Greetings, Bricks In Motion!  Despite my absence on this site for almost a year, I am still very much alive and well.
I have been itching to do another serious film ever since THAC X, but unfortunately, I have been very busy graduating high school and applying for college among other things, such as enjoying my summer with friends and family.

I was not to able enter THAC XI because my laptop has been running in safe mode for the past few months, and it would have been a nightmare trying to film and edit in 24 hours without the use of my filming and editing software.  I guess I could have borrowed someone else's computer, but that would require more effort than I was willing to put in.

But regardless of missing THAC, I think it's about time for another film.

I wanted to share an idea with you guys, and if I go ahead with it, it will be without question my most ambitious project yet, so any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Right now, the title of my new film is "One Shot", and will probably run somewhere from 2-5 minutes.

I don't have a particular story in mind, I just want to make an all-out action film, so the story is really more of a mission.  It follows some sort of secret agent on a mission to infiltrate an enemy base, steal valuable secrets of some sort, and make a daring escape, and in the process, blowing up the base in a spectacular fireball explosion.  He has "One Shot" to succeed in his mission, because there is a lot at stake, and failure is not an option.
I will develop a back story if the need arises, but at this point, I don't have plans for any dialogue.

Sounds pretty simple, right?  Well not really.  There is another key reason why the title of the film is "One Shot".
The whole film will consist of ONE tracking shot (no cuts allowed), with the camera moving in and out of the action throughout the entire film.  This is the main reason I consider the film to be so ambitious.  I have pulled off some very difficult tracking shots such as those in my film "The Machine", but those would all pale significantly in the scope of this project.
Of course, I will NOT be filming the entire movie in one shot.  I will be filming as much real animation as I can, then I will use greenscreening, matchmoving (motion tracking) and CGI to stitch the shots together.  Some people might consider this to be "cheating", but I simply do not have the resources to film the entire thing in one shot.  Regardless of "cheating" or not, this film if completed, will be a major feat in brickfilm cinematography.

I am working right now on a relatively simple matchmoving test to make sure that my software, Blender, can deliver the matchmoving capabilities I need.  I will post it here when completed.

Here are some technical details:

Title: One Shot
Length: 2-5 minutes
Camera:  Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 (1600x1200)
Frame Rate: 24fps or 25fps
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Working Resolution: 1600x1200
Final Resolution: 1280x545

So yeah, that's my idea.  I have completed about 2.5 pages of story boarding which comprise the first 20-30 seconds of film.  I can post those once I scan them if anyone is interested. 

This project is entirely in the planning stage right now, and given the nature of the cinematography, I will need to storyboard everything down to the second before I begin shooting.  Like I said earlier, questions, feedback, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Last edited by SuburbAnimationStudios (January 2, 2014 (05:37pm))