5 second projects

In my previous blog post I mentioned entering the 5 second projects. They are a small competition run every couple of weeks over at greyscale gorilla’s site. He offers a time limit (5 Seconds), a theme and a deadline, and then allows you to be creative. The idea is to make something interesting for your showreel.

The other part about this contest is that it encourages you to experiment with something new, or something that you haven’t done for a while. My first entry was the first time that I have fired up Flash to do animation since I was at University. It was interesting to work with something that I haven’t for a while. The newest theme is “Milk and Cookies” with which I am thinking of testing realflow. Looks like this could get very interesting.

On a personal side note, I wish my brother a happy 21st birthday today.

Save every five seconds...

So, today I remembered the first rule of working in 3D on a computer. You have to save everything every 5 seconds or it will crash and lose everything. Today I was modelling a character called Miyo-chan, a flying blue cat, for a future Animus short. While modelling the arm, the program randomly closed and lost all the work.

I am also planning to use the character as the main character for my first entry in the 5 second projects contest, which is entitled “Home, Sweet Home”, which I will be uploading to my site as soon as it is done. If you are interested in making animations, it would be a good idea to check them out as they offer you a brief to work on and rules to contend with and in the end you have a little of interesting little clips that you can use to make an interesting and exciting showreel, which, if you keep entering, will always have something new to look at. The website that hands out the brief is over here: http://greyscalegorilla.com/

A couple of updates

Okay, been making some minor tweaks around the site. The front page will soon have the latest version of my showreel. The Twitter feed on the About Me page seems to have broken so I have taken it away. Not sure what will replace it at the moment.

The Animus: Runaways Trailer is now online, and the final touches are being added to the full length short.

My brother’s web site, which I have helped with the design work on, has been updated as well, so check that out too.

UPDATE

It’s been a while in the making but I decided to update the look of the website and continue making the changes I started the other day. Enjoy the new look.

RIP: Geocities

I found out this morning that Geocities, the site that hosted a ton of free sites during the 90s, including several of my own, closes down today. To commemorate this event, XKCD has undergone a redesign. Sadly this was the level of web design that people who had never had the opportunity to make and host a web site were suddenly able to make with the free website. I couldn’t let this event go unmentioned.

UPDATE:

In unrelated news, I have just made a major overhaul to my brother’s photography website, go check it out.

Animus: Runaways Wrapped

As they say in the business, That’s a Wrap!!! No time for a party yet, but that is a wrap. Animus: Runaways has finished filming and now awaits a few tweaks (mostly sound effects and music) before it makes it’s debut.

It has been a couple of months in the making and just kept extending and extending as things went on in people’s lives, and as the vision got grander and grander. Originally intended to be a short involving a couple of characters from Animus (A role-playing game my friend Jexus runs from his web site) being chased, it reached the end of the short, and it was unfulfilled. So I kept writing and it grew into what it is now. I have pitched it to people as the opening episode of a series, it doesn’t resolve all the plot lines in a neat bow at the end, some even reveal themselves in the concluding scenes, but they will evolve over the course of the season. It would be a short season, a mere 5 episodes, but I have been plotting recently and things may move forward with further adventures from Peter, Penny and Kim.

Emergency Services Bingo

Been meaning to write this up for a couple of days now, since talking about it with my friend Carl over MSN. Now, while waiting to hear back from the people at the Job Centre about the job interview I had yesterday, seem to be the perfect time. We were talking about a topic we hadn’t discussed since we had been at University, ‘How many emergency vehicles have you ridden in?’

