some good news...

Just heard from Arizona Ted. He has five days off of work now and is going to get back to editing and creating some much needed SPFX...hope he hasn't forgotten how. When he sends me stuff, I'll post it.

Also, heard from Jon. He and his brother are going to attempt to do part one of the graphic novel of Darkness Adtermath. Coolness.

Coolness thing of the week.

The Planet if for rent and getting some pretty cool advertising as this Video Rental Vendor at Scotts Grocery stores. Congrats to the guys in Scotland! Go Michael, Mark and Kerwin!

Thanks to Matt. M. for spotting this!

After 4 days of cars...

...driving over Lincoln's head, it's still in pretty good shape.

Will it ever end?

I met with Ron Lewis and he is going to take the footage of Danielle and any shots we have of the forest and cut together the fight between the Garum and Gwen (Danielle). It is in his hands now. Once I get the edits from Arizona Ted I can drop those in and then Jon and I can put the CG Drifter passing through the forest from Lilly's POV. Then we just have the sound to worry about...I mean, complete.

CHALK WALK

It's that time of year again. I have an 8 ft x 8 ft square of scalding hot pavement to draw on and I chose to do a large portrait of Lincoln (our Lincoln Museum just left town permanently and I felt that it would be symbolic to draw the man on the pavement knowing that he would be gone by 9:00 pm sunday night.

First I laid down a tempera base to draw on.





Then the fun begins...the wind was wicked and I used a lot of hair spray to set it firm into the texture of the pavement.





My hands hurt, my feet hurt, my back is sore and my wife got so sunburned I call her the tomato. But it was finally done and now that I see that the clock says it is 9 pm, any moment, cars will be driving over it. By Monday night, there won't be much left.

Almost there...almost there...

Michael Clark said, "You know, good sound doesn't cover bad edits and mistakes. Good edits and getting rid of mistakes does. (unless you're in Hollywood of course)."

And it is so true. I had the laptop for a few days again and was able to edit in some of the storyboards for the CG action. The fight scene is going to work now and I am very happy. The movie is not what I had dreamed it to be, but it is close to being finished and it is more than I have ever done in the past. I am so glad that I edited the five pages of notes because it is a lot more of a fluid story. I can't wait to remix the sound with the ADR and Foley and soundtrack.

You think you're close, but then you aren't...

I'd not looked at the "final rough cut" edit (as I am calling it) for some time. But then the other day I watched it on a computer that didn't have a sound card. What blew me away was how many mistakes and bad edits there were. FIVE PAGES WORTH! Sound really covers a lot of errors, I guess.

I think my brain just threw up

I just read this on IMDB.com re: the AKIRA live action remake.

"Two part Live action film based on the six volume Manga Akira. This first film, due for a 2009 release, will be based on the first three volumes of the Manga.

Set in New-Manhattan a city rebuilt with Japanese money, the story focuses on two biker friends. Further plot is not known at this time."

NEW MANHATTAN? BUILT WITH JAPANESE MONEY? FURTHER PLOT NOT KNOW? And worse yet, Leonardo Decaprio is rumored to be in it. WHY?!?! (drops to knees and raises fists ti the cloudy skies) KAHN! KAHN! KA- oh wait...inspired by Jon there for a moment. (shouts) NO! NO! NO!

BIRTHDAY time...

July 4th is the day that it was announced that the Declaration of Independence was signed (the actual day it was signed was July the 2nd, I believe). So Happy 4th of July.

On a much smaller note, though very special to me, this is the third birthday of the idea of Darkness Aftermath. It was July 4th 2005 that I sat at my wife's, Uncle's lake house and drew out the first few pages of the storyboards for the movie.

On Sunday I am heading back to the same lake house...I will have a bunch of blank storyboards to take with me as I am going to storyboard the final battle between Gwen and the Garum...it will be 90% CG. I have some shots of Gwen (Danielle) that we will use, but most of the fight scene will be CG...it is the only way...unless we resort to claymation...

RAIN

We have had so much rain this summer...and cloud coverage? Fantastic. Too bad we aren't shooting a movie about rain. We even had a lightning strike in our back yard that stuck a high limb on one of our trees. The falling limb was slowed down by the garage roof and the electrical wires. It then hit our 12 ft. inflatable pool and drained all of the water. The pool survived.

We are expecting more thunderstorms tonight.

what to do...a quiz

What do you do when you've edited your movie together and there are several plot holes due to important footage that is missing?

a) State, "I always intended it to be this way. That was my first version. It always has been. Oh...and it's Darkness Aftermath episode 4, by the way. I'll clarify the story in the prequels because it was always meant to be the Tragedy of the Garum, not the adventures of Gwen"

b) get creative, REALLY creative with the editing.

c) Dub the entire movie in German and use French subtitles.

d) rewrite the story with a narrative voice over.

e) all the above.

