Visual Effects & Color Correction

The post production of the film is entering the late stages as everything starts coming together. In the beginning I didn't even consider taking on the task of changing colors and doing effects myself. But as time went on it became more and more difficult to find people who could help. First of all because I didn't have much money to offer and didn't feel too great about asking for 'free' help on yet another job. And second of all it was very important to me that whoever took the task needed to have a good understanding of my vision. So after thinking about just how long it would take me to explain exactly what I wanted anyway - I decided that the time was probably better spent learning it myself. And so I made up my mind to spend most of January becoming an expert at Adobe After Effects.
  3 manuals and about 15 hours of tutorials later I'm getting into it like I never thought I would. And I love it. I still have a lot to learn but I am playing aound with everything and discovering the amazing potential this program has. Our movie doesn't require any heavy effects or digital grading but there is still quite a few smaller or medium jobs in that regard. So once again I'm putting on yet another hat for this film but - once again - this hat also teaches me yet another bunch of things that will be useful for my future work. So it's not so much because I have a desire to do as many things on 'Willa' myself as possible. It's more because I come to realize that it probably is the fastest, most efficient and not to mention cheapest way for me to do it. And the big plus is that I learn things that will be very useful. The movie is 'my baby' as many others have called their projects before I'm sure. But when you have a baby like this you need to know that it turns out exactly as YOU want it. Risky, I guess, because now I am exposing myself to criticism on all kinds of levels - but also good because now I can't blame too many things on others, just myself!
Christopher Birk - Director (and now Visual Effects artist as well).