Working As A VFX Artist

Hey! It's been a while!  What's new?  Did you do something different with your hair?

Anyway...
If anyone still reads my long, rambling, infrequent posts, they'll learn that the "infrequent" part of that sentence is an understatement of mammoth proportions!

That being said, there is very good reason for my absence lo these many months:

I'VE BEEN WORKING AS A FREELANCE VFX ARTIST NONSTOP!

To be fair, I've been making some $$ as a freelancer for the last three years actually, however, the big difference came this year when – through a series of interconnecting circumstances – I was given the opportunity to work on a proper feature film!

Here is the trailer for said film:



This movie is the feature debut of director (friend, and all-around cool guy) Ryan Spindell -- who has made many brilliant shorts as well.

It had it's premiere at this year's Fantastic Fest and Toronto After Dark – at which, it won 4 awards including: "Best Feature, Best Horror Film, and Best Editing!

As of this writing, it has yet to see an official wide release (word on that as it develops).


My time on the project started once filming had wrapped and lasted just over four months.
I was one of many VFX artists brought on to do the heavy lifting required to build the world of a dark fantasy film.

I was personally responsible for about 25 shots in the film (which doesn't sound like a lot, but they were all very complicated and took a long time to finish – not to mention, I completed an average of three versions of each shot before approval, and therefore, generated over 350GB of data... so, yeah).

On average, I worked very long hours, 6 to 7 days a week, every week for four months straight – and worked my part-time day job simultaneously.
And I can say without any exaggeration, that this was hands-down the craziest, most challenging, and most AMAZING experience I've had in my life thus far!

I truly cannot contain my excitement for whenever this thing hits theaters/streaming -- but when it does I'm absolutely going to force everyone I know to go watch it, several times.
However, I can't say much else (as things still aren't public yet) but suffice to say, this movie is definitely going to go down in history as a Halloween classic!

Talk soon.

Orson Plays LA Animation Fest

Just a quick post.
Supper happy to announce that "F' for Formula" played at the LA Animation Festival back in December... and won 2nd place for 'Best Comedy Short!'



Feeling very excited and very blessed to have this short still getting attention after all this time -- it is 3 years old now, and in short film years, that means it's almost retirement age.


More news to come.

Later.

A Music Video and a Werewolf

It's always interesting sitting down to type a new post here.

Interesting, because I never really know what I'm going to say till I start to say it -- this is due simultaneously to my complete lack of preparation and my laziness; it would be so convenient for me to just post a load of pictures and videos without need of explanation, all the while being completely confident that, not only would my audience completely follow my logic without guidance, but would also find it incredibly fascinating and instantly smash a "like" button of some kind.

Yes, if only there was some kind of online platform that would allow, nay, encourage this type of slapdash, cut-corner approach to social media...

Hmmm... I wonder if such a thing could exist... @srvfilms.

Anyway, that shameless plug aside, I wanted to drop in and say a few words:















Ok, for real this time.

1)  "HellthClass" has now played 4 festivals (I know, four! That's, like, a crazy high number. It's like I've hit the "big time.")

Yes, it appears that "HellthClass" is the little short film that could......... have done a whole lot better had I not chosen the same day as "Stranger Things" season 2 for its online debut -- dee-butt, for those who don't speak French good.

Admittedly, this has been my biggest regret with this film -- a film that, believe it or not, has turned one year old this week!
And for a production so fraught with turmoil, it's a shame that I was unable to procure a wider release.
All things considered though, getting into 4 festivals, winning one and getting featured on Film Shortage ain't half bad.

2)  This is a music video directed by Zach Daulton that I did creature effects for. My official title on this was VFX Generalist and Stop-motion animator.

It was filmed back in April and was then handed off to me for animation and compositing.
All told, I produced 16 shots in about 3 weeks -- along with approximately 6 weeks for puppet fabrication and preproduction.

And finally,

3)  For anyone who may have noticed my general absence from the "Blog-O-Sphere" this year, it was do in great part to my involvement in "The Bray Road Beast."

