Post-Production Process

Today's an exciting day as I sit here upgrading to Avid Media Composer 6 and waiting for Avid Pro Tools 10 to come in the mail. This programs provide virtually everything we need to finish Owen's Hobby! So I'm reminded that I haven't blogged about the film in a good long while. Not since before the Savannah Film Festival.

So here it is!

Post Production: what's it all about?

In today's world of light speed computing and intricately designed programs that facilitate the quickest learning curves to almost all users, it's easy to wonder: why the heck does post take you so long?

Well sure I can put together an edit of the entire film in less than a day. However, that doesn't mean it's good! After I settled on an initial rough cut, I showed it to a whole slew of professors at the Savannah College of Art and Design and close personal relatives and friends.

They looked at, they liked it, then they gave me feedback.

Well here's the tricky part. Because now I have to sift through hundreds of comments and suggestions and determine what the problems are in the edit and the story. I have to think about them and compare them with my vision for the film. Often, suggestions are seemingly contradictory, and I have to find the true source of the feedback which is probably a moment earlier in the film which is unrelated to either of the comments I received! ARGGHHH!

But I actually enjoy this process, and I like to give it a lot of time. Which I did. And it doesn't help that I'm  a full time student at the same time with 3 other class workloads to do. At the same time my best friend decides to get married and the film festival is the next week.

So needless to say. Things have been hectic.

But we're back on track! After going through all of the comments and feedback and listening very closely to the professionals that looked at the film, I went out and shot pick-ups!

These 8 shots have added immensely to people's understanding of the film. I'm really happy with how they operate in the scenes and alleviate a lot of the problems we were having when screening it.

Now that that's done, I move on to working on a new version to screen. Here we go.

What's important on this one is music. I'm working hard to find good temp music to represent the film for the composer. I cut it in to the best of my abilities, and I export out the newest cut with music on it for everyone to see.

I share it with everybody I can this time. I'll even share it with you! Just comment on this blog, tweet @owenshobby, or like the Facebook page, and I'll sent you the link to the latest cut of the film. I'm ready to get some exposure! But I can't give it too much yet because I don't want it to be disqualified from festivals.

Soon I will update the cut one more time and hand it off to Mr. James Scullion.

James is amazing. Simply amazing. His ears are weapons.

Just sitting beside him while watching a movie makes me feel like I'm hearing more from a film than I ever have.

This winter, we're going to be working on the dialogue edit and some basic effects editing.

In January, we're going into the studio to record Foley and ADR.

By the end of January, we hope to be at a final mix stage. Then we just have to find our way into the screening room for a final mix session. All the elements will be in place to make one super sweet sounding film!

In addition to sound, I will be working on the simple Visual Effects that are in the film using Adobe After Effects.

Meanwhile, I'm working with Mr. Anthony Palcic on making some pretty awesome motion graphics for Owen to interact with in the film.

Basically, I can't wait!

Well that's it for now! Avid Media Composer 6 just finished installing, and I'm dying to see what's new. I hope you found this update interesting, and keep following as we move steadily towards the completion of this film!

Savannah Film Festival

We came, we saw, and we want to come back next year. I will definitely be submitting come the next early deadline. I love this festival. From everything the other filmmakers tell us, it holds its own as one of the best.

I met some very talented filmmakers who are breaking through in their career with some great new work. Mike Magidsen with his inspirational film, "Inuk." Chris Eyre with the quietly reflective "A Year in Mooring." Bernardo Nascimento with the poignant "North Atlantic." And many more exciting guest artists, showed us that there is a place out there in the industry for us, and that we're welcome to join them. So I loved every minute of the festival.

I hope that some of the people to whom I handed a card get in touch with me and see the preview of Owen's Hobby. I'm excited to start showing it, but I'm nervous because it's till pretty far from being done.

@ the Savannah Film Festival

Just enjoying the festival this year. Trying to spread the word on the film. I'm dying to show it off, though. Hopefully next year, they'll let me in. Find me around if you're there!

Website update!

Thanks to Andrew Wolson at SCAD, we have a new well-designed front page. Now you can view the trailer, pics, bios, synopsis, etc all from the same page. Check it out! It's still a work in progress, but we're finally getting somewhere.

Owen's Hobby Teaser Trailer

Making of Owens Hobby

I came up with the premise for this film in the summer for 2010. It was part of a list of premises that we were assigned to come up with for class. "A stalker freaks when his stalkee gets kidnapped." That's all there was to it. I had no other idea of how that story would come together. I remember brainstorming some of the plot for it. There would be another detective involved and the stalker would both aid and avoid the detective in their efforts to save this girl. It seemed complicated and unlikely to work in a 12 minute format. In the end I wrote a feature based on a different premise and left this one alone for about six months.

