Archive for the 'Post-Production' Category
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Revisiting ‘Dark City’
I’ve never been one for Director’s Cuts. Mostly, you can see why various scenes were removed and in some cases (*coughDonnieDarkocough*) would arguably have been far lesser films if someone hadn’t got out the digital scissors… But then there’s Dark City.
When I first saw the enigmatic trailer, the cryptic mix of film noir evolving into science fiction was always going to win a place in my heart. It was never a film for everyone but with a budget of $27 million, did it have to be?
But, despite the stellar, understated performances, the amazing production design and my own affection for the film, some things always niggled…
If you’ve seen it, then you know the theatrical cut starts with Kiefer Sutherland’s cat-out-of-the-bag voiceover that was the narrative equivalent of watching The Sixth Sense while sitting next to Bruce Willis wearing his ‘my character is a ghost’ sandwich-board. I then saw the film for the second time with the lovely Heather who, despite liking the film, didn’t like that the soundtrack score never bloody shut up.
Both these things were forced on the film by execs who didn’t trust audiences with the patience for the developing mystery. Surely the fun, if not the point, of the film was to follow amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) as he wakes up accused of murder in a sunless city.
But when I picked up the recent Director’s Cut, I was amazed at how much slicker and pacier the whole film felt - which is impressive considering the new version is fifteen minutes longer than its original hour and a half. Gone is the voiceover so you are now drawn in without being talked down to. Also, the music has been re-scored in several places so no one is trying to add a frantic chase soundtrack to dialogue scenes.
But, perhaps most importantly (aside from it now being Jennifer Connelly singing instead of lip-synching a smoky jazz club number) are those added minutes. Now William Hurt’s overwhelmed detective doesn’t make a sudden character U-turn. Now the audience witness more of the strangeness along with Murdoch instead of before him and new special effects show a gradual growth in his abilities (as well as adding some new nice touches to other set pieces)
If you haven’t seen Dark City in a while then I strongly recommend picking the Director’s Cut up for a few quid and seeing the difference. If you haven’t seen Dark City at all, then I suggest you ignore the theatrical cut completely.
But if you’ve seen either version what did you think? For me, the Director’s Cut - while not making it perfect - has definitely boosted Dark City to being one of my favourite films.
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
The End is ACTUALLY nigh.
Sigh…oh the fun of the Post Office at Christmas. Director Chris had mailed a dvd of the last video edits the week before Christmas which never seemed to turn up. Now in early January, he dilligently sent over another copy which arrived the next day…along with the one he’d sent two weeks earlier. Like a little time paradox had occurred in our letter box 
But we have now the finished videos and are so very nearly there with the whole project. One of the last things we’re doing is the credits page and I really like the brick background we have for it. It is actually the same wall that Verity’s intro video is set against. I liked the idea that red brick walls signify the borders of the story. Once you click ‘Enter’ from the first brick wall, you’re into the story-world and everything’s played real. Once you get to the brick wall with the credits page you know you are out the other side.
It’s these sort of little details that I’ve really enjoyed on this project. In researching other online ventures, the plots have always been pretty basic - deliberately so - and the real joy has been in the little nuances and details that a film or tv program would have to lose but which suits the online audience perfectly.
Having shown all of what we’ve done so far to my friend Tom (who has married the lovely Lynsey since this blog started and who foolishly also appointed me as his Best Man) has, off his own back, made me this picture.
Innit brilliant! I sent it to actor Chris who played Nigel who also thought it was fantastic. I was thinking ‘ooh, I could use that as the cover of any promotional material when pitching the project’ when it occurred to me that I wanted it in the project. Moving things around slightly, I thought it only appropriate to have the character of ‘Tom’ provide it within the world of the story.
Other than that, Heather has done her final mixes for the fake teaser-trailer on the Apocalypse Nige site and we are realising that this project is practically ready to send out to everyone. Perhaps I’d better go and tweak the blogs one more time…
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Mist Opportunity
Christmas is over. Hope you all had a very merry one! It’s now New Year’s Eve and (to quote Sinatra) the weather outside is frightful. While this may be a good excuse to stay indoors and contemplate January’s inevitable detox, I took it as an opportunity to go galumphing round the hills behind my flat as a really eerie mist has swept along and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Even from my windows I could see it was the perfect backdrop for what I wanted for the Apocalypse Nige site. 150 photos and 10 severely chilled fingers later and these are my favourites:
Typically, the shot we’re going to use that was so obviously perfect to have a bunch of Warren Chambers running around within was discovered by accident. I’d wandered across a field trying to get a spooky shot of a tree in the mist but couldn’t get it right. But when I turned round to go back across the field, behind me all along was the perfect shot as the spooky mist followed me along the path.
