COVID Film: New Title?

Posted on by Thor

I got advice that the title of my film should be easily searchable in the Google search engine. If I search COVID I find thousands of articles about the virus but nothing about my short film. Doing the Google search I was also horrified to discover that a feature film with the title COVID is coming out in December of 2023. WTF.

Classified as a thriller, the film synopsis on IMDB stated… “A scientist and his clairvoyant wife are quarantined in a French mansion feverishly working on a cure to save humanity, when supernatural forces begin to interfere with their plans.” Clearly I don’t want my short film lumped in with this feature film starting in December.

A feverish search began last night for a new title.

COVID Pandemicide seemed to long, and pandemicide is a made up word created by a science journalist in 2020 to describe the former president’s pandemic policies.

MASS Infection is hard hitting but too vague.

COVID Amnesia is good to describe how everyone has pushed COVID to the dark place to get back to normal. But my film offers the opposite of amnesia or denial.

This morning I woke up to COVID Conscious. There are very few who remain conscious and aware of the ongoing pandemic. I do think that is the underlying message of the film. I may still change my mind. The title is incredibly important for marketing the film. Conscious is tricky to spell, so that might be a drawback. I may still change my mind.

 

COVID Film: Button

Posted on by Thor

I designed a button to help promote the film a film festivals. Granted film makers might not want a film with COVID on it, but how could they resist a butting with laurels on it? The button will be 1.5 inches wide which is kind of small, but hey the virus is small. I decided to get 50 of these made up. They are just swag. I will not be selling them.

I also printed up cards with the film poster on the front and social media and lyrics to Andy Matchett’s song, Just Can’t Wait on the back. Again they are swag giveaways to help promote the film. There is a QR code on the back and amazingly it leads directly to the film. I scanned it and saw the film on my phone for the first time. Honestly, most people will likely see the film on their phones but I am continuing to promote it at film festivals.

The post cards are ready but when I went to drive to the print shop, I discovered my car battery was dead. That is how long my car has been sitting idle in the driveway. Pam and I tried to jump it last night without success. We will try again tomorrow for a longer time. The jump we did managed to get a few small light to work but the engine was still dead.

The cards will have to stay at the printer until I figure out how to get the car up and running again.

COVID Film: No Exit Animation

Posted on by Thor

I decided to animate the No Exit scene in Callipeg. In my illustration the woman is looking out the airplane window but I decided she needed to look back over her shoulder. In the illustration she is wearing a shirt with an insane line pattern. I probably will abandon that pattern since it would be a nightmare to animate without the lines vibrating.

I finished the animation this morning and hope to have her painted before I start virtual classes this afternoon. One of the lessons I always teach in my animation courses is how to turn a head and this is a straightforward example of that lesson in practice.

COVID Film: Re-animating Tentacles

Posted on by Thor

The animation for this tentacle has always bothered me. It flickered because I drew the suckers with haste. Looking back now I also realize the resolution wasn’t as good as it could be, so I an digging in for a second time in Callipeg and doing the animation at double the resolution. With more pixels the lines are more crisp and accurate. I am not changing the animation but rather cleaning it up. My hope is that I might be able to use the painted cells with minor adjustments.

I isolated the head on this pass at the animation because I plan to ass a subtle squash and stretch to the head when the octopus blinks. I will also animate that second oxygen canister a tiny bit in After Effects. Photoshop has crashed twice this morning. I really want to get away from these faulty digital nightmarish programs.

Yesterday I also did quite a bit of work on the promotional postcards and I am ready to sent those off to the printer. I will order the postcards today online and pick them up in person. The button proof came back and that looks fine so those are in the works. I am searching for Chicago media contacts and have found site that sell a list but I don’t want to go that route. There has to be a comprehensive site to research this.

COVID Film: Adobe Glitch Nightmares

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Overnight, Adobe seemed to have updates its software without consulting me.Imagine working on a film for months and then wanting to render the final product but finding that dozens of shots are not longer able to render. What I see instead are color bars. I had to go through the entire film and re-render shots in Adobe After Effects.

Besides the color bars a program called the Media Encoder was thrown out with the upgrade. I re-downloaded the Media Encoder but the program didn’t recognize it. I wasted over half a day trying to find a work around to get the scenes to render. I found a youTube video by an Indian artist describing a work around. I had trouble understanding what was being said but I could follow the movement of the cursor. I had to copy source code and navigate multiple menus to finally manage to get some renders to work.

This final shot in the end credits is a stubborn hold out. It refuses to render. The clip works in After Effects but any time I try and render it I get color bars. I will be spending hours again today searching online forums to see if other are experiencing the same nightmares.

For now however I plan to step away from the problem for a bit. Attacking the problem in frustration could do more harm than good. The programs may need to be thrown out and then re-downloaded and I am not up to that level of destruction and reconstruction.