December 2011: I'm working as an assistant editor, labeling, organizing, and ingesting footage. Often the computer would be slowly importing, and I would have an hour here and there to sit and work on whatever I like. I decided that it was time to get back into writing. I looked at the list of ideas that I had worked on before, and I decided to go on this one. 

I had also recently had an idea which I thought connected to this premise. The idea was based on tricking our perception of people based on their actions. What if we saw somebody in a dark room cutting out magazine letters and pasting them on a page? We would assume that he is up to no good, surely. I decided this was a great way to begin the script. Because of the nature of the hero, we shouldn't initially accept that he's the good guy. He leads a dark life and we should be disturbed or creeped out by him at first. 

I wrote the first draft fairly fast and showed it to my friends and fiancé. They are often my closest confidants and I trust them to tell me when I'm doing something stupid....

Well they weren't impressed, to say the least. I took a hint and wrote something else, setting this script aside for another six months. 

The next script I completed I took into the preproduction phase. We were working with a large amount of preparation time. Two quarters. Several months to go before production starts. Everything was looking good for this production.

It's about that time certain key members quit, and I silently rejoiced. I was making the wrong movie. 

I shifted all of my resources into making Owen's Hobby. I had redrafted it a couple of times and had given it to a few different friends. Reactions were getting better. Some people even really liked it. 

I started pre-production as a solo act, and I was desperately in need of assistance. I was really lucky to be recommended to a hard-working and intelligent aspiring producer by a mentor/professor of mine. Molly Mayo seemed to like the script a lot and thought it was a great opportunity. She signed on pretty quickly and we formed a strong team. 

Things were getting done. The movie was moving forward.

The rehearsals and production ran relatively smooth while I transitioned more of the pre-production work to Molly and focused on developing the film's performances as well as the visual and auditory experience.  Production saw relatively few hiccups. Most obstacles were overcome quickly or worked around logically. We shot for 5 days initially. 5 really long days of early mornings and late nights, of intense Tybee heat and threatening rain (which ended up being torrential the moment we wrapped). Even though the first 3 and the last two were a couple weeks apart. It felt like a marathon. However, we wrapped to an exhausted cheer, knowing that we'd eventually be back out for reshoots. 

Two months later, after reviewing the initial cut with several trusted professors and friends, I made a list of what shots I thought would be necessary or extremely beneficial to the film. Last week we went out during our school's midterms and amongst the chaos of other projects and made it happen. 

And today. They're in. The picture of Owen's Hobby is complete. All shots that will be shot for it are finally in. 

So here's what happens next:

Since the beginning, I've said six months for post. I set a goal for the end of February. I intend to make that goal, perhaps even beat it by a month or so. I have a very busy, but talented Sound Designer. He starts working over the break in November and December. My composer is great, we just need to put together the funds to get him.  Motion media has already started. Visual effects and color correction will happen over the break. And everything will come together in January and February. It seems like a long schedule, but it's completely necessary for a quality product. 

I know I'm eager to get the film into festivals. I've been seeing deadlines flying by for the last month, and we'll submit to them next year. For now, I must be patient and wait for things to happen naturally and organically. 

Thanks to all of you who have supported the project. The best way that you can continue to help is to spread to word. The more people who click "like" on Facebook or follow the film on twitter or the blog, the more likely the film will be to get into festivals and continue to be seen. So we need your help. Support us!

-Zachary J. Burke

Pick ups!

Just completed the pick up shots! We should have them back next week around Thursday or Friday.  16 1/2 rolls. 6600 ft. 183 mins. Running time of the film: 16 mins 30 seconds.

Shooting on Film

Just picked up equipment for pick-ups! It's our last 7 shots of the film!



For those of you who have already expressed great enthusiasm for the look of the film, I'd like to introduce you to a very special part of our team: the Arri 416. This beautiful piece of machinery held strong and true throughout the shoot.

We shot on Kodak film stock. We had collected a few different stocks over the course of our film schooling, but we coordinated the use of them, so they could artistically represent the story. Notice the change in grain and color response that Kodak's 7229 and 7230 film stocks give us in the doctor's office scene. We decided to use those in that environment to enhance the dangers of the new world Owen has found himself in. We kept the rest of the film in relatively low grain with Vision 3 200T and 250T. The vision 3 stocks have gorgeous color response, and a great latitude. We're very satisfied!

Why shoot film over digital?

We've all heard this question, haven't we? What's the difference? Can't tell?

