Premier and Film Thoughts

I was informed the premier went off with no real issues and everyone enjoyed themselves which is great.  I really enjoyed working on this project even though I was unable to watch the premier.

having seen the film now there are issues I felt with the film but I a very happy with the final product. I really enjoyed working on this project despite all the issues and problems we faced along the way. I really feel we have produced a product we can be proud of.   it was a tough challenge to bring a group of this size together and get them to communicate effectively,  but we definitely tried our best and we did communicate fairly well for the most part! Discord played a big part in that, and we used it quite a lot. The producer chat although private acted as a great place for the producers to keep on top of the project and work together to solve problems and vent frustrations. Tyler's introduction of Coda instantly started making an improvement to efficiency, at least for those of us who actively used it. Honestly I'll probably use Coda personally for some stuff, it was quite simple and intuitive!

Big negatives I took away from this project was the lack of effort some people put into this project. There were people who It was tough to get responses from and held us back from making as much progress as we could have. In general, some lapses of communication towards the end resulted in that big grind by Nik Tyler and Sonam.

Some of the others could have helped.  Yet they didn't communicate well enough that they didn't have enough knowledge or didn't let us know when they were busy. yet, on the other hand, Tyler and Nik should not of left people like Phil in the dark and steamed on ahead alone they really made it feel like they ripped the crescendo of the production process to themselves. I think we could have kept Rachel in the loop more on this matter as we had a reference from the double script incident that keeping her in the dark doesn't help anyone. Yet it was hard to rat out a fellow producer.

Overall, I am happy with the final product.  It was tough, but fun. I created some great relationships with some members of the team that I'm sure I will take into the professional world and develop even more! I've learned about efficient project pipelines and what goes into both live-action and CGI elements, and I found that I actually really enjoy working in nuke, it's very satisfying and very intuitive. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better team this year looking back at last year...   I think did a fantastic job on all fronts. It was a great learning experience.

Feedback on the Catering for the night: 

• The hot stuff was a bit difficult as we've established, we served the bread cold, the pies we heated up and put tin foil on, this worked well, however they did get cold really quick once on the table and we were informed to put them away once they weren't hot anymore.
• The type of items we had (skewers, cheese plates etc) took a lot of time but was worth it because of the neat presentation and sense of grandeur. I did enlist the help of others to get it done, Matty WW, Chloe and De la Rey (my brother, not an SIT student) even chipped in. It still took a lot of man-hours, Matthew's skewers were an unholy creation. Basically took a while, but worth it for how impressive it looks. 
• Woulda has been nice to have a cold place to store food closer, we had to make a couple of runs for a refill during the preamble. 
• The dips were hard to open, we were also a bit late to doing so and each time a new cheese plate was put on the table we had to scramble to re-configure the dip situation.
• There was a lot of excess Feta juice
• The number of gluten-free options was amazing, the vegan ones were aight.
• There was a lot of Feta Juice left
• The bell peppers were amazing, people loved them - especially with the Feta (which left quite a lot of excess juice behind) - and it was good that you bought two jars.
• We could have done with another knife (Chloe did end up buying one)
• Gloves were the big missing element, but we bought some (although Chloe only bought like 4 pairs, that's just pure incompetence - deserves not getting her storyboards used)
• We had to go buy drinks, again De la Rey and Chloe didn't think to provide any sugar-free options and I had to quench my thirst with copious amounts of alcohol and surprisingly nourishing feta juice  - Please NOTE Volunteer Matthew Wilmshurst left his hoodie behind the catering table, when he got it back it was wet (he received it moist)

Everything was great, you did a good job providing us with what we needed on the night, we cringed when we realized how much work you'd made for us with the assembly required, however, it was worth it. 

Premier Setup

Week 18

I will be heading away next week for Germany and the premier is on Friday. Tyler Nik and Sonam are in full go mode with finishing off the final parts of the film it feels like they have taken most of the last minute touch up into there own hands and have stopped trying to delegate tasks. I have less of an issue with this than most as I am trying to get all the timesheets in and update before the last week. 

I have been put in charge of catering the premier as well so I will organise the food to be ready for Thursday night pick up. 

Week 17

Week 17

 I've started doing some more nuke stuff in preparation for the compositing. Nik has been my guardian angel with catching up on my workload and helps me understand what I am doing in nuke and how to use this program. An issue I was a part of was some of the layouts have needed reworking, mainly to do with the MUM rail layout in the warehouse as all the people working on these have made them different in between shots, but it hasn't been too big of a deal. The Renders are coming along really well, and we've been finishing things faster than expected which is good as tyler has been in a panic about our pace since shooting started.  If we keep on this pace we should be algood for the screening night.
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Week 16

Week 16:

Mainly just working on getting the last of my coda tasks done I have stated compositing some shots in nuke which is cool and doing some shot layouts. we're trying to get everything done and ready to be rendered and composited for the final few weeks. Nik helped me to get1 thing rendered already! Been keeping up to date quite well on Coda. Managed to make up the time I missed out sick.

