What Will the Movie Look Like?

Well, it’s been over a week since my last posting. I’ve been working on the script and it is coming along nicely. Not as fast as I would like, but what can I say? I do this on the side and this doesn’t pay the bills.

As I was writing the script, I started picturing the movie in my head. The look was always something I was kicking around. The big reason is that Xam and Power Dog live in SoHo, NY, and I don’t live anywhere near there. That being the case, I new I was going to have to use a blue screen for my backgrounds.

Since I’m using a blue screen, I don’t want to try to make this thing look realistic. Like I’ve said before, I’m not ILM and I don’t have a big budget. I could spend months to years trying to make a realistic background. Still, I don’t want this movie looking like Sin City or The Spirit. That look has been overdone. So, what was I going to do?

I decided to use real images of SoHo and make them monochromatic, then really grain them up. This gives a kind of comic book feel without looking exactly like a comic book. The picture above is an example of what I am thinking. I don’t have any plan to use this particular image in the movie, but I think it gives you a pretty good idea of what I’m trying to do.

The background is blue, to indicate night. Day scenes will be orange or sometimes red. The foreground images will be filmed and added to the background with little to no manipulation, making Xam, Power Dog and the trash can pop off the screen. All together, I think it will be a pretty cool look.

The more I work on this project the more I realize that there is a very good chance I am working toward the impossible, but that is the point of this blog. It’s a way of keeping me on track and feeling the need to post updates is keeping me moving closer and closer to filming. My hope is to have the script finished by the end of the month. I’ll let you know how that works out!