DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY - sci fi/action short

[markcheng]

hey all, i been a silent reader on this site for a while, but thought i'd join to share some screens from Deployment Strategy, a sci-fi/action film I wrote/directed/produced and have now finished editing!

http://www.markcheng.com/images/still_ChavezScared_thumb.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/still_WillieBacksUp_thumb.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/still_LeeReflects_thumb.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/productionStills/leeListens.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/productionStills/dropship2.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/productionStills/someBrains.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/productionStills/leesPlan.jpg


Thanks for letting me share!

mc

[Waheed AlQawasmi]

I like some of the grabs. The second one in perticualr, umm what was your budget on this?

[Kdawg]

Looks nice man. I love the eye makeup, must be uncomfortable. Dude looks like Rufio from the movie Hook lol

[markcheng]

I like some of the grabs. The second one in perticualr, umm what was your budget on this?

good? bad? trying to make it look as good as possible. the guys in Aint it cool helped give me feedback on the quality...would appreciate yours too! :dankk2:

[Lake Films]

Great looking flick so far! Any special settings that you used in the DVX?

[markcheng]

Great looking flick so far! Any special settings that you used in the DVX?
don't think so. i'll check with the DP since it was his baby we were using.

[Brandon Rice]

Looks awesome dude!

[rszebras]

Those were some good looking stills. I can't wait to see some clips.

[RightMind]

This is 16mm, not DVX. Photo on website showed arri rig on a steadicam.

[FilmMakerr]

This is 16mm, not DVX. Photo on website showed arri rig on a steadicam.


lol..another poser just to get his video watched maybe?

[Slimothy]

I saw a guy filming w/ a dvx on the site. Didn't see any 16mm cameras.

[Sacksnack]

It's definitely Mini DV footage. And it sure looks like DVX footage.

[markcheng]

This is 16mm, not DVX. Photo on website showed arri rig on a steadicam.

dude, there's no arri steadicam rig anywhere!! lol. guess that's a compliment? i assure you it's dvx all the way. wish i had budget for 16mm.

http://www.markcheng.com/images/cast/patryk_resize.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/behindScenes/behindScenes02.jpg

http://www.markcheng.com/images/behindScenes/behindScenes04.jpg

patryk, our DP (above), will be happy you thought it was 16mm. it's just the magic bullet i think that makes you think that.

mc

[markcheng]

lol..another poser just to get his video watched maybe?

i see what photo he's talking about. It's in the Practical FX section. If you read the content, that's a photo from another movie the fx team worked on. it's not this one.

mark

[Northainan]

don't think so. i'll check with the DP since it was his baby we were using.

Nice grabs. Settings? What light kit was used?

[Mark Dog]

great film Mark looked through the site very impressed like evrthing the multibodys loo kgreat and cool all pet store 99 cnet production lol great work and the set looks great to, very great of you to post every thing on ur site for filmaker to get a handle on how things were done much thanx ,for sharing ur experience and knowledge with us , what program did u edit on may asking i am thinking u used premiere am correct ??? and what were ur camera settings ???? and what did you use for color correction what program ??? and what specficly did u tweak in color correction ????

peace n luv

Mark Dog

[markcheng]

great film Mark looked through the site very impressed like evrthing the multibodys loo kgreat and cool all pet store 99 cnet production lol great work and the set looks great to, very great of you to post every thing on ur site for filmaker to get a handle on how things were done much thanx ,for sharing ur experience and knowledge with us , what program did u edit on may asking i am thinking u used premiere am correct ??? and what were ur camera settings ???? and what did you use for color correction what program ??? and what specficly did u tweak in color correction ????

peace n luv

Mark Dog

yo mark dog, thanks man. trying hard like all you guys.

1. definitely editing in premiere and fx so far have been done in After Effects.

2. Since the roughcut is barely complete, i haven't made any solid color correction choices yet. I usually slap on a predefined Magic Bullet profile when I preview my work or export a still.

3. I will ask my DP what settings he used for the camera.

btw, I wrote an article (that's more detailed than what's on the site) in the May issue of Student Filmmakers if you any of you guys are interested. The PDF is located here:

http://www.studentfilmmakers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2238 (page 36)

thanks again for your words of support!!!

mark

[markcheng]

Nice grabs. Settings? What light kit was used?

for the lighting package, my DP assembled a lighting package with the budget I told him I could afford. we ended up with something like this:

2 x 1K's
3 x 650's
3 x 350's
4 x 4 foot kino flos
4 x 2 foot kino flos
a couple of bounce boards
a couple misc. off the shelf consumer lights.
the rest was part of normal lighting package- c stands, beefy babies, flag kit, stuff like that.

