Digital Shorts 2009.

Screen Yorkshire are holding a competition for a short film, winner gets around £16,000. You also get consultants with script writers and producers to help you develop your idea.

You can enter as many ideas as you like!

http://www.screenyorkshire.co.uk/training/new-talent/digital-shorts-0809

I am currently working on a script, which is going well. The deadline is March 31st and i wanted to have a few ideas to enter, but finding time is getting hard, between projects, work, research and sleeping it seems time to work on personal projects are slim jim.

I have had a few bands enquired about music videos, but bands have a tendency to cancel. I did find out that the band iLiKETRiANS who i was suppose to be working with last summer, but it turned out their project was too big for there budget. However, their song got used on The Wrestler trailer. That was a real kick in the balls.

WANTED.

Wanted.

An over the top cheesy action film, with a god awful plot, but i liked it.

It was like the Matrix, but with better actors and a different plot... well there was just the slow down, time lapse fighting that made it like the Matrix.

If your big on special effects and violence then this is the perfect movie for you. And, it as Angelina Jolie in it, although i thought she looked a bit like a crack whore.

You don't really see special effects like these anymore, where they actually blow up things, its all CGI... don't get me wrong there were a lot of CGI in this... i mean they even CGI'd the rats! But there was a nice balance between the two styles.

I'd definitely recommend people to rent it out, but not buy it, unless you can get it for under a fiver.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

This has been one of those films that i've bought, put with my DVD collection and forgot about... what a silly mistake!

You should watch this film just for Tommy Lee Jones' performance and the beautiful cinematography of the landscapes.

The story is alright, but T L Jones really pulls out a performance, but he did direct it! Again i cannot stress the cinematography, very, very good.

If you get a chance give it a watch.

Speed Racer.

I'm not sure why I watched this one... possibly because i get free rentals and i was house sitting and there were a blockbuster near by... And when a film gets shot to dead by the reviewers I like to see if they were correct...

In this case i think they were a little harsh, the concept is dire, some of the acting is weak and it all looks a bit bright and colourful, but lets not forget this is a kids film.

The special effects are pretty good. I don't like the style, but what they have done is proper good. But what do you expect from the guys that made the Matrix (first one, the other two are laughable). There are little bits of design that float around in the background that you know the CGI guys slaved over, and your average weekend film renter will not even notice. The camera work is very impressive and to say most of it would have been green screened, the actors and directors will have had to really think about what they were doing on set. I enjoyed the layering of footage, especially on the transitions. In the races they used the commentators as screen wipes.

I'm a massive Emile Hirsch fan, so it was hard for me not to like this. However, it wasn't a great film, not even a great kids film... probably 5 or 6 out of 10, but it was entertaining. 

DONE! FINISHED! POW!

YEY! I've finished the editing on my ident. I have to say i am very pleased with the out come.

Please follow the link, and watch it in full high quality youtube fun. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FSTbV3RkdTg .

Cheers

Return of Jafar!

Aladdin was a great film, a landmark in animation.

I've recently bought the box set trilogy, and at the time of purchase i'd never seen the two follow up movies. I knew they weren't going to be as good as the first one, but i thought they must be decent films.

I watched Return of Jafar last night and what a piece of shit. The animation wasn't bad, but for disney standards...for Aladdin standards it was very poor. The songs were just hash pieces, re-worked songs from the first film, but with the awful parrot singing them!
I thought the film was going to pick up when the genie enters, and to my surprise HOMER SIMPSONS voice comes out. I knew Robin Williams didn't do it, but i didn't know Dan Cast-la-dilli (how ever you say it) re-placed him. When i was watching it i was thinking i'm sure thats Homer...

Anyway, i've checked the third one out on IMDB and Mr Williams is back so it might be alright, but if this is something to go by i wish i'd have just bought Aladdin.

Title sequences break down.

Hello,
I thought i'd take out the time to do a break down of my after effects channel four horror season title sequences. This is not the one i am going to use in my final ident, but it is close to it.

I am not that great at after effects, only been using it a week, but i hope this helps anybody having trouble. It's not a tutorial, but more of an order.
First off here is the sequences.


Right, the first thing i did was make a composition and then imported a channel 4 logo from the net and colour corrected to black and white. Then i animated it. The scale first, key framing it from large to small. The 3D and light/colour effect i didn't add till the very end. After that i added the FEAR text, which goes from right to left, getting bigger. The idea was to have it coming from behind the 4. I used an effect called "glow" to...yes that's right, make it glow. I key framed the brightness to dim in and out, i did this to make it more eye catching.
OK, then i key framed each individual letter of the "horror season" to fall down at different speeds to get the fallen, drip feel. The last bit for this first part was a simple opacity fade of the coming soon...

Once i was happy with the time scale of this i opened a new composition and dragged my previous one in. I did this so i could work with all the elements as a whole. I can later go back to that first composition edited it and it will change in this new second composition.

Ok, I made the whole sequence a 3D layer and added a spot light and 25mm camera. I key framed the light to change from a light yellow to a dark red, which helps translate the theme. I edit the features within the spot light, for example the intensity and feathering. Then i key framed the camera to zoom out on a tilt, then square up with the red light and lastly zoom in right towards the 4. This gives you the feel that the 4 is moving around much more than it actually is.

Ident Animatic

Hey hey,
I've done a mock up of my Channel four "FEAR" ident as a animatic.
Traditionally animatics are still images, but with this idea it was very hard to plan out on paper how i wanted it to look. So, i thought i'll just do it! I've filmed sort of what i will do.

My idea is to make you feel like your TV has gone dodgy and then these unsettling images appear. You can also hear my soundtrack, but that also needs tweaking.

Here we go


I know that youtube isn't the best quality, but i think it gets my idea across. Also the cut footage is just a knife and a sink, i do have other footage in mind to film.
The sound i am really pleased with but i'll explain that in a new blog.

Multipul Me's!

I've been testing my skills out on after effects, i really like doing special effects. I've never been a massive fan of too much CGI/post production work, but i can see why production companies opt for this. I think post production or SFX is an area i'd like to start in...possibily...

Anyway this is me five times in the same room.

"How did i do this?" i hear you say...
Well, I filmed myself five times, then layed them up in after effects and masked round four of them. I thought this would be a lot harder than it actually was.

My next task is to make my head blow up! using a combination of post production and on set SFX.