STAN 16 pre-vis

in the world of small-time/low-budget/online video, it really pays to plan ahead. because, especially when you work under ridiculous circumstances like (1) trying to get an effects heavy web-series to feel like a bigger production than it really is, (2)get a new video done once a month EVERY month, while (3) still maintaining relationships with friends, families and significant others AND (4) getting all the other work that needs to get done finished, reshooting can be difficult, to say the least.

in the past, i've mentioned storyboarding. storyboarding is a great way to convey an idea, plan a complicated shot, or just be able to express to your team what you have in mind.

but what if it isn't getting the point across for a VERY difficult sequence?

take these for instance. i know that in my head, the crude drawings on the left will look something like what's on the right.


but in terms of working out what needed to be shot from which angle and why, it wasn't quite getting across.

so that's where it's helpful to bring in pre-vis. knowing just how little time we had to complete the recent episode of "The Defenders Of Stan," i prepared this silly little animation



obviously, there are oddities about the above. 1. for the purposes of demonstration, theres no burrito gag. 2. i obviously google searched "building texture" and used a watermarked image from turbosquid 3. i added the audio from the episode to make the pre-vis less boring. 4. because of the audio timing, i had to slow down bits of the animation which is why the results look a little jerky. 5. it's funny that it's Captain Ultra and twins, i'm guessing, and that one of the twins sounds like a super pimp.

also, enjoy this rant:
the nice thing about pre-vis is that it can more easily make sure that everyone is on the same page, and in certain instances, be a real asset on the set. for instance, we were hired by a company to write/direct/star in/post a pilot for a web-series. going into the cold opening of the pilot, we had two options: build a giant prop or build a 3d model. in the end, we decided on going CG because we'd end up having a lot more control. knowing that, i was able to build the 3d model BEFORE the shoot, pre-vis the entire scene, and since we had this whole thing virtually mapped out for us, we could literally stand there with a monitor next to our camera LCD display and set up shots knowing all of the limitations of the 3d model beforehand. it made an incredibly difficult and complex shoot a breeze. and to take it a step further: since i'd already animated the 3d model, all i had to do was tweak the work i'd already done, compensating for differences in timing, angles, fluidity in movement, etc.

YAY. coming soon, props photos, etc.

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backlog pt3

ok, drum roll please. we're about to do something we've always been far too embarrassed to do: share storyboards. this is usually because we dont make storyboards often enough, or they look like prison tattoos. but regardless, here they are.


one of the things we'd always wanted to do was a marquee, showing that Ultra had claimed full ownership of Stan Kong. we ran out of production time to come up with a shot, and it's a good thing too, because it would have probably gotten cut from the final edit anyway for running time.

a character that has made two appearances throughout the run of our show was a character that we call "Flamer" --or "fire-guy" when we realize that "flamer" sounds offensive. to disclose a little insider info, we actually wrote episodes 9 and 10 as one, self-canceling script, and we wanted to bring back all of our favorite characters. so "flamer" was one of those guys we just love seeing and wanted to make sure he made a final appearance. needless to say, we chickened out of self-canceling (ego prevailed), and we split up the script in two, AND "flamer" actor, mike setti, was unavailable. but the idea of a man ablaze looking irritated at Stan as he exits is hilarious to me.


A lot of this page changed. originally we were going to have Kong take a swipe at Ultra, after breaking free from the chains. But once we realized just how much of this episode was green-screened, we started scrapping things that were just unnecessary. also, it's really hard to take a clean plate shot of a street during the day, so we ended up making the whole bit in which Stan drives away looks as if the camera was mounted to his car, and built the streets in the computer. it's not my favorite post work i've ever done, but i was really strapped for time. if only i had ONE more day...


Every time i come up with some ridiculous shot, we always have a back-up or an "oh shit, we're fucked" shot that is much simpler. above you'll notice "hunter's crazy ass shot" along with "hunter's oh shit shot" and "meredith's oh shit shot." we ended up scrapping all three to make room for Blue's observation of Kong climbing the wall.


here are some side-by-side comparisons.

Blitzer-Wolf.


In episode three, we had Stan watching the tv, with the back of his head visible like the above storyboard frame, and i've always loved the way it looks. i dont know how we did it back then, but we've never been able to frame it as well, and usually end up going for something like the above final product.


i love how i always draw myself much skinnier than i really am, as if ink on legal pads makes the hours and hours a day i spend sitting behind a computer and the toll that takes on my physique disappear.


in the previous post i mentioned the way the audience was only six people. in the above screen shot, you can see the fruits of their hours of clapping and gasping. this is another one of those "4 hours of work for 2 seconds of screen time" type things.


this was one of my favortie shot's to do. i'm not sure why. i love the fact that if you watch closely, i gave our spotlight operator the beginning stages of Parkinsons.


Jurassic milk.

obviously, scale is something that i have problems with on paper.

this was one of the few shots with no post work. and therefore i love it, although i believe in the concept stage we were going to have a more military look about this set up. but this was shot on the saturday before 102 (which came on monday) so we were just happy to get it done.


it's at this point that i stop showing storyboards, because we started to be so short on time that they all started to look like (or worse than) this one. which, some may say, is a good thing, since if any rival company tried to steal our storyboards, they wouldnt have the slightest fucking clue what the hell we were actually shooting.

we don't have rivals. but it would make for better blog posts.

NEXT time: episode 11 stills!