Last week my friend Rakesh (back center of the picture), a fellow FX artist and Goju karate instructor left for the west coast. Even with free long distance, e-mail, and occasional visits, I’ll still miss him.

We met through a Lightwave user group several years ago, and became fast friends. The group sort of fizzled out, but we had so much in common, we continued working on and discussing CGI on our own. In fact, I recruited him to work on Timewarp’s CGI-heavy feature Crawler. Work has been slow-going, but he’s made progress–and he insists he wants to keep working in spite of the distance. I’m holding you to that, bud.

One day about 4 years ago, we discovered that we were both long-time martial artists, and he was an instructor. The timing couldn’t have been better for me, because I was in between schools and looking for a place to train. His school, a Kodokan flavor of Goju Ryu located in D.C., was run out of a small activity room in an apartment complex. It was a little bit of a trek from Rockville, but worth it. At that time, there were only 3 regulars, including the two of us, so the small space suited us. And it was great training again.

I actually came from a completely different style, Shorinji-Ryu, a Japanese style (Goju is Okinawan.) Boy did I have a lot to learn… or, rather, unlearn. But Rakesh was up to the challenge of dealing with an old warhorse that was a little set in his ways. And with the help of the other instructors, Josh (bottom right), Jay (back, second from the left) and Vu (back, second from the right), I was able to make the transition.

Thursdays became a night-long ritual of training for 2 hours, then dinner (where we’d talk about movies, computer geekery, and Goju, of course), and then more chatting by one of our cars. There were several nights that I didn’t get home until 1 or 2AM. That made for an unproductive Friday at work.

It’s about 4 years since I joined, and our school has really grown. Among the regulars are Sampak (bottom, second from the left), Johann (back left), John-Joseph (back right), and James (bottom left). We also have several part-time students and two more black belts. And we added two more weekly classes on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Sometimes we train outside on Saturdays if the weather is nice.

Of course, the activity room has started to show its size, or lack thereof. As I said, it’s small and we share the room with 2 couches, a treadmill, and 3 tables. It’s not so bad when we’re all doing the same thing, but we often get in each other’s way when we branch off. And don’t get me started on the parking. But that doesn’t stop us. After all, we’re Samurai. Inconvenience matters, not.

But the absence of a friend does matter. I’m sure we’ll feel the effect, at least for a while. It’s certainly the greatest challenge to our Samurai persistence. But I think I speak for all of us in wishing Rakesh Sensei well, and we look forward to his occasional return for a class.

A lot, actually.

First, and foremost, I became a daddy. ZOMG I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT! She’s so tiny and sweet and cute and…okay, I could go on for hours. Suffice it to say my wife and I couldn’t be happier.

And did I mention she’s cute?

Anyway, when I’m not feeding her or changing her or just holding her for the hell of it, I’ve managed to find some time to work on several tasks, some for Timewarp, some just for me.

I submitted a full-length script to Final Draft’s Big Break Competition. The deadline was June 15th and I just squeaked in at the last minute. Many thanks to those who proofread and offered feedback; I missed a few embarrassing typos.

I’ve heard mixed things about screenwriting contests in general, but I wanted to give it a shot so I could see how my writing compares to other potential screenwriters–at least in the eyes of the Big Break judges. If I place, I’ll be ecstatic, not to mention the nice prizes they offer. And if some A-list prod. co. is interested in the script, awesome! Final Draft, in case you’re wondering, is one of the premiere screenwriting packages on the market. It’s used by many industry professionals, and is my software of choice. “Just add words,” is so true.

I’ve also been working on the Dead Hunt DVD set due to be released this summer (We’re hoping to have copies for sale at Horrorfind in August). This is the most ambitious DVD project I’ve worked on. The 2-disk set will have 2 audio tracks for the feature (including commentary), a stills gallery, alternate endings, bloopers, making of, and even an Easter egg. I have a few more tweaks, then it’s off to the presses. For those interested, I’m again using DVD Lab Studio for the authoring.

Finally, I’ve started research for a new feature I’m writing for Timewarp (while I am a wannabe Hollywood screenwriter, I do write for our low-budget film company.) I’m looking into the world of Military Special Forces, so to say the film will be action-oriented is an understatement. But don’t worry, it will have plenty of suspense and horror as well.

And for those eagerly awaiting news about Crawler, fret not, for my team and I will be picking up the pace once the Dead Hunt DVD is completed.

Since Don Dohler’s passing last December, we at Timewarp Films have been contemplating our next steps. To that end, we’ve been holding (and will continue to hold) monthly production meetings to discuss our goals, plans, ideas, gripes, and whatever else. You can read about our new production staff, and some of our initial plans here.

Needless to say, we’re all excited about our future prospects. While I can’t go into details, I would like to mention a little about what’s on our slate.

First, we will continue to work on Crawler, and plan to complete it soon. We’re finishing the last two scenes with the monster, about 7 or 8 shots, and then we have some miscellaneous FX shots, one scene to cut, some sound effects, and maybe a little tweaking (though we’re not messing with Don’s edit). That’s it!

