The Livings' End

TC

TC

Resident Agitator
A discussion section! What a nice thing to wake up to! :thumbsup:

I hope you all enjoyed watching my flick as much as I enjoyed making it. I've been having a blast watching all of yours, such talent roaming around this board!

I've got extensive notes for you all, hope you've got some for me. Thanks for watching. :beer:
 
TC, I'll go into more detail when I get back, but heres what stuck out so far.

The special fx you used were #1-Really risky because they seem like ones that would be very hard to pull off. #2-Pulled off pretty damn well! How the hell did you do the ax through the top of the head? Hope you have some BTS for us! I gotta run, but I'll have a bunch more when I get back. Tim.
 
How did you do the stick effect?! I love how yours started right into the action. Good and bloody, great makeup effects. I really liked the pull away shot too, brining us into the cabin. HOW DID YOU DO IT?! :)
 
TC, I liked your short. One of my only complaints would be with most of us, the acting. Some of the actors seemed really good, but a few seemed to be over acting just a little. Also one of the things I noticed was at the beginning the guy seemed to be expecting the bite, all very small problems. The last would be the ending, it seemed to be a little rushed, but concerning the time frame I feel your pain!

Now on to things I liked. I loved your special effects. Like when the guy pushed the stick thru the zombie (CG i believe, but very convincing.), also when the guy stuck the axe into the zombie. Over all very good job!
 
Effects breakdown: This is what I've been getting most of my comments about, so I'll address them before anything else.

Stick Shot- We angled to zombie and "Jason" in such a way that when Jason was pushing the stick into the zombie, it was actually sliding out of his hands, going behind him; but because of the angle, you couldn't see it. Then they just dropped the stick.

The we took the grey sweater, they stick, and some blood in front of a green screen and just did multiple passes, varying speed, etc. Then we did some blood run throughs. A spot on the live action footage was then tracked, and the stick (keyed out, of course) was comped on.

Head Hit- That was actually shot live action. That zombie was wearing a wig, then when it came to the reverse (the actual hit) we had him lay his head down, and we put a honey dew melon on top of his head, with the wig on. We scored a crevice into the top of the melon, so the axe had somewhere to go. There was some cg blood though, because we didn't quite get the splatter we were after.

My effects team was amazing. They did tons of stuff that you won't even notice. Anything from funky shadows to someone's ass in the shot were painstakingly painted out.

That's it in a nutshell, there will be tons of VFX stuff on the DVD. That was one of my big things on this project, I really wanted to see how crazy we could get in post production. From the sounds of it, you all liked it. :thumbsup:
 
greeches said:
I really liked the pull away shot too, brining us into the cabin. HOW DID YOU DO IT?! :)
Click to expand...
That was just one big dolly shot. Well, I was standing on a dolly... so it was sort of a dolly/ handheld hybrid.
 
Hey, TC this was crazy dude! I loved your special effects, they were really believable! I also dig the car scene a lot, with the zombie caught in the windshield! You should watch "in the valley of death" because it really remembered your film...

I though both were classical, and well done hits at the zombie thing... Good Work!
 
I figured you had to do the stick like they did the pole in Shaun of the Dead... but man I STARED at it and it's still SICK... I mean good sick!

Maybe I'm just getting tired and need to go to bed... but this is the first one to bring out any feelings of fear for me.

This one is at least a 9.

If there is a category for best special effect it's gonna' be that stick shot.

I watched it over and over until it made me nauseous. (tried to spell check that and the forum don't wanna' do it)

The axe in the head I could see the wig shift ever so slightly... no big deal but enough that I wasn't as appalled as I was at the stick.

After watching so many and yet only being a little over halfway through I'm pretty sure I've seen the best ones... I haven't seen any special buzz on the others... but I'm still watching every second 'cause I'm surprised there isn't more buzz on THIS one.
 
MattinSTL said:
I figured you had to do the stick like they did the pole in Shaun of the Dead... but man I STARED at it and it's still SICK... I mean good sick!
Click to expand...
Yeah, we were originally calling that the "Shaun Shot."

