One*7

Story Progress notes.

I have been struggling to get started with developing the story for this project from a base idea into an actual working concept. It's an understandably difficult thing - deciding what it is exactly that I want to focus on, what kind of story I want to tell, the mood of the film, the target audience, the stereotypes to avoid and those that are unfortunately inescapable. There is also the prospect of taking a stereotypical idea and approaching it in a way that is new and refreshing but based on previous attempts of such an approach my track record is nothing marvelous - therefore that is an approach that has been scrapped as I write this.

I must keep in mind that there is a requirement to produce a written companion to this new body of work that must reflect my objectives with this film (project). Thus my contemplation has been following these lines; what the objectives will be and many that I have thought about are important in regards to creating the film - but not necessarily a factor into my MAP specialisation (visual effects). Therefore my ideas/concepts/thoughts on all possible objective require rational sorting of this random collection and identifying which directly regard my specialisation.

Important Concepts (so far)

- Shoot the film using alternative filming methods.

- Achieve a unique visual style; evident in the characters, the world and involving the implementation of CGI elements into live action.

- Create characters with emotional depth.

- Create an environment which is both alien and familiar to the audience in both tone and physical appearance.

- Develop a story which provides a rich history to the story.

- Develop characters 'look' in an efficient way which incorporates visual effects in collaboration with existing elements.

Obviously some of the concepts in the list above do not relate to my area of focus for the MAP, from this particular list those would be;

- Achieve a unique visual style; evident in the characters, the world and involving the implementation of CGI elements into live action.

 - Develop characters 'look' in an efficient way which incorporates visual effects in collaboration with existing elements.

These two as well as the development of a 'familiar alien environment' and of course the story will be the focus of my project. Dependant upon consultation with my supervisor my main area of focus will revolve around developing a unique visual style which is evident in the film's visual effects and their implementation. Their implementation of course will depend upon what filming methods are decided upon, but finally narrowing down a goal excites me! Particular inspiration for this line of thought have been the appearance of Tim Burton's films and in particular Tron - a style which is instantly recognisable. The style of these films are there identity and it is interesting to note how the audience perceives a film based purely upon it's appearance.

Many can misinterpret the film's tone or intentions due to the style of the effects implemented. Film's such as Avatar approach visual effects with aims to achieve complete realism from unrealistic concepts and are received favorably. Other films such as those set in the real world (i.e. Die Hard, V for Vendetta etc) aim to achieve an 'invisible' extension of reality with their visual effects. Then of course there are the films such as Toy Story, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Coraline etc which aim to create a completely fictional world which will never be believed as 'real'. These 3 approaches are typical to visual effects, but there are those that attempt to blend the barriers such as Final Fantasy which strive to create a fictional world with complete realism and fail to trick the audience into believing that it is 'real'.

To get back on topic - it does sound strange, but I believe the style and approach to the visual effects of a film can play a unique role in the identity of a film. The fact that Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks feature animations may be identified by the styling of their characters is proof of this. My aim is to develop a style of visual effect which is uniquely my own.

I do not mean in the sense that the CGI Characters appearance will reflect my personal artistic style - I mean EVERYTHING will. The way that thing's move and interact with their environment. I wish to create a film that represents my emotions, my thought processes. The way things move may not necessarily be how they move in reality, although I am sure some will be. I want the film to reflect my personality and how I perceive the world.

Throughout this process I will develop the style, review how I may achieve the style and investigate alternative methods in which to achieve said effect. This will undoubtably involve research into various plugins, various artistic methods in regards to 3D modelling, digital art and digital compositing. I am sure there will be many more aspects to this challenge but I do not want to get ahead of myself until I consult with my supervisor.

After discussion with my supervisor, pending his approval I will rapidly move ahead with the story/screenplay as well as concept art.

One*5

Reulf from Charlesque on Vimeo.

It's projects like this one that is why I am struggling to decide upon what direction to take my film. I have the option of following the 'Connected' line (refer to a previous post) or something like this. It's difficult. At this point I'm going to go ahead and say that I most likely follow something closer to 'Connected' rather than 'Reulf' BUT I do want the art direction to be a bit brighter and 'lighter' than 'Connected's'.

