A gift in the mail...

Just got my copy of "One Day Removals" from Mark, Mike and Kerwin over in Scotland. Gonna watch it tonight.

...an idea!

Last night I broke with several evening routines. One was to stay up past 1:00 am. I went to bed before 11:00 pm (which almost sent my brain into shock) and got a fair enough amount of sleep. Then, after getting up at 6:00 am and getting the boys to the bus stop by 7:00 am (as is my daily ritual) I skipped the 7:15-8:30 power nap I normally take and simply laid in bed for fifteen minutes staring at the ceiling as the 'screwed up' parts of Darkness Aftermath played out in my head. Suddenly I saw a vision, if you will, of how we can get this done by Dec. and have it all work and look really cool. I don't want to explain too much, but it will require some traditional animation and some solo work on my part, tho I might bring in Matt to operate the camera. All I can say is that I am going to step away from digital and go old school on a few short scenes that just aren't getting done with CG.

I'm psyched!

Fantastic voice...

..and a great band. Our end credits will roll after the scene of Leigh and Tarina as they over look the Village. The music is going to be a song by the wooden satellites as mentioned before. If you have not checked them out, then a thousand curses on your house and your shed and hamster. Go to their site, listen to "The Bride" and be amazed!

When it comes to the Feel of the end credits, we wanted a hopeful feel to the overall dread that somnambulist red produced. We love their stuff, but we needed a 'book end' to close the movie and felt that W.S. was a good companion. So check it out and hear the voice of sorrow on "the Bride" that is Andrea Harvey and (I think that's CRay singing back up but maybe not so don't kill me...like you could anyway).

Can't wait to hear the end toon...she is a student of mine so if the end theme is crap, she'll have to drop out of college...no stress, Andrea...

Matt posted this on his Facebook page and it...

...really sums up the attitude of Darkness Aftermath...

"I have to say...this is the most collaborative project I have worked on...I don't think I'll ever be on another set again where I hear the director call out, "I'm taking death requests!""

A little more of last week's fun...

Stephanie gets into position while Adub clears some brush from the shot. Yes, that is a real horse skull strapped to her arm.



Kelsey is dead and Chris has a splinter...

Two brains better than one...duh!

Matt emailed me this evening with some fantastic ideas for the movie...I will share them with you. Ha! No I won't because they are THAT good. They will actually work out better than the original script and we'll be able to get this monster done. While I was ready to give up and slap together a less than good version of the movie, Matt's brain jumped out of his head and jogged a few miles, pumped a few weights and then climbed back into his skull. I doubt he even noticed it was gone. The result, however, was pure magic. He solved every editing problem and continuity issue that arose from the missing footage. The mystery character who we thought might have to die will live after all. YAY! After Matt speaks with said individual, we'll let you know what the heck we're talkin' about.

First of many new shots...

(all of these photos are by Dan...I'll post a link to his site soon.)

I probably won't get to post more images from the weekend's shoot due to my busy Tuesday and a completely useless home computer. I am told that I will have premiere sometime this week on my office computer. Any way, here are a few shots.

Will gets initiated into the wonder that is ICE COLD WELL WATER!

Will, tracking the Garum as the Death Runner (not seen here) draws out the beast...

Hey, Will, ya got a little something on yer cheek, pal.


The beast...no wait, that's Matt directing Leigh...another warrior tracking the Garum.


A graceful death for Leigh...


I'm not sure who looks scarier...Tarina or me.

a slightly sad note...

just viewed the footage...tho it was all nicely cropped, most of it was really washed out due to the bright sun shine and lack of clouds. The Canon XL has a manual aperture...but it is not always utilized to it's fullest...and then, sometimes the light is so bright, there is nothing you can do, other than pray for clouds. It was STUPID sunny today and that played havoc with the light.

I can fix it in post the same way I fixed the other stuff that was washed out...

But the truly sad note is the great scene that Tarina and Liegh did together. IT WAS ALL OUT OF FOCUS. DRAT! Inexcusable. The beatings will begin tomorrow at noon!

WHAT A DAY! Wish every day was this much fun...

Started off with a breakfast of 3 sunny side up eggs, a pound (or so) of hash browns, three sausage patties and two slices of whole wheat toast and 5 cups of coffee. Then it was out to the woods to reshoot and do some extra shots to make our 'warrior' scene more exciting. Matt brought in his team from the IPFW film club and they did a fantastic job. Dan took great photos (about a million) that I need to go through before I can post the...but I will post them Sunday night. So special thanks to Will, Liegh (whose name I have misspelled) Tarina, Chris, Kelsey, Matt, Stephanie, Andy, A-Dub, and Dan.

Also on the forefront, Somnambulist Red has done a fantastic job of creating the atmosphere of the movie. Without Sean and Jay and the guys we would not have the FEEL of the movie. They have changed the story direction and color of it in ways I did not anticipate so hats off to them. I have finally finished the music editing.

And one last bit. I have been trying to find someone who is the opposite of S.R. for the end credits, yet someone who could exist in their world...does that even make sense? Well I did. Check these guys and gals out. They are writing the end credits theme.

This is odd...but good.

Tomorrow we are headed back to the woods to shoot some footage I always wanted in the movie. With CG work at a virtual stand still, Matt and I figured we might as well shoot some more stuff that we were unable to get due to budget, the lack of actors and time. I'll post images tomorrow afternoon...this should be a lot of fun. Then on Sunday I get the Laptop back so I can edit the footage in.

Exciting stuff on the horizon...

Matt and I have been talking about how to finish this movie...and it needs to get finished before people start killing me...and by people, I mean everyone who has heard me talking about this movie for the PAST THREE YEARS!

Problem at hand 1) missing footage. Three key scenes are gone and there is no way to recapture them due to budget, costume and availability of actors.

Problem at hand 2) Green screen scenes of Gwen fighting the Garum are no longer possible due to the fact that Danielle is expecting a baby

Problem at hand 3) CG work is just not getting done.

Problem at hand 4) the scene with the warriors running into the forest to slay the Garum is about ten warriors short.

Problem at hand 5) the sound still hasn't been done yet.

And now the solutions.

#5 - Matt has informed me that Studio M is back up and running and better than ever!
#4 - Matt has convinced many 'warriors' to run blindly through the woods this Saturday and we are going to shoot it! Go MATT!
#3 - Give Ted and Ron $1,000,000 each to complete their CG work...okay...still working on that. Apparently these two are feeding kids and both are married and want to live in houses...
#2 - see #3...we'll make the fight at the end with the CG Gwen and dump lots of rain during the scene.
#1 - With some creative rewriting and two new scenes with Tarina (as Lilly) and Liegh Denton as 'the mysterious stranger' (real name to be revealed in the credits) we can actually fix the continuity and have an ending to the movie that has until now eluded me. (unfortunately one of our characters who previously lived...will now have to die...)