The Film Is Finished!

Cementerio de las Almas from Jordan Browne on Vimeo.

It's complete! Still a few things here and there that aren't quite perfect but I'm really happy with how it came out. Looking forward to starting a new project (what ever that may be)

Virtual Worlds

The scene which I am currently working is made up of photographic elements composed in a digital environment. This process involves the layering of multiple 2d images in a 3d world. This is an interesting process because allows you to avoid many of the restraints of the stop motion medium, the camera for example can be moved smoothly and background details such as the sky can be easily animated to add additional layers of depth to a scene. These methods provide the advantage that even after a sequence is shot, basic components such as layout and texture can be manipulated without having to re-shoot anything. In terms of animated space, this really opens up an array of new possibilites which I am curently exploring through the cinematography of the project - particularly the ability to move the 3d camera through the depths of an environment.

There are ofcourse limitations in animating like this as well, aesthetically everything seems a little more plastic and computerised. To help remedy this, colour correction will be applied to the final film to ensure a consistency between scenes and allow the traditional and digital elements to blend more seamlessly.

Walking

For the first half of the film the protagonist is bed ridden, now I'm past those scenes I'm starting to discover the difficulties of animating a realistic walk cycle.... I should have just built a wheel chair.

The Magic Of Post-Production

The first third of the film has been filmed and edited! The entire second scene uses red screen so that has been an interesting challenge to work with. I hadn't really had that much experience with After Effects before this semester but so far it's been a very powerful tool. A lot of colour grading has also been done with a high contrast approach as well as the application of cooler tones than most of the original images had. This will hopefully give the final film a much darker aesthetic and moodier atmosphere.

Now I just need to go shoot the rest >_>

Sound Design

So I'm writing part of the soundscape at the moment, looks as if its going to be a blend of guitar and synth with a lot of ambiance. The way I want to do it is not as one single track but as a series of motifs which will be complied together in the editing software. This means that the soundscape can be developed in direct relation to visual elements so things could be cued directly on cut as well as allowing a cohesive integration of both foley and melodic components. It's hard to say where inspiration the soundtrack is coming from, its not really mimic anything in particular, more just coming out the way I think it should feel.

Shooting The First Two Scenes

A lack of updates on here doesn't mean a lack of progress - I've shot around the first third of the film! Still a lot of work ahead but it's looking really good so far. Animation-wise it was quite difficult to start with considering I hadn't done any stop motion in over a year. Luckily the movements of the character are fairly passive in these parts so it was a good way to ease into the project. The hospital scene is looking really good and the materials came out great on camera. The 'darkness' is quite obviously just clay but there's a sort of real, material aesthetic which I quite like and in many ways it actually suits the medium. The next scene is going to use a lot of computer generated effects and was shot on my home made red screen (a piece of A3 taped to a box!). Hopefully by the end of next week this will all be edited and some new footage taken.

A few shots from production over the last week: