5/4/07
The last week has been pretty tough. It's such slow going that it's painful and I really think we are going to miss the MySpace deadline which will be a real shame, although we may come out with a better movie if we take longer. I guess this is the frustration of all film-makers!
I had a mini review to see if there was any way that I could speed up. There were the obvious time losers (coffee, breaks, finding something else to do) but I've got on top of these and this week has been pretty intense. And still it goes slow.
I added a previous evening review of the scene I was shooting so I was prepared when I started the next day. Really helped and made focus much better. Antics itself isn't really adding much time. OK so outputting avi's and fiddling with the timeline can add a few seconds or minutes, and I'm onto about 3 crashes a day, but regular saving means I'm not doing much backtracking.
Yesterday I worked through Scene 16 and did over 23 scenes. A record. But I'm still behind. The good news is that I think the quality is much higher and the stamping scene looks real, so that is great. I'm going to record my progress in a separate entry and also for future reference so that I know how quick/slow things will be (especially if I consult!!).
So still looking for ideas to speed up. I think as I get quicker I actually spend more time making things better. Good for quality, not for time. We shall see...
Friday 24 August 2007
Wednesday 22 August 2007
Production Progress
30/3/07
After discussion with Parmy I backtracked on my decision to output 4:3 ratio and went back to a more cinematic 16:9 in HDTV. It meant re-rendering 5 avi's which did involve some re-hashing in Antics. Lost a morning.
Now using the skeletons from the Storyboard set in the Production to save time, for Jad's headstand. Deciding on shots is tricky but I think I've got it. I will pick up some "coverage" as well. All in all it feels very time consuming and I'm a bit worried about hitting the 27 April deadline. We'll see.
After discussion with Parmy I backtracked on my decision to output 4:3 ratio and went back to a more cinematic 16:9 in HDTV. It meant re-rendering 5 avi's which did involve some re-hashing in Antics. Lost a morning.
Now using the skeletons from the Storyboard set in the Production to save time, for Jad's headstand. Deciding on shots is tricky but I think I've got it. I will pick up some "coverage" as well. All in all it feels very time consuming and I'm a bit worried about hitting the 27 April deadline. We'll see.
Saturday 18 August 2007
Set Building Progress
26/3/07
Head down stuff for the last few days. Doing the internals is quite hard work as there are the odd shots through other storey windows so it's necessary to have some stuff in them. Not difficult, just a long process of placing and positioning stuff - furniture, plants, pictures, etc. I've also expanded Miles' lounge so that it looks more realistic and there's more space to film. Have now duplicated the set and started working on the lounge sepcific shots.
Also re-ran the storyboard to check that my main camera angles are all possible and the set is dressed properly. Moreorless OK, although I'm bound to have to add something later!
Also read that Spielberg introduced the camera moving and then I saw some Jurassic Park. Sure enough, it's always moving and the blocking works so that a camera moves through a set as the actor does and the camera gets to a detail (perhaps a close up of the hand) as the actor moves into the space. Need to apply to my cameras just to make it a bit professional. Will be interesting.
So now testing specific animations for Suzie and Miles as these are going to be the real thing. Then adding starting poses for people and cameras and then will be ready for shooting the Lounge shots. Hope to have them completed this week and have some stuff for Parmy.
As for 27th April deadline - tricky. But let's see how it turns out.
Finally, realised that we haven't recorded the dialogue yet and the lip-syncing may change as a result. So I hope it won't change too much. I may have to save all the sets to that scenes with dialogue can be easily recreated. Also started to make notes of this sort of thing to remind me!!
Head down stuff for the last few days. Doing the internals is quite hard work as there are the odd shots through other storey windows so it's necessary to have some stuff in them. Not difficult, just a long process of placing and positioning stuff - furniture, plants, pictures, etc. I've also expanded Miles' lounge so that it looks more realistic and there's more space to film. Have now duplicated the set and started working on the lounge sepcific shots.
Also re-ran the storyboard to check that my main camera angles are all possible and the set is dressed properly. Moreorless OK, although I'm bound to have to add something later!
Also read that Spielberg introduced the camera moving and then I saw some Jurassic Park. Sure enough, it's always moving and the blocking works so that a camera moves through a set as the actor does and the camera gets to a detail (perhaps a close up of the hand) as the actor moves into the space. Need to apply to my cameras just to make it a bit professional. Will be interesting.
So now testing specific animations for Suzie and Miles as these are going to be the real thing. Then adding starting poses for people and cameras and then will be ready for shooting the Lounge shots. Hope to have them completed this week and have some stuff for Parmy.
As for 27th April deadline - tricky. But let's see how it turns out.
Finally, realised that we haven't recorded the dialogue yet and the lip-syncing may change as a result. So I hope it won't change too much. I may have to save all the sets to that scenes with dialogue can be easily recreated. Also started to make notes of this sort of thing to remind me!!
Tuesday 7 August 2007
Storyboard Review
14/3
Parmy and I had the review of the Storyboards which went really well. Brought up quite a bit of discussion with a few changes and enhancements coming out. The main area now is pulling the music together and the final edit.
I started to build the sets "for real". I started with the block, copied the existing rooms and then changed how the balcony sits. Then built up the block again and then added surrounding buildings. This took a while and I used the old Hollywood trick of angling streets away so that you don't have to build as big a set!
I'm now going to work on the internals, probably building it into the block first for realism when looking through the windows. I'll then copy the room and enlarge for internal shooting. This means I get realistic externals through the window too and minimises copying, etc. Let's see how it goes.
Also lost some time ordering a new graphics card. It should arrive today so fingers crossed for a smooth install and then much better avi output!
Parmy and I had the review of the Storyboards which went really well. Brought up quite a bit of discussion with a few changes and enhancements coming out. The main area now is pulling the music together and the final edit.
I started to build the sets "for real". I started with the block, copied the existing rooms and then changed how the balcony sits. Then built up the block again and then added surrounding buildings. This took a while and I used the old Hollywood trick of angling streets away so that you don't have to build as big a set!
I'm now going to work on the internals, probably building it into the block first for realism when looking through the windows. I'll then copy the room and enlarge for internal shooting. This means I get realistic externals through the window too and minimises copying, etc. Let's see how it goes.
Also lost some time ordering a new graphics card. It should arrive today so fingers crossed for a smooth install and then much better avi output!
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