29/10/06 - TITLE SEQUENCE ONLINE NOW!

GREAT NEWS!...After much much much demand from Gaylon fans out there, I have decided to put the Title Sequence from the show online at www.ricardolacombe.com. See the Downloads section and you can watch it RIGHT NOW! This was an easy enough edit as the footage was so awesome. The biggest challenge was getting 25 minutes of cool footage down to 51 seconds! Man, i hate to lose cool footage...so will likely go onto the Making Of section on the DVD! Always wanting to offer tips on how I do things to anyone interested, the process for me was to chop up all my footage in to the shots that had seomthing dynamically exciting about them. I followed the tone and pace of the music track to define the visuals...so as it starts off slower I was happier to use more drawn out shots. The visual effects on the other hand...well, that would be a whole wesite on it's own to teach! You gotta just find out what tools you need, pay for em, and then spend years learning em! Sorry guys...would love to explain more!

28/10/06 - DAY FIVE SHOOT - IT'S A WRAP!

Ladies and gentleman...today was the FINAL day of Gaylon Peglegg shooting...with re-shoots, green screen, pick ups, and new material!
A highly enjoyable day and I now have ALL the footage I need to complete this madness of a project! And what a really cool days work! For starters today let me big up the dudes involved. Lee was on fine form today (is he ever not?!) in his main role and nursing a cold he marched on and did his thing, getting in the spirit and giving us mere peasants something to marvel at with his genius performance! In public too...more in a moment on that! Secondly was the return of Emma Greaves! A true star. She attended to re-shoot the continuity issue ridden scene in which she begs Gaylon to perform an exorcism on her daughter. Now in a previous post I discussed the power of alcohol to put her in the loose frame of mind to open up the acting. (I, by the way, am a non-drinker. Not a drop!). Emma however surpassed herself today and required no such liquoring up! Well done to her and very impressive! The poor girl was made to look distraught again, and turned in another brilliant performance to cap off her involvement in Gaylon. She is a welcome Troika+ member!
Also, Amanda was on hand to help out on crew duties, with some great On Location shots as you see on this very page! Well done and a big round of applause Amanda!
Ruth, tireless crew member as always, was also on hand to back up the images you will see in this fine film....and was today the perfect hostess as always!
And also returning was Theo Garvey....to generally help out and jump in on some footage too!
Always a pleasure to have this guy around...very talented and enthusaistic....sporting a WICKED J-Style haircut....and showing us his latest movie The Purgers...which FUCKING ROCKS! (See http://theoeffects.blogspot.com. Do it NOW!)

Oh...and I did some things too..you know...cameras and directing and stuff...you know...little stuff! (!!!!) So we bagged some Green Screen footage for inserts today. Anyone out there who is comfortable with After Effects etc, let me explain what I did. I shot Lee just fooling around so that could lay him OVER the transitions between scenes....just pop him on with some motion blur from edge of screen, doing something funny...and zip him off again. Just thought this would be some added entertainment for the viewer...and pack in some more laughs...while showcasing technical ability too!

