We've slowly been expanding the website. I've added another process page and have the Antics details to load up as well. We're putting on multiple download version over the coming months along with loading into YouTube and Google Videos.
The problem with YouTube is they only accept 10 mins max and CS is 11m 30s. So initially we are going for 2 parts but it may mean a recut.
Antics have just released Version 3 which is looking very funky and also now has a basic version for free. So if you haven't tried it yet give it a go. They've revamped their website and have a budding community... along with plenty of competition in with MovieStorm who seem they are just up the road in Cambridge!
Anyway, Antics are keen for me to do some work with them. It looks like I will be invited to a workshop to comment on what to get in for future releases. Very exciting. I'm also going to pitch putting together a promo for them (and me). So it'll be back to hacking heavily in Antics - looking forward to creating something new again!!
Watch this space for developments...
Pete
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Thursday, 6 December 2007
The end of The Making Of...
I think that’s all for the backdated blog. There’s a few more entries after we posted the movie up but I’ll add those in as I go along.
So, where are we 7 months (wow!) after entering Cold Storage onto the MySpace competition?
Well we didn’t win :-( but there weren’t any animations in the final 12 shortlist. We got good feedback from friends and a few independent nods.
The next task was to really get it out there. The obvious place is YouTube but we didn’t want to miss the inevitable spike in traffic and wanted to drive it to a new Cold Storage Movie site. So, I started building that… and 6 months later I’m finished! Not because it’s a massive site but other things get in the way – like the rest of my life, work, etc!
The recent focus of energy to finish the site has come because Antics have seen Cold Storage and love it! They want to showcase it and I may work with them to do an Antics promo. I’ll be talking to them very soon.
And of course, there’s always the next project. Film-wise for me it’s going to be “The Killer Job” although I may do a few smaller things as I continue to develop the script. I want it to be a live shoot, 90 minute, horror film. So I might start a new blog for that…
So keep coming back for updates for Cold Storage and our other films...
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Website Launched!
At last! It's taken longer than we wanted but we had a push this weekend and the site is now up and running.
Go take a look!
Please go and take a look to see the movie again or read some background to the story and the project as a whole. There are also details on other scripts and projects we have in production and have worked on over the years.
I think that’s it for the backdated blog. There’s a few more entries after we posted the movie up but I’ll add those in as I go along. It's real time now, but plenty more to be talking about.
Now we've got the site we'll be posting on YouTube. I've also got some very exciting news (I hope) later this week around Antics who have seen Cold Storage and absolutely love it!
Go take a look!
Please go and take a look to see the movie again or read some background to the story and the project as a whole. There are also details on other scripts and projects we have in production and have worked on over the years.
I think that’s it for the backdated blog. There’s a few more entries after we posted the movie up but I’ll add those in as I go along. It's real time now, but plenty more to be talking about.
Now we've got the site we'll be posting on YouTube. I've also got some very exciting news (I hope) later this week around Antics who have seen Cold Storage and absolutely love it!
Monday, 19 November 2007
Beyond Post Production
25/5/07
The film has been out almost a month with around 116 views. Not bad considering we've not done much promotion. That is starting next week.
So what have we done? Well, after a week's rest (well deserved I assure you!) we did a quick re-edit. The aim wasn't to change too much but there were a few areas that I wanted tidying up. In the end it was less than I thought. I think because after seeing the completed film a few times and discussing it with people you realise the bits you see really aren't important.
Next was drawing up a plan for the next steps. Although both Parmy and I are keen to kick off another creative project, we need to do this justice first with some distribution and marketing to get it out there. Enter Lance Weiler and his film "Head Trauma" which he has self distributed and written some great articles about. I used this as the basis for our own web promotion.
Along with our other ideas we came up with a list of 40 things we could and should do to get the movie out there and promote it. Many were more creative things (posters, trailer, brand new website design in Flash, etc) so we've opted for the less creative stuff first - getting a presence on social sites first. If you're reading this, then you're already seeing the results!
I've also been looking into how the music needs to work. If we can't license what we have we may have to recut the music using production music libraries. See my other blog on music.
The film has been out almost a month with around 116 views. Not bad considering we've not done much promotion. That is starting next week.
So what have we done? Well, after a week's rest (well deserved I assure you!) we did a quick re-edit. The aim wasn't to change too much but there were a few areas that I wanted tidying up. In the end it was less than I thought. I think because after seeing the completed film a few times and discussing it with people you realise the bits you see really aren't important.
Next was drawing up a plan for the next steps. Although both Parmy and I are keen to kick off another creative project, we need to do this justice first with some distribution and marketing to get it out there. Enter Lance Weiler and his film "Head Trauma" which he has self distributed and written some great articles about. I used this as the basis for our own web promotion.
Along with our other ideas we came up with a list of 40 things we could and should do to get the movie out there and promote it. Many were more creative things (posters, trailer, brand new website design in Flash, etc) so we've opted for the less creative stuff first - getting a presence on social sites first. If you're reading this, then you're already seeing the results!
I've also been looking into how the music needs to work. If we can't license what we have we may have to recut the music using production music libraries. See my other blog on music.
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Plan Review
24/4/07
Not finished yet but a quick plan review reveals that I didn't even start animating real action until the week it was meant to finish! 29/3
I took a week longer than planned and started 3 weeks late meaning an overrun of 4 weeks.
