Trailer for Desolate

Since so many friends and family have been asking about the film and when it will be done. I've put together a short trailer until I can get to the last few small touches I want to make before I'm finally done.

Desolate - The Final Cut

After 16 months of planning, 10 days of shooting, and 100+hours of editing/special fx work. I can finally say, the film is done. Finished!

It took 32 hours to render out a rough cut and find all the bugs in the FX, and then 24 hours of fixing all of those FX. Then around 15 additional hours to render out each scene, one at a time, to make the final master cut of the film. Then another couple of hours to make a pass through the music and color correction.

I finished before I thought I would. Not only do I have a great foundation in writing, filming and editing now. But I also started to learn more about 3D modeling, animation, digital FX and compositing. What a wonderful way to finish my time at Dixie State University.

Sound FX

The sound of a film is just as important as the video. You have to pay attention to the background, the music, the folly work. It all has to come together in the end, or it is noticeable. Luckly here at DSU, we have a massive resource of sound fx samples which have come in very handy in my project, and I'm still not done.

I try very hard to get through all of the audio, but it isn't easy. While I watch a scene, and listen to the audio. I often hear little things I need to clean up, but I also notice visual things I missed and start tweaking them. So then I forget about the audio issues. It really does seem like an impossible task at times.

I believe I just need to go through and clean up the audio with a final sweep of the sound, but I still have little pieces I need to finish up in the digital fx department.

The Score

Working with samples I was able to find for free online. I have been able, with some minor success, to put together some short songs. We will see what I can come up with.

I also found that "The Planets, Op. 32" by Gustav Holst is in public domain. I love the songs in this seven movement orchestral suite and think some of the parts of those songs fit well into my film. So that might be an option if I can't find a way to get my songs done before the end of the semester.

But, as much as I love Holst, I have been directed to a modern artist who fits the mold of what I'm looking for. Enter Stellardrone, an online electronic artist who creates ambient music tracks that sounds as though they belong in space. Just what I was looking for. As you can see on the artists website here, there are many albums to choose from and he expressly says on his site that anyone can use these songs for any use, as long as he is attributed. 

So I believe I will use a few songs from his library of great ambient space music. It should fit well into my film.

Digital FX Bottleneck

I knew that the digital fx in this film would be a challenge, but I didn't know it would bring my project to its knees in the Premiere timeline.

I got the bulk of the edit done without any fx inserted. As I built the story up, I added in the green screen shots as I needed them and collected them.

But, as I started to go through each scene that had hologram fx, and dynamic link those to the After Effects projects, things got a little out of hand.

I ended up with over 80 composites to built each image of a hologram, which consisted of green screen shots, 3 separate RGB channels, and a half dozen fx.

This does not take into account, the crash scene for Commander Brax; any of the planetary skybox shots; additional rotoscoping; and the digital heads up displays, screens, and space shots at the beginning of the film.

After all is said and done, I believe I will have well over 100 individual digital fx shots, the majority of which are just hologram reversals with Brax. For everything I have created, I've used After Effects and Blender to create; composite and render those shots. After Effects is powerful, but I would much rather be using Nuke for the composites, and After Effects to just make the elements. Blender is amazing for a free / open source 3D modeling and animating software. It can also be used for compositing, which is a useful tool.

What a fun project and I'm approaching the end; still, this has been a huge undertaking for one person.

Staying Organized

After Darren, the Unit Production Manager, organized my shoot. It was really easy to take that schedule and break down of each day and then make a script in the order of the shoot. So I made a binder with the organized script broken into each day of the shoot.

Once I had that, it was like a guide to my film and how it would be shot. But a film with heavy digital fx needs a little more attention. So once I started shooting, and had scenes that had the hologram in them edited together. I had to make that work.

So I came up with a plan for the green screen shoot days. First, I had to have footage from a location for the scene. Then, with a screenshot of that scene and having my actors in place, I had a reference for the way we would set up each hologram effect when on the green screen stage.

This made the shoot go very smooth. Knowing what shots I needed in each scene with a visual map. Allowed us to move from scene to scene and utilize the setup of the camera and green screen more effectively.