Things hadn’t changed much between then and now, he had still only ridden in an Ambulance and a Detective’s Car, both of them for incidents involving him. I have ridden in an Ambulance, but I was going as support and supervision for a hockey player while I was their coach, and I had been in the Detective’s car as moral support for Carl following the incident (which wasn’t as exciting as it sounds). Neither of us have ridden in a fire engine, properly (i.e. the fire engine had been called for an emergency involving ourselves).
Finally, after a little bit of debate, it was decided that there were two levels of “Emergency Services Bingo”. Level 1 involves riding in an Emergency Services vehicle when it has been called for you, while Level 2 involves riding in an Emergency Services vehicle as moral support for someone else. Emergency Service Vehicles cover Fire Engines, Ambulances, Police Cars and Coast Guard vehicles (we didn’t actually discuss whether the boats and helicopters should count as the same or different vehicles, I will have to ask him).

Oh, and if you are wondering, I am waiting to hear back from the Job Centre about a temporary Christmas role at my local Gamestation. My fingers are crossed tightly, and hopefully I will have a job until January.

Filming is nearly finished for the Animus short I am currently working on. I have been planning out the major plot arcs for the following episodes, although I would really like to film them, looking at them it isn’t likely to happen.

ADDITIONAL:

Having talked it over with Carl, we have decided:

That Coast Guard boats and helicopter count as the same emergency service, you do get more shiny points if you get both, but you can claim level 1 from just one vehicle.
That Detective Cars count the same as Police Cars, because while they are slightly less flashy, the detectives are of a higher rank, and therefore it balances out.
I forgot to add breakdown vehicles. The AA ran an advert claiming to be the fourth/fifth emergency service, and all breakdown services use specialised vehicles that are not available for the general public. They have a slightly different ratings system, Level 2 is awarded if you are the passenger in a vehicle, while Level 1 is for the driver.

Bank Holiday Monday

Okay. I guess I should start with the biggest news I found out today. Disney have bought Marvel. Now at first reading that scared the hell out of me. What were Disney going to do with Marvel and the comics they publish? Then I actually read through the press releases and the news websites and it appears to be nothing to really be concerned about. They appear to be throwing their money and weight into allowing Marvel to do what they already do. Disney knows that Marvel knows what it is doing, and they are going to let them keep doing it, much the same way as the Pixar take over occurred.

I also read a very interesting news article about how screwed we are in the event of a zombie outbreak. Some Canadian mathematicians who normally work out the spread of highly infectious diseases have turned their methods to plotting the spread of a zombie plague. Apparently part of the biggest problem is that normally, with infectious diseases, people die and then they are out of the system, they are no longer carriers, can no longer spread the disease themselves, but with a zombie outbreak, if you die, you just come back as a zombie and spread the disease further. According to these scientists there is no chance of co-existing with the zombies, either we die out or we kill all of them. Good to know that someone is working on the important things. Now I just need to finalise my zombie outbreak plans with this new information, and everything will be good.

So today is the August Bank Holiday so a lot of people have the day off. Such as my parents (my mother being a teacher has about 6 weeks off around this time of year anyway, but that is besides the point) so today, they visited me in Cambridge and we went for a meal at Wagamama which was very nice and then we went shopping in Cambridge.

Tomorrow, I will be filming with a couple of friends the fight sequence for the end of the Animus short I am currently working on, which I really need to get around to naming. I have decided that seeing as the short I am working is designed to be the first episode of a series I will write a story arc for a 5-10 episodes run and then maybe write certain scripts. I am also thinking about writing and making the finale episode of the run, which at present has a working title of “Two Little Birds”.

Podcast? Vlog?

I have been pondering on making a change to this format for the last couple of days, and I am still not sure about the best way to make send this information onto the Internet, but this seemed to be the fastest way to get it done for the moment.

I have been watching a lot of work by the talented people over at LoadingReadyRun for the past couple of weeks having been introduced to their work by the Escapist series that some of their crew work on called Unskippable. While watching some of the behind the scenes videos I started to wonder why I had never got round to making those for the project I do. Mostly my friends and I talk about it at the start of the project and at various stages throughout the work, but we never actually get anything filmed and always say we will do something next time. This seems to be because we exhaust ourselves actually making the in front of the scenes videos and don’t really have the time to make the behind the scenes stuff.