Suh-weet!

Got internet back!

And then tonight I dropped off my keys and other stuff at my old job and walked out for the last time...it felt good. I reached into my pocket to pull out the keys to my truck and realized that I was holding the key to my new office. YEAH!

old job office - basement storage closet that I share with two other guys. It is also the storage closet for old paper that no one wants to throw away even tho it is rotting. Also, low ceilings and a strange pipe that constantly hisses. Plus the room is about the size of an average bathroom.

new job office - upstairs room with my desk next to a window. I will have a computer that works and isn't 1,000 years old. I share the room with others but they have their own desks. There is a sink and shelves and (oddly enough) no old, rotting paper! I also get my name on the wall outside of my door. Plus the whole dang thing isn't in a low ceiling, black walled basement!

No internet at home

Things have been a bit slow without the internet at home. Seems our Verizon router has died. Should have a new one by Wed.

ARRRRRG!

Just found out that the sound lab is being worked on. They are expanding the studio so we are out of luck for ADR for now. poop!

Sound

This week I'll be getting Matt the revised script and he'll dive fully into the ADR.

Saying good bye is never easy...

Today I had to return the laptop that I was using to edit the movie. Greg needed it for church since his old one was fried. Sigh...But the good news is that I am done with the editing and I have several DVD's burned as well as everything backed up on the external hard drive. I plan to load the movie onto one of the computers at IPFW (maybe even on my office computer...I move into my office on Monday!) But still, I'll miss the late night and early morning editing session...

More good stuff...

It seems that the return of Danielle is just the beginning of the good fortune which seems to have landed at our camp. I was able to get the final rough cut done, rendered and burned onto a DVD. I can now get one to Matt for sound, one to Ted for the Lilly and the demons scene and one to Ron for our Garum shots. Good stuff!

Oh, and Michael, I am resending the package today. It has the hat, the graphic novel and the soundtrack.

Go GERMANY!

It seems that Germany likes us...sort a. 24 visits. What does this mean? Perhaps they could leave a message...no?

The search is over...

...Finally got in touch with Danille. She is alive and well and ready to do the narration and voice over! Apparently she was abducted by aliens and only recently returned to earth.

Good times...and Star Wars rants

I dumped all of the raw footage onto an external hard drive (supplied to me by Arizona Ted) and the lap top runs smoothly now. I've been placing cloud montages into the movie and it is working out nicely. Ted had a Disc of clouds that we were using, but then with the move, stolen lap top and alien invasion, I sorta decided that I wanted something eles in the transitions. I was going to go back to the EVIL XL2, but then came across some high res images of storm clouds that I had shot two summers ago. They were on the PC in my den that no one uses. They are cutting together quite well.

Also, I've been rethinking my (not so much hate) disgust with George Lucas. The first Star Wars movie changed me in ways too numerous to state in this meager post, and it was that movie that has inspired me to be creative. Empire also sparked me. Jedi, not so much (due to the Ewoks). The space battles and saber fight did bring me back to the theater 10 times, but the Teddy Bears really drove me nuts. When the new trilogy came out, I was stoked. I even liked Phantom. Liam and Ewan were great. But the more I watched it, the more I started doubting it. Missing was the awe I felt when the Star Destroyer flew over head above Tatooine. But then I thought, it's an okay prolog and Darth Maul was wicked awsome (yeah, I said that). But then the next one came out and I was like...okay...this is somewhat better than the first. But couldn't they aford an actor for the part of Anakin? But then there was some cool battles and saber fights. And I knew that Lucas wouldn't let us down with the third one. When Revenge started, I knew that THIS was the one I was waiting for. And it seemed, at first, to be IT! The battles ROCKED, Ewan was great and someone gave Hayden some (SOME) acting lessons. The saber duels were, of course, fantastic. I felt good leaving the theater (although there were some nagging questions at the back of my mind...1) how does Obi wan age 40 or 50 years in a matter of 18 year (Owen Lars seems to be troubled by the same aging problems) 2) Why did Luke keep his same last name? Couldn't Darth Vader simply say, "Hey, any Skywalkers out there? I need you on my team." If you hide a kid shouldn't you change his name? 3) In Empire Ben says "that boy is our last hope." and Yoda says, "No...there is another." So did Ben forget about Luke's Twin sister. 4) JAR JAR 5) Midi Cloreans (sp?) Really? Seriously? 6) If the force runs strong in family lines, wouldn't it be wise for Jedi to hook up and make little baby Jedi? ARRRG. It all started falling apart. And then it hit me. And it hit me HARD. I liked the space battles and saber fights in VI, I, II and III, but that was about it. Star Wars and Empire weren't just about space battles and saber fights. They had soul.