One*3

Cloverfield notes.

I decided to watch Cloverfield for some in depth research on handheld camera techniques and their application(s) as a story-telling device.

I found the constant hand-held style was sometimes jarring because of its continuous use, but otherwise was really effective in the context of this particular film. The opening sequence was awesome! It established the timeline, setting and some character background in an effective and rapid way which allowed the audience to quickly grasp where they were and what was going on. That is something that the film achieved numerous times - the freehand style easily establishes the terrors of the moment and easily evokes an emotional response from the audience.

The editing of the film was appropriate to the filming style which allowed sudden cuts and clips from other dates and events is incredibly effective in providing background to the characters without extensive scenes that would have chewed up alot of screen time. This editing style also cut down on the visual effects in a sense; some of it was partially hidden due to the flickering etc, but it would have been compositing hell! They did hide some of the effects (such as pulling Beth of the pole) which was a smart approach to reducing their workload which would have been considerably increased because every shot would have required motion tracking. I thought they effectively created a mystery about the 'enemy' destroying the city, although I felt the monster's identity was revealed too early and was a tad stereotypical which was a bit of a let down.

There were those quieter (albeit terror filled) moments with calmer camera movements and allowed the audience some breathing room and helped keep the film rooted.

I am looking into some other films which implemented different filming techniques for more reference points.

One*0

 I discovered this short film 'Connected' a couple of days ago. It's very cool, quite niche - they have done alot with not very much at all. 3 actors, essentially 1 location in Denmark (w. some very nice matte painting & colour grading) and created something that I find really appealing. It also helps me on the road to creating my short film (currently writing the script). I am reassessing the base story - trying to think of EVERYTHING, so that I am not making too much work for myself for the next couple of years.

 The film is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and is a story of survival in a wasteland and the greed that comes with desperate need to survive. It's eerie, full of the flaws of human kind and quite compelling. What is most interesting to me is what they achieved with their visual effects - they achieved the entire sense of the wasteland with some spectacular matte paintings, some colour grading and some particles around the place. This provides some food-for-thought for me in regards to the visual effects side of my own film, and very possibly the story. Seeing as my film is in it's beginning; existing as a rough outline of the story - very susceptible to inevitable change. I just need to narrow down the key elements of my story and what I want to achieve with the film and go from there!

As for Connected, unfortunately it is not available for embedding, but here is a link to their site - which includes the production blog;

Connected

Eight*

Sushi Express 5D mark II 720p from sushiexpressthemovie on Vimeo.

Rad use of a Canon 5d Mark II! Found this very inspiring and intriguing (regards to research for my filming methods for my short film). Even though it was in French =

Stumbled across this in a 3D World Magazine that I bought today. The style is awesome! And I must say I am a huge fan of the replacement of the actors head with a CGI head - looks absolutely fantastic! The character art featured in the magazine (January 2010 Issue) is quite abstract and a little Tim Burton-esque (a little). 

Check out the Sushi Express Site.

Two*

 As a part of my research I have been looking into alternative methods of filming and remembered an article I stumbled across in December last year, which I posted an entry about on my personal blog so I thought I would repost it here;

The article was on photographer Phillip Bloom and his recent visit to Skywalker Ranch to demo some camera's to the Lucasfilm crew out there, namely George Lucas, Rick McCallum and Mike Blanchard. The camera's that he was giving the run down on were the Canon 5DmkII and the Canon 7D - but focusing on their potential for use in film as opposed to still photography. As someone who is looking to make a short film over the next 2 years  I was very quickly very interested in this article and followed it to Bloom's personal blog which went more in depth into what he did whilst out at the Ranch for 5 days.

