the funklab

We have just submitted our short film Dim Rooms to the St Kilda Film Festival.

The short film formerly Heaven and Hell has just had its name changed to Dim Rooms. Heaven and Hell was just a working title before we could come up with something a little bit cooler.

So here is one of the promo posters::

Stay tuned for more updates…

A little progress report on the Heaven and Hell Production. We’re currently two thirds of the way through editing. We’ve colour corrected the first third and are debating on using Matts in the second third (Matts are used to hide a certain bit of image. We’re using them to help us out with adding mood to a shot).

Next challenge comming up is the getting the actors to jump in the recording studio, as we had problems with our on set sound setup.

Things are finally comming together.

So, it has finally finished.

The NTSC version has been seent out to be replicated and will be distributed there soon.

Working on this project has been one of the most stretching and rewarding experiences.

There are some productions that you totally immerse yourself in. Day and night, it’s all you think about. Going through each day, you mentally cut shots, move edits, and play the whole thing in your mind. It churns inside your head, simmering like a great bolognese sauce, each flavour adding to the other. The music and vision get into your soul and meld together.

Then you sit behind the computer. Its all easy then. You cut what you’ve seen in your mind.

It’s funny how when you create something, its like a little piece of you is in there.

I love making life.

Back sometime in 2004, the mustard crew banded together and put on a whole series of shows down the east coast of Australia. It was the release of Brethrens new album Beyond Underground. Hoodsta and Playdough came along. Playdough is a great artist from the states, and one of the things that we did was make a music vid clip for him.

saddle up, by playdough

We picked some great locations (This is it in richmond and Giant in west melbourne) and shot it all on my PD 150. Editing was abit messy, as it was a bit of a transition from doing the cutting in premiere and colour correction, vfx in after effects on a pc to using after effects on a mac. In hindsite, it would have been heaps easier if we kept everything in Final cut, and just sent the shots which needed vfx to after effects.

A little messy

But it is now finished

Well, its been really busy here at the funklab. We’re trudging through the Sons of Korah DVD, with only about 5 songs left, plus all the DVD authoring. A whole lotta fun editing, but boy, what a lotta work. Soon I will be able to see my wife again.

Right now, djp and I have just finished colour correcting psalm 137 [babylon]. We’re onto ingesting psalm 148 and are havin a laugh listening to the latest diggnation.
Kevin and Alex. Funny guys.

On a geekier note. I’m finding that doing the colour correction in Final Cut much easier than I thought. Previously when I would use premiere I would output to After Effects and do all my colour correction there.

Now, on a mac with FCP the color correction tools are vastly superior and produce (IMHO) a better looking picture. Using this workflow has increased our productivity immensly. We just churned out a song and finished correcting each shot in about an hour.

Check out the finished promo for the Sons of Korah Tour in the USA on their website.

Enjoy

All right, here we are. Things have been really busy here at the Funk Lab. We’ve just finished 2 projects, the Malvan Dancers presentation DVD and a great wedding DVD of Callum and Lauren.

The big news is completion of principle shooting of Heaven and Hell. Everything went great. The Direction of Chad and Mark was excellent, coupled with Caleb’s camera op really made the process amazing.

Our actors, Don Bridges and David Spencer brought some maturaty and excellence to the production, not to mention commitment after smoking 16+ cigars during takes! Thanks heaps guys.

Also props to Ian Walter for letting us use his house and building a set for us. You really helped us out big time when we needed it!

Other people involved were Costume designer Mel Davie, James Kilpatrick as grip, Corey as Sound designer, Julie as Judy and Jolane, Nathan, Michelle, and Erica for hanging around. Thanks to all of you.

Well, the shoot is over. Stared at 7:00pm and shot through the night. We finished packing everything up at 6:10am and were really stuffed. Mark, Chad, Fearn, Julie and Todd put in the whole time, while I accidently fell asleep behind the camera! Thanks to Nath Balbony and Mel for helping us out during the night as well. Check out the rest of the photos on flickr.

We at the Funk Lab are currently working on a great short film written by local hero Chad Lofits. Mark Davie and Chad are Co-Directing it with myself as Producer. Caleb Folkes is Camera operator, but due to his other work commitiments, can’t be with us on our first shoot day this Friday night. Instead i will be behind the PD 150.

A couple of locations fell through for us, so as a backup, the Funk Lab offices are becoming our set. So, a couple of hours moving furniture, and we have a ready to go set.

Stay tuned for updates…