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"An exploration through a mysterious underwater world inspired by the forms and movement of sea life and micro organisms. Hybrid organic and synthetic creatures undulate and wander through heavy waters in concert with the cinematic soundtrack."
"ANALOG is Ebbëto's 2nd short film. His first, Lagartija Nika, can be seen online at Tokyo's CON-CAN Film Festival site. ANALOG is a 27 min, black and white, Science Fiction film made in 2009. This short extract features the music of OIL 10 "Passagen", by the French electronic music composer, Gilles Rossire.
The film tells the tale of a machine traveling in deep-space which has as a primary function the preservation of a living organism: a man. Strange events with biblical analogies begin, disturbing the machine and making it rethink it's priorities."
"With over 2,026,435 views of the official film on Dailymotion in the six days since its release, Pixels has really spread far and wide very quickly. We wanted to find out more about the film and had a chance to ask the creator Patrick Jean a few questions. Now working as a 2D and 3D artist at One More Production, where this film was made, Patrick is a 2002 graduate of Supinfocom and has also previously worked at the French VFX powerhouse BUF. Patrick's original storyboards for the film are also below. Take a look!"
Dark and surreal mixed with stop motion, kinda reminds me a bit of Jan Svankmajer's work with some serious mograph underpinnings! Check out Nando's 2010 reel as well, some very nice pieces.
It's a bit dark, I'd highly recommend you watch it full screen. Truly amazing- RealFlow used for fluid simulation? "Nokta (Dot) is an abstract film project which is an improvisation of organic pieces while considering themes like power, chance and luck. I also wanted a perspective that can be subjectified by viewers."
Wow, this video is mesmerizing in a creepy way. "The films were created during 5 days in February 2010 with students at The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark." Directed by Max Hattler.
OK so no visual effects here (if there were it would ruin the whole effect!), but this is too fun not to post to inspirations. This insanely huge and complicated Rube Goldberg-esque device was built by the band over the course of several months. One camera take! I wonder how many times they had to go through this to get it to work flawlessly.
Gorillaz have gone full CG and continue to break ground on new video "Stylo"- a compositing and vfx masterpiece. New album "Plastic Beach" will be out March 8/9th US.
Toolfarm: Can you tell us a little about WeWereMonkeys? What is your history, your backgrounds?
WeWereMonkeys: Davide Di Saro holds a Master's Degree in Fine Arts and Design from The Dutch Art Institute and has exhibited his art works internationally in China, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. One of his works was awarded honorable mention by UNESCO in 2003. Davide has worked as a professional photographer in Italy, and as an Interactive Designer at the Banff Centre.
Mihai Wilson has travelled extensively, picking up inspiration from around the world. He worked as an Animator and Designer for Adbusters Magazine from 2002-2004, developing provocative animations that have had worldwide exposure. In 2004, he co-founded Biro Creative. He has created animations and interactive works for organization such as The United Nations Foundation, Greenpeace and The World Wildlife Fund.
WeWereMonkeys began in 2007 when Mihai and Davide created an insane stream of consciousness stop-motion animation for Malajube's Le Crab, which was nominated for the 2007 MTV People's Choice Video Award. They successfully followed this with the production of a second video for Malajube's Ton Plat Favori, which was featured in the 2008 Independent Music Video Festival. In 2009, WWM's video for Land of Talk's It's Okay was featured in Stash 63 and was chosen as one of The 5 Best Videos of 2009 by TIME Magazine.
(WeWereMonkeys Directors Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson in their New York studio 2009)
TF: How did you begin this particular project- were you approached by Land of Talk with this idea, or is it something you came up with collectively?
WWM: WeWereMonkeys was asked to write a treatment for Land of Talk through Toronto-based production company, The Field. WWM's Producer, Marcella Moser, came up with the idea of Queen Antiope, and then together we developed and wrote the treatment. The video is about Queen Antiope, the last warrior of the legendary Amazon tribe.
TF: Do you typically storyboard your projects out?
WWM: We definitely storyboard, but we're spontaneous and don't like locked storyboards. While producing "It's Okay" we needed a solid plan and an organized shot list because of limited time each day with the horse and rider.
TF: What camera did you shoot with? Knowing that everything would be in slow motion, were there any special considerations or challenges with each shot?
WWM: To fit with the dark mood of the song we wanted to capture the live footage in slow motion. We shot the entire video with a RED at 100fps 2K 16:9 using Nikon lenses. From the open door of a speeding minivan, we shot the horse and rider galloping along side of an airstrip. Davide flew in an ultra-light to capture the aerial shot. To keep the lighting consistent, we shot the horse and rider at 6am every day. The main challenge was avoiding hazy shots due to seasonal forest fires.
(Director Davide Di Saro filming actress Ines Stone and Desi from an ultra-light with pilot Randy Rauck from Raven Aviation)
TF: What software do you use for the compositing and effects? Any 3rd party plugins used for the particle and hair effects?
TF: How were the background and environmental elements created?
WWM: The background was matte painted in Photoshop, and the anti-gravity debris was animated by hand in After Effects.
TF: It looks like the main character is the only live footage, with most of the background/ textural elements all being shot or created separately. How did this affect how everything was brought together?
WWM: We shot, edited and rotoscoped the live footage first, and then built the environment around the horse and rider.
TF: You seem to have a great deal of variety in style from your demo reel. Is this due to each member of your team having a design niche of sorts, or based on the needs of each project?
WWM: Variety is key to WWM's work. We love experimenting with multiple mediums; it leads us to new ideas and unique visual outcomes. We are very hands-on; from creative direction, set construction, costume design, photography, illustration, rendering and VFX, we do it all.
