This was easier to post in a written form, than to prepare notes and record a video, hoping to remember I said everything I wanted to.
The movie has been going very well. We are about halfway through the VFX stage. This is the first time I’ve had some kind of visual estimate, rather than scrolling through a 48 page document. I printed them out. The shots/sequences that are finished are laying on my desk, ready for the garbage can! The shots that are still in progress are up on the bulletin board. Just the fact that they were all able to FIT on the bulletin board means that we’re doing good!
Now let’s watch the shots disappear from the bulletin board as the months go on!
I’ll emphasize once again that this isn’t really a big “effects movie”. It’s mostly shots that you will never notice something has been done, but the shots all need to be done to tell the story.
January has been a great month. Taking a break from web videos, to sit down and focus on the movie full time has been the best thing for me. I’ve been able to get a lot done. Believe me, organizing this stuff, directing people, and keeping this all moving, is a full time thing that requires steady time and 8-12 hour days on a daily basis. My VFX supervisor who has been working closely with me through all this can say the same. Here’s his own update.
I am sure a lot of you are very curious on what’s happening to the movie, where it is, and when will it be done. I would like to take a moment and just first off thank you all for all your support in this project. Without you all, this would not be possible. Second, let’s get into the down and dirty of the post work. In pre-production, we had roughly 300-400 vfx shots and we were actually trying to cut some back. During production, we had to make some executive decisions to make sure we caught up on all the shots we needed to get within our shoot days. When we got to post production… we actually ended up with roughly 942 shots. I need to fact check, but that seems to be more than the first Iron Man. So, as you can imagine, this is a huge undertaking. This is a huge undertaking for production by itself in this day and age. So, this thing is bigger than expected and really, most of the shots, you will not even notice are visual effects shots. Then again, others will have the James trademark vfx stylings.
Our artists are working all they can in their spare time. Each and every one of them has volunteered their time to make these shots happen. In the everyday world, we would have artists working 9-10 hours a day for 5 days a week to get this done. These guys are able to put in about 10 hours a week to make all this happen. This is part of the delay. We had thousands of applicants and unfortunately, some folks we just could not fit into the pipeline and keep it all organized. We have two groups of about 30 simultaneously working on shots. It is hard enough keeping these things organized, much less the 1000 applicants. We kept the artist groups kinda small as well to just keep the information flow as straight as possible as most of these artists are working remotely. And really.. these artists are the stars right now. These guys are making it all happen from this point.
We are about over the 1/2 mark and we have probably about 200 shots that are just awaiting graphic elements on to finish up. I am telling you right now, I have been doing this for some time, and every single day I get a shot in that blows me away. I have always been proud of how James took something he did for fun and was able to pretty much make it into a brand. I am even more proud of the guy for everything he has done to get this movie made. This is really the next evolution of Nerd. It pulls just about every special effect style out of the book and utilizes it (miniatures, rear screen projection, animatronics, rubber suits, CG…etc.) This is the kind of movie that anyone who can remember when you had to rent VCRs will appreciate. This is also the kind of movie that will inspire today’s generation of kids to get back outside and make their own movies.
Anyway, I am really happy how this is turning out and I just wanted to take the time to explain a little bit of what is going on behind the scenes at the moment. This movie is on it’s way… I assure you. We are all excited to unleash it upon the world. Thank you, fans! I also want to thank Mrs. Nerd too.. she has been a bigger trooper through this than most of us.”
So that’s VFX, but now also, I’d like to get some kind of head start on sound design. I’m not sure the best way to approach this yet, especially since not all the effects are in there yet, but we would at least like to get someone to do some preliminary work, to start adding some sound effects to it. If you are a sound designer available to help out, please send an email to help@AVGNmovie.com.