As it’s New Year’s Eve, I’m reminded of the way I felt at the turn of the Millennium. Even though I didn’t believe in the Y2K Super-Computer Virus bringing civilisation to an end, the same way I didn’t believe that the Large Hadron Collider was going to destroy the universe (ie - by listening to the people who know what they’re talking about) there was always a slight feeling of excitement that made me think ‘oooh, but what if it did?’. Of course, it didn’t. A no-show for the apocalypse. In fact, as the clocks started chiming midnight at the end of 1999, I was banging on a toilet door at a party to make sure that a friend hadn’t passed out inside. Maybe there’s more insight there into why I’m writing this silly little project than I’d care to think about. Ho hum.
Oh well, Happy New Year and see you on the other side… 
Sunday, December 21st, 2008
Christmas Online Presence 2
Having spoken about the web aspects, Heather has persuaded me to put all my initial sketches for web-design online. You can see now why I didn’t draw the Saxophone Deity strip myself
Despite my innate inability to draw, I did have specific ideas for each web-page not just in terms of design or style but also usability. I’m sure we’ve all experienced very clever web-sites full of bells and whistles but that are a riddle in themselves to navigate. I also had to bear in mind that this is a promotional tool so I don’t want to lose anyone along the way because of design fault.
I always had the moody photo at the top of Verity’s blog (and the parody at the top of this one) in mind but it took a lot of looking at other blogs to see what I liked best that led to this sketchy looking thing. Colour-wise though, I think it sets the right tone for the ominous air and makes the break-out sites like Saxophone Deity and Rainy Day seem all the more colourful.
Here’s my sketch for the Saxophone Deity design. Webcomics are becoming an increasingly popular and viable thing -Not only in terms of self-publishing but also the big names in likes DC’s ingenious Zuda Comics. Despite my best efforts, I have often had trouble trying to convince Heather to read comics and graphic novels - not for the obvious reason that she’s just plain cooler than me, but because she has trouble with following the panel order. Director Tim Burton quite famously had similar issues and was always finding himself peeking ahead to the bottom of the page before he’d read the top.
Even though the panel-by-panel structure meant more work for the Saxophone Deity comic zsite as it would require more pages, I knew I’d hit the right design with the scribble below as it converted Heather as the reader, once in the thick of the story, never even has to move the cursor. Making the colours and buttons so vivid and cartoony again seemed the good contrast to Verity’s blog but it didn’t hurt that we had such vivid pictures to work with to begin with!
In designing the Apocalypse Nige site, it would have been easy to just do an over the top explosive James Bond layout type thing but the involvement of the Rainy Day Corporation made me want to provide a sinister edge. Having taken a million and one pictures of Mike/Warren Chambers in his last visit, I really wanted to do the multiple version of him all photoshopped together as a tribute to one of my favourite onscreen villains.
(I don’t want to start a Matrix-related debate, but whatever your opinions of the sequels, I hope we can all agree that 100+ Agent Smiths all looking pissed off in slightly different ways after Neo has cheated and flown off is a good moment).
Without spoiling anything, in the big picture of ‘The End is Nigel’, I had planned to develop the Warren Chambers character as a Smith-esque wild card in the ongoing plot. Waitaminute…is John saying that the Rainy Day Corporation aren’t the big bad guys in this plot??? Bwahahahahaha.
Anyway, having looked through all of the photos I’d taken, this was my original design:
In particular, and with such good winter weather available, I wanted to add the elements to anything to do with Rainy Day (for example, all of the cloud shots in the movie posters and on the Rainy Day sites are genuine snaps we took of the sky ourselves). I guess all the study of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ at school has instilled me with the romantic notion that anything dramatic happening must always be accompanied by moody weather.
