With the script now locked we are doing the script breakdown, this is the slow part each department looks over the script and we plan what is in every shot the sound and elements that make up the film. It’s not boring though, as you are telling the story of the world and the back-story of the characters as you build up the set dressing and props. On the props side we have found an old jetfighter chair, which were hoping to procure soon.

On other notes we have the films domain name up and running, www.casimireffectfilm.com just a holding page with links to the social network sites for now. We hope to launch the page in a month’s time just before the Torchwood convention (Hub 3) in Birmingham. Thanks to http://thelongmile.net/ for the help in getting everything setup and pointed to the right places.

We will be at Wrexham Comic-Con this weekend with Gareth and Blue Gillespie, I hope some of you can be there, as this is our first real outing on the promotion bandwagon. We won’t have much on offer but we will be free to talk and natter with anyone who is there.

We have also started up our eBay auctions, the first two items are exclusive San Diego Comic-Con Torchwood Posters. These exclusive posters are from a very limited run, beautifully illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards, showing Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). These posters are signed by all of the above and have been made available by Gareth himself to help fund Casimir Effect.

It was only available at San Diego Comic-Con 2009 and because of this, has not been made widely available to the international market. These are possibly the last two available, so needless to say are very rare collector’s items. Beyond that they would make a fantastic piece for any collector and I would hope it can take pride of place in their collection.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150375320469

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150375322128

Well it feels like the end of an era and we’re going into a new age. The script has been locked, and now the focus is on production rather than the script. We have most of our actors for the key roles, except our female lead who we will look to audition in a few weeks. I won’t give out all the names of the actors just yet, as there might be some shuffling in the next week or so, but the people we have we are happy with. The only name I can post is Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood’s Ianto) who will be playing our male lead, Dr. Robert Cameron.

After the workshop sessions this weeks, we are all confident this will be an engaging story. Most of the tough scenes have been worked out and the changes were mostly action based, to give the scenes more impact. We have some footage from this workshop and I hope to get it edited into a video diary in the next week or so, then you can see some of the work.  Gareth has also come on board and an Executive Producer, to help us find funding, crew and for other elements of publicity.

We have a number of exclusive items we will be auctioning off, so watch this space. Some of these include limited print illustrations from Comic-Con 2009, these feature Ianto and Captain Jack, they are signed by Gareth and John Barrowman, as well as the artist. We will also have ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ Blu-Ray signed by all the cast and crew we can find in the next few months. This will probably be one of a few discs to have a full set of signatures, so come back often. We have a number of other ideas, including a day on the set, photo shoot with Gareth, lunch with Gareth, exclusive Blue Gillespie and S.J. Tucker songs, and limited edition prints to be given away at the fund raiser and one exclusive print only available online. After the fund raiser is over all remaining unsold or claimed prints will be destroyed to keep these items in the collector’s arena, and something special for those who are willing to support us.

Back to reality, we have the script to take to pieces, we have started it and need to get it finished in the next week or so, then we can send lists to each department of what is needed for props, CGI, costume and Set dressing. This is where Philum Scheduling comes into its own as it enable me to keep track of what status every item is in. Rather than hoping and praying everything is ready, I’ll know what isn’t and what to give priority to. I hope I get the chance to finish the software by Christmas so we can get the schedule fully planned.

We should have our own piece of the web up soon, where much of this will be transferred to, we will keep these site up-to-date, but our site will have a lot more content to offer. We will also have a sponsorship section, which will have all of our auctions, and items for sale.

Anyway time to get back to the script breakdown and my cuppa tea.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TORCHWOOD’S IANTO TO STAR IN CASIMIR EFFECT
Gareth David Lloyd has agreed to play the male lead Dr. Robert Cameron

Casimir Productions is proud to announce that Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood, Doctor Who) has agreed to play a lead role in Casimir Effect. Gareth has commented that he loves the script and is looking forward to working with the crew. Gareth will be playing the lead role, of Dr. Bob Cameron, in Casimir Effect; we are looking forward to bringing his unique talent and skill to the production. Gareth will also record a new song for the film with his band “Blue Gillespie.”

S.J. Tucker has agreed to perform the Casimir Effect theme song “Universal Blackness.” The song has been written and developed for the film by Nina Barnfather (Co-Writer of ‘A Very British Cover Up’). “Universal Blackness” and the as yet untitled song by “Blue Gillespie” will be available to buy online, in MP3 and CD.

