UPDATE!: Preproduction: Live Action Challenge

#1

Hi to all,
I want to try something different for our October challenge.
So I have decided that, with enough interest and support,
we will be doing a Live action challenge.

(Note for those asking for a simulation challenge, please just wait for our NEXT challenge “FlameThrower”)

Due to the technical difficulties of doing live action, I just want to start doing a resource list:

Ans we will be doing the PREPRODUCTION phase of the challenge while we do the
“Flamethrower” and “Mech Arena” challenges.

So tell us

Name:
Country/Location:
Skills:
What reesouces can you provide?
Any live action Experience?
What do you want to do?

[color=white]And since this is live action, Actors/Perfomers are more than welcome to join.

If you have any questions please do post them here.
-R[/color]

#2

Been following the FXWars board for quite some time… simulation isn’t my strength but a live-action challenge? Count me in.

Name: Nick Burridge
Country/Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Skills: Compositing/live-action photography. I work mostly in digital workflow plus the occasional vfx job in the advertising industry down here. Through simple necessity I’ve had to dabble in animation also, but it’s not really a strength.
What resouces can you provide? I own a Canon XL-H1 camera(+ a Letus35 Extreme 35mm adapter if anyone’s counting) and some other production-related goodies (audio kit etc - used to work in corporate videos urgh). Can call in favours and have access to a host of other things - greenscreen room, grip kit, lighting, all sorts. Depends on what’s needed and for how long.
Any live action Experience? Sure, most of the work I do is live-action with occasional CG elements. I’m (slowly) building a directors reel but that’s a way off in the future. But I’m an on-set guy for sure.
What do you want to do? Seeing as this an FXWars challenge I’d been keen to jump in and get some compositing done… but also very interested in shooting elements/plates, anything like that. We’ve got some great locations/backdrops here in NZ. Would be interested in working with a team if the guys I work with down here aren’t interested.

#3

Definitely interested in this kind of a challenge, as I don’t have much experience and would love to help create a cool live-action CG short.

Name: Grant
Country/Location: Ottawa, Canada
Skills: Modeling, Rigging, Digital Sculpting, Texturing, Animation, Rendering
What resouces can you provide? My hands/time… if the filming is within reasonable driving distance
Any live action Experience? Have done a couple tracking/comping projects, but nothing noteworthy, hoping to learn more about it
What do you want to do? I would enjoy doing anything related to my skills, as well as helping with any technical challenges.

#4

Name: Prakash kumararajan
Country/Location: India
Skills: FX
What resources can you provide? CG FX / Simulation
Any live action Experience?yes
What do you want to do? Creating FX elements like dust,Fire,water etc…

#5

Name: Xavier G
Country/Location: France/Paris
Skills: Matchmoving/compositing/lighting/rendering/camera mapping
What reesouces can you provide? [color=#fffffe]My time and my motivation :slight_smile:
Any live action Experience? Co-director, cameraman and VFX supervisor on a short film called " Amock "
What do you want to do? I’m really interested about compositing/lighting and camera mapping but I have also a good experience about matchmoving and I can help as well if needed.
[/color]

#6

Ok guys, keep posting. I will explain what I have in mind soon.
-R

#7

Name: Garrick
Country/Location: Texas, USA
Skills: Shoot footage and HDRIs, track, model, texture, rig, animate, light, render, composite, foley, sound track, concept.
What resouces can you provide? 1920x1080p 40kbps .MOV with H.264 compression, shot on a Canon 7D with 50mm f1.8, 15-55mm f3.5. I can also shoot HDRIs.
Any live action Experience? I have a bit, none professional.
What do you want to do? I would like to try and help out preparing the materials for the live action challenge, and participate in some capacity.

#8

Ok guys, gather around…

I will spill the beans here because I need the people doing plates and filming to do to start filming plates ASAP.

Ok here is what I have in mind.

I want to do a Stephen King Tribute.

Imagine a Scene from the DarkTower.
Imagine a [color=darkorange]Desolated NY from the Stand[/color]
Imagine a [color=darkorange]Pytokynetic girl from Firestarter[/color]
Imagine a [color=darkorange]little dead kid floating outside a bedroom from Salem’s Lot.[/color]
Imagine a Vampire running on ceiling from Salem’s Lot.
Imagine a [color=darkorange]flying saucer, the size of cruise ship buried in the woods from Tommyknockers[/color]
Imagine an human mutilated into the form of an [color=darkorange]alien monster from Tommyknockers[/color]
[font=Arial]Imagine [color=darkorange]an ancient evil in the shape of a clown living in sewer from IT[/color][/font]
Imagine a topiary coming alive from The Shining .
Imagine a [color=darkorange]were wolf attacking a pack of hunters from Cycle of the Werewolf[/color]
Imagine a eclipse on a bay while a woman throws an abusing husband down a well from Dolores Clairborne
Imagine US state troopers[color=darkorange] guarding a gate to a hellish dimension from a Buick 8[/color]

