FEATURE: Leap: Revelation
- Thread starter El Director
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El Director
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Thanks guys! Things are coming together. Here's the unboxing of my new camera, along with a three week review:
El Director
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Pretty excited right now, this might (finally) be the year for Leap: Revelation. Since 2016, I've gotten my dream camera, and money has started coming in for the $22000 budget! Still have a long ways to go, but it's making steady progress.
Got the new Glidecam, only to find that the camera and Glidecam weight almost 20lbs, so I also had to purchase a vest and arm making it more like a full size steadicam. The good news is though, it works great and I can shoot and shoot and not get fatigued after every take. Also purchased some audio gear (gasp!) for certain situations where ADR may not be feasible (ie, the actor lives on the other side of the country). So yeah, good stuff happening!
Got the new Glidecam, only to find that the camera and Glidecam weight almost 20lbs, so I also had to purchase a vest and arm making it more like a full size steadicam. The good news is though, it works great and I can shoot and shoot and not get fatigued after every take. Also purchased some audio gear (gasp!) for certain situations where ADR may not be feasible (ie, the actor lives on the other side of the country). So yeah, good stuff happening!
El Director
Veteran
Secured the final location I needed yesterday. On Rise of the Beast, the one location that was a pain was the holding cell. Had one set up through a friend of a friend, but they backed out. We ended up shooting that scene last and had to do it on the green screen with CG holding cell as I had no other choice available. This time around the problem location was a rooftop where some key scenes will take place. Unfortunately it's difficult to find a place in the city that is willing to let you film a movie on their roof. It's so impossible that I started looking for locations on the ground that could maybe pass as one if I threw up the greenscreen too. Well yesterday I went to go get groceries at the general store down the street and noticed what a nice roof they have. The manager rang me up and so I asked her if I could film a few scenes up there later this summer. "Oh sure, no problem Chris! I just hope your actors aren't afraid of heights". The one drawback will be that since the store is in the countryside, I'll have to do some matte painting and set extension work on those shots to make it look in the city, but I'm okay with that. Gotta love the help of a small country town 
The new camera has been performing well, and I've been spending a lot of my free time flying the whole steadicam rig to get good at it. Donations are still slowly coming in, so I'm pretty excited
The new camera has been performing well, and I've been spending a lot of my free time flying the whole steadicam rig to get good at it. Donations are still slowly coming in, so I'm pretty excited
El Director
Veteran
Well, this is a new development. An athiest podcast had decided to review the first two Leap films. It's entertaining from the standpoint that they "don't get it". I didn't make the Leap films, especially Rise of the Beast, to convert an athiest to Christianity. I made them to encourage Christians to study for themselves and maybe explore another view they hadn't thought of. In either case, my channel has been flooded with views the past week and I've been pretty tolerant of the comments left. The only ones I delete are comments including profanity or blaspheming the name of God or Jesus (these are Christian films after all). I also realize that bad press is good press, and it's obvious that athiests are not going to like the work I do, so if they want to express their sentiments, I'm all for it. But I can't but laugh at some of their remarks, just as they do about mine.
El Director
Veteran
Over the summer, I read "The 4 Hour Workweek" and it hit me that if I could start an online business, I might just be able to fund the movie. I spent about a month brainstorming "muse" ideas and finally settled on what I feel is the best product I can sell. Priced at $100, it's just high enough to weed out problem customers, and I only need to sell 200 units to finance the movie It's something that I know very well, and will also allow me to help others. The last month and half I've spent getting everything everything ready to go. Storefront, marketing, URL and preparing the product.
