FEATURE: "DOWN AND DANGEROUS" - new update, one year later.

Congrats, Zak! Sorry I've been out of touch for so long. With you and many others on here. I had sorta mostly stepped away from regular film making for a couple years; life just had me swept up for awhile (not a bad thing though). But I'm getting back into the swing of things with new projects on the horizon. :)

Anyway, awesome about your film! Looking forward to seeing it! Guessing a debut at the theater downtown LA? I still remember going there and watching "What's Up, Lovely?" with you. :beer:
 
Sorry if this has been addressed, but in speaking with various Producers, I'm told to avoid Kickstarter as every investor may seek gains if the film produces a profit. What steps did you take to protect yourself from potential lawsuits?
 
bill totolo said:
Sorry if this has been addressed, but in speaking with various Producers, I'm told to avoid Kickstarter as every investor may seek gains if the film produces a profit. What steps did you take to protect yourself from potential lawsuits?
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Good question. Kickstarter is not a platform for SEC registered projects to approach accredited investors. In fact, Kickstarter doesn't allow any of its users to offer investment opportunities. Further, we don't have any investors on this movie. The money we received was a gift from 387 friends, family and fans. In return, I offered some perks like DVDs, music, on-screen credits and more to the people who backed us. Some filmmakers see it as pre-selling the movie on DVD/Blu-ray or as a download, in a way. Others, view it as charity to support people and projects they like.

That being said, one has to be careful. We produced the movie under an LLC.
 
LebiraFilms said:
Been following the progress from the beginning. Very inspirational and educational. Can't wait to see it.
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Thanks, we have a solid cut of the movie and are giving the composer some time to revise his work before holding virtual test screenings with some trusted peers as well as the backers who qualified for that perk.
 
ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

I cannot believe it has been a year to the day that our backers contributed to and exceeded our crowdfunding goals by 177% (including outside donations after our campaign ended). We more or less went immediately into production, wrapping in mid-December of 2011. Since then, our editor Jamie has been mining the footage and putting together her cut of the movie. After she had her first version, we sat down and watched the movie beginning to end. Less than two hours later we both had a list of notes to address and new ideas to try. The next morning, Jamie went right back at it.

During the following months, Jamie would dive back into the movie, making changes, showing it to our star John T. Woods and producer Kevin K. Shah, tightening up pacing, experimenting with alternate takes and improving the movie step by step. Today she wrote an article on the most challenging scene she faced, deconstructing her process of working through it. Here's the link.

Scene-48.jpg

Currently we are working with DEKLUN on a revision to the musical score, so Jamie has had an opportunity to take a couple months off. This will allow her to return to the movie with fresh eyes once the new music is laid in.

At the same time, I have taken on the duties of cutting in sound effects like gun shots, punches, foot steps, and much more. There are also about one hundred visual effects shots in this movie. None of these will be obvious effects shots, just slight tweaks to the image. For example, we have a few scenes set in Mexico that were shot in Los Angeles and I have painstakingly changed all the street signs to the Mexican equivalent. There is also a process of removing mics from certain shots that resulted from a technique we used to ensure a good recording of the dialogue. I wrote about that process here where you can see a before and after.

TIMELINE FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR

In the coming weeks, we plan to roll out our virtual test screening for crowdfunding backers that chose that perk. They will have an opportunity to see the movie's current cut, and give feedback and notes on story, characters, etc. Of course, I realize some won't want to see the movie in an incomplete state (missing sound effects, temporary music, and the colors won't be quite right yet), so we'll certainly take no offense if you'd prefer to wait.

Once we have collected and devoured everyone's responses, we'll dive back into the movie for one more revision while finalizing all the sound work, visual effects work and color grading work.

Then it will be time to roll out the movie. I have already been hard at work setting up partnerships to release this movie when it's finished. Backers will be the first to see it the second it's done. However, we are not planning to go to festivals with it unless invited. I love film festivals and am eager to share this movie with audiences in theaters, but I feel compelled to put it places where everyone else can access it too, and with as little delay as possible. If all goes according to plan, this will include Cable Video On Demand, DVD & Blu-ray, as well as digital platforms like iTunes and Netflix.

dad-poster-element.jpg

We are currently working on two new posters. One emphasizes the action in this movie, while the other takes a more iconic approach. You can see a tease of the latter above, minus background, texturing, light flaring and other design work that needs to be done. We did the photography for it with the guys at NITSCHKE+REESE. So grateful for their help.

