Cast & Crew的动态

Sundance 2025: Filmmaker Alireza Khatami Used Premiere Pro and After Effects to Bring Sundance Debut “The Things You Kill” to Life https://ift.tt/XtU7PRr This post was written by Michelle Gallina and originally appeared on the Adobe blog on January 22, 2025. This quietly insidious psychological thriller follows a university professor haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, who then coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance. As the writer, director, co-editor, and co-producer of the film, Alireza Khatami used Adobe’s suite of video editing tools to bring his creative vision to life: “Premiere Pro was our go-to for editing, thanks to its speed and stability, and After Effects was critical for the complex visual effects we needed.” “The Things You Kill” premieres at Sundance on January 24th. We sat down with Khatami to learn more about his workflow on this ambitious feature, seven years in the making. Read on for more below. How did you first get involved with this project? The journey started unexpectedly when I was sent a novel to consider for adaptation. Ten pages in, I was bored. The story wasn’t connecting with me, so I impulsively started sketching my own treatment. What began as a quick distraction gradually morphed into an autofictional script—a deeply personal story drawn from my own life. That was back in 2018. Seven years, countless drafts, and one pandemic later, we’re in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance. Where were you when you found out you got into Sundance? How did you feel? I was at home, refreshing my email like a nervous teenager waiting for a college acceptance letter. When the confirmation came, I felt relieved, like a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders. But then the nerves hit. This is such a personal story, and the thought of sharing it with the world was both thrilling and terrifying. It’s one thing to make a film; it’s another to hand it over to an audience. How do you begin a project/set up your workspace? I shoot economically, so there aren’t many options for cutting a scene—it’s already edited in my head before I sit down at the timeline. When I start, my focus is on getting the flow and rhythm of each scene right. Scene by scene, I refine, trying not to obsess over the larger story too soon. Once the scenes are individually polished, I begin the real work: discovering their order. That’s when the characters’ arcs and the story’s emotional beats come into focus. Editing is like solving a puzzle—you know the pieces fit, but you have to figure out how. Tell us about a favorite scene or moment from this project and why it stands out to you. There’s a confession scene at the heart of the film that nearly broke me. It has one long take, and while it anchors the moment emotionally, we needed to carefully build the tension leading up to it. We had two simple setups, but deciding which lines should be on-camera versus off-camera was...

Well, I was wrong. And now I appreciate Wes Ball EVEN MORE. See, I assumed that because of his extensive VFX knowledge and ability to generate concept material and pre-visualize sequences by himself, that he would exploit the process both to have a solid plan going into filming, and as a way to earn the studio's trust and "protect" himself from creative interference while directing the biggest film of his career thus far. But what he revealed in this fascinating conversation with Mike Seymore and Erik Winquist, is that he intentionally avoided doing that. Instead, relying on storyboards which he referred to as "more ambiguous", made room for discovery and exploration on set for the actors, the camera and him. But beyond the creative reason, the fact that he felt confident to let go of his "edge" of being able to pre-visualize, means he had totally won the studio's trust before shooting began. This is very impressive, though not too surprising. He'd done a great job directing the Maze Runner trilogy (he directed all 3 films back to back, the first one being his directorial debut), and had probably impressed FOX during the pre-production of The Mouse Guard, which got canned with the acquisition by Disney. This podcast includes many interesting topics, such as his intention to release a version of the entire film comparing it with / without VFX, and why he thinks this is a great idea that will honor both the VFX effort and the production effort equally. Highly recommended listen! #VFX #directing #podcast

What is ‘Big Concept’ movie? Part 6 Analysing movie – ‘The Creator’ Written and directed by Gareth Edwards. Chris Weitz wrote the screenplay along with Gareth Edwards. Music by Hans Zimmer. ACTIONS | 8/10 | There are places for improvement, but the stunt team has done excellent job. EDITING | 5/10 | Good editing could have covered up the shortfalls in the storyline to an extent. Nothing impressive. VISUAL EFFECTS (VFX) | 10/10 | Excellent job done by Industrial Lights and Magic (ILM), a VFX company owned by George Lucas, the maker of Star Wars franchise. AI beings are identified by their face. In this case the heads are like Fax machine, projectors, some odd shape, and features, but final rendition is very convincing. No amount of description will do any justice, you got to see it for yourself. Apart from this, there are tons of other VFX which blends naturally and are vey convincing. ACTORS | 8/10 | Artists in the lead rolls are all renowned except the little girl. John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe, well known for their acting. Madeleine Yuna Voyles is a little girl, introduced in this movie. Her acting is mind blowing. She is very promising. Amar Chaddha Patel performed well too. There is some overacting by few artists but overall, there is nothing much to complain about. SOUND DESIGN | 8/10 | There are some unexplained glitches. In the movie whenever a vehicle powers up, a song will start playing. As if the music system of the vehicle has no switch. Another glitch is when their battle station in the sky explodes, there is no delay in sound reaching the ground. That station must be miles above, almost in vacuum. But in many other similar scenes, there is proper delay of sound depending on distance. Otherwise, the sound design is excellent. #bigconcept #movie #boxoffice #cinematography #directors #idea #editing #VFX #thoughfulthoughts #opinions #creative

