Cardboard Robots Battle in Space
Production Team, The Indie Machines, brought me on board this project while I was still living in South Korea. Now after nearly 6 months the video is up and running. Tons of Digital VFX work, compositing, color correcting, and love went into this one 
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Synopsis: Two friends can’t agree on which Star Wars movie is best. So they build giant cardboard robots and battle in space to figure out who’s right … and who’s DEAD.
Written & Directed by ‘The Indie Machines’
Special thanks to Mark Douglas from Barely Political for his cameo!
AMAZING original soundtrack from Dan Martinez! Hire this guy!
http://http://danmartinezmusic.com/
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Website: GarrettFallin.com
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Twitter: @GarrettFallin
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Interview with Matte Painter Ron Bowman (Mass Effect 3, Doctor Who, Sherlock)
In this episode of FX Talk I speak with matte painter, Ron Bowman, who originally from the California Bay area now works in London for the post house, The Mill. Ron speaks about his experience of breaking into the business as well as how to get stationed overseas as an editor!
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Website: GarrettFallin.com
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/GcinemaFan
Twitter: @GarrettFallin
YouTube: youtube.com/fallg51
Working with Indie Musician K.FLAY
I got an awesome chance to work on a Music Video that was for the growing indie artist K.Flay! Check it out, share it around, and if you love it you can also download a free EP (link in the video description on YouTube). Also a HUGE thank you to the film renaissance man, Justin Johnson, and his production company ‘The Indie Machines’ for such a great opportunity, and for bestowing me with the auspicious title of ‘Lead VFX Artist.’
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Website: GarrettFallin.com
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/GcinemaFan
Twitter: @GarrettFallin
YouTube: youtube.com/fallg51
Winning the ‘Screen Champ’ Award for Entertainment
Screen Capture Software company ‘TechSmith’ put out a competition a few months back to see who was the best at integrating and using screen captured footage straight off one’s computer. The categories were: Entertainment, Education, and Industry.
Lucky for me my PopFX tutorial show fit the bill with a healthy balance of screen captured tutorial footage, and an entertaining blood soaked test film to bring home the Gold. With that, I also win some new fancy audio recording equipment for my computer!!! Which is nice since using the built in mic on my Macbook Pro was a bit lacking and needed an upgrade anyways.^^
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Website: GarrettFallin.com
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Twitter: @GarrettFallin
YouTube: youtube.com/fallg51
Interview with Jon Chesson, Lead Compositor for ‘Portal: No Escape’
Recently I had the pleasure of conversing with one of the creators from the mega popular short film ‘Portal: No Escape,’ Jon Chesson. Below you will find the conversation we shared where he offers insight into both the making of the short film and the world of editing as a profession. Enjoy!
GF: Who are you? Are you freelance or work for a particular company? Did you go to undergrad/grad school for your field of expertise or are you self taught?
JC: My name is Jon Chesson and I’m a currently a freelance Compositor working in Los Angeles. I got a BS in Animation with a focus on Visual Effects from the Art Institute of California San Diego. I started out doing more 3d work than anything actually right out of school. So I had to continue my compositing training and knowledge on my own. Being a compositor was always my end goal, but my 3d background comes in handy on a daily basis.
GF: What other projects are you currently working on?
JC: Currently I’m finishing up some work for Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol and will be working on the second season of TNT’s Falling Skies later this fall.
GF: What was your role on ‘Portal: No Escape’?
JC: I was the Lead Compositor and Visual Effects Supervisor on the short.
GF: Can you describe what exactly a compositor does on a short film such as Portal No Escape?
JC: Compositing encompassed the bulk of the post work on this project. It starts out with more simple tasks like plate cleanup, marker removal, roto, and bg replacements. Then gets more complex with fx integration of the portals with secondary spark and atmospheric elements, as well as 3d projections.
GF: What programs did you use to achieve the effect?
JC: Softimage was used to generate all of the particle simulations, Syntheyes and Nuke was used for 3d matchmoving, and Nuke was used for compositing.
GF: Can you go into detail on how some of the effects – like walking through portals, portal shooting, falling off the roof, etc – were achieved?
JC: The portals themselves were rendered out of ICE in Softimage and in multiple pieces. They were also rendered completely as all white particles. The color and portal look was always evolving so we kept all the color control in Comp for continuity and minimize potential kick backs to 3d. The practical set was only a partial set and many shots had to have a walls replaced and existing doors removed from set digitally. Shots where Danielle (our female character) reached through or ran through a portal was mostly a split screen comp. There were separate plates of her running through a practical prop on set, that we then extracted her from, and rebuilt the shot. The majority of the hand-held shots were tracked in Syntheyes which gave us all the 3d scene data for the shots, along with geometry we could use to line up additional projections and lay out secondary elements utilizing Nuke’s 3d space.
GF: How long did the entire process take you time wise?
JC: I was brought onto the project as the end of last year, we recruited more artists at the beginning of this year and also when our needs increased. The team was remote and spanned from LA to NY and even far as the Netherlands. This was a side project for us as well; everyone mostly had studio jobs during the day, so it was an after hours production, over multiple timezones, and thus, lead to a longer post schedule.
GF: I feel ‘editor’ is such an umbrella term with numerous jobs under it. Why would someone be interested in become a compositor, what type of challenges does it offer?
JC: Compositing is a tough gig, because you are basically the last line of defense. How your shot looks is what ends up on the screen. So with that said, a lot of things can fall to compositing to adjust and ultimately make work in order to sell the shot. Thats what my favorite part of the job is; the problem solving. Its what keeps it fresh, exciting, and always evolving.
GF: Any last words of wisdom you can share with aspiring young filmmakers and editors to get better at what they’re doing and make it in the “business”?
JC: I would just say continue to fight to learn and become better at your craft. This industry is always changing and it makes it challenging to stay up with technology and current on trends. I also think learning how to take criticism and notes on your work is key. You’re going to be getting notes and things to address on your work for the rest of your career. Get used to itnow. That’s something that stood out to me working on Portal especially, everyone was professional, on the ball and a breeze to work with. It made my job super easy. Thats one of the biggest things that they don’t tell you in school, and it really goes for everyone. There are a million people out there as talented, or more talented than you. It comes down to how you interact and get along with the people you work with that will really increase your odds of getting a job and help you keep it.
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Website: GarrettFallin.com
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Twitter: @GarrettFallin
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