SOUND

Since sound is definetively not my strong point and I rather focus on the visual aspects of my thesis, I decided to outsource the sound mixing and editing. I contacted a friend of mine in California called Jan Hermann and he said yes. Based on my animatic, he'll start researching some sound effects and, as soon as I have a more solid story reel, he should start assembling the pieces together.

MODELING

I have finally chosen a design that I'm happy with and have started to model. I think it should be fairly simple to model the broad shapes, but I definetively want to spend some time on the fine details, such as joints, seams, etc.

KEYING

I did a rough key on most of my shots and the greenscreen I bought made it all very easy. I'll have to spend more time (obviously) refining the edges and cleaning up some spill, but overall it shouldn't be to difficult.

BACK FROM THE (VERY SHORT) BREAK

During the winter break I had the chance to review the footage and pick my best takes. The first shot, where the T-rex comes out of the bushes, was cut at the shoot. It was logisticaly impossible, given the place where the boy was going to be sitting.
The next step is to do a rough key and put these shots into a story reel, to see how they fit together.

THAT'S A WRAP

Yesterda, 12/16/06, we shot the live action plates for the project. We started in the morning, shooting the BG plates at the park. After being stuck in traffick for 2 hours due to a protest on 5th Avenue, we shot the green screen plates with the actor. Everything went pretty well and the plates look amazing. Above is a picture of me and the kid, the talented Joshua Pachter, who did a great job. Of course, all this wouldn't have been possible without our awesome DP, Seth Melnick. Special thanks to Chris Hunt and Christopher Riemann for the help.

And that's a wrap, for the shooting and for the semester. I will continue to work on the project during the winter break and will be sharing some of my progress through this blog. Happy holidays!

PRODUCTION DESIGN

I've been working a lot on the design of the toy lately. This is my most recent version. Is not quite there yet, but is getting close now.

INDOOR SHOOTING

Due to an unstable weather, I'm trying to think of alternatives to an outside shooting. I have no problems with a studio shoot. The only problem I would have are in the shoots where the kid interacts with the grass. For that, I have looked into astro turf. I contacted a local suplier and they sent me a sample (picture). In my opinion, it doesn't look bad, but I might do some tests just to meka sure.

STORYBOARDS: 3RD BATCH

There are the "shooting" storyboards. No more going back now. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. All the time I spent looking at these boards and moving them around has really paid off. Check them out here:
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~rd888/storyboards_3rdbatch.pdf

PROPS: DINOSAUR

After deciding on the dinosaur I was going to use, it was time to make a few changes to it. Apart from a new and more realistic paint, I small "plastic surgery" to move his head down and forward has been performed.

LOCATION

I found the location to shoot the live action plates. Is a park in North Bergen, NJ. I went there twice this week to take advantage of the good weather and took a lot of reference pictures. I compared them to my storyboards to make sure the spots I picked would match my shots (see picture above) and got very good results.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Here are my first attempts at my toy design. I'm trying to keep it simple and functional, but cool looking:
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~rd888/prodDesign.pdf

TOYS: REFERENCE

The next step now is to work on the design of my own toy (Playmobil is just a stand-in). Apart from Playmobil, the other toys that are similar in style are (above picture, from left to right): Mini-mates, Lego figures, and Kubricks.