(Left: Directors Davide Di Saro and Mihai Wilson on location with DP, Dominic Schaefer Right: Mihai Wilson and Davide Di Saro getting actress Ines Stone ready for the shoot)
TF: Any current or on-the-horizon projects you're working on?
David Baker, the Program Chair for Digital Aimation and Game Design at Ferris State University posted this piece on his Facebook page.
Tony Sarg was an early animator who worked in cut paper. Nancy Beiman, writer of 'Prepare to Board' found this little gem. Very natural animation... and low tech and simple yet appealing story. Computer animators take note!
This is the kind of work I'd like to do, if I were a filmmaker. This is just amazing (and I guess Nuit Blanch does not mean 'blanched nuts'.;-) Be sure to watch it in HD by double clicking the movie. See the Making of below.
The Art of the Title Sequence has recently posted an interesting article on the opening and end credit sequences for Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" produced by Danny Yount/Prologue.
"The sequence creative director Danny Yount, a self-taught Emmy-winning designer/director produced main titles for Six Feet Under and The Grid while at Digital Kitchen. He currently resides at Prologue Films and has created titles for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man and RockNRolla."
Ctrl.Alt.Shift is a movement for a new generation fighting social and global injustice. These films were made by members of the community to raise awareness of issues they care about.
"A verbose and politically correct bureaucrat gives a lecture to a group of teenagers on the merits of the UK's efficient and humane asylum system, whilst meanwhile, in the same building, detainees, imprisoned indefinitely in different 'Removal Centres' across the UK, leave messages in vain on an abandoned telephone answering machine in the ministry basement. Their messages detail the horror of the life that they have escaped due to conflict." Written and Directed by: Tim Travers Hawkins More Info.
The story reminds me a bit of Coraline. Stylized but with plenty of little details- well done, creepy! First independent short film directed by Rodrigo Blass, a Pixar animator originally from Spain.
Written and Directed by: Rodrigo Blaas Character Design: Bolhem Bouchiba, Carlos Grangel, Sergio Pablos, Santi Agusti Animation: Daniel Peixe, ManueBover, Remi Hueso
Dazzling as usual, the team behind the Final Fantasy series does not disappoint with lucky #13.... aside from the US version not available until April or so! It already has sold over 1.5 million units in Japan within the first four days of its release last week.
Guess it's time for me to bite the bullet and finally purchase a PS3.
Giant robots invades Montevideo! A short movie directed and animated by Fede Alvarez on a shoestring budget of only several hundred dollars. (Probably not factoring in his actual time to make this...) Hollywood quickly took notice and offered him a bigger budget.
"Alvarez ended up signing with CAA, Anonymous Content and attorney Karl Austen the week before Thanksgiving and entered immediate talks with Ghost House after bonding with its principals, which include director Sam Raimi."
A new music video from the N.A.S.A project: "Spacious Thoughts," featuring a most-interesting combination of Tom Waits and Kool Keith, directed by Fluorescent Hill. Excellent animation.
Topher Welch has recently compiled a list of 41 compelling demo reels for your viewing pleasure. Some older, some newer, but all very attractive. "Wow... it took forever, but I'm here to bring you more demo reels then ever before! Maybe you are hurting for some graphics ideas, or just need to whet your inspiration palate? There's no better way to throw away an afternoon. Enjoy!"
Joost Karngald Reel
Tony Hudson 2009 Reel
The Mill 2009 Reel
Mathieu Gerard
Thanks to Topher for scouring the interwebs and putting this together! These were just a couple that jumped out at me, but you can browse the whole list at Aetuts+.
An interesting juxtaposition of different styles and concepts/content! "Duelity is a split-screen animation that tells both sides of the story of Earths origins in a dizzying and provocative journey through the history and language that marks human thought." Visit Duelity.net for more information.
NSFW Language Wow, this is the worlds longest movie trailer, but ridiculously funny! This had to have a bigger budget than Paranormal Activity... and it's better!
Director: Alasdair Brotherston and Jock Mooney Producer: Richard Barnett Production company:Trunk Animation Compositing: Andy Hague, Alasdair Brotherston Animation: 2D: Anna Benner, Timothy McCourt, Alasdair Brotherston 3D: Patrick Krafft
"A two-minute animated voyage through nature's life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed.
The film was kindly funded by Adobe, made using their CS4 range of software. It was produced at Nexus Productions and features a soundtrack by Jape. It was made using a mixture of stop motion papercraft and 2D drawn animation."
I love these videos. So full of great information, flying at you a million miles per minute. The info graphics are lots of fun and it's one you'll want to watch a couple of times. Be sure to watch the HD.
Content by XPLANE, The Economist, Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler. Design and development by XPLANE, http://www.xplane.com.
Via Wired Magazine: "One of the nice things about the demise of the music business,” says Moby, sipping tea at a sidewalk cafe in downtown Manhattan, "is that a big production doesn't matter any more. Like in 1998, it seemed the criteria for determining the worth of a music video was how big the production was. Now the only thing that matters is the idea." -Moby
"Antonia is a 12 year old girl. She often has daydreams, in which she wanders of in to a magical far away forest, were she hides from the problems of the real world. One day, however, her father takes drastic measures and she has to face a decision."
An animated short directed by Jan Chen of DUCK in Los Angeles. I wouldn't exactly say this is NSFW, but it could be. I mean, the film is full of animated condoms! Well executed and very cute, each character has its own personality.
Director and animator Jeff Chiba Stearns was controlled by sticky notes for 9 years. He went through 2300 sticky notes and brought them to life. Wow. I love the morphing and animating of the content on the sticky notes. Amazing.
He's half Japanese (just like my daughter), and an advocate for HAPA, hence, his site hapanimation.com. HAPA is Half Asian People's Association, a worldwide organization for people of mixed Asian ethnicity.
