New Music Vid ....

Here's a vid I have made for a tune I wrote earlier this year during my 'Mint Royale' revival period ... or something like that anyway :() It's called 'A Leg To Stand On'

The tune is made from loops I created in Ableton Live with my trusty Telecaster guitar and Fender Precision Bass. Also , the drums and keys were done with Reason, which is a great music app.

The visuals were created with Apple Motion using their new audio behaviours .... Hope you like the tune.

And now for something completely different.

Well , kind of. OK, here is the deal. There comes a time in every filmmaker's life (well, some) when the urge to make a zombie flick becomes uncontrollable. That time has come for me. I have watched a few short movies on the net and they are inspiring in many ways.....and I have had an idea for a story for a while now but always thought better of it because it's a bit cliche to do anything zombie-fied... (isn't it?)

But, after a chat to my mate Dave and also KPac, I have decided to get it out of my system and go for it. All I can say is, I reckon it is gonna be great (but then i would say that!).

So, I have a script I am really happy with and most of a storyboard sketched out ....

First step is rounding up people to be in it .... if you know me , please get in touch if you want to be in it as a zombie.

Red City Forum - An insight to how it was made

Well , here is my new film Red City Forum in all (almost) it's glory. This version has the complete video and soundtrack but is minus the dialogue as that has yet to be added by the actors....soon , i promise! :)
This version also has the original green screen footage running alongside it so you can see how it looked originally before all the digital pokery.

Enjoy ... the full version is around the corner :)


Red City Forum from Paul McDonald on Vimeo.

Red City Forum - Trailer 2

And here is a trailer with a few extra shots and the music that will be in the film ....

It's Done!!!

Well after many tortuous hours and much back ache ... my short film is ALMOST at the finish line. It still needs the actors to re-do their lines but all of the edit,sfx,music and sound-fx are now complete. :)

And just to prove it , here is a snapshot poster picture of the film from start to finish ....

I have entered the word of HD !!

Well , the XM1 camera i owned has reluctantly been sold and i have invested in a new HV30 camera. This camera has HD capability and records some pretty outstanding footage.

As a first test i romaed around the grounds where i work and recorded the pond life (no,not the employees!)

I think i got some things wrong regarding the compression etc ... it can look better than this i am sure but as a first outing it's pretty cool. Can't wait to get a film done with my new toy!!

If you want to watch it in HD , click Play , click the HD is off button and follow the links to the Vimeo site.


HV30 - First Recording - Ducks By The Pond from Paul McDonald on Vimeo.

Oh the joy!

The cool thing about having a complete cut is that you can then arse around with it and create little stupid trailers etc ... a bit like this :)
I knocked this together in iMovie in about 5 minutes ... it's not a 'proper' trailer as such but a bit of a preview let's say.

Oh , Steve won the title suggestion question by the way .... :)

Oh go on then ... here is another bit :)

The opening scene .... to be honest this hasn't changed much between cuts since May because it was the scene that just 'worked' pretty much straight away ....

:)

Hooooooooorah!!!!

Well , the day has come ..... the film is done (well , a few tweaks aside). When i say done , the music and sound is still to be done but i have a cut now that i am happy with. There are some bits ithat aren't as good as i would have liked but i have learned to live with that for the sake of my own sanity!!!!!

So ...... music , sound and then get the guys in to re-do their lines!! :)

In the meantime here is a small segment cut together from an earlier version.

A Well Overdue Update (Short Version)

Where does the time go eh?!!
Anyhoot , the film is coming along slowly. I had a bit of a break from it for a while as i couldn't see the wood for the trees!!
I would say it is about 85% done. It needs some tweaking and stuff and the sound needs re-mixing / jigging.
I'll post a bit more of an indepth update soon. :)

Hide , Shoot and Walk

The end is close .... well , kind of. After a BanHol break i got back to the Mac and made some more progress ... more details soon but here are some more pics. :)

Logo Animation

Created and animated in Vue. A great program for landscapes and terrain.

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue6/

The Hardest Working MacBookPro in the world!

Well , probably not but it seems like it .... it has turned into a one stop rendering workhouse for all of the backgrounds in the film ..... all of them are set now and are rendering as i speak ... should only take about 8 hours for all of them ...

In the meantime , i did a one off as a test .... and it is comped with the foreground ... so you could say , besides a bit of tweaking with the brightness , this is a still frame from the ACTUAL film! .. blimey ...

So , i reckon should be done by the end of May ... then onto the sound!

A Bit Of Fun

I thought it would be quite interesting to let you see the first rough cut i put together of the film. Hang on though , this is a green screen version i.e No backdrops , effects , music , CG inserts or proper dialogue. I have watched it a number of times though and it is quite weird and interesting in parts. The background noises make me laugh especially ... there's Ray doing a mean line holding a gun and you can hear happy gleeful birds chirping away in the background!! Surreal.

When you watch it , it will make little sense and you'll probably go away thinking what the hell was that piece of crap !? But i'm hoping if any amateur filmmakers drop by they will find it interesting.

The quality has been deliberately altered by the way so it will not be too big (Mb) for the blog.

The troublesome car sequence

Hmmmm , it has taken a while to get the 'look' right but i think i am finally there or there abouts ..... i have decided to post this as a movie sequence (even though i said i would only post stills) .... it is not the sequence that will be in the film , think of it as a bunch of clips cut together in random.

New Still ....

Doing tracking shots of someone walking against a backdrop actually proved to be easier than i thought .. :) A first for this project.

More Stills

Churnin them out at a rate of knots now :) ... yeah , i wish. Oh i remember the day i said to my friends , hey ... i am gonna make a film with green screen and CG backgrounds .... it'll be tricky but i reckon it will be ok .... !!! Damn it is HARD WORK!

Anyhoot , it's late ... here are 2 more pics from a section of the film i reckon is pretty much done now.

New Film Stills

Working hammer and tongs on the film at the moment and making some good progress. Here are a few more stills to give an idea how things are moving on. :)

The Cloakman's Lair V1

A rendered still (uncoloured) from one of the digital sets of my new short film.

Built in Sketchup and rendered in Kerkythea on a Mac.

Second Test .... Ray gets meaner every time i watch it!

And here is my Second Test Shot ....

The same as the first but with Camera movement and a much improved rendered backdrop.

Believe it or not , the backdrop was created by two pieces of FREE software. I'll give some info at a later date on that.

First Test Video Shot.

And here is a small snippet of a test shot in motion .... again to just illustrate what i am trying to do with this film.

First Test Still. Aren't they handsome? :)

Well here is the first test shot for my new short film.

It is by no means a final shot but i thought it'd be something to look at and to help get the gist of what i am trying to do.

Too Old To Die Young

Yet another blast from the past ... a music video i did in October 2002 (on a very very windy day).

The Sling The Seat And The Sock

Way back in the day (2003!) i made a short film with a few friends and i thought i had lost the file but alas it turns out i didn't. :) ... so here it is for you all to see. The sound is a bit naff but provided some valuable lessons along the way. Enjoy.

STORYBOARD

And here is the storyboard to download ..... as mentioned below in previous post

HERE

Green Screen Test

This is a short piece showing the results of my test run using Final Cut Pro and Motion 3.
Two great pieces of software that have huge potential. I used a standard 3CCD MiniDV SD Camera (Canon XM1) and a 7ft x 5ft chromakey screen (green). The lighting is flat (no fill) for a reason as i wanted to have a certain 2d/pseudo 3d look which i'd like to think i achieved.
It was all shot in about an hour and the whole thing probably took about 9 hours to complete.
So it is on to a 'proper' short using the techniques i have learned here. When i have completed the storyboard i'll post it here.