So I started reading "The Making of Star Wars" again. Lucas was a driven man and had real faith in his actors. When I read about the way he praised his actors it makes me sorta shocked that he would have Terence Stamp stand next to a pole with a post it note that says Natalie Portman and expect him to act since Portman was unable to be there. He seems to treat the actors as effects now, when before he had such high regard for them.

Our movie has been frought with many curses and it's great to read through the Making of Star Wars and see that Lucas continued forward despite all hell breaking loose. But maybe that's what makes a great movie. When he had all of the money in the world to "Make the movie I (George) always wanted to make" he seems to have lost his soul...or did he?

Conspiracy Theory time...Paul and George are dead. My cousin Steve once told me the story about the rumors of Paul McCartney's death and replacement. I was buying into the whole story as he showed me the cover of "Abbey Road" and Paul had no shoes (becuase he was dead). Then he started laughing at me for believing the whole tale. But, what if George died after Empire or midway through Jedi and was replaced by a look-a-like (with a large neck). That could explain a lot.

Star Wars is still my all time favorite movie and it has inspired me to make movies, but episode I, II, and III and half of VI are just cool space ship battles and saber duels.


Not sure where that rant came from...

A wild ride and a great day.

On Friday, June 7th, I...

1) turned in my letter of resignation at my 'other' job.
2) signed my contract at my 'new' job.
3) showed the rough cut to some of the local neighbor kids (they liked it).
4) sat out on the porch with an ONYX and some Merlot.
5) watched a really cool storm pass through (tornadoes spotted, but no one hurt).

After the storm passed there was a really cool rainbow in a sort of yellow green sky. I'll post photos later.

Then, late last night, watched (and was totally blown away by) the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica.

tired...

Spent the whole day doing construction work for a friend. I arrived on the site and found that the person who was working on the house before me had not finished his job. I spent all day finishing his work. Tomorrow I start doing the job I was hired to do. Things were going okay until the nail gun shot a nail into my palm. It was surprisingly painless, though it bled like a spigot. I know, I know, takes real talent to shoot yourself with a nail gun. I put a bid on a barn that I might paint. If that falls through for Friday, I'll be back on the computer at IPFW doing some more Rain Effects with my new favorite program.

Oh, and Ted, your fired!

Just kidding...thought you might be missing the luv!

Rain Maker

I got onto After Effects today and started adding rain to some of the scenes. I LIKE IT. Can't wait to start learning more of the program.

...expect a lot of creativity this week...

...it's 12:13 am and the thunder is just starting...it is supposed to rain all week long. As you know...rain is my muse...

...and the good news is...drum roll please!

Full time employment at IPFW! YEAH BABY! WE ARE TALKIN' BENEFITS AND POTENTIAL LIFE-LONG EMPLOYMENT! THIS IS IT! CELEBRATE! I AM STOKED!

The actual title is Visiting Lecturer.

THE EYE!

After the opening scene where the camera flies over the clouds and dips through them to skim across the forest landscape (courtesy of Michael Clark) the camera then pulls out of Gwen's eye so that we see how damaged her eye is from the rain. This was envisioned as a scene with blinking and a blindfold eventually covering the eye, but due to the lack of "Gwen" I've opted for a still shot. Here is the eye of a friend of mine. I've altered it to look like the burned eye of Gwen. The camera will pull out from Michael's landscape to the final eye seen at the bottom and then dissolve into Gwen's flashback...

Good times...bad times...

I have some great news but I can't share it with anyone on line until Monday...

Also, today it started raining around 7:00 pm and it is still coming down. I'm psyched. I got more done on the movie because as everyone who knows me knows, rain inspires me. We have had a lot of rain and thunder and lightning...

On a sad note, no one on the crew has heard from Danielle...I am truly getting worried.

We have an actress set to dub her lines, but I am more concerned about the fact that a friend is missing than I am about the movie.

Liegh Denton


has agreed to step in and dub the lines. She is really talented and I have had her work as a choreographer in the past, but her vocal intonations are really close to Danielles...so it should work...

It helps being 6 ft 7 in and 285

85%

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

Commentary...

I had given a copy of Darkness Aftermath to me friend Bob to watch and today we both sat down and viewed it. Bob has a widescreen TV and KILLER sound system. It was great hearing all of the sound effects that I had mixed in. I also realized after we were done watching it (there was no real dialog mixed in) that I had sort of given him a directors commentary of the whole thing. It sort of re-energized me and I'm ready to get crackin' on it again.

