DOOM: knee deep in the edit. (* unfinished project *) — Page 3

Alright guys, Nobody is talking and fueling my motivation. So I'd better throw up a little teaser - most of what i have is rough and barely assembled at this point but I'll add a few scraps and see if it gets heads talking.

Remember, I'm always open to ideas and suggestions. There's a LOT of ideas on the table and it's really a matter of refining them and seeing what works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTPm2ILwlss

here's a very brief taste of what I'm planning regarding the ARK. I tried eliminating this part of the film completely but i could not come up with something better that was convincing. Nothing in the shot is final.

Next a bit of a teaser concept - just remember that even though it's a teaser these are still pretty rough in quality - temporary fonts etc....

{a joint effort between myself and Vaderios}

I'm sort of leaning more towards a grindhouse style - coloured with black shadows and a white outline. as seen here. [WIP]

I DO want to try and keep the classic style logo in the film - as impractical as it may be. I'm heavily reworking the film opening so it all depends how well things mesh...

By the by, would anyone be interested in working on a brief intermision clip in the style of "let's all go to the lobby" or old drive-in intermission ads?

Johnny Ringo said:

I love the way this project is shaping up and I think this particular touch is fantastic. Presumably you're just going to catch the quickest glimpse of the "original" title as in Death Proof. It's fantastic detail that many Grindhouse edit don't even think of. My only thought here is that the Doom logo looks a little big (based on my very limited experience they rarely took the entire screen) but I suppose it's all a matter of opinion and choice.

Is there any chance we'll get to see a teaser clip complete with the Grindhouse filters soon?

Well I'm working on some bits and pieces so hopefully yes there will be a clip before too long. It takes me a while just doing this stuff in my spare time.

Okay guys I've been hard at work on this and it seems I have a story structure that I'm fairly satisfied with. I know it's been a while and I haven't shown much but the scope of the project just keeps on growing.

I've combined a few ideas into a central concept that the story is more like a comic with live action elements, starting out with a main title reveal as a comic front page cover.

Basically I'm planning to use motion comic style segments for exposition that wasn't there before – for flashback sequences that work further into the backstory each time and reveal more of the events that in turn lead to the start of the proper story.

I AM still working on a Grindhouse / Exploitation style for this thing so above all else it has to be FUN, I'd just prefer if it also made sense, and if it comes across as a little preachy, I'm okay with that.

This should also be useful since I plan to reintroduce ideas from the early games, the id design documents and the early screenplay that didn't make it into the finished film.

1 Olduvia is not on MARS – it is on EARTH.

There is mention of Olduvai in the film – I believe this carries over from earlier versions of the script where the final reveal was that they had been on EARTH the whole time and the human race was living on some other world. What is interesting is that Olduvai gorge in Tanzania is commonly referred to as "The Cradle of Mankind."

Olduvai is used in the science-fiction movie Doom as a name of research facility on Mars. It was built around the ancient subspace gateway, linked with a similar device that was excavated on Earth. The plot is based on the theory that life on Earth originated from Mars.

I'll be scrapping this idea since it's BEEN DONE in other movies and stories about Mars. It's a cliché in storytelling even though there is nothing to prove or even suggest it. And it has no real impact on the story of Doom anyway.

This begs the question of what happened on EARTH which is still a concept with a few holes i'm plugging. And hopefully there will be a nice nod to doom II: Hell on Earth in there somewhere...

2 the UAC is not just another cliché 'evil' corporation.

This sort of thing gets boring and the scientists in the film seem to have no clue what they are messing with – In my sequence of events they had to infect their patient [Stahle] in order to test whether their c24 cure was working. And it does work, they just didn't get a chance to test it before Stahle broke loose and went on a rampage. This helps make sense later when Sam injects John with the c24 serum and his wounds are healed and everyone else who was infected was mutated – in this way I can remove the utterly stupid plot point of the virus choosing whether it mutates the host based on their demeanor.

3 The ARK

having a name like that makes sense but in the actual film it has to be coincidence since the prologue tells us the humans have no idea what happened to those that built it.

The teleportation itself with be coloured to more closely resemble those from the original games and the interior will be a token wormhole style view similar to that seem in Doom 3. Basically green with bright yellow and white flashes.

4 UAAF

In the film when they arrive at Olduvai, Portman says “why can't UAC rent-cops-deal with this bullshit” - which I'll have to remove since now they basically ARE the UAC rent-a-cops. One of the original ideas for the early games was that the marines would have been working for the United Aerospace Armed Forces. As far as I can tell I just need to remove all mention of “RRTS” in dialogue and maybe throw uaaf into some on screen text.

5 Tei Tenga

Since the dead planet is EARTH I needed the 'home' planet to be someplace else - Tei Tenga is a fictional moon or planet where Doom was originally supposed to take place during its first and third episodes, according to Tom Hall's preliminary design document for the game.

There's probably much more but off the top of my head those are some major set pieces I am working with. If I have time i'll try add some recent pics later...

As always I'm interested in constructive criticism as well as ideas and suggestions, no matter how 'out there' they may be.

EDIT: pics...[rough!]

Okay I've been working on some motion comic style concepts to use for the flashbacks throughout - I chose the style since these segments will be exposition heavy and I'd have a lot more freedom.

Here's the first realised concept, the others are still pretty sketchy. Please keep in mind it is ROUGH and of course motionless atm.

The first major flashback being what used to be the prologue scene. The idea being that as the main story flows in a linear fashion the flashbacks start with the most recent and move backward to the earliest event - and the greatest reveal.

I'm still toying with visual styles. Here's the original shot for reference...