As I'm sure I mentioned previously: This is the latest film in the Small Town Monsters series, that documents all the strange creatures, collectively known as "Cryptids,"  in the small towns of America.
In this feature, we got to cover these guys:


I came on the production in January and worked on it all the way through the middle of August.
So, literally, the entire film! And during this course of time, my job title slowly evolved from the animation dept. to VFX, and then all the way to monster maker.

And what is on the horizon? Well, bigger and betting things, thankfully.

This past year has been absurdly busy and it seems that the next 6 months or so will be equally rigorous -- another cryptid documentary and the very real possibility of some incredibly extensive VFX work and you probably won't hear much from me for a good while.

And with that, I grow tired of typing, and bid you a rather abrupt adieu.

Till next time.

HellthClass Wins Award at MSFF!

Late last month, July 28th to be exact, 'HellthClass' played at Midsummer Scream Festival in Long Beach, CA.
And it's because of this, that I'm super excited to announce:

HellthClass won the Audience Choice Award for best in its category!

Extremely happy and thankful to everyone who made this film possible and look forward to making more cool stuff in the future!

And speaking of the FUTURE...

Here's a quick little look-see into some of the new stuff that I've been working on.

I recently had to make a puppet for an 80's themed music video for the band Superdivorce.

It's been one of the most complex figures I've ever had to make (and of course, a huge thank you to my dad for sculpting it).  

The creature is still in-progress, but should be finished by the end of this week.

I can't show much of it, unfortunately, because the video isn't out yet. So hopefully, these few snippets will suffice for now.

This is a time-lapse of (one half of) the mold making process. Didn't get started till late that night and ended up going into the wee hours of the morning.

New Things On The Horizon

It's been a while since my last post, and though I am incredibly busy, I'll still try to find time to keep this blog updated -- the word "blog" in this case, being used merely as a formality. As I can honestly say, this is more of the online equivalent of talking to ones's self than it is a real "web-log," the function of which is to be read by an audience (as least, that's how I understand it).
Truthfully, I came to blogging just as the last dying breath of this form of media was sputtering out.
And I suppose it's only fitting that I've just recently given-in to popular culture and started an Instagram account -- which I'll shamelessly plug here: @srvfilms.

"But Santino!" you might say (that is, assuming any of you would say that, and in a very high pitched, pseudo-Mickey Mouse voice to boot)  -- by the way, wit like this really doesn't read well and is best suited for stand-up comedy.  Because, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, the reader would have no way of knowing with what inflection or timing I was delivering these "zingers" -- nor would they be able to ascertain through simple text that they're missing my crappy (though still good enough to be funny) Seinfeld impression!

Anyway, what was I saying?

Oh yeah: "But Santino!" you might say, "It sounds as though you're only concerned with this blog being popular and gaining viewership! That sounds awfully shallow of you."

Well, first off: you don't know me! So how dare you pass that hypothetical judgement which I put in your mouth.

And second: I'm not all that concerned. In fact, I gave up on this blog gaining any considerable traffic years ago. At this point, it's basically here to serve as a very long, very casual, and needlessly jocular resumé that I could use to say "Hey, this is what I've been doing with my life for the last 9 years... interesting ain't it?"

So, my crazed, anti-blog rambling aside, I've got some little bits of news that I'm pretty happy about.

As I mentioned previously, The Flatwoods Monster documentary that I worked on is out and it's been getting pretty good reviews on Amazon Prime, so, do yourself (me) a favor, and check it out.

Also, I went to Wisconsin for a week in April to shoot "The Bray Road Beast," another Small Town Monsters feature.

My workload on which, has been considerably larger than on 'Flatwoods.' Not only am I producing animated sequences for the historical representations, I'm also doing effects and got to work as an assistant camera operator/grip.

So far, there's not much that I can show, save for this screen-cap of a shot I did:

Everything in the photo above I had to make or find. The book was constructed out of Foamies, scrapbook paper, paint, and rubber cement -- all glued over an old book I had laying around.

The maps on the table and the unseen pages in the book were drawn in Photoshop and printed on cream colored art paper, that I then stained with coffee.

Music Video

This past month I was also given the opportunity to work on a music video with director Zach Daulton. 

Zach had contacted me back in November of last year to see if I'd like to do some creature effects for his next project and, of course, I jumped at the chance.

