University Project
The Team: Keiani Allen, Claudia Cerdas, and Yi Chen
My Primary Roles: Producer, Director, Motion Capture Artist, Cinematographer
Additional Roles: Assistant Editor, Script Writer, Sound Design
Synopsis: It’s the year 3100. A group of survivors have settled down in a distant land on another planet, attempting to restore humanity after centuries of war and planetary destruction. Through these harrowing times, a leader rose to power - Freda. She brought prosperity over the land but remained anonymous, communicating with the community through cryptic messages.
Years after regaining a semblance of peace, a black hole appears in the settlement. Two explorers attempt to figure out what the hole is and report it to their leader, only to find out Freda’s deepest secret…
The Film
Production for Solana was from November 6th to December 18th. Performance capture took about 3 hours with about 2 hours of retargeting and small edits. Filming for the on-set shoot lasted 1 day (approximately 4 hours) with 4 crew members and 2 actors.
Project Management
Starting this project, I understood how important time management would be as none of the group members have ever used an LED wall or created anything in the realm of mixed reality filmmaking. I created our planning documents in a meticulous Notion page that detailed scheduling, conference notes, story details and lore, and much more. Here is an outline of the schedule we presented to the class:
Motion Capture
For the story, our team wanted to have multiple space civilians doing everyday activities for the b-roll at the beginning of the film. The goal of these shots was to convey that there were a.) more people than the two main characters and b.) what life was like for the people living on this newly colonized planet.
As the only team member with motion capture experience, I was the mocap lead and director. My work included calibrating the volume, placing markers on the actors, recording takes, directing performances, retargeting these movements to 3D characters (from Mixamo), and placing them into the world that Claudia built.
Unfortunately, with the quick project turn around, I wasn't able to do any motion clean-up. Regardless, I think the performances looked good in the b-roll and served their purpose of providing the film with "background actors".
Here's some behind the scenes of our time in the motion capture volume:
Directing and Cinematography
I also had the amazing privilege of directing during the live actor shoot as well as controlling the camera. Our actors, Alexia and Angely, were so patient and followed direction so well - I'd like to thank them for taking the time out of their busy days to shoot with us.
Prior to this project, I never used a high-end cinematic camera before so I was so excited to try it out!
What Did I Learn From This Project?
So much! First and foremost, I got to expand my skills in production and direction, learning more about the process of directing on a live-action set, in a motion capture volume, and virtually in Unreal Engine. I also was able to learn about the quick turn-around times in the film industry - getting this project done in a timely manner was the primary goal! Lastly, I learned all about new technology: cinematic cameras and the LED wall. Using the LED wall to shoot our actors was a bit tough at first but we are so happy with how the final shots turned out.
All Team Roles
Claudia Cerdas
3D Environment Artist
Live Environment Artist
In-Studio Version Control
VFX Artist
Compositor
Editor
Music
Story Director
Storyboard Artist
Concept Artist
Production Assistant
Keiani Allen
Producer + Project Manager
Motion Capture Artist
Director
Cinematographer
Script Writer
Assistant Editor
Sound
A special thanks to our professor, Matthew Rader (of Reed+Rader), for teaching us everything we know about using an LED wall and mixed reality filmmaking. Thank you for your extensive knowledge, funny jokes, and help on set.