We are now squeezing post proper into 3 days, although Parmy has been editing for almost 2 weeks.
Editing is 8-10 times quicker than shooting. A 12 shot scene that will take about 1.5 days to shoot and a day to prepare takes less than half a day to visually edit.
All Antics had no sound so interesting to see how well that will work in Adobe.
Titles not even started yet so they will be simple.
Not finished yet but a quick plan review reveals that I didn't even start animating real action until the week it was meant to finish! 29/3
I took a week longer than planned and started 3 weeks late meaning an overrun of 4 weeks.
We are now squeezing post proper into 3 days, although Parmy has been editing for almost 2 weeks.
Editing is 8-10 times quicker than shooting. A 12 shot scene that will take about 1.5 days to shoot and a day to prepare takes less than half a day to visually edit.
All Antics had no sound so interesting to see how well that will work in Adobe.
Titles not even started yet so they will be simple.
Monday, 17 September 2007
Principal Photography Complete
24/4/07
Wow! The last week or so has been pretty intense. The end in sight and pushing, pushing, pushing. Still I put in a few nights and evenings and got there.
Have also been reviewing Parmy's edits which are also time consuming and stressful when you want to push on with your own stuff! Still, it is coming together nicely. I think the music and sound will be more time consuming than we imagined so it's important to make a start.
I predict that we will fall short of what we want but it will still be pretty good. I've got to read up on music and copyrights today and will also make an early start on the MySpace page. The upload is bound to be a technical nightmare. I hope it comes out close to what we want.
So getting there. I've made some notes in my learning Blog. Onwards and upwards...
Wow! The last week or so has been pretty intense. The end in sight and pushing, pushing, pushing. Still I put in a few nights and evenings and got there.
Have also been reviewing Parmy's edits which are also time consuming and stressful when you want to push on with your own stuff! Still, it is coming together nicely. I think the music and sound will be more time consuming than we imagined so it's important to make a start.
I predict that we will fall short of what we want but it will still be pretty good. I've got to read up on music and copyrights today and will also make an early start on the MySpace page. The upload is bound to be a technical nightmare. I hope it comes out close to what we want.
So getting there. I've made some notes in my learning Blog. Onwards and upwards...
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Learning
16/4/07
OK, entering the final 11 days and it's getting tense. Made a discovery today and thought it worth noting some top tips for next time:
When trying to match different shots the Antics auto animations can be problematic - like opening doors. Characters have to be certain distances, etc, so they add extra movements that you don't need. To get it smoother, record the animation in the timeline. Then use the scrub to get to a point where you can cut to and save the pose there. Then start a new take and blend from a previous pose to the one you just save. The movement is smooth.
EG 1. save a pose once the char has his hand on the door
2. Run a new take that has him stepping into this saved pose
3. Then cut into the original take after he already has his hand on the door
Don't delete things to readily, like poses or objects as Antics often crashes. Save changes first!
Planning.
In retrospect, I think it would be better to plan the order to shoot the scenes in getting a mixture of hard and easy and also taking into account shots which may get reused later. So I should have recorded Miles on the balcony and the shots for Jad at the same time.
Also plan in shooting and editing. It would have been better to review completed scenes soon after they are shot rather than waiting. If this can be planned into shooting schedule it also makes it less stressful.
So I would recommend plan scenes in blocks - I will shoot 2-3 and then review the first, next one, and so on. Also bear in mind which scene changes may affect subsequent so space them a bit to allow any learning from editing to be applied in the shooting.
Having such a large set in Antics definitely makes the whole thing slow. Consider JPEG backgrounds or just a lot less buildings or something. It can become painful.
Too many poses and takes slows scenes down. After about 15 takes the whole process of saving and loading gets lengthy.
OK, entering the final 11 days and it's getting tense. Made a discovery today and thought it worth noting some top tips for next time:
When trying to match different shots the Antics auto animations can be problematic - like opening doors. Characters have to be certain distances, etc, so they add extra movements that you don't need. To get it smoother, record the animation in the timeline. Then use the scrub to get to a point where you can cut to and save the pose there. Then start a new take and blend from a previous pose to the one you just save. The movement is smooth.
EG 1. save a pose once the char has his hand on the door
2. Run a new take that has him stepping into this saved pose
3. Then cut into the original take after he already has his hand on the door
Don't delete things to readily, like poses or objects as Antics often crashes. Save changes first!
Planning.
In retrospect, I think it would be better to plan the order to shoot the scenes in getting a mixture of hard and easy and also taking into account shots which may get reused later. So I should have recorded Miles on the balcony and the shots for Jad at the same time.
Also plan in shooting and editing. It would have been better to review completed scenes soon after they are shot rather than waiting. If this can be planned into shooting schedule it also makes it less stressful.
So I would recommend plan scenes in blocks - I will shoot 2-3 and then review the first, next one, and so on. Also bear in mind which scene changes may affect subsequent so space them a bit to allow any learning from editing to be applied in the shooting.
Having such a large set in Antics definitely makes the whole thing slow. Consider JPEG backgrounds or just a lot less buildings or something. It can become painful.
Too many poses and takes slows scenes down. After about 15 takes the whole process of saving and loading gets lengthy.
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