My plan is to release it just in time for the Holiday season and I think this can actually work. It's a bit soon to reveal what I'm doing just yet, but I'll post about it here when it's time. I'm just excited that I may finally get to make this movie after all. For the past six years, everyone keeps asking me about when Leap 3 is coming out, and I always have to tell them that I don't have the money to make it yet. Their response is always the same "I can't help, but I can't wait to see it!". At the end of the day, nobody cares about your film as much as you do. And since this I'm not trying to make the money back, as I see it as a form of ministry, I can't really seek "investors". I don't make enough as a VFX sup to fund it, so I needed another way and this might just be it
It's something that I know very well, and will also allow me to help others. The last month and half I've spent getting everything everything ready to go. Storefront, marketing, URL and preparing the product. My plan is to release it just in time for the Holiday season and I think this can actually work. It's a bit soon to reveal what I'm doing just yet, but I'll post about it here when it's time. I'm just excited that I may finally get to make this movie after all. For the past six years, everyone keeps asking me about when Leap 3 is coming out, and I always have to tell them that I don't have the money to make it yet. Their response is always the same "I can't help, but I can't wait to see it!". At the end of the day, nobody cares about your film as much as you do. And since this I'm not trying to make the money back, as I see it as a form of ministry, I can't really seek "investors". I don't make enough as a VFX sup to fund it, so I needed another way and this might just be it
El Director
Veteran
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
It's been a while. I'm honestly not sure if anyone is still reading these, but since I originally started keeping these journals for me, it really doesn't matter if anyone reads them or not.
I'll start off by saying that I have not forgotten about Leap 3. Infact, recently it has started consuming all my free time-again. It started when I came to some startling revelations about what the saints go through during the time of trouble. I was so shocked that I decided to go back and rewrite the last half of the script, just to incorporate it. I also decided to make a drastic change to the ending that I had toyed with using years ago, but after much prayer, I really feel it's the best way to go. My number one mission with this series has been to make people think for themselves and question what they've been taught and I think this ending will serve that.
Rewriting the last half of the script means I've been doing a lot of what I call, "couch time". This is where I put in a movie, lay on the couch, and just write. It's been a few years since I've done this and it's nice to be at it again.
My effects work has been getting a lot better as of late too. I'm the VFX supervisor/lead artist at a small company and have been learning so much in order to execute the shots needed on a four part documentary series we're producing about Bible prophecy. About two years ago, we ditched After Effects for Nuke after I made the switch myself and it was the best decision we could've made. Now, when I need help with something, I'm able to seek out real industry professionals and not some 10 year old in his bedroom making tutorials with a pirated version of AE. All kidding aside, the skills I've been learning on this job are going to make Leap: Revelation that much better. I feel a bit like Garreth Edwards who spent a few years doing VFX before finally getting to do his own things. Maybe this is me paying my dues and learning what I need to make Leap 3 a reality.
As an example, here's a "waters turning to blood" test I did about five years ago in AE:
And here's a new one I did today in Nuke for work:
Overall, I'm really excited to finish the new script. I have amazing gear with my Ursa Mini and Glidecam, great tools with Avid, Nuke and Resolve and soon shall have a great script too!
It's been a while. I'm honestly not sure if anyone is still reading these, but since I originally started keeping these journals for me, it really doesn't matter if anyone reads them or not.
I'll start off by saying that I have not forgotten about Leap 3. Infact, recently it has started consuming all my free time-again. It started when I came to some startling revelations about what the saints go through during the time of trouble. I was so shocked that I decided to go back and rewrite the last half of the script, just to incorporate it. I also decided to make a drastic change to the ending that I had toyed with using years ago, but after much prayer, I really feel it's the best way to go. My number one mission with this series has been to make people think for themselves and question what they've been taught and I think this ending will serve that.
Rewriting the last half of the script means I've been doing a lot of what I call, "couch time". This is where I put in a movie, lay on the couch, and just write. It's been a few years since I've done this and it's nice to be at it again.
My effects work has been getting a lot better as of late too. I'm the VFX supervisor/lead artist at a small company and have been learning so much in order to execute the shots needed on a four part documentary series we're producing about Bible prophecy. About two years ago, we ditched After Effects for Nuke after I made the switch myself and it was the best decision we could've made. Now, when I need help with something, I'm able to seek out real industry professionals and not some 10 year old in his bedroom making tutorials with a pirated version of AE. All kidding aside, the skills I've been learning on this job are going to make Leap: Revelation that much better. I feel a bit like Garreth Edwards who spent a few years doing VFX before finally getting to do his own things. Maybe this is me paying my dues and learning what I need to make Leap 3 a reality.
As an example, here's a "waters turning to blood" test I did about five years ago in AE:
And here's a new one I did today in Nuke for work:
Overall, I'm really excited to finish the new script. I have amazing gear with my Ursa Mini and Glidecam, great tools with Avid, Nuke and Resolve and soon shall have a great script too!
El Director
Veteran
Today, I'm thrilled to say that I finished the re-write! Looking back, it's crazy to think about, but this movie has been through most of the "players" when it comes to screenwriting apps. The script was started in Celtx, then moved to Trelby, followed by Final Draft, then Adobe Story, and finally Fade In. I currently have the full script in Fade In, Final Draft and KIT Scenarist (for testing). So far, Fade In is the best app I've used. It's stable, not glitchy, and does everything I need for a low cost. Celtx is by far the worst of the bunch. Trelby showed promise but hasn't been developed in years. Adobe Story could've been great, but it's fallen by the wayside. Right now, I do feel it's best to spend the $50 on Fade In and roll with that. You won't be disappointed.
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El Director
Veteran
I've never considered myself much of a writer. Actually, I hated writing assignments in school. All that changed in 8th grade when I was given the option of writing a stage play for a creative writing assignment. I based my story on a true experience about being stuck in an elevator and the format of a script really worked well with how my brain works.
When I got into making movies, I always wrote my own scripts. They were really a blueprint for myself on what I wanted to shoot.
This summer marks the 10 year anniversary of the shooting of my first feature film, "Wulf". I was feeling nostalgic today and actually found an email containing that first feature length script. I started looking for others that I had lost and eventually found every feature movie script I've written, leading up to Leap: Revelation.
Three of the movies have been made. Some will be made soon, others will never see the light of day. As I sit here reading through them, I can see the progress. The more of something you do, the better you will get.
I've since written seven feauture length scripts over the past 10 years. That's a lot for someone who hated writing as a kid. Sometimes all it takes is finding the right outlet for the right inspiration. Just because a child you know doesn't excel at creative writing, doesn't mean they don't have stories to tell.
Maybe they just need a different approach.
When I got into making movies, I always wrote my own scripts. They were really a blueprint for myself on what I wanted to shoot.
This summer marks the 10 year anniversary of the shooting of my first feature film, "Wulf". I was feeling nostalgic today and actually found an email containing that first feature length script. I started looking for others that I had lost and eventually found every feature movie script I've written, leading up to Leap: Revelation.
Three of the movies have been made. Some will be made soon, others will never see the light of day. As I sit here reading through them, I can see the progress. The more of something you do, the better you will get.
I've since written seven feauture length scripts over the past 10 years. That's a lot for someone who hated writing as a kid. Sometimes all it takes is finding the right outlet for the right inspiration. Just because a child you know doesn't excel at creative writing, doesn't mean they don't have stories to tell.
Maybe they just need a different approach.
El Director
Veteran
Back to basics.
It's been over ten years since I released "Rise of the Beast" and I'm itching to play in that universe again. My wife and I started brainstorming what we could do with Leap 3 to make it less "plucky" as many viewers consider the series to be. I think we've got some great ideas and the movie will serve as a requel (thanks for that term, SCREAM) to the series.
It's been over ten years since I released "Rise of the Beast" and I'm itching to play in that universe again. My wife and I started brainstorming what we could do with Leap 3 to make it less "plucky" as many viewers consider the series to be. I think we've got some great ideas and the movie will serve as a requel (thanks for that term, SCREAM) to the series.
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El Director
Veteran
Twelve pages in. Looking good so far
El Director
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I had made it 30 pages into a vomit draft when I decided to start over again. Now that I had a feeling for who the characters are and how they speak, I re-wrote the script from scratch. I'm much happier with this new version and am currently sitting at 36 pages. I've been writing in Final Draft 11 and have really enjoyed using the Beat Board feature to map out the story.
This is still an "end times" movie that features my views, but it's a personal story at heart. When I did the first movie, my goal was to tell the story from a personal, rather than political view. I broke that rule with Leap 2, making the Vatican out to be the bad guys. This time, we still say the Vatican is evil, but the bad guys are actually based on what we've seen with COVID and politics, as well as what I can read in the source material for the film (a book that means much to most Christians).
This is still an "end times" movie that features my views, but it's a personal story at heart. When I did the first movie, my goal was to tell the story from a personal, rather than political view. I broke that rule with Leap 2, making the Vatican out to be the bad guys. This time, we still say the Vatican is evil, but the bad guys are actually based on what we've seen with COVID and politics, as well as what I can read in the source material for the film (a book that means much to most Christians).
