June 9th, 2010
Reminder: Blog & WordPress
Just a reminder,
I have moved my blog from Blogger platform to WordPress. Please update your RSS feeds:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/carlosbaena00
My blog is still at:
http://www.carlosbaena.com
Please be patient as I’m going to be transitioning the rest of my site over to wordpress in the upcoming months. Thanks.
Carlos.
June 7th, 2010
Golden Gate Fog
Went to Marin Headlands a couple of nights ago. The fog in this city is simply stunning.
C.
June 4th, 2010
Omni-Tracker
So one of the things I’d like to do through my blog is to acknowledge those people/friends that have helped us in the shortfilm unconditionally. My friend Warren from Omni-Tracker went above and beyond in helping me. So even if it’s through my little blog, I’d love to help him back how he helped us. We used two types of dollies. Tracks/rails and this Omnitracker. Warren let us use his Heavy-Duty version of this small but very practical dolly. Our main setup was aproximately 20 pounds…so it needed to be strong. They just released a lighter HD setup which I recommend for DSLRs.
Here below are my good friend and talented DP Tiffany Taira, as well as Luigi Passalacqua (color grader) doing different tests last year. I think at the end of the day, you use whatever it is that you have and explore all the possibilities. We could put the dolly on either classroom tables, floors, etc. Really practical especially when you don’t have the flexibility of setting up a big dolly.
We used the Omni-Tracker in a variety of ways, straight moves and circular dollies. Since we didn’t have a way (or budget) to have orbital type of dolly moves either for reveals or to lower the camera to the ground while hiding tracks, we found this to really help us achieve what we were looking for.
What helped us was to preview whatever we were going to shoot in animatics in Maya. It also saved us a ton of time on the set. We didn’t have that much time for certain scenes, so we had to get what we could. I got the help of my friends Eduardo Martin and Edward Robbins when it was time to get the models for previsualization. You both rock. Then Tiffany and I could start trying different things and braimstorming ideas based on the scenes.
So, we used the setup for three different shots. A low angle shot of the kid entering his bedroom, a reveal rack focus shot from one kid to the next and a long circular dolly around the main kid in a key scene. I want to mention also in the videos are our camera operator Jason Kim and our focus puller Rich McKain who worked totally hard on the shoots.
For those looking into live-action independent shorts, I can’t recomend this little tool enough. There is a lot of stuff out there. This is just one of the tools that worked for us.
Hopefully this helps.
Carlos.
June 4th, 2010
Play by Play
Play by Play is a simple live-action shortfilm financed by Afterworks which is part of Pixar University department, with the goal of providing education to those of us that work in Animated Feature Films during the day and are interested in learning more about live-action. It’s a really great opportunity and can’t thank them enough. While it’s a completely different beast than animation…in a lot of ways, I’ve been loving the project as well as the goal/purpose of it which is to learn.
The story is a simple story from my co-worker Bob Roden about the struggle of a boy who is bullied. Bob wrote a script that I thought had a beautiful message, and it made me want to work on it. I had the tremendous luck to be directing it, with a great hardworking crew especially considering we have been doing this on our free time. Hasn’t been easy that way. We are in our last stretch in the last few months of completing it. Whether the short turns out good or not, it’s been already worth it in many ways…and has truly only made me more excited about working on more and learn more about this craft.
So over the next few months now that ToyStory 3 is completed and I start to work on a future Pixar film (not sure if it’s been announced so just in case I prefer not to mention) I’ll write about what I’ve been finding out and learning from working on this, using the equipment we used, the people that has been helping us and notes I’ve been writting here and there about things to keep in mind in the future. So since we are all essentially doing/telling stories I figured I’d share in case it helps to those of you whether you are doing live-action or animation.
Carlos.
June 3rd, 2010
Ipad/Iphone Slate
For those into independent filmmaking, this looks way too good.
Just when I thought I didn’t need an Ipad for anything. Great. But I’m still fighting it. My first generation Iphone is still a trooper.
Carlos.
May 31st, 2010
Previous Blog Posts
In reorganizing this blog, I realized I don’t have an easier way to access the PREVIOUS educational blog POSTS I’ve created over the last couple of years. Currently working on adding a section so that they are easier to find. In the meantime, here is a list of them with links to each them as well. Keep in mind these are not a full explanation of the subjects, but instead my thoughts/insights compiled into simple little posts.