Bill Cammack, with the dreadlock help, IM'd me this video this afternoon. Now, you probably won't get half the jokes if you don't know anything about the Harry Potter series, but I've read the first 6 and I thought it was hilarious!
It has some great visual effects, like Voldemort apparating, wand effects, and a silly ending. Love it! The rhymes are also freakin' funny! I must say, Harry does sound a bit like Mike D from the Beastie Boys.
This is a bizarre but awesome history of video games from Pong to Pac-Man to Super Mario and to a bunch of games that came out after I stopped playing. It's pretty funny stuff and very well done. The Pong sequence is too long, in my opinion, but stick it out. It really picks up at the end of Pac-Man. Musclebeaver says:
Every game character in this prologue was reinterpreted, redrawn (...one pixel at a time), and animated frame by frame. First I drew every animation step of all characters with the smallest sized (1x1) pen in Photoshop at 72 dpi. (without bicubic interpolation). Then I composed everything in AfterFX. There were a lot of issues I had to cope with to keep the detailed REAL pixel look/ratio.(e.g . scaling, camera and motion blurs...)
NSFW! Scene of Mario humping Lara Crofts leg and she's enjoying it!
Very entertaining and cool piece about a guy named Virgile trying to impress a girl. Flying V is Clement Soulmagnon and Gary Levesque, two classmates from the 2008 Supinfocom prom. This is their first film short.
This isn't the kind of thing we usually show here, but this is some damn good editing. They do an incredible job with the audio as well, as it isn't choppy. Impressive work and fun to watch.
Stop motion paper animation by director and animator Sean Pecknold along with artist/illustrator Jesse Brown for Fleet Foxes. After Effects was used to finish the final sequences.
Making of video:
"Our last 4 weeks stitched together. Mainly timelapse of setting up each shot."
If you have a "computer graveyard" in your post house or studio where your old equipment goes to die, this may be of some inspiration to you. I'm looking at mine now, expecting them to wake up suddenly and start playing Symphony No. 9. It's a bit disturbing actually.
"What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?) Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound, Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar, 8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass, 3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong, HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals."
Fun stop-motion animation assembled on a gym floor. Visit the film's site to view the making of, complete with set and animation tests. Created by Blink Productions.
Creepy clowns and cops have it out in this short film from Adam Berg. The film was made to promote the new Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV. According to one of the comments (unedited, obviously):
All of the people were posing, trying to stay still. In post-processing they edited to make them perfectly motionless. All the explosions, glass, bullets and crazy stuff was computer generated. The camera was on a dolly, but the tracks were edited out in post.
Evan Sussman's film short, Escape, is a fantastic voyage into a freedom from the stresses of modern life. It is a contender for a $30,000 prize from The Doorpost Film Project. If you like the film, please vote for it!
Evan, can you give a quick synopsis of your new film short, Escape?
Sure, Escape is the story of a couple that has reached their limit to the violence and hatred in our world. We follow them through several seasons and one big idea that just might get them back their freedom. I worked on that synopsis for awhile with my wife. It's ingrained in my head now.
You're the writer, producer, director on the project. How did the idea come to you?
Like all ideas, I'm not sure where it came from exactly, but I do know it was inspired by my wife. At the time she was my girlfriend (we just got married in September of last year). I think I came home from work late one night and I walked in to find her very upset, and crying about what was on the news. It wasn't one story in particular, but the whole picture: floods here, wars there, killings here... If you sit down and take in a whole news broadcast, it can be extremely depressing.
Oh, I completely agree. Totally depressing. I don't watch the news much anymore either. After 9-11, the newscasts changed. So, do you avoid TV now?
It's funny, I do avoid it, even though it's through television that I make most of my living. Actually, I've talked with a lot of people in the "industry" (sorry, I hate that word) who feel the same way. If I'm watching anything, it's most likely going to be a movie. I've especially fallen in love with documentaries lately. HBO On-Demand is a great place for that, but Netflix is the best invention ever, especially if you have an XBOX.
I love Netflix, too!
The reason I avoid watching television, specifically American news programs, is because they are so sensationalized nowadays. I remember watching Tom Brokaw with my mom while getting ready for dinner when I was growing up. She is still in love with him, by the way, but the reporting wasn't as bad as it is now. Fox, MSNBC, all of them... it's more News-tainment, if that's a word, than anything. Switch over to the BBCA and you'll see the difference between American reporting and reporting in other countries.
The worst part, and most saddening, is that there are terrible things happening all around the world. I think what has the potential to make someone so upset is that, from the outside, it all can seem so silly. In Iraq, in Palestine, in everywhere, the majority of people just want to live their lives. They want to work, try to be successful, have a family and take care of them. The bigger violent issues, they can't help but be wrapped up in, are always controlled by few, but end up effecting so many. It's crazy to me that so much of your life is determined by the lottery of where you are born. We are very fortunate here in America that a lot of the terrible things aren't happening in our backyard. That doesn't mean it takes away from our empathy for the people stuck in it though.
I think that's the main idea of the film. I believe that the majority of people stuck in the middle of bad situations would go somewhere else if they knew they could be happy, keep their family safe, and leave all this fighting and waring to someone else.
Can you talk a bit about the workflow on the film? You mentioned that the backgrounds were created in Flash and composited and animated in AE.
Sure, my first studio job was as a part-time assistant editor at Soup2Nuts animation studio. They're a Flash-animation based studio in Watertown, MA. When I started work there, my background was entirely in live-action and I knew a little bit of After Effects. They didn't use After Effects at all when I started! So I told myself, "I'm going to make myself a position here by introducing AE." I did, with a lot of reluctance from some of the producers at the time, but now After Effects is a part of every production's budget and has become a terrific creative tool for the directors and animators. It was through my 4-5 years of working at Soup, eventually becoming the head of post-production, that I gained the experience of utilizing Flash and After Effects together. Now that Adobe owns them both, there are some amazing things you can accomplish.
