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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

The Silent City

Ruairi Robinson

Ruairi Robinson

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Joined
Dec 30, 2006
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Age
48
Website
www.ruairirobinson.com
if anyone is interested, I've put my most recent short film on the internets. It's called "The Silent City" and features, among others, the actor Cillian Murphy in a small role. I wrote/directed/edited it, and did the vast majority of the visual effects myself. It's shot on 35mm/scope. My previous short film was nominated for an Oscar a few years back, and this one - well it didn't got nominated for an Oscar, but got me an agent in CAA in Hollywood, and a manager in 3Arts Entertainment, and a bunch of scripts sent to me from the big studios... so things are looking up bigtime.


silentcity_500width.jpg


Download it in standard def and high def formats:
http://www.ruairirobinson.com/silentcity/silentcity_small_h264.mov
(720x306 quicktime - 106MB)
http://www.ruairirobinson.com/silentcity/silentcity_720p_h264.mov
(1280x545 quicktime - 378MB)
(right click + save target as or option+click on a mac)

Apologies, I know it's lame, I know it's pathetic, I know it's much much classier to let people find out about it on their own, and have other people post links to it instead if they actually like it, instead of shoving it in people's faces like a used car salesman, but... ell... I guess someone might be interested. I hope.

Cheers,
Ruairi Robinson
www.ruairirobinson.com
 
That came out Great.
I don't think there is any problem with wanting to show off all the hard work it took to make that.
Congrats on landing an agent and manager. I hope to see more of your work...shot with a RED ONE of course.
 
Great job!!!! Very well done.

I would love to know if you ever post of sell DVD's including the process of how you pulled this off.

Is this a teaser for a feature? The story didn't seem complete to me, so that's my assumption.

Never the less it had a great cinematic style. Nice shot selection.

Best,

Jason

EDIT: in a rare moment of genious I decided to check out your website...yes, it should be the first place. :) Looks to be much information for me to look over.
 
insanityfw said:
Great job!!!! Very well done.

I would love to know if you ever post of sell DVD's including the process of how you pulled this off.

Is this a teaser for a feature? The story didn't seem complete to me, so that's my assumption.

Never the less it had a great cinematic style. Nice shot selection.

Best,

Jason

EDIT: in a rare moment of genious I decided to check out your website...yes, it should be the first place. :) Looks to be much information for me to look over.
Click to expand...



Cheers guys - the story isn't really... well it's NOT complete... it's sort of the tip of the iceberg, so I can see how you would say that.

I guess my theory was that if I could make people WANT to see the rest, I'd be onto something... that's the theory anyway, hope it was successful...

R.
 
Looks great Ruairi, some very nice shots in there and very atmospheric, would love to see it made into a feature and get to know what the story you have in mind really is all about.
 
Ruairi Robinson said:
Cheers guys - the story isn't really... well it's NOT complete... it's sort of the tip of the iceberg, so I can see how you would say that.

I guess my theory was that if I could make people WANT to see the rest, I'd be onto something... that's the theory anyway, hope it was successful...

R.
Click to expand...

I understand completely.

As a teaser, I am truly teased and want to see more. :)
 
Wow, this was a great short! Excellent cinematography and production value. I remember seeing some behind the scenes from this a while back, I can't begin to imagine how much time went into post-production.

I too 'want to see more'...someone write the man a check...

Thanks for sharing this Ruairi!
 
Brilliant!

I'd like to ask you a million questions! Here's a few to get started: Would you care to share your budget? How much of that went to 35mm film related expenses?

The music is very accurate, loved the cello.

Thanks for sharing! Truly inspiring!
 
How on earth did you do that "helicopter" shot??

Was that basically all CGI once it booms up from the guy with his legs blown off? Incredible!

I also liked that effect where it kind of looks like a monster or something is running on the ground POV.

Very impressive!
 
Ruairi,
It is very impressive teaser. Very good camera work and atmosphere. I would recommend you for further funding!
Good luck.
 