MattinSTL said:
Maybe I'm just getting tired and need to go to bed... but this is the first one to bring out any feelings of fear for me.

but I'm still watching every second 'cause I'm surprised there isn't more buzz on THIS one.
Click to expand...
Those comments mean a lot to me. Thank you.
 
TC, I ranked this very high in my notes on Saturday (when I watched it). Here are my brief notes that I made at the time: Good story, camera, and FX (overall production value). Sound was good, and fairly good acting.

Sorry, not REAL constructive notes at the moment, but when I watch it again I'll try to pick it apart more & list more at that time.

Edit: Okay, just watched it again to pick it apart, but nothing stood out. VERY well executed, and again loved the FX with the stick going through the zombie ... much like a stick might go through a rotted, bloated corpse.

But, something's picking at me ... why aren't I rating this the highest of the films then, if there's nothing to critique that needed improvement? I think it comes down to story. There was a LITTLE bit there, but there could have been more ... you ate up nearly an entire minute with great titles, but that time could have been spent on the story/characters, and save the titles for the DVD. Just my two cents.
 
Yeah... see the thing that happened was that we had this GREAT tittle sequence planned out that totally set up the story. It was going to be a collage of polaroids showing everyone camping, having a good time, etc. Then there was going to be a time lapse on the cabin, and you were going to see Gwen (the bleeding girl) go out to get fire wood.

Then there was also going to be a big tracking shot at the end where you saw all the ripped up flesh, bodies, etc. and then you were going to see everyone (sans 2 characters who were eaten) walking away as zombies in one big group.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to shoot that stuff because we just ran out of time. And it was such a large cast, and such a remote location that we couldn't do pick-ups for that stuff. When editing was done, we were about 30 seconds under, so we did some cool titles.

C'est la Vie.
 
Ah, understandable then! I also had a bunch of stuff planned for my short to add production value, etc., but timing was just way out of control for even the few I had to work with, so I had to adapt on the fly & we got what we got.
 
I have to watch your movie again. But from what I remenber it had some decent acting, I was expecting more people for some reason? The picture you post in the cafe a while back had alot of people. I remember near the end or was it the end where they make their final stand to leave the house. I wish it could have been a little more chaotic, the main guy pushes the zombie away with the shovel? man, I would smack the hella out of that zombie.. then his buddie goes out and gets taken over. Then the girl gets taken from behind from that other chic that was bleeding. I would have lock her up. I think to make it more effective if the pace was faster at the end. Nice touch with the hand print. otherwise it was good for me.
 
hiro said:
man, I would smack the hella out of that zombie..
Click to expand...
Clearly, I could see that from watching yout short. :thumbsup:

I wanted to take a different approach with my film. No guns, and no hero's. The guys who run out in the beginning end up getting screwed. I thought it would be more realistic if fear completely gripped these people and that's what was they're ultimate demise...

Different strokes, I suppose.

Thanks for your comments everybody!
 
Hey
I just watched it and I liked it alot. It really looked like you put a lot of time into setting up the scenes, something I didnt do for mine. I figured the axe shot was a wig on something, but the stick one left me baffled and I thought it was a manequin or something like that... I didnt go back to watch if the body moved at all while it was being stabbed.. Some of the acting in the cabin was really great to. I didnt understand why no one was applying pressure to that poor girls neck. it was still bleeding profusely... I really liked the end where parts were flying up in the air and one hits the glass and slides down. Awesome stuff
Brian
 
Nice Job TC.

Kudos to you and your effects team! Loved the bleeding neck on the girl on the couch.

Location was great too.

would of loved to hear a car crash in the distance to justify bringing back the zombie girl in plaid.

Nice clean shots and cinamatography... I enjoyed it alot.

Richard
 
MotionCaptureMan said:
would of loved to hear a car crash in the distance to justify bringing back the zombie girl in plaid.
Click to expand...
Actually, there is one. You can hear it when the other guy is crawling back to the cabin.
 
When I watched it the second time I was listening for the crash, but only heard the squeel of the tires sliding on the road ... no BANG or loud THUMP at the end. The stick pushing through I was assuming is all CG, but it looked near perfect ... I framed through trying to catch anything, and didn't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top