For a complete biography go here:
http://www.horrorking.com/books.php

[color=darkorange]Keep in mind we are not talking not full scenes, just memorable individual shots.[/color]
The shots could be CG OR life action with FX.
And the filmaker who cannot do FX would not have to do the CG for a shot. They could offer the footage to CG artists in the forum.

The idea is to pick a specific scene from his books and try to make it come to life.
CG, Life action or both

[color=white][font=Arial]And I would strongly suggest to ignore the God awful movie adaptations and try to come up with a fresh take based on what is on the written page.[/font][/color]

For those in film class, this is a perfect topic to do a film project with your classmates.

Note: On an ideal world when the challenge starts filmmaker would have filmed already by the fall.

What do you guys think?
-R

#9

Name: Josh Johnson
Country/Location: USA/Missouri
Skills: Matchmoving/Compositing/Camera Mapping/Rigging/Motion GFX
What reesouces can you provide? Time (dependent on work)/Skills/Software
Any live action Experience? Yes.
What do you want to do? Matchmoving, compositing and maybe camera mapping.

#10

Animator Douglas Shrock has done a cool Christine tribute FX…
Check it out:

Keep in mind it is a WIP

http://www.vimeo.com/13445180

This is a shot at recreating a great scene from the movie “Christine”. The car is on fire and is out to kill Buddy Repperton, the high school thug that really does need killin’…I haven’t even started working on Buddy.

#11

Cool ideas Roberto! I’ve picked out a few that jump out to me:

Imagine a flying saucer, the size of cruise ship buried in the woods from Tommyknockers.

  • I can see this one being the most feasible in terms of time and difficulty, due to the lack of live action. Essentially, I see the camera looking into some woods, possibly moving around in a hand-held manner, or shot still, or moving through the woods. The handheld footage would then be tracked and given to all participants, still footage would only need camera placement and focal length. The participants would then add in their own spaceship, fx, aliens, etc… to their hearts content. The lighting would be left up to the participants. Masks for the trees could be developed and provided to all participants.

Imagine US state troopers guarding a gate to a hellish dimension from a Buick 8

  • This would be really cool if the cops were live action. Could be a nightmare rotoscoping them if the “gate” is in the background.

Imagine a Desolated NY from the Stand

  • This could work really well if the footage was shot in a city, then New York elements were added in. Shooting in NY - I think you’d need permits. Permits = $. I think it would be easier to shoot this still, with 3 plates: clean plate, plate with live-action, plate with grey sphere and chrome sphere reference. I may be going into too much planning at this stage, but I think it’s important to consider what will be needed beforehand.

Imagine a Scene from the DarkTower.

  • I haven’t read the Dark Tower or seen any visual interpretation of the books contents, so this idea has the most unknowns. At the same time, I have heard that the Dark Tower contains some intense stuff, so I would be happy to explore this idea more. Perhaps a description of a particular scene would help determining how feasible such a shot would be.

Just my 2 cents! :slight_smile:

#12

[font=Arial]Name:[/font][font=Arial] Ninkan
[/font] [font=Arial]Country/Location: [/font][font=Arial]Indonesia/India
Skills: [/font][font=Arial]Matchmoving/Compositing/Camera Mapping/Motion GFX[/font][font=Arial]
What reesouces can you provide? [/font][font=Arial]Time (dependent on work)/Skills/Software[/font][font=Arial]
Any live action Experience?[/font][font=Arial] Yes.[/font][font=Arial]
What do you want to do? [/font][font=Arial]Matchmoving, compositing and maybe camera mapping.[/font]

#13

Ok guys…

So what do you guys think.
Should i even venture to try this?
(And btw the next challenge will be dambusters)
_R

#14

Roberto,
I think it would be cool to try a live action challenge, and I’m on-board for shooting the footage and tracking it. Just let me know what I can do to make this challenge a reality! :slight_smile:

#15

Just an FYI

 	 		 		  			 				 				 				 			 			 			 			 			[The next challenge will go live in ONE Week.](http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=139&t=915982)

I do hope you will join us.

-R

#16

what will the next challenge be about roberto?

#17

We will do Dambusters.

The live action will come up soon, hopefully before winter.
-R

#18

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