Airas Slaitas
15 Minutes is a short film based on the dead internet theory, and today's online system, how it decides who to grant fame and recognition, and who to discard.
This story will be explored through the eyes of one dancer, her rise and destined fall from fame.
It will incorporate many CG elements to let my Visual Effects skills shine, while also being my first written and directed piece.
With 15 Minutes, I am looking to first and foremost tell the story at hand, as that is one I have been sitting on for over a year now, and I believe should be brought up more.
Secondly, it is a test to see how I do as a writer/director, as while VFX is my bread and butter, I fundamentally adore writing and telling stories.
When it comes to the VFX side of things, I will expand on them for each act:
Act 1 is simple enough, not much VFX work here aside from a few touch ups and painting out.
Act 2 contains the most ambitious CG job of the project: the LED wall one take shot.
This shot will feature my college's LED wall, a live green screen if you will. The idea is to cycle through 5 different environments on the fly, while transitioning real life foreground elements, and cast. In the story, this is to simulate how fast paced overnight fame can be. So I will make the 5 environments in 3D, animate the transitions, get working with Vray and Chaos Arena, and project onto the wall. While also planning out and directing on the day who and what goes where and when, and all in one take!
Finally, Act 3 is simple by comparison, I will make a surreal unbelievably large theatre environment, upon which I will composite on the real footage we get of the final performance. The theatre is symbolic of the system, which is where the surreal elements come in, it is not a place, but a congregation of algorithms.
Now having almost completed everything, I would say it was wholly successful!
-PS the film is in the final stages of editing as of writing this, so things like the background music on videos seen here is not final-
Firstly, the story I wanted told in my opinion is now there, accurately available to experience on screen.
Secondly, I really enjoyed the process of writing and directing, it took some time to get into the flow of it, but the 4 days me and my crew spent on set were very much so an enjoyable time to be alive.
I learned so much from the experience, and would absolutely work with them again no questions asked.
Now, onto the VFX side of things:
Act 1 was simple enough as expected.
Act 2 was by far the most challenging, the lead up to shoot day consisted of creating the 5 environments, making them compatible with new software I was learning as I went, and then actually getting it working with the LED wall, all while planning out logistically how this will be shot.
But after a few sleepless nights, and many creative solutions, when shoot day came we were ready. Everything fell into place, everyone played their part, it ended up being the only day we wrapped up early!
Act 3 also took quite a bit of work, the environment is entirely hand-made from scratch by me, every model, every texture, and getting that surreal uneasy atmosphere across took some tuning to get right. But overall I think the vision was captured.
~ The finished film is up on my website for viewing!
Hello, I am Airas, and my interest lies in the process of getting ideas from the abstract to screen.
Digital 3D and Visual Effects have allowed me to do this, taking ideas from my own mind or other's, and realising them within the 3D space, creating characters or entire worlds, photorealistic or animated, all from my bedroom!
These skills have given me the opportunity to work with many interesting and creative people, here and overseas.
And that is my goal, to continue honing my craft, and bringing brainstorming to life.
