with a lot of stuff being done.
I have got all the equipment as I mentioned in a previous announcement and I have sorted all the budget and finances out so far. And mainly this week has been about scheduling, distribution plans, starting to get locations via emailing all the local real estates and planning my backup location as a last resort; and PR and marketing as well as the PR plans. I have confirmed and progressed so much and realise that the looming shoot date should be ok if everything carries on this way.
There is not much else to report for now. Next weeks usual edition won’t happen due to a holiday and personal stuff but will be as usual the week after on Friday 24 April 2015, where I should have loads to report back on.
Thanks, Sophie J Lees, Writer, Director and Producer.
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
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