Super Happy Fun Clown
Another KC horror film by Eric Winkler and Patrick Rea. Titles and most Visual Effects created by me.
The Unseen
The Unseen Directed by J.S. Hampton is the first feature film that I was both the sole editor and VFX director.
Unlike most films I was brought on board when the 1 page outline was written and had the opportunity to but int both creative and operational feedback as the film was taking shape. As a result I was able to guide the film from concept to completion. Post production came in fast and under budget. Over half of the film’s cut is the original assembly edit. Even sending the film off to the QC for the distributors was smooth, approval on the first try through QC, a rare feat. This film was smooth sailing and I hope to have that level of control and influence in the process again on our next feature film.
Here is a showreel of the more interesting VFX done for the film. WARNING SPOILERS.
There were no promotional photos taken and with distributors giving us an abrupt deadline, I drew this poster for the film and sent it off to the director. Thankfully he loved it and had few notes.
Head Count
I ran the Wild West Film Fest (a 48 hour film competition) for over 11 events, one of our teams one first place with a short film called Head Count. Later the team ended up expanding that 5 minute film into a feature length film.
This film ended up having one of the most complicated visual effects shot that I have ever done. It doesn’t seem like much but with all of the action of this shot, to complete a sky removal, environmental changes, and wire replacement, I needed to stitch together 5 different stabilizer camera data threads. Some times the best visual effects are the ones you cannot “see”.
Jayhawkers
Jayhawkers, based on the true story of Wilt Chamberlain, the athlete who changed the world of sports and the KU Basketball team that modernized college sports and changed a small Midwestern town, serving as a parallel to the Civil Rights movement that would transform the entire American society.
On this film I had the privilege of doing the title sequences, visual effects, and artwork for the film. I also mastered the DVD, Blu-ray and DCP for distribution. Here is my visual effects breakdown:
Goodland
When the body of a drifter is discovered the same day a photographer arrives in the small farming community of Goodland Kansas, the local sheriff is left to piece together a string of events that don’t quite add up.
I served as an associate producer for this film assisting with many tasks to get the film made. I also worked on many of the films visual effects most notable the firearms sequences. Here is a breakdown of the films VFX.
Destination Planet Negro
In 1939, African American leaders respond to Jim Crow segregation by building a rocket to colonize Mars. The three person crew blasts off, but time travel instead, arriving in present-day America revealing much about race today.
I worked on this film directly out of college. The film had an extremely low budget and was created by film professors Kevin Willmott and Matthew Jacobson with an army of film students. With Matthew’s rocket model and photography work I was able to create some neat visual effects with little time and no resources.
The Sublime and Beautiful
David Conrad is a college professor raising three children in a small Kansas suburb with his wife Kelly. When sudden tragedy strikes the family days before Christmas, David and Kelly’s marriage is brought to its breaking point as David’s desire for retribution leads him into uncharted moral territory with the question: how can we forgive?
For this film I created the title sequences as well as some minimal visual effects work.
What We’ve Become
After a building a life living in New York, Stephanie is called back home to small town Kansas where she rediscovers the past and people she left behind. Can she choose to look to the future, or help the people from her past who need her the most?
I was able to so some visual effects work for this film as well as build artwork for the film and it’s distribution.
DSellVFX 