BREAKING THROUGH part 1: The Beginning

This is the first in a series of posts leading up to the Final release of Breakthrough.

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I was in the midst of brushing up on my 3D skill sets when it occurred to me that I could do something more. Or better yet, I needed to do something more. I wanted a project in which I could apply everything I’ve learned up to that point. So, since video was my forte, I figured hell, why not. There was one thing that I wanted to more than create pretty moving pictures, and that was tell good stories. As a result I proceeded to conceptualize a short film.

Now at this point, Breakthrough was still just an idea, and was intended as a portfolio piece. However I knew I would have to put some cash down to do anything at all; I had no equipment at this point.

Before running out and buying a camera, I needed to know what story I wanted to tell. The story had to be short enough to complete in a reasonable time frame, yet powerful enough to strike a chord with whom ever would watch it. I then settled on a mood, a time period, and a character. Six pages later, the first draft of Breakthrough was complete.

Now I had to start researching the best way to shoot it. Naturally, YouTube was my go to resource. However, before all that, i knew i would have to be doing a lot of Keying (a process which invole removing a coloured background from the footage for the purpose of replacing it) which requires high resolutions. Idealliy, you would want to shoot in something above 1k or 1080p also known as full hd. more on keying in later posts). Ultimately I settled on buying a DSLR; these cameras are versatile, producing exceptional image quality and adequate video. In fact, if you’re good and have the right gear, they can be near cinema quality.

Now, usually on something like this you would start out with a budget. Well, mine was pretty much zero. So I knew I would have to dip in my accounts for everything. After a few day’s of searching, I settled on the Nikon D5200, a mid ranged DSLR.

I would spend the next couple of weeks acquainting myself with my new camera. There is a lot to learn about any new piece of equipment in order to properly use it, but for the sake of my project, i focused on shooting with it. It wasn’t long though before I realized i would need a lot more equipment to bring my vision to life (more on this later).

Now the hard work was ready to begin. I had a script. I had SOME equipment, and I had a vision. Bringing that vision to life would take another six plus months.