No More Exterior?

A lot of work going on. I keep getting asked about the Sundance submission. I won’t know for another month. I believe the latest they let you know is the beginning of December. For those of you crossing your fingers I really do appreciate it. I can use all the luck I can get.

Still working on getting the film 100% completed. Working on the music especially. I think some of it will work really well. Other parts are proving to be a little more difficult. I welcome the challenge though. If I can I will post samples in the coming weeks.

Buckingham Fountain.

Still shooting parts of the film. Hard to believe I know. Mainly insert shots, establishing shots, and background plates (for some of the visual effects). There is one mini montage that I shot some extra shots for as well. I tried to take advantage of this time of year with the leaves changing. Although it’s not as colorful as it was last year.

The Lincoln statue at Grant Park.

I hope I shot everything I needed for the ending. It was hard to tell since the extra shots aren’t really specific and there is no way to plan. I can’t shut down Michigan Ave. (aka The Magnificent Mile) so I just have to shoot it as is and then add my magical touch. That’s code word for post production meddling and CGI. I really hope it works. I think it will add something extra to the ending that will really make it more exciting.

The Magnificent Mile ... before I add a little something to it.

Assuming I don’t need to shoot anything extra for the ending I believe this may mark the end to the exterior shots. I have a few insert shots and a newscast to shoot (both of which I can shoot indoors in my apartment) but that should be a rap on all exterior shots for the film. So hooray for that!

Establishing shot during the day.

Same shot at night.

On a side note, depending on what happens with Sundance and a few other things (ie, some upcoming work for income) I may actually make another film this summer. If this happens it will be made the same way. No crew and very low budget. I am debating between two script ideas. The main difference though is I will be planning on finishing this one very quickly. I’ll decide in January which script idea I want to invest my time in and which speaks to me the most at that moment and then plunge ahead. I will be using actors I know so casting will be minimal. I also want to shoot it in a very short time period and have it done, hopefully, in time to submit it to next year’s Sundance in September. Again, this is tentative and many factors will come into play. More news on that in the coming months.

Anyway, enough about the next film. I still need to finish this one. Back to work.

The original Water Tower.

And Off It Went

Yesterday I mailed out the film to the Sundance Film Festival for consideration. It arrived in their offices this morning so now it’s all in their hands. In more ways than one.

The film is still in rough form. The visual effects are not finalized. Some of them are close. Just a little tweaking and they’ll be done. But the ending effects are in very rough form. In fact, one major effect is in animatic form. I was hoping I could have those closer to being done but it just wasn’t possible. The sound effects aren’t all there either. Most are sort of there. Maybe not the actual sound effect but a sound effect so that it’s not silent. The music is not completed. A few spots have some early versions of the score but mostly it has temp music. Temp music most of the time is music from other movies so that you can get a sense of how music will play its role in a certain scene. I did take out most of the music I thought was obvious because I felt it was distracting. The music from ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Batman Begins’ I thought was too obvious and it would even pull me out. Although I did leave one piece of music from ‘Batman Begins’. I left in or replaced music that was not as obvious. Unfortunately it’s still temp music and not scored to the film so while it worked in some places it doesn’t in others. In fact, the ending, as if the rough visual effects and a few missing shots wasn’t enough, doesn’t work with the temp music. It works in spots but some of the key moments it doesn’t work at all. I didn’t have time to go through every piece of music I have to find something that worked and that wasn’t recognizable. I hope it doesn’t take away from the film. Since all of these elements are not completed yet I also don’t have a sound mix so the audio is a bit all over the place. Some scenes are louder than others for example.

All part of the process.

While I got the film “Sundance ready” as I was calling it it’s still not done. If by the off chance it gets accepted then I will need to give them a final version to show. However, even if it doesn’t get accepted I want the film to be ready to be shown anywhere. I’m still set to have the film completed in the next month. I’d say the score might be the only thing that might take longer than expected. Worst case scenario it will be done by Thanksgiving. That will be a great moment when I know the film is done and ready to be shown anywhere. I can hope Sundance but we shall see.

Right now I’m taking a day to do nothing. Then I need to jump back into the short film to finish up. Then it’s back full on to getting ‘Distortion’ done. I’m already planning, depending on weather, to shoot some estasblishing and (visual effects) plate shots on Sunday. I’ll also be cutting a new trailer soon. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I cut the last one. If I remember correctly I cut it last January to be shown at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in Chicago. The new trailer will have a lot of the new stuff in it as well. That should be fun.

I feel like the next step in my dream to be a filmmaker has been reached. Many steps have been accomplished with many more to come. Having shot the film and close to having it done is one. Submitting it to Sundance is a big one. Of course if it got accepted that would be a huge one. Don’t want to get my hopes up though. Better to concentrate on finishing what is left.

