Defending timespace in 3D

February 28, 2012

Introducing our new secret weapon: 3D matte painter and VFX artist Adam Kuczek…

(The above image is from the upcoming NEW and AMAZING 95ers movie poster. Stay tuned for that.)

Over the last few years, I have had the great displeasure of spending thousands of hours creating many of the visual effects for the movie… There is a ludicrous amount of compositing, greenscreening, and fancy particle effects, etc. throughout the movie, payment for which was required in SILVER. Silver hairs.

Our awesome miniatures and cool sci-fi sets were of course created by Hollywood veteran and time machine engineer/puppeteer Clark Schaffer. Clark and I are huge fans of traditional in-camera VFX with miniatures, sets, and cinematic trickery of all sorts, a la the original Star Wars movies.

But lurking in the back of my mind throughout all this time were a couple of final shots… Shots that had haunted me ever since I did that darn rewrite on the script. Shots that would be way too expensive to do as miniatures and with motion control. But shots that I HAD TO HAVE nonetheless! Shots that would add production value, tell critical parts of the story, boost sci-fi “epicness”, and help sell the movie. I needed a 3D matte painting, something outside of my realm. I searched and searched, deep into the portfoliac recesses of the web, and finally found a teacher-turned-VFX-guy from Poland living in Shanghai!!!

It was this cool shot that first grabbed my attention…

Please welcome Adam Kuczek to the 95ers VFX team! Frankly, Adam has been a delight to work with. Not only is he a fantastic talent, he also has a strong sense of visual cinematic storytelling. I can’t show you the shots he’s done for us yet… but in the upcoming “95ers official trailer 2,” due in about two weeks, you’ll see a glimpse them. Until then, explore his site and enjoy his reel.

Spaceships in a time travel movie?

February 12, 2012

“But I thought 95ers was a time travel movie? A quantum-delving, soul-impacting, spine-tingling, popcorn-munching paranormal time travel movie?”

It is indeed all those things, folks, and much more. Time travelers do go to 31st century from time to time. (Well, technically, in 95ers:ECHOES we only go to the 27th century, but who’s counting.)

Very few people, even in the Chronos Protectorate, know much about the “spaceship” component in 95ers. And at long last, even as I go into meetings with distributors (in fact I have one tomorrow), the final visual effects shots are being completed. And one of them includes SPACESHIPS!

The grand story arc of 95ers includes pitched battles in space as well as aerial dogfights much more akin to Star Wars than Top Gun.

Over the years various awesome artists have been creating ship concepts for the 95ers Universe. And in a matter of days, you’ll see one of them come to life in the updated movie trailer.

Here are some early concepts. Most of this work was developed for what is planned to be the third movie in the 95ers franchise.

Clark Schaffer for 95ers - click to enlarge

Kip Rasmussen for 95ers - click to enlarge

Justin Kunz for 95ers - click to enlarge

Adam Kuczek for 95ers - click to enlarge

Here’s a cool full color piece of concept art by the amazing Clark Schaffer.

And here’s one of my favorite early concept pieces, by Justin Kunz. You can see teeny tiny ships in the distance.

This mega-cool poster concept for a future 95ers project also shows a glimpse of ships (including an old Spanish galleon…).

Finally, here are some LOW REZ UNTEXTURED AND UNLIT looks at the ships you’ll soon be seeing in 95ers:ECHOES—our current project, soon to be snapped up by a distributor. This 3d model—and I stress that is it only a previz—is compliments of Adam Kuczek. (Adam is new to the team and I’ll be giving him a full introduction in my NEXT blog post…)

Continuing Madness and Marvels

October 1, 2011

Screening mayhem and success… entering the distribution game… broke again and other miscellaneous travails…

(Lots of screening pics at end of post…)

I finally have two seconds to send out an update. Actually, I don’t have two seconds, but you deserve an update anyway! I will write this in reverse chronological order, as any good time-bending franchise must do from time to time.

–45 DAYS AFTER SCREENING (now–Saturday, Oct 1): Wrote this post. Racing to finish new movie trailer–to fuel buzz and attract more distributors. Then to finish screener and send to distribs.

–45 DAYS AFTER SCREENING (now): Still doing greenscreens and other vfx polishing. Endless hours of rotoscoping.

–40 DAYS AFTER SCREENING: Awesome futuristic matte painting (the shot out the circular window) finally underway. Should be ready to shoot in a couple weeks.

–4 WEEKS AFTER SCREENING: Foreseen and unforeseen challenges combine and we’re out of $$ once again, with final post expenses adding up to towering heights. Weight of doom back on the job.

–3 WEEKS AFTER SCREENING: Meet with distributor very interested in 95ers. Also wants screener.

–WEEK AFTER SCREENING: Begin greenscreen compositing and other vfx not done for screening.

–A FEW MORE DAYS AFTER SCREENING: Got some great distribution advice and offers of help from some very cool Hollywood gents.

–A FEW MORE DAYS AFTER SCREENING: Successful indie filmmaker and seller-of-films wants screener.

–A FEW DAYS AFTER SCREENING: Movie rep out of San Fran asks to take movie to American Film Market. Is patiently awaiting screener.

–MORNING AFTER SCREENING: Go to day job. Work around clock for next week at day job.

–AFTER SCREENING: Hugs and kisses all around. Stunningly positive feedback, even from tough critics. Weight of doom takes a break.

–IMMEDIATELY AFTER SCREENING: Successful foreign markets distributor gives very generous congratulations and asks for screener as soon as it’s ready.

–SCREENING: Great energy in the room. Movie looks and sounds super. People laughing and ooing all at the right times. Weight of doom lifting.

–5 MINS BEFORE SCREENING: I do my best to give a little thank you speech–and bring back the 80’s with my feathered hair and purple shirt. (Honestly, I was so happy and grateful to see so many friends and family and fans and cast/crew members from all over–even from overseas! It was wonderful.) At the same time, fabulous friends take care of technical difficulties, and hook my computer into the theater projector.

–15 MINS BEFORE SCREENING: I miss the turn-off to get to theater.

–30-MINS BEFORE SCREENING: Standup comedian Mike Guido keeps the crowd happy during delays.

–AN HOUR BEFORE SCREENING: Ludicrous technical difficulties force me to abandon creating movie file for screening, and instead pack up my entire editing system

–A FEW HOURS BEFORE SCREENING: Frantically trying to finish a few more vfx shots for screening.

–4 HOURS BEFORE SCREENING: Colorist delivers final colored video files.

–THE MORNING BEFORE SCREENING: Download final audio for screening.

–NIGHT BEFORE SCREENING: Nervous breakdowns occurred at my house. We’re thinking screening will be a disaster. The weight of doom descends upon us.

–FOR 4+ YEARS: Seemingly insurmountable obstacles appear every couple months. A constant and bloody battle. But tons of support from wonderful people.

–MORE THAN 4 YEARS BEFORE SCREENING: Set out to make a sci-fi indie movie.

–MORE THAN 10 YEARS BEFORE SCREENING: Bro James and I create awesome sci-fi universe.

A FEW PICS FROM SCREENING IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!