Ex Wife

Marie's performance! This is still unedited but I already like this part a lot!

Mask #2

Here is the same footage with a different mask

Trackin #2

I thought this might be interesting to see. This picture shows the workspace to track the footage and replace the face of the actor:

Tracking

So now I'm busy with editing and tracking the footage. I will use the technique I explored earlier. I will map the animated face on top of the actors face. I gotta thank Stefan Puppe over here for doing a very good impression on Hubbard. It's a pity somehow that in the final footage only his body will be seen, so I decided to show a little extract of the film with Stefan's face and with a preliminary mask on top of his face.

Finally - First Pictures of Shooting

I was surprised when I looked at my site stats today that there are still 3-5 people visiting this site a day. Thanks for showing continous interest in my project!

And so now I'm proud to present some major updates to my project after such a long time. The shooting is done and I must say that it went incredibly well.
The pictures of the shooting can be seen over here:

Diplom Dreh "Bigger than Life"

The CI of my Religion

I discussed my logo drafts with some friends and received a mixed opinion. Many liked the golden and the metal one. The one down right looks a bit too modern.
I decided to mix the metal and the golden one so that it looks a bit more golden. I will talk to a friend of mine this week who does typography since I'm not sure about the typeface. I think it kind of fits in there, but it's not comletely what I am looking for.

Designing Religious Insignia

I finally came up with a name for the religion my film is based on: SCIENTIFACY
A mixture of Science and Efficacy. Every similarities with other religious groups are of course purely coincidental.

I just designed the religious insignia for my religion. This gave me quite a hard time. It has to be simple, still striking. And I didn't want the "logo" to resemble other religions like the cross or the star of david. It also had to look a bit futuristic.

So here is what I came up with so far:



It's kind of a mixture of the CBS Logo, Star Trek and The Great Seal of the One Dollar Note.
I guess I'll choose the golden one. Any other idea? Which one do you like best?

Tracking Tests

At the moment I'm trying to optimise the method of tracking pictures onto faces by using better tracking points.
In the first try I used white dots made out of cotton:

That didn't really track very well. Could be the lights or the dots but most likely a combination of both.
Now I'll try colorful dots, let's see if this works better. Will post the results later...

face tracking test

here is an initial test of the face tracking technique i am working on:


thanks goes out to henryk for having a good idea about realisation

80's Scientology Commercial

I guess this video needs no further explanation:



Here are some disturbing quotes from L. Ron Hubbard:

The Tone Scale

Did you ever wonder how some of the techniques used by Scientologists work?
Here is an excellent example of the so called Tone Scale:

What is Scientology?

I wish I could have had a Yellminar held by my good ol friend Hubby!
The Video is edited out of the videos you now find on the new Scientology Video Channel at www.scientology.org
Hilarious!

Shatter suppression

This is a small excerpt of an interview with Arnie Lerma, an ex-scientologist and now owner of a web page to expose Scientology as a dangerous cult.
He did an interview with german magazine "Der Stern" on 28th January 2008:

He talks about Tom Cruise's association with threats to Scientology:

Cruise mediates an ideology of hate. He also does it whenever he speaks about "suppressive persons", who are enemies of Scientology, so called "suppresives". There is a Scientology textbook named "Shattering Suppression". On the cover you can see a face being shattered.

This image is very metaphorical. A broken apart mask like scared looking face. That's how Scientology would like to see its opponents.
This image could well fit into my film as a visual idea. Since I'm working with mask like faces (image puppeteering) I could have a face breaking apart as a result of Hubbard's bashing.

Kant Attack Campaign by Nietzsche

A fictional campaign against Immanuel Kant. This short video has been produced by Carey Burtt (youtubechannel: KingHotPants) who is also the autho r of the short video "How to become a Cult Leader"
Man, I wish the upcoming american elections would have campaign ads like this! Obamas and Hillary's position on metaphysics...No TV fights and denunciations of the opponent, only philosophical discussions about topics like empirism, rationalism or transcendental idealism! What a wonderful world that would be...



At the moment I'm researching the big philosophers like Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Hegel for the theoretical part of my work. In case you wonder how this video connects to the rest of the topics...

Edward Bernays Documentary

I just found this very interesting documentary on youtube about the control of pubic opinion. a documentary about the life and work of edward bernays (the guy i was mentioning earlier)

Image Puppeteering

I found a way to imitate the style I was talking about two days ago.
here is my first animation test of L. Ron Hubbard talking about Aleister Crowley (english satanist)

Visual Guide I

I collected a bunch of videos that I looked into as an inspiration for the visual concept of my movie:

A friend of mine (Catherine) recommended to have a look at tete a claques:




I really like the way that it looks, still its not exactly what I was looking for.

A day ago I saw a small animation video where you would at last expect an idea for a visual concept: at the foreign affairs news on german tv
At "auslandsjournal" they have a little satire at the end of the show where they portrait world politics. They use photos of real life people, stick them on animated characters and use facial morphing for the expressions:

Finally, theres an update... Details about the story

Hello to all you who really missed having new updates of this blog (hello ben)
So far I have been busy developing a story or at least an outline for my story.
Thats's where i am at the moment:

There are basically 4 characters who are invited into the show "This is your life".


A basic character description:

The Chinese Guy



Hubbards first meeting with a guru. A traditional philosophist and master of cunfucianism. Hubbard pretends that he understands and apreciates his culture but constantly is doing the opposite.

The Science Fiction Writer / Occultist Friend


The guy who gave him the idea to start the cult. A former friend that still has a lot of respect for Hubbard. Hubbard ran of with his wife (following guest) and borrowed money that he never paid back. The writer still thinks he's a medium with special mysthical powers so he treats him with a lot of appreciation. despite the small discords...

The Ex-Wife


A guest by accident. The host was meant to invite his wife but not his raging ex wife. She hasn't seen him for a while since he had been hiding from the police. She tries to hit him with a chair, security guards have to intervene.


The Follower


A brave follower who believes every word his master tells him. As a celebrity he tries to convert people for the cult. He has a psychic laughter and seems to be a bit "out of touch".