Final Countdown

The project is mostly in the hands of the animators now who are working to get the vfx composited. Some of the film team have been helping out with rotoscoping as well. I started working on a roto shot but Rachel asked me to look for a few vfx plates they needed so I didn't end up finishing it.

This week will be busier for the film guys I think. Once the vfx has been added, we still need to colour grade; Kyle is too busy to do any post sound for us so we might have to throw a rough mix together ourselves; we'll need to check in on how the guys are getting on with BTS editing; and the production team will also need to sort out paperwork for the final hand in.

I think what we'll have finished by Friday will still be pretty rough, and we'll need to keep working on it over the next few months to get it polished for The Flicks. But considering that this project has only been going for four months we've managed to do a lot in that time and we still have a few months left to work on final touches so i'm quite pleased with that. We're basically at the same point with BOF that we were in at the final week of last year (on Essimer), so still having a few months before Flicks is an improvement - also, it should mean we can dedicate more time to our individual projects as well. 

Research.

With big assignments for research and media culture this week, I think the last week has pretty much been a write-off for the group project. The research assignment is worth 75% of the paper, so I've been working around the clock on this. I've been studying auteur theory in relation to the Coen Brothers.

Yeah. Been a bit busy.

Apart from that, over the last few weeks I've been thinking ahead to my individual project next semester. I've had an idea bubbling away for while now so I'm going to be writing it up over the semester break. Don't want to talk too much about it at this stage until I've wrapped my head around it myself.

The Passing of the Torch

I have managed to finish editing The Beast of Fawkes and it is now in the hands of the animators to work on. I have my own personal thoughts on some aspects of the completed edit (and how the edit has been affected by events in pre-production and principle photography), but I will save these for my self-reflective evaluation.

In general terms (regarding the edit), I've kept quite faithful to the original script and storyboards and haven't really deviated too far. There were a couple of exceptions. In the pod scene at the start, the storyboard suggests that Mia enters the escape pod as the dialog plays out, however that was different from what was actually filmed. I ended up putting a timecut there instead to bridge that gap. I also removed the first few shots of Thai and Mia running down the corridor as the usable portion of the shots only amounted to a second or two - too quick to really be of any benefit.

After a feedback session, it was decided that there needed to be less cutting during the first scene so that we can spend more time with the characters. On balance, I think that's a valid point but the original intention for the faster cutting was to reflect the sense of urgency in the characters as the spaceship falls. Sound can do some of work to bring energy to the scene, but because the shots are static (locked off tripod and no movement) it will be up to the animators to bring back some visual energy.

Dan and I discussing the edit before it goes of to the animation team.

A comment that came up during feedback was that we could use the pod scene as flashback sequence instead of starting the story at this point. Personally, I think that would be the right way to go. I had discussed that as an option previously so I am glad that someone else suggested it independently. There are several good reasons for doing it that way. Firstly, I think it would be a more engaging starting point for the story - having Thai crawling out of the wreckage with flashback to the last time he was on the spaceship allows the audience to experience the disorientation as Thai does, drip-feeding the key information needed to advance the story. It's a more concise and engaging way of telling the story. It will also help to reduce some of the pacing problems (by their nature, the waking up scene and the cave scene at the end play out slowly).

There was some debate on what path the project should take from this point. The first option was to continue to produce the full 'teaser' (as others have referred to it as), which is currently at a duration of 4 minutes 30 seconds. This will likely extend to around 5 minutes after the full CG shots have been added.
The other option was to cut a traditional 2 minute trailer. There are pros and cons for each option but personally, I feel the 2 minute trailer would be a better option at this stage - primarily as that fulfills the original brief we were given. Also in terms of our time constraints as this point, I think it's a more achievable goal. However, it's not my project or my decision so I'll abide by the will of the people.