Designing "The Electric Whip"

I recently bought two skipping ropes, then cut them both down to size and put brown masking tape on specific points of the rope so that they would act as markers when it comes down to "electrifying" the whip.

Tests to come soon.

Character Inspirations -1

The bad guy in my piece will be very loosely based around the fictional character "Whiplash" from the Iron Man franchise. Loosely based meaning his weapons, the electricity whips, will be incorporated in to my characters persona.

The Schedule

This schedule is one that is not set in stone and will definitely change.

Feasibility Report

Samuel Iwaniak's

Feasibility Report for future project "Leap"

Synopsis

Confused and intimidated about his incredible secret, Reise Dawson is on the run from what seems to be the world and himself. After learning that he has the untameable power of teleportation, Reise does not hesitate to tell one of his friends about his gift, though proving this to his friend only leads to his friend exploiting Reise to the press, which sparks a dire kinetic chain reaction, leading television institutions and media organisations all over the world with one thing on their mind, Reise. A reporter named Tom Harris learns quickly of Reise's location and chases him throughout the city beginning our story...L E A P

Backstory/Narrative Explaination

The initial concept/narrative for this project was to have a short chase sequence involving two characters. One of the characters would be the Boy who has the power to teleport short distances; the other would be a reporter that would be chasing him. The reason behind the chase would be that the boys secret gift of teleportation is leaked to the press with video evidence, and lots of different news broadcasters and companies are trying to get there interview with him, creating a mental panic. The way I can explain this in my film would be to have a montage at the beginning of the film, this may be about 10-15 seconds long, which would include a load of title cards for institutions such as the BBC, Channel Four, Sky News etc. With these title cards I could mix some pre recorded audio of actors pretending to be news reporters talking about “The boy that can teleport”, informing the audience in that 10 to 15 second period that basically the boy is on the run, and that the police and his parents are worried about him.

Influences & References

Being a Film student I watch and read a lot of films, television shows, and comic books, within many different types of genres. So when you’re subjected to that much material it’s extremely hard not to get influenced by the creativity and images that the content provides you with, allowing your brain to develop and conjure up specific ideas and different ways of being creative. One spark of creativity that struck my eye not so long ago was the film “Jumper” and the many ideas that were told and demonstrated by the subtlety of the effects and the easy flowing narrative that was told. I went around searching the Internet recently, looking for “fan-made” Jumper videos and effects, to which I found hundreds, half of which were rubbish, yet the other half were just mediocre. Because I never found one I specifically was amazed by I find it to be a personal challenge to create my own piece of Jumper related content to which surpasses those which are out there now. I’ve always loved the “X-Men” franchise ever since I was a young boy, the whole franchise is a credit to the Sci-Fi genre and has definitely opened doors and expanded minds to create different visions of fiction, and it sure has inspired me. My favourite character from the X-Men universe is Night crawler, and he’s a teleporter. In the film “X-2” that was made in 2003, the effects for Night Crawler’s teleporting are incredible, though now that type of effect would not be deemed as in impressive as it once was. People now are drawn to the “Avatar” and “Transformers” scale of visuals, thus making films like “Jumper” and “X-Men” look inferior, when really they are still incredible effects they just don’t get credited as much due to the scale and the fact that software packages make it easier for people outside the industry to achieve effects like the teleport effect near a “Hollywood Blockbuster” level. With the many different tutorial websites and guides to effects out there on the internet I know I will be looking at many just so I can try a lot of them out and find out which ones fit my vision of what I want to achieve, so I know I will have to reference people if I ever use a tutorial or a layer I did not create for example. 

Resources

This year we have a load of new equipment at our disposal, one of the biggest concerns I have at this moment in time is deciding which model of camera I should shoot with. I’m going to be scrapping using the Sony Z1’s as the amount of times I have shot on a tape and the footage has been corrupt or I’ve had problems with the software is ridiculous, so I think I’m just going to stick with the cameras that capture straight onto removable media cards like the Nikon 3100 or the Canon 5D. Shooting on DSLR’s would be fantastic, as some of the quality of shots can look close to film, and since standard definition has been classed as dead, employers will always be impressed with high resolution material. Some microphone work will be needed, not so much though as a chase sequence generally isn’t full of dialogue, though I will still be using them as I have a small amount of speech in my short which will be mixed in post production anyway. Software packages such as the Adobe suite for After Effects and Photoshop will come in use, as they will serve my main purpose for designing and creating my desired effects that will hopefully accurately represent my future storyboard. Final Cut Pro will be another piece of software that I will render my master copy out in, as this is beginning to be the industry standard when it comes to video editing programs. For some of my microphone work I may use Soundtrack Pro as I worked with it extensively earlier in the year for one of my modules, so it could serve great purpose when it comes to mixing some of my Foley sounds. The new green screen studio is something that I may have to look into for one of my shots as I plan on doing an “OMG” type of shot, using the great piece of kit to its full potential.

Panning the jump.

Here is an extremely good tutorial on doing a Jump where the tripod isn't fixed! Very useful as I will be aiming to do a lot of moving camera jumping shots, rather than just fixed non-moveable tripod shots.

http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/learn-how-to-create-an-advanced-jumper-effect/

Andrew Kramer eat your heart out.

Formally known as ideas.

The initial concept for this project was to have some kind of five minute chase sequence involving two characters. One of the characters would be the Boy who has the power to teleport short distance; the other would be a suit that would be chasing him. The reason behind the chase would be that the boys secret gift of teleportation is leaked to the press with video evidence, and lots of different news broadcasters and companies are trying to get there interview, which scares the boy as he is insecure about his gift, and does not want anyone knowing, let alone exploiting his power.

The dispatches title card was something I just quickly came up with, as things like these could be produced, replicating different institutions and how they are all anxious to get a story with the boy.

Here we go.

The “Jumper” effect is one of my all time favourite effects when it comes to post production effects. The fact that there are so many different ways of achieving the effect, and so many different interpretations of it, make the possibilities of storytelling endless.

This is one interpretation of the effect, in the 2008 film “Jumper”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k46G4efdWLI&feature=related

Another would from the 2011 film “X-men First Class”. The character Azazel is a mutant who ‘s power is to teleport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PaD-Hbk9CQ

If you go on youtube and search for things like “JUMPER EFFECTS”,”TELEPORT EFFECTS” you will get a selection of fan made movies, some of which are poor, yet some are thought out and worked hard on.

This being one of them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibNWW5Ef-5s

(Apart from the storyline)

http://www.youtube.com/user/Jsfilmz?blend=22&ob=5#p/u/0/ix2L9jwZSvc

I like this for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uen0rNc4uc

For my project I want to create a piece of cinema that employs these type of effects rounded with a good narrative that tells a well written short story, rather than being a plug for all the various types of effects I have learnt in the past two years.