"The Touch" is a massive production, with all the preplanning and actual production considered. The Planning started in the autumn of 1996. The 2D3D Group here at Medialab UIAH started the process with some off-hand ideas for an animation. After some careful pondering and sitting at student cafeteria, we delivered the final draft of the script 31. december 1996, just some hours before New Year. So the whole phase took less than 6 months, which suffices for our 4 minute film.

But the ideas were quite robust from the start, so there was only the dramatization to worry about. We are quite happy with the finished script, although there might come some additions to it during the shooting phase.

As "The Touch" is a cinematic story(some say a bit melancholy at that), which encouraged us to integrate the effects into the drama, and not to make them the driving force of the story. That said, we do try to bring along something to make the audience wonder if what they see actually is Real :)

The Shooting Phase is a rather complex one. The original negative is a 35mm KODAK^TM brand. We shoot with the 1:1,85 ratio (customary in U.S., Europe prefers 1:1.66). The Lighting is supplied by several 4k, 2.5k, 1.2k, 575 and 200 HMI daylight lamps. The overall ambient color of lighting is 'bluish'. Probably the bluish glimmer aids our bluescreen separationprocess as well. The Bluescreen Shots in the film will be done alongside with the other non-effect shots. We plan to take several Background Plates and without moving the camera position or the lighting within the frame, take the action against the Bluescreen right after the Bg Plate.

The Audio will be recorded at the Location and at the Studio, but for practical purposes this will serve as a helper for the Audioediting. We will be using digital audio all through the process, with either Dolby SR ST or DTS as a final audio mixmaster. A Protools^TM unit will be our main tool for audioediting.

The Postproduction Phase is even more complicated than the principal photography - in fact so complicated that due to production schedule, we will update this information later. So remember to check this page out 20th of February.

[ -= UPDATE HERE! =- ]

Then we'll have all the data on this topic ready. Meanwhile, the diagram below gives some insight, albeit simplified, to the process: