Qemic Films Ident (draft) from Krystian Morgan on Vimeo.
Qemic Films Ident test
Had a play around with an ident this weekend. Made it in 2K and added it to the film’s timeline. I figured there’s certain things although not of the highest importance can be experimented with at this early point, so why not get at them whilst waiting for certain out-of-hand matters? I want the Qemic Films ident to be really different from the other indents you see preceding films. I’m hoping to also harp back to my old frenetic abstract and dark – and using footage for it. It was fun doing this, but I have ideas to really make it awesome. So will wait to do music for it until then. Maybe next weekend if I get chance, but I have a lot of other more urgent film-stuff to do already planned so may not get chance. Enjoy!
Fourth Draft, Storyboarding and Moving Forward
So last week was the first week since the blog’s launch that I’ve missed posting something. I’d like to know people’s opinions if you would about the scheduled post-day, do you like that format, knowing that there is to be expected a post on that day. Or would you prefer to see a much more casual, as they come, surprise me format?
I had spent a lot of this following week down my caravan in the Gower, my dog had been unwell so it was a bit back and forth more than I would have liked but it was out of concern for the little guy. My birthday was on the fourth and after seeing the vet I went back down the van to finally get some work done on this fourth draft of the script. It had been a while since I’d last worked on it through other commitments that have been taking up my time, but on that notion, I’m all freed up now on the time front to work on the film (after my full-time job’s hours of course).
Anyway I managed to print off the current state of the third draft, as I much prefer to read on paper when I can and I re-read the whole thing making notes and little storyboards on the pages when inspiration struck to do so. I had this nagging feeling that a lot of the middle-story was somewhat superfluous – which is something that I didn’t want (both having filler and/or taking it out). So I reworked a lot of that stuff making it more key to the plot, driving it forward and making each scene important to the overall story. I also added some more tension throughout and ambiguity too. I like ambiguity in stories as it allows multiple interpretations, even if I as the writer know the hard facts about the reality of what happened or what is. I think because with ambiguity you have to
-
think
, it makes a story last, as it stays with you after watching/reading. But it can be a balancing act as too many questions and who cares?
Right now as it stands, I’m so much more happy with the script as a whole, it feels more of a whole piece too, not just sections as I felt it once did.
In between writing I bought a book on storyboarding after giving it an amazon quick look. Originally I was quite close-minded about the subject of needing a book about storyboarding as I’ve focused on composition for years now and feel like my grasp of it is pretty strong. But this book: ‘The Art of the Storyboard‘ even through the quick look gave me some great ideas, and I even storyboarded certain shots which have gotten me really excited about actually creating them. I think this book which has a lot of theory (which I love more than practical, which it does have too) will really take the film’s visual style forward. I’ve already through reading through the script again been watching it in my mind differently, the shots, the edits are much better this time around – I just need to get them into the boards and into the animatic to solidify that. Which is what I’ll be working on next.
Plodding along and new deadline's set.
So I’ve had a decently productive weekend. I managed to do some big edits to the script, including one of the scenes (a dialogue one) that I wasn’t very happy with. I’ve been watching a lot of odd and unconventional movies lately I want to try and take inspiration from those and make the script as a whole more ambiguous and open to interpretation, or just maybe not hammer the plot points so hard, let there be more of a subtle experience to it all. So the current draft I was working on is now done and I just want to look at the script from some other perspectives and see how I can really make what I want, something that I could still be proud of in 20+ years. This next draft will be the one where I’ll be going over with a fine tooth comb and asking myself what I want and don’t want, what is my goal and intention for the story and getting there. I’ve set a deadline for May 8th for that draft. Once that draft is complete I’m going to move forward with both showing the script around to a select few and creating the animatic as I wrote earlier.