Day Of Reckoning?

Today is the last day to work on the film before submitting it to Sundance. I’m not sure how long it’ll take to compress and convert the film and put it on a DVD. When I did that before I think it took something like 8 hours alone to convert it. I need to leave a day open to make the DVD and test it.

So funny how it’s come down to the very last minute. Kind of nice working on a deadline however. My main regret is that I will have to submit an unfinished version. They let you but I only wanted it to not have a final sound mix or something. However, some of the digital effects won’t be finalized. A few will be a little rough. I figure if they are rough but not bad and the intention is there then I’m good. Also I will have to leave some of the temp music in. Some of it I think is ok because it’s not noticeable unless you really know the David Fincher film ‘Zodiac‘ really well. However, there is music that is much more noticeable (like music from ‘The Dark Knight‘) which I think would standout. I will be replacing all music that is recognizable.

I’ll send a very brief letter along with my submission just quickly stating this. The film will be done by November but I don’t want to have to rush through the digital effects and music. If I can leave those a little rough and have time to really finalize them then that will be good. And I don’t think this is the deal breaker. If they don’t like the film then it won’t be because a visual effects matte I have is shifting slightly.

My main concentration today will be the ending. It’s the one thing that isn’t fully working for me. It’s very anticlimactic at the moment and I think what I am adding will make a huge difference. I’m just not sure I can do it successfully in so little time. But it’s my main goal even if I’m up all night on it. If I save the ending I save the film. At least in my eyes. Hopefully in the eyes of Sundance as well.

William roaring before digital effect added.

William roaring after the digital effect is added.

Bloody Digital

So much work to do and time is running out. Although I think a definite deadline might have been what I needed. Does kick you in the rear to get you going.

While I go through the film and tighten up shots, add new ones, work on the sound design and music, I’m also doing some of the “simpler” effects. The ending is a whole monster I plan to spend as many days on as I can. But for the other stuff it’s fairly simple. Mainly time consuming as everything in visual effects is. Some things I’m adding that I originally didn’t intend. One is some added gore. While I was aiming for the violence to be more suggestive I do know that sometimes a little more is needed. I’m kind of the mindset that either I tone down the violence or go all out with it. In this case I decided to tone it back some. But one early scene called to be more graphic. I think it helps set up how dangerous the character of William is.

The shot itself is extremely fast. I mean literally frames. The sound effect is what sold it. But I wanted just a little something extra to go along with the sound effect before it cuts away. Since I’m talking literally less than 10 frames I knew that it didn’t need to look 100% accurate. It was too fast. It just needed to work in that moment.

The still shot is a little dark and hard to see. The original you can see better but again it’s very fast.

Face smash with digitally added blood.

While I feel the effect works I did forget one small thing. Shortly after another character runs by that wall. I figured it didn’t matter but watching it through my first thought was where’s the blood on the wall? If I had that thought then I know the audience will too. So I had to find a way to put the blood there. Once again the shot moves by very quickly. The blood is only there for maybe a second. However I needed to show it. Since it’s a moving shot (both panning with the character and handheld) I was not able to motion track the shot. There was nothing I could use. Instead of trying to do multiple tracking I decided to give it the ol’ college try and go frame by frame adjusting the blood on the wall by eye. I also had to matte out the blood as the character supposedely runs in front of it. Even though technically the blood is on top of the frame. So I also had to go frame by frame and rotoscope the character so the blood disappears as he runs in front of it. Surprisingly the effect works. If you go frame by frame there are about three frames where the matte isn’t 100%. Couldn’t quite get it perfect. But when watching it normally I was stunned to see how well it looked. It looks like the blood is there. As if we shot it on the day that way.

Blood ont he wall added digitally.

Blood on the wall added digitally.

I’m not going to tinker with it. If it’s working I’m going to leave it. Too many other shots to do. By the way, these were done in Adobe After Effects (I’m using version 7.0 too – a good two versions behind the current version) and the blood effects were taken from Video CoPilot.net’s fantastic set Action Essentials 2. The website is such an amazing resource. Without a doubt a lot of these things I’m doing are in great thanks to what I’ve learned on that website.

Now back to work.

Wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

First off …

I thought that was funny. Also true. Sometimes hindsight is 20/20 but nothing you can do about it.

