WHERE THE HEART LIES ... Johnson, Hyten, Golden & Bullis

Larry R said:
Just now catching up on the thread ... sorry to hear I missed you guys the other day. As you may, or may not, remember I work in Pleasanton. Just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from the G.G. Bridge.

Oh well, maybe next time. :) Love that sunrise shot, BTW :thumbsup:
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Yea, we should all meet up. Go grab some lunch and some drinks. Maybe even some other dvxusers might be down as well?

We'll let you know the next time we're up there.
 
Location Stills

Location Stills

We are fortunate to be able to shoot several of our scenes at this beautiful location overlooking Santa Monica Bay. The mansion has incredibly high ceilings with a loft from which we will be extending a jib so that we can get some specifically planned overhead shots.

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FaceGen Conversion

FaceGen Conversion

Although our shooting dates are not until late January, we intend to use as much time as possible to work on preproduction. We will be using 3D previsualization to assist us in working out both the camera setups and the actual pacing of the short. Toward that end, we will be building a 3D actor for each of the principal cast members. So far, we have only cast Julie Horner and below is the work in progress for building her virtual double:

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Frame Forge W.I.P.

Frame Forge W.I.P.

I am a big fan of FrameForge as a storyboarding tool. The current version allows you to bring in the virtual actors you create with FaceGen, which can then be posed complete with expressions as low-resolution versions inside FrameForge. Below is the first pass at building the dining room set. Note the information automatically generated for camera focal length, field of view and lens height above ground. You can also easily add limitations such as the maximum height of a jib or tripod so that you are forced to only set up shots that you physically are capable of getting on set.

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cool location - is think you mentioned some friends of yours had a cool pad like that - is that it?

I've heard of face gen and thought it would be cool for a virtual stunt double, I don't really do anything in 3D yet.

The thing I like about frame forge, which I have not used, is the ability to mock up different focal lengths ... as opposed to just sketching which I prefer for the most part due to its immediacy and organic feel.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
cool location - is think you mentioned some friends of yours had a cool pad like that - is that it?.
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Yes, and when Ted was out shooting Threading the Needle with me for DramaFest most of the crew stayed there. It's an amazing place and I've always wanted to shoot a few scenes there.

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
The thing I like about frame forge, which I have not used, is the ability to mock up different focal lengths ... as opposed to just sketching which I prefer for the most part due to its immediacy and organic feel.
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I completely agree that a pad of paper and pencil is the best way to start. However, once you've sketched out a storyboard I think FrameForge can be a real asset to refine your setups. Once you get used to the interface you are basically moving your camera with familiar dolly, pan/tilt, zoom and crane controls with immediate feedback on screen. I think it can be particularly useful in confined spaces once you have it calibrated to match your camera so that you can realistically figure out what you can shoot with the glass you have.

Also, a new member here (artofsuntzu) has an entry called WISH here that he is using 3DMax for as a storyboarding tool. I'm really interested to follow his experience too.
 
Man it's been awhile since I've been on the boards.

This looks like a great project, Mark. Excellent choice to finally shoot in the Elber's home. The views are nothing short of spectacular.

Also excited to officially see Bullis on the front page. It's about time he gets some real recognition. Can't wait to come out there to help out!
 
That is one sweet house. Must be nice having ceilings like that which allow any shot and lighting you want. I can only dream...
 
Mark Harris said:
Hey Mark, that fish tank looks about as done as it was when I was there. :)
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Ha ha! Good eye, Mark! Actually, those pics are taken from when you WERE out here. Currently there is no fish tank there at all and it is just open space between dining and living room (which actually will be useful for shooting from the living room).

Kyle Stebbins said:
Man it's been awhile since I've been on the boards. Also excited to officially see Bullis on the front page. It's about time he gets some real recognition. Can't wait to come out there to help out!
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Yeah, Kyle. We're still working out the shooting schedule but hope very much you can join us for this one. Bullis is in rare form these days.

tmnt said:
That is one sweet house. Must be nice having ceilings like that which allow any shot and lighting you want. I can only dream...
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The big problem, of course, is the wall-to-wall windows. Our opening scene is in the dining room at night and we should be able to avoid window reflections (and also can shoot from outside because there are nice balconies). We have a scene written for the next morning and we'll have to see how much of a problem shooting daylight interiors here will be.

