The Megaltih Project has been Green Lighted!

On Friday I showed the draft of my proposal to Bill, the head of the E-Media department and he approved of the project!


The Megaltih Project has been officially Green Lighted!



Bill also put forward the suggestion that the lead character could be the viewer, so the sequence would engage them as though they were part of the ritual. I like this idea as it gives another dimension to the project, so I think I may pursue two versions, a cinematic version that is viewed like an ordinary film and an interactive installation version which more physically involves the viewer.

But I probably should explain exactly what's going to happen first ...

An Idea From Hugh Thomas

Hugh Thomas, a class mate suggested that I cast someone with a background in performance for the lead role. Now this probably seems like a blatantly obvious thing to do, but being a student means casting agencies are out of the budget. The real value in his suggestion was the information he shared on how to find such a person.

But wait a minute! How does why does The Megalith Project need a leading role? How does a lead character fit in to this project?

A Rough Experiment

A YouTube.com account has been registered!

A while back I made this sculpture that resembled one of the towers from Lord of the Rings, but I never really did anything with it. About 18 months later I decided to use it as a miniature and see how well I could composite it into a background.

Unfortunately the only digital camera I had at that time was the one in my video camera, so the picture quality wasn't the best. Regardless it still turned out alright, probably because I shrunk the tower right down so small any major discrepancies weren’t noticeable.

I also managed to create a reflection by flipping the tower image vertically and reducing the opacity. Furthering the effect I managed to have a bird fly over the reflection and remain visible the whole time. The footage already contacted a bird flying over the water, so I simply duplicated the bird’s flight path, keyed its background out composited it over the reflection.

The effect is quite rough but I think it’s alright for my first effort – I can only improve!

It appears YouTube has shrunk the movie size and compressed it further vastly reducing its quality, but you'll still get the idea.

How good will The Megalith Project be?

I honestly can’t give an indication as to how good the finish project will look, so I’ll need to do some experimenting. This way I can determine what will look reasonable and what will look hideous.

But before I get too carried with experimenting I need to submit a project proposal and get the project approved by the head of the E-Media department. The project has not yet been green lighted!

Regardless I’ve already been dabbling with a few techniques although the end result hasn’t been that impressive. But I’ll upload some of these early ventures to YouTube.com so we can observe the progression of my skills over the course of the project.

Now I need get to a YouTube.com account…

Why not create a CG megalith?

(CG is an abbreviation for Computer Generated from anyone who doesn’t know)

There are some reasons why miniatures are preferred over computer generate models:

1. Rendering a computer animated sequence can be very time consuming, especially for those (like me) who do not have access to a facility with computers optimised to perform such a task.

2. Computer Generated images are harder to make look realistic.

3. It’s easier to examine and reference a real world object to its environment, so there’s a better idea of what its going to look like in the shot.

However, I’m not against the use of Computer Generated imagery and I won’t advocate it all looks unrealistic, whereas as some may. Personally I think the movies laden with CG are a mixed bag, some of it looks fantastic while some of it looks horrible - and there are many subtle grades of realism in between.

For example: Davey Jones from Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - his sea food face was entirely Computer Generated.

"Davey Jones"
Image Sourced from Wikipedia

However, this does not mean The Megalith Project will be free from Computer Generate imagery and how it will contain is yet to be determined.

To reiterate on point 2, there is a degree of skill required to make miniatures appear realistic and without the necessary skills or resources the end result may appear unconvincing.

Ok then, how good will the finished Megalith Project look?

How will the megalith be created?

In my previous blog entry I raised the question of how the megalith will be created.

Since I’m only a student without funding from a major studio or organisation I don't have the finances or resources to build a full scale megalith. Nor would it be practical to transport a large set piece to a location or even get it inside the University of Tasmania’s small studio.

Even large scale productions with millions of dollars in funding don’t create everything at full scale, instead they use scale models called “miniatures”. Wikipedia defines a “miniature” as “A physical model of a larger object used to represent it in filmmaking”

The miniatures are created by a team of designers, and then filmed against a blue or green screen so they can be composited into a scene during postproduction (I.e. when the footage is edited together). The Wikipedia “Bluescreen” article will tell you more about this.

Image sourced from the Coronado DVD
"Digital Effects: Before & After"
© 2003 DEJ Productions Inc

So why use a miniature rather than completely designing the megalith in a 3D modelling program?