Poster for 'Willa'

How do you make a movie poster? That's actually a good question and one that I now feel I am a few steps closer to answering. As anyone who has been following 'Willa' from the beginning have noticed, there has been quite a few temporary poster-ish pictures on the Facebook, website etc. but I wanted a 'real' poster - one that expresses what I think the movie is about, leaving something to be desired and not raising or answering too many questions.
 Well a while ago, the wonderful Raffael Pacitti, who first got me involved in Bikram Yoga by the way, and I were chatting at the studio about the movie and he mentioned that he would love to try his skills with a poster for the film. I was thrilled! I told him about the sites etc and sent him the story so he could learn a bit more about it.
 But that wasn't all. In order to make a suitable poster he asked me all kinds of questions about the film - some very straight forward and some more symbolic. This was sort of fabulous! I didn't ever imagine that questions like those could help create the mood for a poster - but I was thrilled that Raffael threw himself into it this way.
 After giving him all the answers I could he brought everything together and sent me a draft, very close to the poster we have now. I immediately loved it and though it's simple in one way, it also just exactly gives the impression and sets the mood that I was looking for. How great was that! I'm hoping he will be designing posters for the next 50 films I do!

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).

Updates, Real Dates, Teasers and Promises!

So - For everyone out there who's following us I think it's time for a little update. I have the privilege, and curse, of doing a lot of jobs on 'Willa' myself. I am learning a lot but also have to work hard to make sure our wonderful film doesn't just sit around while I do one small thing after another. That's sort of why I am doing a lot of things at once and slowly gathering everything. Sound editing on the film is almost done, I am now working with a couple of great composers who, like so many others, have loved the story so much that they actually will make original music for the film. I would have settled for tracks that were sitting around but I'll certainly take an original score any day!
Also, a fabulous designer is working on a poster for the film and I am very excited to show you some of the ideas for that very soon.
'Willa' has also already been submitted to its first festival. I'm not telling you which one just yet. I think it's more fun if they actually invite us. Though the plan always have been to wait until the film was 100 percent done I just couldn't wait with this one.
Sound design is also coming together slowly. And it's amazing to see - and hear - how things come so much more to life and how the entire mood and feel of a scene changes with the sound. I've definitely found a new respect for sound designers out there and how even little sounds can change a lot.
The biggest task at hand is the color correction and the visual effects. I have a deadline for this - February 15th these must be done! There! I wrote it here! This means that I now have to make that deadline. Very exciting.
And speaking of dates. March 1st 'Willa' will be done! All editing, designing, correcting etc will be finished by then. I am hoping to have the first screening even before that date. I did announce on Facebook that a screening date would be revealed soon but a venue has been harder for me to locate than I thought so I'm afraid I'll have to keep people hanging a bit on that one