The other morning I was a little bored and skipping around several After Effects tutorial sites for a little inspiration and came across a tutorial at AeTuts.com to make a JibJab-style animated head, and the first seeds of a video podcast came into my head. I could use this to animate a photo of my own head and keep people up to date about what I am doing and ramble on at them for a while and upload it to the Internet using Flash video. Then a day or so passed and I thought about it more and decided it was: a. too much work to produce b. a little bit too close to South Park and the idea hit the back burner. In it’s place, and having watched several more making of videos at LoadingReadyRun I thought to myself "Wait a minute, my laptop has a camera on it"

And surely it would be easier to actually film myself that way and just post that to the internet.

I have been working recently on an Animus-based short, which would be an episode of a television program, or if Animus was a television program like Heroes is, a storyline that would be intercut between several episodes. I currently have 7 minutes of it filmed and hope to have it nearly finished by the end of this week assuming all the actors are available. The next glamorous piece of film-related work I have to do, go out and buy a cheap chess set for the sinister chess players to play their little games upon.

London Film and Comic Con

Allow me to open this blog post with a well known fact about myself. I am a big geek. There I said it. It is the computer age, geeks are in... right? Well, anyway, I don’t care because I am one regardless of the fashionable status. So today, I went to the London Film and Comic Con at the Earl’s Court exhibition hall, and had a really good time.

I arranged to meet my old University friend, and house mate, Carl Mitchell at Earl’s Court train station at 10:30 am-ish this morning and went into the convention hall as soon as the ticket price lowered at 11 am. We spent the first hour looking around two or three of the rows of merchandising before we descended on the free screening of the excellent Lord of the Rings fan film, The Hunt for Gollum.

Very impressive piece of work that was thrown together over the course of two years for the very affordable price of £2000 and a large amount of love for the source material. But don’t just take my word for it, head on over to their site and take a look for yourself. After the Q+A session Carl and I noticed that the head of CGI for the film looked quite familiar, and it turned out that he had been at University on the same course as we had been. There was brief discussion between the three of us and an exchange of e-mail addresses, and hopefully we will get in touch with each other soon and collaborate on something.

After that we hit the final aisles of merchandise (there was an awful lot) and then hunger got the better of us. I had a decent enough hot dog, although it was slightly lacking in the ketchup department and Carl had an apparently not very nice portion of chips. We then went to investigate the option of the autograph section. After a lengthy wait, we finally managed to secure the autograph of the very pretty and talented Jewel Strait (Kaylee, from Firefly), although to Carl’s annoyance she wrote ‘stay shiny’ on mine and not on his. He also met with Danny John Jules (The Cat, from Red Dwarf), while I visited the armoury stand and purchased a replica of the Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda video game.

I had a really good time, although I am quite disappointed that there weren’t more artists offering commissions, or at least reasonably cheap sketches as I was hoping to get a couple of my Animus characters sketched, but I did get the e-mail address of one of the artists so I will be dropping him a line tomorrow or early in the week about getting a couple of head shots and maybe one full body shot.

New Site online

Firstly I would like to redirect you to the brand new micro-site I have made for the short film I made for the Sci Fi London 48 hour Film Challenge 2009, called Status Update. I have said it before, but I had a lot of fun making the film and look forward to entering again next year.

Still Alive

Just a quick update really, to confirm that I am still alive and active. I have just started a new job, which has been keeping me very busy for the past month. I cannot say much about the job at the moment, but I have moved to Cambridge, which also kept me a little quiet, and I am working a 4pm - 2am shift today which gives me a few hours to tweak this.

Status Update, the short film I entered into the 48 Hour Film Challenge, didn’t make the short list, but I did see it on the big screen, and finished the competition in the time limit and that is what I entered for. They have posted a behind the scene video, and although I don’t get interview or speak at all, I am featured in the background quite often.