Additionally, the first trailer is in the works and we have some special plans for its release that tie into that "Smuggler's Mystery Box" perk a few of you chose. There's much more to that perk than the trailer, so it should prove to be a good bit of fun.

So that's the lay of the land as far as Down and Dangerous is concerned. If you follow our Facebook page you can see regular releases of behind the scenes photos, and soon, video.

Thank you to all our backers, again, for allowing us to take this extraordinary journey. The tens of thousands of dollars you gave us looks like a million bucks on-screen. In fact, a few industry professionals have guessed the budget was that high... and yeah, I let them keep thinking that. :)

I expect you'll be very proud that you backed this one. Happy anniversary!
 
remember this?

DAD-Poster-A.jpg

It's been replaced by this...

DADposterA.jpg

I'm thrilled to be replacing the old artwork, created for the crowdfunding campaign, with this new one. Without giving away plot details, we wanted to capture the notion of a smuggler's world turned upside down, while illustrating the kind of world he inhabits. And what better way to do that than in the reflection of a cocaine mirror? I guess people like to look at themselves when they snort rails of coke.
 
Zak Forsman said:
remember this?

DAD-Poster-A.jpg

It's been replaced by this...

DADposterA.jpg

I'm thrilled to be replacing the old artwork, created for the crowdfunding campaign, with this new one. Without giving away plot details, we wanted to capture the notion of a smuggler's world turned upside down, while illustrating the kind of world he inhabits. And what better way to do that than in the reflection of a cocaine mirror? I guess people like to look at themselves when they snort rails of coke.
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Saw this yesterday with the update I got as a contributor.

Totally dig the new poster (liked the old one too). Very nice job!

-Martin
 
Had an interesting thing happen two days ago. this fun little screen test spoof we did with Ross Marquand where he played all the celebrity actors auditioning for his role... has legitimately gone viral. I t went from about 4,000 views to 350,000 in 24 hours. it's currently at about 432,000+ views.

 
POSTER BREAKDOWN
Every movie deserves a great poster. It's the visual signature that establishes the world, the stakes and tone of the movie, but is also the familiar and identifiable touchstone that (potential) fans will see as it pops up online, at festivals and while browsing their VOD menu.


I want to start by noting that for better or for worse, I kinda get off on "leaping without looking". Maybe that's a flaw but I don't have much patience for formal training. So take this breakdown with the knowledge that there may be better ways to do things, or techniques I'm flat-out unaware of. That being said, I've picked up a thing or two while stumbling my way through designing movie key art and thought I'd share the steps that went into creating a poster for Down and Dangerous.


CONCEPT & PHOTO SHOOT
Early on, it became pretty obvious that different designs would serve different needs. Our main character is a uniquely principled cocaine smuggler who goes by the alias "Paul Boxer”. We wanted one iconic poster that presented the world he inhabited and that this world had been metaphorically "turned upside down". From this we settled on the image of an armed Paul Boxer inverted in the reflection of a cocaine mirror. A second poster was conceptualized with an emphasis on the action in the movie. It would feature Paul Boxer having just delivered a devastating punch to a faceless adversary. In this breakdown we'll focus on the first design.


N+R_photoshoot.jpg

We began with a photo shoot at the studio of NITSCHKE+REESE, gathering hundreds of low-angle, high resolution, stills of our lead actor, John T. Woods. We refined the pose and opted for an aggressive lighting scheme that would instantly pop against any backdrop we would place him against.


raw-shot-of-john.jpg


PLACEMENT OF ELEMENTS
The next step was to select an image. This took a couple days because I can be a little indecisive when I know a choice is going to last forever. I pulled it into Adobe Photoshop and started by creating an image mask to cut John out from the black background.


I then created a document that was two inches wider on each side than the standard one-sheet size of 27"x40" to give it some room to bleed. Within that, I inverted the image of Paul Boxer and experimented with how he'd be placed against the background, with temporary placeholders for the title, tagline, and room up top and bottom for a review quote and billing block.


