Preproduction: Fall Quarter 1/4
- gracieszymanski04
- Sep 14
- 11 min read
Updated: Sep 22
Details work from class one to class five (checkpoint class) of the Fall Quarter at SCAD. Blog posts arranged from newest to oldest.
Project Drive:
Other Group Member Blogs:
Hannah Kim | |
Benji Hopkins | |
Olivia Wesling | |
Sydney Relkin | |
Charlie Ragland | |
Mia Esparragoza |
To Do:
Revise shot list with feedback from DP
Plan/research pipeline
Get previs done by midway point of the quarter
Start FX testing, lightings tests, environment tests, etc.
9/21/25
Hannah was able to revise the animatic this week using the notes I wrote up and here is our most recent animatic for the project:
On Thursday, we were able to meet with Xristos, the XR stage organizer and we were able to book official XR Stage dates. In the same day we also got confirmation for our reservation for the Savannah Film Studios Green Screen Stage! Here are our official and up to date filming dates for the next two quarters:
Fall Quarter:
10/3/25 - Fundraising event for production costs
10/4/25 - TEST SHOOT DAY at the Savannah Film Studios 10 am - 6pm
11/7/25 - First XR Stage Load Test, 10 am - 12 pm
11/8/25 - MAIN SHOOT DAY at Savannah Film Studios 10 am - 6 pm
Winter Quarter:
1/9/26- Second XR Stage Load Test, 10am -12 pm
1/12/26- XR STAGE SHOOT DAY, 9 am - 5 pm
1/13/26- XR STAGE SHOOT DAY, 9 am - 5 pm
Xristos also gave us a lot of information about filming on the stage. Here are some of the important notes he mentioned:
Try to get as many props as possible that extend into the background
Avoid translucent things
2k textures in Unreal
Be careful with latest and greatest in unreal - it can be buggy on the stage
One Red Comodo 8k Raptor at the stage - already comes with lenses but would need to let him know in advance the lenses they have are a bit sharp so look into if we want that look or not
Bringing our own camera means no tracking
Can’t do quick pans
After this meeting, we realized it would be in our best interest to scout out a production design major to help us with these XR stage shots as they are a little more complex than we thought they were going to be originally. Hannah was able to draw up some mock ups for the set pieces we will need so that we can start recruiting with all the details.
9/17/25
I had a thought last night when reviewing the animatic. I think we should make sure to show more of a reason/the role of the moon. In the big beauty shot at the end, use FX to show that its the fairy's magic with the moon's magic working together to create the transition implying they are both needed to make the season change. I think we need to emphasize that they need each other and that the moon also had a role in this, its not just a dramatic light source that could be taken out. We could possibly allude to the moon being like a mother figure to the fairy and incorporate those themes. That could even be alluded to in her costuming/cocoon design as well. Perhaps the moon casts a light on the cocoon and that how she has the strength to exit from it/be born from. Or it could be like a light guiding her out of the cocoon like how baby turtles are guided by the moon to the sea. After sending this idea to the group, everyone seemed to agree with my thinking behind it.
After conversations this week about story adjustments and changes, I made a list of things to be updated in the animatic:
In shot 1A, add a streak of moonlight that causes the fairy to birth from the cocoon
Add little gold specs to the end of Shot 1F - guiding her
Add claw marks on the tree in the foreground or background that the fairy doesn't see to shot 2A
Change the moonlight beam to be at an angle (coming from the moon)
Downsize the fairy in the animatic
Label all of the shots
Today, I also continued working on logistics for the project, ensuring to detail everything in our google drive to stay organized:
I created the naming convention and the folder naming convention that we will be using for the project:
File Folders:
subject (fx/lookdev/etc.)
sh####
Files:
META_SHOT#_TYPEFILE_FIRSTLAST_V0##.ext
I created an updated crew list to keep track of members and to ensure that our credits are correct at the end of our project.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1At60HugwtT3qp3WDvamfbhcDjOHL_XvNN0ZjeU8kJiU/edit?usp=sharing
I then started bulking up the schedule today by creating some deadlines for certain members of the group/parts of the project to keep everyone on track for the quarter.