The first major milestone for Lydia Wood and Gabriel Strange has now passed, now they move into pre-production and casting. Their aim is to break the mould of the majority of student films, and employ professional techniques, state of the art technology (4D Camera), crew and actors to bring Casimir Effect to life.

Further information, images and materials available upon request.

S.J. Tucker: Has had glowing reviews which compare her music to the sound, style, and skill of Joni Mitchell, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos, and Jeff Buckley. Named “Queen of the Bards” by industry professionals and members of several prestigious musical circles.

Casimir Effect: Is a high concept and ambitions film developed as a 2010 graduation film at the International Film School Wales. A story of unrequited love set on the backdrop of a temporal paradox. The film will be developed as a graduation film for the International Film School Wales with the assistance of Skillset Screen Academy Wales.

4D Camera: In development at Cardiff University, this technology captures live images of the actors face, and converts them into an animated 3D object with a complete set off textures, thus capturing subtle facial movements and emotions. It is the next generation emotion capture technology, similar to what has been used in James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar.”

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Press Release No. 2 (86.84KB) Added: 26/10/2009 Downloads: 231 TORCHWOOD’S IANTO TO STAR IN CASIMIR EFFECT: Gareth David Lloyd has agreed to play the male lead Dr. Cameron

What I know from my early exposure of the technology, this may not be 100% accurate at this time. If you have any questions I can pass them on to the developers and generate an FAQ for anyone who is interested.

It uses 6 cameras, to stereoscopic images at 48 frames per second, 4 cameras capture images for geometry, and 2 cameras capture textures. At the moment the system is not running at full speed but they hop in the coming year to get the conversion to 3D mesh in real time. At the moment the system generates a 3D mesh and texture for each frame, at the moment the technology is in early development so the post capture software is still very limited.

The Aim is to develop the technology to be able to capture a person’s face and all the subtle movements in real-time and generates an animated 3D model and textures. Rather than limiting the amount of data received by using markers attached to the face, this uses infrared imaged to generate the depth map needed to build the meshes. So the person being captured can wear the character makeup and have that captured as the textures.
Once you have an animated model then you can do any number of things with it, one of the hope is to be able to take it and morph/transform it so that the face can be changed but the subtle movements of skin and muscle are kept intact. The technology is a few years of being able to do this like this but the possibilities are there.

The aim is to develop the technology for the games and film industry, this would eliminate the needs for armies of animators having to animate individual elements of characters faces. Instead they could focus on other aspects of characterisation. Once the technology is up and running at full speed and quality it could offer a wide range of possibilities, games where characters both in the foreground and background are individuals rather than using cloned elements. Films where the stuntman’s or body doubles faces are replaced by the actors to create an even more convincing performance in the absence of the main actor. Above all it will cut down post production time for such elements considerably thus reducing the overall cost of production.

We will be using an early development rig in our film for the generation of holographic characters, this will give use the ability to distort the face without losing the subtle elements of the actors performance. Though we will not be using the real-time rig the end result is the same, it creates a much more organic model and something far less ridged and lifeless as current technology.

Here is a link to one of our video diaries where we were testing the system in an early development stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJHlM0Iixqc

We have spent the last five days working on the director’s notebook, we have written up all the acting notes we have for the entire script, these range from ideas of what the characters are feeling to their individual thoughts. We don’t expect this to be a Black and White rulebook, but it will be handy and used as a starting point for the actors, unless they nail it right off the bat. This is more about the inner thoughts and story of each character. More what you see behind the eyes, the subtle expressions and movements that go into bringing a character to life.

We have also been working on the ARG we have set up a number of foundation blogs, each will have a number of stories that lead into the ARG. They will give readers more of an insight in to the world and the events before and after the film. It will be a chance for people to ask questions and interact with the characters. We are still looking for writers for the main ARG characters.

We have read-through’s on Monday and Tuesday so we can solidify everything in the script and tweak it to take it to final draft. It will feel so good to type Final Draft on the front of the script. Then it’s on to the massive task of pre-production, first on the table is Locations and Actors for me, the art department will start to wind up to.

I’m two layouts off finishing the Pre-Production software I should have that finished by the end of tomorrow as I need it for Saturday. And providing it works I’ll start the Scheduling section next month. I guess when you can’t afford the thousands for scheduling software it’s best to just make your own. At least this way it can be Dynamic and I can adapt it to suit the needs of the production.