It's been a while since my last production blog on 'Summertime Killer' so, because Chris keeps asking me, i've decided to give you an update.

Last time, i told you about my efforts to grade the film and gets the colours to an acceptably professional look. Today, i am still working on it; it's taking alot longer than expected because of the uneven lighting we had on the day of the shoot. Much of the footage is very dark and some is too bright. I am, at least, over half way through to grading, with most of the bigger grading challanges completed.

The last few days have been devoted to getting a few effect shots of of the way that occur in the middle of the film. This included building a 3D model of a knife that Chris throws during the film for a slow-motion pan past the camera.

This shot is coming together pretty well and looks as if it'll be amazing when it done.

I've also attempted to get our pistol to fire. Our prop was a gas blowback pistol but it wasn't working right and instead of blowing the slide back, the gas tended to explode out of every gap in the gun. Therefore, i've has to hand animate the slide coming back as well as adding a muzzle flash. I also added a brass ejection to this shot.

NOTE: I've still got to add muzzle smoke to cement the realism on this shot.

And on top of that, i've finally got Chris to smoke.

On the day, we agreed that Chris wouldn't smoke in my house so we'd have to add on the smoke latter. By filming a real cigarette burning against a black background, that getting rid of the black, I've managed to get some fairly realistic results:

So, that's where i'm at. I reckon by the end of next week, all the grading will be done and i can concentrate on the dubbing and audio mixing of the film (luckily the film's audio isn't too complex).

I'll update you with more pics when the grading and the effects are done.

Scott