Fall semester had started and I was ready to make my film. I wrote the script and when I received it back from my teacher I got a pretty good grade. But at the same time I felt like it was more of a 'WTF?' moment. My teacher wondered if I was absolutely sure I wanted to do this film. I didn't hesistate and I said "Yes"; he didn't mind at all.
So my shooting script was approved for filming and I was ready to go. One thing I forgot to mention was that at the same time I was writing my script, I had every single shot planned in my head. So in order to preserve those shots I fired up 3D Studio Max and created my animatic. I decided to create an animatic instead of drawing storyboards because when I was drawing story boards, I wasn't getting the feel for each shot. Here is the end result:
Doing this really helped out when it came to filming. When we were ready to film each shot, I showed the animatic to my actors and crew. Doing this really helped them get the feel, rythm and choreography of how it would all play out. In total, the film contained a total of 51 shots with 23 pre-planned fx shots.
My next challenge was to find a shooting location. Where can I find a forest area and be allowed to bring guns without having to get a permit? Nowhere, at least in Southern California. My original plan was to film at Mt. SACs Wildlife Preserve across the street which would've been the perfect location. Unfortunately, the school denied me permission to film there and I had to look for an alternative. I ended up going to Galster Wilderness Park in West Covina after a few suggestions. I walked around the park and took some video notes. The entire park is basically a trail with a few small open areas. But by throwing in a few camera tricks, I was able to make the location seem much bigger than it actually was.
I absolutely hate producing. Anything that isn't part of the creative process, I dread. But you gotta' do what you gotta' do. In the past I helped various people on their projects for free. This allowed me to ask them to return the favor later on. Finding a crew was the easy part, finding the actors though proved to be difficult.
I didn't want to use my buddies as actors because 1. they didn't fit the role and 2. I was so used to directing my friends in Comedy films that I felt my directing range was going to be indefinitely stuck on that level. Thankfully my friends understood this and worked as crew on the film. So I decided to challenge myself in finding actors that fit the role perfectly (or at least had the look).
Originally, I had 2 different actors set to play the role of Hunter and Companion 2 weeks before shooting. But 1 week before shooting, the first actor ended up having last minute schedule conflicts and the second actor...well...I don't know what happened. I wasn't receiving any responses and I didn't want to take a chance. So I let him know that I had to move on.
Now I had to rush myself to find 2 new actors. I posted up a Craigslist posting and for some reason people kept deleting them (probably because I wasn't offering any pay). So after multiple posts I was finally able to cast Nikolay and Spencer. I posted some tips on getting free actors through Craigslist on jonE5films blog, where my film was featured as 'Film of the Week':
http://jone5films.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/short-film-of-the-week-hunters/#comments
Now I played the waiting game.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
'HUNTERS' THE MAKING OF: The Idea
The idea for 'Hunters' pretty much came to me where all of my ideas come from, the restroom haha.
When I first got the idea for the film, all I knew was that I wanted dinosaurs. I wanted to set a standard for student film making with absolutely no budget. I really wanted to show that you don't need to go to a big and expensive film school to learn how to create a good film. So once the ideas for the film popped in my head I immediately jotted my ideas down and made notes of how the story would flow.
Now this was 1 month before the Fall semester of Mt. San Antonio Community College was set to begin, and I wasn't even sure I would get the class for certain. But I was so eager, my mind was so set on making this film happen that I couldn't resist to start pre-production.
So before I started any work on the actual film itself, I needed to make sure I was absolutely capable of achieving the dinosaur effects and animations on my own. Me and a couple of buddies of mine went to the park and I told them to pretend like they're running from a 'big ass' dinosaur. The awkwardness of the raw footage is humorous; that and Van's horrible wardrobe (the guy with flip flop's in the video below).
So I got home, fired up Boujou and commenced the 3D tracking. One of my fears was that the footage would be completely unusable due to the fact that the Canon T2i, and basically all DSLRs, have a CMOS sensor. The Jell-O effect that comes out of these sensors really screw things up when it comes to 3D tracking. I also shot everything handheld so this came out to be more of a stress test on how shaky I can make the footage and still create a close-to-perfect 3D track. Fortunately, everything worked out great. I exported my tracks and brought them into 3D studio Max.