El Director
Veteran
I mentioned not having a day job. Two years ago I was able to move back to Montana with my new wife and new dog. COVID had just hit, we'd just married, and I was let go from my VFX Supervisor job due to the shutdowns. I had a friend back here in Montana who's family owned a recovery clinic and they needed a front desk person. I apparently have a good personality, and it provided an excuse to get out of Idaho and back to where I love.
After a year and half at the clinic, I was over it. I do enjoy a drink now and then, and somebody like me doesn't wake up and say "Gee, I want to be a receptionist for the rest of my life". I think my friends who own the clinic also knew this and in December 2021 they let me go. Being a good employee doesn't come naturally to me. I always think I can do things better. So I took my final paycheck and formed Pyro Studios, LLC. I've loved fire since I was kid, I think it's very beautiful and I want my work to reflect that. I went down the bank, got an account and Pyro Studios was in business.
My first client came from my church. He's a financial advisor and wanted me to help him improve his weekly update videos he was doing via some conference service. I spent a few hours consulting with him, gave him advice on equipment to purchase and showed him some better software. A week later, he called me back and asked if I wanted to produce his weekly videos so he does't have to mess with it. The guy is in his 70's and money was no object, so every Monday I shoot a video for him and upload it to his YouTube channel which I manage.
With these weekly update videos, I really only need to do one big project a month that takes up maybe 3-5 days of my time in order to make ends meet. So far I've done a few "About Us" videos for local business and even got flown to Chicago for another that I just finished the edit on. The rest of my time, I've been spending on Leap. Working on the story and script. Researching equipment, locations. Getting set up with the Montana Film Commission. Looking into tax credits. I can honestly say I'm happier now than I've been in a long time.
Now that I can focus more on creative projects Leap, I decided to start working on the opening sequence. It's all CG with voice over. I had attempted something like this ten years ago using Element 3D and it just look bad. My time as a VFX sup has taught me techniques and methods that will actually allow me to pull this off. Blender is still my 3D software of choice and I'm using that to create the sequence.
While I cut my narrative work in Avid, I do use Resolve for client gigs because of the fast turn arounds. I also conform and online my narrative work in Resolve, so it's a key part of my pipeline. I'm assembling this CG sequence in Resolve because I don't have to export any offline yet this way. Once I have actual footage from the film and am ready to start cutting, I'll be over in Avid land, but for now, this is working out great.
After a year and half at the clinic, I was over it. I do enjoy a drink now and then, and somebody like me doesn't wake up and say "Gee, I want to be a receptionist for the rest of my life". I think my friends who own the clinic also knew this and in December 2021 they let me go. Being a good employee doesn't come naturally to me. I always think I can do things better. So I took my final paycheck and formed Pyro Studios, LLC. I've loved fire since I was kid, I think it's very beautiful and I want my work to reflect that. I went down the bank, got an account and Pyro Studios was in business.
My first client came from my church. He's a financial advisor and wanted me to help him improve his weekly update videos he was doing via some conference service. I spent a few hours consulting with him, gave him advice on equipment to purchase and showed him some better software. A week later, he called me back and asked if I wanted to produce his weekly videos so he does't have to mess with it. The guy is in his 70's and money was no object, so every Monday I shoot a video for him and upload it to his YouTube channel which I manage.
With these weekly update videos, I really only need to do one big project a month that takes up maybe 3-5 days of my time in order to make ends meet. So far I've done a few "About Us" videos for local business and even got flown to Chicago for another that I just finished the edit on. The rest of my time, I've been spending on Leap. Working on the story and script. Researching equipment, locations. Getting set up with the Montana Film Commission. Looking into tax credits. I can honestly say I'm happier now than I've been in a long time.
Now that I can focus more on creative projects Leap, I decided to start working on the opening sequence. It's all CG with voice over. I had attempted something like this ten years ago using Element 3D and it just look bad. My time as a VFX sup has taught me techniques and methods that will actually allow me to pull this off. Blender is still my 3D software of choice and I'm using that to create the sequence.
While I cut my narrative work in Avid, I do use Resolve for client gigs because of the fast turn arounds. I also conform and online my narrative work in Resolve, so it's a key part of my pipeline. I'm assembling this CG sequence in Resolve because I don't have to export any offline yet this way. Once I have actual footage from the film and am ready to start cutting, I'll be over in Avid land, but for now, this is working out great.