The bottom line is a little something we call latitude.

First take this still shot from Owen's Hobby. On digital, it would probably look something like this:

All of the subtleties of the highlights would be completely lost and displayed as white or "blown-out" pixels. The result might even be potentially worse than this depending on what camera you're using. Most digital cameras have only 5 stops of latitude. This means that from the darkest darks to the lightest lights on the image, the amount of light only double 5 times. Film, on the other hand, has 7 stops of latitude. allowing us to expose for our actors, which the camera will end up on, while still capturing the beauty of the sunrise over the ocean.

Now there are a few cameras that are developing better latitude response (the Arri Alexa), particularly in the low end. But there's still a long way to go with this technology. 

The color response is also fairly different. This is more of a subjective matter, though as it seems that many of this generation's tastes are tailoring themselves towards that digital look. Which do you prefer?

Screen cap from the film.

Photo taken with a Canon T2i by Francisco Vasquez on set during the shoot.

Notice the vibrant, artificial pop of the blue in comparison to the film. The reds are similar, but I personally think that the film offers a slightly richer tone. The skin tone however is miles apart. That warmth of the film image is really valuable to film making because it allows the audience to make a connection with the character just a bit easier. I think this is more important than most people realize. The change from film to digital in this day is an economic one. It saves a fair bit of budget, especially for students. But I believe there are plenty of reasons to spend that money. 

Now, I admit this was a very general discussion, and every camera is different and so are the different film stocks. All I'm saying is go out there and find out for yourself. This generation is quick to write off film because we have the quicker, easier option, and we do tend to lean towards quicker and easier these days, don't we? However, as artists, we must ask ourselves if we can afford to think like that.

Note also that the digital image above has been heavily color corrected in photoshop whereas the film image has not received any correction yet.

Updates!

Next Tuesday and Wednesday we're shooting pick up shots. Contact us if you're interested in helping out in any way.

Picture has been handed off to motion media. Should be done in a few weeks.

We have finally found a website designer to lift us up and save us from this sad little Blogger page! Hopefully things will start changing soon.

There's still a ton to do. The kickstarter isn't going to work out, so I'm looking into alternatives for the music budget as well as working around some other things. By the way, nothing in life is free. Nothing worth having anyway.

Stay tuned because not only are we finishing up this phenomenal little film, but we're also going to launch the next project very soon! I'm excited. Be patient.

Motion Graphics!

Had a great meeting with the new motion graphics designer for Owen's Hobby. We have a lot of great ideas that I'm very excited about. May have also acquired some other positions on the post crew as well, but we'll have to wait and see. 

The kickstarter's not going well so far, so if you can help spread the word, please do! I appreciate everything you guys have done so far to help the project, and we'll keep working to make it happen!

Mome Love!

Had a great meeting with the motion media students' club! For anybody who was at the meeting tonight and want's to see the rough cut, email me @ zachjburke@gmail.com. Thanks guys!

owenshobbyfilm.com

Bought the domain name owenshobbyfilm.com, but it's still pointing here for now. If you know any good website designers, point them our way!

Also, it's the second day of the kickstarter. We've gotten off of the ground, but we need some momentum. Help us out by spreading the word to people you know. Any donation help!

Kickstarter Launched!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacharyburke/owens-hobby-a-short-narrative-film

Our Kickstarter campaign is launched. I have to say thanks to James Scullion in particular who spent many hours with me on the video for this thing. And of course a thank you to Sarah Lou Plonski, Ben Dishun, and Jas Sams for their help as well as Jackson Morgan for letting us use his place.

Please tell everyone you know!

The search for a composer

Is ongoing, but for now I want to point out an extremely talented composer who we're talking to right now. His name is Kyle Newmaster. Here's his website:

http://www.kylenewmaster.com/

He was recommended to me by another student filmmaker who I respect very highly: Colin Levy. And I think you'll find, if you look at his audio section, a stunning resemblance to the work of John Williams! That's probably why this impressive young artist is working on a couple LucasArts games.

Should we be lucky enough to get his time, his work won't come cheap, but I believe it would be worth every penny. So keep your eyes and ears open! We'll hopefully be launching a fundraiser soon!

First Blog

Working on an official website for the film. We'll be using blogspot as a temporary means of getting information out there as well as facebook. Also working on the edit of the kickstarter video which will be online with the campaign within a week.

All of us on the production team are SCAD students and are about to begin a new quarter. Graduation's just around the bend as well, so the work's going to be harder to squeeze in. However, this film is still on schedule to be completed by 2012. Wish us luck as it's not an easy journey and one that most films get lost in, never to return.