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Topic: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

A month or two back I began production on an adventure film entitled "Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove." The original idea was to make a sort of Indiana Jones-esque adventure movie, that was a bit longer than what I usually make. I also wanted to have it be more story-intensive. I had stopped brickfilming for a while, and after getting back into it, I figured that if I was going to continue, I may as well step things up a bit. The script is currently in the works, but far enough along that I have begun animation. The story centers around Winston Picketer, son of the famous adventurer, John Picketer, who disappeared years ago. Winston lives a more or less stagnant, lazy life, until a strange Dr. Jeremy appears at his door with an invitation to go on an adventure, like his father. I won't give away too much, but Winston quickly begins to realize that this adventure is not all that it seemed at first.
Just a few days ago I finished animation on the first scene: The prologue scene.

Last edited by Buffalo Brickfilms (Aidan (April 13, 2022 (01:14pm))

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: Middle Earth
  • Joined: May 24, 2019

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Update: For a fight scene in the film, I'm trying to have it more choreographed. I began with a simple storyboard, but due to my lack of drawing skills, that didn't go all that well.  For more detailed parts of the fight, I began to position the actual characters from the film, and then photograph them from the camera angle I was looking for, moving them very roughly, in a few frames, along the path of motion they would take in the actual scene. I short, I started making something of an animatic, combining storyboard pictures for more basic shots, and photographing physical figures for more detailed movements. So far, it seems to be working out pretty well.

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: South of maple syrup land
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Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

cool, hope it works for you

: D
  • Location: Roman Catholic Church
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Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Looking really great so far! Sorry I haven't posted any feedback so far, I've been busy with brickfilming and traveling and such, but since you've been so diligent about updates, this should be a big review. I have noticed you haven't been making many longer films recently (exluding the Politically Incorrect Christmas), it's been a lot of humorous short films, so it's fantastic to hear about this new project! One quick small nitpick I have is that the trailer title font is somewhat tacky, seems very "digital", but it's not a big deal, and if it's not changed, obviously won't change the film quality itself. I've also noticed that you haven't entered any film competitions for quite some time, so do you have any plans for this current video? Anyway, onto the production! The story itself sounds quite fun, and really has the potential for some interesting interplay and plot. Dr. Jeremy seems somewhat wild, and it'll be fun to see how that manifests itself. The minifigures are well-made, with Winston looking somewhat nerdy, but also reeady for an adventursome makeover. Now, are you intending this film to be more on the serious side, or comedic? The teaser released on your channel give the impression of the former, but the description of his "stagnant, lazy, life" has a moralistic aspect, and I assume his father is either dead or in some sort of trouble, which would give the opposite slant to the film. The pictures of the fight scene technique are cool, the idea's really inventive for brickfilming, and it's a whole another level of detail in the planning of this film. I know you said you've already filmed several scenes, but will you sync up dialogue/sound effects to the animatic before you film, or will you just use the picture aids? The barrel pose looks exciting though, I can't remember seeing that type of fight in any video before, so it stands out! The drawing is minimal, but clear enough to get the point, and in conjunction with the animatic pictures, accomplishes the goal flawlessly. The last update you've posted, on Brick A Brack, doesn't say much about the progression of the production, but the picture is super nice, leaving me curious as to what camera you captured it with. The lighting is amazing, and if I hadn't seen the accompaning description, I would have assumed it was Brickstuff, it fits so well. The iPod is a clever use, I don't hear about that very often, and there's a pretty bokeh behind the focus on the lamp. Anyway, the film is seeming to be turning out stellar so far, keep up the great work, can't wait to hear more!
God bless and brickfilm on,

Puskov

"Whatever that thing AquaMorph said about french kissing that's always in people's signature"
Married? Solder you balls now.
  • Location: Middle Earth
  • Joined: May 24, 2019

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

@Puskov, thanks for your feedback!
In answer to your questions...
In terms of entering the film into contests, I was planning on entering the film into BrickStars 2022, since I don't have a specific idea of when it will be done besides "sometime this year."
The film leans more to the comedic side, but not to the complete exclusion of any morals or more serious aspects. One of the main recurring conflicts throughout the film is the clashing of Dr. Jeremy's  lack of morals with Winston's sense of objective right and wrong.
I strung the animatic together and added minimal sound design. I had planned on doing more sound in the animatic, but in the end that  turned out to be unnecessary.
And yeah, I totally see what you mean about the intro text mini/lol . I might end up giving it a slower frame rate to give it a more "stop-motiony" feel, though in the actual film the title is first displayed in 2d text within a shot as opposed to the 3d title card that will probably appear at the end of the film, and that appears in the "first look" video.
Edit: Forgot to answer the question about the camera. I use a Canon Rebel T6 DSLR.
Your interest and feedback are very much appreciated! More updates are on the way.

-Buffalo Brickfilms.