I actually was involved with some of the small aspects of designing this house back in 2000. I just looked and found some of my original 3D renderings (see below). It is kind of neat to recall how we were able to redesign several of the features after being able to see them in 3D.

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Mark Johnson said:
The big problem, of course, is the wall-to-wall windows. Our opening scene is in the dining room at night and we should be able to avoid window reflections (and also can shoot from outside because there are nice balconies). We have a scene written for the next morning and we'll have to see how much of a problem shooting daylight interiors here will be.
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Wouldn't you just blue gel the tungsten lights?
 
Daylight Interiors

Daylight Interiors

tmnt said:
Wouldn't you just blue gel the tungsten lights?
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During the DramaFest we were privileged to work with D.P. Kevin Halverson who gave us quite an education regarding the problems of shooting daylight interiors. Basically, the biggest problem is the huge disparity between luminance outside (in sun) and indoor lighting. If you elect to raise the candlepower inside to permit decent exposure of the outdoors through the windows you need a truly serious amount of wattage (read expensive) that is hard on actors and can be difficult to manage. Alternatively, you can apply neutral density film over the glass of the windows (difficult for large areas and again expensive). Kevin explained to us that cinematographers cringe at the blown out windows and bad contrasty lighting that characterizes daylight interiors shot improperly and I have begun to pay attention to this myself. These fests are, above all, learning experiences so this is precisely the kind of challenge that becomes a valuable piece of experience.

There is a really nice commentary on John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" DVD and he describes how they shot a daylight interior in an office building for that film that was instructive. Basically, if you have a budget to support N.D. film or even replacing the glass windows with N.D. glass you are home free. Otherwise, you have to be resourceful or really amp up your lighting so that your windows aren't white holes.

I'm hoping, though, that the nature of this location with such HUGE glass frontage may allow us to treat it truly as equivalent to an exterior if we can shoot with the sun in an advantageous position. On this project we are again fortunate to be working with a really top drawer D.P. (Steven Parker) so I have high hopes that he'll be able to advise us as to how and when to shoot the daylight scene.
 
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Ah right, I see. You can't schedule to shoot early morning/late afternoon? I'm assuming it must be a long scene.
 
Mark, this project is looking great! If you need some killer BTS production shots, and I'm free, you know who to call! :)
 
Without doubt, your work with 3d programs is masterful, and I don't mind stating the obvious.

I'd have to agree with you 100% when you say that setups are improved when you go beyond sketches.

Has the virtual 'rehearals' offered instances where you are inspired to adjust the story/script?

Also, beyond blocking decisions, I'm curious about editing decisions that can be examined inside FrameForge (or whatever): do you find it effective at all to play with the scenes in virtual-real-time when comparing the emotional impact of a scene's pacing compared to the script's expectations?

Anyway, beautiful FaceGen and location, too.
 
artofsuntzu said:
Has the virtual 'rehearals' offered instances where you are inspired to adjust the story/script?

Also, beyond blocking decisions, I'm curious about editing decisions that can be examined inside FrameForge (or whatever): do you find it effective at all to play with the scenes in virtual-real-time when comparing the emotional impact of a scene's pacing compared to the script's expectations?
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We're feeling our way through all of this ourselves and we hope to have some insight and real information on these issues by the time we shoot in January. The biggest obstacle has always been time and in the past we've found ourselves late in the game and able to use 3D as a limited tool for some specific setups. This go-round, though, we are starting early and making it a priority to get both the script and our virtual sets completed far enough in advance to allow us to explore some possibilities.

We have a couple of scenes that really will depend on pacing and flow, so that being able to do some mockups complete with scratch dialogue and simple edits may be very useful in figuring out how to shoot efficiently. I'm also thinking that being able to give Justin a rough animatic may help him make some scoring decisions.

We'll keep posting our work in progress and behind-the-scenes stuff and hope to see some on your thread too.
 
Hey Chris,

I somehow had never visited moviepoet.com. Forgive me for being clueless. Now that I've visited (and registered) I am totally enthused and excited to get my activation e-mail. This represents the very best of what the net is (just as this forum does) and I want to thank you for putting in the effort and time to create the site.
 
One can only hope. That pool is like icing on the cake. The view alone is stunning...

I'll never forget when I looked out the basement bedroom window at 2am and saw a burly little man sitting in the hot tub drinking a beer. I thought it was a stranger who broke in. Turns out it was just Johnson, avoiding sleep as usual.
 
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