Check out the brand new trailer for Slow Fade. And after you've watched it spread the word by posting it on Facebook and telling others about Slow Fade. If you haven't yet visit us on Facebook and like our page. www.facebook.com/slowfadethemovie
Day 20 of 20 Video Work Complete
Day 20 was actually last Wednesday. The good news is that I did finish all of the video work on Wednesday and rendered out what is the final video that will be on the DVD. So what happens next? Well there are only a few things left to do. Finish the Audio, License all material used, create and edit special feature material, author the DVD menu, print a master DVD and then get it duplicated. Along side finishing the DVD work we will be doing a lot more marketing. Which means interviews, Trailers, Websites, blogs, and more.
We do not have a final release date yet but we are tentatively shooting for July 13th. Stay tuned as I will be blogging about what goes on during the marketing and DVD authoring time. If you have any questions about these processes I'd love to answer them and give you better insight into how ClockWorkCinema works and give you that behind the scenes look at the filmmaking process. So send your questions to ryan@cwcfilms.com and I'll do my best to answer your inquiries.
We do not have a final release date yet but we are tentatively shooting for July 13th. Stay tuned as I will be blogging about what goes on during the marketing and DVD authoring time. If you have any questions about these processes I'd love to answer them and give you better insight into how ClockWorkCinema works and give you that behind the scenes look at the filmmaking process. So send your questions to ryan@cwcfilms.com and I'll do my best to answer your inquiries.
Music for Slow Fade
Oh Horizon's single "I Need You" will be featured in Slow Fade along side great music from composer Rick Holets, and the Nate Williams Band. Be on the lookout for Oh Horizons album coming out later this month.
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| Oh Horizon - So It Seems Ep |
Day 18 of 20
Well today is 18 of 20. With only 2 days left it will be tight to finish up the last few things. Right now that consists of re coloring a few clips that didn't turn out the way I wanted it. And making a few adjustments to scenes that needed new pacing. Then I'll recheck all of the files and render out a final version of the movie.
With the video work being complete it will be on to correcting the audio and licensing the remaining music. The Audio work will begin next Tuesday at Wild Anthill Studio where my brother Aaron Anstett will remaster everything from the dialogue and music to the various sound effects and ambient background tracks.
While the audio goes through this process I'll begin the marketing stage and work on the special features for the DVD. And once we get some more information on the licensing timeline we'll set a release date for the movie. Right now we're shooting for mid - late July.
With the video work being complete it will be on to correcting the audio and licensing the remaining music. The Audio work will begin next Tuesday at Wild Anthill Studio where my brother Aaron Anstett will remaster everything from the dialogue and music to the various sound effects and ambient background tracks.
While the audio goes through this process I'll begin the marketing stage and work on the special features for the DVD. And once we get some more information on the licensing timeline we'll set a release date for the movie. Right now we're shooting for mid - late July.
Day 13 of 20 Licensing and DVD menu
Today was a very exciting day. Devon from Provident Music called me in regards to an awesome Christian song that we are looking to get the rights to use in the movie. After a wonderful chat with him, he passed me onto another guy who will be working out some of the details and hopefully we can press forward with licensing. This is an entirely new process that is both terrifying and exciting. I don't know exactly what to expect, but I know that God is in charge and will see this project through.
Another exciting aspect of the day was completing the rough draft of the DVD menu. It is very exciting to see each of these individual parts of the whole come together. The DVD menu has surpassed my expectations and is promising to be one of the most rewarding elements to complete as I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Realizing that this will be the first impression many will get of Slow Fade as they pop the DVD in for the first time.
There is still much to be done, and I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the content that will be on the DVD. And hopefully having a little time to produce a few more trailers for you guys and for promoting the movie.
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| DVD Studio Pro - Slow Fade Main Menu in Progress |
There is still much to be done, and I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of the content that will be on the DVD. And hopefully having a little time to produce a few more trailers for you guys and for promoting the movie.