El Director
Veteran
The opening CG animation is 717 frames long and takes my Z800 18 hours to render. And I have to render the sequence twice so I can fade between a regular earth and one with bloody oceans. I could composite this in Blender and do it in one go, but I'm more comfortable doing it in Nuke. I'm rendering 1920x806 multilayer .exr files. The layers consist of a background, the moon, the earth, atmosphere and a sun placeholder.
In Nuke, I bring in the .exr sequence and pull out the layers with shuffle nodes before merging them together as I like. Working this way gives me control over each element's color and blur so things composite exactly the way I want it.
Finally, I'm tracking the sun placeholder and replacing it with a flare gizmo (think a free version of Optical Flares for Nuke) that I can keyframe the intensity of to fit the shot.
I reordered some temporary VO as if I was the main actor since I haven't started casting yet. It sets the tone for what the movie will be. Once I cast the part of Blake, I'll have him redo the VO in his voice.
All in all, it's coming together well!
Side note - spent the past few days re-reading the entire production journal for Leap: Rise of the Beast it's got me all kinds of excited. I really had a great time shooting that film and I'm hoping to recapture that experience. I also read the threads for Corrado and am hoping to emulate a little of what Adam did. By the way that movie is now on Amazon if anyone wants to see it.
In Nuke, I bring in the .exr sequence and pull out the layers with shuffle nodes before merging them together as I like. Working this way gives me control over each element's color and blur so things composite exactly the way I want it.
Finally, I'm tracking the sun placeholder and replacing it with a flare gizmo (think a free version of Optical Flares for Nuke) that I can keyframe the intensity of to fit the shot.
I reordered some temporary VO as if I was the main actor since I haven't started casting yet. It sets the tone for what the movie will be. Once I cast the part of Blake, I'll have him redo the VO in his voice.
All in all, it's coming together well!
Side note - spent the past few days re-reading the entire production journal for Leap: Rise of the Beast it's got me all kinds of excited. I really had a great time shooting that film and I'm hoping to recapture that experience. I also read the threads for Corrado and am hoping to emulate a little of what Adam did. By the way that movie is now on Amazon if anyone wants to see it.
El Director
Veteran
The first render pass finished last night and is looking great! Today I setup the second pass for "blood" and rendered a single frame to check it. This *should* be the final comp for the shot when the second pass finishes tomorrow. I'll just replace the single frame Read node with the animation and it should just work. Fingers crossed.
If you've never looked at a node graph before, I'll walk you through it. Unlike layer based compositing where you literally stack one image on top of another in layers, and each layer contains effects for that layer, nodes work by building out a literal flowchart. Under the hood, this is actually what After Effects does, but then hides it with layers. With nodes, you take an image, do something to it, and composite it on top of another image using a Merge node.
In the shot above, the gray node in the upper right is my 1st Read node. It's a multi-layer exr file from Blender. Almost immediately, it's branched off into different segments and the multiple layers are brought out with the dark purple Shuffle nodes. The large colored blocks are called backdrops and are just a way to group and organize the composite.
In the section called "Blood", there is another gray Read node. This is/will be the second render pass with the oceans turned to blood. I shuffle out the ocean and merge it on top of the regular version. To the right, you can see a group called Blood Ctrl. This is a tool I built - Nuke is great for building your own tools - that uses a noise texture to animate the blood on in an organic way. I control it with a Color Corrector node by playing with the brightness and contrast. This animated, controlled noise texture is shuffled into an alpha channel which is being used as a mask on the Merge node. It's like a more elegant version of "track mattes" in AE.
Finally, way down in the bottom right, hidden offscreen, is a Write node that saves the entire composite back to disk. For my testing, I'm using a png image sequence (never EVER render a movie file, if your computer crashes, you have to start the render over). For the final render, I'll be using dpx.
The advantages of using nodes is numerous. First, there's no precomps. I can see the entire shot at once. Again, there is zero need for precomps with nodes! Second, it's easy to reuse elements in a comp without bringing in another copy of it to a timeline. The computer reads the information once and you just pipe it around. The improves resource management. Also, a node comp is so much easier to come back to months down the road. Since I'm doing this shot before I've even finished the script or shot a frame of footage, if I decide to change something a year from now, it'll be easy to come back in and figure out what I did.
