"The Contract" - A film by Neal Buconjic

Picture is locked. We got the running time down to 05:49! I'm amazed at how solid the story has remained considering 1/3 of the film was removed. I showed the cut to several people to gauge whether the integrity of the story held up. Every person fully understood the film - no questions left unanswered.

I've been busy trying to attend to the film while juggling my real world responsibilities.

- Now that the picture is locked, the composer (Sid) has gone to work on the score.

- CC is thoughtfully being done by Brian R. Thanks for your help, Brian.

- Had another ADR session yesterday to get the second actor's dialogue recorded. Session went well and I've cut both sessions dialogue into the mix.

-I've been slow to shoot the stop motion elements that need to be created for some major compositing work. This is a "make or break" effect, so it's important that I do it right. I've done some experimenting, but have yet to start creating the "production grade" elements. Jason has been chomping at the bit to start working on the VFX, so I best get moving on it. I'll certainly go into much more detail on this process AFTER the viewing!
 
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I seemed to have a hit a cap on the amount of text in a given post (my production blog) so I'll have to add the daily details in this and additional posts.


Oct 2 - After much feedback and tinkering, somehow we've managed to whittle this baby down to a running time of 05:49!!! Much thanks to Alex Whitmer for diligently working with me to find even the slightest bits that could trim seconds away. Those seconds certainly add up. Now that the picture is locked, the composer (Sid) has been sent a copy, so he can work his own magic. I'm looking forward to hearing what he comes up with.

Oct 3 - There are some key VFX elements necessary for compositing in this film. In fact, they are so vital to the story that they could literally make or break the film. That's why it was so important to me to work with someone who had a lot of experience in the VFX world (Jason Miller). That being said, the effects are only going to be as good as the elements that I'm responsible for making. If I do a poor job of creating the elements, then that will translate to a poor shot. I'm hoping that I give Jason the quality he needs to do his thing. Tonight I performed a test to determine some information for when I set out to capture the elements to be used in the film. I can certainly say that I learned a few things that will assist me when I'm ready to do the real elements.

Oct 5 - I've been corresponding with Brian R. about color correction. I had seen many many posts by him regarding the subject and I sent him a grab to see what he could do with it. This guy is a wealth of knowledge regarding many facets of film making. Through our discussions, Brian told me about a book - The DV Rebel's Guide by Stu Maschwitz. I ordered it and had read it cover to cover a few days later. I HIGHLY recommend this book. It was both inspiring as well as a enlightening. The author is a HUGE supporter of adding production value through post work and walks the reader through the process. Not only does he give step by step instructions, but the book includes a DVD containing [among other things] custom plug-ins for After Effects so you can actually easily do the things he outlines in the book. By the way - this is the guy who created Magic Bullet. Sorry, got off on a tangent... back to Brian. I sent Brian a link to the film to get his advice - actually at the time, I just wanted an upbiased, outsiders opinion on the cut of the film. Did this trimmed version leave any holes in the story? Did he have any questions that required closure? He didn't. He easily followed the story, AND he liked it. Brian then offered to do the CC work for the film. This was a HUGE thing for me because prior to reading the book, I had NO CLUE how to do it. AFTER reading the book, I was MORE intimidated by the process! Thank you Brian for joining the team!

Oct 6 - Had my second actor do ADR for the scene which takes place by a busy street corner. The session went well. Funny, he commented that he hated his performance from the day of shooting - saying that he was stiff. On the day of ADR he said he was relaxed. I found it the other way around. His footage from on location seemed spontaneous and relaxed, where the ADR sounded rehearsed. I think I'm just biased to the way he said things on the day of shooting, as that's the way I've listened to it 100 times. Regardless, I was able to cut the session easily to sync up with his lips. Now, I just need to get some traffic noise to lay down under the dialogue of the scene.

Oct 10 - I went back to the bar location to grab some additional sound bites. I wanted to get some "bar sounds" to add some ambient noise for our bar footage. Shooting in an empty bar makes for a rather "sterile" environment. I want to add a track of muted conversations, clinking, etc. to fill in the sound space. I had a few conversations with some of the patrons as to what I was doing with the camera, mixer and boom pole. Now they want to see the film... I also grabbed the traffic sounds from the same busy corner the original scene was shot. Of course, I didn't NEED to use the same location, but while I was there anyway...

I've dedicated the next several nights to completing the VFX elements. I have to create 15 elements in total. The precision required may turned into a nightmare - and tonight I found out I'm not far off from that prediction. I spent about an hour and a half setting up my first shot, only to find it didn't "pay off" as I had intended. I chalked it up to a learning experience and moved on to a much easier element, captured it and called it a night (10:40pm). I packed up the equipment and moved back in the house (I'm shooting all the elements in my backyard). From there I sent both the clip of the pre-recorded scene and the freshly done element to Jason. As I write this (the following morning), I am amazed at what he did with it. The comp looks awesome. This certainly is inspiring and I have a re-newed energy to go at it again tonight.
 
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This has gone from filmmakers log to filmmakers saga.

Sure am looking forward to what all these hours in the VFX department will produce.

a
 
This is great... just goes to show you all the work it takes to produce a 6 minute short. This is truely and artform on it own. Keep hammering away...I can't wait to see this one!
 
Every time I see this thread I see GHOST RIDER.

Hope this turns out well for you.

If you need any help at all, give me a holler!

Robbie
 
I may have just completed the last element for the VFX work. I say "may" because ultimately it's up to Jason, the VFX artist, to tell me whether he can turn the crude element into a masterpiece.

I'm amazed that he's been able to do some fantastic looking work with these "backyard" elements. Though I'm sure it's been more effort than he probably signed on for. Thank you, Jason.

Tomorrow night is payback. I'm going to be creating elements for a project Jason is working on. It's the least I can do.
 
The pieces are starting to fall into place.

- CC has been completed (Thanks Brian!). It amazes me what we can accomplish with the internet tying all of us together. Brian did the CC in Standard Def, then sent me the After Effects project file. I replaced his footage with my 1080 originals, made some scaling changes and voila! What a marked difference to the look of the footage... It's amazing what control AE provides over an image (if you know what you're doing). Fortunately, Brian does! Thanks for walking me through the transfer, Brian.

- The composer (Sid) may be able to squeeze in a little time for my entry. I'm crossing my fingers, as a score can really elevate dramatic effect.

- The VFX have painstakingly been done by Jason Miller. Well, not DONE as he is still hard at work. I'm crossing my fingers for THIS too! It's going to be close - The 27th is right around the corner!

- I'm continuing to play with the audio - maybe about 80% completed. I've been bumping up the gain to get the dialogue in that desired -12db to -6db range, but I'm not comfortable with the amount of background noise this has introduced (in some scenes). I'll continue to read the threads pertaining to Post audio - hopefully I'll find a good compromise. But if anyone has some advice - please feel free to comment!

I know this project is going to be down to the wire. I just hope there aren't any surprises in store!
 
Maybe I mis-read that.


Was that a hair-pulling aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...

... or a thank god it's over aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
 
its a renderman texmake mel script finally working on one computer a houdini particles sim on another, a realflow python error on the emachine while I'm comping fire in shake for the contract on the imac, sweeping up the hair that's fallen out all on its own arrhhhhhhhhhhh
 
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