Ted (before he left for a warmer clime) was working on this...

...scene of Lilly (Tarina) before she explodes...this is a low res image.

In the meantime...

When I'm not editing, I'm watching the third season of Battlestar Galactica and listening to the commentary tracks. I'm also revisiting Marvel's attempt at the original series. Tho it was made in 1979, they touched on some really deep issues and the comics were much heavier than the TV series. In fact Marvel's vision was a lot closer to the current BG. I'm really enjoying the series and glad that I have all of them...not all are shown in this image...the final issue is about Jolly, one of my favorite original BG guys. I was bummed that he did not make it into the series. However, when Kara (Starbuck) was reading a list of names of fallen pilots, she included Jolly...that made me happy...that made me sad...

SUSHI

Well, as some of you know, the movie has been plagued with all sorts of problems as of late. Yesterday all of the stress of the problems hit me and I was really bummed. But today went better and I'm excited again about moving forward on the movie...and this is what helped get me over my funk.

1. An unexpected bit of rain (that always makes me happy)

2. An unexpected plethora of SUSHI! There is a buffet that my family and I got to and they have a sushi bar off to the side. Most buffets have a little bit of sushi here and there, but this one had at least twenty different bite sized bits o' scrumptious joy! Plus I had some great baked crab meat, some spicy squid and a chicken and rice mix stuffed in grape leaves.

Now, back to editing!

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse...

Today was horrible. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, went well today. But I was trying to maintain a positive attitude when Ted called and told me that someone had stolen his lap top from his house in broad daylight!

...an idea!

I have decided to dump everything from my borrowed laptop onto a computer at IPFW where I can have a little bit more memory to mess with...I am sure that everything will go fine...












except for the fact that IPFW is home of many gremlins. We'll see what we can do...

Working...fixing...

Ted leaves for Arizona on Tuesday so we spent the whole afternoon working on the movie trying to get it to a point where we no longer need to be sitting in the same room to complete it. We got a lot done.

Just saw IRON MAN...

IT ROCKED! No complaints.

Just saw the trailer for The Spirit

yuck!

Gonna' see IRON MAN tonight to cheer myself up.

More setbacks...

I'm too frustrated to even post about how messed up the movie is right now due to technical errors that are beyond my control...

You might have noticed the new banner...

We shot a lot of footage that revealed what happened (in the dialog) with "switch and the Garum" and Gwen...but the footage, for the most part, was eaten by the Canon XLPOS! So I decided not to put Megan through another 2 and a half hours of make up for a reshoot and we went ahead and shot her narrative as if it actually happened. The above banner shows Switchella and the 'after-attacked' Switch. I am extremely happy with the way it all worked out.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!

Last night I did the final cut of the movie. I put in blank forest scenes where Ron will add the GARUM and where Ted will add the DRIFTERS. And then...I restarted my computer to play back what I had done. However, instead of a free flowing movie, I saw that the footage needed to all be re-rendered.

The line of edited 'stuff' should look like this...


All of my dissolves and fades and dips should have been rendered, as should have my color corrections. However, when I opened my file, all of the transitions and color corrections were not rendered. They had the red stripe of death about them...which meant that they had to be re-rendered...the computer complained that it would be a three hour task...however, every time I tried this, it kept locking up.

Finally (around 3:00am) I gave up and today dumped everything onto Ted's computer. He will fix it and life will be good again...I hope.

Coolness...

Its sorta cool seeing who is visiting the blog with the flag counter (so...post a comment already). All right. Here is the update.

Last night I went to the woods where we shot the movie so that Ron would have some 'plates' to put the Garum on. I shot some footage and walked through the scenes so that he could place the creature behind and in front of trees.

And then something odd happened...

I recalled the moment that I scouted that location. No actors, no crew, just me in the woods checking it out and envisioning how the movie would look. There is a log that stretches across a wide path that became Gwen's (Danielle's) resting place. I looked at the log with a bit of sadness. The shoot is over and we won't be back to this place again...

Then I got to thinking about the sword...in the movie, Gwen loses her sword (the one that the Old Caretaker has entrusted to her)...as I watch the footage of Gwen (Dani) trying to find the weapon after the Garum has knocked it from her grip, I felt a certain sadness that I did not expect to feel.

The movie is winding down.

I return the Cursed Canon XL1 to IPFW tomorrow and know that I will not use it again on this project.

All that is left is the SPFX. I will not shoot another frame of footage on this movie again.

I am happy.

I am sad.

Finished editing Lilly and Switchella

Screen grabs.

Rain...but no rain.

