Category: Blender

Ara’s Tale at the Blender Conference 2012

Yesterday I got confirmation from Ton Roosendaal, that my proposed talk about the production of Ara’s Tale ( Challenges and Production Insights of Single-Handedly Making a Short) is accepted.

Yeah 🙂

I hope to be able to talk to some of  you fellow blenderheads there in person 🙂

And now I just hope that Ara’s Tale gets into the official selection for the suzanne film festival …

Aftermath

And I have again reason to open my celebration bottle of Ardbeg Single Malt. Now after almost 2 months of the release of Ara’s Tale, the movie and it’s production is again creating some fuzz.

Soon after the release of Ara’s Tale, I was approached by Ian Hall from the Foundry, who asked me, if I was interested to do a case study for Mari.

I was interested 🙂

Now, this week the article was first featured as production focus on the main site of cgsociety.org. This came as a very pleasant surprise to me.

And today the case study itself is published on Mari’s website. It is an incredible feeling to see one’s project listed on the same page with those huge blockbusters as Avatar, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Hugo …

The aftermath will last be a bit longer though, as I am submitting the movie to several film festivals and hope to get it accepted at at least a few ones. The first one will be the Suzanne Animation Festival at the Blender Conference 2012, where I plan to go there this year.

And there is still work to be done on the making-of , which will be shown together with the movie at a local cinema ( Leokino in Innsbruck) at 30th September.

These are still interesting times, but a lot quieter now than during production …

And then it will be time to let go and turn towards new projects.

Magical !

After 3 years of writing alone on this blog, it is now time to let the other team members have their voice and thoughts heard.

And it also helps a bit to shorten the waiting time until the final release … 🙂

Philippe Rey (www.phreymusic.com) was so kind to write a bit of his experience with working on the score for this project.

Thank you Phil for taking your time and a thousand thanks for enriching this movie with your wonderful music !

And now I step back and let Phil tell his tale …

Continue reading “Magical !”

Digital Cinema ?!

It is not the first time the this project creates a momentum out of its own and steers to directions I have never thought of.

Today I managed to get a very generous offer from a local cinema. With the idea of  supporting the local movie making community, I was offered to rent a full cinema hall for a local premiere of Ara’s Tale. The price is such, that I feel able to raise enough donations to get this actually financed.

This all comes with a catch, .. of course 🙂

To ensure the best picture and audio I have to deliver the movie as DCP – Digital Image Package, the actual world wide standard for distributing digital cinema content.

Fortunately there are free possibilities to be able to produce these type of digital media. But looking at the whole specifications behind this, I guess that there is a whole new world of things which needs to be handled correctly to get a working DCP movie.

What I would like to ask the community: Is there any knowledge out there, that could give me a good starting point and tips to start into the right direction ?

If you happen to have some experience with this, I am glad for any input you can provide.

 

The Score is Final

Phil has delivered the final score for Ara’s Tale.

Over 8 minutes of original soundtrack, fitting perfectly to, and enhancing the visuals by a huge amount.

For me the score is fantastic. Phil and I have both a very similar emotional response to the images and the whole mood. That means working with Phil on the score was a perfect match, sometimes even eerie.

There is one part especially, complimenting the climax of the movie, where when I received the first proposal, I just sat there, totally stunned. It was like watching a completely new movie.

My deepest respect and gratitude goes to Phil for enriching the movie with such a beautiful score.

Now, that only leaves the sound fx to be finished, which Mikkel is very hard working on. And looking at the work he has already done for the movie, I am very excited to hear the remaining bits. This will take yet some more weeks though.

That also means, that the long waiting will be over comparably soon …

What are these white pixels … ?

What white pixels ?

These, there, flickering at the cliff wall !

Ummhh …

… I do not know why this has slipped through my countless screenings, but here they were. Full bright white, sometimes colorful, single hot pixels.

What follows now is an anecdote, highlighting the various adventures you sometimes face, when dealing with problems which seem so trivial at first sight. It is almost nostalgic, as these problem patterns tended to appear throughout the whole production and they persist right to the end 🙂

Continue reading “What are these white pixels … ?”