When I first started to build the scenes for ESCAPE, I was determined to export all the BGs and elements from Flash as .SWF files, retaining the vector information. Where that does work much of the time, once you start creating complicated 3D scenes with vector art, After Effects gets confused and crashes a lot. It was a very frustrating learning experience. What finally worked was to just export the Flash images as large PNGs with alpha information and then build everything out of those. The vector stability is something that Adobe still needs to work out.
We're all of your elements hand drawn? That must have taken forever!
First of all, I want to say that the amazing backgrounds and props were created by Steven Young. He's an incredible talent not only at design but his own writing and ideas. We met and discussed how I pictured everything, then he went and created these ridiculous backgrounds. When I saw the rocket all put together for the first time I just started laughing, I thought it was so cool looking. His art direction really helped to make ESCAPE look so special.
There are a few reasons I choose to do the backgrounds in Flash. One of them being because of where the film takes you. It would have been impossible for me to pull that off on my shoe-string budget otherwise. And I was able to accomplish camera moves I never would have been able to without a crane or something. Plus, I knew it would look cool and give them film a unique tone. My favorite films are the ones where directors have made strong visual decisions. The look of a film is so important in creating the mood and tone. And that's why we watch movies isn't it? To experience an emotion or be taken somewhere new? I get so frustrated when I see a movie that is shot in a boring way. You have all the choices in the world on how to shoot a scene, make it something interesting.
Another reason why I used drawn backgrounds was to make the locations and age of things unspecific. It's the same reason I choose to go without dialogue and make the clips on TV vague. I was considering using shots of President Bush, Katrina, Al Queda kidnappers with masks on etc... But the moment I looked at footage like that, I decided against it. I didn't want to make a propaganda film. And I think the idea I was trying to convey could be applied to any era.
You make some serious use of 3D layers. I especially love the big pullout at the end. Will you share your technique?
A lot of experimentation. That shot took me about a week or so of playing around. Getting the camera speed right was very time consuming. Also, when the camera goes from the landscape to seeing the moon etc, that's when it switches from 3D to 2D. There are a few times in the film I had to do that - especially in the apartment. Sometimes when Joe would walk in, his feet would go through the floor, so those scenes have the keyed footage of him and his girlfriend in the film in 2D. Just about every other time we see them though, they are in 3D and therefore casting shadows and effected by lights. It helps so much in terms of making them feel a part of the scene.
The use of light, shadows and reflections also gives it an organic feel. Really nice.
Thank you! That has always been a goal of mine in After Effects, especially in terms of using After Effects with animation. A show I worked on a long time ago at Soup2Nuts was the first season of an Adult Swim series called Assy McGee. It was about a hard-boiled cop who was just a butt with legs - very high brow stuff. The style was very much like a comic book - detailed and realistic, but stylized. It was with that show that I felt the freedom to play with lighting, coloring, etc because it matched the theme. I wouldn't have felt the same freedom with a Saturday morning, educational cartoon. You have to match the feel of the show.
I ended up creating one technique, if you want to call it that, which I thought brought a cool feeling to the show. I made sure every location had a different overall color tone. So at night, the outside was blue, during the day a washed out yellow. If they were inside a place with florescent lights, I would tint things slightly greenish, and if inside a more natural setting, I would go with brown. Take an adjustment layer and apply the hue/saturation effect. Set it to "colorize" and go crazy with the color and saturation. Go over the top with what you think would work. Then if you bring the opacity of that layer down to somewhere between 15% to 30%, you get a nice overall color to the scene. It's an easy, quick way to change the mood of a shot. I used a lot of tricks like that which I'd learned in my years as an animation effect-artist. I feel almost embarrassed saying it. It's not like it's some big trick or something, just an easy thing...
A lot of people probably don't know about those type of little tricks though, so it's nice of you to share it. I also love the organic movements of your elements, such as the junk in the trailer and the movement of the gears. How did you get your elements to move so naturally? Expressions?
The junk was expressions, yes. Actually, a lot of little things were expressions, like the tree leaves. The wiggle expression is so huge. I wish I was the kind of person who could program and understand how to write expressions more, but I mostly stick with wiggle, creating simple expressions sliders and loopOutDuration. I think, more than anything, I use that expression. It's so great for setting up a few keyframes and setting it to an endless loop. It's especially great for looping videos, like those from ArtBeats or something. The other expression I used was something I found online. It was for making the car's tires roll with the movement of the car. These people who post their amazing expressions online for the rest of us - they are so incredible. The kind of people you find on your site or Creative Cow. I think so many of us owe so much to them for making our work better, at least I do. So, for any of them reading this, THANK YOU!
Let's talk a bit about plug-ins. Ok.
Your keys look incredible. Did you use Keylight or another plug-in?
Just Keylight. How amazing is that plug-in? The fact that it comes bundled with AE Pro is so great. We shot everything on a Panasonic HVX. The weird aspect ratio adds another element of difficulty.
What sort of particle generator did you use for the smoke and snow?
I don't think too many people will be surprised to know that I used Particular from Trapcode. I think that bundle of effects is really essential for a serious After Effects graphics artist. The way it interacts with the 3D camera is amazing. You can make some truly beautiful stuff with it. Actually, speaking of which, there was a shot I cut from the film where the camera pushes in from the exterior through the window, all the while passing this beautiful falling snow. It was SO hard to let that go, but I had to for the pacing of the film. Making a movie from scratch is a lot of killing your own babies. It can be really tough to let go.
