An Artificial Sunset
September 1st, 2006We are driving toward a milestone deliverabe, a storyboard video that will take our over 500 storyboard panels and edit them together with music created for the film, voice over dialog and sound Fx.
As much as working toward a tangible preproduction deliverable motivates us, it also gives us pause to consider what comes next.
Next? Along with the Storyboard video we should have robust designs of our sets, set dressings, props, vehicles ect…
Next is shooting our visual Fx… I know its backwards, you would normally do the visual Fx after the film is shot on set with the live action and actors. However in our production pipeline, shooting the visual Fx first, keeping in mind the need for revisions after shooting the live action, will give us a another proof of concept deliverable before we commit to the chaos of on-set production.
This is our Artificial Sunset between preproduction and production. Where can we legitimately draw the line from when we quit designing and when we are actually creating production ready visual effects?
I don’t suspect we can, which is why my determination that preproduction ends and production begins upon completion of the Storyboard video and beginning to work on an Animatic that will contain production ready visual effects for shots where there is no live action, (like a battle in space), is just an “Artificial Sunset,” that gives us some sense of direction and progress. Clearly there will be more tasks that are “preproduction” oriented to come as we push through production of visual effects shots.
I had the pleasure of discussing this with a new Member prospect, a talented artist recently arrived in Portland. We met for coffee as a follow up and orientation meeting after the recruiting meeting we had a week ago.
Save link above to see video. Pirate pods by Rob Brown based on design by David Binnig
