A Blog From Hell

Notes on the production art and the screenplay by Norman Doering

Watch as this image changes in the weeks ahead.

There will be "jet-cars" flying around in the above picture as I do more work on it. I'll also be adding a few more futuristic buildings to the fore ground. Right now I think it's a little too much inspired by "Blade Runner."

Above is a very rough design for one "jet-car" that might be flying around in the above picture. Depending on the distance the car is seen from it won't need to much more detail. But it will need more work.

I've done this page to prove a point. That most of the computer graphics called for in my screenplay, submitted to Trigger Street, can be done by one person, on one modern computer using some free and some inexpensive software. In the months ahead I hope to provide a bit of actual "code" for the work here with instructions for doing it on your own computer.

I anticipate reviewers of my screenplay to think my script will be very expensive to produce. I do not believe this is true. It could be expensively produced, but it doesn't have to be. I wrote it with an eye for a budget so it would look more expensive than it is.
The bulk of my movie would be people sitting around and talking about philosophy as in My Dinner with Andre.
It will be an inexpensive film because the price of computer graphics is coming down and this would be the major tool for creating the future city, flying cars and other effects. The Sci-Fi channel has been able to produce remarkable FX oriented shows because of the falling price of CGI. The kind of computer graphics needed here are the cheaper kind, cities with cars flying through them and futuristic architecture, because it doesn't involve cutting edge graphics work. It's old hat, been done well before, and I know some tricks of the trade.
Software that can do this kind of work can even found for free on the net. For example, POV-ray, at this website: http://www.povray.org is the Persistence of Vision Raytracer, a high-quality, totally free tool for creating photorealistic 3D computer graphics. It is available for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.
At: http://www.aliaswavefront.com you'll soon find the Maya Personal Learning Edition, a special version of Maya� software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics an opportunity to explore all aspects of the Maya software in a non-commercial capacity.
I'm using POV-ray and Corel Photopaint to see how far I can get with creating the necessary CGI. I don't believe POV-ray has ever been used in a film before. It has the disadvantage of being slow. However, it's free, it works and it will prove my point - I hope. This website will be a tutorial on how to do it because I'll be learning as I go.

The Triggerstreet Screenplay Forum, (�TSF�), located at http://www.triggerstreet.com, lists some terms and conditions in their Participation Agreement for uploading screenplays. One of those rules is that "other than your name, the Material must not contain any personally identifiable contact information about you, such as your telephone number or address." They didn't say anything about providing a link to a webpage with production art on it and a promise to put up more information later. However, I assume if I put my name and address on this page I'd be in violation of the rules, so you won't find that information here -- sorry. I don't understand the rule and I'm probaby pushing it.

What's coming in the future:

Information	Links
This is the screenplay, crudely converted to HTML	A Blog From Hell
Experiments with computer generated production art	CGI FX
Notes on re-writing the script to make it better	What's not in the script
Notes on trying to sell this screenplay	Marketing Diary

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