I got all of the images gathered together and converted to JPEG. They’ll all fit on a single CD with room to spare (they’re about 1/20th the size as JPEGs instead of TIFFs), so I’m going to dump the video clips on there as well. I didn’t have time last night to pull the video, but will do so this evening. I’ll try to get the CDs in the mail tomorrow (though I’m travelling for work until Friday, so I may not get to a FedEx place until then).
Thanks for everyone’s patience.
BTW, I pulled up a few of the photographic plates in Photoshop and played with them a bit. It may be necessary to reshoot a few shots, as well as a few additional shots. For example, the shot looking up the stairwell is just too bright so I’ll need to return at night and shoot it. Shouldn’t be a problem though, our target resolution is right at what my Elph does.
I hope to have some time next week to sit down with Elizabeth and beginning working through the rotoscoping process. We may end up not doing it in Photoshop as it will likely be just too cumbersome to work effectively. Instead, I think we may end up using Mirage. It’s $350, so it ain’t cheap, but it’s pretty freak’n cool software that I’m sure we’d get a lot of use out of (particularly if Elizabeth and I continue doing animation work). If you want to play with it yourself, there’s a demo available from their site (haven’t checked it out yet, but will in the near future).
Troy, I am looking in my PO Box for a cd so that everyone can start messing around with ideas for what to do in post (as far as the visuals for the rotoscoping). I know that you have that game conference this week and I am moving so I guess I shouldn’t expect it too soon. It was fun fellas – hopefully we can get this thing out the door by November 1. My copy of Photoshop is ready to go if need be…
A few things to consider:
- This is not a shooting script. It’s better practice for me to write as if it were a traditional script, and it’s good for those of you who want to get into development or production to look at a regular script and see how you would want to shoot it. There are giveaways in there, but they aren’t written as CAMERA PANS or EXTREME CLOSE UP. That’s the art =)
- I didn’t know if the second world was lush and rampant, so I wrote it as a babe’s playfield rather than the ultimate urban experience. There are areas in Austin to shoot that.
- Three lines of dialogue that are not necessary for the script; the sentiment can be shown rather than said, and probably would be better that way. It reads well on the page as dialogue though.I’m having trouble with my webserver and am about to see a movie, so if this doesn’t work, I’ll fix it by 8pm tonight.
“Fogetting my idea that we have people in World One, he is happy in World Two. He sits down to paint, and people pass by, paying him no attention. This doesn’t bother him at first, but then he gets agitated. Tries to confront people. They say nothing; completely ignore him. Then, a dissolve back to the first world, where he still is, and where there are people now. Illusory.”
I like this. In fact, when I read Rolin’s first comment regarding having people in World One I was a bit disappointed because I am very much drawn to the imagery of the empty world (and I think it’s an interesting visual we can pull off due to our production style). The above is a good twist on things.
I would expect that we would want a specific color palette for World One, and a specific color palette for World Two. This would help accentuate the transition at the end from one world to the other.
One thing regarding practical production issues: having people ignoring him, etc. How does everyone think we should organize something like this? I can probably get together 3 or 4 extras (plus us), maybe as many as 6 or 7. Don’t know if Rolin could round up more. Another option would be to add the characters digitally (they’re all digital/rotoscoped anyway) and simply record the people we have present walking past camera several, several times then layering them. This could be emphasized in a particular way to embue the crowds with a certain anonymity (i.e., all of the crowd are basically cookie-cutter versions of each other, same color scheme, same shape and motion).
Rolin, how quickly would you be able to produce a first draft? It’s Tuesday night, which gives us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to finalize this thing for shooting. We’re close, very close…
For example, I’d see Bennett as bringing “photographer” expertise as far as the cameras, light metering, artistic framing, etc. goes. Personally, I’m certainly contributing the “engineering” expertise as far as technology infrastructure, Photoshopping, rotoscoping tools, etc. Heath is there an area of specialization you’re looking to bring to bear? Obviously Rolin has some kind of screenplay certification from the local community college (or something like that)…
Elizabeth has suggested that, considering that none of us are professional animators, our only real hope of having the rotoscoped character(s) look consistent is to have one person do them. After playing around a bit myself with the rotoscoping (and realizing how crap a drawer/tracer I am) I think she may be right. At least, I don’t think any of us have specific drawing expertise (Heath, what are your people drawing skills like? Realize it’s a bit different than architecture…)
Anywho, Elizabeth volunteered to be our rotoscope artist. She is “unemployed with a lot of time on her hands” (her words) so she could definitely invest the most time right away on this. She’s thinking she could put in 8 hours a day assuming it’s not mind-bogglingly tedious to do. Also, she does have way more drawing skills than most of us have (again, Heath, I’m not quite sure where your drawing expertise lies). She’s also local to the “engineer” so to speak, so the technical aspect of rotoscoping would be well-supervised as well. Of course, if ya’ll would rather be doing the rotoscoping then ya’ll certainly have the first dibs…
So, I’ve produce a rudimentary run down of all the steps involved with this production. Here’s a link to the PowerPoint presentation. Somewhat a summary of the production tasks. I’ll add more details as we gather them.
Comments, everyone, comments! We need them ASAP! Time is running out!
The Narrator is alone in his city/prison. He’s lived there for as long as he can remember and there’s no one else there with him. The city is vacant, dirty, asphalt and concrete and rusted steel. He wanders about the city painting pictures (landscapes?). One day he discovers a stairwell he’s not seen before. He climbs the stairs for many hours, finally reaching the top… and emerges into another world. This world is green and fresh and bustling with people…
And that’s where the details don’t really exist for me. I believe the conclusion is that people are horrified by his paintings thus he is still alone and exiled even in this better world. How much detail do we go into with this? What specifically happens?
Also, is there anything in particular we should show in the lower world? Are there any daily routines or moments we should explore?
I see this as being a short that’s just a few minutes long (there’s not that much action), somewhat like a music video (though not driven by music unless anyone has some great ideas). Right now, the only dialogue I see is the narration, so it looks like it won’t be necessary to do any synched audio (good!). Also looks like the Narrator is the only significant character, which again is good as far as the post-production effort goes.
Rolin, any suggestions you have would be great. If anyone has any additional ideas they’d like to work in it’s now or never.
Okay, updated things to make them easier to view. Used Photoshop’s Web Gallery tool. Pretty handy: Location Photos of Downtown. I also made a panoramic shot of the alleyway. And here’s a nice video clip of the stairwell.
This should work for everyone!
