Revisiting Old VFX
The title for The Short With No Name is a play on the title of Sergio Leone’s The Man With No Name, which is noted as a source of inspiration for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. This short film is basically an homage to the Dark Tower, thick with visual and sound references to the story.
This short film was an assignment for a film class at Santa Rosa Junior College in 2011. The project parameters were: The Challenge -- Using a video camera, design and shoot the following scripted scenario:
A person is about to open a door. The person hears a sound and becomes mildly concerned. The person finds the door locked and searches for his or her keys. The person hears the sound again and becomes visibly apprehensive. As the filmmaker, your goal is to build tension and growing panic, using any visual element or device that you can think of. The film closes with the person finally opening the door and getting to the other side safely. Here, you want to communicate to the audience the character's feeling of relief and safety.
The Effects
The first bit of VFX is the titles going up in flames at the start. That was just a common effect a decade ago, and I believe it was simply Turbulent Displace in After Effects.
The second bit of VFX is the sky replacement. We filmed on North Beach in Point Reyes, California, on an amazing surf day, but with a truly un-dramatic sky. I sourced some cloudy sky stock video on YouTube and got the owner’s permission to composite it into my film.
Practical and CGI Effects
The stories of the Dark Tower contain free-standing doors that open up to other worlds, and I wanted to figure out how to incorporate that imagery on the severely limited budget I had to work with. I found a door for sale on CraigsList and attached a 6ft wooden pole near where the hinges would be with half of it sticking out the bottom and simply pegged it into the sand on the beach. It worked as well as I’d hoped and we managed to hide our crimes with creative blocking.
The particle effects on the door sequence were made using Trapcode Particular, and while it lends a bit of a “magical” element to the scene, it’s used mostly to cover up the transition as the Gunslinger jumps through. I did quite a bit of pre-viz for this project, and I knew what I could to with Particular to make it all as seamless as possible. The VFX shots with the door were filmed on a tripod with Chuck standing as still as possible in order to make the rotoscoping easier. Then I added camera shake in After Effects.
The final credits are also VFX and composite-heavy. I filmed Chuck against a green screen in my old garage going through a set of poses that I had sketched out. The playing cards are a reference to Stephen King, and the number 19, which is a recurring motif throughout the books. Even through the credits I’m really just nerding-out over the Dark Tower.
This whole project was a great experience in the VFX process on a shoestring budget, and I owe a lot of thanks to my film school friends for helping me bring it to completion. Starring Chuck Starzenski, voice effects by Erika Smallen, and tons of production help and featuring on harmonica in the theme song, Sam Euston.
