spectrum labs VFX video
back in 2012 when i was starting all of this madness of trying to do freelance creative work (2020: update…. still trying to figure it out) some friends and i got involved with a project for a company called spectrum laboratories. the company had been playing around with the idea of a superhero mascot to do product videos for the company’s products.
so we shot an initial 'teaser' with nothing but two light panels, a few bits of chemistry gear, and a white backdrop. "Dr. Chameleon" was born. here is the initial piece - one of the first things i ever shot on the RED.
after screening the initial demo video, we got the funding to create a far more elaborate video featuring the spectacular scientist (played by martin cremer.) we were given a garage space to work with (the very same space the initial demo was shot in) and a reasonable budget for set construction, as well as various and sundry scientific equipment to use throughout the lab set (which was vastly helpful.)
so it was off to home depot to purchase lumber, lights, paint, wire conduit, random metal grilles, and whatever else struck our fancy. then the five of us began the roughly two-month process of turning a garage into a slick, futuristic chemistry lab.
with the set completed, the scripting and shooting of the piece began. the full-length "Dr. Chameleon" episode one actually clocks in at about 7 minutes and includes a quirky villain who runs a competing biotech company, armed thugs, fight scenes, and people who can smell lasers. but in the end it was decided to focus only on the abbreviated VFX sequence where our hero creates the "MPES" filter.
the full episode was completed as a rough edit before the project got shelved, however… so why not watch that here?
shooting of the final sequence took place over about 3 days on the set we'd created.
postproduction on the piece took about 200 hours, largely due to issues with camera matchmoving generated by our (then still home-made) dolly. the process consisted of matchmoving the shots we could with SynthEyes, generating the 3D elements in after effects, and compositing everything. the visual effects were all generated to match martin's movements (which he had rehearsed to the point of impeccable consistency.) the entire process resulted in quite an expensive-looking final product that quite literally has our blood and sweat poured into it. nobody actually cried, so there may not have been tears. i'll have to check on that.
DIRECTOR/CAMERA: chris morgan
WRITERS: ryan ederer, matt bone
1st AC: taylor smith
AUDIO: ryan ederer, matt bone
SET BUILD/EDIT/VFX/POST: darkenergymedia
CAMERA: RED Scarlet
COLOUR: DaVinci
