If you’ve been following us on Twitter/Facebook then you’ll no doubt have heard the reason for this unwelcome silence: tea. Unfortunately, near the beginning of February we had a slight distaster just as we were about to start dubbing – I, very stupidly, managed to knock a cup of tea over my Macbook Pro!!

Thankfully it’s all sorted now and I have a new machine but it’s been an annoyingly unproductive time.

The plan is to get back into post-production with more foley recording, sound mixing and dubbing as soon as possible so keep checking back for updates…

Thanks for reading,
Fergus

Batman the cat: calling the colour grading shots!

This week has been all about colour and sound…

First off, we’ve been getting our teeth into some dubbing… basically re-recording speaking parts over bits where the sound hasn’t been quite up to scratch. Really, it sounds easier than it is! It’s a tricky, tricky process to get right with the main difficulty lying in syncing the re-recorded speaking with lip movements.

In between dubbing, the colour grading has got off to a good start. This is basically altering the colours of shots to enhance the look, drama, ensure continuity in colour and aid in setting the overall ton . The entire film will be graded with some scenes receiving more attention than others.

Here are a couple of examples of scenes that have been graded…

Before…

After…

Before…

After…

Check back for more updates soon and keep an eye on the Facebook page for more before and after shots as the colouring continues!
Thanks for readings,
Fergus

I have just this minute uploaded a couple of outtakes, so if you haven’t yet seen them check them out here.

I hope you all had a lovely time over the festive period! In this post I’ll be taking a look back on 2011…

2011 was a busy year for Brocken Spectre. The year saw the production going through its three stages – pre-production, production itself, then post-production.

We started filming in early February for one day – shooting the prologue of the film – and then launched into our “full” production schedule at the beginning of March with the aim that we would be finished shooting by the end of the month. Unfortunately that couldn’t happen as our lead was to set off on an adventure to New Zealand. This meant that the film had to be rewritten and a new lead cast.

It would have been easy to rewrite the film and do something completely different. The real challenge came in writing a film that could incorporate what had already been filmed. Luckily, most of what had been filmed was at the beginning of the original film – so it was mostly a case of writing a new middle, and end.

Thankfully, this didn’t take too long, and I really do believe that this “new film” has a much more dynamic, and interesting, plot than the original – so perhaps it was a good thing to have such a large spanner thrown into the mix!

We started shooting again at the end of June and continued through to the end of September – not shooting every day, as we all had to schedule filming around our work commitments.

So, we officially entered “post-production” in late September/October and I’m pleased to now share with you that the film has been edited in its entirety and is with our film composer, Thomas Vo. I’ve had a few snippets back from him already and I’m incredibly excited because I know he’s going to do a brilliant job.

I’d like to thank everyone for their support throughout 2011… you’ve all played a huge part in helping us pull the film off and I’m looking forward to being able to release the film this year, in 2012!

Best wishes to you all for 2012 and keep checking back for the latest updates,
Fergus

Happy New Year!

I’ll also be posting a wee round-up of 2011 shortly but was editing earlier and came across these outtakes which I had sent aside at the time and already edited! We have LOADS of outtakes that will be uploaded at some point (maybe once the film is done!) but till then, here are a couple to keep you amused.

Best wishes to you all for 2012,
Fergus

Hi Everyone,

This is just a quick blog update to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I’ll be continuing to work on the film over next week but will, most likely, not be updating the blog again until the New Year as I’ve also an Episode of Carrbridge News to produce for next Friday.

I’d like to say a great big thank you to all those who have followed, been involved with, and supported, Brocken Spectre throughout 2011. We’re all excited about 2012 as it’s the year the film will be finished!

Till then, best wishes to you all,
Fergus

Those of you who are on our email list (if you’re not on it you can sign up to the right >) will have received an update on the 7th December letting you know who are film composer is and now it’s time to share this news with everyone!

I’m delighted to be able to announce that Thomas Vo will be the film composer for Brocken Spectre. Thomas is an incredibly talented composer based in California, USA, and we can’t wait to hear what he comes up with.

Thomas produced the music that was used in out trailer and has a load of credits behind his name – most recently his work was used for the trailer of the new Jackie Chan movie!

Check out Thomas’ work on his website: www.thomasvomusic.com and also his Facebook page.

I’d like to say a great big thank you to Thomas for his input so far and for agreeing to get involved.

Thanks for reading,
Fergus

Anyway, for those who keep up-to-date with the blog you’ll know that in the last entry I set myself the task of completing the rough edit by the end of the month (November). Unfortunately that hasn’t quite happened as I’ve been busy with running my business (Wee Epics…incase you were wondering!). However, the end of the rough cut is so very close that it doesn’t feel like this hasn’t been achieved.

It’s a mammoth task even roughly editing because there is so much footage to go through, so many time consuming decisions to be made but good progress is being made.

I’ll keep you posted on the editing front, so keep checking back.

On another, totally seperate, note, I delved into some of the stats to find out more about who’s been visiting this website and it’s hugely encouraging to see that not only have visitor numbers risen in general since our trailer went out but people are also finding the site by googling the film – mostly googling “Brocken Spectre Movie” – this means that they’ve either visited already and are coming back or have heard of our film elsewhere…. either of which are great!

So, thanks to all those who have taken time to check out and continue to keep up to date with the production!

More updates soon….

I figured it was about time for a wee update on where I’m at with things, I don’t have a huge amount of news but will do my best!

I’ve been ploughing on with the editing. It’s a very time consuming process and can only be done in between my other commitments, but it’s slowly taking shape. Editing has brought to my attention just how important the other parts of the post-production process will be – from the colour grading to the sound effects, dubbing and music – it’s all going to have to pull together to polish the film off.

Last week I had one day of “dubbing” (or ADR) with the lead, Elizabeth, as she won’t be back again until December. The aim is to have the rough edit finished by the end of the month so that we can have a dubbing-filled-December! That gives me 13 days, which may be a bit ambitious.

Hopefully more updates soon. There is still one exciting piece of news we are withholding…. but no doubt it’ll land here on the blog some time soon!

Thanks for reading,
Fergus