How about the film effect?
That effect I made from scratch, no pun intended. I would be happy to share the project file. There are a bunch of wiggle expressions going on there. One of the inspirations for ESCAPE was the movie "Voyage to the Moon" by George Melies, which was made in 1902. That was the reason for the film effect, as a little homage.
I totally feel the homage to Voyage to the Moon. I was thinking that in the back of my mind.
It also acts as another one of those era-less things. People keep asking me which plug-in I used for that. I guess I did a good job! My advice to anyone starting in this field: always try to make your own "plug-ins" first. You'll save money and learn a lot in the process - not to mention have it to use any time you need it.
Did you learn any good tricks during the production? How long did the whole film take to create?
Oh man, of course. You should always learn something, otherwise you're not pushing yourself. When I was the head of post and receiving resumes from young applicants, I would always get the one that said "after-effects guru" or something. You know what? No, you're not. I promise. I've been working with After Effects for I don't know, 10 years now. I wouldn't claim to be a guru or master. I love it, I can do amazing things with it, but there are so many people out there who know this program inside and out. I'm not sure if one person can really know everything After Effects can do. It's so powerful. Like Photoshop - you know it to the extent that you need to use it. Someone could show you a new use for it that you would have never guessed. It's that kind of a program.
I shot the original greenscreen footage in September of '07 - so over a year? That was with a lot of breaks for paying work. It's hard to find time to do your own thing. But if you love it, you'll make time. It also helps to have someone pushing you, in my case my wife Avril.
The soundtrack is fantastic. Was it custom created for your film?
I'm so glad you asked this question. It was original, it's amazing, and it is all the work of Daniel Koren, an Israeli composer living in New York. We met on an earlier project of mine where he composed a completely different kind of song. I knew that without a doubt he was the guy for this project. But 6.5 minutes is a lot of composing to ask of someone on the cheap, so we decided to barter. I came down to NY and shot a short video for his band at Julliard, in exchange for him creating the beautiful score. His group is called "The Koren Ansamble" and will be hitting the world by storm very soon!
The other music in the piece, "Let's Pretend There's A Moon", is performed by Fats Waller and licensed from Warner Brothers, EMI, and a man named Arthur Hamilton. I knew this song had to be in the film no matter what, but I didn't know where until it was all edited together. Playing over the credit's ended up being a really nice way to end the film. The scratchy recording, the piano - it just fit. And through it I've started a friendship with Arthur, who actually turns out to be the son of two of the song's writers, so it was extra special to me that the idea of the film was inspired by my wife and it was Arthur's parents who wrote the song. It just makes me feel good every time I think about it.
Can you talk a bit about the Doorpost Film Project?
I think the Doorpost Film Project is amazing. Any group that is willing to invest in young directors is okay in my book. This is my first time entering their contest, but so far I'm very impressed with the quality of the site, the integrity of their voting process, and the quality of the work they attract. To get the chance to show what you could do with a real budget would be so incredible. There are some very cool movies in this competition. It's daunting, but I'm just happy to be a part of it.
You look very young in your picture on the Doorpost Film Project page, but you have a really extensive portfolio. What is your secret for staying so young? ;-) Seriously, though, can you give us a quick rundown of some of the work you've done in the past?
Well, thank you! My secret is my goofy boxer, Rufus. He's like living with a little funny old man who makes me laugh everyday. I wish I was able to work him into the movie somehow, but I don't think he would have had fun on set for 10-12 hours.
I have always been told I look young. I'm 28. That picture was taken kind of far away, my wife points out that I'm getting grey hairs everyday.
My first job out of school, aside from driving people around in a wheelchair van, was creating web content for Boston Children's Hospital. I then moved on to Soup2Nuts where I was able to work on some amazing programming. Soup was a great learning experience for me and small enough that I was able to try out a bunch of different things outside of post production. I wrote and created some shorts for PBS's Between the Lions, directed some commercials for Legal Sea Foods (a regional family seafood chain) and created logos and visual styles for shows on PBS and Cartoon Network. It was terrific. Since leaving last summer, I've been out on my own freelancing. I've made commercials for the Discovery Channel at Element Productions, created the look for a new show coming up on Animal Planet and many effects for Discovery channel programming at Powderhouse Productions. I've also been working on a bunch of outside projects, including a promo video for a charitable company out in California called Give Something Back. Freelancing is a tough gig with long hours and a lot of self-promotion looking for that next gig. But right now, I'm loving the freedom of it.
Anything new in the pipeline?
Right now I've got a few things going on, but I'm mostly trying to get a show idea off the ground. It's a nutritional show for children that my friend and business-partner Dave Schlafman co-created. We're very close to an investment, but I doubt I should say anything about it until we know for sure. I'll keep you posted!
Thanks so much and best of luck with the contest. Hopefully we can give you the "Toolfarm Bump".
I've had this one in one of my tabs, holding until I got it posted. Everytime I open Firefox it as been opening up. I am really liking the music!
This gorgeous piece is the Opening Sequence to the Slamdance 15 Festival, the 15 being the 15th anniversary of the festival. They sum it up pretty nicely on their site: "In this handcrafted prologue we see that in this world, much like our own, anything can and will be used to make the film."
Motomichi is Tokyo-born artist and VJ now working in Brooklyn. From his site: "the trailer was made to promote "Japan Cuts" film festival by Japan Society. The festival is subtitled as "a film festival that cuts directly into the current Japanese films and brings a slice of Japan to New York City". Check out his work here.
Michele Yamazaki from Toolfarm talks with indie filmmaker, Adam Valuckas, about his war film, Panzer Corps. Adam was the auteur on this film: directing, shooting, co-writing the screenplay, producing and handling the post-production. Adam gives some insight about what goes into making a film and shares some lessons learned along the way.