Granted, there's not much of that video, or the creative process that I can show you till its release -- and because everyone involved is working at it in their spare time, it will be a good while before it's available online.

Till then, I suppose I'm allowed to show you the VHS props I made for the film.

And so, we reach the abrupt end of yet another weird, rambling post.

Till next time...

HellthClass Film-Fest Acceptance, Flatwoods Premiere & More!

Good day to all on the inter-web!
I bring great news from the many strange corners of my life.
First up, 'HellthClass' will be playing at the Columbus International Film and Animation Festival, which runs March 22-25!
My film will be shown during the "Not-Quite Midnight" portion of the fest; at 9pm Friday (23rd).

Next -- the monster doc that I've been doing VFX for has wrapped and will be making its rounds to local festivals like Midwest Weird Fest, and HorrorHound Cincinnati. 

The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear, will make its online premiere April 6th, though Amazon Prime.

The early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, so do yourself a favor and watch it, or I'll come to your house and give you the big-sad puppy-dog-eyes and say: 

"But why?! WHY, won't you watch the movie?! It's good. It doesn't mean you any harm. We all worked so hard on this!"

Anyway, until the film comes out, you can view the new trailer below (it contains quite a number of my shots, so, you know… watch it twice).

The third hunk-o-news, is that I'll be joining the Small Town Monsters team on their next film as well. Titled, "The Bray Road Beast," the new documentary will explore the decades-old myth of a real life werewolf that eyewitnesses claim has been stalking around Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The film will be STM's most ambitious to date.

As usual, I'll be providing animation and various effects as needed. 

Practical Effects for Flatwoods - Progress

If any of you (you know, "you," the great faceless masses who may or may not actually be reading this blog… *crickets*… ) -- if any of you read my last post, then you are well aware that I got hired to do some animation for the new Small Town Monsters documentary "The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear."
I can't show too much, since the film doesn't hit Amazon Prime till April, but some BTS photos have already been posted on STM's Instagram.

So check 'em out.

The set was made of foam and clay, with grass powder and juniper for trees. The houses were built by my uncle -- yes, he is in fact, the same uncle who built the miniatures for Shtubby No. 5 way back in 2014!

Anyway, keep on the lookout, because the Kickstarter campaign starts Jan. 25. You can check out the trailer (with one of the shots I provided near the 56 second mark) here.

The Making of HellthClass... & Big News

Did you like that video?  I didn't.  Not at all.  To me, the sound of my own voice just ruined the whole thing.  But hey, maybe you liked it, and I suppose that's all that counts. 'Cuz I do it for the people!

And just look at all those happy people (they were only happy because this was the start of the first day of shooting, in their minds, making a film was only going to take a half hour... my how they were wrong)

Anyway, something I didn't bother covering in the video, was the overall look of the film. When I first set out to make this, I had imagined a very harsh, contrasty aesthetic like this:

("City of Lost Children" 1995 - DP Darius Khondji) 

(...and also, the exact face I made during the entire production)

However, getting a look like that requires lots of lights and that nasty little thing called time. 

And I had neither. 

So, because I was shooting all natural light, the contrast levels and general form of the light ended up changing to something considerably softer, almost dreamy. 

In the end, I went from a "Darius Khondji" to a "quasi-Bruno Delbonnel" (and I don't have the photographic talent of either of them).  

A huge stylistic difference, of course, but still suitable for the subject matter.

("Dark Shadows" 2012 - DP Bruno Delbonnel)

I ended up making a custom LUT for this film in Photoshop. It's actually a simple process which, for the sake of time I'll not retype. Instead, how about a link to a tutorial -- click here. 

No wait, not there, HERE.

Anyway, after applying the LUT, I then put an edge blur and slight vignette on an adjustment layer, then added film grain, and an overall warp to the corners of the image to give it a vintage anamorphic feel.

It means I wanted it to look weird and dreamy and old and it was a lot of work.

Art Department Stuff

I made a ton of props for this -- all very last minute -- but, thankfully, I've amassed quite a collection of random posters and illustrations over the years that have come in handy.

The comics on the right are from my year as a cartoonist for a local paper called The Far Corner.

