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Burning Midnight

Client: Self Initiated

Year: 2021

Burbank International Film Festival Official Selection

See the BTS and entire case study HERE

Burning Midnight started as a poem, a literary contribution to the Cyberpunk genre — but it became much more. The words inspired a group of us to band together to accompany the text with motion. The goal was to craft a piece entirely in CG, an exercise that we hoped would improve our skillsets in the realm of photo-reality. Though our first attempts garnered us an “A” for effort, we achieved less than satisfactory results. The 3D characters just didn’t evoke the emotional response to match the poetic verse. So we quickly switched gears, called in favors, and threw together a scrappy green screen shoot to capture our main characters in live-action. With the footage in hand, we re-edited the piece using a mixture of 3D scenes and roughly-keyed footage until we had our final visual narrative. After a lengthy compositing phase, we eventually achieved a deliverable that we felt was worthy to submit to film festivals. Though the making of Burning Midnight (executed outside of our day jobs) was a long and tiresome process, we are ultimately proud of what we’ve accomplished.

Production Stills

Style Frames & Early Tests

Credits:

Director: David Viau

Executive Producer: Brian Loehr

CG Artists: Ian FrederickAustin HochstatterJustin ReedRyan EasthamAlex NoelkeCasey DohertyDavid Viau

Compositor: Paul Barkshire

End Credit Sequence:  Andrew Nam

Story Development: David ViauIan FrederickMike MorrisAustin HochstatterJustin Reed

Editor: Ethan Erickson

Producers: Annie Engelker, Leslie De Lorenzo

Narration: Tamara Fritz

Actors: Jayson Hicks, Abigail Bittle

Director of Photography: Chris Towey

Assistant Camera: Coty James

Gaffer: Dennis Holyfield

Grip: Trevor Payne

Hair & Makeup: Jennifer Popochock

Costume Designer: Kristen Bonnalie

VFX Supervisor: Mike Morris

Colorist: Kevin Adams

DIT: Maurice Morales

Audio: Hearby Sound

Original Score: Alex Kopp

Special Thanks: John Buroker, Nannette Buroker, Ayako High, Keiko Nakayama, Keisha Harris

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