The Dark Side of The Earth

The Dark Side of The Earth is a fantasy sci-fi film in development by writer / director Neil Oseman. The website contains everything you need to know and a really cool journal chronicling the past few years that Neil has been developing the project.

Anyway, last year Neil shot a 3 1/2 minute pilot scene from the screenplay (on no less than the same cameras used for The Dark Knight) with the goal of using it to get funding to make the feature. The scene features a character called The Wooden Swordsman - the name says it all. This amazing scale puppet was operated by a team of 3 puppeteers during the shoot, and although they did their job incredibly well they inevitably do pop up in almost every single shot of the pilot!

My job, along with a friend from college (and under the supervision of a very knowledgable VFX supervisor from Double Negative) was to help the shots appear as if the puppeteers were never there; and although we weren't able to complete every shot 100% in time for the pilot's screening at the Sci-Fi London festival last Saturday (what with an intensive degree course on the go at the same time), we did manage to get a good 80 - 90% done on the majority of the shots.

Below are a few screenshots of the shot that is closest to being completed:

The original shot

Puppeteers removed

Swordsman added back in and a new left frame edge with better smoke element added in

Ropes and ceiling element added into shot

The only thing missing here is the colour grade, which really made most of the shots look fantastic at the screening. I'll post again when we are nearing completion and there is more to show, but so far it has been great fun and I have learnt a huge amount. Please spread the word of the project if you can, it will be a really unique and special film when it is made.