NOSTALGIA ROAD #001

I found this the other day there. I use to watch it as a kid...I think possibly just at the start of being a teen...All I really remember is loving the build up of excitement before it aired, and then finally getting to see it...and loving various parts of the first instalment. It does of course throw me back in time to the sitting room in our old house also.



All the space stuff with the ships is still looking really very good for a TV series. And whats really interesting is seeing that Clancy Brown appears to be in this!...he's definitely become one of my favouries across the years.

THE ROAD TRAILER

Holy smokes!...this one came out of the blue and stunned me. Now for some reason that I really dont quite understand, I seem to have a thing for post apocalyptic stuff...which started with the 70's TV series Survivors which was a incredible show.

This one looks very much like the same sort of a vibe...but of course done for the silver screen and a bit more money is there. I have to say is looking very good.

MY MOST POPULAR TEASER (AGAIN SELF INDULGENT...SORRY ABOUT THIS)

This one I'm quite shocked about...it's not huge, huge numbers (Robert Llewellyn would call this a tiny, tiny number possibly, and I think would be unhappy about it)...but it's not TOO bad...the teaser below has had (in total across three video uploading sites) two thousand and forty views.



I think reason for this was the huge amount of effort I did on the internet publicity campaign...something that does help (but eats up a lot of time).

The second teaser has had one thousand and fifty eight so far...again it's not a bad number. I always much prefered the second one.

MY MOST POPULAR FILM

Well here it is. For some reason it seems to be the most popular one out of everything I've done to date. It might be somthing to do with the Wickerman festival though (which was where I shot this one)



It was shot in literally under a hour. There was no plan...my dad wanted home movie type of footage done of it...and I very nearly didn’t go on this journey to see this thing...and then of course...did.

I distinctly remember thinking that I really didn’t know what it was I was going to see). And I of course with everything involving a camera try to do the very best I can with composition and so on.

On arrival I really was amazed at how big it was...this was made remember by literally one guy, I think he had a bit of help from time to time with another person, but even so.

I’m not 100% happy with the film, I wanted to go back and get footage of peoples reactions to the cow...which I think would be really good in the last third of the film.

THE NEW CANON

I have to say, this has really drained me. I've tweaked this thing now for what seems like quite some time and am anxious to get onto the next bit...hopefully I am making things better, but I get to the point where I lose sight of weither I am or not.

A REDESIGN OF THE CANON

Well for a while now I’ve looked at the first design and its not quite sat right with me. It’s that age old problem for me which was uncannily similar to something Steve Ogden wrote about...how he was torn between wanting something that was heavily stylised and wanting something that was more akin to say Alien or 2001.

I know exactly what he means on all of that stuff. As a director you want and pine for detail...huge amounts of detail that give the viewer something to really chew on...and one of the points raised with my continued analysis of why Alien is so great...is that the detail is so high, and design work so great... that everytime you watch it you notice some more interesting shapes.

And I was starting to look at my canon design and thought that well...everything else was more leaning towards the other...byt this I mean that the ships and bridge were less stylised...and the double sphere design was sticking out. These two things were possibly clashing with each other...wiether I’m right about this or not I cant be sure, I need to see how this goes next, but here’s a look. the redesigned canon sympathies with the tooth, I’ve just had a lot of dentistry done / problems...bloody annoying business!

AND NOW NOT TO GET TOO SERIOUS ABOUT IT AND JUST A LITTLE BIT OF FUN

Hello, I just thought would throw this image up here...but first want to explain about how the equipment here at Studio Tacitus varies a bit... only have two monitors, but four PCs...the internet machine though has a monitor that is very strange and when I bring the HD stills over to it, the image goes all dark, and so, there’s a possibly likelihood that this image may look ghastly on your monitor...I really should have a look at it on the other more modern monitor in the corner over there...I spose really the whole thing should be on some kind of a network…ah well.

But on this monitor here this image looks really quite nice as its letting all the detail through and the colours are quite interesting.



ITs still not quite there with the detail just yet though, I'm going to add smaller defence canons to it, and then it should finally be complete.