The Tri-pod was fixed so thank goodness I don't need to try and pull 2000 out of thin air, 

week 15

Week 15:

I was Absent last week due to illness and missed the meeting.

I have been playing catchup on my modelling and texturing as being sick has yet again hindered me and now it is affecting the animation team. 

I will push to get my models out asap to Nik for review and then textured and send to Phil and Nik for final review. There was a major incident over the past week. The Tri Pod was returned damaged to Chris and we will be held accountable for the repairs. At the moment i have done a quick assumption of the expected cost of repairs and replacement and both exceed our budget. 

This is a big problem and we as a company will be held accountable. The producers are trying to fix this. we have Tyler going to talk to Chris and try to fix it. 

week 13

Week 13

Post Production:

We are into post-production now and I am a modeller and texture artist. Phil drew up this chart to list everyone's jobs to get the VFX assets ready for rendering. I am trying to focus on texture as I want to improve in this area. I will be trying to use substance painter to get the textures but I am still learning the is software so I will have to see how it goes.

week 12

Week 12:

The Shoot:

 The Shoot went well in my mind I feel. 

We got all the footage we wanted so that is fantastic. I can't speak much on how the actual filming went as I was head of catering my attentions were spent a lot more on feeding that arm of filmies. I think Catering was a success. I was able to keep everyone well-fed and had a consistent assortment of snacks that were semi-healthy and good available. 

I was very proud of the fact that most days there were still leftovers.

Some thoughts I felt from my catering were: 

Food was enjoyed and people seemed happy with the choices. I was not prepared well enough with my kitchen. I needed a bigger working space with as I chose easy meals I was able to handle the cooking at home and smart food choices limited the home cooking to only 2 days. I did not cater to all lifestyle choices and allergies. yet I was able to correct this after the first day adding options to suit everyone. I felt this was very funny as I fall into a different lifestyle choice group. 

week 11

Week 11:

Catering Prep Mode: 

I am catering the Film Shoot at the end of the week. So its Go Time. I have been organising a menu for the film days as well as setting up some rough budgeting for the price of food. alongside this, I have been trying to help as a producer with the other aspect but the catering becomes all-consuming. I am still the acting accountant and am trying to stay on top of everything. Yet I made a mistake, we will be shooting this week and I forgot to give Monica the money on time so she was unable to buy the materials and costumes on time. I have taken initiative for my mistake and begun looking for as much of the costume as I can. on my own. Hopefully, this will help and when she gets back she can sort out the costumes within the smaller time frame. 

week10

Week 10

Meeting Breakdown:

My Week Breakdown: 

We realised that the storyboards were nowhere near detailed enough to have an idea of what to do on set, especially because they were finished before we even knew the proper location. Tyler, Sonam, Megan and I spent the weekend doing Previz, and we essentially scrapped all the storyboards and used the script to break down all the shots and make them in Maya. We made good progress and should be finished early next week in time for the shoot. We had the test shoot where we got some footage and tried to take it through the whole pipeline over the weekend. This was my test run at catering I went with something easy pizza and apparently I didn't get enough and I thought I went overboard. learnt my lesson go big. I think this will help me estimate more the quantity of food I need for this shoot. Nik sent me this photos of the shoot. 

week 9

Week 9:

Meeting Breakdowns:

Panic mode. I have been sick for the past week with a very bad cold. This put me out of action and I was really no use to anyone. So this week I had to play catch up in a big way. My job of location scouting had been offloaded to Sorcia who had been contacting the real estate agents. No luck so far.

I went on a sales run to get some hi-vis vests and draw some petty cash to have on hand as we draw near to the shoot it will be helpful. 

My Task Breakdowns: 

Catch up. 

I have been playing catchup all week. 

I was really put at a disadvantage this week. I missed a lot over the past week and catching up is hard with everyone so busy on there own things I am left to figure out what my role in everything is atm. I am focusing on trying to get a location sorted asap. 

week 7

Week 7

Meeting Breakdown:

This point, we are a few weeks behind schedule and the filming is coming up fast.  As producers we discussed really trying to push the point of how far behind we are without right blaming someone. just to get people on the same page and hopefully, move forward and push through to the shoot.

I want a revised proposal to give to the owners of the warehouse to hopefully be able to help us secure a location.
There needs to be a discussion on costumes between Monica and Marcus I will try to sit in on this meeting to get a rough idea on the type of items we need to purchase.
Good news we have centre staged booked thanks to Jacqui.

My Task Breakdown:

In my own time, I have continued to try and contact the renters of certain warehouses Marcus liked.
I am trying to procure a copy of the revised proposal to give to them. I am hoping this will help motivate them to lend us the property for free.

