Chuck Reeder came over to the house last night, accompanied by Darkhouse recording engineers Andy Carlson and Rob Kalbfus, and howled his way towards sore vocal cords as he performed the Wolfman's howls and grunts. If the neighbors could hear us, I'm sure there were points when he thought we were killing him. We set up a laptop on the bar with the movie playing on it and recorded Chuck on a TASCAM multi-track recorder. We've used this setup for recording some of the other voices - despite the fact that Andy has his own recording stuido (he says he wants to keep the sound of the recordings consistent.) Once I get the edited wave files back I'll be equalizing and layering in real animal sounds to make the Wolfman sound like a real beast.
Also, last night I was able to lay in Tom Zack's grunts and groans during the Frankenstein Monster's final battle.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Re-designed Website Launch & New Blog
With work on the movie entering post-production, I've had some time to move into some other areas - one of which includes the relaunched Frankenstein vs the Wolfman website and some general retinkering with the Daredevil Films home site. All of the old Production Log posts have been moved over to this new home here on Blogger (welcome Blogger visitors!)
The sound FX track has been completed to the best of my ability. Andy was over yesterday to take a listen to it to gauge how much work will need to be done on it at the Darkhouse studio in the coming weeks.
One of the problems I ran into in the effects track was my small sound effects library's inability to deal with the growls, grunts and roars produced by the Wolfman. I was mixing in bear, lion, tiger, wolf and dog sounds but realized after a scene or two that I could audibly hear repeated sounds. I decided that the Wolfman is going to need a fully vocalized performance, so Charles Reeder is coming in tomorrow to record his third vocal role in the movie as the snarling beast. We've got some other ADR tracks still to go, and then it's on to mixing.
I just recieved an email from Ryan with a link to a rough version of the score on his server somewhere in cyberspace, and the file is downloading to the computer as I write this. Aside from an early sample theme that he let me hear a couple of months ago, this will be the first chance I've had to hear what he's come up with. His last message stated that he had upgraded his home studio and that he was extremely exicted about the new orchestral plugins he's gotten a hold of. I can't wait to hear it.
The trailer is still coming soon: Andy also just bought some type of orchestral sounds for the studio and spent most of his time yesterday playing with it. Other Andy will be going in to learn how it works some time this week, so hopefully you'll be seeing the final trailer soon.
With the website re-designed and the effects track in place, the next things I'll be working on are the end credits and some DVD stuff... which will likely include the multiple versions of the opening title sequence, some test renders, an audio only version of a scene that was cut from the movie, and even possibly the test footage I did for Raven 3-D.
The sound FX track has been completed to the best of my ability. Andy was over yesterday to take a listen to it to gauge how much work will need to be done on it at the Darkhouse studio in the coming weeks.
One of the problems I ran into in the effects track was my small sound effects library's inability to deal with the growls, grunts and roars produced by the Wolfman. I was mixing in bear, lion, tiger, wolf and dog sounds but realized after a scene or two that I could audibly hear repeated sounds. I decided that the Wolfman is going to need a fully vocalized performance, so Charles Reeder is coming in tomorrow to record his third vocal role in the movie as the snarling beast. We've got some other ADR tracks still to go, and then it's on to mixing.
I just recieved an email from Ryan with a link to a rough version of the score on his server somewhere in cyberspace, and the file is downloading to the computer as I write this. Aside from an early sample theme that he let me hear a couple of months ago, this will be the first chance I've had to hear what he's come up with. His last message stated that he had upgraded his home studio and that he was extremely exicted about the new orchestral plugins he's gotten a hold of. I can't wait to hear it.
The trailer is still coming soon: Andy also just bought some type of orchestral sounds for the studio and spent most of his time yesterday playing with it. Other Andy will be going in to learn how it works some time this week, so hopefully you'll be seeing the final trailer soon.
With the website re-designed and the effects track in place, the next things I'll be working on are the end credits and some DVD stuff... which will likely include the multiple versions of the opening title sequence, some test renders, an audio only version of a scene that was cut from the movie, and even possibly the test footage I did for Raven 3-D.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Sound Design
The sound effects track is progressing faster than I initially thought, and is nearing completion. It may take another week. It's very cool to go back and watch the movie with sound after living with it as virtually a silent movie for the past three years. We're going to try and schedule some time with the voice cast to come back in and do some ADR in the coming week or two to add grunts, groans and other incidental vocals.
The effects track is really raw, so it'll probably take quite a bit of time to actually get into the Darkhouse production studio and "sweeten" the audio and do the final mix.