Then we re-shot the scene with Emma which was neeeded due to technical (ie WEATHER) issues before. See above for details.....she turned in a greta performance which will be really cool on screen. I thank Emma from my heart for her work on this project and she will return to the screen again folks!
Then, the highlight of todays shoot. I wanted to craft a title sequence for the show and we had ideas for cop style running, and jumping etc. Now I had no desire to storyboard it. I knew the kind of shots we wanted and most of it relied on Gaylon out in public. Crowd reactions etc.
So we took to Sheffield City Centre to show them the power of Gaylon! Lee in full garb running, jumping and skipping his way through Sheffield Centre! The poor devils! What a blast this was with some BRILLIANT spontaneous work and shots. Really sweet looking too!
A note to all fimmakers reading this...there is nothing wrong with just picking the damn camera up and going to shoot sometimes! Some filmmakers do this exclusively (not me I may add!) and I can hands down say we would not have got the footage and shots this cooly if we had planned and boarded the stuff. So I have 15 minutes of really cool footage to pick and choose and work in to 1min 20secs title sequence to the theme I wrote. Awesome!
And a big HELLO to St Johns Ambulance Crew. While hanging round some of Sheffield's public events on near The Crucible a charming Ambulance lady asked who we were, what we were filming and would we know how to get help for them to film some free promotional charity stuff. I put them in the direction of a good resource to help and in return they let us shoot Gaylon mesing round in the ambulance they had...and they even suggested he could steal their CPR Test Dummy...which he did and looked great. And one really cool guy even stepped up to some acting, throwing Gaylon out of the ambulance! Briilaint! Thanks guys! Will DEFINITELY use the shots for the title sequence!
We even did a Ghostbusters style run through the crowds shot in busy shopping area which looked cool. And jumping off walls, myself doing a cameo as gaylon forces me to kiss the ring (great fun!), and an underground car park fight and robe pull up shot with Theo (again, cool cameo for the titles!). I would have loved a cameo from Ruth, but I don't think she was ready for the glamour of it all yet! Next time.

And finally today some small, slow paced, dolly style shots for a montage segment that replaces the orginally grander Congregation scene. This was adpated last minute. IF READERS HAVE NOT GRAPSED THIS YET, SEEING AS THOUGHT THIS IS FINAL DAYS SHOOT REPORT I WILL SAY IT AGAIN....ADAPTABILITY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS! Be prepared, in filmmaking and life in general, to adapt to whatever is needed, or suitable, at any time. We had planned some shots of Gaylon in bars, or busstops etc, but quickly adapted this to a Gaylon at home segment, with Lee on toilet, brushing teeth, and ironing ...and so on. And it will be FAR better as a whole than the unlinked shots I had originally planned. Will include some CG news headlines in shot, so i shot everything to side of frame to make way for them later. more on that as it happens.
So all in all, a great days work. Something different. More spontaneous (and so more funny!) and some awesome footage. Which I better crack on putting together! about 70% done on the whole film now, with this wrap on photography, so head down, coffee on, and lets get to it. The self imposed deadline looms......that's a wrap on filming though! But Gaylon WILL ride again!

Oh....and by the way...did I mention.....I FUCKING LIVE FOR DAYS LIKE THESE!
And got to see The Purgers too!

27/10/06 - ALMOST FINISHED

Gaylon Peglegg production sees the final day of shooting tomorrow with pick ups, re-shoot on one small scene (due to bad weather continuity issues) and the title sequence of the show.
This will be a masterclass in guerilla filmmaking as although style, shots and ideas are flowing for months now, the cutting edge feel will come from improvised shoots in public places with crowd reactions a plenty.

I have a final date I am working to the finished product which is 12/11/06. After this Troika+ memebers are heavily involved in an intense 2 week music video competition organised by South Yorjshire Filmmakers Network, so I dont want the 2 overlapping.

Full report on the end of Gaylon Peglegg: Episode I after the weekends activities (and some more pictures).

16/10/06 - PUKING TASTIC!

OK, this is like the coolest and worst thing!
Amanda came round to help record some voice overs for the end scene of the film. I had always intended to emulate The Exorcist by layering up several voices coming ftom the possessed girl. Male, female, all kinds of effected voices (sounds great by the way!).....and so Amanda came round to help record a couple of laters.
Only, I think I pushed too hard. She's not the biggest of women and to push her tiny throat like I was doing (and I hurt from it!) is a mean feat. And she went hell for leather! Really pulling out some let loose crazy demon groans and screams (if my neighbours are reading...fuck you...you make enough noise of your own!).....and then.....unnanounced.....she puked. No joke. She pushed her voice so damn hard, messing with throat muscles that only a demon would...and puked. White, gloopy, puke.
Now....is there a lesson by my grossing you out? Damn right there is....Amanda Tyson is a dedicated, amazing, committed (should be) individual. As if dressing up as a demonic possession case was not enough for several gruelling hours on set, she now forces her performance to the point of vomitting during ADR work! Crazy woman! Thanking you Amanda. You are a true star and mad woman. I apologise for your puking.

