Visual Effects Compositing - Week 10



19/09/2019


 My goal this week is to try and get an actor cast. I have only one person left to ring for the role and if that fails, I will email Kathryn since she has offered to send out a casting call message through the global distribution network at SIT. 

 I am to ask animation students to help out on the shoot in assistant camera and sound roles. They would be certified with sound equipment because they were for the audio techniques paper.

 I asked Bethany and she was open to help in the time she has available in the weekend that my VFX shoot will take place. I intend to have onboard as an AC because she is familiar and certified with the Blackmagic cameras.

 I also aim to get location release forms printed out for Ash to sign for the night shoots for my VFX project outside CentreStage
Green screen post production tutorial
To get the best result, have both the composition and layer windows showing and have the view in the keylight effect on Status. Hold Alt while having the Keylight eyedropper hovering over the green screen in layer window and keeping looking until the the background is at the most black and sample it.

Change the view in Keylight to Combined Matte and Use the control in Screen Matte to improve the black and white



Get the view to intermediate result and apply the key cleaner and advanced spill suppressor to clean up the green edges around the subject that is left over from sampling the green screen




Light layers only affect 3d layers. We added point and ambient lights to the subject, which was made a 3d layer beforehand.

 I added a psychedelic  TV preset because it looks cool and makes the colour graded subject fit in the environment better. But I then upped the ante by removing all the saturation to make it look like a black and white 1960s analogue TV.








3D Tracking and Stabilising tutorial
We put the Title safe area up to center the muzzle flashes, then duplicated them for every two frames.

 We did tracking with keyframing the position of the flashes at the gunpoint and used tracking tab to center at a particular part of the weapon. It was quite a tedious process.

 I missed out on the automatic fire steps and I was too exhausted from the previous steps to do it on my own by following the PDF. I will follow with the next steps though.



3D Camera Tracking tutorial
I applied the Track Camera in the Tracking bar. It initialized and processed, but nothing happened. No markers or anything. I deleted the effect and tried it again, but it came back with the same result.

 However, it took a while, but I selected 'Render Track Points' and suddenly it appeared. It's strange since no one else had to select it to view the track points. But I didn't where to go from there because missed parts of the tutorial and the PDF isn't helpful in this case. I hovered over and clicked the track points, but nothing seemed to happen.


Canon lenses for the shoot
I spoke to Chris today about using Canon lenses to check if he was okay with that for my filming since he had a talk with to us in VFX class and told us to fair to the first year animation student doing the stop motion paper. He was fine with me using the lenses that I needed for the Digital Filmmaking and VFX shoots.

20/09/2019


 No.5 actor - I couldn't read his handwriting where he wrote his name

I tried to contact him to act in this short film (in the role of Darren) and my short film for the VFX paper. His phone instantly went to voicemail, so it may indicate that either he has a different number or his phone is turned off. However, I will still email him just in case he doesn't receive the message I left him on his phone, but if he doesn't answer by Monday, I will email Kathryn to send out a casting call in SIT's global distribution server.



I heard from the actor yesterday that I had also contacted yesterday by email, but he is unable to act in my short film or my VFX short film. So as a result, I will have take desperate measure and email Kathryn to send a message in the global distribution server. I won't send the email until Monday because she is more likely going to receive it in a weekday.




23/09/2019


Equipment
I was concerned I had overdone it with booking a editing suite for nearly a month because of the one week issue rule. But he will allow me to have the editing suite booked under my name until then, unless it's urgently needed. 

 I was concerned about the lights for VFX shoot because there were no c-stands available to book, but he claims he may have extra c-stands I could use for the weekend.
Josh Clive
Ash reminded me to contact Josh Clive to include in the film crew for my short film. Ash had talked with Josh over the weekend and he was very keen to help on my projects.

I'm thinking about having him on as gaffer. Patrick had informed me that Josh is also good at acting, so I might have him on as my actor for my VFX shoot.
Steve Woller
This is an actor that works in SIT2LRN whom might be interested or keen to act in my VFX shoot, but it turns out he is not available and that it's too short notice.





24/09/2019


 I have talked to second year animation students that have certification for the sound gear like Fabri, Juliet, PJ, and so on, but they are apparently unfamiliar with the gear, which makes them not ideal for being sound people.

 I got in contact with Josh Clive through Facebook, but he will be unavailable for the VFX shoot and that he feels more comfortable with stuff behind the camera, rather than front of the camera.

 Even if they were to be available to help out on the shoot, it would more chance than certain that would be there most of the time or at all.
Josh Clive
Ash reminded me to contact Josh Clive to include in the film crew for my short film. Ash had talked with Josh over the weekend and he was very keen to help on my projects.
I'm thinking about having him on as gaffer. Patrick had informed me that Josh is also good at acting, so I might have him on as my actor for my VFX shoot.

I'm starting to get pretty desperate in getting this VFX shoot organised for this weekend. It's got to a point where I may have to act in the shoot myself. Kiarne will be the only one available for the duration of this VFX shoot since Bo will be only present half the time because he has work in the weekend.

 It can't be postponed another weekend for a number of reasons; because it will be a tough time crunch to complete the composition in a very short amount of time leading up to the deadline and I will likely won't get the equipment or crew that I will need for the shoot, especially considering how tough it gets to book equipment at this time of year and with everyone having their own problems with getting their shoots organised and done.

 I have managed to get Ash sign a location release form for filming in the alleyway outside Centrestage

 I have managed to draft a shooting schedule for my VFX shoot this weekend.



25/09/2019


 I had a chat with Patrick and his first year film class to see if any of them are available to help on my VFX shoot, but none of them are available to help this weekend. Patrick is concerned about my bookings with the black magic cameras since the first year film students also need them and the Blackmagic cameras are for the first year film students first and foremost. He has suggested the Blackmagic Urusa, but I need certification to book and operate it. Patrick will talk to Chris and Ruby about this.
I have sent an email to Kathryn about access to the campus basement to film down there this weekend for my VFX shoot.



I told Patrick about my need for sound people, but he reckons if I'm not going to marked on the sound quality, then I shouldn't about it and potentially get it ADR'd later on, which can be easily said than done.

 I received a reply to my email from Kathryn and she is fine with me filming down in the basement as long as I have traffic management plan, which I'm unfamiliar with. The people at SIT Productions were away filming, so I couldn't consult with them. They also forwarded the email to SIT Facilities.






Bo inquired to me about the equipment for the VFX shoot, whether I have an editing suite sorted for it, and if I have equipment booked and when I will be picking it all up. Bo also informed me that we should be able to be oncampus all night during the weekend since we will be given 24 hours access.

 I informed Bo that the editing suite and equipment are all organised and would be picking up the equipment from Chris tomorrow, pending the complexity of it. 

 I had a chat with Tyler and Jacqui, and they helped me with some compromises like gaffer taping the mic to top of the camera. I discovered that they have the Urusa booked, but will be willing to give it to me to film my VFX project. They offered to give me a refresher on how to use the Urusa tomorrow afternoon.They also laid out to me what requires of a traffic management plan for Kathryn, but it will be time-consuming in such a short period of time since I will have to do a traffic management plan for every single shot I will be filming in the basement.

 Like Patrick, Tyler and Jacqui suggested to doing ADR in post after filming.
I saw James and told him about having compromising on getting a sound recordist, and he suggested for me to get in contact with Doug Heath on whether there are any audio production students that might be available and keen to help out.
Email to Doug Heath

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