Power was our major challenge, we kept maxing out and causing power trips. we had to turn off the coffee maker and the space heater in the green room at times. I usually shoot and light my own stuff, but for a project like this I decided to bring on a DP.

Hope this helps!!

edit: copied this from another forum where I post

[RightMind]

sorry for the confusion. i only saw the photos and the pic on the site. ishould investigate more before making any false claims. My bad. keep up the good work.

[FilmMakerr]

lol..yeah, its all Dvx baby, and the movie looks great. Keep us updated

[b boy]

hey bro what part of new jeresy are you from

[jfisher]

nice work mark.

i have a question about MAGIC BULLET. do you use the MAGIC BULLET EDITORS or MAGIC BULLET SUITE? do i understand correctly that MBE works right inside of the effects pallete in FCP and the MBS works inside of AFTER EFFECTS? i'm wondering if there's additional compression via renders of content into and out of AFTER EFFECTS vs. applying the effects right inside of FCP.

any info is appreciated.

thanks everyone.

jf

[Anthem78]

Nice screen grabs mark. Everything looks good.

[markcheng]

hey bro what part of new jeresy are you from
hey man. live in north brunswick, nj. work in nyc. latas...

[markcheng]

nice work mark.

i have a question about MAGIC BULLET. do you use the MAGIC BULLET EDITORS or MAGIC BULLET SUITE? do i understand correctly that MBE works right inside of the effects pallete in FCP and the MBS works inside of AFTER EFFECTS? i'm wondering if there's additional compression via renders of content into and out of AFTER EFFECTS vs. applying the effects right inside of FCP.

any info is appreciated.

thanks everyone.

jf

I'm using magic bullet in premiere actually. everything gets rendered at once when you export the film. in AE it works the same. btw, i just started using a program called Nucleo for AE that optimizes rendering for dual core processors. You guys might want to check that out if you use a lot of Magic Bullet... hope this helps.

and thanks everyone for the posts!!

[jfisher]

thanks mark.

i'm using FCP on a quadcore g5 and haven't used MAGIC BULLET before. i'm thinking about getting it and and am wondering what's the best approach.

so you're using MAGIC BULLET EDITORS inside of PREMIERE?

since i'm not that familiar with AE, i like the work flow of applying the MB filters right inside the NLE.

thanks again. when/where will there be a nyc screening of DS?

jf

[Filmosity]

Hi Mark,

good to see you on these boards too! I'm looking forward to seeing the final film.

Chris

[novelt]

i mean this in all seriousness...if this was on Sci-Fi i'd watch it. :thumbsup:

[Mark Dog]

hey mark what was ur budget on ur film ?? , and i havent finshed reading ur blogs but read the one with ur wife wrote great lady when u get hollywwod buck dont forget to shell out that big kobe diamond bro , and are u planing on selling this as dvd soon as u finshed Mark ??

peace n luv

Mark Dog

[markcheng]

thanks mark.

i'm using FCP on a quadcore g5 and haven't used MAGIC BULLET before. i'm thinking about getting it and and am wondering what's the best approach.

so you're using MAGIC BULLET EDITORS inside of PREMIERE?

since i'm not that familiar with AE, i like the work flow of applying the MB filters right inside the NLE.

thanks again. when/where will there be a nyc screening of DS?

jf
]

hey jf, yeah it's great to pull up MB from inside the NLE. render times can take forever tho, but you can just walk away once it starts and come back the next day.

planning to have an nyc screening, but right now just focusing on getting the roughcut, foley, soundtrack, and cgi done!!

[jfisher]

ok last question -sorry i'm sounding so dense - but i haven't used AE or MB before, so if i get the MB SUITE, which works in AE, how do i get my content out of FCP, into AE/MB and back again?

jf

[markcheng]

ok last question -sorry i'm sounding so dense - but i haven't used AE or MB before, so if i get the MB SUITE, which works in AE, how do i get my content out of FCP, into AE/MB and back again?

jf

this i'm not too sure about since i don't use Apple. AE can open Premiere projects so that's what I'm planning to do once i'm done with the fine cut to render out with MB. for single fx clips, i work in AE and just render as uncompressed video and import the result into premiere for editing.

i know that the new production suite from adobe has even more integration, but i guess none of this info helps you cuz you're working in fcp. sorry man.

mc

[jfisher]

it's all good.

thanks for your help. it's greatly appreciated.

can't wait to check out DS.

jf

[Cheesesailor77]

...budget?

