CW Bailey Film

DISNEY AND THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET

QBE Housing Outlook 2016-19 Motion Design

I've recently completed a full set of info graphics for QBE Insurance outlining their housing outlook for 2016-19. You can check it out here: https://www.qbe.com.au/campaigns/housing-outlook

"Lost in the Dark" Gets Australian Writer's Guild Nomination 2016

This year I've received an AWGIE nomination for the feature screenplay "Lost in the Dark"! The nomination is for the Monte Miller category, best un-produced feature script.

Hopefully this will go a long way to helping build momentum for the feature!

https://filmink.com.au/2016/awgie-awards-nominations-announced/

"Lost in the Dark" Gets Film Victoria and MIFF 37o South Backing

The Producers and I are very excited to announce that "Lost in the Dark" has been accepted for development support through Film Victoria!

In addition, we've also been accepted into the Feature Script Incubator Program, a highly selective program that will help us get to final draft.

We are also excited to announce that Lost in the Dark has also been accepted into the Melbourne International Film Festival 37o South Film Market!

The project is really going from strength to strength and with this level of support we are well on our way!

"ACROSS" - A Sense of Discovery, Directing Audience Attention Successfully in VR

25 May, 2016

MISSING EVERYTHING

Since I began working on "Across" I've wrestled a lot with how to direct audience attention. As soon as the first few moments of the film were in place I excitedly invited a friend to check it out. It was his first experience in VR and I strapped him in eagerly anticipating his reaction to the few story beats I had working. To my dismay, he missed it all. Literally. He became so enamored with the environment that he spent all of his time examining the trees and the waterfall on the tropical cliff. By the time he discovered the characters, their animations were done, the story beats had played and he had no idea what he had missed.

At first I considered that maybe this was an inevitable by-product of showing someone VR for the first time. I speculated that perhaps I should expect viewers to watch a VR film several times to discover all the details. But when my friend finished watching the short the first time he thought he had seen all there was to see. If I wasn't standing in the room forcing him back into the experience to see the rest of it, he would have walked away and never looked back.

VR ESTABLISHING SHOTS

I decided that the issue was with the setup. I reasoned that if the viewer had the opportunity to see everything important at the start of the short, they would know what to focus on. With that in mind, I reworked the beginning so that

"Lost in the Dark" The Feature Film

31 March 2016

Making the short film, "Lost in the Dark" was a fantastic experience. This year producer Dana Newell and myself have partnered with a local production company in Melbourne to turn the short into a full length feature film. Currently we are in the process of financing the film and just this past week I finished the first draft of the script. I'm very excited to see where it goes from here. Check out the official website for the feature here: www.lostinthedarkmovie.com

ACROSS

ACROSS - A VR SHORT FILM

19 Feburary 2016

"Across" is a short film for Virtual Reality and my attempt to learn the ropes of this new storytelling medium. When I first put on a VR headset in 2015 I wanted nothing more than to dive in and make my own content for this exciting platform. I got my hands on a used Oculus Rift DK2 and upgraded my computer and began working on "Across" at the start of February 2016 and it's slowly taking shape. I hope to share some of the details of what I learn through the process, so keep checking back.

I wanted to base the design of the film on two key ideas. The first was to use the "miniature world" concept whereby the characters and the scene appear tiny to the viewer, inviting them to lean in and explore. The second idea was to tell a story that fixed on one point in space where I could then place the viewer allowing the story to play out in front and behind them at the same time. From these constraints I came up with a story centered around two characters on opposing cliffs, allowing me to place the viewer right between them.

In figuring out the workflow, I referenced the fantastic blog post on the Oculus Story Studio website about their film "Henry". Using their workflow as a starting point I adapted my own tools to the process and started ironing out how to move between the different software packages. Here's a brief look at some of the work so far. Enjoy!

1) Blender - 3D asset creation, character rigging and Animations.

2) Unreal Editor 4 - Layout, textures and materials, lighting, sound and VR

Thanks for reading! Please keep checking back for more!

THE PARTING GIFT SHORT FILM

This film is the best example of my work. It contains fully CG environments I modelled and textured from scratch with live action actors I directed and composited into the scenes. In addition to all the directing and visual effects work in this film I also produced and wrote the screenplay.

My Work In India

From November 2014 until March 2015 I had the privilage to live and work in India. These are two films I made there for two separate organisations, CMC in Tamil Nadu, and Samvedna in Uttarakhand in the north.

Enzo Tedeschi on Distributing "Airlock"

Really interesting interview from Enzo Tedeschi about their online distribution for "Airlock". I love what these guys are doing. I think they are laying down a model that a lot of independent film makers can follow! Big thanks to www.screenpro.tv for putting this out there.

I first saw the work of Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey with "The Tunnel" and to see them continuing with this line of distribution is a huge encouragement. Check out their work at www.deadhousefilms.com

"The Parting Gift"

Short Film, 2015
Winner: Pilgrim Media Prize 2016
Nominated:
Best Original Score - Western Australia Film Awards
Official Selection - Made In Melbourne Film Festival
Official Selection - QV Melbourne Film Festival
Official Selection - Destination Docklands Film Festival
Official Selection - San Giò Verona Video Festival 2016

"The Parting Gift" is an allegory that explores questions around the nature of God. The film was produced for Power to Change, an international non-profit and is being distributed world-wide.

The story follows a young man and woman who are deeply in love; but when the woman leaves on a long journey without her love saying goodbye, she begins to fear he has given up on her, never realising he is fiercely pursuing her and only an arm's reach away...