Skywalker Ranch from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

It's amazing what can be done with a digital slr, I must say that i was unprepared for the superb quality of the video. No wonder ILM/Lucasfilm are looking into the cameras, moreso Lucasfilm than ILM. Lucasfilm just finished up principle photography on Red Tails and are looking into the cameras for use in shooting some cockpit scenes (WWII Fighters) which sounds as though they are once again moving ahead of the times. The maneuverability within a cockpit with a slr opposed to a full size film camera is of a definite advantage to the film maker - obviously allowing them the freedom for new angles, perspectives and techniques that the physical size of film cameras immediately dismiss. As Bloom mentions in his blog, they are also considering the cameras for some work on the upcoming live-action Star Wars TV Series; which I am very curious to hear/see more about but that will not be appearing on our radar for a while longer. Obviously the range of the applications for these camera's is of obvious interest to those in the film industry looking to further the techniques of filming, or at least alternative methods. I think there would also be interest from the Indie Film Community due to the camera's portability and it may be a cheaper, more cost effective approach for some.

Following this train of research has given me something to think about in regards to my Master's Short Film. There is an accompanying seminar that is to be written and given in the latter part of the course's duration which focuses on your project and area of focus. I think I will look into new and alternative methods of filming and incorporating visual effect.

One*

Welcome to my blog! This is where I will be keeping track of my progress on my Master of Arts Practice (Visual Effects) Project for the next 2 years. It's very exciting, starting something like this - I hope you will enjoy the progress as much as I will!

Below is excerpts from my original proposal, dated 27 November 2009. I have since been accepted as a Masters Candidate and though the official University study period is yet to start, I thought I may as well begin it in some respect.

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Excerpts from "Master of Arts Practice (Visual Effects) Project Proposal" - Dane Kirkland. 27 Nov 2009. 

Introduction

My aim in undertaking a Masterʼs Project in Visual Effects is to create a short film that explores the nature of the human condition when dealing with a myriad of emotions with a focus on guilt and hope. I intend on exploring this through a short film, making use of such storytelling techniques such as surreal dream sequences and flashbacks. The process of creating the short film would also perform in a way that would encourage me to develop my skills in special effects further and implement them in new and more efficient ways than I have previously. The end result would be entered in both national and international film festivals and competitions.

Story Outline

The story would be set in an alternate present focusing on a young man attempting to deal with watching the changing world and those changes in society that are for the worse (war, death, corruption, social decline). Focusing on his guilt over the fact that he could be doing something about these changes due to the recent manifestation of the super-human ability to influence, persuade and manipulate people’s actions. His guilt is amplified by his observations that there are a few others in his proximity who are also developing abilities and using not applying them in a beneficial way. Climax of the story is his decision to make a difference and use his power to change society and this decision coming too late as the city in which he is living is attacked as a World War is announced. Dream sequences would be used to portray his ideal world and the flashbacks would provide a history to the character (including a background in the armed forces).

Rough Timeline

As I intend to undertake the Master of Arts Practice Part-Time and by distance education I plan on spending the first 6 months writing the script and storyboarding the film, as well as producing a rough animatic of the film. Whilst doing this I would also focus on pre production; scouting locations to film, finding actors as well as learning and mastering new techniques. This stage of the preproduction would extend until November 2010, which is when I would ideally like to begin principle photography. The aim is that during preproduction I would trial different techniques and decide upon which will be used in the final product, and ideally some effects created during pre-production would be easily transferrable into the final product with some minor touching up. With this timeline I would hope that filming would be completed by December/January at the latest and then the entirety of 2011 would be spent in post production, developing an edit and final visual effects, with the film ready to submitted to festivals by the end of the year.

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Some other things of note;

I will be watching a number of reference feature films as well as any short films that I come across that are applicable to what I am doing. At this point upon reflecting on the base story that I presented as a proposal I can see that there will be significant reworkings as well as a clear defining point to the film. Along with the short film I need to complete a written component, so the first stages of the script writing will definitely involve narrowing down the my focus area in regards to;

- Story - 

What it is I am trying to achieve with the short film in regards to the audience's response and what I personally am trying to achieve with the film. As it stands I'm uncertain about the direction I want to take - looking at my initial outline there are certain stereotypical things that I am attempting to avoid. Right now my thoughts is that I want the film to evoke an emotional response from the audience. I just really need to nail down what I want to achieve.

- Technical -

I am looking into new techniques in filming and plan on applying some to the short film - attempting to create something which is with the current/or next trends as opposed to an older technique.