I am currently in the planning stages of another video project, I have to approach a couple of people with suggestions about it before I get too much further along, but watch this space.

At the moment the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Spoof isn’t available on Youtube as we have used music from the sound track, and it is currently being blocked. It can be viewed on our Vimeo channel. We are hoping to sort something out for youtubers shortly.

Status Update: Delivering to target

The film is finished, and now burnt to a DVD ready to be delivered to the West End of London to be judged.

I would like to take a moment here to thank everyone that took part, and helped make this weekend memorable, and so much fun. Drew and Dave, as much as I hoped to have more people helping out, just the three of us turned out to make a really great film, it wouldn’t have been as much fun without you both. Of course, thanks must also go to Ricky Horn and my mum who joined us to make sure that the cameras kept pointing at the action and soldiered on past fears of horses, and dislike of forests in general to assist.

Of course it wouldn’t have been possible without the script written by James Crowther, who has a brilliant grasp of characters and managed to write a 5 minute film script in the time it took me to get back from London on Saturday which really helped us get moving. My Uncle, John Whybrew, jumped in Sunday afternoon and provided the film with an original sound track and I really like it. For a start it is really nice to have a piece of music the complements my editing work, instead of needing to work the other way round for a change. While most of the special effects and titling work was done by yours truly here, there was one piece of the puzzle that I needed to call in external help for. The Eternity Syndicate, as secretive as they are, needed a logo, in my opinion, and for that, I needed a graphic artist to make one. Thankfully I knew just the guy, Carl Mitchell, the second of my ex-housemates to be roped into helping, and he delivered the brilliant logo that accompanies part of the opening monologue.

So, once again, thanks to everyone that took part in this contest alongside me. It was really great fun, and I mean really mean that. Anyway I need to stop being all sentimental now, and get my act in gear, I have a DVD and just over three hours to get from here to the West End of London and hand it in. Keep your eyes on this space for more information about what happens next.

48 hour film challenge - Day 2

Slightly more refreshed now, after a couple of hours sleep, and a dip in the bath, I am now ramping up to get day 2 of the film challenge started. I was up until 3 am last night getting the rough cut of the film together, and the titles and as much of the special effects together as possible. Today we have to do a round of re-shoots, a couple of things that we didn’t mange to pick up yesterday, or stuff that we noticed we needed only once we started editing. It has been a great laugh so far, and hopefully we will have a lot more fun today, and have something back to the Apollo by 13:00 tomorrow afternoon.

We might also be shooting the last scene needed for the Animus trailer this afternoon as well, so that should be finished by the middle of the week. Thankfully it is only a simple effect so it shouldn’t take too long to put together and add to the trailer.

48 hour film challenge - Now on

As you read this... assuming you read it soon after I post it... I will be working on the 48 hour film challenge. I have pre-written most this blog post so that it can be posted without taking up too much time while I am meant to be working on the actual film. Below is a countdown timer until our deadline for delivery on Monday

[UPDATE: The contest is now complete]

So, on to the part that couldn’t be pre-written. The details about the film. Every film made for the contest has three randomly chosen elements that are partly to add to the challenge of filming, and partly to show that the film was actually made in the 48 hour time limit. That way you cannot submit a short film you made prior to the contest. The three elements are the title of the short, a prop or action that must appear during the film, and a line of dialogue that must either be spoken or written somewhere in the film. My short is called “Status Update”, and includes the dialogue “These are the fast times, these are our fast times” and a black rucksack with a selection of credit cards three mobile phones and two differently coloured passports. Thankfully my friend from university, the very talented Jexus, agreed to write us a script and while I was travelling back from London and acquiring the props that we didn’t have.

My brother and his friend, Dave, agreed to star alongside myself in the epic short, and when I arrived back we divvied up the three roles and secured my mother and another of their friends, to be camera people and away we went. About 2 and 1/2 hours later we have primary filming done and dusted and editing is now underway. This affords me a little time to write this up as the computer captures the footage from the camera automatically. Tonight is going to be a long night... I can tell already.