At 8:15 am the sky was filled with dark clouds and the rain was falling gently. By the time we were set up and ready to shoot at 9:30, the sky was clear and no rain was to be seen until tonight as I post this and it is raining again...

So here is the day's shoot. (all photos taken by my two sons Zack and Max)

Greg Minick stepped in to work the camera. We went to high school together(learned video production from the same guy - Chuck) but never really made the connection after attending the same church for over a year. It was a funny moment when we realized that we graduated at the same time...odd. He did great work today.


This is Lilly's hand gun. We never shot it last year and today we got the close up we needed.


It was extremely cold, despite the sun and cloudless sky and I had provided a thermos full of hot water for the actresses to use to keep wet since the rain did not co-operate. Here you can see steam rising from Megan (Switch before the mutilation) as she douses herself with the hot water.



Tarina spent most of the time in a tree, tho we let her down toward the end.




Then at 1:30 I shot the scenes of Luke (Clarr) that disappeared mysteriously, and I can now say that shooting of our actors is done. I am going to the Hunter location tomorrow to get the background plate shots for Ron's Garum effects and the green screened Drifters. Then thats it. We add sound and dialog and it's finished. For the first time I can actually see the movie coming to an end. By Sunday night, I'll have a completed rough cut. The only thing missing will be the added effects. I'm psyched.

Saturday we shall have RAIN!

I'm RE-shooting some of the footage that got lost - swallowed by an evil black hole! It's supposed to rain on Saturday which is fantastic, since the rain rack was accidentally destroyed. I'll have some images to post tomorrow.

On a side note, it's sorta cool seeing who is dropping by the blog. Hey Canada and the rest of you all, leave a note and say hi. We'll send ya a DVD when it's all done.

And one last note. The hats are done. I am now taking orders. $12.00 is a real bargain.



Michael...your's will be put in the mail this week along with a copy of Sally's graphic novel and Sean's soundtrack. I was going to send it off last week, but then my sister told me that the hats were due to come in any day...

Flag counter added

Just added the flag counter to the right...should be interesting to see where visitors are from...I also added a day counter to the release (yeah, right) of the DVD. But for some reason it isn't counting down...any ideas?

Danielle is missing...

As we ease into our final stretch of the movie, we have been plagued with all sorts of misfortune...the most tragic is the sudden vanishing act that our lead has pulled. Danielle is missing and no one seems to know where she is. Yes we would like her to finish her dialog for the final mix, but more importantly, Ted and I and the rest of the gang are getting concerned since no one seems to know where she is...

This is so wrong...

28

editing...

...and editing and editing and editing. Will it never end? (I'm actually loving it) The movie is really tightening up. I chopped at least eight minutes of 'stuff' this week to move the story along faster. There were extended scenes of training and Gwen learning to use a new weapon and Gwen traveling through the woods, but it was starting to feel like I was trying to make AN EPIC when it didn't need that. Now, if all of the people who had promised to act in the movie had actually shown up and participated, it would have had a much bigger feel to it, but the movie has evolved into a more intimate sort of story instead of the huge monster I had actually storyboarded and scripted.

The missing scenes...well, some of them...

I found some of the missing footage and figured out why they got lost. No names will be mentioned to protect the guilty...

We shot the wide angle shots of Debbie and Danielle on the log and then shot close ups. I found the Debbie close ups and added them into the mix...


Danea (Debbie) and Kasel (Matt) plot Gwen's demise...


Tho some claimed we never shot this scene...it was refreshing to find it. It is the final scene between Gwen and Danea...


Lilly confronts Gwen...good to have this...


This scene is where a blue firefly lands on Lilly's hand and then is killed due to the presence of the the DRIFTERS...



In this scene, Lilly tries to assure Gwen that she won't have to fight Danea...

Green Screen

We did some green screen work with Ron and the guys from ITT. He's assembled a group of talented and excited dudes and dudettes who are willing to meet on Saturday mornings for extra-non-school related activities.

Here a couple of the guys are rigging lights to get an even glow on the green screen.


Tim. The light meter guy. He's been doing a lot with the green screen lately.



Tucker (standing) aids with the light board. He works at the college TV station and has been a great help.



Some of the ITT Dudes.


Working on my tan.



The camera looks bigger when normal sized people stand next to it...


Ron Lewis. International Guitar Hero champion...



...and Demon Wrangler.


When we realized that we weren't going to be able to do our Drifter Demon in CG, I went old school and built a model of Sculpy and about 20 sticks of Hot Glue for texture. It's lit from inside (as you can see) and heavy. The shoot went aces and Ted, who was there tho not pictured, has done some great stuff combining Michael Clark's cloud fly-over with the Green Screened Demon.