The poster (right) I made in Photoshop, Frankensteined out of stock images and vintage fonts. The page from the book (left) I made, printed, and taped into a random book I had around the house. I changed the page color and printed an appropriate page number so that it appeared to belong in the book from the beginning.

Some posters I threw together just for this short. A big thanks to the folks at OfficeMax for doing such a great job on these, they really reproduced well.

Now, for the bedroom location -- I couldn't find a room that looked how I wanted on short notice, so I ended up converting my own room into the "set" for part two.

Everything had to be rearranged, a complete overhaul.

I moved the bed into the little nook in front of the closet and attic doors. To make it seem like that was just another wall (and not just a stupidly impractical way to arrange furniture) I bought a cheap night sky tapestry and tacked it up over the doors -- I also removed the doorknobs so there wouldn't be any weird lumps poking out behind the cloth.

And of course, everything was tied together by an enormous amount of posters, X-mas lights, and general clutter, to really give it that lived-in feel.

About Music

The "score" if you will, was pieced together from royalty-free tracks from Purple-Plannet Music and other bits that I created in Garageband. 

This piece is one of the bits I made that I'm not too horribly embarrassed to showcase:

And finally -- the 'Big News.'  ...Drumroll please.

I've been given the opportunity to do some VFX work for the guys over at Small Town Monsters! Their new documentary "The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear," will be coming out this April.

So keep your eyes tuned for that!

NEW SHORT -- HELLTHCLASS!

It's here!
Let us not spoil this moment with words.



Ok, now let's spoil it with words, lots of words.

First of all -- I wanna say a huge THANK YOU to all involved.

Second:
This short has been a real gut-punch. So many things to do that I had never done before and so little time to do them in.
For example, just getting everything together in order to shoot this thing was a huge challenge.

The timeline on it went something like this -- 

March:  Start looking around for schools. Do storyboard and concepts.

April:  Found a school. Great! Wait for location release to be approved.

May:  Still not approved. But hey, don't let that stop you, start looking for a cast.

June 1st:  Ok, still not approved, but at least I've got a few kids in mind. This should be easy.

June 7th:  No word yet -- all potential actors want a shoot date so they know if they can do it. Only problem, I still don't know if I have a location.

June 9th:  Ok, just tell 'em a date and hope for the best... July 12th is still a month away, you'll be fine.

June 20th:  Finally got approval! This is great! Cool, this is finally gonna happen -- OH CRAP! I don't have a monster yet! (well I wasn't going to spend $300 making a monster until I knew I had a film, that would just be stupid. )

June 21st:  MAKE A MONSTER! CALL EVERYBODY! STILL NOT A FULL CAST, NO TIME NO TIME!

July 4th:  Just threw together a mold and an armature and tried to cast the foam -- but something's wrong with the foam! Must recast. Not enough foam! Must overnight foam latex from Georgia, $70!

July 6th: Finally got a decent cast, must patch-up seams, fix huge air bubbles, paint and test before shoot. Finally rehearsed with my lead actress. All kids' schedules are locked.

July 10th:  Last minute props.  Rental gear arrived. Test EVERYTHING. Just had a kid drop out. Gonna shoot myself in the face.

July 11th:  Get up early. Set-up location. Do light tests and see if all the shots I drew in the storyboard are even possible in this space which I'm just now able to fully survey, adjust accordingly.

And finally, on the day of the shoot, we had another kid drop out an hour before filming.

So that was a really long example, but necessary, I think, to better convey the chaos of the entire production.

Part two carried on like this -- 30 days to get a whole new cast and location together, one day to rehearse and one (8hr) day to shoot.

And now for a pie chart.

As you can see, the budget on this one was considerably larger than the last -- 'Bait' having only cost me $660.

As before, a pretty huge chunk of that went to rental supplies. 

I shot the whole film on a Sony A7s. And used two different lenses for the two parts of the story. For part one, I used a Sony/Zeiss 16-35 f/4 Zoom and part two used a Canon 18-55 kit. 

Using zooms allowed me to move extremely fast; not having to worry about changing lenses between shots.

And boy did I have to move fast.

I've already posted about the shoot schedules for each day, so I won't bore you with that info again. But the speed at which I needed to work was continually being undermined by the high shoot ratios that I kept incurring.

