FROM INSIDE ART PRINT 2

Here is the second in a series of prints featuring artwork from the film.

Visit Twitch before May 20 and enter to win a free print!



FROM INSIDE PRINT 2: "SKIN"
Available as a 12" x 17" fine art giclee print at the official From Inside web site (just click into the store).

FROM INSIDE KEY ART

From Inside key art. Available as an 18"x24" giclee print via the store at the official From Inside web site.



Over the next few months I'll be releasing a series of prints featuring artwork from the film. Most of the prints will be 18x24, limited edition, signed & numbered.

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Here are a few sketches of other concepts for the key art.









Here's the sketch that led to the final design:



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Some of these sketches have tag lines. This was before I decided that a tag line wasn't necessary. I love a good tag line, though. They're like pure marketing that, when done right, perfectly tap into the zeitgeist of the day.

Someone's eyeballs pass over your movie poster, you have three seconds to deliver the style and content of your story. Three seconds to say everything. What do you say?

Rules for a good tag line:

1). The great ones are four words or fewer.

From the Best Movie Posters of 2007:

Their War. Our World.
Don't Get Chumpatized.
Innocence Is Priceless
It's Not Your Imagination.
The Hit Goes Down.
Never Forget. Never Forgive.

2). If the tag line is pivotal dialog, a common saying or lyrics from a song, it can be more than four words.

Houston, We Have A Problem.
All You Need Is Love.
I'm a British Nanny and I'm Dangerous. (it was a character sheet, not key art -- but it's better than the key art tag)

3). The tag line has to be a clever play on words relating to the
story while simultaneously turning the poster design into a visual pun.

Fully Loaded.
You Might Feel A Little Prick.
Nick Naylor doesn't hide the truth, he filters it.
Poison In His Veins. Vengeance In His Heart.

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My vote for best tag line of 2007 says it all with two words.
Protect. Destroy.


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The art of the tag line has changed a lot over the years. Maybe the earth was spinning slower in the 80s and time moved slower, so people could stand still for 30 seconds and read a movie poster without getting bored to death:

blahblahblah...zzzzzz.

Same tag line today would probably read: "No Pain. No Fear."


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Here's a few rejected From Inside tag lines from studio clown/caffeine hook-up/sound designer, Dustin Blegstad:

The Feelbad Hit of the Year.

OMG! Herz teh pregz! LOL!

Sometimes, you have to light a baby on fire.

On a Train, No Woman Can Hear a Baby Scream.

Outdated Transportation Comes Alive.

Im n yer train, mezzin up yer dreemz.

Full on Frontal (of a train)

Sometimes a train is a dick of death.

THIS! IS! A TRAIN! (kick)


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spoken word version of this post:
"This is the From Inside movie poster. It does not have a tag line."

POSTER & TWITCH CONTEST

From Inside key art is available for viewing exclusively at one of my favorite sites; Twitch.

Can't think of how many awesome & strange little films I would have missed had it not been for Twitch.

Visit Twitch and enter to win a signed giclee print of the poster.

FROM INSIDE SCORE

I am very excited to announce that we have a composer for From Inside.

Jeff Rona.


Jeff has worked on numerous films & records, including projects with directors such as Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Wong Kar-wai, Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, Mark Pellington, Stephen Hopkins, Jonathan Demme, Frank Darabont and many others. His projects have received numerous awards including Oscar, Peabody & Emmy awards, and countless film festival awards around the world.

Jeff has an amazing talent for drawing straight lines to the emotional core of a scene -- a surgically precise cut to the heart... felt but not seen. The music in From Inside is the soul of the the film. With limited character animation and sparse dialog, the music, in a sense, is acting. In most films music underscores, directs, or accents. Jeff's music in From Inside, however, absolutely lives in the emotional center of the story.

I'm a huge fan of soundtrack music, and have to say again I'm very very excited to have an opportunity to work with Jeff. Can't wait to share his work with you.

A few photos from our spotting session last week:

Jeff (awesome studio):


Jeff's assistant, David Edwards (laughing), and myself (mumbling something funny):


Producer, Brian McNelis:


Studio:

SNOW

I'm in Park City for Sundance this week. It is snowing. A lot.

MEAT PUPPETS

A few posts back I mentioned that one of the remaining shots was a practical effects shot. Here is a photo of some props for that shot.

bloody bandages.



I've titled this post "meat puppets" because when my wife saw what I was working on she asked, "What are those bacon puppets for?"