Tom said:
How on earth did you do that "helicopter" shot??

Was that basically all CGI once it booms up from the guy with his legs blown off? Incredible!

I also liked that effect where it kind of looks like a monster or something is running on the ground POV.

Very impressive!
Click to expand...


That part was CG too! The live action plate was wobbly as hell, since we couldn't afford to rent a crane, so I had to roto out the moving characters, and project them into a 3D camera mapped version of the location, and re-did the camera move in 3D... There's a VFX breakdown on my site

http://www.ruairirobinson.com/silentcity/silentcity_vfx_breakdowns.mov
(Quicktime h264 - 84 megs)

It was mostly natural light, err... there was a bit of fill in some shots (the first day we shot was miserable weather!)

It was shot in a Quarry in the Dublin Mountains. I had to pull a lot of GREEN out in telecine, and it was on the edge of looking *tinted* the whole time, but I think the Mill did a great job there too... Used Simon Norfolks photographs of Afghanistan as a colour reference for the look...

Here's some pictures from the actual location

http://www.ruairirobinson.com/leveller_shoot_photos.htm

Would you care to share your budget? How much of that went to 35mm film related expenses?
Click to expand...

The shooting budget was about 10k euro (I put in about 7 of my own money)

which covered stock/development/camera/lenses/costumes/lights/electrician and catering

Got some completion funding too later on (the film was turned down for funding initially) and that covered the costs of editing/storage/film out and other bits and bobs
 
thanks for the answers rory!*

It'd be great to know at least an estimate of how much of that 10k went to 35mm film expenses.

Can you talk about yout tools? what programs did you u used?

Also, I saw on your website a visual effects breakdown almost as cool as the film itself! you should post it here as well, it'll be of interest for our fellow red users.

Finally, I saw there that you directed the Einstein commercial by Eboy, we have been drooling on that one since we are HUGE eboy fans. As an "special favor" I'd like to ask if you could let me see a high rez version of it, I just need to see it in it's complete glory and I doubt it'll be shown where I live!

I'm working on a video of my rock band inspired by the work of eboy, so if you could talk a little about your workflow on that one you'd be of great help. Perhaps you like the music and would be intersting in helping us out!!! Check it out here: http://myspace.com/drugdealers

thanks rory!* Oh! and we think you're cool too!*

*more reasons for you to use the F word! :P (just kidding Ruairi!)
 
Might we have a bittorrent link? In fact, might we have a bittorrent page of all our films and clips?
 
Really enjoyed that, excellent work! Definitely wanted to see more. I like these kinds of flicks!

That must've been an enormous post-production job. How long did it take to model, render & composite all of that? Unbelievable modeling, texturing & rendering I'd have to say!
 
Rob Lohman said:
Really enjoyed that, excellent work! Definitely wanted to see more. I like these kinds of flicks!

That must've been an enormous post-production job. How long did it take to model, render & composite all of that? Unbelievable modeling, texturing & rendering I'd have to say!
Click to expand...

Thanks Rob - the time it took is a bit of a sore point for me, because I basically abandoned the film for over a year, and nearly gave up on it, I'd reached a point where I couldn't bear to look at the thing any more since I hated every frame of it... In all, I'd say the post took about 9 months - six months solid, break of a year+ and then 3 months to finish it off. Actually was reasonably quick to finish it off in the end...

I'd wanted to do another short film REALLY quickly to follow it up, (and to demonstrate I can do stuff QUICKLY) so applied for funding, but then the film came to the attention of a few people in Hollywood, and I very quickly got an agent, and all the rest - and got turned down for funding on the next short I wanted to do. In that order.

Anyway, I may not have to do another short (But I still have this other one I want to do - see my avatar? It stars him!)

R.
 
Congrats on getting it finished - well done! Excellent post/FX work!
 
WOW.
My hat is off to you Ruairi.
Extra kudos for your perseverance.
 
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