DADPOSTERBREAKDOWN-1.gif


Once I was happy, it was time to bring in the cocaine elements that would sit atop the image's mirrored-surface. These were photographed in my living room with a single LED light, on a large mirror my mother bought me many years ago, surrounded by black duvetyne draped on c-stands. In the movie, we used an artificial sweetener called mannite, which is something my father used to cut the cocaine he smuggled as it was harmless and very similar in look and texture. But for the poster, I opted for the slightly lumpier qualities of corn starch. In the cocaine world, lumps are a sign of a quality product.


raw-coke.jpg


FIRST DRAFT
The original design called for a large pile and three rails of cocaine along the top. As well as a pile at the bottom, and striations throughout the center. And we even presented this version of the poster to our Kickstarter backers in a private update. But I wasn't satisfied with it. Attempts to place text over the cocaine at the top and bottom were hard to read, the sense of it being a reflection in a mirror was harder to grasp, and on the whole it felt too cluttered.


DADposter-OLD.jpg


So I returned to the raw elements I had, taking more care in their placement and finally landed on a layout that was cleaner, less cluttered and free of white powder anywhere text would be placed. Now I could focus on touching up the image using three techniques: high pass filters, color grading, and the dodge and burn tools.


STEP ONE: HIGH PASS FILTERS
To create the added intensity that high pass filters can give, I started by duplicating the image layer of Paul Boxer two times. On the first, I did a medium filter pass and on the second I reduced the amount to a fine rendition of detail. I changed the blending mode of both to "Overlay" and adjusted their opacity until I got a level of "pop" that I was happy with.


STEP TWO: COLOR GRADING
When I began working on the color, the intent was for a nearly monochromatic blue look so that Paul Boxer's warmer skin tones would cause him to standout. This was accomplished by experimenting with adjustment layers for exposure, photo filters, levels, curves and saturation.


STEP THREE: DODGE & BURN
Next, I went in for shading Paul Boxer's face, arms and more. The dodge tool will lighten areas and the burn tool will darken them, so you can create more dramatic shadows and highlights than you had in the original photographic element. I reduced the intensity of the brush to anywhere from 10% to 50% and went to work shading along his bone structure, while carefully brightening the eyes which had grown a little red from the color grading step.


DADPOSTERBREAKDOWN-2.gif


TITLE, TEXT & FLARE
Now it was time to tackle the title, the billing block and everything else. I wanted it to feel unified so I limited myself to two variations on the font, Helvetica Neue 93 Black Extended Oblique and Helvetica Neue 33 Thin Extended Oblique. The exceptions being the ultra thin font used for the billing block and the logos at the bottom. I also limited myself to three font sizes so that no matter what it was used for, it would be consistent with usage somewhere else. Further, I was careful to line up the text at the far right and left to give it a sense of order, despite the extreme 12 degree angle most of it was placed on. Adding a simple gradient and thin drop shadow gave it a bit of silvery dimension that looked much better than simple white text.


DADPOSTERBREAKDOWN-3.gif


And last, I wanted to add a bit of cinematic light to do two things: I wanted to emphasize the 12 degree angled "lines" that the cocaine and text had established, while adding a splash of ornamentation and flair (not just flare) to the title text and Paul Boxer. For this, I actually took a reference file into After Effects and designed the lens flares around it. Then I turned off the reference layer and exported the single frame After Effects composition and brought that into the poster. I set its blending mode to "screen", and made additional tweaks for color and contrast until it suited the design.


THE FINAL POSTER

​
 
Nice to see those hits - should get some noise.

The poster - I like upside down, because you stop for a moment. but maybe he could be a little larger, like till his hair is mildly cropped by the text, or he just has the absolute minimum headroom..

S
 
Zak,

Thanks for the thread. I don't know how you are doing the effects within the post but BRAVO...great post!

I do like the poster as I mentioned earlier.

Definitely looking forward to hearing more about the progress.

-M
 
martay, those are just animated GIFs I made to show the side by side difference.

i'm now neck deep in sound effects editing (and prepping for the color grade when i need a break from sound work). i'm halfway through Reel 3AB (of 6 total) and going bonkers with all the cloth movement and footfalls, but being very meticulous. my wife reminded me of what Walter Murch said, that an audience can only process 2.5 elements at any given moment. and this notion has saved me a great deal of time, focusing on where you want the audience's attention to be while building the soundscape.
 
Zak Forsman said:
My wife reminded me of what Walter Murch said, that an audience can only process 2.5 elements at any given moment. and this notion has saved me a great deal of time, focusing on where you want the audience's attention to be while building the soundscape.
Click to expand...

Very good point.

We're deep in post on blackhats as well. So I'm working with composer, vfx, and sound folks now. The director edits and he likes to color grade as he builds the cut so that becomes a little slow in getting to the finish line but the results are good.

Keep on.
 
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