When you're acting as director, cinematographer, cam-op, lighting, and VFX supervisor, all at the same time -- and all without the aid of a field monitor -- it makes getting a decent take kinda tough. 

OK THEN.

For the CPR manikin, we made 3 different heads:

The "Good Anne Head" which was made of Sculpey and styrofoam. And the "Evil Anne Head" cast in foam latex.

One "Evil Head" had an articulated mouth and the other was a lightweight 'stunt' version with a mouthpiece that enabled our actress to hold the prop in her mouth without a harness.

For most of the film, I tried to shoot on a tripod. But some shots required handheld and subsequent motion stabilizing.
One shot that broke this pattern was the lateral tracking shot toward the beginning. We didn't have the time or money to build a dolly like this, so we borrowed a hand truck from my uncle and mounted the tripod on that -- it worked beautifully! No post stabilization required.
So, to any of you no-budget filmmakers out there, keep that in mind; hand trucks are good for more than just toting Hannibal Lecter around.

Anyway, I'll be releasing a BTS video next week on all the sweet VFX that I did.

Till then, here are a few fun facts that I'll cover in more detail later: 

1) When working with kids, the phrase "don't look at the camera" is like telling a kitten

"don't jump on the counter."

So for some shots, I ended up cutting out their eyes and rotoscoping them

back into a new position away from the lens.

2) 9 out of every 10 shots has some type of visual effects in it.

Most of these are (hopefully) invisible effects. Like the 'eye thing.'

Sometimes it was as simple as adding dust or a vignette.

Other times it was as complicated as split-comping 2 different

takes together to get one performance.

3) The clock was fake. The real one on location didn't work, so I had to track 

and replace every shot where it was visible.

Ok everybody, that's all for now. See ya' next week with some cool stuff.

Post Production -- Finish Line In Reach

Good news to any who are hopefully keeping up with this project: I'm 95% done with the new short!
For the last couple months, I've been up to my eyeballs in editing, sound, VFX, and other random bits and pieces -- and now, it looks like it may just be nearing a close.
Now, let the record show that I'm definitely not the most organized person in the world.
In times past, I've been guilty of hastily labeling miscellaneous audio with such unintelligible monikers as:

"CHimps1morebdsoundK"

"Nuevo_clok12lastoneforRealthistime"

"HorrorWSH For the Wldrness"

And my hands-down, no contest, all-time favorite:

"Randomsound1"

Yes, I've actually named an important bit of foley, "Randomsound 1."

But lately, I've been trying very hard to be more organized.
I've watched tutorials on all the different things I didn't know about working in Premiere Pro (and took notes, except the notes were chicken scratch and stupid... but hey, wudda'yagonnado?).

I took the proper steps toward streamlining my workflow -- which up till this past year just looked like this:



Now, I know what you're thinking: He did all that and now he's cranking out films like a pro.
Well, let's just see what you think of what my timeline looks like right now.

WOW! Check that out. Look at all that organizational insanity!  Good thing I watched all those tutorials.

But really, despite how it looks, that's actually a rather decently laid out timeline. I've got all my adjustment layers in pink, sound fx are green, ambiance red, and music blue.  I've also color coded my video clips to tell me what is raw, what's been finished in AE, and what needs to be reworked for timing issues.

Oh my GAWD, it's soooooo organized!

(This gif cracks me up every time.)

Anyway, I've been very busy recording foley and trying to get a good mix.
As usual, I could only afford to rent professional equipment for a few days, so I tried to get as much good location audio as I could.  Unfortunately, as is the case with most wild takes, there were very few that I could actually use, so I've resorted to doing foley in my bedroom with my Tascam's built-in stereo mic.
And of course, trying to get clean sound using non-directional mics while living in the city -- that's a bad combo.
So my process for literally every clip (and unlike most "millennials" I do use literally when it's called for) has been to record, then drop into Audacity to boost gain, remove noise, and EQ. Then export uncompressed and mix in Premiere.

Of course, there's probably an easier way to deal with such big loads of audio -- probably a method involving Adobe Audition -- but I don't know how to use that program as of yet. Hopefully, when I'm finished with this production, I'll use some of my downtime to learn more programs.

