Category Archives: workflow

Progress

Good lawd, what a ride. It’s November now and peddle to the metal. Today I am going to finish revisions on the team and tasks document. Roto artists are providing a constant flow of results. Money is definitely thinning out … Continue reading

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Holy something!

My dog, have I done a lot of work on this project or what?! In three words, yes, yes and yes. You know things are getting interesting when you wake up and have to babble ideas into your recorder because … Continue reading

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Assembling a VFX crew

As VFX director for DOG I continue to learn how to  assembling and managing a remote roto crew. Here I review past lessons and my vision for the now. My first attempt was in May and after several false starts … Continue reading

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Roto artist reference 2012

October 2, 2012, 6:15 pm Introduction x Daughter of God is a narrative short originally shot in 2006, now moving steadily through VFX towards a completion by the end of 2012. Though roto artists will be repairing some continuity and … Continue reading

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Queue for Fall 2012, v.9

How to wrap DOG when there are some significant items in the queue? I don’t want to get distracted by other projects, especially other people’s projects. Diverting energy risks the completion of DOG. There are a few objectives to handle … Continue reading

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August DOG plan

Looking at DOG and pushing for completion this fall, at least having most of the rigorous roto wrapped by end of August mid September. Ben’s going back to Western September 2. What can we accomplish together in the 3 weeks … Continue reading

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Protected: Festival of Nightmares

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Posts to post

I’ve been blogging in my mind for the last couple of months, here’s a sample of the topics I’d like elaborate on soonish. First, a crisis of confidence. Gosh, why blog at all? With the explosion of FB, a personal … Continue reading

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Summer priorities

Before Lena Maude headed west, she grabbed the full set of Tony Robbins Personal Power. I have taken the course about 10 times since the early 90s and suggested she give it a whirl. Admittedly Tony is a little over … Continue reading

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Cutting glass

Ben and I do DOG daily (have you met Ben Woody?) but my early evenings and weekends are dedicated to acquiring old Hobie 16s cheap – usually with soft decks and other structural issues. This is long range planning for … Continue reading

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Artist reference May 2012

Introduction x Daughter of God is a narrative short originally shot in 2006, now moving steadily through VFX towards a completion by summer of 2012. Though roto artists will be repairing some continuity and production gaffs, we are mostly adding … Continue reading

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Snip snip here…

04/29 Wow! In assembling the definitive essentials, I am finding more bits of fat to trim away… incredible! Beyond essentials, if we do flashbacks perhaps Uncle Joe could be making Christina tea when she comes in with the PKD book. … Continue reading

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Today is the first day…

…of the rest of your life, Geritol. Use only as directed. Welcome back to the DOG progress report. Editorial on the first and second act is (dare I say it?) done.  There are some weld edits which require a deeper … Continue reading

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Progress on Gerry’s cabin

Gerry’s cabin or Act 2 is very close to it’s final iteration. The length was cut from 9:00 minutes to 8:15, 45 seconds. We lost some lag and tuned the performance by splitting several two shots. My first foray into … Continue reading

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Interns and the last test of Version 1.0 2012

Trickster Pictures has two interns through the TBAISD Career-Tech Center’s Film and New Media Program – Cameron and Micah. They’ve been learning how to rotoscope using both After Effects and Mocha and will hopefully be able to contribute to DOG’s … Continue reading

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Go Go Go Again

Budgeting for the completion of DOG distills down to a simple formula… Tasks / Team = Duration Each task describes a specific change to some shot, a shot defined as the IN point to OUT point of any edit. A … Continue reading

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Roto ramping up

April 2, 2012 I’ve identified the Essential tasks and have assembled a core roto team – this week is the shakedown cruise. I’ve got two interns and two contractors and am interested to see how much progress we make this … Continue reading

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Artist reference version 1.1

Introduction DOG was originally shot in 2006 and was revived in the summer of 2011. The objective is to have a festival launch by summer of 2012. If you’re inclined to read this blog, you’ll notice that I have an … Continue reading

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Artist reference

Introduction DOG was originally shot in 2006 and was revived in the summer of 2011. It’s a quirky first project which I’ve decided to see through to the completion and thus here we are. If you’re inclined to read this … Continue reading

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What’s essential?