Here are the bacon puppets in action:

SOUNDS LIKE HELL

I frequently joke about this being a picture of the From Inside crew:

From left to right, including (and staying on) my thumb: production designer, art director, storyboard artist, technical director, simulation coordinator, lead layout artist, texture painter, lighting artist, render wrangler, supervising animator, character designer, editor... you get the idea.

That's a slight exaggeration.

From the start, I wanted to focus on the visuals as much as possible, so I brought my good friend Dustin Blegstad on-board as sound designer and production assistant.

I've worked with Dusty on a variety of projects over the years and have always admired his direct, no-nonsense approach. Blunt in a good way. From Inside has that same sense of directness, so I knew he'd do great work. I am always amazed by how much Dusty's sounds bring the shots to life -- even the simplest addition of a single sound adds so much life to the work.

Here is your guest blogger, Dustin Blegstad:

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"So what does that sound like anyway?"



My basic approach to sound design for From Inside was to keep it as simple and as realistic as possible. I don't use a lot of effects. Just basic EQ, a few verbs, some pitch-shifting and simple layering of sounds. I'm not big on typical Hollywood sound design; guns don't sound like huge multi-layered explosions and tires don't burn rubber on dirt. When standing outside a menacing building, it doesn't produce an evil moan. Sharks don't growl and a punch doesn't sound like a 2x4 on a side of beef. Most modern movies exaggerate every little sound and are obnoxiously loud for seemingly no good reason. Louder isn't always better. Dynamics make it breathe. And as far as I'm concerned, thunder comes after lightning, just like in the real world.

Exaggerated sounds have their place, but not in this film. Natural sounds worked best.

I also tried to avoid purchasing sounds whenever possible, though for a few things it was necessary. I can't make a decent explosion without being arrested. And there aren't a lot of running steam engines available to take for a spin on a Saturday afternoon.

Since this is an animated film, when John gives me scenes they are completely silent. No dialog, nothing. It's really cool to start with a blank slate and begin filling it from scratch. It's wide open with possibilities.

I watch each scene a few times and make a list of all the elements I think I'm going to need. Then I add to the list what I think will make those sounds. The list reads like an insane person's to-do list.

Insane grocery list or haiku?


Another one:


After recording the sounds I dump them into Pro Tools and sync-to-scene, making adjustments for panning, effects and fades.

Finally, I deliver the audio files to John and he drops them into the master edit and we go back and forth making adjustments until it's finished. On to the next scene.

Sounds easy enough huh? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Let's just say that I have a swear jar and I started throwing credit cards in after a while. I switched to credit cards after John had me re-do and re-do and re-do the sound of a cigarette smoker exhaling... only to decide later that the scene worked best with Just Music. (!@#%ing Decider!)

This shot has no sound effects and that is a goddamn motherfucking crime:


The best part of the process, for me, is recording the raw sounds. Going to a location or working in the studio to record something specific - it's all fun. And I get to break stuff . A lot.

During one field recording session, I found myself hanging from an overpass thirty feet above the ground with a microphone in my hand while a train sped by overhead. I had a sudden moment where I thought; “What the fuck am I doing? Oh yeah, I'm making a movie.” Maybe John will give me credit for stunt man as well. I wish I had brought a camera that night.

This is a good place to get yourself killed. To be exact; 39° 0'55.46"N, 94°30'56.99"W:


The bridge above was a great source for sound effects. Besides recording trains crossing it, hitting it with a sledgehammer sounded awesome. The bridge also appears in the film.

Here is a shot of the 3D model John built of the bridge:


Also, just for reference, if you hang out in a rail yard at midnight and sneak around with a hand-held electronic device, someone will undoubtedly question your presence. This may or may not result in arrest. It depends on what type of shoes you're wearing. I suggest some type of high quality running shoe.

In another instance, we needed to make the sound of train wheels moving on tracks submerged under water. We decided that the best thing to do would be to flood a garage and drag the blade of a dolly through the water, scraping the concrete floor. Worked great, but I'm not sure how much it helped property value.

Sounds like Hell:


Need sound for a baby being delivered? Get a big chunk of scrap meat from a butcher (I prefer beef tenderloin, pork is better for zombies) and put it in a sink. Place a microphone in front of it and move it around a bit. Gross? Yes, but it sounds cool.

Puuuuuush:



The sound of From Inside is almost finished. I still have to add sound to a couple of pick up shots, but nothing major. I'm going to make another pass on the whole film just to make sure there aren't any glaringly obvious mistakes. If there are, it's John's fault.

Working with John is always a great experience and I'm hoping when this is done we can work together on another film soon.

Here are a couple of screen grabs.

Leviathan. Probably the most fun to do:



Buffalo slaughter, second favorite.