UPDATE ON THE BRIDGE

Just a quick one. I think it sort of works. It also looks really quite militaristic...like it could take one hell of a lot of punishment...so quite happy about that.

TWO MORE CANON BRIDGES

The first bridge I created I really liked a lot, but found that I couldn’t seem to put it anywhere on the model (very frustrating)

So I then did this one today (which looks a bit too much like the ship in 2001: A Space Odyssey)...not on purpose you hear me, its just i something that happens, I wanted to go down the sphere route...but I don’t even think this would look right on the giant canon model.



I then did this one here...



Which again I don’t know where it can go or even if it’ll look right...I think at this time I’m looking at a change of design (possibly on the front of the canon (because where the bridge should be...I’ll probably get rid of that platform bit sticking out of the front.)

THE CANON BRIDGE

Am happy with it, I really am...but, I think it's going to have to go into the library of things I’ve created that don’t have a place to live just quite yet...who knows though, never say never...it may be able to go into this animation somewhere.

A HD OF THE CANON

HD Stills are always fun to share.

MENTAL BATTLES IN MY HEAD TO TRY AND RATIONALISE AND COPE WITH THINGS A BIT BETTER

My current one is that I’m wanting to convince myself that really, these animations of mine are just, lets face it, animatics.

Now with coming to accept that this is the case, they could be really useful animatics...my current idea / plan is to possibly send some of them to Weta Workshop...with the view to them maybe liking it so much, that maybe we can remake these films and do a proper job of them...I don’t know if this is pipe dream stuff or not, but I fancy a shot at it.

I have to figure out though if its best to contact William Morris Agency first?...so that maybe I go in there stronger with a better chance...but I just don’t understand how the industry works at all, as I've never entered it in any way to this date.

A TINY BIT MORE

Well I quite like the way youtube displays widescreen, so might use it for a bit for uploading these.

Here's a new version thats a bit longer...talk about teasing your audience eh!

ANOTHER TEST HERE - YOUTUBE TEST

See how this looks on the blog page

THE CANON

Ok this a model i did a while back, but today I opened up the file and added a whole lot more stuff to it...its actually from The Pilot but I'll make both designs from each film a bit different.

SECOND VERSION OF THE OPENING

Vimeo is acting very oddly again and so another upload here.

SUSAN BOYLES FIRST APPEARANCE ON BRITAINS GOT TALENT

Now I don’t watch the show, but she has become so famous that I had to see what was going on and check it out.

Now this video was again completely out of the blue for me on the onslaught of emotions that hit me as I was viewing it...but I tear up...every single time I watch this. I don’t honestly know why...a lot of people say if your in some kind of mourning then you get very emotional...but there have been no deaths going on at all over here.

Trying to kind of hammer out exactly what the situation here is I don’t really know, but its very similar to how I felt about Little Miss Sunshine I thin...which again was a very powerful film for the emotions for me.

I mean she’s not even really (or doesn’t appear to be) nervous at all. Which means its possibly unusual that there’s no relation to my feelings with that because, I think if she had been really nervous I would relate to it a lot.

It might be just the fact that she’s an amazing singer who demonstrated her skill with her voice there and then and did a perfect rendition of the song (which i dont think i'd heard iether and seemed to like that too)...very strange... ( but yeah, the sustained notes on all it were terrific!)...and is from the middle of nowhere and is unemployed...which triggers it off...and the fact that some people seemed to treat her badly before she sang...I can relate to all of that in a very big way, so it might be that.

Who knows what is going on here in my mind...I don’t watch the TV, and I don’t have a social life...so maybe seeing lots of new faces in this clip triggered off emotion too.

What is really rather upsetting is the way that some people change around you when they realise how talent you are...strangers change and suddenly like you when prior to knowing anything about you were completely different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk


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THE LAST GUARDIAN TRAILER

I just gotto (and I know I’m really quite late on this one...but better late than never eh!) mention, this, because, it is one of the most exciting things that has happened this year...as is the way, and as shall always be the way - when the latest Fumito Ueda game trailer arrives for us geeks to marvel at.

