“Puddles of Light” Technical Specification

Starting point is r3d 4096×2160 24 fps at 180 degree shutter ussing RPP with T1.8 depth of field. Secondary Motion controlled shots at T8 (for 2.5D calculations). Shots are motion controlled with laser measured rooms. Shots are framed at a 2.39 aspect ratio (4096×1716), with 3d markers placed in the cropped regions from the full container.

Camera Color Configuration:
Filters – IR Tiffen Mirror Filter is on at all times, ND Tiffen as needed, no other filters.
ISO – 320 (shot as if it was going to film [i.e. raw's a safety net])
REDCODE – 8:1
Kelvin – 5k (no matter keep that setting)

All shots start with a RED Color chart and focus chart, most scenes are not time coded.

Directory structure is organized by scenes (1-36), with upto 5 vfx sections per scene.
Step 1 – In adobe/redcine do a basic grade (iso,redlogfilm, log adjust) – no fine detail color grading, try to have no digital grain

Step 2 – output from adobe at 4096×2160 to openexr and png, and 2k png

Step 3 – In blender use openexr camera solutions and textures, and 2k png for background alignment (i.e. when doing animation I reference from the png but all the textures manipulated are from the openexr).

Step 4 – flat light render from blender to openexr 4096×1716 with alpha channel (70% of the area is ussually alpha) [zdepth was in openexr, now doing in png ... shadow mask is also in png]

Step 5 – build feather masks in AE for blender 4096×1716, perform depth of field blur based on zdepth

Step 6 – composite the r3d at 4096×1716 with the feather mask from step 5

Step 6a – inside AE use Color Finesse to align the VFX with the R3d footage during compositing

— repeat this for all sections of a scene

Step 7 – pull in ae comp’s to premier, only cut and transitions in premier (no grading), output in dpx entire scene (i have 36 scenes btw)

Step 8 – pull all dpx files from all the scenes into davinci, add blur and grain with final color grades

Step 9 – output from davinci in dpx

Step 10 – read in step 9 dpx into adobe, for sound scoring in 2k

Step 11 – dcp programs for 4k & 2k

Here’s the new Log Line for “Puddles of Light” :

While filming a deaf painter that lives alone in the suburbs, a robotic cameraman detects hungry children sleeping in the artists backyard.

———————-

It’s amazing the work it takes to make a good log line … and how in the shoot you can drift into no where land without a solid focus.

The “painter” in puddles of light doesn’t talk, and only signs.   I’m not fanatical on going ASL  only, since I have in the script using american indian and also old “monk” sign languages.  But I am using the ASL sign for Adopt (which also means Evaporate), since  this sign represents the theme of the movie.  Here’s a link to the ASL sign web site I really like … http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/t/take-up.htm

I do a mix a story and shot boards, with detailed shot instructions (as they relate to both SFX and camera motion control setups).  Here’s a picture of the scene 4 shot/story board (notice I do a lot of stickies in it too … to re-adjust shots).

I noticed that coffee grounds killed my strawberry plant (i was using in the movie, have 3 extra … so no issue … lmao).

Doing a lot of test shots at 1fps and timelapsing the graffiti sections of the movie, is working out ok … about to do some final tests the lock the film processing.

I was going through some scripts today … and noticed the “beats” and tension were totally off. I think this has been a serious problem of my writing, and it’s perty ridiculous that I have finally figured out how to write structure with beats only recently … arghhh …

Every day about 15k kids starve to death … lot more then that have secondary issues due to malnutrition … that can lead to drugs and other things (i.e. also basically death) … got to get my crap together.