Instead I plan to focus on marketing. I need to create 50 five by seven inch cards that can be used as marketing swag at the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Festival. I also created buttons that I think filmmakers might want to wear with the film title and laurels. The buttons were ordered online, and now I need to find a printer for the cards. Pam had a great idea of printing the lyrics to Andy Matchett‘s song Just Can’t Wait on the back. I also will offer web links should people want to order the music. All my web links will also be on the back.

COVID Film: PPE Waste

Posted on by Thor

I felt I needed to replace a shot titled Beauty, in which a beautiful Victorian woman is trying on masks while a horrifically ugly doctor and nurse scoff at her. The animation consisted of her arm relaxing with a mask. It was a direct homage to a Twilight Zone episode called Eye of the Beholder. I was thinking of animating the pig faced medical staff, but then decided this mask shot was more mysterious and graceful.

In this shot the turtle is fully animated as he swims towards a mask. All the masks move slowly in the water. The turtle opens it’s mouth at the last moment implying that it plans to eat the PPE. I didn’t animate the people since I wanted the focus on the masks and turtle. I might eventually animate the people but they would need to walk very slowly.

With the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Festival coming up at the end of November, I am turning some of my attention to marketing. Yesterday I designed 1.5 inch COVID pins which I think filmmakers might like to wear. I ordered 50 pins since there are 50 films being shown at the festival. I don’t think

COVID Film: Rats

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This is the final composite of the rats scene in Premiere Pro. I decided to replace several squirrels with rats for this scene in the film. The one drawback is that the tail isn’t as fluffy and therefor harder to notice immediately. The shot before this one is of a Neanderthal in extreme close up. I am thinking that it might help to swap the Neanderthal with a more distant shot like this.

I animated the rat on the carpet pulling back, but decided it drew attention from the rat hitting the skull with her tail. I toned down the animation to a subtle head tilt and subtle tail movement.  This balancing of motions it the biggest challenge with each shot.

COVID Film Official Selection

Posted on by Thor

COVID is an official selection at the Chicago International REEL Shorts Film Festival being held November 10-11, 2023. COVID will be be shown at the 4 pm screening on Saturday November 11. This is the 20th annual CIRSF Film Festival.

The screening will be in the Chicago Filmmakers Theater, 1326 W. Hollywood Ave., Chicago, IL 60660.  This Venue is the NEW Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse Location, located in the Andersonville neighborhood. I am quite excited since this is the first time COVID is being screened outside of Orlando. Tickets to the screening at $15 should you be in Chicago. If anyone knows of a nice place to stay in North Chicago, let me know.

Chicago Filmmakers is a not-for-profit media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation, and understanding of film and video as media for artistic and personal expression, as well as media of important social and community impact. Chicago Filmmakers’ twofold mission is to serve independent film and digital video artists by supporting the creation and dissemination of new media arts works and to serve Chicago audiences by screening artistically innovative, socially relevant, and diverse films and videos.

I will be attending the festival and now I am arranging to print 5 by 7 cards, posters and buttons as swag. Should you be ins Chicago, stop by and say hi. Look for the guy in the N95 mask and goggles.

 

COVID Film: Nursing Home Animation

Posted on by Thor

Looking at this image, I realize that I am not quite done with this nursing home animation. The back bar of the walker needs to be erased on each frame so it disappears behind the woman’s dress. The animation I did was too fast for a slow moving woman, so I had to cur about four frames.

I am not sure yet if the green screen will work properly. There is a slight green glow on the woman from a large virus. The problem with having green on the animation is that it might become transparent when I key out the green screen. I couldn’t use a blue screen since she is wearing a blue dress.

Hopefully it will all come together today when I composite the scene together.

COVID Film: Flaming Baby Reworked

Posted on by Thor

I always felt uncomfortable when a smiling baby appeared in the midst of the COVID film. It was what I had painted at the time but it didn’t fit with the overall flow of the film. I decided to change the baby using the previous shot as reference. The depth map worked out really well turning the baby’s head as he cried.

Looking at this Volumax depth map now, I realize I could probably paint some better depth for the open mouth and ear canal. The painting is extremely blown up so the line work is thicker than any other shot in the film. I think I will go back and redraw the baby to help it tie in to the resolution of the shots on either side of it.

I could animate the mouth a bit but I am not sure that is needed. Since things happen so fast, I face this challenge often, wondering if animation will help or over complicate a shot. I keep adding animation since I am entering the film in the animation category in film festivals. Yet this film is something different. It defies being easily categorized.

I also know that I am presenting something that no one wants to see. The nation has embraced a new normal in which COVID isn’t ever discussed. There is a strange collective amnesia in the rush to pretend that all is as it was in 2019. This film defies that wishful thinking.