2nd Pre-Production Update (further decisions)

In this production update I want to illustrate my current focus for the next few weeks, something are ongoing and also let some light into some technical decisions I’ve been thinking about. This is definitely a more technical post so I hope it reads well.

Editing Suite
Firstly let’s start with decisions. I expected I would, but I have now decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro for the editing of the film. I’ve used most editors both Mac and Windows and really don’t use them and all their features as much an editor would, I’m pretty much a cut and chopper with the clips organising them and occasionally putting a fade to black on. I never use any of the effects available in a video editor as I do all that in After Effects. I’ve used Final Cut in University and have edited a 20 minute short film a few years back with it. I thought I’d revisit it to see it’s improvements since then. It’s still ugly as sin but one big thing it has over Premiere Pro is it’s ‘Share’ exporter. Premiere Pro now uses Adobe Media Encoder to export clips from it’s sequences – which I have tried so many times but can never, ever get a good looking export of footage no matter the settings, it always comes out blocky and unusable. However with that one flaw Premiere Pro shines out in so many ways, particularly for my planned workflow. Here’s why:

• Familiarity – I’ve been using Premiere Pro at home and at work now for the last few years, from 30 second edits to 5-hours long edits.
• I already own it - I have Adobe Production Premium CS4 so I don’t have to shovel out cash for Final Cut Studio.
• After Effects integration – Premiere Pro and After Effects work so well together. They can import each others project files as clips or use Dynamic Link where I can dynamically make changes in either program and it will automatically be reflected in the other, without rendering. I will do a video on this soon.

I’m toying with the idea of a completely render-less project. Where all the footage files in Premiere Pro
being edited are the raw composited files from After Effects. This is something I will be testing over the next few days as a sort of test run of the workflow. I plan to firstly create an animatic of scenes in Premiere, then take the scene or shot to After Effects for polishing. When ever I use Premiere Pro I always render in After Effects. This might prove to be difficult, taking After Effects’ Dynamic Linked Comps back into itself for Rendering (if that makes sense), this is something to be tested too.

Character Design
Something I’m beginning this next couple of weeks is the character design. I have 11 main (speaking) characters, of varying importance. I think it would be very beneficial to have even rough drafts of what these characters will look like. I would also like as much definitive material upfront to be able to show the actors prior to recording. Below is a concept sketch I did just now for one of the characters, ‘Ryan Lundbar’.

Aspect Ratio
This is not set in stone, and is something I can play with well into production but I’ve been playing with aspect ratios for the film. At the moment the main Premiere Pro sequence is set at 2048×1556 2:1 (2.0). I like these settings but I have to anticipate a likely scenario of having to heighten it a little.

Script Registered
Yesterday I registered the first draft of the script with WGAW Which was very cheap (around $20) and gives me a bit more legal protection and evidence of my work. Hopefully it wont ever become a factor where I need it, but better safe than sorry I suppose.

Film Site
Something I’m putting together is a 1-page film site, kind of like the more traditional ones you see for current films being released. It’ll very much be a hub for links, ways for people to subscribe to the newsletter, view the trailer (when it gets to that point). I guess it’s a press-pack on a page. General info, videos and photos.

Music
I started writing some music early on for the film, I’m expecting it to be very acoustic guitar and piano based. I’m hoping to demo some of the songs for use with the animatics. I’ll also have some videos on this soon too.

Stay tuned for next Monday’s post: Using Scrivener for Writing Screenplays. Should be a good one as I plan to go really in depth regarding project organisation and using it for multiple drafts. The new version of Scrivener is released today according to the blog so I’ll be sure to make sure it’s up to date.