So that's my primer on nodes and why we're using Nuke for "Leap".
If you've never looked at a node graph before, I'll walk you through it. Unlike layer based compositing where you literally stack one image on top of another in layers, and each layer contains effects for that layer, nodes work by building out a literal flowchart. Under the hood, this is actually what After Effects does, but then hides it with layers. With nodes, you take an image, do something to it, and composite it on top of another image using a Merge node.
In the shot above, the gray node in the upper right is my 1st Read node. It's a multi-layer exr file from Blender. Almost immediately, it's branched off into different segments and the multiple layers are brought out with the dark purple Shuffle nodes. The large colored blocks are called backdrops and are just a way to group and organize the composite.
In the section called "Blood", there is another gray Read node. This is/will be the second render pass with the oceans turned to blood. I shuffle out the ocean and merge it on top of the regular version. To the right, you can see a group called Blood Ctrl. This is a tool I built - Nuke is great for building your own tools - that uses a noise texture to animate the blood on in an organic way. I control it with a Color Corrector node by playing with the brightness and contrast. This animated, controlled noise texture is shuffled into an alpha channel which is being used as a mask on the Merge node. It's like a more elegant version of "track mattes" in AE.
Finally, way down in the bottom right, hidden offscreen, is a Write node that saves the entire composite back to disk. For my testing, I'm using a png image sequence (never EVER render a movie file, if your computer crashes, you have to start the render over). For the final render, I'll be using dpx.
The advantages of using nodes is numerous. First, there's no precomps. I can see the entire shot at once. Again, there is zero need for precomps with nodes! Second, it's easy to reuse elements in a comp without bringing in another copy of it to a timeline. The computer reads the information once and you just pipe it around. The improves resource management. Also, a node comp is so much easier to come back to months down the road. Since I'm doing this shot before I've even finished the script or shot a frame of footage, if I decide to change something a year from now, it'll be easy to come back in and figure out what I did.
So that's my primer on nodes and why we're using Nuke for "Leap".
El Director
Veteran
My blood red ocean render finished and looks great! I dropped it into it's place in Nuke and everything works well - except for one bit: My noise texture that drives the transition effect is a flat, 2D image. The earths that I'm fading between are round and rotating. So the shot doesn't look right. Five minutes ago, my plan was to go back into Blender and do the transition in the shader settings, for the earth, but then it would all be baked in with no ability to adjust the timing later without another 20 hour render.
As I was just sitting down to write this update, I had an idea: Apply a noise texture to the earth and render that as a pass. Should only take a few hours and then I can use that to drive the effect in Nuke, changing the timings as needed. I'll report back with what I find.
Script-wise, I'm sitting pretty at 40 pages. I'm worried it might be too slow, but I'm going finish this draft and see where we come out before reworking things.
As I was just sitting down to write this update, I had an idea: Apply a noise texture to the earth and render that as a pass. Should only take a few hours and then I can use that to drive the effect in Nuke, changing the timings as needed. I'll report back with what I find.
Script-wise, I'm sitting pretty at 40 pages. I'm worried it might be too slow, but I'm going finish this draft and see where we come out before reworking things.
El Director
Veteran
Small update for today. There's a massive earthquake scene at the end of the first act and I've been thinking a lot about how I want to pull this off. Just for fun this morning, I put my cinema camera on a tripod and locked down all the axis to the point where they just barely moved. I set the lens to 105mm (the most telephoto I can go), framed up a shot with multiple depth planes, hit record and started violently shaking the tripod head handle. Having all the movement almost locked down damped things nicely and it actually worked! Since the camera is really moving, there's a slight bit of parallax and since my camera has a global shutter, there was no JELLO!
I brought the shot into Resolve, added eight layers of sound to it and it looks great. I rendered and saved the test to add to a future BTS video. My next test will involve an actor or two doing the scene like in the movie. Pretty cool though how an old school effect can work well and doing it in camera with this particular camera yields a better result than doing it in post.