Elsewhere the Two Towers spoof I am working on has finally finished editing and will be uploaded soon, sadly this weekend gets in the way but looks for it coming out to youtube, and various other video sharing web sites,some time in the next week or so, after we have our little premiere here.

In other more personal news, I have succeeded in getting a job with a video games company in Cambridge. At the moment it is only a limited term contract doing player support, but it should hopefully be easier to move on to bigger things from there. And my brother is home for the Easter holidays, which makes me very happy.

48 hour film challenge - this weekend

I am entering a 48 hour science fiction film challenge this weekend, it should be really interesting. Basically my friends and I will be getting a brief Saturday morning and writing, filming and editing over the next two days before delivering back on the Monday. I will hopefully make an update or two while working on the project, either here in my blog, or more frequently on my Twitter account. The film will be available online a month after the competition ends.

[UPDATE: The challenge is underway now]

In other film making news, the second Animus trailer, for Animus: Origins, is nearly complete and hopefully will be uploaded before the weekend. The Two Towers spoof is the the final stretch, just some final touches need to be applied and then it will be uploaded.

The first set of courses I have been working on at FXPHD have drawn to a close and they were thoroughly enjoyable. I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in making special effects, although it is quite expensive. They have announced their next series of courses, the April ’09 Semester, today and it revolves around the work they did for the soon to air special of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth.

Red Nose Day 2009

Red Nose Day is this Friday, for those in the UK. Anyone confused should check out the official web site for more information. This year the slogan is ‘Do something funny for money’

Anyway, I don’t really have that much too share right now. The Two Towers spoof is moving closer to completion, as is the second Animus trailer. I have been taking some courses at FXPHD, which is great, but sadly I don’t think I am going to be able to afford another semester. The fight scene is one example of the work that I have been doing for the course.

I found a couple of useful links for film makers:

Links:

• In case you haven’t seen it, 60SecondDirector tweets on a regular basis film making tips.
• There is a wide selection of how-to videos, to be found at HowCast, including how to make your first film. Check out their emerging film makers program, for a great way to boost your show reel

A Job Interview and some random mumbling

Okay, I had a job interview yesterday, at the Range, they are a really big out of town shop. They mostly deal with craft-type things but they seem to be expanding and taking on a more, you name it, they have it type shop. I think it went well, although in my opinion it was really short, and he didn’t ask me that many questions, I am still not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I have also been wondering about putting stock footage online to download. I have found it really hard to find certain things online. Fires and explosions, smoke and debris, those things are easily found at Detonation Films. Other things, however, have been harder to find. I only have a standard definition camera, and it is PAL format, although that could be easily re-encoded digitally. Thoughts?

New Look

I have upgraded my computer. My Mac is now running Leopard and I installed iLife ’09 and therefore have been able to upgrade my site with this new look.

I have also been debating adding a blog for a little while, and had decided against it because of the difficulty uploading updates, without uploading the entire site again. However with iWeb ’09 I can FTP updates directly from the program and it will only update the pages that need to be changed.

It even sends an update to my Facebook profile whenever I update the site, so my friends can see.

That is enough pimping the programs that I use, for now at least. Not really got that much to say at the moment. We finished the primary filming of the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers spoof I am working on at the moment at the weekend and are now in Phase 3 - Post Production. I have also been in touch with a musician to make a piece of music for the Animus trailer that I am working on, so things are moving forward, but nothing new to show just yet.

Links:

• Firstly here is a blog post from the very talented Amber Benson, which while referring to acting jobs, I think really applies to anyone, anywhere, doing just about anything. Looking forward while keeping you feet in the Present
• Then, in a slightly more specific to film-making note, here is some important advice to make people happy on set, in fact, How to be a film-making Ninja