Matte Paintings // The Valley

Today I planned on making two matte paintings and changing one to look more “dead” without having to do a lot of extra work. I made the living world first and then began striping away the saturation and color. I also had to destroy two waterfalls. This was a lot of fun and I feel pretty good about them.

The Flood is in the middle of post production / sneak peak

This movie has to be finished by Tuesday the 21st and I am about half way finished with the post production and compositing. Many of the scenes have had some really problematic footage which required a lot of time to stabilize and color correct the problems. I wanted to share a few stills from the movie in the meantime. Thanks for checking it out.

The Flood // Matte Painting 1

Check out the newest matte painting. This is a 4k painting that took the better part of a day. Thanks for checking it out and come back to check out “the awakening” teaser. Cheers.

Strangest Baptism Animation Concept.

I am not really sure what I was thinking. I might take this idea somewhere else. There are these tall 3d stone looking towers with text on it. I like the environment look and I really think it will look cool if it were to be animated. Anyway, here it is, take a look.

 

surreal world matte paintings.

Shooting the Flood: Shoot 2a

This was a good first shoot. It was a really long day and everyone did a great job. It was a great time to crack out the Letus adapter. I couldn’t believe how hot it was outside and how much water people can blow through. I know I speak for the whole team when I say thanks to all the actors who came out. Kim and Promise did a great job on makeup, Matt had a great shoot, Jim and Michael produced well, Rick was all over the place helping out and the actors were patient and responsive. Very cool.

We are almost half way there and I look forward to finishing the production so we can jump into post. October 26 is really coming quick! Take a look at our first set of photos.

THE PHOTOS

The Shoot:
I was up early getting the equipment list done. Michael and I scurried about to get all the props we needed packed up. After we got to Cornerstone we assembled everything else before our actors showed up. The RV was critical and I have decided that if you ever do an off site shoot, this is a crucial part to the happiness of the actors. I had a really strict schedule that I loosened up a bit the night before. There was no room for mistakes when you are trying to get 78 shoots with one camera, a handful of producers, and about 20 actors 40 minutes away from ‘home base’. Regardless we had all the ambition we needed to do this. Of course, life happens/happened and here is where the commotion would begin.

We hoped to have a van there for the actors that wouldn’t fit in an RV. It didn’t work out to have someone we know lend us their van, another reason why perhaps renting is the most reliable method. We also had a little bit of a mix up on our food and water resources. We decided it was necessary to stop by the golden arches on the way to our location. After loosing some of the trailing vehicles, we finally arrived to the location we previously scoped out for the shoot… As we pulled up, we noticed an “indian reserve” police office had pulled a couple cars just before our turn off point. We all debated wether we should unload and get rolling since we were a little behind schedule before the police were done. We were wrong to begin to unload, the officer said he couldn’t let us stay on the location and that it was in fact indian reservation land. He told us that another 10 miles away and we should be safe from anymore issue or interruption. He was right about not being interrupted, but it was more like 18 – 20 miles.

We were very late to get started, but were happy to feel safe enough to continue. I would say for the most part everything went well, and the actors were great. We simply did not get enough done and will look forward to a second shoot day. The next trailer is around the corner, so that is exciting.

shooting the flood tommorow: a shots

tommorow is the big ‘a’ list shoot. I have been planning this shoot for a while now. I am grateful and excited for all the help and influence many have provided. Thanks for your patience and support and I hope you will check it out.

The Flood Teaser 1

Teaser #1 is here. This particular shot needed an arm because it was shot hand held and presented some pretty difficult problems. Otherwise, it will do what it needs to, encourage thoughts and discussion. Thoughts are always welcome. For more information, go to myriadstudio.com/blog

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1753691[/vimeo]

Sun Stand Still Series Promo

We had 1.5 days to knock out a promo for our “sun stand still” series. I had Chaz, a friend and co-worker, stand in for this shoot. The hardest part was getting a matte painting and a burning sun in the time I had to work on this. So with some heavy color effects to blend in the empty spots, I think it came out pretty good. Chaz did a good job and it was another long day in After Effects.

Cornerstone’s ‘The Loop’ Show

‘The Loop’ will replace the video announcements currently called ‘verbals’. The idea behind this approach is that it will break each announcement into distinguishable sections so people can comprehend what is being said better.

Set Extensions/Matte Painting pt2

The set extension I did yesterday was my 10 minute version. I wanted to go home and really get into a complicated version. I ended up spending too much time on some ideas and never got around to animating the results. Oh well. Here is one of my favs.

Before

After

Set Extension – After Effects

During one of our ‘creative breaks’ I filmed josh and promise kicking the ball around. We do not have a strange gate, brick building or mountain behind those walls. I added them later. It is really hard to add extensions behind objects and usually you plan green screen spots to make the process easier. This procedure will be heavily used in the Flood Short Film.

Before Extensions

With set extension

The Flood: Legacy Video

Matt looks flustered. The Legacy Set.

Last Saturday Matt and I were out in the heat for the morning working on the legacy video piece. I haven’t written about this part of ‘flood’ because it’s more corporate and not as creative. However, I think it went really well. The idea was to get some testimonies in the huge empty lot across the street from cornerstone. I wanted a black couch with the building soft and in the background. I used a Canon HDV camera to get some candid footage, b-roll, and side profile shots. Anyway, here is a photo of the ’set’. I will put the final video up after it’s edited. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to log tape!