Right now I am trying to do too much. Tightening up the editing of the film. Working on the sound effects. Doing the visual effects. Trying to do the music. Originally I was going to do a more traditional orchestral score using samples. I had even invested in some very amazing sample sets. The problem is the computer I have isn’t strong enough. Doesn’t take too much before the program crashes. After much lost pieces and frustated moments I decided that I needed to go back to my original option: do a synthesizer based score. I wanted to avoid it as I was afraid it would make the film sound cheesy. However, some of my favorite film scores are synthesizer scores. Some of my favorite movies have synthesizer scores. Granted it’s all in the eyes of the beholder. I remember once watching George Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’ and one guy mentioned the one thing he didn’t like about the film was the synthesizer score. I love the John Harrison music in the film. I guess because I grew up on films that mainly had them that they don’t bother me.

Without the option of running out and buying a new computer I let fate step in and make the decision for me regarding the music. What to do? Mope around over what could have been or dive in and make the best synthesizer score my feeble mind can muster? I dished out all of my favorite synthesizer scores (meaning I zipped through the iPod) and started looking for inspiration. So much to choose from. I started feeling better when I realized some of my favorite composers have all done them. A few names are:

Tyler Bates
Jay Chattaway
Harold Faltermeyer
Brad Fiedel
Goblin
Jerry Goldsmith
John Harrison
Alan Howarth
Steve Jablonsky
Ennio Morricone
Fred Myrow
Robert Rodriguez
Arthur Rubenstein
Howard Shore
Tangerine Dream
Vangelis

Definitely a warming feeling. Of course one of my all time favorite film composers has done all of his scores on a synthesizer. I’m referring to none other than John Carpenter.

Director and Composer John Carpenter.

I’m not saying my score will be anywhere near what they can compose. In fact, I can honestly say it won’t be. It’s nice to know that there is a lot of inspiration to draw from. Now which one does that one sound? You know the – wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

A Lovely Melody

A post long overdo. It’s been a busy couple of weeks but things are getting done. In fact, after this week I will be putting all of my time towards getting ‘Distortion’ done. At the very least get it ready for the Sundance Festival deadline. There is a lot to get done with every aspect. There is more editing to do and even more shooting. A few more b-roll shots still need to be done. Weather has been iffy with a lot of rain lately but I think this weekend might work. Plus the visual effects need to be finalized and of course sound effects and music.

Deneen taking the shortcut.

The last full scene I needed to shoot was done a few weeks ago with actress Deneen Melody. We were fighting the rain and light, although I needed it to be dark, but she was a real trooper. I only wish I had more for her to do to show off how talented she is. While it was strange shooting a scene almost a year later it was great to do it with someone who loves to act. It made it a great experience.

So much left to do and time is slipping away. I will try and post everything I can as I go along even if it’s quick to document the process.

Hey lady! You call him Dr. Jones.

Things have been busy lately. I co-directed, shot, and am editing a short film called ‘Interrogation’ written by Steve Bastien. It’s a dark humored short about two cops interrogating a suspect. One of the cops is none other than Mike Pusateri who plays Sam in ‘Distortion’. He knew Mike and mentioned me to him when he said he wanted to turn ‘Interrogation’ from a one act play into a short film. We shot it in one day at the old police station where I shot part of ‘Distortion’ and part of Michael Mann’s ‘Public Enemies’  used it as well. I have the first cut done so far. More info on that soon.

A still from the short film 'Interrogation'.

Another still from the short film 'Interrogation'.

I’ve been trying to get things lined up for the additional shooting on ‘Distotion’ plus planning out some of the details on the ending. I went back and watched the film again and outside of a few editing tweaks I think everything is set. Although I may end up moving two scenes. I will be recutting the ending as well to help incorporate the new stuff. Right now it just flies by so I’m going to try and extend it. I also think that’s why it feels a little anti-climactic.

A nice side note, I haven’t been overly enthusiastic about this summer’s movies. Usually I love summer entertainment. Outside of ‘Star Trek’ I have been pretty let down. However, The Music Box was showing over the course of three weeks at their weekend midnight shows the Indiana Jones films (‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Cursade’) which has been an absolute blast. Granted I’ve seen them a million times before but haven’t seen them in a theatre in forever plus with an audience of fans. A lot of fun. In a few weeks they’re showing John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ which I have never seen on the big screen so I am really looking forward to that.