I am really starting to struggle with timesheets. I have a weekly reminder now on the agenda each week and yet I am still missing a huge amount of weeks. Also, inconsistency in the template has become bothersome.  I am going to try and push that they are formatted a certain way I am aware there are people who use software apps to produce them which is fine as these are more readable and make my life easier, Outside of this my role as a producer is becoming a major focus for me. I am trying to be involved in all aspects of the film pre-production or at least well informed. The Produces chat has become an essential chat and point of information for me I think this closed discussion between Tyler Jacqui and me helps us keep on top of everything as we can rely on information and deal with the situation as they arise.  A good example was how we were able to quickly find the best course of action to take with the Craig situation that arose. Chloe bought her grievance to me and I was able to quickly relay this information to the other producers and decide a course of action and by the next morning Rachel was informed and the situation was being handled. Chloe really appreciated how quickly we helped and the issue was dealt with. I also did some Number crunching as we draw near to the shoot trying to work out how much we are going to be spending on the filming days. the catering budget is so crazy as I will be doing the catering I have free rain but I want to try and stick to $250 on food a day.

week 6

Week 6

Meeting Breakdown:

Chloe, Megan and Craig have come up with some great concept art designs based on what Marcus is asking for. Phil made a Neon Shrimp title animation minor adjustments will be needed but it's looking great pleasant surprise. We are having big delays with the script.

My Task Breakdown:

I was given a rundown of Celtex today I am going to be using this software to implement a budget estimate for the film. I have begun Location scouting we need to find a location for the factory.

week 5

Week 5

Meeting Breakdown:

I was Late for the Meeting today due to personal reasons.
Jacqui and Tyler informed the group on how it went with there meeting with the film first years and getting their assistance on the film.  We are starting to set deadlines for stuff to get done.
Hopefully, we can stick to these to keep on track.

My Task Breakdown:

We had the casting call last weekend I sat in one one of the days. It was interesting to see the different people who came through and tried their best to read scripts. I stepped up and gave it a go just for the fun was really weird to be in front of the camera for a change:

Later in the week, we have our photos scheduled, We managed to secure a professional photographer so kinda excited for these photos new Linkin profile pic. 

The script is still being worked on, it has gone through loads of changes and every time we bring it up Matt W just says that it's in progress. The producers have had multiple meeting and discussion on this issue as it is starting to become a worry with the delay.

 It is causing issues in other departments and building frustration. The concept art team has filed a complaint since the story keeps changing all the time, and there isn't one script floating around They haven't even been able to start storyboarding.

week4

Week 4

Meeting Breakdown:

Jacqui, Rachel and I have gone to the bank and signed, now waiting on Kathryn to visit the bank and sign to approve the changes. A money request protocol has been requested by the Rachel.

My Task Breakdown:

During the Meeting today.
 We broke down how i would be setting up the Budget: For small item transactions,  I require a price estimation put together with an add %10 contingency to the price, send it to me for review, then return with every receipt.
 For larger items (>$100), collect 3 price quotes  would be nice and give them to me we will normally go for the cheapest option unless a case is made.
 a contingencies was also set up in the case i am unavailable.

Week 3

Week 3

Meeting Breakdown:

Duncan Sarkies was here this week to help with script writing. I begun the basics of setting up the budgeting report as this is the major aspect of the producer role i will be handling. I have been looking over past year budgets and will build from these.

My Task Breakdown:

I  began to build a basic proposal budget. just going off the assumption amount of 4000 to see where funds would go and be divided out. I have tried to organise to get me and jacqui signatories on the bank account asap. This was discussed with Rachel.

week 2

Week 2

Meeting Breakdown:

I was out sick This Week

My Task Breakdowns:

Jacqui Informed me on Meeting  and i read the minutes to catch up.

Jacqui created a group chat for the producers to communicate and set meeting.

Week 1

Week 1

Meeting Breakdown:

 Group project with both the animators and filmies first meeting and rundown.

In this week's meeting we discussed name ideas for our company, with some ideas from people.

I suggested we could call our selves kakapo  productions as i sketched up a doodle of a logo as i Listened to peoples ideas in the discussion.

Nik suggested discord as the best form of communication, last year for Think & Create it worked well as long as everyone actually makes use of it. My main issues with this was the same as last year. people need to understand how to use the tool.

My Work:

I suggested a group name for the production company.

My Roles

My Roles:

Head of Compositing: 

I was voted in as the head of compositing. As my knowledge is a bit basic i will be organizing  times to learn the programs and techniques i will need to fulfill my job in this role.

Producer:

I along with Tyler and head Producer Jacqui . I wanted this role as a producer to learn the role. Animation Production is a career choice i wish to pursue. This Film Gives me a good opportunity to learn and gain a better knowledge of what all the role entails and the skills i need to gain.