A Conversation with Daniel Land, Co-Director of Dirty Trousers
(L-R): Alan Madlane, Nicholas Higgins, Leroy Williams, Chris Moller
Just before Halloween, I attended the Thriller! Chiller! Film Festival 2007 in Grand Rapids, MI. One of the co-chairs of the festival asked me to attend the 'Digital Effects and Compositing in Post-Production Using Adobe After Effects' seminar and ask a few questions to keep things moving, since he worked on the production side and knew nothing about After Effects.
Long story short... it knocked my socks off. Dan Land, digital animator, film maker and the co-director of the film Dirty Trousers presented. We connected afterward. I'm all about supporting Michigan filmmakers and this film is just so amazingly good. It has an original and interesting story-line, great effects and it's just fun to watch.
The film is in post production now and Dan and his co-director, Thomas Horvath, work full time jobs elsewhere, so the film is moving slowly. What they have done so far, is mind-blowing. This is a full-length feature film and is a major undertaking with practically each frame of film having some sort of effect - chroma keying, up-resing, tracking, and 3D compositing.
Toolfarm has partnered up with the filmmakers for post-production. We'll be following Dan and Thomas through the post production of the film. They're using tools from Imagineer and Red Giant so we'll get their feedback on the products and find out if they're up to snuff for hardcore production work.
iChat transcripts
Michele Yamazaki: Daniel, can you tell me about your film Dirty Trousers? What is the premise?
Dan Land: Imagine the fabled Golden Year of Hollywood, 1939 ---- when the potential of Technicolor was being harnessed, and a new scope of entertainment was being explored. Think of the epics of the day, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz... Now imagine that there was another film that year; bigger, bolder than anything before it, but it was only seen by a single audience on a single night in a single theatre, before being lost, seemingly forever, to the fires of history.
DL: This Picture was produced independently and in absolute secrecy, outside the rigid Studio system of Hollywoodland and in direct opposition to THE CODE; the censorship board enforced on all Pictures by the Catholic Church through it's Legion of Decency.
DL: All of this happened on a private estate across the nation in the so-called 'Paris of the Midwest' - Detroit.
DL: Dirty Trousers is an attempt to tell the adventure behind the story, specifically focused around the outcast maverick, Harrison E. Barton, who made it all happen.
MY: What kind of camera did you use to shoot your footage?
DL: Almost entirely with the Panasonic DVX-100 (with 16:9 anamorphic lens adaptor). Unfortunately HD just wasn't feasible back in 2005 when we kicked this thing off
MY: Visual effects are a huge part of the film. Can you tell me about what you've done and what your plans are for the visual effects?
DL: The film takes place almost entirely in the 1930s, so most of the visual FX in the film exist to recreate and visualize the era through environments. We used a lot of historical locations, but many scenes were filmed on partial sets, inside vintage cars, and naturally against green screen.
DL: The FX work allows the film to bring back a specific time and place, or rather, an idealized version of that time and place --- a heightened memory conjured from the bits and pieces we've gathered. Most of the FX work in the film has been assembled in a rough animatic form, with I'd wager around 30% approaching completion. On a technical level, we've got a lot of complex tracking shots to solve on the road ahead, with numerous 3D environments under construction -- this isn't quite the Sky Captain treatment however; most of the film is grounded in real locations that simply need to be expanded.
DL: Beyond that we've got planes, trains, a rugged car chase sequence, a blazing inferno, and many other challenges currently underway.
MY: That is a seriously huge undertaking!
DL: So far, the work has almost entirely been divided between Thomas and myself, but we're putting together a larger strike force for the work ahead.
DL: That's the curse of this project!
DL: And the nature of the story, the character of the man at the center of the it all, virtually demands that it be this way.
MY: I've seen your trailer and some clips of the film and it's mind-blowingly well done. You don't expect this type of product to come from outside Hollywood.
DL: Thanks, michele --- we definitely started something that was beyond our original means to finish, whether that was foolishness or not remains to be seen, but we've thus far risen to the task and learned immeasurably along the way.
DL: A key thing for us has been to make sure that the film doesn't get lost in the style or technical elements, that every decision comes out of a particular need of the characters, of the story we're trying to tell or tone we're trying to evoke. I know everyone says that, but this project wouldn't still be underway 3 years after we started if we didn't feel there was a strong narrative backbone. I'd also like to say that the only way that this has been possible is because of our incredible cast --- if they weren't so damn good we simply wouldn't have been able to focus on the enormity of the Visual FX work and we could have had a train-wreck on our hands.
DL: This perception of hollywood holding all the keys to a locked industry is rapidly changing. Most of the people reading this website already know that we're living in an age where literally anything you can think of can be created through VFX and animation ------ and the basic tools are within reach of anyone with a solid workstation, a dash of talent and the right attitude. The power is finally coming to the people when it comes to filmmaking, which sounds cliche but we see the evidence of it everywhere. With specific regard to VFX, Spectacle isn't going to cut it for much longer, now that dinosaurs and spaceships have become commonplace ----- and I think we're all looking forward to the days when the Ideas behind them are the attraction. {Definitely just went off on a huge tangent there...]
MY: So true, so true.
DL: It's daunting, but a great feeling nonetheless
MY: So, how are you proceeding?
DL: Right now we're in the position where, at the rate we're going (full-time jobs, etc), completion could be another year or more away - but with the right resources and time to devote that could be shortened to a mere matter of months. There's a definite focus on efficiency, and streamlining the edit to where we're only finalizing the shots necessary to make the right dramatic impact. As I mentioned before we're expanding our VFX team, as well as developing our promotional strategy. The tools you've acquired for us are going to be immensely helpful --- so far it appears that the Imagineer products are going to save countless hours of roto and tracking, and we've found that Magic Bullet Looks has all of the control and flexibility needed to find the looks we're after. [pun fully intended]
MY: That's good to hear.
MY: Well, thanks so much!
DL: Thank you. Keep On Fighting The Good Fight!