The biggest surprise of the week was receiving an e-mail from the editor of the website Cinema Fantastique, a French horror movie website. He was writing an article on ‘Distortion’ and wanted to use some of the stills from the website. I was so thrilled that I offered to help in any way. He sent me back a question and in my usual way I rambled on. To his credit he only used a snippet. I really need to learn to do small sound bytes. The piece went up on Friday evening (before I saw ‘Dead Snow’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’) but in French. I was looking at it with my iPhone so I wasn’t able to do the translation. I was worried because I saw towards the end the word “retard”. I came to find out that it means “late” in French as opposed to what it means in English. But I was worried for a little bit. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.cinemafantastique.net/INDIE-EYE-Distortion.html

There are many websites online that do translate things for you. I was able to find one. Not sure if the link will work for you but here it is:

http://translate.google.com/translate?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cinemafantastique.net%2FINDIE-EYE-Distortion.html&sl=fr&tl=en <http://translate.google.com/translate?ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cinemafantastique.net%2FINDIE-EYE-Distortion.html&amp;sl=fr&amp;tl=en>

It’s a really great article. I was so happy with it. It also reminds me as to why I am putting as much effort into the film. I want people to enjoy the film and when I see someone whom I have never met talk about the film this way it makes me want to make sure he is not disappointed. Thank you Damien. It was definitely the highlight of my week.

Wait Five Minutes

Don’t like the weather in Chicago? Wait five minutes.

I know several cities use that same joke. I’d say it’s true in a lot of places. But Chicago is odd. There is no real consistency. I’ve lived here for 24 years and it’s been the same way. One year is different than the next. And June is always an odd month. Today is June 11th and it’s cold and rainy. But tomorrow could be hot and sunny.

My point about the weather isn’t about ranting about it. Well, maybe a little. I have decided to push back the additional shooting until next month. Mainly because there is more consitency in the weather. Worse case scenario is I have to deal with rain. So July will be a very busy month. What it does give me though is time to go through and really make sure I know everything I want to shoot still. Also, it’s giving me more time to work on the visual effects as I posted previously. While a lot still needs to be done it is opening up possibilities. I also am rethinking some of the color ideas for the it when it comes to color correction. Of course music is playing a key part. The scenes that are basically done, outside of sound effects and color correction, will be scored sooner than later.

Also, there is a short film I may be shooting soon at the old police station I shot part of ‘Distortion’ at. More details on that coming soon.

No Small Effect

Lately I’ve been planning for the additional shooting for ‘Distortion’ but also playing with music and with visual effects. As I mentioned in a previous post I am going to be getting a very cool particle generator for After Effects to help with some of the visual effects for the film. But other effects are not so intensive but no less important.

Here’s a good example of me not wanting to get into trouble but a different kind of trouble followed. When I was in film school my friend Joe made a film which was a big chase scene. I was the chaser and wore a long coat and had a water pistol. Someone not realizing what we were doing called the police and three cop cars pulled up. This was the summer of 1993. Different time. Different world. During the summer of 2008 I wasn’t about to take the chance of any one of us getting into trouble. For the film I used an air soft BB gun. It looks real and even operates in a very real manner which is awesome for a low budget film. But for legal purposes they are made with an orange tip so that it cannot be mistaken for a real gun. In Illinois, or Chicago specifically, they’re not fans of these guns either. To avoid any possible issue I decided to not paint over the orange tip and find someway to color it out in post. Unfortunately that means I do have to go frame by frame. Luckily the fun is only in two scenes but still quite a lot to do. Here is a rough test for it.

Raw camera footage.

The orange tip has been recolored and then image is color corrected and matted.

Another effect in the film is an eye glow. A typical effect but I wanted to try and do it in a cool way. Not have it look cheesy. While it’s hard to tell from the still the glow does pulsate and have inner movement. While still a rough test I was pretty happy so far.

Raw camera footage.

Rough test. Eyes were motion tracked and the red glow added. Plus color corrected and widescreen matte added.

More stuff coming soon.

That’s My Name

While I get ready for the remaining things to shoot for ‘Distortion’ I am also in the process of looking for more work. A key to that is having a reel. In this line of work a reel is more important than anything else. Doesn’t matter where you went to school or what is on your resume. It all comes down to how much someone likes your reel. I try and always keep my reel within reason. It’s easy to take something I was marginally involved with and slap it on there. My feeling is if it’s not something I can do or duplicate then I don’t put it on there. And everything in my reel I was involved with. Either I shot it or edited it. Or both.

One thing I wanted for my reel was a new end plate. Basically an effect with my name. Also a good way to show off some After Effects skills. Since it’s summer and the summer movie season is here I decided to go with something a little bit more … flashy. As a friend put it,”Michael Bay presents Richard Diaz.”

I did this in a few hours the other day. The sparks worked really well. I think they’ll look better once I get Particular. I used Particle World inside After Effects and I liked it. It’s just Particular gives you more options for the particles. Or sparks in this effect. The plug in Twitch from VideoCoPilot.net came in handy. I thought it was done but I wanted something else. So I added Twitch and chose the brightness option which gave it that pulsating light as if the sparks are being created above. For me it just brought the whole thing to life.

Gearing up for more ‘Distortion’ stuff in a bit. Stay tuned!