I hope it’s helpful.
Carlos.
- Acting & Non-Acting
- On Feedback
- Status & Comedy
- Combining multiple ideas into shots
- Editing
- On Film Acting
- Dramatic Choices
- Motivation
- Career Advice
- On Schools
- Priorities & Organization
- Timing & Comedy
- Eyes: Part 2
- Eyes: Part 1
- Texture
- Simplicity in Planning
- Details
- Acting vs. Reality
- Internal: Emotion vs. Expressions
- Topic: Storytelling as animators
- Track/Dolly/Steady shots
- Snappy Animation
- Topic: Life as a professional animator
- After the Gag
- Topic: Overcoming Shot Challenges
- Internal vs. External Dialogue
- Topic: Making it / Dream Jobs
- Snapshots in animation
- Weight & Materials
- Composition is Composition
- Storytellers
- Film & Photography
- Gesture Choices
- On submitting Demo Reels
- Expectations
- Facial Expressions
- Tex Avery & Gags
- Simplicity in Animation
May 31st, 2010
My dog Tia
As I’m getting used to posting on WordPress, I wanted to slowly start getting back to posting. In the meantime I wanted to pass a link of a little simple video I did of my dog while I had a bit of time of the last couple of weeks.
I hope you enjoy watching it as much I enjoyed shooting it. 
Carlos.
May 28th, 2010
Moving from Blogger to WordPress.
Hi everyone,
I have moved my blog from Blogger platform to WordPress. Please update your RSS feeds:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/carlosbaena00
My blog is still at:
http://www.carlosbaena.com
Please be patient as I’m going to be transitioning the rest of my site over to wordpress in the upcoming months. Thanks.
Carlos.
April 3rd, 2010
My TS3 journey comes to an end.
This week I finished working on what’s been by far one of the most gratifying, exciting, fun and overall amazing projects I’ve ever had the pleasure and luck to be part of: Toy Story 3.
It’s been such a weird week. Part of me is glad to be done since it’s been over two years working on it and towards the end has been quite a lot of work, and can’t see things anymore. But the other part of me is sad that the adventure has come to an end. What a truly fun group of people I’ve been able to work with, what a special film and what a wonderful Director to learn from.
This movie has been also fairly special for me for a few reasons. Toy Story (1995) was simply one of the main reasons I wanted to become an animator. I always knew I wanted to do films period. Just didn’t know how or where really. I went to a talk that Pete Docter gave in San Francisco that same year, and that talk changed a lot of things for me. I found myself so excited about this world ahead of me. Didn’t know if I had what it takes…and quite honestly I didn’t really care. Instead, I was just so excited to learn all this and start doing things. Getting a chance to be part of the world of Toy Story has been yet another dream of mine for a long time. A dream that not in a million years I thought would come true. I love dreams…and if they actually do happen it only makes me feel luckier and more thankful. I went through something similar when I had the chance to work on StarWars almost ten years ago having grown up with the original films. The kid inside me was running around non-stop for months and it’s been the exact feeling here with Toy Story. Feeling difficult to describe.
Another reason has been because I was given a chance to animate what’s been perhaps one of my favourite animated characters period, Buzz Lightyear. Now, after watching the first two Toy Story films a million times in college with my roommates, for a while as I was working on this third installment I’d think and ask to myself “These are very hard shoes to fill”, “Am I trying hard enough?”…”Am I exploring all possibilities this shot or character has to offer?”. I hope I did. I think at least I tried. One thing I know is I’ll miss animating these characters a great deal.
Last reason is one which I can’t really get into as much, but it has to do with Spain, my culture and this film. So, once the movie comes out, I’ll be able to share. But it’s yet another reason why I felt so lucky to be part of this film.
Anyways, as of this week I’m off this film and will be taking some time off soon, resting and also getting back into the live-action short film as we start to finish that as well. Here I’d like to share some pictures of the Atrium at Pixar and how they transformed it due to the film coming out in a couple more months.
It’s been an amazing ride.
Carlos.
