October 2008 Blog Posts (16)

The Ian Report #428

Hello All!

The Goose is nearing completion!

A bit about the Goose: the Goose is the vehicle flown by the main characters, and is present in, like, 1/2 of all the CG shots in the movie. I'm serious. The number of times you see this ship flying around cannot be overstated. Except if, say, you said a billion.

Shots with the Goose typically won't take too long to finish, once everything's up and running, meaning that… Continue

Added by Ian Hubert on October 30, 2008 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Interview: Barry Gregg

How old are you and why?

55, so far. Because 1953 was a most awesome year; the same year as the first summit of Everest by Edmond Hillary and Tensing Norgay.

What got you started in film work?

I grew up an atheist. At the age of 17 I became a Christian and dropped the goal of becoming a nuclear physicist and substituted the goal of making movies for God. Project London was my first… Continue

Added by Nathan McCoy on October 28, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

Graphic Novel: Update #18

The mock-up is due on Monday!

I am extremely excited about this. The most exciting thing is looking at the pages in sequence and seeing them actually convey a story. I'm jazzed.

It's not finished at the moment, though. I hope to pull some long nights tomorrow and Sunday and see if I can get the thing finished off.

Branson… Continue

Added by Branson on October 25, 2008 at 9:00am — No Comments

The Ian Report: "Jerry's on the roof!"

It's always the innocent looking shots that are the hardest.

For example, in a scene full of exploding ships, slow-motion aerobatics, flying missiles and bullets and muzzle flashes, the most difficult effect for me so far (well, more or less) is trying to paint out a safety rope.

It's a shot for which we got no background plate (the background was moving clouds anyway), and the only shot in the movie (I believe) we used… Continue

Added by Ian Hubert on October 24, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

Interview: Scott Burnett

How old are you and why?

more than halfway home (because I've thus far failed to find a loophole in the second law of thermodynamics)

What got you started in film work?

delusions of grandeur

What are you working on in the movie?

soundtrack

What are your favorite movies?

LOTR trilogy

Waiting For Guffman

Babette's… Continue

Added by Nathan McCoy on October 21, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

The Producer’s Report #50

I am pleased to announce that Michael Battcock has joined the Post Audio Team to help with dialogue synchronization. We now have three people working on this which means that we will soon flood Dan with a ton of clips ready for scrubbing (noise reduction and mild compression, etc.). Fun stuff!

Things are getting very exciting. We are working on a social network website for the project; a place where we can all interact with the… Continue

Added by Phil McCoy on October 19, 2008 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Graphic Novel: Update #17

Added by Branson on October 18, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

The Ian Report #426

One of my favorite things about doing postwork on Project London is that it gives me a chance to rethink how a scene works.

Post provides a lot of options, and we're NOT forced to live with whatever the footage provides, especially in this new crazy age of technical marvels. Say we forgot a scene, and want to do it in... stop motion? Or with flip books?… Continue

Added by Ian Hubert on October 16, 2008 at 9:00pm — No Comments

Interview: Mike Belanger

How old are you and why?

24, you'd have to ask my parents why

What got you started in film work?

No particular thing, just the general feeling of being able to craft your own film, or help someone else to do so.

What are you working on in the movie?

The animating/rigging of various things. So far the red exosuit, and part of the… Continue

Added by Nathan McCoy on October 14, 2008 at 1:30am — No Comments

The Producer’s Report #49

I am very pleased to announce that Scott Burnett is going to "test the water" as our soundtrack producer. Scott met with Ian, Nate and I last Monday evening to see the film and talk about approach. It was a great meeting and Scott's ideas inspired us. He's going to take a stab at developing pieces of those ideas over the next couple weeks to see how things come together.

Jen Forbes continues to be a powerhouse of productivity. Not… Continue

Added by Phil McCoy on October 12, 2008 at 2:00am — No Comments

Graphic Novel: Update #16

Dearest Reader: Good sir! How is it going?

Most Esteemed Branson: It is well.

D.R.: And the graphic novel?

M.E.B.: It is a mighty bit of work, but it is coming together.

D.R.: How do you find direction in this sea of image and word?

M.E.B.: T'isn't easy. I have recently picked up a excellent book called "Understanding Comics" by a very intelligent fellow named Scott McCloud. A little study… Continue

Added by Branson on October 11, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

The Ian Report #425

The weeks move along!

It feels like we're always on the cusp of a big breakthrough (and many times we are), but I'm really feeling it this time; Ian Wilmoth is wrapping one of (if not THE) most complex models in the movie, Icarias, the floating restaurant, and soon we'll be able to start shots for that long sequence, Mike Belanger and Nathan Taylor are putting the finishing touches on the Tankbot (setting up the physics so that it can… Continue

Added by Ian Hubert on October 10, 2008 at 2:00am — No Comments

Interview: Sean Anderson

What is your name?

Sean Edward Anderson

How old are you and why?

22, because I'm a product of the 80s.

What got you started in film work?

Watching the Matrix and saying "I'm gonna make a parody of that!" That, and making a VHS videos like "Smoking in Bed" in the Caronti's basement.

What are you working on in the… Continue

Added by Nathan McCoy on October 7, 2008 at 1:00am — No Comments

The Ian Report #424

At the most basic level, I generally break down the CG work being done on Project London into two parts; the 3D work and the compositing. Both are equally important and complicated. During the average week I usually see great progress in either one of the two areas. This last week showed great progress in both.

We had a showing of the movie Sunday evening (10/28)… Continue

Added by Ian Hubert on October 6, 2008 at 2:00am — No Comments

The Producer’s Report #48

Ok. So last weekend a few of us sat down and watched Project London in its current form (screening #3). It was epic and fun and we received some useful feedback from the select group of invitees on the post-production team (locals).

We are looking for a talented producer to handle soundtrack chores. We are interviewing one candidate this week. Also related to audio, we welcome Sean Anderson to the team. Sean will be working to sync… Continue

Added by Phil McCoy on October 5, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments

Graphic Novel: Update #15

Hey everybody. This concludes my first week back at school, and an interesting week it has been. One of the fascinating things about going back to school is all of the exciting art techniques that I'm learning. I've learned alot about things like oil colors and how they interact with stuff like water, about the fabric dying and tie-dying process, and about the photographic development process. Every day as I see some new, rad visual technique I… Continue

Added by Branson on October 4, 2008 at 9:30am — No Comments