Panzer Corps Trailer
Michele Yamazaki: Hi Adam. What was your inspiration for the film? Why did you make the film?
Adam Valuckas: For me, Panzer Corps grew out of the need to do something creative. I was working for Comcast doing slews of local commercials. I found at the end of the week I couldn't remember what shoots I had gone on and what I edited. It was one big boring blur of uncreative work.
I'm going to sound like I'm eight, but I wanted to do something creative with guns and lots of them! One effects test lead to another then to another and it grew almost out of control. Soon I had a living room full of boxes with uniforms and fake guns, helmets, grenades (fake of course) and other assorted shenanigans. My friends joked that I had to be on a FBI or AFT list; the UPS guy always had a quizzical look on his face.
MY: Oh, haha, I hope not!
AV: My roommate, Matt Conlon (college film bro and later assistant producer/ 1st AD for Panzer Corps), wrangled me in to finish the script. Then Jeff Leaman (another college film bro and later Producer for Panzer Corps), and I set into finishing the script.
MY: It seems like an extensive undertaking.
AV: "Extensive undertaking" are two perfect words to describe the making of Panzer Corps. I keep questioning why I didn't just make a comedy or a drama set in someone's apartment. I was thinking about the script and how to blow stuff up, how to make war set dressings, CGI stuff and the list keep going on. It was painful, but a good pain like working out, finally I was feeling creative and the burden was a pleasant byproduct.
MY: You wrote the screenplay, directed, did the effects, etc.
AV:I co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Leaman but I did direct, production manage, shoot, edit, do the VFX, post sound, website, marketing, etc... I am so thankful that the cast and crew were there and did amazing things but I wish I could have paid for them to take some time off. A one man show is never as good as a group of talented people. Sorry, i just ranted. :)
MY: How long have you been making films?
AV:This is my first film since college and my first real narrative film oddly. I have been a videographer for ten years directing, shooting and editing commercial, corporate, and web videos. I'm good at a lot of things but not a "God" at anything. But I can do just about anything, you can give me a silver star sticker if you like. Kidding, but I won't stop you.
MY: How did you get the idea for Panzer Corps? Was it based on a true story?
AV: Panzer Corps originally was going to be a fan film based on a Japanese film called Jin Roh. In that film Japan is occupied by the Germans after WWII (fiction) instead of the Americans (nonfiction). But the film really doesn't get into the Whys and Hows but instead shows what happens after the occupation. Long story short Tokyo is guarded by the Panzer Corps, which are some heavily armed guys wielding MG42s (what Muller uses in the first half of the final battle).
Before I had the urge to make a war film, I was getting into armoring as a hobby to escape from the computer. In the midst of banging on metal I decided to make a suit of armor from Jin Roh. Then I decided to make a fan film and after several scripts I realized that a fan film was going to limit the possibilities of where the film could play. It took a long time to go from the idea of a fan film to Panzer Corps which is entirely different.
Some people have asked why I didn't change the name of the film (Panzer Corps) since it was no longer a fan film or about tanks (German tanks are called Panzers), at this point the website was drawing in a decent crowd so it seemed foolish to change the name. Yeah, there are no tanks in the film, sorry to break anyone's heart.
MY: What was your pre-production process?
AV: Pre-production was a blur of activity for myself. I was still gathering props, rewriting the script with my co-writer and the seconds were ticking off faster than I wanted. I was thinking about the film so much that my girlfriend at that time broke up with me (over the phone!) while we were filming. Good riddence! Sorry, that just got personal. *laughing* But I really didn't care I was making a film and no gal or employer was going to stop me! The boy's fantasy stays alive.
MY: Good for you for sticking with it! Did you block everything out while shooting to match your storyboards?
AV: The final battle scene was storyboarded three or four times, then after we setup the dragons teeth and the concertina wire everything had to change. In the end it worked out great, but I felt crushed, all that planning gone to waste. The cast and I went to the final battle location reading the script and blocked off who should be where for what line. I created a diagram of where each person should be for each line of dialogue. There are three guys flanking undercover fire to assault a fortified bunker, here is the first part of that sequence.
Side by side effects comparison
Short story, a few weekends before the shoot I went to scout our location (15 acres of woods) to plan each scene. I was told there was were black bears in the woods but I didn't really think I was going to see one. There I am walking armed only with an orange vest and script when a bear who was about 5 feet from me bolted away from me (oh, thank God) and I have to say, I ran. I ran hard and long before I stopped. It wasn't even like I thought "hey that bear could rip your arms off perhaps you should turn back", no, I found my body running and my head just happened to be attached. Thank you fight or flight instinct.
MY: Unreal! Glad you survived! What was the rest of your filming experience like?
AV: Filming was awesome, the crew were my friends and the cast became new friends. I really enjoyed my actors, two of them were Army Ranger Captains and one was a Marine. I looked to them for realism and how we could bend that into something that looked good on screen. When you watch these guys move you can see their training and combat experience.
Filming was a big camping trip, we stayed up late, slept in the fresh air, woke up bright and early, worked hard all day, it was great!
MY Sounds like a fantastic experience. What did you shoot and edit with? Were there things you liked or disliked about the equipment?
AV: I shot with my trusty XL1s with a manual lens on a Fig Rig. Panzer Corps was actually shot 100% with the Fig Rig, I liked that it wasn't rock steady like a steady cam but smoothed the hand held movements. While I loved the movement of the camera it made the job of tracking the footage for VFX a big deal.
We used a Sennheiser ME66 mic into a mixer then into the camera. The whole thing was about as low tech as it could get. And since everything was shot using available lighting except for the one night time scene, we were able to move from shot to shot with no setup time.
