FOMF Production Diary

Set up a rather elaborate jig to basically shoot a short effect shot of rock and debris smashing into the camera.

In the process, I managed to melt part of the camera, which was not at all what I’d planned to do.

Took a few pictures of my little setup:

Effects setup. Camera, light, and transparent sheet.

The idea was that I’d dump dirt onto the transparency so that it would look like junk collapsing against the camera.  Seems simple enough, right?

Effects setup. Wooden squares indicate camera framing.

Because the camera was at an angle, the frame was a trapezoid.  I promise you no one will notice.

Effects setup. White reflector "lid" suspended by yarn over jig.

Once the stage was set, I had to block the image of the ceiling, so I hung a reflector card over the whole rig.

Remember that trapezoidal frame?  This is where I discovered it mattered.

Effects setup. Stalwart Director "smooshing" dirt over glass.

Ready, and action!  Smooshing dirt.

The dirt, much like animal actors, really didn’t want to cooperate well with me.  It wouldn’t quite fall the way I liked.

Darn physics.

Effects setup. Cleaning up.

Cleaning up after the shooting.  This is an excellent opportunity to see several Guerrilla Production tricks in action.

First, notice that instead of paying good money for or spending good time constructing a sawhorse, we simply used a little cardboard box and an overturned trash can.

Second, our re-used tripod used to keep the light steady.

Third, our studio monitor appears to be — why yes, it is — a little $45 Target TV.

Fourth, the fancy device we’re using to angle our studio monitor up is an old tennis shoe.

That, apparently, is how we roll.

Less than a minute before crashing in the dead city

Another effect done (and rendering).

One more helicopter effects and I can finally put the helicopter stuff to bed.  I know it’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless!

I’ve already fixed the lack of blurriness to the fast-moving stuff, but I didn’t bother to update the still.

In other words, it looks better in the video than on the still.

Descending even more rapidly into the dead city

Lessons learned here include:

• Making somewhat convincing flame
• Stabilizing a model over a long shot
• Casting proper light on the body of a model
• Making light and flames “dance” properly
• Making a convincing main rotor
• Making buildings look good as they swoop by

Still working on the helicopter video. Moved on to the crashing part. Managed some very convincing flames and lighting effects.

It’s weird.

For this shot, last Summer, I spent weeks trying to get it to look right, but couldn’t.  In the meantime, I’ve been plowing through effects for another fella’s movie, learning new tricks, fiddling with ideas, and so forth.

Descent into the dead city...

Now, I feel much faster.

Getting this far took me about eight hours, with little breaks here and there.  The final render’s not done, but I really like the way it looks.  No complaints at all!

My first experience with greenscreen, too.  Everything else I’ve done has been with compositing digital stuff, already keyed, and so forth.  but this is brand new.

I have learned so much about how to better shoot the next greenscreen model…

For example:

• Make sure the model is far enough away from the screen that no reflected color falls back on the model.
• Make sure the screen is as evenly lit as possible.
• Make sure any wires or puppeting devices are behind the model, taut and controlled, or off the model.
• If there is a motor in the model, make sure there is enough weight in the model that the motor’s vibration doesn’t make everything go crazy.

Just a few things…

Lovin’ the look, though.  I think I’ll keep it.

Mark came by, we set up a greenscreen, a lot of lights, the helicopter, and started shooting.

Shot lots of footage, until eventually, the batteries in the helicopter started dying and the rotor slowed to a crawl. More like a symbolic spin.

Pictures tomorrow!

The helicopter miniature is done and ready to film.

Having trouble finding a good greenscreen…

Started building the lighting circuitry for the helicopter model. The way the model’s supposed to be assembled means that we have to have a working lighting circuit right away. Almost got it nailed down. I’m not convinced the LEDs are going to be strong enough, so I’m switching to bulbs, which are brighter, but have a lot more bleed, so I’ll be wrapping those suckers up with tape to help prevent that. Ran out of some key parts, and it was too late to get to the hobby shop.

Sketched out another idea for the zombie motion effect. Can’t wait to get back to the computer and try it out.

First crappy pictures of a great helicopter

Managed to successfully replace a dummy’s head (which was unfortunately bright pink) with an actor’s head. Very smoothly done. No one will ever know. Unless they read the Production Diary. So don’t you go spillin’ the beans.

Our model builder started in on the model this evening, too. We went over the plans carefully, marked out where we had to modify them to accommodate the lights and motors. Ah, the motor’s too large to fit in the model, so we need a different motor. Bummer. But (shrug) I guess I’ll use that motor for some other nefarious purpose. Sorry about the crappy picture — my fantastic digital camera with the fantastic macro lens finally — after nearly nine years — bit the dust. So, the best I can do is from my camera phone until I replace the real camera. Well, I could use 35mm film, but that’s just crazy talk.

Went out to Media FX tonight with a toy helicopter (not our actual model) to experiment with greenscreening it. Nontrivial. However, near the end, we started getting better results. Most of this was simply a matter of getting even illumination behind the ‘copter, and getting the key settings right. With the funky diopter on the camera, we managed to get something that actually looked like a helicopter. So, I’m looking forward to dropping that into an After Effects composition and see how it looks once I get the clouds and rain and smoke all around it. I think what we’re going to have to do is bring the greenscreen to our basement and backlight the greenscreen to get a clean background. I’ll try to get some pictures of that up in the gallery, because that’ll be pretty neat.