Saturday, December 20th, 2008
Christmas Online Presence
The videos are all nearly done so I am just praying for the Christmas post to be merciful and deliver them to my door. But Heather has already done a fantastic job on the music for the opening video and, little by little, everything is slowly heading online. I still have a few changes I want to make as well but the blogs are getting good feedback which is a relief.
In writing (and endlessly re-writing) Verity’s blog, I think I finally got her voice to a point I was happy with by tapping my own annoyance - but then laughing at it - from when I was her age. Despite all the apocalyptic nonsense going on in this project, I have really worked on making Verity’s story recognisable and universal. This is a note I originally wrote myself in the front of my notepad while we were filming:
Leaving university, the world Verity knows is ending. The world she now faces is broken. When any young person grows up and leaves the safety of home, they realise it’s going to be a fight to make the world what they want. Verity’s blog is her journey making that decision to fight and leave a mark…only with an apocalyptic conspiracy thrown in for laughs.
I’d have been less grandiose if I’d thought ahead about putting it in the blog but it’s pretty much the little mission statement I’ve been referring to whenever sitting down to write. However, this project is also above all else meant to be fun so I was worried about launching in with Verity’s intro video which could come across as a bit heavier. As I was so pleased with the flash animation at the beginning of Rainy Day, I decided to open the whole project with another flash animation (as you’ll hopefully have seen already by the time you read this). It’s terrible to laugh at your own jokes but I think Nigel’s quote about the Norse Ragnarok followed by the silly visuals of Nigel in his sandwich-board and Heather’s melodramatic (but deliberately so) music really sets up the tone of the whole show and I can’t stop watching it. We spent a long time getting the timing right on that flash to make it as funny as we could (it’s always so oddly obvious when it’s just right) and, even though it takes a few seconds to load, I think it’s worth it and provides a good launch pad into Verity’s video and the project as a whole.
Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Trailing
To some extent, I had always written off the big ‘Hollywood’ trailer aspect of the original pitch as the logistics just seemed way beyond our means - plus it’s now the bleak mid-Winter which makes even the kindest friend less inclined to come and run around in a park with you as a favour on a cold day. But finally I hatched onto the plan of doing a teaser trailer which Nigel could still hack within the story. Hopefully, if we can find further funding for this project, I will be able to shoot the full extended trailer as the promotional campaign for ‘The End is Nigel: Prophet for Profit’ was always meant to play a big role in the next chapter of the main storyline.
In the meantime, I tempted Michael - our Warren Chambers - back up north to come and do a photoshoot for us. Back with us for less than 24 hours, we managed to choose the one afternoon where it has rained in the last week. We still managed to do several indoor photos of Mike as ‘Warren’ posing for publicity shots such as these:
Apart from sticking Mike in a tux, this particular look was achieved by shrieking ‘Pure Sex!’ at him and quickly taking the photo before he started laughing. Mike currently uses this pic as his facebook profile too (although he stresses that he hopes people realise it’s ironic )
But this meant that we then had to get up at 7am on a Sunday morning (after a Saturday night at the pub) to go and do the rest of the shots outside before we packed Mike back onto his train at about 11:30am. Elapsed turnaround time - 19 hours!
But it was worth it. As always I took far too many photos but got exactly the shots I wanted. Here’s one I really liked but which there’s no room for in the finished show.
As soon as we sent a tired and groggy Mike back off on the train, Heather and I got on with the photoshoppery. And lo, something far cheaper yet just as effective in terms of storytelling was born!
And I said there might not be any more pictures in this blog. Tsk. It’s these details and the little nuances in the web design that makes me excited about this project. The filmed aspects of ‘The End is Nigel’ are just as important but I have long been aware that I don’t want this to just be ‘TV on the Internet‘. It’s these little dowloadable posters that make me think we have something strong and fun here - Or, at the very least, not like something you see online everyday!
Monday, December 1st, 2008
Mr Producer
It occurs to me that the better things go in post-production, the less exciting this blog might be. I’d like to pretend that we were invaded by pirates but or that me and director Chris had a big punch-up but we haven’t. Chris is working really hard and the only problems we’ve had is compatibility between various editing and post-production software (so I suppose that technically sounds like a fight!) There are also less photos to post (unless you want to see images if people sitting at computers?)