Last edited by Buffalo Brickfilms (Aidan (May 20, 2022 (02:18pm))

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: Middle Earth
  • Joined: May 24, 2019

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

A very brief update!
Animation of the scenes towards the beginning of the film is complete, though there's lots of editing to do. Now Its time for the fun part of the animation: The bulk of the adventure.

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: Middle Earth
  • Joined: May 24, 2019

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

About time for another update. The film is in full swing story-wise, where I am in the animation. I'm trying to really focus on getting all of the animation done. Even though there's not an insane amount of VFX in the film, the post-production process will be extremely bulky, just because of the length of film. The scene I'm currently working on marks the filmic return of a character from one of my brothers old brickfilms: The Adventures Of Jerry. I'm having a lot of fun with this scene.
That's about all. I'm hoping to post some sort of video-form update, or another sneak peek soon.

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: Roman Catholic Church
  • Joined: May 17, 2020

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Sounding great! Good call trying ot push ahead and grind out that animation, after all, it is the most important part. I know you said there's not a ton of VFX in this film, what kind were you planning to do? A video or sneak peek update would be awesome, to get more of a visual feel for it, and I'll be sure to check out "The Adventures of Jerry"! Keep it up, God bless and brickfilm on!

Puskov

"Whatever that thing AquaMorph said about french kissing that's always in people's signature"
Married? Solder you balls now.
  • Location: Middle Earth
  • Joined: May 24, 2019

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Puskov wrote:

Sounding great! Good call trying ot push ahead and grind out that animation, after all, it is the most important part. I know you said there's not a ton of VFX in this film, what kind were you planning to do? A video or sneak peek update would be awesome, to get more of a visual feel for it, and I'll be sure to check out "The Adventures of Jerry"! Keep it up, God bless and brickfilm on!

Puskov

Most of the VFX in this one is very basic. Two or three simpler greenscreen shots, and some stock-footage compositing (though not much of it.) There are a decent amount of shots that need supports masked out, which is always tedious, but I'm not sure if that's considered VFX. There's one scene towards the end in which Winston and Dr. Jeremy end up having to fight a bunch of sword wielding men, which will probably be a bit heavier on the editing than the rest. I'm using a lot more in-camera effects for this particular film than I normally would. It's such a large film compared to my what I usually do, that if the whole thing was heavy in VFX and compositing, the post-production process would be insanely long and slow. And yeah, hopefully I'll get some sort of sneak-peek out that gives a bigger look at the film. The only footage I've posted so far is like, three seconds of dialogue. mini/lol
God bless!

Last edited by Buffalo Brickfilms (Aidan (September 16, 2022 (05:25pm))

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: Middle Earth
  • Joined: May 24, 2019

Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Update time: I'm over halfway through the film, animation wise. The script has been (finally) finished up, and its exactly thirty-seven pages long. I'm just finishing up animating what is on page twenty-six, so I have just slightly over ten pages left in the script to animate. No Post-production has been done yet except on a few of the very first scenes. I'm hoping to release the film this winter. Also, I'm thinking of putting together a poster for the film sometime soon, which should be fun.
God Bless.
-Buffalo Brickfilms.

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton
  • Location: Riigo-Faloo
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Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Nice, cant wait to see it!

Billions of blue blistering bricks!

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  • Location: Middle Earth
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Re: Winston Picketer and The Cursed Trove: production log.

Update Time:
A good while back on this thread I posted about putting together an animatic for a battle scene (and bit of a wild battle scene at that). Well, just today I finished the animation for that very scene, which was probably the most difficult and involved scene, animation-wise. I showed a few pictures of the animatic earlier on this thread, including one in which Winston jumps atop a barrel and proceeds to run about on it, presumably wreaking havoc on his surroundings. I had thought there would be a lot of tedious masking or compositing for this sequence, but as it turned out, I was able to do almost everything having to do with the actual barrel running in camera. For shots from the front, the barrel was on a pole which it could spin on, and the camera was positioned so that the pole was not visible. Winston was positioned behind the barrel on a block of clay. Animating him through a run cycle, I turned the barrel a bit for each frame.
For shots from the side, the setup was much less elaborate: I just stuck as much clay as possible on the side that the camera couldn't see, and hoped Winston and the barrel would stay balanced.
(For examples, see Brick-a-Brack version of this post: https://brick-a-brack.com/threads/threa … 2/#m707910 )

Though I was hoping to release it before the end of 2022, it may have to be in the beginning of 2023. However, progress is being continually and steadily made, and I'm very happy with the way things are going. In terms of where I am in the films, I'm animating in the last group events in the story.
And finally, I did a bit of calculation to estimate the length of the film. As the composer for the film put it it's "basically a feature film." It seems the film will be Roughly somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes, give or take some.
If you read through all of this, I commend you for you're persistence.
More updates to come.
God Bless!

Last edited by Buffalo Brickfilms (Aidan (December 15, 2022 (08:17pm))

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
-G.K. Chesterton