STILL for the HOLIDAYS

RANDOM STILLS

FROM INSIDE, the illustrated movie

Can a graphic novel be translated directly to film?

YES.

But.....

From Inside isn't a typical comic book. The things that made it a unique graphic novel are the same things that worked in favor of translating it to film -- things I've mentioned in previous posts: No dialog (no word balloons), no sound effects, a very simple rectangular panel design for every page (instead of crazy-angled panels with characters busting out of the frames).

...and most importantly: no fight scenes.

What do you see?


Most people would answer: "A woman."

That's incorrect. It's a painting of a woman. When we look at artwork, we accept it as a substitute for reality -- whether it's a simple drawing of a stick figure, a painting, or a photograph.

If I were to animate this image, I would cut the figure into pieces: arms, hands, fingers, eyes, eye lids, hair, etc. Each element could then be animated -- bringing the figure to life... but not really.

When I cut the From Inside paintings into layers for animating (like cut-paper animation), I found that there was a point where a certain amount of animation caused the images to switch from being a surrogate for reality (paintings) to being what they actually were: pieces of cut paper moving around.

An example: compare the treatment of still photos in Chris Marker's great La Jetee to how photographs are manipulated in The Kid Stays in the Picture. In La Jetee, we look past the actual photographs and feel as though there is a wider world beyond the edges of the screen. In The Kid Stays in the Picture, we know we are looking at small paper photographs that have been multiplaned -- we don't see a world, we see graphic design.

With From Inside I wanted to maintain the emotional impact that comes with having still images be read as a substitute for reality -- of being evidence, a record, of actual events rather than pieces of paper moving before your eyes. I would animate right to the point where representations became real, physical objects and then take one step back to "painting."

...And I found that character animation got me to this switching point on a much steeper curve than animating inanimate objects -- probably due to some weird variation of the uncanny valley.

Anyway... this is why having no fight scenes worked in my favor. I didn't have to deal with the problem of translating comic book illustrations of figures moving with high energy. If I'd had to, I would have had to either break the "paintings that move" rule I set up for myself and fully animate the action or use stills and hope that you the viewer wouldn't feel cheated by looking at a mere painting of a kick-ass fight scene.

Actually... there was one scene in the graphic novel with a lot of figure movement. I kept the "it's a painting" feeling by using fast camera movement, quick cuts and good sound design. It worked for this scene, but employing those same tricks over and over would have grown tiresome.


(It's not Batman vs. Superman, but there will be blood)

I like on-line comics that are static pages, but animated comics with a bit of motion usually don't work for me -- especially if it's an action comic. Action doesn't have much of a punch when your hero is an inanimate paper cut-out sliding from screen left to screen right. (Excepting the Mr. Incredible & Pals short on the collector's edition of The Incredibles which brilliantly pokes fun at these shortcomings and makes me realize that many on-line animated comics today are a lot like old superhero cartoons).

Also, I don't mean to say cut-paper animation can't build an emotional connection between audience and story. I love cut-paper animation and can think of plenty of examples where I am pulled into a story and don't dwell on how it was or wasn't animated:
- The end titles for A Series of Unfortunate Events.
- This: Dragon
- Stuff that was designed to look like cut-paper -- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends for example.

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There are some animated comics that I like because they do not try to replicate the visual language of printed comics. They're more like motion graphics. The animated comics at the Fox Atomic site are a good example (find them within www.foxatomic.com in the comics section -- 28 Days Later, Turistas).

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...and this... well... this one walks an amazing line between illustration and animation... and live-action.

Dante's Inferno

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Since I don't ramble this much in real life, long posts will now have spoken word versions at the end so you can scroll down and get to the point.

Spoke Word version of this post:
"From Inside is an animated film, but watching it feels exactly like reading a graphic novel."

SLEEP, NOW.

The last 3D render is complete...

One more practical fx shot to comp and a few pages of notes to address.

The notes are little things that I need to fix now or they will bug me (forever). Like:
"Hand bigger on pregnant."
"Move the baby on pitchfork scene back 5 or 6."
"Darker dead bodies @ flooded house."
"Cee's eyes should be closed because she has fallen asleep."
"Take blowing hair off apocalypse pull-back, looks stupid."
"Lengthen rails under blood to telephone poles."
"Add piece of train to observation deck, lame."

Won't take long to make these fixes.

My G5 has been on 24 hrs a day for the past 2 1/2 years -- either working or rendering. It can finally catch up on sleep. Not me. What remains: the score and those notes. I can say this, though: the heavy lifting is over.

We will be submitting the film to festivals through the coming year. If it will be screening someplace, you'll hear about it here first.

3 MORE STILLS