Now, the animation. I DID NOT create the dinosaur models or textures. I purchased them off of Turbosquid. Unfortunately, the animation rig (the bones that allow you to move the models and animate them) were so horribly designed that I had to redo all of the rigging. Rigging is something I despise, I absolutely hate it because I basically suck at it. But with a lot of patience I was able to rig the dinosaurs I would use. I created really rough animations to show everybody what I was capable achieving in a short amount of time. I completed 1 test shot per day.
The following is the end result:
Once these tests were completed, I knew I was ready to start writing the story.
When I first got the idea for the film, all I knew was that I wanted dinosaurs. I wanted to set a standard for student film making with absolutely no budget. I really wanted to show that you don't need to go to a big and expensive film school to learn how to create a good film. So once the ideas for the film popped in my head I immediately jotted my ideas down and made notes of how the story would flow.
Now this was 1 month before the Fall semester of Mt. San Antonio Community College was set to begin, and I wasn't even sure I would get the class for certain. But I was so eager, my mind was so set on making this film happen that I couldn't resist to start pre-production.
So before I started any work on the actual film itself, I needed to make sure I was absolutely capable of achieving the dinosaur effects and animations on my own. Me and a couple of buddies of mine went to the park and I told them to pretend like they're running from a 'big ass' dinosaur. The awkwardness of the raw footage is humorous; that and Van's horrible wardrobe (the guy with flip flop's in the video below).
So I got home, fired up Boujou and commenced the 3D tracking. One of my fears was that the footage would be completely unusable due to the fact that the Canon T2i, and basically all DSLRs, have a CMOS sensor. The Jell-O effect that comes out of these sensors really screw things up when it comes to 3D tracking. I also shot everything handheld so this came out to be more of a stress test on how shaky I can make the footage and still create a close-to-perfect 3D track. Fortunately, everything worked out great. I exported my tracks and brought them into 3D studio Max.
Now, the animation. I DID NOT create the dinosaur models or textures. I purchased them off of Turbosquid. Unfortunately, the animation rig (the bones that allow you to move the models and animate them) were so horribly designed that I had to redo all of the rigging. Rigging is something I despise, I absolutely hate it because I basically suck at it. But with a lot of patience I was able to rig the dinosaurs I would use. I created really rough animations to show everybody what I was capable achieving in a short amount of time. I completed 1 test shot per day.
The following is the end result:
Once these tests were completed, I knew I was ready to start writing the story.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
'HUNTERS' Short Film Directed by Xerxes Sangco
Wow, it's been a while since I've posted a blog. Anyways, I just wanted to share with you all my latest short film 'Hunters'
HUNTERS from Xposure Films on Vimeo.
About the film:
'Hunters' is a 5 minute student short film made for Mt. San Antonio College's Advanced Television and Film class. Filmed on the Canon T2i in West Covina, CA.
The film was completed on a budget of $210
Plot Synopsis:
Two Hunters in search of valuable game are pit against prehistoric rivals in this sci-fi action film.
Written, Produced and Directed:
by Xerxes Sangco
Director of Photography:
Xerxes Sangco
Starring:
Nikolay Mirchev & Spencer Kelly
Assistant Director/Script Supervisor:
Megan Ger
Camera Operator(s):
Matthew Geluz
Xerxes Sangco
Key Grip:
Jordan Cornwell
Grip(s):
Russell Javier
John Poindexter
Boom Pole Operator(s):
Sammah Crichton
Sam Koh
HUNTERS from Xposure Films on Vimeo.
About the film:
'Hunters' is a 5 minute student short film made for Mt. San Antonio College's Advanced Television and Film class. Filmed on the Canon T2i in West Covina, CA.
The film was completed on a budget of $210
Plot Synopsis:
Two Hunters in search of valuable game are pit against prehistoric rivals in this sci-fi action film.
Written, Produced and Directed:
by Xerxes Sangco
Director of Photography:
Xerxes Sangco
Starring:
Nikolay Mirchev & Spencer Kelly
Assistant Director/Script Supervisor:
Megan Ger
Camera Operator(s):
Matthew Geluz
Xerxes Sangco
Key Grip:
Jordan Cornwell
Grip(s):
Russell Javier
John Poindexter
Boom Pole Operator(s):
Sammah Crichton
Sam Koh
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)