I bought this camera (Blackmagic Design URSA Mini 4K) in 2015 because of the global shutter and because it was a camera I could grow with. For the first couple of years, I shot at just 1080 in ProRes 444. More and more recently, I've started shooting narratives in RAW at 4K, especially since I can bring back highlights. The more I'm messing with RAW recording, the more I'm thinking I'll shoot this movie in 4K RAW. I have two 128GB Cfast cards that gives me 22 minutes each when I'm recording at RAW 4:1. So I'd have 44 minutes total. When I shot the last Leap film (Leap: Rise of the Beast) on the Canon Rebel T2i, I had one 16GB card that gave me 48 minutes of record time. I never needed more than that for a single day, so it worked great. If I can shoot a similar ratio this time, I shouldn't need to offload cards, but I'll have my laptop on set just in case. I really need to do a short film soon to test all this out.
I brought the shot into Resolve, added eight layers of sound to it and it looks great. I rendered and saved the test to add to a future BTS video. My next test will involve an actor or two doing the scene like in the movie. Pretty cool though how an old school effect can work well and doing it in camera with this particular camera yields a better result than doing it in post.
I bought this camera (Blackmagic Design URSA Mini 4K) in 2015 because of the global shutter and because it was a camera I could grow with. For the first couple of years, I shot at just 1080 in ProRes 444. More and more recently, I've started shooting narratives in RAW at 4K, especially since I can bring back highlights. The more I'm messing with RAW recording, the more I'm thinking I'll shoot this movie in 4K RAW. I have two 128GB Cfast cards that gives me 22 minutes each when I'm recording at RAW 4:1. So I'd have 44 minutes total. When I shot the last Leap film (Leap: Rise of the Beast) on the Canon Rebel T2i, I had one 16GB card that gave me 48 minutes of record time. I never needed more than that for a single day, so it worked great. If I can shoot a similar ratio this time, I shouldn't need to offload cards, but I'll have my laptop on set just in case. I really need to do a short film soon to test all this out.
El Director
Veteran
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Things are still moving forward. The script is progressing and I might have my first cast member. I reconnected with an actor from that last Leap movie recently on Instagram. His name is Walt and he played one of the bad guys back then. I only worked with him for two days back then but he did a nice job. Anyway, he's a Christian now, retired, and looks totally different that how he did back then. We were talking and I told him about this new film and just asked if he'd have any interest in working on it. Short story long, he's excited to check out the script when it's done.
I've been thinking a lot about the two leads in this film, Blake and Liz. They're college age and reconnect with each other while Blake is home on break from school. The casting for these two roles will be pivotal. The actors will need chemistry with each other, and they need to be fit since they'll be learning parkour. This morning, I was doing some research online for a potential client I want to pitch to and they have a gallery of their employees with photos and a short bio. So I was scrolling, looking to see who might look good on camera for the video I want to pitch. I ran across a girl who has the right look, is the right age, likes ju-jitsu, hopes to be on Ninja Warrior someday, enjoys acting, wants to be in a movie, and loves God! No joke, it's all right there in her bio. I told my wife and she didn't believe me, so I showed her.
I'm going to pitch using this girl in the video so I can see how we might work together. It would be nice to have someone on board early on so I can start tailoring the script to them and so we can start on the parkour training. We'll see what happens.
Things are still moving forward. The script is progressing and I might have my first cast member. I reconnected with an actor from that last Leap movie recently on Instagram. His name is Walt and he played one of the bad guys back then. I only worked with him for two days back then but he did a nice job. Anyway, he's a Christian now, retired, and looks totally different that how he did back then. We were talking and I told him about this new film and just asked if he'd have any interest in working on it. Short story long, he's excited to check out the script when it's done.
I've been thinking a lot about the two leads in this film, Blake and Liz. They're college age and reconnect with each other while Blake is home on break from school. The casting for these two roles will be pivotal. The actors will need chemistry with each other, and they need to be fit since they'll be learning parkour. This morning, I was doing some research online for a potential client I want to pitch to and they have a gallery of their employees with photos and a short bio. So I was scrolling, looking to see who might look good on camera for the video I want to pitch. I ran across a girl who has the right look, is the right age, likes ju-jitsu, hopes to be on Ninja Warrior someday, enjoys acting, wants to be in a movie, and loves God! No joke, it's all right there in her bio. I told my wife and she didn't believe me, so I showed her.
I'm going to pitch using this girl in the video so I can see how we might work together. It would be nice to have someone on board early on so I can start tailoring the script to them and so we can start on the parkour training. We'll see what happens.