So keep your eyes peeled for the new short. As it looks right now, I'll probably have it up in the next couple weeks (barring any issues or festival problems).

Part 2 Down!

Stopping in quick, just to say that shooting on part two is in the can!
Much like P1, this shoot was fast and furious.
I only had time to rehearse once... the day before the shoot -- and we had to get everything I needed in just 8 hours.
Thankfully, I got it all and in exactly the 8 hours allotted!
Now I'm moving into deep post production -- basically, just a crap ton of color grading (and editing).
I'm about 65% done with post on P1 and still have all of P2 to do yet, but things are moving along.

Figured I'd post the official title card (since I don't have anything else I can show you).

Later.

Part 1 is Done (aka: Who Knew Kids Had Short Attention Spans?)

Part one of the craziest shoot I've ever done is in the can!
We managed to get nearly every shot needed -- some things had to get cut, however. But that's just  the way things go when time is ticking and you've got no budget.

We were on a 4 day schedule that went something like this:

Day 1) 9am-4pm.  Set-up the room. Hang posters, arrange chairs, check light levels... sharpen pencils with the worst pencil sharpener in Ohio.

(of course I didn't sharpen them, I'm the director, my job is to delegate, not sharpen pencils)

Day 2 & 3) 10-4pm approx.  Shooting, panicking, shooting some more.

Day 4) 10-3.  Clean-up: put the room back as we found it, leave no evidence!

Our first actual shoot day went by like a breeze. We were even a little ahead of schedule. 

That should've been a red flag.

Because once day 2 came, all bets were off!

Basically, we ran into all the same issues that any indie filmmaker does: No time, light changes, various things breaking or just going wrong, etc. 

However, all this was made 5 times worse by the fact that we were only able to shoot 6 hours for both days.

Why... KIDS, that's why. 

With such limited time (and of course, limited crew) I was forced to move as quickly as possible, only grabbing the most essential parts needed to tell the story.

So, in the end, I'm saddled with two extremes: shots that are absolute gems, and others that just don't work.

Naturally, I'm going to have to do the best with what I've got, and if it's one thing I've learned over the years of doing things by myself, it's how to "polish the poos." (-- insert image of super shiny bear of very little brain.)

Anyway, I'm working hard in post -- color correcting, compositing, all the usual.

But there's one new trick to add to my bag this time around: Split-Comping.

If you're not familiar with this concept, check out this link here.

I think it's going to be an incredibly useful, if not incredibly difficult, technique that I'll employ to try and fine-tune the performances of my child actors & extras.

I'll be moving forward with part 2 next month. Which means rehearsals, casting, a whole new location, and set decoration are all in the process as we speak.

So, it'll be another whirlwind week, and then a long, tedious time in After Effects for the rest of the month.

Later.

One Day Away From The Big Shoot & Teeth

Hey hey, everybody (I say this as though thousands read these ramblings).
Got some big news!
I'm going on location tomorrow to setup for the new short being filmed this Wednesday and Thursday!
And yes, I can even tell you what the title is:

This will be -- and I am aware that I say this every time, but it's always true -- the biggest thing I've tried to do to date.

Now, "big," I realize is a relative term. When I say 'big,' I don't mean big as in this kind of big. 

What I really mean is, 'big' in terms of how many people are involved, how much work it's been/going to be, and how many new things I'm having to learn just to make this happen.

This will be the first time I've every had to shoot with synch sound. 

It will be the first time I've ever had to shoot with child actors, or shoot a location that wasn't my house (or a friend's). 

Just like last time, this production will stretch the limits of what a few people and a shoestring budget can do -- maybe to the breaking point, who knows! Everyone keeps telling me they can't wait to see it, and frankly, neither can I.  It'll be just as much a surprise to me in the end.

It's interesting, well, I find it interesting -- that one could call this my No-Film-School-Film-School-Blog, as I've been chronicling my adventures in independent filmmaking for the past 8 years now.

Honestly... I don't really know where I was going with that tangent.... maybe I was going here.

Anyway, this film is gonna be (hopefully) really cool when it's done, and the date for release is most likely going to fall... somewhere in the fall. 