[markcheng]

...budget?
I spent roughly $5k in cash on this film, but there are a lot of caveats -

1) Almost everyone worked for free or for a severe discount on this project. many of them are very experienced so I owe them a lot for boosting the value. I believe they should be included in the budget some how

2) i work as a web application developer so I bartered my services with many who donated time and equipment on the film. this totalled roughly $15k. and i'm still working to repay all of them with websites!

3) there are a lot of things I had to build by hand like costumes and sets, and I also ransacked my house for things I could "recycle" into film props.

I mention these caveats because i think it'd be extremely misleading to just say it was a $5k project.

no one said film financing and budgeting was simple!

what do you guys think?

[EDIT: i've since spent $14K on the film..saving up..spending..saving up...etc! but i'm just about done!!]

[Slimothy]

Hey Mark,
How long is the film exactly?

Great job BTW. Tim.

[markcheng]

Hey Mark,
How long is the film exactly?

Great job BTW. Tim.

thanks slimothy! we're going to come in at around 22 minutes. Trying to get it to that standard 30 minute show format (includes commercial time).

[Chris Messineo]

Mark,

It looks great! I'm not surprised though, I've met Patyk Rebisz (the DP) before and he is excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished film.

Jersey rocks.

Chris

[markcheng]

Mark,

It looks great! I'm not surprised though, I've met Patyk Rebisz (the DP) before and he is excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished film.

Jersey rocks.

Chris

hey chris, yeah, patryk's great! we got along well and I loved his work...he's definitely on for the next project! mc

[markcheng]

http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/3DcompleteThumb.jpg
hey all, i just posted some updates of the 3D fx in my film, you can watch it here (http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/?q=node/711)
The 3D work was outsourced to Art Duck Studios, a small shop in Poland.

This is another FX reel (http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/?q=node/532)that's all DVX footage with all 2D fx done by myself in After Effects. Keep in mind that i rented non-firing gun replicas, so all those muzzle flashes are my own (oh why did they have to shoot so much??? :)

http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/still_mech_kills_MB.jpg

mc

[bashnaran]

how many cameras did you use on this project?

[markcheng]

how many cameras did you use on this project?
hi just 1! damn i wish i had had at least 2

[janusz]

all the efx and mise-en-scene looks great. really high production values. however, in the vfx reels you have posted, to me it looks like your special agents have no idea how to hold a gun like a special agent or swat team would. it looks like they picked them up for the first time. i dont know the story, so maybe they are all really green and nervous rookie agents. but even so, they would look like or present themselves with posture of real swat team guys.

can't wait to see the film, really looking forward to the sound design.

[markcheng]

your special agents have no idea how to hold a gun like a special agent or swat team would....

rats! we tried our best... :Drogar-Dum(DBG):

[chrishaigh]

The 3d FX look amazing mark
and so I carry on in my dark room alone to score this monster lol

Chris
www.cphproductions.co.uk (http://www.cphproductions.co.uk)

[markcheng]

yo guys,
I just posted the final TRAILER for Deployment Strategy! Check it out! (http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/?q=node/714) (divx, mp4, wmv).

For the codec-disabled: ;)
http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/01.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/02.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/03.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/04.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/05.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/06.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/07.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/08.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/09.jpg

[markcheng]

http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/10.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/11.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/12.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/13.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/14.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/15.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/16.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/17.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/18.jpg

[markcheng]

http://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/19.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/20.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/21.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/22.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/23.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/24.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/25.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/26.jpghttp://www.imustmakethisfilm.com/images/trailer/27.jpg

[lhmaloney]

Dude, I can't wait for the clips, how long is it going to be? Sweet costumes. Also your're dp went all handheld, the shots look excellent. I want to see the clips to see how really good he is. I like your color correction. Keep up the good work.

[Vern]

looks great...random question....does that Art Duck Studios you mentioned have a website???
thanks man
vern
www.thehobosoul.com

[markcheng]

looks great...random question....does that Art Duck Studios you mentioned have a website???
thanks man
vern
www.thehobosoul.com (http://www.thehobosoul.com)
:dankk2::dankk2::dankk2::dankk2:yeah man, here it is!!!

http://www.artduck.com/

btw I told them to get rid of the browser resize cuz it's annoying!! :beer:

[novelt]

as i've said before...that's good stuff

[Bezakor]

i'm not gonna watch it! you hear me! ...the grabs look too good - i can only image the trailer looks sweet too and i'll feel bad for myself :)

[Vern]

thanks.