Important environment due dates:
9/24/25 -> first environment check in.
10/1/25 -> environment done enough for green screen test day
11/5/25 -> environment 90% done for green screen SHOOT day
week 10 + winter break for environment refinement + XR stage prep
Fairy wing modeling due dates:
10/1/25 -> wing model check in
10/8/25 -> wing model done to hand off to rigger
After this, I went ahead and planned out what we need to talk about with Xristos over at the XR stage during out meeting tomorrow at 4:00. Here are my notes:
Meeting with Xristos Notes
Explain the project/show him our animatic
We want early early winter quarter dates to shoot the project
Members that have XR stage experience:
Ben Jones
Julien
Benji
Possibly going to have a DP that has taken the two film major classes
Questions:
Does the XR Stage have motion control?
Does the stage already have lighting equipment?
Does it have any camera’s besides the big one?
What props are on set?
Can we put dirt/snow down on the stage?
Shots filmed on XR stage
Quick shots (don’t need to use the XR stage camera)
1B
1C - Camera move
1D - Camera move
1E - Camera move
1F - Camera move
3A - Still Cam
3A.2 - Still Cam
3B - Still Cam
3C - Still Cam
3D - Camera move
9 Total Shots on the Stage with the Camera
Lastly, the most exciting thing (for me) that I did today was starting to plan out what FX simulations we will need for the project. The FX of the project will be done by myself and Hannah, so we want to plan out now who is doing what simulations for the project. I created this document so that we could keep track of FX:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FSEDPj1t9j2VSs3V8mZ-KROBdPOK0TT3maup2PCh2Tc/edit?usp=sharing
9/16/25
Yesterday, we had a group meeting with professor Joe Pasquale about our project. He's excited about how our project is moving along and he threw in an interesting idea for us. He came up with the idea of having the fairy be much smaller than the size of an actual human. Not two inches tall like a Tinker Bell fairy but rather about two to three feet tall while also not being a child actress. We would still use our actress we had in mind but we would change the environment and costuming to make it seem like she was very small. This would contribute to the forest's daunting behavior and add to the horror elements of the film when needed. This would also further emphasize the fact that the fairy is new to the world and just born again from the cocoon, adding to her fragility and child-like wonder. After talking it over with our other group members, the team agrees that this is an interesting idea and we want to move forward with it! We especially love the fact that the textures and environment design is able to really prioritize quality over quantity with the trees and other aspects being much larger and therefore, more detailed. Here's a few things we want to keep in mind to create this allusion:
We want her dress/costuming to have features of a children's dress such as a short waist or larger seems. If she has any accessories, they need to be bigger.
The environment needs to be bigger and any interactive parts of the environment need to appear bigger.
The magical creatures when near her need to be bigger next to her.
I also spent some time today, updating our shot list with our current storyboards and making sure it is up to date with our most recent animatic. I am also adding in more and more rows to further plan out shots.
Another thing I started to focus on today was promotion for the project. Hannah had the idea to make an Instagram for the project to promote the film and keep an informal picture blog for the project to post fun photos and work updates. This is also going to be a place in which we can post about fundraiser's for the project and crew calls as well. I went ahead and set up the Instagram account.
To bulk up the Instagram, I also created a linktree. The linktree will not only be useful for the social media page, but it will also be a useful website to put on QR codes and to quickly give anyone interested in the project. Right now on the linktree I have links to
The instagram
All project member blogs
Our most recent animatic/cut
Contact information
As a group, we've been gathering lots of reference for the project. I wanted to update all of the references we've been finding so far.
References for making the fairy smaller:
All images from Pinterest.com.
References for the forest creatures:
All images from Pinterest.com.
LookDev References:
All images from Pinterest.com.
Costume References:
All images from Pinterest.com.
FX Reference:
9/14/25
After receiving peer feedback from class one, Hannah and I made some revisions to the story to make more sense. The biggest thing was that the glowing eyed monsters seemed to be just thrown into the story and could be easily taken out. Therefore we needed to find a way to integrate them more. To do this we changed how she interacts with the glowing eyes of the forest, making them more of an immediate threat. We also made sure that the moonlight was more obviously from the moon by adding a shot where she looks up at the moon.