Day 9 of 20
Tomorrow I will be rendering out what could be the final render of slow Fade. It has been nearly three years in the making and it feels good to be so close to finishing. If all goes well then there will only be a few audio corrections that still need to be made as well as working out the final licensing on all of the songs. It is very likely that Slow Fade will be complete by the end of the 20 working days. Let's see how things turn out tomorrow.
Day 8 of 20 Color Grading
So I've spent the last few months working on color correction and then color grading. You might ask if you've already color corrected the footage then what's the purpose of color grading? Let me briefly explain the differences between the two. Color correction is the process of relighting, and white balancing the clips to remove any unwanted color tint the footage may have picked up. Commonly footage will come onto the computer with a yellowish or blueish tint. These colors must be neutralized paying special attention to the skin tones making sure that they are the right color to make the actors look good. Color correction also aims to make sure each clip flows nicely and looks the same as the clip preceding and following it. Color grading is then taking the corrected sequences and adding artistic tints, color effects, or changing the saturation to achieve 3 different purposes.
1. Give it a look.
Often times when you go into a movie you expect that particular movie to have a certain look. Sometimes this is achieved by over or under saturating the entire movie or sequences in the movie. Sometimes it involves adding a tint of one color or another to make it look like it came from an different period.
2. Give it a mood.
Colors often affect our moods. The subtle addition of blue for instance reminds us of cold or even a lonely feeling. Red puts us in a state of caution or anger. And yellow/gold warms and makes us happy. These colors are often used to create a specific mood that the colorist wants you to be in at a certain moment.
And lastly,
3. It tells a story.
Along with putting us in the right mood often times colors are used to tell the story and keep things clear for the audience. For instance in our movie the color of Thomas's shirt change from to scene to scene showing us the spiritual place of Thomas's heart. Going from medium colors down to black colors then once again returning to the lighter colors. In the same way many of the scenes colors will give you cues as to the metaphysical meanings of the scenes so that you can discover more than just the action or dialogue in that scene.
As you can see color grading is a very unique and powerful tool to help create better, more emotional, and clear storylines. And though you may not always notice it the colors can help navigate your subconscious to the right emotions and feelings.
1. Give it a look.
Often times when you go into a movie you expect that particular movie to have a certain look. Sometimes this is achieved by over or under saturating the entire movie or sequences in the movie. Sometimes it involves adding a tint of one color or another to make it look like it came from an different period.
2. Give it a mood.
Colors often affect our moods. The subtle addition of blue for instance reminds us of cold or even a lonely feeling. Red puts us in a state of caution or anger. And yellow/gold warms and makes us happy. These colors are often used to create a specific mood that the colorist wants you to be in at a certain moment.
And lastly,
3. It tells a story.
Along with putting us in the right mood often times colors are used to tell the story and keep things clear for the audience. For instance in our movie the color of Thomas's shirt change from to scene to scene showing us the spiritual place of Thomas's heart. Going from medium colors down to black colors then once again returning to the lighter colors. In the same way many of the scenes colors will give you cues as to the metaphysical meanings of the scenes so that you can discover more than just the action or dialogue in that scene.
As you can see color grading is a very unique and powerful tool to help create better, more emotional, and clear storylines. And though you may not always notice it the colors can help navigate your subconscious to the right emotions and feelings.
Day 7 of 20 Cutting a Scene or sequence
Only 13 days away from the final draft of Slow Fade and yet we still are cutting away entire scenes and sequences. As the writer and director it is very hard to make the choice to remove scenes that you have spent months on perfecting. But it is necessary to remove anything that does not push the story forward or reveal an important truth about your characters. If there is a special edition of the dvd I'll have to break down all of the deleted scenes and why we cut them.
Today I cut one full scene and a sequence. And although it is hard to cut something that you've spent so much time on it is a sacrifice that will make the movie a better more engaging show.
The scene that I cut today was removed for two reasons. The first is that some of the elements were not explained enough beforehand so without context they were confusing to the audience. Another reason is that the scene did not push the movie enough forward. The dramatic content was not dynamic enough to justify leaving the scene in. Even though there were many pros for leaving the scene in, including the fact that it was completely edited and the composer already wrote a score for the scene, the cons outweighed leaving it in the final cut.
