THE TRAINEE was an ambitious project. The challenge was to make a Hollywood quality short science fiction film with virtually no money and very little time. The film would be made for an internet contest called THE DOORPOST FILM PROJECT. I decided to make this film on Thanksgiving weekend of 2009. The contest deadline was February 1st. This meant I only had 2 months to write, produce, direct, animate. edit, and mix everything all on my own. The clock was ticking. I got busy.
My first task was to pick production elements that I felt I could realistically pull off, but still remained visually believable. After much thought, I chose to write a story that centered around a “battle in space”. This meant I needed to solve for two complex production elements. One was the CG (Computer Generated) shots of the actual space battle and the other was the cockpit set for the live action elements.
To me this felt doable. I thought I could secure experienced 3D animators to work on this project for a film credit, simply because it was a science fiction film. And after putting a notice out on some forums I received e-mails from about 15 different 3D animation artist eager to work on my film. I made sure I found artists that could work in Lightwave. This was a program that already I owned and had done some work with it about 5 years ago. I felt that if I needed to tweak some animations from an artist I had the tools to do so.
For the life sized cockpit set, I hoped I could find someone also willing to work for a film credit, again simply because it was a science fiction film. Thanks to a referral from a friend, I found someone willing to construct it. All because it was an ambitious science fiction film, he was willing to donate his time.
Late November and into early December, I assembled my team of 3D artist and found my set construction guy all at the same time writing and re-writing the script. Everything was finally written and settled upon in early December.
My next task was to translate the script in to specific shot sequences. My drawing skills are pretty rough, but I was able to craft a storyboard sequence for every shot of the film.
With this finished, I decided to create an animatic of the entire film, using the storyboards. I scanned in each crude image and took them into my editor program (Sony Vegas) and pieced together a rough pass of the film. I then added as many sound effects I could come up with to enhance the action. This was a great way to visualize the entire film and see what shots were working and what shots needed to be changed. It also showed me that a dialogue sequence early in the film was way too long and needed to be cut down.
Early on in December I realized that I was going to be in trouble with the music for the film. The score is a critical element in my films. A great score can elevate your film to new emotional heights. Conversely a mediocre score can give your film a stale feeling to it, and even ruin it. Ideally a composer works against a completed film with all of the visual and sound effects in place. And after then, needs several weeks to do his job correctly. This was something I could not afford because I only had 8 weeks to make the animation and film the live action elements. I needed the right composer to begin work before anything was filmed. This was a huge problem.
So early December, I put an ad in Mandy.com and Media-Match.com asking for composers to work on my short film for credit only. I was flooded with 40 to 50 composers who wanted to add my action, science fiction score to their list of credits. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to listen to each composer’s demo reel, and look through their credits, in an effort to determine which artist would do the best job to score my film – another huge problem.
To solve this, I decided to do something rather unconventional. I decided to have a mini-contest for composers. I asked each composer to work on his/her version of the score against the rough animatic for 6 weeks. Then on January 22nd when the scores were due, I would pick the best one. They all knew there was a strong chance their score would not get selected. To my surprise I had 15 composers who agreed to work under these conditions.
Shifting back into CG animation, I quickly ran into another problem. Collaborating with a team of CG artists long distance was not going to work out. It would take too long for me to communicate all of the nuances and details of each shot. Plus I was concerned about getting the same look and feel from each individual animator. I had not way to do effective quality control. Compounding the problem, many people could only devote a few hours a week on the project, due to their day jobs.
To solve this, I did some of my own test animations and made the determination that, yes, I could animate all of the CG shots. I asked a few artists to assist me with texturing some of the models, which were purchased on-line. A BIG thanks to TurboSquid.com for having a wide selection of CG models to purchase.
Even though animating everything on my own was very difficult, it proved to be a great move. I pretty much got the shots that I wanted and I could instantly insert them into the animatic to see how it would cut together. I think a professional animator could have gotten better looking visuals, but given what I had to work with, I’m very pleased with the final results.
I had three computers chugging out animations the entire month of December. By the time Christmas arrived, I had about 90% of the needed CG elements rendered in some form.
By around Christmas time, I realized I had neglected to secure the costumes for my live action shoot in January. Wardrobe was another critical factor for a realistic looking sci-fi film. But again I placed an ad in Media-Match.com and received a response from a costume designer who worked in Hollywood for over 30 years. He was willing to design, construct and loan costumes for my film at no cost. This was a huge boost to my production by having great looking costumes. He tailor-made and custom fitted each costume for each of my 5 actors. His generosity was simply amazing. Here is the original sketch design. The headset was improvised at the last minute, since he ran out of time and couldn't find anything that worked. I was however able to find something lying around the house that fit the costume really well.