16/10/06 - EFFECTS SHOT COMPLETED!

Just a quick note to say that after 4 weeks (count em!) I have finished the largest of the visual effects shots for Gaylon Peglegg....the infamous Kiss The Ring shot. After many gruelling (yet ultimately fun...go figure!) hours of rotoscope madness, I have added final visual effects, motion blurs, composite elements and sound effects....and it's a beautiful shot! And funny too! However, it was also a VALUABLE learning curve for me..and I would like to pass on a tip for anyone in my position who is able to produce their own digital effects work, but has not really let loose on a major piece yet....THINK HARD! You may be able to do a shot, and know all the techniques, as I did. But have you really judged the time involved? This shot will be real high point and legendary shot, of a quality not seen in this budget of film (fact!)....but it did takes it toll.. On the deadline (pushed back further than I wanted) AND my health! Too many hours in front of the screen will mess you up. I was eating in the car on way home just to get more time in to bag this shot. Crazy but true. Good friends willing to come round an cook for me so I can stay glued to After Effects, or thoughtful enough to help out with wake up calls so I can get up for work in a morning! Thank you all.....I can't wait to unleash this shot on the world of independent film! See what CAN be done!

01/10/06 - ROTOSCOPE HEADACHES!

For anyone who doesn't know the techniques of film FX, let me introduce you to a process that will cause your eyes to pop out, your head ache and your mind to explode! Rotoscoping. And any rotoscopers out there will know exactly what I am talking about. It is without a doubt one of the slowest most challenging elements of special digital FX work.
Let me explain, relative to this show. In one shot Gaylon moves along a semi-circle of youth offenders and performs a holy baptism, Gaylon style, by inviting them to each "Kiss The Ring" in turn. As each one kisses the ring the script calls for Holy Light to be surround them, or a beam of holy light as their head throws back and they become tranced.

This was all shot on the day 3 shoot and I knew the technique I would be using was Rotoscoping.
In order to place an effect BEHIND the foreground elements (in this case, Gaylon and the youth offenders) I must first make what is known as a Mask, or Travelling Matte. This involves creating a cut out shape around an element so you can put fx elements BEHIND it, or cut it out to place over other things.
See the screenshots for what I am talking about. Each element must be masked out so it remains untouched by the effects after, in the case of these screenshots you wil see that the current mask is that of Gaylon's right sleeve. Each mask is made up of many many points, or nodes. This means that for each frame of film you must re-position the dots to make the shape fit.
Now in the case of say, a square shape or something basic, you can use what is called keyframe animation...where you can set the start point, and the end point...and the software will fill in the gaps. This may need some tweaking to make it match properly but is reasonably quick.....but not in something like this. The sleeve for example is made of cloth and the action in the shot is fast, so it moves shape CONSTANTLY, which basically means I need to pretty much hand place the dots on every single frame of the shot. Now......figures......24 frames of film per second....and this shot is around 11 seconds long......so, I am hand animating the Mask Shape over 264 frames. And this can range from a quick move as the camera slightly moves (remember this HAND HELD CAMERA, so it moves ALL THE TIME!)....or could be as complex as the cloth shape moving so much you essentially need to redraw the shape from scratch.
I have completed the one sleeve after HOURS of work. I now need to start maksing the other elements (like the rest of Gaylon in foreground, or the peoples heads and torsos etc in the mid ground). THEN, and only then can I start to introduct the light beam effects behind them.

LONG LONG LONG work...and the reason it is taking longer is the fact that it has to be super accurate. i wil not use a quick fix technique that you may or may not see flaws in...it has to right...100%. And also bear in mind that on a major movie, the job of rotoscoping would be performed by a whole department, taking shots each...and still take months and months. Ricardo Lacombe....One Man Visual Effects Crew....and feeling like it! Onwards.....later folks!