For editing I used an Apple G5 dual 2.0 who is still graceful in her old age, and two G-Drives (the second drive was a backed). Once again, about as low tech as you can get.
Dislikes, for editing, I could have used more ram at least. Also I bought Mocha for Shake (from Toolfarm!) this holiday which would have saved me hundreds of hours of pain. *shaking head*. Hindsight.
MY: Well, I'm glad you have it now!
AV: Dislikes for shooting... It would have been great to shoot on some form of HD, have a budget for a generator and lights, pay my crew, bear repellent, more time, more money, toilets, showers, and a cot.
MY: I thought it was interesting that you mentioned that it was originally in German and dubbed to English, yet my guess is that it was shot in English (or you're the master of lip-sync!) Can you talk about the decision to mention that it was in German originally?
AV: Hahaha, thank you, but it was shot in English. Initially we had this grand idea to emulate 'The Hunt for Red October'. After trimming and trimming the film on paper, on set, then while editing there were only two German lines before the transition into English. That is how the "German and dubbed to English" came about. In retrospect, I should have shot this film from an American's point-of-view OR had money to hire German speaking actors. Again, hindsight.
MY: It is 20:20, they say. We noticed in the beginning that you used a lot of old footage then matched in with the style. Were there any special lighting considerations or anything else in the shoot that you needed to take into account in pre or post production to match that look?
AV: Everything was shot using available light except for the campfire scene because of the lack of power. Once I got everything on the timeline I made a simple "color correcting" pass adjusting my levels to broadcast safe.
Funny enough the opening stock footage came pretty late in the editing process, we knew there was going to be opening footage but we hadn't found it. When my producer and I got back from the National Archives I realized how gray the whites were from the historical footage. Taking a cue from that I dropped the whites giving the film a flatter look.
When I got closer to finishing the film I used a test clip to compare film grains from After Effects and Shake. A small group of us watched a looping DVD silently casting votes for what grain structure we liked the most, and in the end After Effects won which surprised even myself. I thought Shake was going to be the winner but even I picked an AE filter. With a nice layer of grain over the historical footage combined with our footage the two pieces came together nicely.
MY: Can you talk a bit about the visual effects? Did you use plug-ins? Stock footage? Homemade effects?
Let me break this up a bit.
Stock Footage: I used stock footage from Detonation Films and NoControl Cinema, each offer HD libraries - gravity of dirt explosions, fire, bullet hits, blood gushes, smoke, and all sorts of destruction goodness.
Bob from Detonation Films is one heck of a guy, in my mind he made it possible for us little guys to make a film with big time effects. Perhaps lesser known but equally as great is Marco von Moos from NoControl Cinema, his footage is fantastic. And Andrew Kramer, After Effects God of Video Copilot offers Action Movie Essentials. At least once a week I tell a new filmmaker about these guys.
Plug-ins: (in no particular order)
Trapcode Shine: Trapcode's Shine is amazing, I wanted to have light rays in the film, but without power for lighting and fog it just wasn't going to happen. Shine has fooled every film person I have shown the film to, it is absolutely beautiful.
RE:Vision Effects DE:Noise: Unfortunately I shot part of one scene using camera gain (+18 db!) because we were running out of light... I tried the filters in Final Cut but DE:Noise is way better, the difference is staggering, in fact.
MuzzlePlug from FXHome: This plug-in creates muzzle flashes in a 3D environment for After Effects, this combined with muzzle smoke stock footage looks pretty darn slick.
Trapcode Particular: I created the shell casings using Particular. I knew they had to be generated in '3D' so I could angle them correctly. I was doing tests with Apple's Motion adding behaviors like gravity but it didn't want to play nice. My anger drove me to buy this awesome plug-in.
Wondertouch particleillusion 3: While Particular is more sophisticated nothing beats the huge preset libraries and Pro Emitters from particleillusion. I used Eclectic 1 and 2 and the Pyro 1 and Pyro 2 Pro Emitter packs for extra debris.
RE:Vision Effects ReelSmart Motion Blur: I used ReelSmart motion blur inside Shake to add motion blur to my particles. First off I think it looks better and second I could change the amount of motion blur in Shake without having to reexport an After Effects project (versus using an AE blur).
Red Giant Magic Bullet Frames: The 'film' was shot in 60i, knowing that it was going to be converted into 24p. So, it was much better than the XL1s' frame mode!
Red Giant Magic Bullet Instant HD: When I transfer Panzer Corps to digibeta I think I'm going to uprez the footage to HD. I haven't tested this out yet.
Compositing:
I wanted to composite in Shake. The node tree made it a lot easier to envision in what order the effects would be introduced into the shot versus using precomp after precomp. I did a few tests before starting the film but this was my first real try at composting, so if this makes you gag I apologize.
MY: Are you kidding? You can't even tell that you used effects for the majority of the film.
AV: This was my effects pipeline:
Export an uncompressed shot from Final Cut Pro.
Generate the muzzle flashes using MuzzlePlug and shell casings with Particular in After Effects using the shot from Final Cut as reference.
Export the muzzle flash and casings each in their own Quicktime with an alpha channel.
Make a Shake project.
Track the footage using a DAMN pixel tracker (I wish I had mocha then)
Rough composite the Muzzle Flash After Effects with stock footage
Rough composite the shell casings
Add any rotomasks
Start tweaking
Hours later export an uncompressed file, import into FCP
Smoke a cigarette.
Move to the next shot.
Week later hate the shot, spend more hours tweaking.
MY: So how much of the film is actually effects?
AV: There were 123 special effects shots, in nine days I got a 'spine' of the effects done. I ended up fixing every shot over then next few months. I really have to thank my buddy Captain Morgan for helping me with all the VFX, he is a swell guy. Sadly, he was unaccredited in the film.
