FEATURE: Leap: Revelation

El Director

El Director

Veteran
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After praying that the Lord would open and close doors regarding "Derek", I can say that door has been closed for now. Our fundraising campaign was an epic fail due to me getting laid off, losing my home, and my car blowing up, all shortly after launching the campaign, so I was unable to work it like it needed. I've also taken note that in talking with people, they all want to know what I'm doing next. When I told them "Derek", they all asked, "But what about Leap 3?" I've decided to give the people what they want and I'm officially announcing "Leap: Revelation" as the fourth film from STARS Pictures/El Director Entertainment.

I can honestly say that I'm super excited to finish my trilogy and that viewers will be in for quite a ride. The biggest complaint people had about Rise of the Beast was that there wasn't as much parkour as the first film, so I'm listening and will be packing the pk into this flick! Alex Bonds, Yelena Tsribko, and Chelsea Raugust will be reprising their roles and I'm looking forward to working with them again.

In designing the new logo, I stuck with our same font "SpaceAge" and chose the color red to work into the color scheme. Each film has it's own color scheme. Leap was blue, Rise of the Beast-black, and Derek would/will be green. The original title was going to be Leap 3: Martyrs for Christ, but it felt too wordy and didn't convey what the film is about. "Rise of the Beast" has that action film sound to it, and that's what it was, an action flick. "Leap: Revelation" reminds me more of the Resident Evil films and has that apocalyptic sound, which is the direction this film is headed.

We'll be shooting in El Director Vision-meaning my T2i with Magic Lantern and doing ADR for all the sound. If I'm able to get myself stable by summer, we'll shoot in September, but if not, I'll spend a year tweaking the script and we'll shoot spring 2013. Either way, I'm planning on a 2013 release.

For the naysayers out there that might be critical of an independent filmmaker doing a trilogy, I approached this series a lot like Lucas did with Star Wars. I always had a three part movie series in mind that would take us from present day to the end of the world. I decided to just do the first one to test the waters and introduce the main character, as well as parkour. It's the story about how he becomes a Christian and the formation of the Leap Crew. When I did part two (Rise of the Beast), I told the story of who the beast is, how it rose to power, and showed the Leap Crew learning the truth and sharing it with others. I deliberately ended the film with a cliffhanger, knowing that it would ensure that I'd make part three, which covers from just after the beast gains power until the end of the world and what it could be like for Christians and non Christians during that time.

Hollywood Influences:
Resident Evil: Extinction
The Bourne Ultimatum
Pearl Harbor
Robin Hood
Defiance
District 13
2012
The Day After Tomorrow
Dante's Peak
Twister

Goals:
Push my limits in story, directing, camera and effects
Produce a product that pleases the fans and fulfills my vision
Acquire outside funding to pay for actors and crew time
Be more diligent with social networking and keeping the fans involved
Have 1000 fans on facebook by release

Synopsis:
The End of the World. This is a topic that has sparked the curiosity of many and has been the center of countless speculations. It is a concept that so many have questioned and feared. Will the world end? How is it going to end? Is there any hope for our race? This is the question facing the world as the Leap trilogy concludes with it's epic finale, Leap: Revelation.

This time, Shane Turner is joined by a new parkour crew, Urban Grace, as well as a young married couple. They are forced to flee the city when martial law is enforced and find refuge in the safety of the mountains. The nations, ravished by natural disaster are facing global economic collapse and many are claiming the world is nearing its end. The passing of Sunday Sabbath laws have done little to appease the Lord as was expected.

As probation closes and the seven plagues begin, Shane and the new Leap crew are torn apart as friends and family find themselves on opposite sides at the outpouring of God's judgments and ultimately, the second coming of Jesus Christ.
 
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I'm very sorry to hear about your troubles. I admire your ability to keep moving forward. I wish I had that kind of work ethic.

Good luck with the film!
 
