Untangling the Digital Spaghetti

It took a bit longer for me to sync the sound than I expected as our soundie hadn't had a chance to organisthe sound files properly, so for the most part they weren't in any discernible order. However, I got there in the end, and synced up all the sound files that I had received. I think a lot of it will end up being replaced anyway, but having it there will hopefully serves as a useful guide track for ADR and foley.

Syncing up audio. 

I've also been working on the edit for the last few days. Like I mentioned when I was editing last year's collaborative project, the most difficult part is editing scenes that take place against the greenscreen. It's a real test of the imagination trying to figure out if the angles and action match from shot to shot without a the full picture for reference. I've been looking for advice online on how experienced editors deal with VFX shots - e.g. do they comp in the VFX first before they cut the scene? Does the VFX supervisor sit in on the editing sessions?. I would be interested to hear if editors have had to radically change their approach to editing because of the increasing amount of CG used in film, and whether this is something they enjoy or endure. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about it online.  

Another aspect which is troubling me a little at the moment is wondering whether the shots I've used are actually usable. In some cases there is some green spill on the actors faces and on the set (which isn't a reflection [no pun intended] on our DOP. I think the green spill is pretty much unavoidable in most cases. NB: Our DOP wasn't actually there for the greenscreen shoots but did come in to pre-light the scenes when he could). At the end of the day, I had to silence that voice in my mind because the shots I've used are important to the story so I don't have any choice but to use them.

I did think of one possible solution to the green spill problem: for the spaceship scenes we could comp in a physical green light. That way we could potentially disguise the green spill as a natural part of the scene rather than trying to remove it. We could also grade the footage darker and maybe add in some flashing alarms and light effects to help disguise it further (which would also enhance the scene anyway).

Apart from the edit it has been a quiet week for the team. We needed one pick up shot for the edit I am working on at the moment so the camera crew went out and got that. I helped organise the gear for that. I also had a chat to Don about BTS - he will be starting to do some brief interviews with the crew and cast over the next few weeks. I advised him to do a bit of research on interview set ups and appropriate locations before jumping in to it (e.g. to think about varying the backdrop for some of the interviews - using something connected to the film, or it's themes, logos or colour palette). For example, some of the interviews for the BTS on Inception have the maze motif as a back drop. 

Nolan, C. (Director). (2010). Inception [Motion picture]. USA: Warner Bros

Also, it helps to ask interesting questions that add to the understanding of the film, characters and the creative choices that key personnel have made.

Some of the crew will be helping to edit the BTS footage over the next few weeks as things are a little quiet for them at the moment until picture lock when sound, VFX and grading kick into life. As for me, my work on the film will be tailing off a bit more so I can focus on other assignments.
Just under a month to go until delivery, it'll be a busy month ahead but I'm looking forward to seeing how everything looks after the next few phases of the pipeline.

Watch this Space (patience is a virtue...)

I will posting a proper blog post in a few hours when I can upload photos, but right now I have to prepare something for Studylink and head off to tech to return gear. Long story. But yes, there will be a post here by 1pm!

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Ok so let's crack in to it.

We have just finished up our greenscreen scenes and are now wrapped on filming for this term. We were hoping to get back out to Sandy Point to do some pick-ups but unfortunately our cast aren't available for the weekend - also, the weather is beginning to turn sour quite rapidly.

Greenscreen shoots can be quite deceptive - you think they're going to be easy because you're in a controlled environment, but then there's the issues of having to light the greenscreen, turn the sets around to film from other angles, and move sets in and out.

At the start of last week I got in contact with an arts student (Gordon) who allowed us to use his trailer, then myself, Lee, Sarah, Dan, Don, Iris and Chris all went out to the beach to borrow sand to bring in as a ground plane (over the top of the cave set). Pretty typical of the film business - even when we're at the beach, we're working!
It was only once the trailer was full of sand that we noticed I had a flat tyre. Changing tyres on the beach, on a stormy day - yeah I wouldn't recommend it!

