OTHER: Web Series - Reality On Demand

[Mr Marx]

Hi,

We just wanted to let the forum know about our new science fiction web series REALITY ON DEMAND. Filming begins in February.

You can find out more at our website: http://alienjunglebug.com/

Please let us know what you think of the teaser video and the concept.

[FONT=MinionPro-Bold, serif]Synopsis: Four strangers playtest a highly advanced virtual reality game that puts them into their favorite TV shows and movies. But when they become trapped, a fun adventure takes a dangerous turn where cancellation means death. Science Fiction, comedy, fantasy, and horror--any genre is game on Reality On Demand. [/FONT]

 

[jmoschner]

My name is Jarrod and I am handling a lot of the Art and most of the Editing and VFX for Reality on Demand. Since we are holding auditions this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to take a moment to describe the process that led to the initial visual style we have chosen thus far, including the creation of the logo for the series and to the creation of the teaser used to promote the auditions.

The logo.


The logo is a collaboration between director Marx Pyle, graphic designer Brian Bolin, and myself. At first, Marx sent me an early draft of the script and I began making roughs of the various logos we would need within the production. In these early stages, we went through dozens upon dozens of designs.

Each design had to be evaluated not only on how well it captured the look and feel of the series, but how well it worked animated and in print. After printing and animating the best designs of each logo we picked our top choices not only for the the series logo, but also for the in-show logos.

Brian refine the font choices, helping to polish and strengthen the logo. His changes to the fonts were just the right touch.


The Teaser:

Meanwhile, while we were developing the logo, we also began working on ideas for the opening title sequence. I knew early on I wanted this to be independent of any footage from the series. This way, we could produce the open before/while filming, wouldn't have to change any title footage if an actor drops out, and we would have some visual elements to use in promoting the series.

Early on I worked with an image I took off the internet to test effects and to use as a backdrop while playing with the logo animation. Over a series of versions, we added motion into the background image and had the circuits pop in and out. To get the circuits, I took some pictures of a couple circuit-boards. Animating the background image was easy, as was adding the circuits.

The main focus while building the test version of the open FX was to keep the effects/animations simple, effective, and easily reproducible, since we would be piecing together many of these animations to create the final sequence. Throughout the process, I've been particularly mindful of the production flow while also focusing on render times.

Once we had the basics down for the way segments would animate, it came time to give it a bit more of a TV-meets-virtual-world vibe. So we added scan-lines and the bluish vignette, which I hoped in combination with the circuits and moving picture effect would give the feel we desired.

Then, it was time to take some pictures. As luck would have it, I was traveling for Christmas vacation and was able to take a lot of pictures we could use.

Once back from holiday, I put together a dozen or so sequences using some of them. Then, I threw together a rough cut of the opening title sequence with the animated logo and some motion graphics/titles. After adding a little static intro/outro, and tweaking a few details, we had a good base to work from.

Marx asked if we could put together a teaser before the auditions tfor visual guidance, and to use as a marketing tool. So, he wrote the copy and I put the teaser together with a few of our favorite segments from the proto-open. I then threw in the poster Brian made for our previous short “Silence of the Belle.”

This is where T. Shawn Hardy came in. Marx was already looking at using his song “You’ll Never Take Me Down” for the opening title sequence and Hardy quickly did a re-cut of the song for the trailer, giving us all the elements we needed.

After I did the usual color correction and exporting, voila!: the teaser trailer for the Reality on Demand auditions.