Television: October 2005 Archives
It's Wednesday, the hump of the week. I'm working away on our last commercial for GM. Two more shots that need to be completed for our Friday delivery. And then I move onto Charlotte's Web next week!
The independent Sundance film that a bunch of us are doing has a deadline of early next month. Our director will be coming at the end of this month to tell us if we're on the right track with our effects. I completed a temp shot over lunch yesterday that's pretty neat. I'm not sure if allowed to talk about this film, so I'll find out from our director when she comes in. The film hasn't been submitted to Sundance for qualification just yet, so our effects won't be in it when it is shown to the committee.
At the moment I'm listening to some ShoutCast radio while I do my work. ShoutCast has been around for a while. I remember listening to it back in Vancouver a mere three years ago, and recall racking up a HUGE amount of gigabytes downloaded (Think 40+ GB a month)! So much so that Shaw.ca called several times to find out why I downloaded so much. At least I wasn't serving it out! Shoutcast is streaming radio. On their website there are a wide range of channels that you can listen to, at various bit depths, of different music. My favorite channels that I've listened to over the years are mostly Digitally Imported and Groove Salad. Right now, it's Euro Trance on Digitally Imported FM. The great part of the channels that I'm listening to is that they have no commercials, and play mostly underground music (well, at least music I've never heard). This allows me to sample new music, and if I like it enough, I just jot the artist down and go web surfing to find the song. It's enabled me to find new tunes that my peers have never heard of; Dadamnphreaknoizfunk, Nautilus, Shpongle, Lemon Jelly, to name a few. Some of the sweetest music is underground.
Which brings up another topic. Just going to toss this out there, so feel free to comment. Would any of you be interested in a podcast of tips, tricks, and how-tos for Shake (or compositing in general)? This would enable you to learn while you listen. It could be beneficial, allowing people to learn about how to composite effectively without reading a book, and just by listening to my wonderful voice, guiding you through the tutorial. I'm going to look into it. I don't portray myself to be the be-all-know-it-all about visual effects, but who else is going to do it?
Ah. It's Friday again. And with the passing of another Friday comes the conclusion of another Impala spot. Our eight shots for the spot went fairly smoothly. We actually finished up everything last night, pending the view with the final cut. Any tweaks we do today will be last minute and minor. Out of the three remaining compers for the show, I'm the only one staying on to complete two extra shots from our second Impala commercial. It's possible that they wanted an alternate ending, so we're going to be doing that early next week.
In the interim after Impala, I'll be doing a shot with a bunch of other coworkers on a short film that will be entered into Sundance. The turnaround is pretty quick, and we're only doing six shots total. Should be a cool project!
Another swarm last night, this time only three of us tackled Redwood. It was fun, quick ride, probably at most an hour and a half. And of course, my light goes out 20 minutes from the end, and I get two flat tires. I definitely have to get a new battery pack, and new inner tubes.
A couple of commercials that we've been working on are now online! Check out the Tippett website to see the full commercial for the Impala SS and Milka!
The Milka commercial is called Downhill.. I did two shots in the spot. The one of the close up of the marmot on the bear, and the shot right after, as they careen down the side of the hill, all the while protecting the precious milk. Almost all, if not all, of our creature shots involved replacing the immediate sky and background, as well as adding additional camera pans and movement.
The Chevy Impala spot, Arrival, contains several neat shots. One is the opening shot I did, which involved converting a night timelapse into a dusk timelapse. A couple of the other shots I did in the spot include the one where the Impalas prance away from the car, and one immediately after that which shows the car's rear 3/4 view as the Impalas jump away. In addition, all the skies were replaced. They were originally dark skies, but we added our own LA skyline at dusk. A lot of the car was cleaned up to remove crew reflections, and add sweetener light passes from the multiple camera passes that were taken on set.
Coming soon to a TV near you, the remaining Chevy Impala spots that we're finishing up!