This weekend I’ve also been keeping up with more 3D tutorials and putting into practice some of the things I’ve learned, mainly modelling and concepts to do with modelling, getting comfortable with starting with a primitive shape such as a cube and turning it in to a set piece, or anything imaginable. There’s this tool called Zbrush which is a modelling application that I’ve seen a lot of lately, it allows for really easily creating characters, props and so on that can be imported into your 3D program of choice. I saw this cool mini tutorial which shows how you can set up different facial expressions inside of Zbrush and then link them to sliders inside of Cinema 4D. Now as a workflow of creating expressions and phonemes. It really looks achievable with a little bit of upfront effort and basic learning of Zbrush. I think I’m getting to the stage where I put the lessons into practice and create from scratch a simple 3D character that can do basic things such as walk and talk and render out a short 30 second test clip. I think I need that exploration and practice as a jumping off point. Things can be made gradually and in an ‘as they’re needed’ situation, when a scene calls for a prop or an ancillary characters (not that there’s too many of each) they can be made when needed and a lot of animation can be produced beforehand with what is already at hand. It’s cool to learn about cheating too, for instance, I’m not gonna waste time modelling an entire object if I only ever see the said object from one angle, this can really cut down a lot of wasted time and detail on something that is never seen by someone other than myself.
Plan of Action for the Next Few Months.
So over the next few months things are really setting in motion, I’ve changed around a few initial plans in order to work more efficiently and in a manner I believe will help the overall end product of the film.
As I’m working on the third draft I now am getting a better understanding of what I like and am not overly sure about regarding the script. I want to make sure I don’t have any grey areas in my feelings of it. As it stands I’m very happy with the third act, I’m happy with the first act but in the second I feel like it can have some improvements. This was initially pointed out during my first script consultation but now I see it more myself and don’t actually believe I will be taking the same plan of action post script consultation as I was, I think my way was pretty close for a number of reasons, it just needs a little tightening in some areas. Once the third draft is done, I plan to show the script to a couple of screenwriting friends who I trust to give me an honest opinion. I have some questions prepared which will also really help me define what it is I have and how I can start letting people know vaguely what to expect from it. I understand I haven’t let any of the plot become a feature on this blog as of yet and it’s due to me not being sure how to go about articulating it without giving away too little or too much. I think other perspectives will help with that too.
Post getting feedback, and dependent on that how soon I can go into this next part, it’s animatic time. Now this is a real big change. I’m pushing way-back the recording of the actual actors who will eventually be playing the parts in the film. I’m doing this because once the actors are recorded, for me it’s set in-stone – pretty much. I don’t want to have to go an re-record things that I believe could be improved, for me this is a complete waste of time that I know would happen if I proceeded as originally planned when I can make those improvements before recording at all. Instead I’ve come up with what I think is a pretty good Idea. There are number of services out there – script services which can you can hire to perform your script and deliver a .mp3 of your script using a group of actors in a table-read situation. This helps in two ways. One I get to actually hear the script performed by actors, I get to really hear what works and doesn’t to close in on a final draft. I get to add some little direction to how a character or a scene should be played to get it as close as possible to my vision. But secondly it dawned on me that I can use this recording as a blueprint for the animatic. I can virtually make the entire film using digital drawings, edited simply together with the script reading and see how the film plays out, really watch my film early on, make the cuts and additions early on too. Here I will literally be making my movie, it will be ugly, but watchable. I was originally planning on doing this post recording the actors, but can you imagine watching it back and not liking parts of it having gone through that stage? It would be like taking many steps backwards instead of forewords – which I really should be sprinting when at this stage.
So yes, the animatic will be completed before the actors are recorded. Regarding recording I believe I will now opt for getting a decent condenser microphone and a Zoom H4n to record the dialogue. I can then repurpose both of these for recording foley sounds outside (which I’ll need a lot of), and also use for recording acoustic guitar and piano. I don’t believe a recording studio is necessary, especially with the many uses I can get out of the same equipment. Saving money that can be put to better use. Such as Relentless Energy Drinks.
New Official Twitter account.
Just a quick message to say that I’ve set up a dedicated twitter account @porbeaglefilm for the site. It’s a great way to get links for the new posts if you don’t use rss-readers and generally keep up with the news. Click the image above to follow us.