If it was a wide shot, we would shoot scene 3, 8 and 12. If it was a close-up. We would shoot 2, 12 and 16. It was easy to get those done in a short amount of time with this method, while getting all the coverage for each scene.

The Edit

I thought the hard part was getting people organized and planning which days I would shoot. Coordinating a group of people who all have various schedules was hard enough.

Then I thought that it was going to be hard getting to all of the locations and getting the shots I needed in the time I had each day. Which, let me tell you, wasn't easy.

But now, I have to take what I've collected; every shot, every scene; and make them all mesh and come together to make a finished film. Even with a rough cut, it is a long way away from the finished version I dreamed up in my mind.

Out of the 18 scenes in the film, I thought there was one in there that didn't have a digital fx shot. But I was wrong. Every scene has something in it at this point. Some are small and subtle, but there is always some fx to come up with.

And That's a Wrap...

Finally, after 14 months of planning, 7 days of shooting and many, many hours of writing and editing. I'm approaching the final goal. A finished film.

Last night we shot the last few shots of the green screen footage that I need to wrap up the shoot. It was great to say to everyone, "This is the last scene." But it was also kind of strange feeling to reach that goal, almost sad in a way. Yet I still know that I had a lot of work ahead of me.

I have most of the film put together at the moment and it sits right around 35 minutes; which is pretty decent. Now I'm working on refining the edit and the visual fx of the film. Only a few more weeks until it is due. I hope I can make it.

Next 2 days of shooting

Sunday was another long day of shooting. I had five scenes planned for the day. We headed out to Leeds, Utah to shoot some of the harder scenes and I forgot to grab the XLR cables.

  

So it wasn't the best day of shooting. But that wasn't the worst part. I also forgot to apply the implant to Brax. So we ended up shooting the entire day without his implant on.

We were able to view the scenes, and it was lucky that we got the shots from the side of his head where there was no implant, for the most part. 

We had to shoot two more shots for coverage of the implant and wrapped up the shoot around 6:30.

Monday was a shorter day. I had only 4 scenes planned, but needed it pick up one part of a scene we missed on Sunday.

We started with the fall off the cliff and then moved to the other shots after lunch. It was nice to be done by 4:00.

I have to plan on more day of green screen shots for C.E.R.A. and that should wrap up the shots I need to finish the film.

Shooting Additional B-roll

While I was editing, I noticed that I needed a lot of filler between scenes. Since they all happen days apart from each other, I could see that I needed more footage of Brax walking in different places.

 

So this week I was able get Jesse for a few hours, and Dustin as well. Then we got some nice shots of Jesse walking through some red rocks in various ways. Eating while walking, etc. Which will add to the overall presentation of the film.

Digital FX

While the edit was underway, I was able to start piecing together some of the digital fx shots.

I started out with the hologram fx, which are still a work in progress. But this version is the closest to what I think I want to accomplish with the effect.

Then I began to play around with the HUD, which I discussed in an earlier blog, but am still tweaking the look of that. I've added some extra elements and animations so far.

I put the pieces together for the eye scanner, which turned out really nice. I animated the circle shapes for the eye, and then incorporated them into the scene.

Then I put together some planet and nebula elements for the sky above the landscape. I put together a test shot, but the nebula doesn't look realistic enough. So I'm thinking about just doing planets and moons at the moment.

Finally, I will put together a crash sequence, which will probably be the hardest part of the digital fx. I hope it all works out for this part, because it will be a challenge for me I'm sure.

Poster Revision

I decided to get back and revise my poster design. It is a nice diversion/side project that I feel I have more instant results from than the film. I have to shoot 9 more scenes next weekend, so once that is done and edited. I think I will be a little less worried about the whole project.

This is the poster I was able to get out of my changes. I'm really happy with the results.

Inventing the C.E.R.A. Heads Up Display

I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but wasn't sure how to execute it. So I took a little bit of inspiration from the Ironman HUD from the films and put my own spin on it.

It turned out pretty good right from the start, but then when I added animation and some glow effects, it really came to life.

If I can just figure out a few more complex animations, this will be ready to go. Here is a video to show the animation. It is not final at all, just a sample.

After this, I move onto the animation for the crash and the words that turn to sand in the opening sequence.