Creating a VFX based film with no budget and overcoming production issues.

What an amazing week I had with my fellow film making community, Filmonik.

The Dame and Villain.

The hero Captain Quantum

During my time at the summer filmmaking Kabaret I helped edit a Rap music documentary for a lady called Christina,  I composited two tricky shots within a short first person film created by a talented director Kenneth James and lastly I got to shoot and direct my own short film that I wrote called The Damsel in this Dress which I intentionally created to incoporate comic book style video editing and the need for visual effects in mind to enhance the story.

The film I wrote is divided into three chapters, Chapter 1: The Confrontation, Chapter 2: The Crazy Date, and Chapter 3: Farewell Forever, this is because it's supposed to represent chapters within a comic book. The title sequence will actually be an animated comic book opening to show the first scene of the film.

I also wrote the film with the intention to add visual effects such as laser beams, explosions and 3D motion tracked comic book style thought bubbles. The edit will consist of many slide transitions to represent that comic book style vibe as you can see below from a rough cut.

Multiple shots on screen at once.

Shooting whilst avoiding the bad weather.

Here's a list of three issues that my film crew and myself had to overcome in order to create this complex short comic book film.

1. Lack of lighting equipment and bad weather:

Couldn't use my green screen during production.

Due to budget restraints we had no lighting which made using my green screen backdrop practically impossible, coupled with the fact that the weather was so bad that we couldn't even shoot green screen footage  outside in the bright sun light because there was hardly any reliable sun light to begin with and one major scene that took place was within a dark alley way.

In order to overcome those limitations I shot all the complex VFX shots using only a tripod, camera and measuring equipment.

I made sure that I wrote down any necessary information regarding the shot and then recorded the live action footage twice with and without the actors and/or props. This method gave me a blank slate to work from plus a shot that contained the actors.

The one shot for example involved a victim being shot by a blast from a sci-fi gun causing him to explode into blue dust

2. Lack of lighting during indoor scenes:

In order to keep as much detail within the shot as possible without lighting we used prime lenses with low apertures ranging from 1.4 to 2.2 f-stop. This let us shoot easier in low light conditions.

Shot Inside a bar with no additional lighting. 

During production both myself and another camera operator made sure to use the lights that were on location to our advantage such as placing the actors underneath lights that were already present within the room.

Luckily the scene we shot was inside a bar that had loads of lighting to help us.

I loved  how everyone collaborated during the various productions at filmonik including my own even when things get tough and boy do things get tough.

3. No audio equipment:

Without a shotgun mic and boom pole we could not shoot audio during production especially during bad weather conditions. That's why it was planned to use ADR, audio dialogue replacement to record the dialogue separately. We still recorded sound during production but none of the sound was usable.

At Filmonik your tasked with making a film to show at a public screening mere days after shooting and editing. We recorded sound in a make shift sound proof space. It wasn't perfect and in the future I knew that ADR will be recorded again in a much quieter sound proof location.

Desperate times.

Foam to sound proof a small space for recording audio.

Below are some stills taken from the production of my short film The Damsel in a Dress. I can't wait to begin adding visual effects and motion graphics animation to my freelance production. 

Turning this script to screen was no easy endeavour.

Hero pointing the finger at the masked villain. 

The evil Doctor Blue with Vicky the Dame

Not all is well down Well Street. 

It's a Western  Showdown. 

A Cruel Love - 2014

A new film is almost finished called "A Cruel Love" has finally been uploaded to Vimeo but awaits some PR work before releasing it to the world. It will be screen at Filmonik: Kino in Manchester during December 2014. 

I was very pleased with this short film that I directed and Daniel Codd was an amazing producer/actor that critiqued my edit and music so that it all looked and sounds as best as it possibly could be.

The title sequence needed to be both simple but creative so I found a location on a street near The Manchester Wheel and took this nice shot. The title fit's snug over the half shaped heart on the lamp post, a simple but effective creation.

Halloween 2014, two films made in just 3 short days.

Halloween 2014 Filmonik Mini Kabaret

Indeed the Filmonik Mini-Kabaret for 2014 happened, it was a two round extravaganza of film making with only a few days to create pretty much anything you can think of with any number of talented individuals your able to assemble into a small crew. With everyone working together as sparingly as they can we are all able to produce a number of short films within a short time frame. The first round was loosely Halloween themed, the second was a more of an open, non-genre specific round.  At the very end there were a number of astonishing films made ranging from horror, broad comedy, thriller, dramatic shorts and even a spoof science fiction short.

It was a good Kabaret yet again for me and it won't be long till another Kabaret comes in the form of the Christmas Challenge. If I'm not already working I might be able to attend that one as well.

During October 31st to November 2rd 2014 I was able to work on two short films that became another great film making and editing experience and I was able to help direct, shoot and edit a short thriller which we now plan on extending in the future and I got to shoot, edit and quickly composite a short 1960's surreal spoof science fiction film about time travel, aliens, tin foil, and laser's all of which resembled a classic doctor who episode.

An image that was taken of the cast and crew in front of the Sci-Fi set that we created.

A lot more post production needs to be done to complete this fun 1960's science fiction spoof but nether the less it was a challenge to shoot and edit in less than 48 hours. 