What does it take to make a feature film? We have no idea, but we’re finding out as we go, and I figured it’d be worthwhile documenting the process for ourselves and anyone interested. As 2025 starts, Bryan Fisher and I begin our planning for "Butterfly Dreams" in earnest; no time to waste as we’re also slating two shorts in production this year. Here we’ve spent the day breaking down my 126-page script (that’s a 2.5 hour film) into a shoot schedule - a whole day process which involved a LOT of snacks and chasing a dog around on all fours - trying to understand the dependencies and how we can shoot this in a way that makes the best use of everyone’s time without sacrificing story and emotional continuity. As we review each scene, the VFX question of “How the f*ck do we do this?” crops up again and again. Some may be too hard to answer now, to which we shrug and pin as a problem for future us, but for others we start spit-balling; we are of the philosophy that VFX should be done practically and in-camera if possible, and our aim is to make other filmmakers scratch their heads and go “How’d they do that?”. And to do this we have to think laterally; bringing together examples of what we’ve seen other visual artists do, leveraging audio-optical scientific principles (which involves examining the refractive properties of cling wrap and water), and also just some good old-fashioned sleight-of-hand - finding ways to distract the audience so that we can pull the rug out from under them. We really are preparing for a magic show. Here’s to a magic 2025. Happy New Year everyone!

I had the opportunity to take the VFX Production Master Class with Ahmed Osman, a renowned filmmaker and VFX producer who has worked on major films such as John Wick 4, The Sandman, Black Adam, Detective Pikachu, Aquaman, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Ahmed brings a wealth of industry experience to his teaching, having worked with top studios such as MPC, Rodeo FX, and DNEG. The course provided an in-depth understanding of the VFX pipeline, from initial concept to final render, and explored the roles within a VFX team, such as supervisors, producers, and technical artists. It also focused on the key aspects of production, including how to manage workflows, organize production pipelines, and collaborate effectively with teams to ensure smooth operations. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to excel in the VFX industry. https://lnkd.in/etDKzjZe

"These results demonstrate that the high-paced and high-colour aspects of films directly affect visual fatigue. Future animated film producers should consider these factors that are relevant to their audiences." Personally wondering what the results would be for JRPGs/ARPGs like?Genshin Impact?or?Wuthering Waves which are extremely dense in visual inputs. #CognitiveScience #GamingResearch #PsychologyInGaming https://lnkd.in/e_2gtKpz

HISTORIC - YET STRANGE 5 of the top ten US-boxoffice films are animated! should be a time to celebrate, but it's not actually. if you read the numbers correct, all these films are doing less than they costed, with a good outlook on all of them, that they will break even and surely will make some money in the long-run. BUT that is just the top five, produced by big studios. where do the independent studios, with original content, make their money? fact is, its getting harder by the day to find audiences and buyers. and by looking back over the last 30 years in this business, I find this development a lot more "historic", on a not so positive side of things. https://lnkd.in/e9tAz-Nv

Prepping your film, the one you intend to make, for a proper budget, especially in the indie market, when you have no idea where the funding will come from is ...ESSENTIAL! ( a lot of caveats there.) This year, I have committed to making a feature that I wrote. There is a tax incentive program available where I live, I am crossing my T's and dotting my I's to make the process for us and them as smooth as possible. (This incentive is ONLY avail to residents, check in your area for local opportunities.) I am working with a producer who works in this zip code, as well as the indie market to prepare a budget. I let them know I wanted to be a PRO-ACTIVE participant, not just drop the script in their lap and wait for a budget. Filmmaking has so many nuances, one person may say a scene requires post VFX and you know you can nail it, cost effectively, in camera. You may know a skilled DP with a real camera package, who wants to come on as a producer, grip and lighting folks too, yep if they offer deals, they are producers to. Solving your own challenges before estimating a budget is invaluable. (Note: Anyone who offers you a deal, especially those who work for free are Producers, anyone who offers you their gear to make a project is a producer, as well, without them you'd be SOL, don't forget those who went out on a limb for you, credit them and remember them.) If you are writing in Final Draft, you can export a Scene Report. The first discovery you may have, is that, maybe all of your scene headings need some tweaks, aka edits. As the writer, we know what we mean, a third party has no clue what we envision. From this, you can start a spread sheet, that includes, locations, I'm talking real locations, like Mom's Backyard, not the scene heading such as EMPTY SHED. This is where a scene or two will take place. Then you can list which actors and what action... I could go on explaining, maybe you get it? I must admit again, this is and has been a fun experience. And now, when that producer sends you an email with a handful of questions, you have the answers and then some. Adding info such as VFX, SFX, stunts, down to days of smaller parts and special props, wardrobe, vehicles, Sasquatch costume, things that would have to be sourced. Things outside of modern day life, people acting, in a place. You may want to consider that anything outside 'the norm' will require an expense above and beyond people acting in a space. Lastly if anyone is interested in this process, let me know, I'm open to consult and possibly help find a producer to create your 'proper' budget.

The Impact of Hue and Lighting on Your Actor’s Performance: Enhancing the Cinematic Experience Hue and lighting play a critical role in shaping the mood, emotion, and intensity of an actor’s performance on screen. Filmmakers use these elements not just to illuminate scenes but to enhance storytelling by influencing the audience’s perception of a character’s inner world. The right lighting can evoke a sense of vulnerability, power, or mystery, while color tones subtly guide emotional reactions to the narrative. By understanding the psychology of color and lighting, directors and cinematographers can create atmospheres that elevate an actor’s portrayal, ultimately improving the overall cinematic experience. Whether it’s through the warm glow of a sunset or the cold blue of a tense night, these visual tools allow performers to connect more deeply with the audience. #CinematicLighting #ActorPerformance #HueInFilm #Filmmaking #VisualStorytelling https://lnkd.in/dhNZEKqR