'Behind Epilogue' - making-of featurette for Epilogue short

hemophilia

hemophilia

Well-known member
A couple weeks ago I posted a short called 'Epilogue' on here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=31399

I finally got the behind-the-scenes featurette that I made for it compressed.... somewhat. For the time-being I ONLY have an XviD-compressed avi. I installed all these free codec-packs and it crapped out Premiere which now refuses to start so to get this I had to rip it off my own DVD and recompress it, etc., etc., major headache.

This "featurette" (which is ridiculous cause at 23 minutes it's way longer than the movie itself) should be interesting from an indie-filmmaking perspective. It gives some ideas as to how we go about shooting, how the effects were done, problems we had... as well as bloopers and laughable idiocy that keeps it entertaining for the non-film-nerds.

It is, however, OFFENSIVE, VULGAR and VERY VERY STUPID. So if the 'R-rated' film itself wasn't your cup of tea, steer clear of this!

http://crisislab.com/files/epilogue/Behind_Epilogue-Xvid.avi

Thanks again everyone on this board for excellent feedback & advice. I hope this video is informative and entertaining-- let me know if there are unanswered questions after watching this. And the Quicktime is on its way!

EDIT: QUICKTIME
The quicktime version is now up. But frankly the quality stinks and for whatever reason I couldn't do better. So I strongly suggest the .avi, but for the QT devotees:

http://crisislab.com/files/epilogue/Behind_Epilogue-crap_quality.mov
 
OH NO! I cant watch it, my WMP cant recognize the X-VID compression, all I get is the audio...Bummer, guess I'll have to wait for the QT.
 
Well, the XviD codec is excellent quality, totally free, and open source. I do sincerely hope that the major players start incorporating it into their players ASAP so that people don't have to jump through hoops. But until then, the hoops aren't that difficult:

http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/

There are codecs there for Windows AND FOR MAC. I will still be trying to get the Quicktime up here. It's just a tad problematic... as Quicktime/Sorenson is neither free nor open-source, and as such will take me some time and favors. And no XviD is not the codec that gave me the aforementioned problems starting Premiere. It's totally safe as far as I know. I got those problems when I downloaded/installed some insane all-in-one codec pack with everything under the sun and it practically took over my computer and put a bajillion things in the task bar and crashed Premiere and royally sucked. Nothing about XviD has ever sucked.

Embrace open source.
 
I thought it was funny and I can feel your pain on so many things. Also some good information. I'm really glad I watched it because now I feel like I'm not alone with all the rediculous problems in movie making. Nice featurette and I also liked the movie too :)....And maybe I'm dumb but what did u do to get the bullet time effect?
 
They just walked around the Russian holding the camera as still as possible, and slowed down the footage. They decreased the shakiness using a VirtualDub anti-shakiness plugin. Correct me if I'm wrong. :)
 
Mentat, this has nothing whatsoever to do with this thread subject but had to compliment you on your choice of an avatar. Juan Giminez is one of my favorite artists. :)
 
Almost mentatDUKE... you got it backwards. We walked around him, he moved kinda in slow-mo doing the gun draw, we stabilized the footage in the very cool, very free app Virtualdub (with the very cool very free plugin "Deshaker") and then SPED-UP the footage.

Until the rotation finished that is... the gun cock is actually slowed-down footage.
 
Man I tried to download everything you said download to view the behind the scenes footage but I still only get jumpy sound and no picture.... guess I have to wait for your quicktime download..,
 
I think a lot of people don't like to have to install anything to be able to view a video, and certainly not from a source they don't know anything about. I'm pretty sure the audience would be broader if this codec wasn't required.
 
Get the codec, it's a good codec and this video is worth it! Hilarious man! I loved it, I also sent you an email as requested, hehe.
 
I am just so glad you were wearing shorts under your pants :lipsrseal

If you listen carefully you might hear my laughing in the background. All, it was much funnier live, dont know why, but it was.

So Hemo, whats the new project going to be? Killer Kleenex?

B
 
therealslimfigge said:
you need to download the XviD codec vic.
Click to expand...
I did but I don't like sources I've never heard of before.
I was so interested in the slow motion shots that I had to.
The flipping table shot was really well done. So, if I understand correctly, each missing frame was done manually in Photoshop? How did you proceed exactly? You extracted frame by frame the table, imported the frames into Photoshop and painted the missing frames?
 
Thanks Viz! (For being excited enough to break your own rules... I definitely understand... I wouldn't have installed some crap to watch someone else's video... but at the moment since I can't get a Quicktime working I just don't have a choice of offering something else.)

The more elaborate table-flip explanation:

The entire slow-motion portion of the table-flip shot took place over the course of 6 frames (1/5th of a second). So I took those 6 frames into photoshop, and painted out the layers... so I had 3 separate layers for each of the 6 frames. Then I took those layers (which I had given alpha channels in photoshop) and plopped them into After Effects. Then I placed them on the timeline-- each one on its own layer-- so that one frame would occur every 10th frame or so (I don't actually remember precisely... but the farther apart you put them the more slow-down it will have). Then for EACH LAYER I used a morphing plugin to morph from one of my 'key frames' to the next.

The reason for having the 3 layers (cups, table, b/g) is that they have distinct motion. And if you try to morph something with contradictory motion on the same layer... you get that tearing/smearing artifact as can be seen in the 'first attempt' in 'Behind Epilogue'. And for something as fast-moving as that table (against something as static as the background) it becomes really terrible.

The one thing I wish I could've done differently is shot at a higher shutter speed. That way, we would've not only gotten a smooth slow-motion, but a really crisp image on the table and cups as well. Unfortunately, we were shooting at night, and the iris was wide open... and to get then exposure I shot at 'normal' shutter speed. But if I had the light... I would've loved to do it at a super-high-speed-shutter.
 
Very nice! Thanks a lot! The result is amazing. I've been for a few weeks to hear that in detail ;-)
And I suppose that you might be shooting in PAL that gives you more pixels to fool around with these kind of tools.
The slow mo of the guy spitting is very good too.
 
Just watched this. Pickle's meltdown was hilarious. :cheesy:

And good technical explanations. :thumbsup:
 
Quicktime quicktime quicktime!

Well.. it's a larger file... and quite frankly the quality kinda stinks compared to the XviD, and the audio sync is a bit off. But I did the best I could! :(

If anyone wants to show me up-- and torrent the DVD off me and compress a better quicktime, be my guest. Otherwise:

http://crisislab.com/files/epilogue/Behind_Epilogue-crap_quality.mov

And for the record, that wasn't exactly Pickle having a melt-down (although he likes to melt-down too), that was Kevin (a.k.a. Hemophilia) having a melt-down. :P

We shot in NTSC w/o anamorphic-- so just letterboxing to get 16:9, so no there were definitely not any extra pixels goin' around.

Thanks for all the comments!
 
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