The effects track is really raw, so it'll probably take quite a bit of time to actually get into the Darkhouse production studio and "sweeten" the audio and do the final mix.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
PRODUCTION IS FINISHED!
This past weekend I completed the last shot in Frankenstein vs the Wolfman. There were a couple of memory issues that cropped up in Poser that eliminated a couple of planned shots from the movie (a shot which would have brought just about every character in the movie together,) which resulted in some downscaling - but work was finished and the movie is now in the can. To be at the end of almost three years worth of work feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
I've screened the final cut and am generally happy with it. The animation is an improvement over Raven2 (although it's still a long way from feature quality - which speaks to both my skills as an "animator" and to the amount of work demanded of one person to produce a film by themselves.) There's less action than the Raven movies, but there's more character development. Characters actually have some conversations rather than always rattling off details that will speed them on to the next plot point.
I spent the remainder of the weekend preparing graphics for and cutting together a trailer. Every once and a while during production I was tinkering around with a trailer... I ended up abandoning two different versions in favor of this one, which introduces us to our main antagonists, sets up a bit of plot, and then shows a rapid fire sequence of clips from the film. Using after effects I was able to come up with some cool looking title elements. The trailer runs about 1:05 or so, and is currently in the process of getting scored - a job I've handed off to Other Andy, not Brother-In-Law Andy, who is recording an album called Demontree with Darkhouse. You should hopefully be seeing it here in a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, and I prepared a 3-D version of it, too!
The last time I spoke with Ryan he said he had 10 minutes worth of score completed. I packaged the final film version off to him in the mail on Monday, so we'll see where we go from here.
My next enterprise is the sound effects track. I sat down to work on it last night and burned up a good five hours to get about 30 seconds worth of effects. A lot of the effects need to be edited, equalized, and otherwise manipulated to be considered finished; Brother-in-Law Andy will be supervising the final mix once I get the tracks laid out, and overseeing recording of new effects to cover any gaps. We'll be calling in the actors soon to do the remainder of the ADR work.
After that, I plan to work on the DVD features and updating this site to bring it in line for the release. I'm considering methods of release right now, including 2D and 3D film festival versions, downloadable or Torrent DVD/XBOX360/PSP/iPOD-ready versions, DVD, etc, etc. We'll see which ones pan out.
I've screened the final cut and am generally happy with it. The animation is an improvement over Raven2 (although it's still a long way from feature quality - which speaks to both my skills as an "animator" and to the amount of work demanded of one person to produce a film by themselves.) There's less action than the Raven movies, but there's more character development. Characters actually have some conversations rather than always rattling off details that will speed them on to the next plot point.
I spent the remainder of the weekend preparing graphics for and cutting together a trailer. Every once and a while during production I was tinkering around with a trailer... I ended up abandoning two different versions in favor of this one, which introduces us to our main antagonists, sets up a bit of plot, and then shows a rapid fire sequence of clips from the film. Using after effects I was able to come up with some cool looking title elements. The trailer runs about 1:05 or so, and is currently in the process of getting scored - a job I've handed off to Other Andy, not Brother-In-Law Andy, who is recording an album called Demontree with Darkhouse. You should hopefully be seeing it here in a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, and I prepared a 3-D version of it, too!
The last time I spoke with Ryan he said he had 10 minutes worth of score completed. I packaged the final film version off to him in the mail on Monday, so we'll see where we go from here.
My next enterprise is the sound effects track. I sat down to work on it last night and burned up a good five hours to get about 30 seconds worth of effects. A lot of the effects need to be edited, equalized, and otherwise manipulated to be considered finished; Brother-in-Law Andy will be supervising the final mix once I get the tracks laid out, and overseeing recording of new effects to cover any gaps. We'll be calling in the actors soon to do the remainder of the ADR work.
After that, I plan to work on the DVD features and updating this site to bring it in line for the release. I'm considering methods of release right now, including 2D and 3D film festival versions, downloadable or Torrent DVD/XBOX360/PSP/iPOD-ready versions, DVD, etc, etc. We'll see which ones pan out.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Last Scene?
It's possible that I put together the final scene of the movie yesterday. We'll have to see how it plays. If it ends the film too abruptly, I'll have to manufacture a closing shot. This final sequence is 465 frames long; because just about every character that has appeared in the movie is present, it's rendering out at about 50 frames at a time before it crashes. Since I have to render a right-eye view also, we're actually talking about 930 frames that have to be produced. The movie should clock in around 19 minutes with end credits... More later...