Immediately after the New Year, the set was delivered to my house and it looked really good. I spent the next 5 days dressing it up to help it look more realistic. I also figured out how to add more blinking lights to the cockpit. This effect really added a lot of realism and was worth the time and effort. Here is the first screen test of the space ship...
For casting, I really didn’t have the time to hold auditions. I really wanted to test each actor out in front of a camera. But this was a luxury I could not afford.
I put an ad for an on-line casting service called Now Casting. Again I received scores of submissions and headshots. I chose the ones that looked the part and that had a decent demo reel attached. However, I really didn’t know how good these guys could act until they arrived on the set to begin filming. But I was very surprised with their performances. They all really exceeded my expectations.
The crew and the actors were willing to work for copy and credit on January 9th and 10th. My wife made sure they had enough food, she cooked for us all. Everyone was highly professional and fun to work with. I would not hesitate to work with them again on a future film.
By mid January, I received completed scores from composers. I was very surprised by all of the excellent music that was submitted. In the end I received 7 scores – but one really stood out to me as the one to use in the final film. After some minor adjustments I asked the composer to make, I felt I had a Hollywood-class score in the film. And it really made a difference in the final film. I would have not gotten a score like this if I had to use traditional methods. (Check out all the submitted scores below!)
The last few weeks were spent re-rendering a few lingering CG shots, editing and doing the final sound mix down. Luckily a lot of the sound effects work was already finished. I only had to do a few minor tweaks and changes.
Finally by January 27th, the film was finished and shipped out to the Doorpost Film Project in Nashville. This was a huge accomplishment given the amount of work that went into the film. I’m very thankful for everyone who assisted me with their absolute best work to make the film turn out so well.
Since then, the film has been submitted to other festivals and was recently selected to screen at the BIG BEAR LAKE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL this September.
Over all, THE TRAINEE wonderfully exceeded my expectations, I learned some huge lessons and I met a lot of talented and creative artists along the way. To me, that made all this effort worth it.
Visit this link to view the final original film...
Here are the final completed scores that were submitted. It's very interesting to listen to each composer's interpretation of the film. Which score do you like the best? Stephen Spies' score at the bottom was selected for the final film. Be sure to check out his beautiful alternate ending.
THE TRAINEE was an ambitious project. The challenge was to make a Hollywood quality short science fiction film with virtually no money and very little time. The film would be made for an internet contest called 
To me this felt doable. I thought I could secure experienced 3D animators to work on this project for a film credit, simply because it was a science fiction film. And after putting a 
For the life sized cockpit set, I hoped I could find someone also willing to work for a film credit, again simply because it was a science fiction film. Thanks to a referral from a friend, I found someone willing to construct it. All because it was an ambitious science fiction film, he was willing to donate his time.
So early December, I put an ad in Mandy.com and Media-Match.com asking for composers to work on my short film for credit only. I was flooded with 40 to 50 composers who wanted to add my action, science fiction score to their list of credits. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to listen to each composer’s demo reel, and look through their credits, in an effort to determine which artist would do the best job to score my film – another huge problem.
Shifting back into CG animation, I quickly ran into another problem. Collaborating with a team of CG artists long distance was not going to work out. It would take too long for me to communicate all of the nuances and details of each shot. Plus I was concerned about getting the same look and feel from each individual animator. I had not way to do effective quality control. Compounding the problem, many people could only devote a few hours a week on the project, due to their day jobs.
Even though animating everything on my own was very difficult, it proved to be a great move. I pretty much got the shots that I wanted and I could instantly insert them into the animatic to see how it would cut together. I think a professional animator could have gotten better looking visuals, but given what I had to work with, I’m very pleased with the final results.
By around Christmas time, I realized I had neglected to secure the costumes for my live action shoot in January. Wardrobe was another critical factor for a realistic looking sci-fi film. But again I placed an ad in Media-Match.com and received a response from a costume designer who worked in Hollywood for over 30 years. He was willing to design, construct and loan costumes for my film at no cost. This was a huge boost to my production by having great looking costumes. He tailor-made and custom fitted each costume for each of my 5 actors. His generosity was simply amazing. Here is the original sketch design. The headset was improvised at the last minute, since he ran out of time and couldn't find anything that worked. I was however able to find something lying around the house that fit the costume really well.
I put an ad for an on-line casting service called Now Casting. Again I received scores of submissions and headshots. I chose the ones that looked the part and that had a decent demo reel attached. However, I really didn’t know how good these guys could act until they arrived on the set to begin filming. But I was very surprised with their performances. They all really exceeded my expectations.
Finally by January 27th, the film was finished and shipped out to the Doorpost Film Project in Nashville. This was a huge accomplishment given the amount of work that went into the film. I’m very thankful for everyone who assisted me with their absolute best work to make the film turn out so well.