Actually, I think it might have been a cursed trailer...
We parked the trailer at the tin shed and I had planned to drive it back to Gordon in the afternoon but someone else parked in front of it so I couldn't get it out. So I had to wait until later that night to move it. It was dark when I returned it and I used the flashlight on my phone to see what I was doing to disconnect it, however I put it on top of the car while I wheeled the trailer back down the driveway. No prizes for guessing what happened next...

Heavy duty producing

And this is why I have no photos from last week! Anuka, (budding artist, and our BTS photographer) has now turned my phone into a stylish piece of modern art.

So, i'll just have to rely on screengrabs and the like.

Not only that, but I think we somehow bent the wheel bracket for the trailer so we'll have to get that fixed. In all honesty, I think that probably would have been my fault. I probably forgot to lift the wheel up before I drove off -  yeah it's been that kind of week!

I helped organise the test shoot downstairs in the SIT-Pro studio, basically making sure whoever needs to be there is there. Also booked the vans so we could get our sets out from the tin shed:

Sent emails out to everyone in the crew to get their availability - found it more effective to email each person individually rather than sending out a bulk email. Psychology.  

And the same for all of our volunteers as well. 

Organising gear pick up. Myself and Aman had booked out the gear in our names and were there to do inventories, checks and also there returning the gear on the Monday mornings as well.  

After the greenscreen shoot in the dance studio, Dan, Aman and myself took the greenscreen down - it will need to be cleaned (again) but that's a job for another day.

On the actual shoot we were down on crew - we didn't have Virat (DOP), Arjun (Camera Operator), Tyler (Gaffer), Matt (Best Boy),  Michael (VFX Supervisor) and Shaun (VFX Assistant) so we were at a bit of a disadvantage but we managed to make do with what we had. I was on as boom operator again, but I also helped out the other departments as well when I could.

"Boom OP: Activate stealth mode!"

86ing the greenscreen after the shoot

Keeping gear city tidy. 

I found the whiteboard was a handy place to write up our shot list so that everyone could see it at a glace. 

Not my speciality, but I got a bit more familiar with the lighting gear as the shoot progressed

A happy mixer - A good sign :)

Someone must have been spying on the producers

Dan (the man [Director]) and I

Off set, I was doing my best to push the PledgeMe campaign which had begun to tail off. Unfortunately we didn't end up hitting target, but we'll soldier on We're still under budget at the moment so it's not a massive concern that we didn't get it. Still, a bit of extra cash to play would have been nice.

On the editing front, Dan and I sat down to cut the cave scene. It wasn't the easiest edit in the world because of some continuity and pacing issues, but I think we've cut it as good as we can (although it's hard to tell at the moment - once the animators have done the greenscreen replacement we should have a better idea of how it's all coming together. I'll post some screengrabs of this later this afternoon when I can get into the Mac Lab.


I also sent an email to Brian at the powerboat club to touch base and arrange payment for the use of the club.

Now, on to the last few weeks before our hand in deadline. I'll be finishing off the edit before handing it off for VFX, sound and grading. Then just to get all the paperwork in order and we're good to go.



P.S: Here are the aforementioned snaps of the editing on the greenscreen footage:

I've just done a very quick key on a few shots, some are keying better than others, but in general think it's a good job. I have no knowledge or expertise on compositing at this stage, this is all just from playing around with Premiere, so I'm sure the VFX team can do a much better job than I can at the currently. Virat also has some experience from his greenscreen shoot last year. 

The main thing that could be a problem is the green-spill in Luke's hair - but again, the animators might know some tricks to getting around this (see above).

I think some of the other shots are keying pretty good though. With proper garbage mattes and more advanced keying software we could get some good results (See below). 

Raw unedited footage

Keying the greenscreen

Composited image (just as an test - not representative of the final product)

Bouncing Variables

After myself and Vincent had prepared the "master rough edit" (best components of all of the edits compiled into one sequence), we got the HODs together to discuss a plan of action for pickups and re-shoots.

A few other points were raised on a few things that didn't really make sense story-wise and how we could fix those things when we head back into shooting.

From this meeting, Sarah (1st AD) has started working on updating the shotlist and putting together a 'wishlist' of shots we would really like to get if we have the time and budget. 

