Thursday Thirteen - 214 - 13 Things About Moving Onto the High Resolution Editing System During Post Production

1 - Met up with Doug Woods for our third editing session at 902 POST, his post production facility here in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

2 - The editing system shown above displays the offline edit stage - this part took us two sessions to complete.

3 - In the offline stage, the creative decisions are made by the editor and director using the original footage as shot by the director of photography.

4 - The director verifies which shots will be used, and the editor lays them out so that the sequence of shots tells the story.

5 - At this point, the final decisions in digital file form are loaded onto the high resolution editing system. For this project, Doug is using the Avid editing system. I can vouch for its gee-whiz, jaw-dropping, cutting-edge hallmarks.

6 - For the initial session with the high res system, Doug completed the first of two sequences in online edit form.

7 - At this point, all the technical elements are in place at full resolution. He can now add backgrounds and effects to the footage shot against greenscreen.

8 - Using the chroma key process, Doug places the photographic stills which I chose to stand in for exterior locations, and adjusts the moving footage to match the implied exterior. This stage is called compositing.

9 - During this process, Doug creates a negative image where the background is black and the moving figure is white. If you've seen Sin City, you'll know what these images look like. He then adjusts any greenscreen spill which shows up as gray sections on the black or white figures. After these adjustments, the positive footage then reads true against the supposed exterior.

10 - He can also draw a section around the middle ground of the two-dimensional background photo, and using his effects toolbox, blur the section selected. This contrasts nicely with the foreground figures, who are in focus. It gives the impression of greater depth of field to the background, which adds to a feeling of authenticity for this effect.

11 - He added a glowing effect to surround a near-death vision of the main character's beloved, as well as slowing her movements to suggest that she is a vision and not moving in real time.

12 - He morphed one character into another by first matching the two characters' body positions in the frame, then matching up eyes to eyes, nose to nose. Freakin' cool.

13 - Finally, he color corrected the shots to match the lighting of the supposed source of the exteriors. For example, as the sun sets, he bathes the main character in a warm glow. But when twilight comes, he leeches out the warmth to create the cool tones of moonlight.

Stay tuned to A Piece of My Mind for more updates as the book trailer nears completion.

Thursday Thirteen - 213 - 13 Things About the Road to Post Production For My Book Trailer

1 - Two November 30th's ago I successfully completed my second NaNoWriMo novel-writing marathon.

This gave me the second half of the vampire novel I'd begun during my first NaNoWriMo, a few years earlier.

















2 - Last October at the writing retreat at White Point Beach, I finally finished the revisions which married those two NaNoWriMo storylines together.













3 - It was during this retreat that I was matched up with Tara and Shawna for the brainstorming session. Tara is at far left, back row. Shawna is at far right, back row. I'm in the front, at right.

Our time at the retreat sparked Tara's feeling that we would work well together on set. She has a production company, and she thought it would be a great beginning project to work together on a trailer for my vampire book. She knew the manuscript was going out to readers for critique as soon as I got back from the retreat.













4 - I plunged ahead into the next NaNoWriMo that November, setting my vampires aside to write the adult Scorpius story (his boyhood backstory makes up my Saturday serialized fiction.)

After a lot of intense writing, I set everything aside - including my blog - and went to Toronto to spend Christmas with family and friends. This is me with my sister-in-law, Violetta.

A great time of renewal before 2011 brought me to the Year of Reinvention.













5 - While in Toronto, I had lunch with two writer friends, Charlene at left and Chris at center. Charlene and Chris have a tradition of giving a name and an intention to their creative year.

They had named 2011 the Year of Reinvention. So I enthusiastically took them up on this and named it my Year of Reinvention, as well.

















6 - After plunging right into pre-production meetings with Tara over the winter, by spring we were ready to shoot the two-minute book trailer.

On April 30th, I spent a long but exhilarating day putting aside my Clark Kent life to direct the shoot.

This is the Director of Photography, Luke Hudgins setting up a shot.

Photo by Caroline Ruyle

7 - Notice the green screen behind him. The actors were shot against this screen for later replacement with a photograph, whose light source he matched in the studio.











8 - Here, the actor is placed against the green screen to simulate laying wounded upon a battlefield.












9 - Wednesday evening - a year-and-a-half after I finished typing the 50,000th word into my NaNoWriMo vampire manuscript - our editor Doug Woods from 902 POST in Halifax spent a second session with Tara and myself tightening the book trailer from a two-minute piece to a one-minute piece.

The initial rough edit is put together on his Avid editing system.

You can see Scott Baker as my main character Peredur laying against the green screen on the right-hand side of the editing screen. He struggles as a battlefield scavenger - played by my husband Brad - steals his ring.













10 - Delirious, Peredur sees a vision of his betrothed, seen above on the right part of the screen. Stevie Cooper as Tanwen gets some special effects treatment to suggest to viewers that she is not actually present on the battlefield.











11 - Tanwen's effects shot blacks over the green screen, but the editor controls the digital layering and can still place Tanwen against an image like this sunset sky, except the ones used in the book trailer were purchased from Shutterstock Images.

12 - To the left side of the Tanwen shot above is the effects stabilizer screen which the editor uses behind the scenes for matching the live-action digital footage to the static sunset shot.

13 - Doug and I got a lot done tonight, honing the footage into several tight, editorial sequences. We'll meet again next week, when Doug will move the footage to his high definition equipment.

Stay tuned for more updates as the book trailer nears completion!

Thursday Thirteen - 212 - 13 Randoms From My Life Right Now

1 - Just donated to a funding campaign for a dance film starring two of Canada's most exquisite dancers - Rex Harrington and Evelyn Hart.

This is the coolest idea ever. A site where you can run a limited campaign to fundraise for independent projects.

CLICK HERE for Rex's fundraising campaign - only 2 days left







2 - Met with my film editor at 902 POST last week and put together the assembly edit of the book trailer in a few hours.

Doug Woods - making my dreams come true. SO thrilled to be working with you.





3 - On Friday I'll be attending a Women in Film and Television Atlantic event with my producer Tara featuring cinematographer Becky Parsons.









4 - Was watching the first part of the 2-hour season 6 Supernatural finale when my fellow Ryerson film school grad Adam Reid showed up as the H.P. Lovecraft expert.

Didn't see that coming.

He was awesome!





5 - Got my bookmarks designed and printed thanks to Caroline and Tara.











6 - Met with my web designer Anne MacFarlane and set up a schedule for the launch of my very own dot com site.
















7 - I applied for my passport in preparation for my trip next month to New York City for the writers' conference.









8 - Signed up online for my agent and editor appointments at the conference.









9 - Starting to practice my story pitches for the conference.
















10 - Spent Victoria Day weekend critiquing a friend's manuscript. A perfect thing to do when the weather was cool and soggy.

















11 - Mucho backlogged-io at the day job, but finally getting to the point where I can see a faint light at the end of the tunnel.

*sigh*

















12 - Did manage to wash a dog blanket, a people blanket and a load of clothes, and hung them on the line on the one day that had some sunny breaks and a gentle breeze.

Mmm. I love fresh clothes off the line.















13 - After weeks of unrelenting wetness here in the Maritimes, I managed to get the lawn mowed.

Triumph!