So, keep an eye out for it.

I will try to post as much as I can, without spoiling too much.

But in the meantime, here's some teeth!

Sneak-A-Peek

Greetings!

Once again I find myself absent from the blog.
Well, the thing is,  I've been working furiously on a new project. And of course... I can't tell you what it's about (isn't that always the way).
However, I can give you a few hints -- the first being: that it is another live action short.
The second: that it has a cast of 15, and it takes place in a school!
Yes, I seem to be moving into bigger and (hopefully) better territory.
So, until I can say more, check out this weird interlude:

Orson Played AIFVF

Just a quick update here, 'F' for Formula was selected to play at this year's Athens International Film + Video Festival!
He was also featured here on Film Shortage a little while back.

I know I'm a little late with this news, but I've really been busy pulling strings behind the scenes -- gearing up for a new short (or maybe two, if I'm lucky).
Last year saw a lot of new challenges met -- like shooting my first ever live action short, the fastest turnaround in (my personal) animation history, and getting into film festivals.
I hope to continue in this momentum and push forward with more new and exciting projects -- of course this means even more live action, and way more VFX!

Halloween Shots (BTS)

Ready? Here we go:

This project was a very last minute thing. In fact, the timeline on this was probably the fastest turnover I've ever done – from concept to final film was three weeks exactly! 

So there was no time to experiment, and no time for mistakes. Thus, the day after I came up with the idea, I was already making puppets. 

First up, was the Snickers Bar, which was never supposed to be in the short in the first place. 

The original idea was for a horror trailer about killer Halloween candy. But, realizing that my time was limited, I decided to cut everything down to the bare minimum – however, as Dad and I talked it over, we just loved the idea of the Snickers so much, that we had to put it in.

So, the bar was made of upholstery foam, wire, and a liquid latex skin, which was then glued down and painted with PAX paint. I purchased a real candy bar (ate it) and lined the wrapper with foil so it would stay in place.

That was the easy part. 

The "Caramel Crab-Apple" was the real trick.

Seeing how I had no real plan, and did't have access to the usual materials (like foam latex or other molding materials that I'm comfortable with) I ended up MacGyvering it.

The puppet was made from a hollow plastic ball, coated in Super Sculpey, where the face and other details were sculpted by my dad. The clay was baked/hardened, and other details (and fixes) were made with epoxy putty.

The legs were made of wire and molded in Echoflex silicone. 

Now, I've only worked with silicone once before, and I'll be honest with you, it was a disaster. 

So naturally, I was scared to try it again. But as I said before, the clock was ticking, and ordering foam latex would've taken way too long to arrive in the mail – so I held my breath and remarkably, the silicone worked.

In fact, I had just enough to finish the apple, and not a bit more.

The legs, then, were affixed to 3 inch aluminum plates. Both of which were lined with magnets – once the legs were pushed completely through the holes, they would stick and were stable enough for animation.

The Crab-Apple on set. Filmed on a green screen, comped into the pre-filmed background.

He was rigged from below with a small ball & socket piece attached to a tripod.

Lastly, I took a day for sound design. I recorded things like celery cracking (when the legs first break through) – drumming on a wood table (for scampering) – hissing, cackling, etc. 

Everything was mixed in Premiere Pro and uploaded right before Halloween!

BEWARE – Happy Halloween!

So here's a short piece that I threw together over the past couple weeks -- and got it done just in time too.



It's just a quick little thing -- and was made completely on the fly -- but I hope it makes you all think twice before biting into that first piece of Halloween candy.

I'll be sure to post some BTS shots soon.

Till then, have a happy All Hallows' Eve!

Bait BTS

Bait VFX Breakdown from Santino Vitale on Vimeo.

Visual effects is a funny thing – bittersweet actually – it's something that takes a lot of time, thought, and skill, and in the end, the main goal is to be invisible.
Well, maybe invisible isn't the right word when it comes to a giant rat-monster in one's basement -- but what I mean to say is: Visual effects are done well when the audience doesn't question what they see… till after they've seen it.
Good visual effects should be something you miss, and then when you get home and you're grabbing a snack you say "wait a minute!"
All this to say -- I put a ton of work into every shot. Some shots, such as the opening bed scene, I'm actually kind of hoping you all took for granted. Because, even though it looked like a crane shot, it was actually accomplished like this:

So, yeah, that's me, standing on the bed above my cousin, with dad acting as a type of counter weight -- no, that's not a wedgie, he was actually holding onto my belt to keep me from falling on the 'actress.' 

