Timewarp Films Crawler is DONE!

Wow! I haven't posted here in 3 1/2 years. Well, during that time I finally managed to finish Crawler. For those who don't know, Crawler is Timewarp Film's 4th film -- shot in 2003/2004. Don Dohler, the producer, passed away 2 years after that. We all still miss him. He had edited about 95% of the movie, and laid in some sound effects and music (composed by Justin Timpane). The film sat for a (long)while waiting for the VFX to be finished. That's on me. I'd like to say that it was just that hard to do a ton of monster animation on the computer, but it had more to do with life getting in the way. Now i'm happy to say the whole thing is done, and Don's original edit is in tact. I did have to tweak the creature sequences for pacing after laying in the VFX, but that was something Don and I had agreed would be necessary from the beginning. Not to worry, his editing style is all there. Actually, Crawler as a whole represents a return to Don's roots. I think it feels very much like classic Dohler, with some Timewarp action thrown in.

I also want to thank my buddy Rob Long for his continued help. He worked on some VFX for me and kept me motivated to keep going.

We have some plans in the works for a premiere. I'm hoping that happens in early 2020. In the meantime, here's an updated trailer (above). Enjoy!

Read more about Crawler here.

For those interested in the technical information:

• The creature was created in ZBrush and animated in Blender.
• Sound effects editing was done in Audacity
• 2D VFX, compositing, audio mixing, and color correction were done in HitFilm (not an easy task. I would definitely do more of this in Blender now)
• Upconversion (SD to 720p) was done with XMedia Recode (another excellent free tool)
• the trailer was edited with Lightworks (better editing, but... well, looks like I may need a post on tools)
• Music for the trailer was created using ProScores in Acid Pro

A Documentary on The Blair Witch Project

A while back, a friend asked me to rework an old documentary he and some of his buds made back when The Blair Witch was released in theaters. They found the house -- which was somewhere in Howard County, Maryland -- as well as other locations in the movie such as the Burkettsville cemetery. They shot a lot of footage, even an interview with the Mayor of Burkettsville. The cinematographer put something together and it wasn't bad, but with the special 15th anniversary blue ray release of the movie planned, my friend wanted to see if we could make something the producers would want to include as an extra.

What you see above is the result. It came out pretty well, I think. We even showed it to Eduardo Sanchez, the director of the movie. He liked it and showed it to the powers that be, but it ultimately it wasn't included. At least it lives on Youtube.

Have a look, and "like" it if you like it.

A Chronicle of the Journey that is Crawler

Rob Long at Smash or Trash Indie Filmmaking published a detailed article that documents the long journey that we at Timewarp Films have traveled in our quest to complete Don Dohler's last film. It's been a tough road, but the end is in sight.

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ADF Studios Joins the Crawler Visual Effects Team

Timewarp Films is pleased to announce that Brian Anderson, the owner and operator of ADF Studios, has joined the post-production effort for the long-anticipated Crawler.

Anderson brings a fresh perspective, and a much-needed dose of enthusiasm to a project that has been on the back burner for longer than I care to admit. But Brian is hitting the ground running, which allows me to shift focus to completing the final edit, sound design, and other post-production activities -- confident that his VFX tasks will be completed.

On Sunday, we had our first production meeting. We watched the rough cut of the film in order to assess the scope of tasks involved. What immediately struck him while watching was how the film has an X-Files feel to it; something I never noticed. We brainstormed about the potential for additional scenes for the creature that will help round out the story. This was something Don and Joe had hoped for during pre-production.

After viewing, we discussed the workload. There's a lot to do, but we agreed it's well within our reach. We will start with an updated creature design. Much of the original concepts will remain, but given the improved technology, and Brian's fresh take, I think we hashed out some great ideas. More on that in a future post.

I'm very excited to have Brian on board. He brings to the table an extensive resume of freelance work, including the visual effects for two feature films (Ninjas vs. Zombies and Ninjas vs. Vampires), as well as a reputation for speed and quality.

One additional piece of news. When we discovered several gaps in the musical score, Justin Timpane, who composed the original score, offered to add additional tracks and re-mix existing ones.