[Todd Terry]

Yeah, David… I don’t think it will work with 64-bit machines. I was in an older 32-bit suite. I haven’t had the heart to try to load it in our newest suite, because I’m pretty sure it will not work on a 64-bit machine.

For the sake of clarity, I should probably confess that wasn’t all 100% in Crystal Flying Fonts, obviously. The pieces where imported into CFF as outlines created in Adobe Illustrator. The surface textures of the pole were from a digital camera, I walked outside and took a snapshot of a metal power pole. For the weathered painted surfaces of the sign I drybrushed paint onto pieces of foamcore and scanned them and mapped those images onto the model. The typography and rivets were added to the maps in Photoshop, just to cut down on the number of physical elements within the 3D model. And then the whole thing was composited in Premiere CS3, since there were actually about a dozen different renders that were layered together (some with no lights, some with lights, some with the neon tubes dark, some with the neon tubes just as masks, etc). But all of the model-building and animation was done in CFF.

We farm out all of our “real” 3D animation since that’s not at all what we do… but that was fun to do just for yuks.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Not to suggest something completely insane… but has anyone given any thought as to whether the effect could be done practically? As in, with real rain?

Many moons ago in my wanabe-actor days I had the honor or playing the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in a really great production of Tennessee Williams’ “Night of the Iguana.”

At one point in the show it rains, and the production designer had installed some kind of misters or sprinkers that lightly rained onto the set. It was really just barely a drizzle, but with hard backlighting it looked like a million bucks from the audience. It looked (and sounded) real, beacause it was.

Sometimes those over-the-top and unexpected effects on stage can be really great (the Phantom’s chandelier, the barricade in Les Miz). They can really transport the audience if done well.

In that same production of “Iguana” we had a real beach with several tons of sand, with waves constantly lapping the beach as it sloped down into several hundred gallons of water. Even though there were swimming pool heaters in it, very cold water, as I can attest to, having had to get it in every night of the run of the show. The important acting lesson I learned? If you have to get soaking wet on stage under theatrical lighting and your costume includes white linen pants… do not wear black underwear. Learned that one the hard way.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Sure you could. Actually, that was my first thought when I initally read your question.

You’d probably have to put two pulleys side-by-side and lift your camera with two lines or ropes rather than one. If you do it with just one, the camera is very likely going to spin, rather than just lift straight up. Then again, that may be a cool effect, too, if it works for your scene.

Of course your focus is going to dramatically change when going from the extreme closeup to the wide shot. I’d use a camera that can autofocus reliably… and shoot with a wide as possible lens so focusing is less critical.

As for the scene in the tunnel, remember that you don’t have to put your talent smack dab in the center.,. and that masters and reversals don’t have to happen at the same place. I’m not sure what your scene is, but just as an example lets say it’s two people having a conversation. You can actually place them near one end of the tunnel, so that they are still illuminated by available or reflected light. For the reverse, move them down to the other end of the tunnel and do the same thing. The audience will be none the wiser.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’m not sure about your problem, but am curious about one thing… do you have the lens stabilizer turned on? Or off? And does switching it make any difference?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Not since I was an actor.

Ari Gold isn’t stretching the stereotype of many of them too much. Of some, none at all.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I used to watch tons of TV. Tons. Too much. Way too much. If I was home, the TV was on. Sometimes two of them.

I bought a new (well, old… but new to me) house earlier this year.

I killed the cable service at my old house, but didn’t transfer it to the new place right away. The house really wasn’t wired for cable, and I hate seeing any wiring and knew I’d do a better job of it than the cable company, so planned to do all the internal cabling myself the first week I moved in.

It was a busy time, I didn’t get around to it the first week. Or the second week. Or the second month. I finally did, and did a nice job, hidden cabling discretely running throughout the house under floors and inside walls.

I still haven’t called the cable company. Just haven’t.

I’ll call them tomorrow. But then again, I said that yesterday, too.

Stunningly (even to me), I’ve lived without live television in my own home since April. I don’t get as mad seeing how bad the television stations and cable companies louse up our commercial spots. I’ve discovered movies that I didn’t even know I owned. Many still in the shrink wrap. I was finally able to watch all of Arrested Development (although I still won’t watch the finale… because then it’s “over”). I’ve gotten more done. I’ve even read a book or two.

I don’t miss it. Much.

And I don’t tell our clients that.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[walter biscardi] “I will clarify and say we don’t do commercials.”

Oh, we know. I wasn’t making an apples-to-apples comparison.

Funny how people gravitate toward different things. I think our general manager likes long-form, and maybe commercials not so much. But I hate long form (I’ll take their money, just not like it)… and I love commercials.

I think it must be a short-attention-span thing I have. I’d so much rather spend a few days in pre-prod, a couple of days directing a shoot, and throw it to our editor knowing that in a day or two more we’ve got a finished product (and a bill!) out the door.

Projects that take longer than that really tax my brain. We’ve got one continuing project right now that is a couple of different very long-form pieces including two half-hour HD broadcast shows (for public TV)… they’ve been going on for a year and I’m about ready to hit myself with a hammer. It’s not particularly hard, there are no unusual struggles with it, and the money is extremely good… it’s just that it goes on and on and on……

My world is much more suited to making my little :30 mini-movies, then moving on to the next one. Plus in a dollers-per-second world, we can pour ten times as much money on the screen for commercials vs. long form.

Different strokes…. whatever makes you happy… (and makes ya money!)

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[walter biscardi] “it was really just a decision I made to move towards broadcast”

We’ve made the move a bit in the other direction.

When we started our company a dozen or so years ago… 99% of what we produced were broadcast commercials. A corporate gig was almost unheard of here.

Now, while commercials still make up the lion’s share of our work, the corporate work has steadily gotten bigger and bigger so that it is now a sizable chunk.

Interestingly enough, when we saw a fall off in our commercial production when economic times got tight, the corporate clients seemed to start calling with more frequency.

We’ve also found that the corporate clients are gradually leaning toward bigger and better (and more expensive) productions. Part of that I think is just educating them that a 10-minute video of a talking head is not good, nor is a video version of a PowerPoint presentation. But a lot of them seem to be catching on by themselves that their stuff needs to look very slick and high end.

It just depends on your particular market, what works there, and finding your niche like Walter has.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Rick Wise] “Too bad you didn’t have access to where I teach.”

I WISH, Rick.

Heck, I’d take your classes now, if we weren’t coast-to-coast.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Give it a try, Rick, it works well.

I can take zero credit for it, it was just one of those happy accidents one day. When daylight lighting I used to use a little 150w HMI that I home-built for a back/hairlight… but it was a royal pain in the rear because it was the only instrument that wasn’t hot-restrike and no matter how much you preach DON’T TURN IT OFF somone inevitably does when moving it, leading to a 15-minute wait (and yes, sometimes it’s me who forgets). So now I use the key instrument in back a lot. It of course gives a bit of a harsher/sharper output, but if I put it a bit to the side it can give a nice hair and side-of-face and shoulder spill… if I have any windows in the room that can justify its origin then it looks like a sunlight spill and works pretty well.

Come to think of it, about half the things I know how to do I learned by accident. The rest, from watching other good gaffers and cinematographers like yourself back in my former wannabe-actor days. From film school? Ummm… zero. Thanks, Higher Education!

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com