After I got a usable take, I took it into After Effects for color grading and image stabilization using Warp Stabilizer.

Other smooth shots were accomplished by holding the tripod and using its low center of gravity to prevent that nasty shake that all light cameras like DSLRs are prone to. The rest was shot locked down on a tripod or even on the floor for some really low angles.

As I mentioned before, this was mostly a day-for-night shoot, so all the shots had to be graded extensively. And though I only included a few samples in the video, rest assured, you're not missing anything. They all underwent the same corrections -- darken, color grade towards the blue end of the scale, and bring down the highlights. 

In fact, more time was spent rotoscoping the windows that got blown out by the sun than any other effect. 

Now on to the monster.

He's a foam latex puppet, with a wire armature. 

To-date, it's the biggest puppet I have ever made. So big, that I had to build an oven just to fit his 18" X 17" plaster mold. 

Now, I'm a fair sculptor, but I didn't have the time or the confidence to attempt something this complicated. So my dad graciously donated his time and skill to do the job. 

He sculpted it in Super Sculpey, and I made the mold with Ultra-Cal 30. 

The teeth are made from epoxy putty and fired Sculpey. All the tentacles (and tongue) were molded separately, and then attached to the armature through holes cut out of the sides. 

Once the puppet was painted and assembled, I set the stage for animation.

He was on a green screen, mounted to a tripod which poked through a hole in the tabletop. The tripod acted two fold -- as a stable anchor point, and as a means to incrementally raise, lower, or tilt the puppet. I also mounted a small light to a helping hand so that I could animate it to match the flashlight from my live action footage.

Animation took 15 hours over two days. For each frame I had to make 16 moves (tentacles, arms, mouth, tongue, eyes, tripod, flashlight, drool, etc…) and turn the overhead lights on and off. So I was averaging about one second each hour. 

The monster's design was an interesting bit of evolution. We went through a few different versions, some with a rather amorphous shape, others with more anatomy, some looked kind of alien -- but all of them were supposed to be rat-like.

In fact, the whole concept for the film spawned from an old (really old) drawing that I had in my sketchbook. 

Originally it was a little boy and a teddy bear – the monster hiding just out of sight, waiting to pounce.

I of course changed quite a few things, but the end result still contains the bones of the first concept: A monster in the basement, using its tongue (with something interesting on the end) like an Anglerfish to lure its prey. 

By the way, the mouse was a real mouse. And in case you were wondering, it was a freeze-dried mouse that I purchased from eBay -- the little bugger cost me $35!

At one point, we had made a fake mouse, and it was naked and really weird looking. But in the end, I decided the real mouse worked better.

The tongue that you see on the floor, leading from the mouse was a large prop made from thin packing foam, rubber bands, and liquid latex. It was roughly 9 feet long… and looked dumb. 

No, really. After the first four feet or so, it didn't look good on camera. So the part you see in the film, where the tongue starts moving, was actually the tiny little puppet tongue that I animated and composited into the scene. 

And that's what was so ironic -- the little tongue that was never even supposed to be shown, ended up looking better than the big tongue that we made specifically for closeups!

The drool was made from clear school glue and liquid starch -- you can find the recipe here.

As I said before, this short was done in two days, with a few extra hours here or there for reshoots. 

I had made a storyboard, and practiced the shots before filming even started. That way I would be able to save set-up time, because I already knew where all my lights were going.

As you can see, the actual film didn't stray very far from the boards. The reshoots, however, were mainly for unforeseen things like POV shots, or the girl's reaction to the monster. 

Because, on paper, you only get a general idea of how it's going to work, but you don't get to see it in motion, with music, etc. 

I had considered making an animatic, but time was not on my side. 

Speaking of music, I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the guys at Film Riot, for their great royalty-free music packs -- of which, 70% of the film score was made. With the other 30% being me on my keyboard in Garageband.