Ghost Project Showcase

GHOST PROJECT SHOWCASE
Visual Effects Diploma Program, 2009-2010

Creating abstract, amorphous VFX is unlike recreating practical or physical objects. The artist must design a look that requires subtlety and creative vision.

For The Ghost Project at Lost Boys Learning, students work entirely within our compositing software NUKE, as well as shooting individual live action background plates, black-screen character plates in our studio and a group cloud-tank elements shoot. Blending together the three live action elements, the students strive to create volume and cohesion between the different 2D elements – and a scary, funny or just plain entertaining ghost.

The project is designed to demonstrate the power of leveraging practical elements (physical effects filmed in studio) to achieve very organic looking effects in a short period of time. In our studio, we shoot a variety of substances on our HD video camera including fluorescent ink, egg whites, cream and sparkles in our "cloud-tank" - a re-purposed fish tank set up with a black light.

Our students have four weeks from start to finish, including finding relevant film reference, designing their idea and scouting locations. This year, we shot in the Seal Bay swamp, the Old House Restaurant, the Courtenay Public Library, the creepy basement of the old Laver's Department Store, the Comox Fisherman's Wharf, the Courtenay Museum, the train tracks in Union Bay and at the old dairy ruins in Merville (all of these locations are on Vancouver Island, BC).

For this shoot, we use guerrilla-style filming with our portable generator, fog machine, and lighting kit, and dig into our costume racks for just the right ghostly looks.

Justin Wiles

For my ghost project I decided a swamp would be a great location. The swamp had many old trees that were rotting and some odd-looking shrubs, and I felt they would help make the shot feel more mysterious and scary once we added our man-made fog. As my inspirational movie was "Blair Witch Project" I made some similar symbols to hang from the trees. Using an old canoe that we found, I went out to the middle of the swamp to hang more symbols. I had already placed a few and was starting to feel really good about my efforts until I looked down and saw the water rushing into the canoe. I managed to get back to shore with wet feet only. The worst part was when my shot was finished the Blair Witch symbols I worked so hard to create didn't even show up!

The hardest and most rewarding part of the ghost project was learning the composting software. The tools are essential in making an outstanding project. Filming the cloud tank elements was very fun. The cloud tank elements can be used in a wide range of shots, I am glad we learned the whole process from start to finish.

Stephen Holbrook

My ghost project was inspired by the scene in "Ghostbusters" when the main characters have their first ghost encounter. The scene took place inside the New York public library, and the ghost resembled an elderly
librarian, but later transforms into a scary monster-form when approached by the ghostbusters. I wanted to recreate this scene by filming at a library and casting a female wearing old-fashioned clothing similar to that of the ghost from the movie.

Finding a library that resembled the one from "Ghostbusters" was a challenge because the local libraries here had a very modern and clean look, unlike the older, mustier version from the movie. I ended up filming at the public library in Courtenay; though modern, I was able to transform its atmosphere into a darker, scarier version through compositing.

The greatest challenge was using the glass gizmo plugin and grid-warp node on my smoke elements, pushing the computer and Nuke to their limits whenever I performed even basic tasks such as moving the timeslider or just rendering one frame.

Anooj Kiran

For the Ghost project, I was inspired by the effects in the movie "Jumper". The story is about a convict from 1879 who was left alone on Viper Island, one of the islands of Andaman and Nicobar islands. This ghost, like the other convicts, died a terrible death and his restless soul has wandered in the jungle ever since.

The main challenge we faced while shooting was the lighting as the giant trees blocked most of the sunlight. The compositing challenge was to perfectly combine the smoke elements which we shot with ink in a tank with the ghost plate which was shot on a black screen.

Jeton Lakna

My Ghost Project was inspired the movie Ghost City, a story about a trekker who finds a haunted house one day. It was believed that a young girl was burnt to death in the house, and ever since then her soul lived in the house. The difficulties I faced shooting the plates was getting the high angle I wanted, and the lighting in the forest. I had a concept of the ghost eye view where the young girl sees the trekker. Match moving the skeleton to the body and blending in the shots with the practical smoke elements we shot was the most difficult.

Kenneth Van Aken

For the ghost project I was inspired by the Victorian age and the mysterious atmosphere the houses and portraits bring to mind. My thought was to depict a Victorian Lord standing by a portrait and suddenly it comes to life and tries to pull him into the world of the painting.

The shot was filmed at a restaurant bearing resemblance to a period close to the Victorian age. Making the portrait a believable part of the scenery was a challenge, the actual ghost inside was one of my classmates shot against a black background.

Evdoxia Sardi

For my ghost project I was inspired by films with witches and sorceresses. My story is about a sorceress who captured a child’s spirit in a magical crystal globe. The whole action takes part in a dark deserted room. In order to accomplish this project I shot the witch on green screen and the ghost on black screen. The most difficult part of the project was to make the crystal ball look proper with the right reflections and refractions. At the same time crystal ball’s reaction with the smoke and the sparkle elements should look normal as it moves.

Hui-Wen Wu

My ghost project was inspired by the movie " REC". I chose a documentary-style film because it makes the scene more realistic. My concept shows a man lost in a haunted house. The location was in a basement of a coffee shop which was under construction at that time. The ghost character is somewhat indistinguishable as to particular characteristics. I think that people feel scared when they can not see their surroundings, which is why I filmed in the dark. In my third shot where the actor is falling down the stairs I reversed the footage and added camera shake along with other film effects to achieve my end result.

One of the compositing challenges I had were rotoscoping out the hand in the third shot so I could overlay my CG fog/smoke. Another challenge was getting the perspective to match between my green screen and my background.

Caleb Clark

Most people look for inspiration from movies or books but my location is what inspired me. I filmed by the local Comox dock; my first trip there was to photograph the dock and boats at night. When it was time to start layout and previs for my ghost project I could imagine a dead widow waiting for her husband to come home. I wanted a female for my ghost and a male for my fisherman. I had the actor walk down the dock and walk through his wife without seeing her and had her dissolve into a smoky wisp. I filmed an actress over black screen and different smoke elements in an ink tank. Getting all the elements to fit in the shot took lots of tweaks in compositing. I used different warping and distorting techniques to get everything to work the way I wanted it to and in the end I was pleased with the result.

Lance Frisby

I took a slightly different source of inspiration for my Ghost shot. I wanted mine to be mysterious, borrowing a little from fantasy. With this in mind, I looked to Lord of the Rings, and watched clips featuring the Ring Wraiths. As for location, I choose an old train bridge I had known about in the Fanny Bay area. The bridge is very secluded, and upon approach, gives an unsettling feel, as if something else was there. Putting the shot together took continuous tweaks and changes, most trouble coming from choosing the right elements. Both hands have 2D smoke elements that took some effort to time and warp.

Drew Erickson

For my Ghost Project, I was inspired by the use of ghosts in reflections from various videos I've watched on the internet; things that happen only in reflections appeal to me. In the story, a guy accidentally kills his sister and he tries to wash the guilt (and blood) from his hands. Little does he realize he will always be haunted by her. Finding a good shooting location where a mirror's reflection was easily visible was difficult, but I was fortunate to find that the woman's washroom at the Courtenay museum was a suitable place. My only compositing challenge was to make the ghost's movements appear organic and ghostly, which included her appearance, walking, and disappearance.

All of the Ghost projects were mentored and supervised by Mark Benard at Lost Boys Learning, located in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island - a community with a huge variety of accessible, free locations, including urban, rural, seaside, old-growth forest, ruins and mountains. For more information please visit our website at www.lostboys-learning.com.