One thing readers will have likely noticed on this blog is my tendency to include plenty of production stills whenever I am discussing the scenes I am working on. On-set photographs are standard for films, being useful among many things for promotion.
But on another level they also can be interesting for looking behind the scenes. Who doesn't enjoy seeing how these productions are made and how the actors spent their time between takes?
While we're at it, Bond fans should absolutely check out thunderballs.org, a fantastic non-profit site with the largest collection of archive stills for each of the Bond films. Their collection has been very useful to look through, not only for inspiration for my own production stills but also as reference for sets or locations used in the project's animated scenes.
Animated films do often have stills of sorts, but since they're not live action you can't have the same kind of behind the scenes ones. You may just get ones showing the animators at work.
With 3D animation though, you've got more opportunity for stills because you can just take them from a different camera angle in a scene. This is exactly what I've done with Diamonds Reimagined, and I've even made the effort to stage 'behind the scenes' photos!
During the course of production, I have also been considering the need to add something worthwhile during to the credits. I don't know how long they're going to be, seeing as I don't yet have many voice actors to credit, and I'm essentially a one-man show with the animation and editing.
But then I was reminded of how some productions might include outtakes at the end, just for a bit of light-hearted fun. Even Pixar did this for some of their early feature-length animated films, staging fake bloopers as if the characters were actually actors.
A fair few James Bond films have had their outtakes released, notably at the end of behind the scenes documentaries. So I've decided I would animate my own fake bloopers reel for Diamonds Reimagined, which I will include in the credits and also release separately.
So without further ado, here is a thirty seconds preview of the bloopers reel, featuring the first ones to have been animated:
Adieu for now,
- The Retro Captain