Hannah spent a lot of time this past week working on an updated and more polished animatic for the project, with these story revisions. Here is the her updated version:
Tonight, I also had my meeting with my film major peer Sabrina. She has agreed to come onto the project as our "associate producer"! She was able to talk me through a lot of the ways in which film projects run here at SCAD and some of the different roles that they have on set. We landed on needing at least two other film students to come onto the project in the role of DP and the role of Gaffer. Sabrina is going to try and hopefully find us a DP that has experience with the XR stage, but we may end up with two separate DP's: one for the greenscreen shoots and one for the XR stage shoots. Once we bring these DP's on set, I can imagine that our shots may change quite a bit to respond to feedback from the DP. Another thing Sabrina let us know was that with bringing these people onto the project, they are able to rent our much higher quality equipment that is offered to film students rather than the minimal equipment offered the VFX students. This is great news as the camera quality is going to be significantly better than what we could have gotten with just the Blackmagic cameras at the Montgomery cage. Sabrina is also going to help us with a few logistics concerning on set standards and certain forms that our actor can fill out to protect all the rights to the film.
After my meeting with Sabrina, I feel confident she will be able to find our film major roles for us. Therefore, I went ahead and made our crew call poster for the other roles that we need for the project:
I have submitted this poster to the SCAD student services department and am now just awaiting approval so that we can print the posters out and recruit around the building. I also plan on posting the recruit on a few SCAD club pages to get the word out.
9/10/25
This is the first week back to school and being able to be in person with the group that we've been forming to work on the project. With that, this week has been dedicating to organizing everyone and everything about the project to ensure it runs smoothly. As producer, I've spent a lot of time with organizing documents, dates, and meetings this week.
In planning out the project we have decided to film scene one and three on the XR stage and to film scene two in the green screen room at the Savannah Film Studios. Filming this way allows for us to explain any differences in lighting from XR stage to greenscreen. After making this decision we went ahead with starting plan possible dates for filming. I created a document in our shared drive for an overall schedule for the project to keep track of important dates/deadlines/checkpoints:
To be the most efficient, we have decided to try and get our greenscreen shots done this quarter during the weekend of week nine. We then plan on trying to shoot at the XR stage during the beginning of winter quarter. This way, our environment artists and lighting artists have all fall quarter and any time during winter break to work on and refine the environment. We want to film the greenscreen scenes this quarter so that our compositing artists can start working as soon as possible and so we can have locked clean plates to work with for FX shots as well. To make this all happen, I've planned out three two important dates for the quarter:
October 4th: Test shoot day for green screen shots
November 8th: Main shoot day for green screen shots
We want to film at the greenscreen room at the Savannah Film Studios Backlot on both of these shoot days. Having a test shoot day will make our actual shoot day run much smoother and allow us to correct any shots that do not turn out as expected on the green screen stage. To prepare for these dates, I've gone ahead and put in formal requests to SCAD in order to reserve the space and to reserve camera equipment and lighting equipment from the Montgomery Hall cage.
To further plan ahead, I also set up a meeting with Xristos, the lead organizer and manager of the SCAD XR stage. He wants to meet with myself and Hannah next Thursday the 18th in order to hear our project pitch and lock down days in the winter quarter in which we can shoot. Before this meeting, we need to confirm how many shots we actually need on the stage so we know how many days to reserve. Having these dates set aside now will be imperative for our environment artists to prepare for and for the whole group to prep for shoot day.
The next steps are going to be gathering any extra help we need on the project, besides the members that we currently have. We want to get a film major's input on our project to help us with the skills we lack in as VFX majors. I've set up a meeting with a friend of mine from the film department, Sabrina Dubner. She's a friend of a friend that has a great body of work and is eager to hear about the project as it is right up her alley. We have a meeting scheduled for Sunday the 14th as of now.
As for possibly casting the role of the fairy, I have a friend of a friend in mind that I will be reaching out to via text this week to see if she is interested in the role.
The last date I planned today was October 3rd for a fundraising event held and Hannah and I's apartment. This fundraiser to be specifically to purchase any costuming needs, prop needs, and any tools that may require purchase that we want to use on the project.
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