Then, our first new project is a 3-part anthology, with a common theme threaded throughout. A first draft is completed for the first segment, and we’ve cemented the ideas for the second and third. We’re hoping that working on 3 short films will help our new team develop a synergy that will carry over into our upcoming feature-length stuff.

Speaking of feature length, we have 5 potential projects in the queue, all horror/thriller oriented: A zombie/action movie, a vampire movie with religious elements, a serial-killer movie, a supernatural thriller, and vampire movie that begins during WWII. That’s enough projects to cover the next 6-8 years. So we’ll definitely be busy.

Featured in this shot are actors Darla Albornoz and Justin Timpaine.

Only two more scenes to go. Yipee!!

Last week I finished what I called the “pivotal” scene. It’s pivotal for two reasons. First, the good guys face off against the creature for the first time. Second, it was the most challenging scene to complete. Ironically, though, the shot I expected to be the most difficult of the whole film, a shot that required a major on-screen alteration to the creature, lots of tiny particles flying around, and direct interaction between an actor and the Crawler, only took a day to complete.

While working on the scene, an issue that came up a couple of times, including the shot shown above, was dealing with continuity problems. It’s hard enough dealing with them when editing, but when you add into the mix the placement of CG elements after the fact, it opens up a whole other can of worms, or Crawlers in this case. Since we didn’t initially plan to use CG for the Crawler, we hadn’t planned the shots to the level of detail needed for adding CG. We basically winged it. Luckily, however, we decided to film with traditional editing in mind, as opposed to the style adopted by many newer Hollywood directors, the long, motion-filled shots with no cuts. The traditional way uses frequent cuts from various angles: wide, mid, closeup, etc., while maintaining proper stage direction. Thus, a lot was fixed in editing before we even got the CG elements. But, as you can see in the above shot, while Darla and Justin should be looking directly at the creature’s eyes, it appears that Justin is looking at the creatures throat (if it actually has one); they have two different lines of sight.

Oops.

I dealt with this by making a choice: I set to Darla’s line of sight. Since she’s holding a shiny canister, she draws the eye more than Justin. Well, okay, she’d draw the eye more anyway.

Most of the continuity problems we faced were minor, and for some I did my due diligence as a post-production artist and “fixed them in post”. The rest we’ll live with as all filmmakers do.

After a brief diversion working on Dead Hunt, I’m now back to finishing up Crawler. I’m actually on a pivotal scene, a major confrontation between the good guys and the monster. This one has some serious FX stuff in it; I get to do neat things to the Crawler itself, but since it deals with the plot, I can’t give details. Suffice it to say, I get to pay homage to Terminator 2 :)

As I continue to crank out more final FX clips, I thought I’d post a couple of stills. These shots, courtesy of Timewarp, show the creature in both an outdoor, nighttime setting, which is very dark, and an indoor setting that is lighter–though not by much. These renders, which I call “final” use a feature in XSI called Final Gathering to augment the base lighting with a global illumination. For my purposes, it serves to subtly fill in some light, and accentuate the creature’s surface details. The base lighting still dictates the key and rim areas on the creature, but Final Gathering augments the fill lighting, providing more depth.The actor in the second image is George Stover, who plays the sheriff. Hey, George.

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

I received a request to post an image of the Crawler. I created this image a while ago to use for printed materials such as the DVD cover. It is more stylized than the version that will appear in the movie, but it conveys, I hope, the creature’s menacing appearance. So, with Don’s approval, here he…er, she, er…it is:

(Click the image to view a larger version.)

I plan to use this blog to keep track of my progress with the seemingly endless list of creative projects on which I plan to work in the next few years. Whether it’s filmmaking, music, writing, martial arts, or even computer programming, creativity is in my blood—I can’t stop it. Whether what I produce appeals to anyone else is a different matter. I’d like to think it does.

At the top of my laundry list is Crawler. For the last three years, I have been working on the visual f/x for this low-budget horror movie produced by Timewarp Films. In particular, I’m working on the computer-generated title character. One thing I’ve learned in the last three years is that there’s a reason we see hundreds of names at the tail end of movie credits for visual f/x; it’s hard to do this stuff. It took at least a year to zero in on the best software to create and animate this beast. I finally settled on Softimage XSI—a godsend.

Currently, I’m on the 3rd to last scene involving the creature. After I finish the last creature shot in the last scene, and the 30-some shots of final renders, I have to address the miscellaneous f/x. For this I’ve recruited a few friends interested in f/x to help. That led to the next lesson learned (no, not “don’t hire friends”): I learned not to try to manage and do at the same time. You wind up doing a half-assed job at both. Thus, I had to concentrate on my stuff first. Once I finish the remaining creature shots, I’ll pull the gang (or what’s left of them) back together to finish the rest.

As a final note, I want to mention a project on the back burner, an amateur film project that is a mere 14 years in the making: Monster Planet.