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The Trailer
Missing the Big Picture
Missing the Big Picture is a short animated film by director Jim Merchant which is being produced in a black & white film noir style. The film shows an aging police detective named Snyder and his opponent, a master thief named Bergen whom he has been pursuing unsuccessfully for years both in real life and in their regular game of chess.
Production began on the film in the spring of 2010. After a couple of months the project had to be set aside for a full year. Production resumed in the summer of 2011 and should be completed in early 2012.
The film was built around the idea of creating a CG movie with a classic film noir look, while working (mostly) within the confines of the commercially available 3d models available for the program Poser. The animation would also be rendered entirely within Poser. The film was to be a quick production of around two months, but grew in complexity during those first months into a film that will have taken nine months, the help of a number of other creative people and countless hours of rendering to complete.
Jan. 2012 Update
Things are coming along slowly but surely with the animation. I ran into some technical problems in the fall after a software upgrade which slowed me down for about 6 weeks but things seem to be running smoothly now. Almost all of the most difficult setups are finished and some of the first scenes that were rendered have been touched up a little. Most of the remaining animation is in the dialogue sequences in which the animation is assisted by lip sync software which gives me a good head start.
Composer Frej Wedlund sketched out some musical ideas for the score during the fall which really capture the feel I am going for with the film. I'm hoping to be able to get him a rough edit of the film in a few more weeks so that he can get into the final composition work.
I am still hoping for a completion date for the film in May but I think I will be cutting it close. Stay tuned!
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Cast and Crew
Statistics
Total Production Images Generated - 69,665+
Finished Frames of Film - 6545
Shots Completed - 23
Remaining Shots - 26
The opening shot of the film involved rendering 3,626 images in poser to create 759 frames of film.