It has actually been quite a fractured week, firstly because people are still recovering from 48 Hour Film Competition last weekend (with heats over this weekend), and also because there have been a number of adjustments to our shooting plans. Lee (lead producer) had been working on securing a location for the greenscreen shoot, but we've been informed that the location probably won't be ready for another few weeks. Also, there is another film being shot this month and there was a bit of confusion on whether this might affect our shoot in terms of gear and crew. We also didn't know when the 48 Hour City Finals would be and if that might clash with our shoot dates as well, so it has been a little frustrating trying to work out how to fit the scheduling  jigsaw together. 

But the show must go on and there are other things we can turn our attention to in order to keep the cogs turning. The break in filming will give Dan (the director) the opportunity to run some rehearsals with the actors, which is something there wasn't time for leading into the last shoot.

I've managed to get the sound files from our soundie, so I can start work on the sound sync next week.

I also sent off an email to the guys at SIT-Pro about returning their gear. Communication, and our reputation with the people supporting us is something I wanted to make a top priority this year. 

I've started to push the PledgeMe campaign a bit more as well. We're into the last two weeks of the campaign so this is a good time to really ramp up the publicity. I'd also like to get the BTS guys to put some footage together for us and do a couple of promotional interviews to put up as an update for PledgeMe. 

As I mentioned before, there have been quite a lot of distractions over the last few weeks, so I think it's time we regroup again. I've written up the meeting minutes and sent that out to the crew so that everyone can process the events of the last couple of weeks and keep track of our deadlines. 

Busy week ahead - let's see how we go!

Death by a thousand cuts

...Or in this case maybe life?...

This is basically a 'Part two' post from last week in a way. As I mentioned last time, we have been putting together a few rough cuts. As well as the edits that myself, Don and Dan had been working on, Vincent and Michael had also put some cuts together. Feels like everyone wants their own cut! I was a bit skeptical about having that many people influencing the edit, but I think we were fortunate in this case as once we had done a bit of a collective analysis, we found that each of the edits had good elements that solved some problems. Myself and Vincent have been working on compiling all of the best parts into a 'Master Rough Edit' (!) which should hopefully mean we won't need to do as many pickups.

A bit of Nuke magic to reframe some shots

More reframing...

Ultimately though, I think there are some things that can't be solved from the edit suite and it will be a case of sitting down with the HODs and making a call on what needs to be re-shot and what extra shots we will need. We are planning to have a catch up on Tuesday to run though this. I actually think it will be good to get back out to Sandy Point anyway - last year we ran out of time and money so we didn't get to do any pickups, and I think that affected the end product a bit. Most films these days are scheduling and budgeting for pickups as standard practice. You never know what can happen on a film shoot (it rarely ever goes 100% to plan), so I think it's a wise move to plan for pickups. I was thinking we would need to get the cast back out to Sandy Point at some stage anyway to get some publicity stills, so this will kill two birds with one stone (unfortunately, our photographer on the last shoot could only be on set for limited hours, so we didn't get a chance to stop and get publicity stills). Stills photography and BTS are things that often get over-looked (or in the majority of cases, dismissed as a "nuisance" - a peripheral distraction), but they are crucial for the overall success of the film. There's no point making a film if you don't have a way to market it. Stills and BTS are two areas that often don't get the respect they deserve, and that's something I've aimed to address on this year's project.

I found a fantastic blog post by Chris Jones which really opened my eyes to the importance of stills photography in the marketing of films. It was something that I just haphazardly stumbled across, but it really stuck with me. It seems slightly ironic that marketing and publicity (often seen as the "glamorous" side of  film) is the area that many film makers tend to think of last (although there is the flipside of this as well - the film maker that thinks of marketing and promotion first above all else... I'm not sure I would necessarily want to be that type of film maker... But regardless, publicity does need to be considered carefully).

An email to Anuka, our awesome BTS stills photographer

Essentially, marketing and publicity is the next stage in the pipeline for the producers (Lee and I), so we would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we didn't make sure that our stills and BTS team got some attention.