One Month to Go!

I've faded on my online activity goals but I've stayed very busy on Gunderson.   I think I'm still on for a mid December release as I've shot all the scenes and am knee deep in the sound effects and music.  A couple of recent notes on this production:

Always check early in the process to make sure your characters have eyebrows.  Especially your main character who is in every freaking scene...Otherwise you might find yourself having to reshoot every freaking scene.  Alas, it's all good as I used the opportunity to export in a higher resolution and have been (and will continue to) fixing various little issues as I notice them.

MY NLE is not making me happy.  It bogged down completely with all the sound effects and video files so I had to chop the project up into three pieces and even then it's pretty laggy.  Also having a super weird issue with a train tunnel scene.  Looks fine exported out of Iclone but jutters and looks low res inside the NLE.  Different file formats, reshot the scene multiple times.  Just not sure what the problem is but I've spent too much time on it and will likely just have to live with it.

In the past adding music to my videos has been a simple and rewarding process.  On this project however there is a lot of dialog which doesn't leave a lot of space for music.  I'm playing around with options and even creating a few simple things of my own (trying to quickly learn garageband and wishing I hadn't lapsed on my FL Studio experience).

And speaking of a lot of dialog....it's probably too much dialog.  Worked pretty well in a script that I enjoyed writing but may not work on screen as well.  A lot of it is necessary in getting the story to the finish line in 15 minutes but the "show don't tell" adage is echoing in my brain as I reach the deadline.  Probably a lesson learned.  If I did the project over I think I would do it in 3 separate chapters allowing more time to tell the story visually.  Could I complete three chapters?  Eh.

The End is barreling down on me!

 

Gunderson Update #2

 Three quarters of the way through and I'm on schedule to finish this project in December.  Two scenes to complete this month and then November for reshoots, foley, editing and whatnot.  Looking good Billy Ray!  Feeling Good Louis! 

Here's a few screenies from the latest completed scene; Gunderson's Apartment...A black eye?  A lovely set of gams draped in a red dress.  Who could that tall bird be?

Promotionally Social

It is a challenge to promote my work while I'm hard at work but that was an early goal for the Gunderson project so its time for a screeny or two...or three.  

These are shots from the White Star Casino and the adjacent Tram Station.  15 characters in the scene gambling away their hard earned elf money.  Both sets are largely custom built though I got a lot of the casino props out of a Daz project.  Things are moving pretty good on this sequence (3 separate dialog scenes) and I'm currently clawing my way through the one big action moment.  Likely going to need another week to finish it up.  Then on to the next scene.  And I'll try to remember to be a bit more promotionally social.

The Casino Floor

Snake Eyes!

The gangs all here....

Vacations Over, Back to Work...

 

Vacation 2023 was wonderful with lots of empty beaches and beautiful blue water.  I worked a bit to develop two story ideas while staring at the beach.  The first idea, "Vacation Dick", is a fun silly detective story set on an island featuring a couple I've used before in another vacation themed story ("Staycation" - first draft written but that's all).  This one needs a lot of fleshing out just to get to the basic outline but there are lots of fun characters and locations from my time in the sun.

The second idea, "Maiden", is much further along as I managed to develop a scene to scene outline with bits and pieces of dialog and several key highlight scenes that make me want to push this one as my next potential project (2024).  True to the vacation theme this one involves a lot of the ocean.  The next step for me would be to start working on 3D characters and sets to see super early drafts of what's going on in my mind.  I'll discuss more of this one if it moves forward.  However...

Now I'm back on to Gunderson.  Four big scenes to shoot before the end of September.  Lots to do.  Time to get busy.

     

Gunderson Update #1: Ready Steady Go!

Its the end of June and I've reached my first checkpoint towards a December completion of "Gunderson; An Xmas Noir".  (Should I keep calling this thing by the full name?  Seems a little long winded.)  Three sequences were on my schedule and I finished two and a half.  

Sequence #1 had 3 sets/scenes (Warehouse Lobby to the Warehouse to the Warehouse office), one large scale establishing shot with 10 extras and one big dialog scene.  XXX's voice over work here is really strong.  These scenes are complete though I may check back in a month or two to fix some minor quibbles.  Overall pretty happy with this sequence.  

Santa's Supply Chain Warehouse

Miss Brenda Lee!

Sequence #2 takes place on one set (the bar/nightclub), has 16 extras with 2 dialog scenes separated by a singing performance.  Overall I'm super happy with this one.  The performance worked out well and the set looks good (mishmash of Daz assets and Blender bits).  I used CC4 to create my extras all at less than 8K each.  This is a much better solution (though another export step in the character creation) than the old animated billboard one.

The one still in progress in the opening scene which takes place on a tram.  The script originally had the tram running through a lovely north pole exterior which then fades away when the tram power goes out.  Turns out the exterior is just a projection in the tram windows.  All of my north pole is underground and the tram is running through a dark tunnel.  I shot the exterior scene and it looked fine but found the fade to the tunnel was just unnecessarily confusing and decided to just scrap all the exterior shots and have the tram running through the tunnel from the start.  This part looks fine but I still need to figure out how to get the tram into a station...a work in progress that I'll come back to...

Generally I would say that I am on schedule but there are a few things I'm worried about.  First off I got the new Zelda game for my bday and I'm fully aware of the time sink involved there but I'm resigned to play the game.  Secondly my next set of work (3 more scenes due by end of September) involves the one action sequence in the project and I haven't even looked at available animations yet.  This is the only scene that really worries me.  But for now things are going well.  

Just a bit more work this week before I'm off on vacation.

Visions of SugarPlums

Its been a while but work on Gunderson soldiers on.  I guess I tend to say little when I'm busy working so that's a positive sign.  Anywho, here's some super early shots of me playing with lighting techniques for a performance scene inside the North Pole watering hole; Sugarplums.  Who's the dame?  Why that's Brenda Lee!  

Gunderson; an Xmas Noir (and the Road to December)

Back in Dec I asked, what came first: the promo posters or the story?

Santa was a Daz asset I got on sale and Ms. Claus was a CC character that matched him real nice. Then the two of them look as smug as a bug in the rug, hence the “Naughty” tagline. And then once the posters were created I knew that the story of a villainous Santa Claus would have to come to fruition. So, December and into January I drafted Gunderson; An Xmas Noir.

It’s a mildly serious tale of elves and santa and an automaton and its humor lies largely in taking itself serious. It has elements of The Big Sleep and maybe a sprinkle of Chinatown.  It’s also a rather ambitious project for me with a 15 page script, 4 major VA roles (and many smaller speaking parts), 7 custom sets  and a slew of elvish extras to bring my version of the (North) Pole to life.

Another thing it has is a strict schedule to be completed in time for Christmas 2023.  Based on my estimates from my last 3 projects its going to be tight (working hobby hours).  I’m a project manager type of guy so I’ve developed a shooting schedule with several major deadlines along the way to December. 

• May 1 - Script rewrites, major character design, general set design (to be finalized before shooting) and casting the voice acting roles  
• July 15 - First 3 Scenes 
• Oct 1 - Next 2 scenes 
• Dec 1 - Final 2 scenes, foley, editing and titles

So that’s that (mattress man).  My 2023 dance card is filled up.  I'll give some progress reports as I jingle all the way to the finish line.