FOMF Production Diary

First significant zombie lair scene.  Lots of interesting complications, and had to re-render a couple of older effects to catch up with what I’m doing now, but the effect is, so far, very nice.  It’s surreal and weird.

I couldn’t quite get exactly the effect I wanted, which was more… steamy… but this is looking very nice anyway.

This’ll probably be the “official” effect for this location.

The house ALWAYS wins when you're brought this deep into an Undead lair...

Okay, got a Zombie-Motion effect I’m actually pretty happy with. First integration went fantastically.

There will be movement. Thus say I.

Here’s hoping whoever does the sound design can get the audio effect I need.

Current time: 10:31.

Just about to dig into the next sequence of effects and saw some peculiarities on the server. Seems as if the raw footage was not properly copied during one of those ancient data transfers.

Yikes!

I’m really glad I found this out before scratching files off the Production machine!

So, I’ve transferred the one file I want to fiddle with, effects-wise, over to the laptop, and have initiated a full copy of all raw video from the Production computer to the server.

It’s gonna take some time…

All effects and video edits done up to 10:07 (with the exception of the title sequence, which is its own special brand of weirdness).

Yep, puttin’ in rain effects.  It’s not quite as bad as putting in bullet effects, but still, it’s pretty tedious.

Am also doing some neat tricks with a little camera shaking here and there. Surprisingly effective!

Think I did about a dozen effects shots today.

Inadvertently flying over an ambush

Slammed out three effects shots today.  Not horribly complicated, but I’ve been a little leery about approaching the rain effects.  After reviewing, I think when combined with the right audio, it ought to be just fine.  Looking forward to the rest of it being done!

Heh, I just realized the still was captured when the running lights were OFF, so you can only barely see the helicopter up there, flying over the building.

“…for finish this damn movie!”

Finished two effects today — the actual RPG strike, and an electrical board on the helicopter blowing up.

I’ve got to add an effect to the shot of them running from the helicopter, but I don’t anticipate much trouble from that.

The thing that bogs me down the most, unsurprisingly, is having to work with cranky old versions of Premiere and After Effects.

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