I am absolutely 100% serious when I say that it is as if, say, a trailer for a new Stanley Kubrick film was shown?...it's of that magnitude for me.

I eventually saw it in HD and I can tell you I was a happy geek.

You can see the trailer for it here



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THE BRIDGE OF THE CRASHED SHIP

Did this today. This is the bridge on the crashed ship (below)...i'm really a bit worried about animating this character though (I'm no character animator thats for sure) so i dont know if its possible to get the shots i want with this...I would really love to have him struggling around trying to get off the bridge and outside. Its also been quite tricky making it feel like the ship is not level.

If some big hollywood producer is reading this...if given the chance to make a propper job of this, I would have the main character as a human (and not a robot) (and a real set)

JUST A TEST

TEST

CRASH SITE CLIP (A BIT MORE POLISHED)

Now this is where I start to question what i'm doing a lot, because of that age old problem of me moving the camera a lot in each shot (something that people I respect tell me is a thing that can get out of hand)...and fair enough if you take the time to look at some great films (which I rarely seem to do...and I SHOULD do...this is very bad Dowswell, this is very bad!...) they balance things out very nicely with a mixture of shots...and if you look at films like Michael Bays...the camera seems to always be on the move...to the point where it really is too much...I spose that’s the lesson here, not to do something over and over again.

Saying all of this, it's only two shots long!

You can have a peak here

CRASH SITE CLIP WITH SOUND

The question is...is this soundtrack a little over the top?

You can have a look [here]

CHANGE OF LIGHTING

You really can tweak forever...and the problem is...I do.

CHARACTER FOR UNTITLED PROJECT

Have been tweaking around with the servus slave character for a slightly different look for this new thing...I maybe should have tried a bit harder to do a completely different character alltogether...hmm.

UH OH!

Well...what can I say?...I managed to settle down and work on Servus for a while there...for some reason (which I don’t even really know or understand) I was able to work on it for a bit without any kind of jump to another project...I really did not expect a jump to something completely new...but today I started on something completely new again!...well ok, the ship is from Servus...but I’m hoping the characters will be human types in astronauty type outfits.

You can have a quick look at it ...[here]

WHO AM I?...WHAT I AM?

You know the thing where your in a situation of meeting a new person, and they ask you the question...yep that question about what is it you do?…and you have to give them some kind of a answer?

What exactly am I?…aspiring director?...yes...no budget filmmaker?…yes….working director?...no...but that means working in the sense of money being generated by it...paid director would be a better way to phrase that....paid director...no. Working everyday of my life on films?...yes...complete and total control on all elements of your film?...yes and no...happy?...yes and no.

What is it you do?..."well, I’ve been working in my parents house in my bedroom on films for six years and have no income and have never had any income"...at which point the person usually looks at me and doesn’t say anything. But this provides me with a huge doubt problem...if I try and go for some kind of a job...what is the company at the other end going to say about all of this?...I mean I literally have nothing on my CV aka Resume that’s work that has been done for the industry...this makes me a bit apprehensive about emailing a company like Studio Aka...BUT, there must have to be a point in everybody's career where a company took let the person with no industry experience jump on in and do something. So I probably shouldn’t worry about it all.

A REDOING OF THE LIGHTING FOR THE GIANT HOVERCRAFT SEQUENCE IN SERVUS

I just hope that this is better than the previous, it’s been something that I’ve tweaked a lot over the years, and now I’ve discovered a way to put in a duller light and apply soft shadows to it...so basically you have hard shadows on one light, and soft on the other, which reduces the render time significantly.

Cinematography has also changed, I've gone a bit wider...which again is a tricky decision.

I think the downside to this image though is the black areas, they shouldn't really exist...and are really the reason it renders so fast.

SERVUS - DEPARTURE CLIP

Here we go. I'm going to do a sequence that will be inserted before this point in the film. This is the big travelling section. The dirt / eroded layer was being very difficult and frustrating so it's not on this.

Servus - Departure Clip from Michael J. Dowswell on Vimeo.