In theory, we could loose the intro to Joe, though that fucks up the ending with the surveillance of C and G, unless we introduce the interface on laptop with G, which has to stay anyway. Then the inference is … Continue reading

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Here we go again

That’s a delightfully ambigious post title for a critical topic – the schedule for completion.  Am I reluctant to jinx myself with another prediction of imminent closure? Indeed I am! No more optimistic announcements, just the facts, ma’am. Last night … Continue reading

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DOG – script revisions

The plan is to revise the DOG script based around existing live action and VFX elements, adding new elements only when absolutely needed. It’s faster to rewrite than it is to edit. Unfortunately, Final Draft doesn’t have a very robust … Continue reading

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Tech – FCPX file management

There’s all sorts of voodoo to reconnect files in FCPX. I am reminding myself that an AVCHD camera archive  has to be mounted for FCPX to find the media. Also, there’s a protocol for moving events and having them be … Continue reading

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Internship – a symbiotic alliance for dream manifestation

Version 1.1 February 01, 2012 Version 1.0 January 31, 2012 I have to evaluate interns at the end of the semester using CTC’s form, so let’s look at the categories that are most important to Trickster Pictures. Read everything, there … Continue reading

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Inventory end within sight

I’m pushing mid September with this shifting milestone, and it’s all good. Since combing through my journals from 2006-2009,  I’ve discovered more material scattered hither and yon throughout the full archive.  I’ve not included analog storage like notebooks in my … Continue reading

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Inventory milestone still pending

Another 7 days have rolled by and the inventory milestone is still on the horizon. It’s been a slightly traumatic week. I extracted DOG references from my personal journals from the years 2006-2009, which meant slogging through a lot of … Continue reading

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Another DOG milestone… missed!

I’ve overrun the rescheduled inventory deadline, after only getting in about 30 hours in the last 6 days. What else was I doing? Some M3 business on Wednesday, the usual training, eating, sleeping, maintaining social ties, fixing things… Below is … Continue reading

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Inventory emerges

I’ve been poring over the drive “momma”, 2 terabytes (5 years) of accumulated DOG development. I had this idea that the content was relatively organized, but it turns out – not so much. Sifting through the hoary once upon a time, … Continue reading

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ECL interviews DK – 3:30 milestone

A transcription of pro tem Producer El Carne Loco’s interview with Director Dan Kelly regarding Daughter of God’s first milestone completion in 2011. ECL: Regarding the 3 minute version, what do you feel was accomplished, did it meet your expectations? … Continue reading

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DOG resurrection

She’s back! Daughter of God is in the house. 3:30 minutes The first objective was to post a micro version of the story (~3:00 minutes) by Wednesday 8/10.  Between Sunday 8/7 and Wednesday 8/10 I was able to dedicate 11 … Continue reading

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DOG post-production meeting

After updating the archive’s catalog the last couple of days, (40 terrabytes worth), I was finally ready to crack the DOG project this morning. Upon reviewing the major sequences, I had a series of epiphanies. Inventory Cataloging the possibilities will … Continue reading

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Awash in wildflowers…

…and basking in beauty, that’s the summer of 2011. Hello World has been beached (blossomed) for a solid year following her crippling injury 30 miles north of Chicago that ended our 2010 expedition. She’s communing with the flox and vetch … Continue reading

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The aesthetic and what’s next?

