Any tips on shooting a low/no budget sci fi?

[James Mulholland]

Hi Everyone,

I've been wanting to shoot a sci fi film for the last few years, unfortunately in Ireland no one is writing them and their is no really good visual effect people around (in the low indie community) in Ireland.

So I wrote a script yesterday, I had the idea for a film for a while but developed it further yesterday and decided I could make it a sci fi. Basically the visual effects are mostly holograms, and I want a shot where there is a futuristic city *this could be stoke photo / footage of Tokyo and I could photo shop it and add lens flares*?, and I Jib down from that into a more modern run down area. Would I achieve that by doing a background replacement and camera track to keep it in place?

Any advice on how to shoot for visual effects and even on how to do them would be great. I'm new enough to after effects aswel but I really want to learn the basics, I'm not shooting the film until later this year so I'm going to spend my free time working on the script and also trying to learn after effects, then I'll shoot some test footage and have a go at applying the visual effects.

Also if anyone knows any dvd's or good websites (apart from blender, video co pilot, creative cow, AE tuts) to learn specifically visual effects that would be great.

Thanks

James

 

[Mondo Ghulam]

Hollywood Camera Work for VFX is a great primer and refresher for all things VFX:

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/vfx_index.html

It covers pretty much everything, particularly tracking and will save you a lot of heart-ache if you are new to shooting for VFX. I've done VFX / Animation for almost 20 years and still had a few head-slapping moments. You can buy the classes separately and I think they are great value for money.

The sites you listed also have great tutorials and advice, the trouble is finding the right information. If you can, get out and make a test of what you're trying to do. It'll raise all sorts of issues that no course can fully anticipate and will at the very least will focus your search for tutorials that deal with those problems.

After Effects has a lot of 3D functionality now, so you can do things there that were the preserve of 3D apps for a long time - including 3D camera tracking (see TheFoundry for some of their plugins - they are very good).

Good luck with your project!

Mondo

 

[David W. Jones]

Tips for shooting low/no budget... Have fun, and learn as much as you can.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Have your budget and limitations i mind and develop a sci fi story around it. Think Looper, not Star Wars, Brain Dead, not "Resident Evil".

 

[PatrickFaith]

Hey James, I'm fairly sure I can't give you any tips on VFX ( I btw loved the lighting on the Timothy Green movie), on the camera side shooting for vfx I think is the key to lowering cost. For example, I almost always am moving the camera so I can create a nice 3D camera solve(even if it is a static shot I move the camera before the shot so I have a 3D solve). With that I also like to use shallow depth of field to hide the fact of my less then optimal set. On the story board side, doing that more from a animators viewpoint creates shot lists that really minimize the amount of work. One of the great things of RED vs the other camera's is you can shoot in linear for a quadhd DI, which makes seamless vfx integration less costly. But the jury is not out on any on my low budget scifi feature, so this is just what I'm trying.

 

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi James,

You mentioned Ae, for that the fastest and certainly a workable way is documented on FXPHD.com from Gareth Edwards, the "AFX301: A Guerrilla Filmmakers Guide to After Effects". Not SciFi -- but the tech is similar. You might be familiar with his follow up project "Monsters". (Get the making of -- on the BluRay) ... and Gareth is working currently on Godzilla. He shares tons of tips all over the place (adobe.com) how to produce with a little budget. A must know. )

I have done some material as well that could help, e.g., with a complete city development for my last movie short on Cineversity.com, a short description is here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10389851.htm

My best advice is certainly to learn camera mapping and shoot your own material. Instead of stock footage, you have the world of shooters here on REDuser, ask when you need something. Tokyo, New York, L.A., etc. it is all possible, sometimes all you need for camera mapping is just a few still-shots. (I used camera mapping as well in my last music video, see below)

Good luck with the project

Sassi

 

[Freya]

Hi Everyone,
and I want a shot where there is a futuristic city *this could be stoke photo / footage of Tokyo and I could photo shop it and add lens flares*?,

Honestly, I don't think you can pass off Stoke as a futuristic city no matter what you do to it!
Tokyo maybe.

I think you just have to look for the right places.

Freya

 

[Marc Wielage]

Another great book on Visual Effects:

The VES Handbook of Visual Effects: Industry Standard VFX Practices and Procedures
by Jeff Okun

Terrific book -- and I thought I knew a lot about VFX since I worked (as a colorist) for two different effects companies, Cinesite and ILM. I now have a clue on the vast amount of stuff I did not know about.

Three other important concepts:

1) avoid putting your own money in the film if you can possibly avoid it.

2) get a distributor (aka a "producer's rep") lined up well before you shoot the film.

3) know upfront that it's a tough battle to get a low-budget indie made anywhere, particularly if you intend to make a profit with it.

One book I'd recommend on the indie film business in general is The Reel Truth: Everything You Didn't Know You Need to Know About Making an Independent Film by Reed Martin, which is very entertaining and informative. Go to film festivals and meet people. Find out what distributors want. I've been told many times it's easier to sell a horrible film with a bad script and bad effects and (somewhat) famous actors than it is to try to sell a great film with a great script and great effects with unknown actors. There are always exceptions, but that's the difficult reality, especially for people outside major cities.

 

[shashbugu]

Have your budget and limitations i mind and develop a sci fi story around it. Think Looper, not Star Wars, Brain Dead, not "Resident Evil".

I totally agree with the above quote. Character driven Sci Fi with enhanced human abilities like NeXt and Knowing, etc, without the fantasy usually farewell in low budget productions. Always create a look, as in picture, characters, make up, environments etc. take the minimalist approach like gattica, as opposed to the Tokyoesque blade runner, which can be huge hit or miss

 

[Gary Paul Walker]

Hi James,
We're just about to venture into the world of sci-fi this summer with the first episode of a web series. As we've gone through pre-prodution the main thing we've learned is to keep VFX simple.
We have a few composite shots, one 8 second CGI shot and the rest is all in the writing.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

Have your budget and limitations i mind and develop a sci fi story around it. Think Looper, not Star Wars, Brain Dead, not "Resident Evil".

What he said... and to add to it, most of the time those small independent low budget Sci-Fi's are better then the big blockbuster ones. It's been a long time since I saw a good blockbuster-sized Sci-Fi with heart and brain. Oblivion is close but I think Elysium will be closer. But Looper was superb and if you want to do a Sci-Fi for even less, look at what Shane Carruth did with the splendid "Primer".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

[James Mulholland]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for getting back to me, I am making a short film first, basically the script drives the story and the visual effects just add to the plot (in my opinion), It's just thinks like background replacement and holograms and a specific prop. I plan to do a lot in camera, make up and try get the 'look' right, We have an apartment room which gives us enough room to dress it properly. I plan to shoot some tests in the next month or 2 though so I can make sure the effects looks good enough and also learn from mistakes etc.

Thanks for all the links, will buy / read them all in the coming weeks.

Thanks for all the help

James

 

[paulherrin]

if the scene needs a prop or a hologram or a background the first thing i'd do is rethink it. how about sci-fi without special effects, that would be truly revolutionary.

 

[Christoffer Glans]

if the scene needs a prop or a hologram or a background the first thing i'd do is rethink it. how about sci-fi without special effects, that would be truly revolutionary.

Primer... made for 7000 USD shot on 16mm