Monday, May 14, 2007
Planning for Post
With the end of the narrative within my sights, I've been working on Frankenstein vs the Wolfman at an accelerated pace. I'm genuinely excited by the prospect of working on it again, which is something I haven't felt since I started production. The time it takes to animate and render these things is so painfully slow, it is almost like watching paint dry.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have basically abandoned the script at this point and am generating action beats as I go. The events do line up with what was outlined on the page, so I'm keeping the recorded dialogue intact.
If I can keep up this rate of production, I could be done with the animation in about two months.
With that in mind, I've begun to start planning for post production. I am having a screening tonight with the post-production team - Andy, Mitch and Other Andy - all of whom will be contributing to the sonic landscape of the film. We'll be spotting the film for sound effect placement and trying to find out how much of the sound fx can be found in sound effects libraries and how much will have to be recorded.
Last week we recorded some ADR with Tom Zack, who plays the Frankenstein Monster, due to the fact that he's leaving us to move to Arizona soon. The recording consisted mostly of pained grunts and groans that we'll be able to lay in during the action sequences.
Once the movie is finished, I'll have my work cut out for me. I need to cut and score a trailer to show off what the film looks like in motion. I'll need to color correct the footage and fine-tune the visual end of the film, then get the multiple versions prepared. And, I'll need to get cracking on DVD menus and special features. That's one area specifically that I haven't given much attention to yet, as there really isn't a whole lot of behind the scenes footage you can provide when you're working on an animated movie on your home computer.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have basically abandoned the script at this point and am generating action beats as I go. The events do line up with what was outlined on the page, so I'm keeping the recorded dialogue intact.
If I can keep up this rate of production, I could be done with the animation in about two months.
With that in mind, I've begun to start planning for post production. I am having a screening tonight with the post-production team - Andy, Mitch and Other Andy - all of whom will be contributing to the sonic landscape of the film. We'll be spotting the film for sound effect placement and trying to find out how much of the sound fx can be found in sound effects libraries and how much will have to be recorded.
Last week we recorded some ADR with Tom Zack, who plays the Frankenstein Monster, due to the fact that he's leaving us to move to Arizona soon. The recording consisted mostly of pained grunts and groans that we'll be able to lay in during the action sequences.
Once the movie is finished, I'll have my work cut out for me. I need to cut and score a trailer to show off what the film looks like in motion. I'll need to color correct the footage and fine-tune the visual end of the film, then get the multiple versions prepared. And, I'll need to get cracking on DVD menus and special features. That's one area specifically that I haven't given much attention to yet, as there really isn't a whole lot of behind the scenes footage you can provide when you're working on an animated movie on your home computer.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Score Meeting; Plus, Nips and Tucks
I had a chance to meet this past weekend with Ryan Wummel, who composed the scores for both Raven and Raven 2, about the job of scoring Frankenstein vs the Wolfman. Since we've been working together on these movies since my last misbegotten live action movie, Gothik, in 1998. In the intervening years since Raven 2 (for which Ryan won two film festival awards for "Best Score"), Ryan has gone back to school for music theory and music production in hopes of improving his sonic talents. He's also invested in some new equipment which ensures that his Frankenstein vs the Wolfman score will benefit from a fully synthesized orchestral sound.
In screening the 16 minutes or so of completed footage for it's first audience, I was made aware of a couple of small problems that needed to be corrected for the story to connect all the right dots. So, I spent some time re-doing a couple of shots, rendering new shots to clarify a plot point, and was also able to create a new sequence that continues the countdown to the day the movie will be finished.
One of the things that I am dealing with is the possibility that I'll have to throw out the final three pages of the script and improvise an ending; the scripted ending is proving to be too convoluted and technically difficult to pull off. To that end I'm using the existing audio tracks recorded by the performers but making some substitutions to shots, props and scenes. The movie will still end virtually the same way, but I'm just taking a slightly alternate route to get there.
Stay tuned...
In screening the 16 minutes or so of completed footage for it's first audience, I was made aware of a couple of small problems that needed to be corrected for the story to connect all the right dots. So, I spent some time re-doing a couple of shots, rendering new shots to clarify a plot point, and was also able to create a new sequence that continues the countdown to the day the movie will be finished.
One of the things that I am dealing with is the possibility that I'll have to throw out the final three pages of the script and improvise an ending; the scripted ending is proving to be too convoluted and technically difficult to pull off. To that end I'm using the existing audio tracks recorded by the performers but making some substitutions to shots, props and scenes. The movie will still end virtually the same way, but I'm just taking a slightly alternate route to get there.
Stay tuned...
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