As this is my first real role in more of a producing capacity (as opposed to being ‘writer on set’ or just ‘writer on other end of phone if needed’) it has been very interesting getting the right work balance with people. As the one person overseeing all the different aspects of this project, I have to make sure they all fit together - but, on the other hand, I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes and essentially want to let people do their thing too. As is always the best way in situations, a third way is usually the best way forward so what I have started doing is leaving very specific notes for Chris and Heather but then leaving freedom within it. This way, I know that the finished thing will fit right in but I also get a nice surprise when I’m shown rough cuts and versions of everything!
I have written drafts of all of the blogs by now but really need all of the pieces so that I can start putting the whole thing together. The one thing that is apparent already is that the blog entries are quite long. So rather than three days written by Verity and one day written by Tom, I have now re-written the blogs across five shorter days written by Verity and two shorter days written by Tom. Each entry now has a more specific point from the main Nigel plot and a main point from Verity’s own personal plot as well as a specific feature - be it a video clip or a link to one of our other sites. This has made the whole thing seem a lot bigger but, oddly, it now also reads a lot faster!
Oh, and I suppose there are still plenty of pictures to see. Cookie has done a classic job on illustrating Saxophone Deity to the point where (as promised) the panel below is now my desktop wallpaper on my laptop and will be for some time
There’s so much nice artwork going on on this site, if we get a chance at the end, I might actually get some of it turned into downloadable wallpapers. And maybe print a few novelty mugs, t-shirts and mousemats!!! Or…maybe just the wallpapers…
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Worth a thousand words.
The graffiti begins. It’s worth pointing out that none of the graffiti in this project is real and that the cast and crew of ‘The End is Nigel’ is against vandalism - even in the face of impending apocalypse. Lucy has been doing a fantastic job. There are many to choose from and I will find a place for them all…but, for some reason, this one is my favourite:
In constructing the blogs, I again realise more and more that where I place the graffiti pictures and the all the other pictures we took during the shoot is just as - if not more - important as the text itself. I have become very aware of having dense chunks of text anywhere in the sites. I have taken to designing the layout of the web-pages even down to ‘drawing in’ the blocks of text. If the blog text I’m writing goes out of the proportions in my doodles, I re-write it.
The Rainy Day website is coming along, however. Rather than launch straight into the video now, clever Heather came up with the idea of opening the site with a simple flash animation. So, last weekend, I persuaded my friend Jenni to come and stand around with an umbrella with me and took photos in front of Sheffield’s finest and most modern buildings. Hatching the phrase ‘Whatever your plans are…we’re always right behind you‘ we felt we had the right tone for, not only Rainy Day, but for the whole project. Slightly ominous but still tongue-in-cheek.
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Post (-Production) Apocalyptic
Hmmn. Well, all the tapes went to Chris for his editing purposes but already we’ve got problems. Not only do we have the dreaded boom-shadow in the Rainy Day Corporation video but due to some kind of tape error, virtually everything from Nigel’s abduction filming has corrupted. All we have left intact of Nigel actually being grabbed and Verity then haring after is the very first take. Nuts.
We’ll have a look at this and I’m sure it can be edited round but this is a real blow as I know Chris worked hard to get all the timings right with the Nigel-grabbing and the subsequent pursuit. Fingers crossed we can still put something together. (The boom-shadow can be digitally removed in the edit but I’m still annoyed with myself not to have seen it whilst filming!)
On the plus side, the first sketches of the Saxophone Deity webcomic are making their way too me. (If anyone is interested, here is my original Saxophone Deity Comic Script, pre-tweaks and polishes.) Although I still have a few tweaks to suggest, the pictures I got are everything I hoped for and knew that Cookie would come up with the goods! 
(Copyright of Richard Cookson/John Hunter 2008)
As I sit down to write Verity’s blogs, Heather has already begun constructing the web-pages, Cookie is scribbling away at the webcomic and Lucy is digitally spraying Sheffield graffiti. It has really hit home exactly how much the filmed aspects of this project really only are one aspect of a bigger picture. I’m now glad that I decided to leave actually fully scripting the blog entries until much later as there is still a big degree of flexibility in where I put things and how to describe or introduce them from Verity’s point of view.
As the Rainy Day site is such a standalone entity with several different aspects to it, I think it best to try and get it finished first as a milestone that’s then out of the way. Fingers crossed.