It's still pretty early on in terms of the whole thing coming together. Right now I'm looking at the story as a whole and removing any scenes or shots that add little to the plot - then deciding whether such scenes include anything that makes them worth keeping.

For example: the helicopter scene - It just gives us exposition we don't really need. And I can still get a decent implication of the passage of time cutting right from the end of the Bunk room scene to the elevator doors opening in the AUC facility.

On top of that there are a few areas where i need to go one way or another with an idea so i've still got a few hard choices to make.

If anyone's got an idea on how to add a Cyberdemon to the film, I'm all ears...

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Cyberdemon_%28Doom_3%29

i was thinking of this project the other day. wouldn't it be wonderful if someone somehow made a wolfenstein grindhouse to go with it?

Werewolf Women of the SS? ;)

Actually IIRC there was a motion comic series done for the new Wolfentein game. I only saw a snippet. Might have to go watch that...

Maybe a Wolfenstein trailer?

The completely true history of world war II.

Okay

Firstly, I am still working on this and I've been doing quite a bit lately. And secondly, for those that are interested in the project, thanks for being extremely patient.

What I'm focused on now is getting the characters to the action quickly, the movie just had so many false starts and set-ups before you even see anything worthwhile.

The stuff I'm cutting out will in part be reintegrated in the form of flashbacks that I hope will add to the feel and I can just show what's relevant at any time without getting bogged down in foreshadowing – especially in a story that should be relying on surprises and scares.

The current idea is that we'll see flashbacks when a character is about to die – or they think they are, for example -  when they find doctor Carmack and he's clutching the severed arm, we'll see what led to that from his perspective – and tinted with shame and regret.

Later when Portman and the kid find “the rest of that arm” we'll see her perspective – one of anger – and then she'll lunge at them with rage in her eyes.

The kid dies when he makes a stand against Sarge and his orders – His flashback will be that very guy telling him that he needs to be decisive.

And speaking of 'the kid' I'll be trimming out his pill popping and general incompetence.

I've done a rough sequence of the Sewer scene with trimming and All along the watchtower playing in the background – I dunno if I'll keep that – it depends if it fits in with the surrounding scenes.

I've also been sorting out music to include and I'm now aiming at songs from around the 70's / 80's – including the inspiration for the original Dooms “blippety” music, ie: No Remorse by Metallica.

And the last main thing i've been workig on lately is areas that are extremely dark with no real payoff – like most of the sewer section, So i'm tinkering with the idea that the audience is viewing the action through some sort of night vision camera for these parts – sort of like the goggles powerup in the games.

I'm always looking at the games for more stuff to include, like transitions where one scene melts down the screen to reveal the next.

Something else that is quite cool in my opinion is some of the BTS footage from the various doco's showing “off-camera” footage – so you see a scene playing out – but with a camera crewman or a boom mic visible. I'll be looking to integrate some of this stuff for a more “cheaply made movie” feel.

There is a  cool shot from Portmans death where the actor is wearing a visible harness to propel him through the hole in the ceiling.

I'm still working on the general flow of things and i've got a LOT of rotoscoping yet to do so the progress feels slow but I'm learning and I'm having fun.

some more of what I'm curently working on...

And here's a video oncept - still kinda rough, an exeriment of sorts. Vimeo says it's not ready yet so it might be a little while...

http://www.vimeo.com/17457903

http://www.vimeo.com/17460926

3d concept current progress.

For the two or three people that might be following this...

Here's where things are currently at -

I've removed about 30 minutes of dialogue from the film - but a bits here and there will need to be reworked and reinserted.

some recent concepts will stay, some are now redundant.

Here's a clip i created from the standard opening of a few games - I had to blur the hell out of this thing just to hide all the jagged edges - the source is like 256x256.

and here's an attempt at a fairly unified set of titles that look bold AND interesting. A lot of things I've tried just haven't worked - I also tried using the font from the games but it's just to ugly, although I may find a purpose for it.

I've almost finished processing the entire film to look that way I want - kinda retro and kinda neglected. It takes a long time...

I've also been working hard on the idea that binds it all together - somewhat similar to watchmen there will be a sub story within the main story - told in a sort of motion comic form - this is where the classic episode titles come into play, the segments are sprinkled throughout - partly to fatten out the running time and partly to bridge story ideas between the various games and the film - as well as retcon a few ideas. [the sub story segments will always relate to what is currently going on]

One of the main ideas I'm kicking around is that the antagonist of the film is the protagonist of the sub story - Curtis Stahle. He winds up on Phobos - travels to Deimos [in hell] - returns victorious - volunteers for the C24 experiment. - and tweaks in the films plot line will accommodate this.

In the end this movie will never be great, I'm just aiming to make it fun.

Johnny Ringo said:

For the two or three people that might be following this...

JR, in no way am I trying to discourage you from posting your progress here.  But if you want a few more people to be interested in this, you might consider posting on FE.org as well.  I'm guessing there will be some interest there.

And for the record, I'm somewhat interested, but I can't decide if I'm interested enough to make a purchase of the retail DVD.  I watched it as a rental a few years back and thought it was better than I expected but still meh overall.

Is that an order, captain? ;)

I've been intending to do just that for a while, just been waiting til things are at a point that i'm satisfied.

If i have the energy, I might start one later today then slowly populate it with media. 

and yeah the film isn't as bad as people say - the main issue seems to be that it feels like some other franchise not the DOOM we know. 

Cheers.

I'll look into that stuff for sure. I'm actually working on the project right now. It's slow going but i'm learning and getting results...

I'm also considering a bunch of new ideas - like mock kung fu sound effects during the final boss battle. Just a stack of ideas that may or may not lead anywhere...

Good to hear from you btw, it's been quite a while.