Archive for August, 2007

I’m so impressed with how the coloring is coming along. It’s really amazing! You can so easily change the entire feel of a scene with color. Let me show you what we’re doing.

This movie is a thriller. There is a creepiness to it. It’s an “edge of your seat” kind of film. You don’t quite know what’s around the corner. So, typically, it’s good to show these things in darkness. But, our story takes place during the day. So, we needed to create a creepy, darkened shadowy feel inside the house.

However, when we shot a lot of the scenes, we lit them pretty bright. The reason we did that was to give us a lot of dynamic range regarding brightness (luminance) and color (chrominance). The nature of digital HD is that the dynamic range is pretty limited compared to film. So, we had to be careful that we didn’t go to bright (and blowout the whites) or too dark (and create digital noise).

So, with that mind, this is what our footage looked like right out of the camera:

Not too creepy. Pretty flat. No real depth.

And, no goosebumps.

So, we take the footage, add some shadowy vignettes, change the color a bit, lower the saturation (color) and crush the blacks, and get this:

Now, add some creepy music, some deep textural drone sounds, and viola!
Goosebumps!

Today, we start coloring. I’m looking forward to seeing how our colorist, Omar, will take our existing footage and create the movie’s tone and feel. Below are some screen grabs of our first pass at some of the shots.

What an exciting time for this project! We’re making great progress and achieving very exciting milestones!

Last week, we officially locked the edit. And what a relief! (Now, I can sleep at night.) The burden of finalizing the edit has been pretty intense. After working on the edit for four months straight, I’m very confident that the edit is solid, and the pacing is good. The feedback from the beta viewings has been really encouraging.

I must say, though, it was very hard for me to lock the edit, because I can tweak and polish till the cows come home. And as an artist, that’s difficult. But, it’s time to fling it out there and move on. As they say, an artist’s work is never finished–only abandoned.

Today, we officially head out on our next phase of post production. Literally. We’re packing our bags and making a two-week long road trip…

First, we’re headed to Austin to meet with our colorist, Omar. I’ll be meeting with him today to outline a strategy for coloring the film. We’ve been talking for quite a few months, but with the edit locked, he can start to work his magic.

After that, we’re driving to LA. Typically, I would have flown, but we’ve decided to go as a family and take a few detours along the way–Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, Gallup New Mexico (my birth town), Universal Studios, and the beach. I’ll be spending a day or two with my score and sound guy, Bryan Miller. I’m very excited about releasing him and his team to work their magic as well.

All in all, I’m very pleased with how things are progressing. I’m very excited about entering into the distribution phase. I believe there will be lots of great opportunities.