MY: I hear the Captain is quite good with After Effects. So how did you finish the film?
AV: Remember I'm on an older Apple G5. I exported film from Final Cut as an uncompressed file, that took about 8 hours (the film is 16 minutes). I added Red Giant's Frames in After Effects and film grain, that was 50 hours! And then compressing the first DVD was about 6 hours. I've done this twice now...
MY: As soon as you can afford it, you might want to consider upgrading your hardware. For your own sanity, if nothing else! :-) Did you utilize any green screen or blue screen?
AV: I didn't but I did a test with my roommate on blue screen. Below is my first Shake project :)
Panzer Corps Test 2
MY: What did you learn about filmmaking while making the movie?
AV: Oh wow, Michele. In post-production I was learning Apple's Shake as I went along. I would composite all day and take tutorials at night and apply those lessons to the next day's shots. Post felt like I was wrestling a bear, I was on top holding him in a headlock. He wanted to kill me, *laughing*, I had gotten myself in way too deep but I had to finish. I could go back and fix something in every shot but I gave myself a deadline and I kept to it for the most part. Later I trimmed 2 minutes to help speed up the film.
I'll just list stuff in a nonsensical list: Marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), various compression standards, multiple plug-ins, how to punk youtube kids, preproduction with google aps, air cannons, guns, ebay scammers, motion tracking, keying, music rights, where to buy anything, working 3D space, analytics, headers, film festivals submissions, what your friends will do for you, film auditions, fliers, Amazon S3, social network sites, answering nice emails, answering a-hole emails, how to borrow money from your grandma, how to steal to pay back, sense of humor, really this list would go for a long while.
Needless to say this whole project was a learning experience. I learned as many things to not do as things worth doing.
MY: What do you hope to accomplish with the film?
I am submitting to festivals right now, if you have an "in" let me know! I just want to someone to see it, if Panzer Corps wins an award I might learn how to do a back flip.
I am sending to festivals now and I have to say this is the worst part, the waiting. I think once Panzer Corps makes it's way into a festival everything will be worth it. At this point I have spent so much time, money, and thought into something where I know every flaw. It is the bane of every filmmaker I guess, you can't sit back and see what is good about it, I think you need someone else to see it and to relay that to you.
MY: What would you like the audience to take from it?
AV: You ask a good question, the audience. Mainly to not hate it, second to like it, third, to understand the film is about one person standing up to orders and ideologies, and doing the right thing.
Here is the real hard part, finding your home. I know I haven't made the next Saving Private Ryan but it Panzer Corps isn't crap either... Well, I hope not! So when you're in the running with thousands of other filmmakers all hoping to emerge and be seen sometimes you wish you could skip forward a year to see what happened, did it your film get accepted and where, did it fail? But then I would miss the payoff.
MY: What advice do you have for other aspiring filmmakers?
AV: I will give you a pro and a con:
Pro: The world of filmmaking is the best as it has ever been. Today, you can own a camera, a way to edit and show it to the world for almost nothing! You can make a film that the whole world can see! Five years ago that was impossible, think about that!
Con: Everyone can make a film now. What do you do now? Make more films, make every project better than the last, explore new medias, learn new techniques and software, expand. Filmmaking is like drumming, it is easy to do it badly. So, do it well.
MY: If you don't mind me asking, what was your budget? We have a lot of young filmmakers who would like to create a film like this and have no idea.
AV: No problem, the working budget was somewhere around $3000 and it should be about $5000 after festivals (minus travel). The biggest expenses were the props, food, stock footage and sound effects. Panzer Corps is not a historically correct film, it is a 'what if' film. With that in mind I was able to use props that could conceivably be from that time. Such as their uniforms are not what a WWII German paratrooper would wear, the helmet is right but everything else is fictitious. The missile should about 20 feet longer, their radios are modern, etc., but people only call me out on the obvious like the AK47 assault rifle, then I point out the film is set in 1953.
My advice to young filmmakers is to make a film in modern day but if you're going to do something historical keep the cast to a minimum. If you want to outfit troops in proper gear you would burn through a small budget in a heartbeat.
MY: What are you working on at the moment?
AV: Getting Panzer Corps into a festival, I think I may wait a year to start a new project unless I can quit my job to take on a new one.
Michele, thank you for the interview. I really admire Toolfarm, this has been an honor for me. I have spent many hours on Toolfarm's site and your customer service is top notch!
MY: Thanks for saying so. We strive for great customer service. Thank you for the interview too. It has been very interesting and educational. Best of luck in the film festivals.
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Microfilmmaker Magazine has a review of Panzer Corps that will be published on Feb 1, 2009. Also, be sure to check out the official website for Panzer Corps for lots of behind the scenes photos and even tutorials on how to make the effects from the film.
GPSchnyder at
7:37 AM
at
3:17 PM
pororoca by Scott Pagano
I've had this one in one of my tabs, holding until I got it posted. Everytime I open Firefox it as been opening up. I am really liking the music!
AV: "Extensive undertaking" are two perfect words to describe the making of Panzer Corps. I keep questioning why I didn't just make a comedy or a drama set in someone's apartment. I was thinking about the script and how to blow stuff up, how to make war set dressings, CGI stuff and the list keep going on. It was painful, but a good pain like working out, finally I was feeling creative and the burden was a pleasant byproduct.
AV:This is my first film since college and my first real narrative film oddly. I have been a videographer for ten years directing, shooting and editing commercial, corporate, and web videos. I'm good at a lot of things but not a "God" at anything. But I can do just about anything, you can give me a silver star sticker if you like. Kidding, but I won't stop you.