So we’ve pre-released the sfx reel and shared a little history. Now what? There are 4 sheets of newsprint in the backroom covered with to dos, here’s the jist. Two archival and non trivial projects are in the queue for … Continue reading

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V 0.9 Trickster Pictures SFX reel

This is for my extended inner circle of creatives, both producers that might have a micro budget and/or good things to trade and artists that might have a wild idea or fancy getting hired to help. Please upgrade your browser … Continue reading

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Canyon Princess

Premise “Up on the canyon edge, there’s a ship that sails the sky. They say it carries a thousand ghosts who once ate black gold and lived as gods. Big waters brought it here before my grandmother was born. We … Continue reading

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Uturnpike’s drift

Premise Mysterious rows of snow covered cars snake into the distance. What happened here? Was a neutron bomb exploded nearby? Were the drivers raptured away by the returning Messiah? Why are the cars bumper to bumper in both directions? Unturnpike … Continue reading

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Commando Kill

Premise CK is a black ops super warrior run amok. His self determined mission is to bring down technical civilization by crashing key elements of infrastructure. He’s forever skulking around power stations and military installations, tossing precise sabots with economy … Continue reading

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Climate Change and digressions

Premise Climbing high above a menacing mega-weather system, the VIP passengers aboard the Execu-jet attempt an escape to gentler climes, anticipating warm backrubs and frosty cocktails. Hubris! Even the mighty kerosene sucking turbo engines cannot forever loft such a heavy … Continue reading

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Documentation protocol

Documentation protocols under consideration, for collaborator review. The next step in getting the lads to blog. 1. Technical terms are bolded and either briefly defined on the first use or linked to a definition on our other project sites, wikipedia, … Continue reading

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17 months for 3 minutes

That’s how long it took to develop the (preview) of the motion graphics and special effects reel, from inception to launch. Let’s see… that’s 170 days per minute, 3 days per second or 2 hours and 15 minutes per frame. … Continue reading

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iCar, Our dystopian Detroit

We decided to open the reel with the sync sound of iCar. This plodding and awkward scene provides a counterpoint to contemporary SFX reels that are all about speed, zing and blitz… zzz. Back in the 80s when I was … Continue reading

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Behind the scenes

Here’s Version 0.9 of the Trickster Pictures SFX and Motion Graphics Reel. Please upgrade your browser   Excerpt from Kellys’ secret blog, December 2009. This is an outreach to potential clients, based on bliss projects. The theory is that if … Continue reading

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Getting the lads to blog

This is mostly directed to Jonathan with a heads up for Patrick, the other 2 directors on the motion graphics reel. This is all issues we’ve discussed before, eg documenting lessons and process. The car renderings must be 3968×2288, not … Continue reading

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R and D for Science Fiction Musical

Gosh, it’s nearly midnight, but I’ve gotta write a report on the recently initiated R and D for the Trickster Pictures project, Science Fiction Musical. James Weston and I are making narrative dance projects by recruiting talent from Mykl Werth’s … Continue reading

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Trickster fx reel

The lads and I are assembling a motion graphics and fx reel. Making a range of support services available to other Michigan film makers could be a lucrative niche. The idea is to repurpose elements from past and current projects … Continue reading

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The clean shaven look

I did it. Redesign and radical simplification of http://ondesire.com has been implemented. There’s more to come but the major scaffolding is in place. Here’s the landing page. Pretty sparse eh? The idea is push some of the complexity deeper into … Continue reading

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I’ve cloned myself

Just over a year ago I started cloning myself. I am amazed to announce that the process is complete, pretty nearly. As long as I am alive and ever changing my clone is also a work in progress. Last night … Continue reading

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Meeting 10-03-06 ondesire landing page

We’ve had two dream team meetings, in Brooklyn (Faisal, Erica and Dan) and yesterday in Beulah (Steve Elrick, Melonie, Jonathan, Lucas Kelly and Dan). Inviting collaboration and contribution was the focus of Saturday’s meeting. Components of the ask package for … Continue reading

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Three blogs

With three blogs, when will Dan have time to make movies? This whole blog experience has been startling. I’ve scribbled my life away trying to sort out my feelings, document flashes of genius and decrypt the future… but my audience … Continue reading

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Trickster Pictures Collaboratory

Meanwhile on Earth… The internet is a global conversation. A variety of strange web entities have appeared to enable this – forums, chat rooms, voice over IP, and even video conferencing – Jonathan recently posted his take on this. The … Continue reading

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