Whenever you start being overly lavish with just one shot, people start to wonder why the rest of the picture isnt the same… visual continuity is key and this is the kind of film that requires a seamless blend.
Must ask this, why didn’t you shoot all this practically?
We didn’t shoot it practically because we just couldn’t find a location good enough. We have another office in the film but it is very normal/mediocre. We wanted the window to be absolutely huge (a wall that is a sheet of glass) and it had to have a decent view of London. We also wanted control over the weather elements and so on. To do all of this practically would have been very expensive for us. Plus it gave us the chance to experiment with green screen and learn a bit more about working with Visual FX.
Darrell 
Hi Ross, I have finally managed to compress the photos/mattes. They were 20,000 pixels by 13,000 pixels and 1.3Gb each. I thought that was taking it to the extreme so after a lot of waiting around I finally managed to adjust the size and export them at a slightly healthier 60mb per photo. Any idea on how I can get them to you over the net?
Cheers. Darrell 
For a PAL project, that sort of res is definitely overkill. What res are they at now?
Unfortunately, where I am at the moment I can only get dial-up, so if you can zip those files up, it should help even further… If you’ve got some webspace to upload them, that should do the trick.
Also, I’ve noticed you’ve been asking around for ‘rain collision’ tutorials - you do know I have that covered?
Later.
I didn’t know you had the rain collision covered, I thought you were just gonna add it in to the shot. That is v.cool though. I would like to learn it myself aswell, I find those little things interesting. What software are you using for it?
I just basically cut the images down from 100% to 30% so now they are 5700 pixels by 3600 pixels. I can still go further and then .zip them too. That should help.
What do you want them to be (double?) approx: 1500 by 1200?
Cheers Ross.
Darrell
PS: It must be quite difficult to get Broadband up there? I found it difficult trying to find a dial-up in Patterdale. 
Hey Darrell, around the 2k mark should be just fine.
Sure we can get broadband up here, though the town I’m in was just made capable a couple of months ago - haven’t bothered with it yet.
In its simplest form, the rain collision map is just an animated alpha, so any package capable of simple animation can make one.
Hi Ross, that’s cool - thanks for the info on the rain collision. I have uploaded the mattes in a .zip file to www.emilyslastchance.co.uk
The file is in the Post-Production section, sub-category: Downloads!
Let me know how you get on…
Thanks Ross
Yep, I managed to get them ok…
Question: Do you have your heart set on using this photos? …the thing is I’ve been using the test matte for so long that these just look boring and un-interesting.
These two images, are they supposed to be stitched together or are they completely seperate?
I’ll let you reply first before I make anymore comments. Needless to say, I have a few issues with them.
I know exactly what you mean… Would it look more realistic though?
The Director said if you can get hold of any other pics at a high enough resolution then that would be really great. It doesn’t matter what city it is; but it’s supposed to be generic and not any further north than the Norwich area because of our contrast with Emily running away to Scotland.
If we do have to use our boring photos though, what are the issues? What needs fixing?
Cheers Ross.
Darrell
Rest assured, finding other high-res images is no problem at all… what do you think the internet is for?
The main problems I had with those photos was the framing and the mist …they just didn’t inspire me at all. As soon as I inserted them into the comp, I knew they werent right. If we can get something thats on the same playing field as the test matte then I’m happy.
Later.
That’s excellent, you always manage to pick me up in these worrying situations. Really good stuff… glad we got you on the team
Have you got any sort of still image from the early comp, that I can have a look at?
No problems at all, just wanna check it out.
Thanks again, speak soon.
Darrell
PS: That’s what happens when the Producer takes the photos (nice guy though)! We needed the D.O.P on the case really!
Rather than a still, I shall try and get a .mov to you at some point just showing you the move etc…
One of the reasons I wanted a frame was so there was some parallax between the elements…
Cool, look forward to seeing the .mov file (very much)!
I will have a crack at getting a frame sometime soon. Keep your eye out on the web too if you can as will I. I don’t know where to start with aquiring high res photos though.
Cheers. D
Are you sure?
“Sorry! Dazabrit could not be added to your list becuase he or she does not have a .NET Passport,”
Sorry, yeah.
I do have MSN, but I use Dazabrit@yahoo.co.uk instead of a Hotmail account.
D
Howz it going Ross, I have been majorly busy but the hectic edit should be pretty much over tomorrow (taking a break anyway). I have got a good rough cut apart from our Intro which we will be working on tomorrow afternoon.
That means I can get involved with this again and help you out with finding some mattes and stuff for the backgrounds and so on…
The deadline for the film is January 8th if I haven’t mentioned before so we are working to a quite tight schedule but it should be ok! How about you? Are you cool with that?
Cheers Ross.
Darrell
Hey Darrell mate, good to hear things are going good. I’ll catch you later on msn if you’re on!
The good news is I’ve found a replacement matte and am pleased with the way it looks. I’ve also been looking at the reflection plates and how they match up with the main plate - this one’s gonna require some fixing as theres some quite noticable head movement, which doesnt occur on the main plate.
Once I’m happy with the way things are, I’ll start doing the final comp.
Later.
Excellent news Ross… I thought we may have a problem with the reflection though. We did ask her to rehearse and copy her actions and it seemed ok when we were filming but It must be near impossible to get someone to do it twice perfectly. Our Video Assist was broken too so that didnt help… we couldnt monitor the bloody shots :banghead:
I was knackered last night so didnt make it on to MSN. I’ll catch up with you later.
Cheers Ross