biennialFreerunner: footage

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Green Screen Footage (Rough Cut/Not Composited)

Hi all,

Here is the best footage of the green screen day edited into a rough narrative order by our star vid-guy Adam. The panel numbers refer to the storyboard.

Green Screen rushes 16/6/08
@ 10 mins total (may take time to buffer)

The footage is now with our star chroma-guy Dave to do a rough composite to show how the action will look.

Just for context here is the rough animatic of the storyboard to make sense of the above footage.

Animatic (silent)
@ 2 mins total

Jo We may need to do some pick ups in a week or so to plug some narrative gaps (just running, stepping, standing etc.). I am sure we can use ICDC's green screen facility for these which will be free. Would the lads be available? Could you upload a photo of the lads in line just to record their clothes for continuity?

Our star-environmental team Dave and Jenny have a list of asset scenes that need building and our graphics star Matt has been out photographing buildings for reference to use in the city scape.

As for the star field for our meteor (get my constant referencing to stars now?) I have an idea to co-opt Jose Flores in to work on the opening scene. I am reserving that decision for after Friday's production meeting.

That's all for now until Friday.

Thursday, 29 May 2008

Recap on today's session

Hi all,

Well done everyone for your time and input today. The energy from everyone was infectious.

Just to summarize everything so that everyone remembers what was said and what to do:

The Concept
A post-apocalyptic chase within an environment devastated through a nuclear war.

The Narrative
The freerunning lads need to devise a story. Think beginning, middle and end. Use the photos that Jo and Matt are going to upload here to piece together to make a simple storyboard.

The Environment
Jenny, Dave and Matt to start PhotoShopping visuals together to begin the conceptualizing the look and feel of the virtual environment. I'll help art direct you. Post your ideas to the blog as you do them for feedback.

Jenny and Dave can you begin to think and plan the possible environment. How big? Internal or external? etc.

The videos
Adam will post the blue screen footage here for everyone's reference. Jo could you do the same? Adam will have the actual footage that the team can look at and use for some tests. These tests are just to aid final compositing and storyboarding.

Storyboarding
Adam and I will need time to do a final storyboard and I'm intending to make an animatic to show everyone how things may work in the final movie. To do this we will need the story idea locked down.

Green screen
We need to book this ASAP so I'll need times of availibilty from Adam and Jo.

Before the day we need moves to be discussed and planned (still allowing time for improvisation on the day). Any props need to be sturdy and painted leaf green. Crash mats will be good. Think about costumes too. This depends upon your story idea.

Schedule
The project schedule we will work to is as follows:

May - 13th June
Story idea
Environment idea
Visual design idea
Compositing tests

Between 16th - 27th June
Green screen shoot

Mid-June - mid-July
Environment building
Mid July
Compositing
Editing
End of July
Output

Availability
The schedule above needs to be locked down. Can all team members inform me of the days thay cannot be available ASAP. I cannot do the 18th and 23rd June, and I'm assessing up to 12th June. Otherwise I'm free so far.

I can't think of anything else right now. Feel free to post anything I've forgotten, or anything you wish to add.

Cheers

The Project

Traceur Tag
De La Salle School in collaboration with St Helens College

The theme for the schools project, Future, Fiction and Fantasy, seemed to instantly form a connection with our idea to produce a piece of work using Parkour and the virtual world as the concept. This film was a collaborative effort between De La Salle School and St Helens College and it was only through this collaboration that the desire to create a film based on the computer game genre was realised.

It was at the initial stages of the collaboration that contemporary artworks such as Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle proved influential along with the film Jump Britain and a variety of computer games such as Halo and Unreal, which helped us to establish the kinds of environment that could form the basis for the film.

Without a doubt the vehicle which supported this project’s creative growth and encouraged clear communication throughout was this blog, instigated by Dave Wood. This blog became a hub of activity which maintained consistency in content during the six month period. Ideas, thoughts, concerns, artistic references and discussions were posted daily, hourly and often by the minute in pursuit of our collective goal.

The most interesting element of the blog, from an educational perspective, was the innovative approach to formative assessment, providing rapid responses to creative problems in a contemporary manner aiding motivation and communication. Both De La Salle School and St Helens College are now exploring ways in which blogs can impact upon student’s development and bring assessment methods into the 21st Century.

This film explores a passion for an activity that in society can be considered as subversive or anti social and channels that enthusiasm into a creative medium. From a school’s point of view the boys were given an opportunity to express themselves in a language that is comfortable to them but in a safe environment, they worked with students witnessing the creative process in action but also what vocational links art can provide.

Finally, working on the School’s Project with the Biennial team has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to investigate contemporary approaches to schemes of work, work collaboratively between different institutions and the community and develop effective forms of communication, all of which have supported our personal development for the delivery of new initiatives such as the re-launch of the Secondary Curriculum and the introduction of the Creative and Media Diploma.

Joanne Millea

Whois biennialFreerunner?

biennialFreerunner Productions is the creative collective formed out of this Biennial project. It soon became apparent to Dave and Jo that the pooled talent, the excitement and the dedication of the students and graduates had naturally formed into a "Hot Group" of multi-disciplinary creatives. As such, the project Jo had brought to Dave had evolved beyond its original scope and remit. It was therefore only natural to give this multi-disciplinary team a collective identity. The biennialFreerunner blog had actually become biennialFreerunner Productions.

There are 6 core collective members and 1 associate member of this collective: co-founders Dave Wood and Jo Millea, Adam Hamilton, Matt Frodsham, Dave Bentick and Stas Krakiewicz. Jose Flores is based in Brighton and his opening scenes were produced remotely.

Already one member of this collective has gone onto make a music video for a band as a result of his experiences as part of this collective.

See www.biennialfreerunner.com for more information or email info@biennialfreerunner.com.

Books by Dave Wood