It certainly pushed me to the limit, I'm shocked that I was able to edit two short films in less than 48 hours!

It was one epic weekend,  and I was thoroughly knackered after spending another fantastic time at Filmonik HQ and if this experience has taught me one thing it's that I need to become a faster and more efficient editor so that I'm able to deliver work quicker whilst looking after my own health and well being, I barely slept. 

During the experience I got to work with loads of new talented people including actors, actresses, camera operators, directors and composers.

The second film which I helped direct, shoot and edit was another short but sweet film that a friend wrote which was a thriller involving a gang fight with a twist. This film however may have new scenes filmed at a later date because we feel this short film has the potential to be something more special.

For now I've got those Kaboret blues!

Freelance compositing

I've been asked to help composite a Sci-Fi film called Apple about an Android that kills a human which goes into depth explaining how and why he did it. 

I'm working on the title, credit sequence and a few VFX shots, I was asked for a Tron style title but to make it more unique, so I created a flowing line sequence which forms a title which turns 3D then the camera pans through to reveal the wide establishment shot. It like Tron meets Harry Potter and so far it going well, next I need to add the pulsating electric dots that are flowing down the lines and animate the lines so they move as the camera pans through. 

The Winds of Change

I colour graded and edited this short experimental poetic film... you can watch with or without captions. 

The Winds of Change is an experimental short film that showcases different actors reciting poems out loud with emotive body language. This film was made during the 2014 summer Filmonik Kabaret. Shot using the Blackmagic Design: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera & Colour graded in DaVinci Resolve, Edited in Adobe Première CC and some shots composited in After Effects CC. -Cast & Crew- Written & Directed by Joseph Simmons Edited & Composited by Robert Gittings Cast: Harry Dyer, Sarah Sayeed, David Bresnahan, Kathrynn Way Director of Photography: Sam Twyman Sound & Boom Operator: Zan Smith & Nadia La Music Score: Eilidh Pollard

Mr Imagination

Finally finished editing and compositing Mr Imagination. 

A short story about a screen writer with writer block.  

Although some shots are out of focus unfortunatly they still had to be used. 

One shot in particular could not be used because of how badly out of focus it was :-( I wish I could of been the DOP to help the camera man.

Never the less I worked hard and tried my best to make this film flow better with a few quicker cuts, added sound effects and added VFX shots to enhance the story.

The night time sky shots, credit sequence and dissapearing effects were fun to create in After Effects. 

I graduated :-)

I'm certainly gonna miss being a student and studying at Stafford University, however I will continue to learn more and develop my skills in the years come.

My first business card.

I created my first business card to help make connections. 

Filmonik

In the summer 2014 a ten day film making event happend at Filmonik HQ in Manchester. We made over 60 short films in ten days with little to no budget. I directed one short movie and worked on at least 8 other films in various ways. Even did a spot of acting.

This is the film I wrote, directed and roughly edited in less than 48 hours: 

A series of images taken during the event which are all below:

The wall of talent, which displays all the people at Filmonik including their skills. Can you spot me? 

The white board where directors and writers pitch their film ideas before assembling cast & crew. 

Composers form a base station to create original sound tracks for various films.

My ID badge.

A green screen to aid us during our film making.

Getting ready to screen some of the short films in front of a live audience. 

On set of a silent vampire film called Garlic

Everyone busy editing their films.

Practice shooting with the Black Magic pocket cinema camera.

The curse of a talented artist.

The curse of a talented film maker and compositor... During and after my studies I've developed the same mentality that my VFX supervisor's Dan McCathy & Anthony Gregory wanted to instil in me.

The mentality that many true artist's develop but at a cost. 

It seems that on most occasions in the films I work on that I'm never quite happy with what is created and I always find ways it could be improved, fixed or changed, even after it's been released.

It's one of the reasons why a lot of my films that I work on get slightly delayed. Once Mr Imagination is released soon I will be working on other project's, a Sci-Fi film called Apple, a poetic short film called The Wind's of Change & one more film that requires the live music to be added. I'm also heading to the next Kabaret to help create some cool horror films at Filmonik in October for Halloween. I don't have a job yet and I certainly need some income soon.. but at least I'm going to be a busy bee.

My film Broken that was created in less than 48 hours and was editing again over the span of a few weeks which was a fun film to create but I noticed that some shot's were over exposed. I wish I didn't have to rush when shooting that film. I've just installed magic lantern so that I can use zebras to check for overexposed areas of footage.

A film called Mr Imagination was fun to work on but the camera work was not perfect... some shot's could not be used because they were out of focus and some shots that were slightly out of focus still had to be used. It's a shame we did not have portable lighting on the day of the shoot. 

Currently have three project's lined up from Filmonik.

At Filmonik, I was involved in a number of film projects in August 2014.

There are three more film projects in the works at the moment:

1. Mr Imagination - Story about a script writer with writers block and his imagination becomes real.

2. The Wind's Of Change - A short poetic film involving actors reciting poems about mother nature.

3. I Preliminari - Silent Movie with live music added, on it's way once music has been aquired.

To get a better idea on what Filmonik is all about, my talented friend Ben Mottershead made a music video all about the Filmonik Kabaret and how it feels when it ends. It's really good!