On the set of HeadHunting, Inc.
|
Almost every book I've read or class I've taken at UCLA said (usually in all caps) "STAY AWAY FROM EFFECTS!!!". Well, I don't listen well. But I didn't have a ton of cash to hire a good effects company either. So, while I'd never done 3D modeling or compositing (I didn't even know what compositing was!) I figured, "how hard can it be?". Answer- very hard. But... and this is the important thing... it turned out great and I got exactly what I wanted. For free, outside of my time. |
3D model/render/animate (partially complete)
3D in Lightwave3D
The novelty drinking birds were created by Pat in Lightwave 3D. The hardest part was learning Lightwave 3D, a really powerful but somewhat difficult program. The second most difficult thing was figuring out how to model a feather. We used Sasquatch fur plug in and customized it to get the look we wanted.
 |
Click to view a QuickTime movie of the wireframe "bird clone army" created during postproduction. (5.6MB) This particular shot did not end up in the movie. You have to serve the story with every element. In this case, I decided that starting off with a whole army of drinking birds in Stan's first nightmare would lessen the impact of his second (more terrifying) nightmare with the one giant bird. |
Previsualization
Unlike most low budget indie films, ours tend to have lots of visual effects. The only way to get great and consistently professional results when you're faced with our budget constraints is to spend a lot of time in preproduction doing previsualization.
Previsualization allows me to create rough storyboards so I can easily communicate my shots with the cast and crew.
The image above is Stan's bedroom, complete with painted walls and furniture. I built my storyboards in FrameForge 3D (I had a copy from my UCLA days). I can't stress how important this phase is for your director of photography, production designer, etc. You gotta be able to communicate clearly and accurately if you're making indie films.
Greenscreen Compositing
Another way that we're very different from your average indie filmmakers is we're not afraid of taking a huge risk with technology. We did a ton of preproduction testing before we even finalized the screenplay, because the "experts" online swore that we couldn't pull a decent key with our camera. Plus, you know, uh I had to learn 3d. And compositing. Which is way fun.