From the production journal at starspictures.org
Friday, May 18, 2012
Good and news and bad news for day. Actually a lot of news. A little over a month ago, I prayed that God would bring me closer to Him, like when I had to live day by day a few years back. Not long after praying this, I lost the house I was staying in, and my job soon after. I figured that if I had to be homeless, I’m glad it’s in Montana. I spent the next three weeks camping and living in the wilderness. I kept a journal that I would love to turn into a film. A week ago, while driving to my wilderness home at night, my car blew up (threw a rod) and that was that. I’m currently staying with a couple from my church. Anyway, just before I lost my job and the house, I launched a kickstarter campaign for “Derek” and prayed that if the Lord wanted that film made, He’d open doors for funding, and if not, he’d shut them. Well, a month later, we didn’t even come close to our goal, so that’s a pretty clear shut door.
Ever since the premiere and DVD release of “Leap: Rise of the Beast”, people keep asking me what I’m doing next. When I told them about “Derek” and how cool it was, all they’d say is “Yeah, but what about Leap 3?” So, seeing that’s what people want, that’s what we’re doing. I started writing the script last night, I also designed the logo and a poster. The film opens about a week after ROTB ends and the very first shot is an explosion. Go big or go home, right? As for the message of the film, ROTB introduced the concept of the Vatican being the beast and touched on the Sabbath vs Sunday issue and it’s importance to the mark. ”Leap: Revelation” will explore why the Sabbath is so important and why it still applies, especially in the end days. Of course, my main mission is still the same-get people to actually read their Bibles and study for themselves.
 
Man, sounds like you're really going through some rough times. Keep pushing, because it's the determination and faith in God that will get you over the top. Do your part and if it's meant to be, it will happen. Also, remember that all you lost was material possessions. At the end of the day, there are things more important and those material things come and go.
 
Thanks Marlon. I'm doing okay considering. I'm not the kind of person that gives up =)

As for an update, currently 13 pages into the script. So far this is the fastest I've written a film (I've done seven feature scripts so far) so that's pretty cool. Talked with my composer from ROTB today and he said he'd be game to come back and expand upon what he did in the last flick. So at the this point, all our core cast and crew is on board and ready to go as soon as I finish the script =)
 
Twenty-five pages into the script =D It helps that I've had this film in my head for four years, and have done the other two. I'm having a lot of fun playing off the first two films and coming up with new arcs for the already established characters. There's a few inside jokes that pass by everyone except the cast and I. And while we don't have a large fan base, a small one does exist, so I'm really trying hard to give them what they want and still stay true my vision. So far it's working and I'm extremely happy with how the script is turning out. I'm starting to do some effects tests using Blender and AE. I learned that a Blender now has it's own built in 3D tracker, so I'm checking that out to see if it can handle the types of shots I'll be throwing at it.
 
It's become a bit of an inside joke that each of my movies has a different logo for STARS Pictures. Here's the one for Leap: Revelation-
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It's a bit edgier and darker, since this will be a darker film.

Also, Leap 3 will be the first time I use my new personal logo for El Director Entertainment-
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I really dig the personal logo. Glad to see progress on the script. It's moving right along. You talked about staying true to your vision and giving the fans what they want at the same time. That's the tight-rope balance we all have to make work, so you're on the right track.
 
In keeping with my "for the fans" mentality, I came up with two poster concepts last night and have been letting people vote on which one I should develop more. Thought I'd extend the poll to here too. So, left or right?
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Lots of nifty stuff today :) First up are some monitor grabs from producing the teaser:
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As you can see from the last pic, I've made some changes to my post workflow, namely switching to Premiere CS6. Vegas will always be near and dear to me, but the interface hasn't changed in ten years and it's starting to feel stale. Premiere always felt clunky and cumbersome to me, but with CS6, I feel they finally got it right. The plus to the switch is that I can retire my 10 year old desktop finally. It served me well through three features and forty shorts.

Okay, next up is VLOG 01
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=3732943636619
 
Jon Jordan (Wulf from "Wulf" and West from "Leap: Rise of the Beast" has just signed on. Everyone told me how much they loved his role in the last film, so we're bringing him back!
 
Spent yesterday learning some new effects skills I'll need to pull this film off. Here's a test of one such effect-digital matte paintings/set extensions for a destroyed city
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Got a few halos, but overall, I'm confident in my abilities with the technique :)
 
I participated in the local 48 Hour Fest event, and I was asked... very late yesterday afternoon to composite a TV broadcast clip onto clip that had a wall mounted TV screen. The clip with the TV was a hand held pan and tilt (and I think even a zoom change as well...). Anyway, because I was asked so late, that never happened.

But one thing I found out was that CS6 After Effects includes a camera track 'feature' which could have been used to create a 'camera motion' track, then the clip to composite placed in 3-d for the match move.

I ran across something that did do the computations and would produce the camera motion list, that was in a compatible format for Blender, but I haven't really gotten back to trying to get Blender more 'functional' for me.

Now that the fest is over, I'm going to look in to this AE plugin, and see if it does generate track info that Blender could use.

Here's a tutorial on it that I found to give an idea...

http://adobeaftereffectscs6.com/after-effects-cs6-tutorial-3d-camera-tracking/
 
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