The sequence that I removed today was for a different set of reasons. The first was that I was not pleased with the quality of the shots. We shot them in low light and the camera did not have a large enough processor to capture a crisp clean image. Besides being inferior in quality, the scene was redundant in explaining a point. In previous scenes we established everything that would have been said in this particular sequence. So in order to keep the flow moving effectively we removed the sequence.
At this point I'm hoping that those will be the last cuts. But each scene must be analyzed carefully to make sure that they drive the story forward and make the most compelling movie that they can. By the end of this week the final cut should be finished excluding the week and a half of audio work that needs to be done.
Today I cut one full scene and a sequence. And although it is hard to cut something that you've spent so much time on it is a sacrifice that will make the movie a better more engaging show.
The scene that I cut today was removed for two reasons. The first is that some of the elements were not explained enough beforehand so without context they were confusing to the audience. Another reason is that the scene did not push the movie enough forward. The dramatic content was not dynamic enough to justify leaving the scene in. Even though there were many pros for leaving the scene in, including the fact that it was completely edited and the composer already wrote a score for the scene, the cons outweighed leaving it in the final cut.
The sequence that I removed today was for a different set of reasons. The first was that I was not pleased with the quality of the shots. We shot them in low light and the camera did not have a large enough processor to capture a crisp clean image. Besides being inferior in quality, the scene was redundant in explaining a point. In previous scenes we established everything that would have been said in this particular sequence. So in order to keep the flow moving effectively we removed the sequence.
At this point I'm hoping that those will be the last cuts. But each scene must be analyzed carefully to make sure that they drive the story forward and make the most compelling movie that they can. By the end of this week the final cut should be finished excluding the week and a half of audio work that needs to be done.
Day 3 of 20 Post Production Lighting
Here's something you may not know about the movie making industry. Almost every shot that you see in a movie has been re-lit in post production. When I'm working as a colorist (One of the many hats I wear) Almost always re-lighting a shot is the second thing I do. The first being to balance the colors. Re-lighting consists of primarily 3 different forms.
The first is simple exposure and lighting balance. Taking each clip and adjusting the blacks, whites and mid-tones to their right levels. The second form is adding power windows or masks. These are typically areas of the scene that I want to direct the audiences attention to. For instance someone's face. So I add a window around that persons face so that I can lighten just the face making it ever so slightly stand out from everything else. This is done in such a small way that it takes a very keen eye to spot the difference. And yet subconsciously everyone notices. The last type of correction I will use is the vignette.
The tried and true method for focusing ones eye on the area of the screen you want them to. A vignette is basically like a frame with a soft gradient edge. Like the one to the left.
When placed over an image with a lower opacity the vignette is hardly visible but manipulates the image so that your eye is drawn to the focal point.
This shot combines both the primary re-lighting as well as the vignette.
The first is simple exposure and lighting balance. Taking each clip and adjusting the blacks, whites and mid-tones to their right levels. The second form is adding power windows or masks. These are typically areas of the scene that I want to direct the audiences attention to. For instance someone's face. So I add a window around that persons face so that I can lighten just the face making it ever so slightly stand out from everything else. This is done in such a small way that it takes a very keen eye to spot the difference. And yet subconsciously everyone notices. The last type of correction I will use is the vignette.
When placed over an image with a lower opacity the vignette is hardly visible but manipulates the image so that your eye is drawn to the focal point.
This shot combines both the primary re-lighting as well as the vignette.
Day 2 of 20 Compositing Continued
Having analyzed the motion of the original clip the day before, I was able to copy that information to the new layer so that it would track with the original. The next big step was to relight and correct the colors so that both layers blended together. But with much patience this task was accomplished. And the final touch was to add some video noise. With that complete I was able to export it. And here's how it turned out.
Let me know what you think about it in the comments.
Let me know what you think about it in the comments.