Written and Directed by Christopher W. Bailey
Project Status: Complete

Official website: http://www.wondergatefilms.com/films/the-parting-gift

"The Parting Gift" - Progress with the VFX

This past weekend we finally finished refining the edit and "The Parting Gift" is now in a watchable form! The green screen has been removed and the actors have been placed into the digital locations for each of the 85 effects shots in the film (!). You can see a rough example of the process bellow:

At first the shot isn't much to look at, simply an actor preforming in front of a solid green background.
Using the computer we remove the green background and replace it with the digital location we built earlier in the computer. We also add extra people into the scene that we filmed at a different time. This background is placed behind the actor in this rough monochromatic form for easy changes.
Finally, we render out the final high resolution colour background and combine all the elements together. This is the first render of what the train station background will look like in the film.

Now that the film has been edited, we will be working for the remainder of the year on making these high resolution backgrounds and placing them in each shot. The composer has also begun working on the musical score, and our sound designer has begun placing sound effects into the film. It's exciting to see so many talented people coming together to make this film happen!

On The Set of "The Parting Gift"

On July 4,5 and 6 our crew of 25 got to work filming "The Parting Gift". It was an incredible experience for me to finally get the chance to do a film with so few limitations. With a 20' movie crane, and a large warehouse converted into a green screen stage - I could literally move the camera anywhere I wanted. The freedom was exhilarating - but it came at a price! Keeping everyone on the same page was a big challenge with so much green and so little actual location to look at!

To prepare I assembled a rough version of the film set to scale in the computer using Blender. Each shot was planned within that computer environment so that on set we could see how it fit in the virtual world. This kind of prep was very time consuming, but incredibly valuable. It was so helpful I think I'll use it from now on to plan my shoots - even if they aren't so VFX heavy.

Crowd Funding "The Parting Gift"

Radio End-to-End

I was hired on this project to create a visual illustration of how radio works for a lecture series at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in Sydney.

RIVERBANKS INFOGRAPHIC

An animated infographic for a recent client. I managed this job from end to end and did all the scripting, voice direction and motion design.

AFTRS Stereo Illustration Videos

These videos were for a series I created for AFTRS to be used in a course explaining stereo 3D Cinematography.

SONGL

I animated this TVC using After Effects and Flash.

"Lost in the Dark"
Short Film, 2013
Official Selection 168 Film Festival 2013

Nominated for:
Best Film
Best International Film
Best Supporting Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Sound Design
Best Original Score
Best Makeup & Hair
Best "Making-of" film

In a world where light is your only protection, a young woman must do everything she can to be reconciled with the ones she's wronged before night descends and the terrible creatures of darkness come to claim her.

Written & Directed by: Christopher W. Bailey
Written & Produced by: Dana Newell
Staring: Dana Newell, Dean Kirkright & Sarah Walton
Cinematographer: Ty Tuin
Edited by: Christopher W. Bailey
Sound Design: Nayomi Pattuwage
Orignal Score by: Daniel Saban

Project Status: COMPLETE

"Lost in the Dark" was written in 6 days by myself and Dana Newell of GMR Pictures. We then went straight on to complete preproduction, production, and post within only two weeks. The film was in submission to the 168 Film Festival, a competition where filmmakers are given a verse from the bible, and asked to make a short film based on that verse in 168 hours. Over twenty people came together to make this film a reality. It was a massive challenge but we met it head on, and the result is something we're all very proud of. The film has been nominated for 8 awards, including best film. That means that out of 156 entries from around the globe, we are now one of seven films competing for the top prize: a 1 million dollar development deal with Echolight Studios to make a feature film!

Behind the Scenes Montage

The Parting Gift VFX Test

2nd May 2013

The story of "the Parting Gift" requires the use of some very difficult to film locations - namely busy train stations. One secne in particular was giving us great difficulty as we tried to find a way to film it. As we encountered more and more roadblocks we began to explore other ways of making the film. One of these approaches involved the idea of creating virtual sets and filming our actors against green screen for the entire film. It was a challenging concept, and to test it I put together this VFX shot - filming myself and then tracking and compositing myself into a computer generated train station. After seeing this we felt very encouraged that this might be the right way to go. Have a look and see what you think:

100% KYLIE LOGO

This was an animated logo I did for a recent client. I took their existing 2D logo and brought it to life in 3D.

Profound-lets, 2012

Synopsis:

"Kidney Bean and the Grumpy Beans act out a profoundly hilarious quote."

Created by: Christopher W. Bailey

MY PROCESS FOR SCREENWRITING PART 5

29 May 2012

Attaining awesomeness in your first draft outline.

Redrafting the first outline of a film script is an important step that can easily be overlooked. I've found it to be an invaluable exercise. Once I've finished the first outline, I usually have a document with anywhere from seventy to a hundred bullet points which describe the film moment by moment. And like any first draft, it's not very good. The important point however, is that I have a story completely mapped out from beginning to end. The mistake now would be to rush ahead and start writing the screenplay. Hold off just for a while longer (I know I'm really dragging this out).

MY PROCESS FOR SCREENWRITING: PART 4

22 May 2012

At this point in the process I have a very clear idea of the the story I'm going to tell and the way it should unfold for the audience. By now I'm also chomping at the bit to start writing the actual script (why is it in screenwriting, you spend so little time writing the actual script?) but it's important to resist the urge and instead, put all that enthusiasm into the next vital step. The outline.

MY PROCESS FOR SCREENWRITING: PART 3

16 May 2012

Now that I have my big picture outline and a clear idea of my theme I like to begin refining my main character. The development of the main character is something that happens right from the beginning and in a sense the big picture outline is a kind of character bio because it shows the main character's actions over a long period of time unless your film is heavily plot driven. Often as I'm working out the theme and the outline, I'm jumping back and forth between that and different main characters and how they effect the story. Eventually there are three main things I try to define about my main character. 1) Their flaw, 2) Their want and 3) Their need.

Christopher Nolan discusses his first feature.

15 May 2012

Great Podcast from Christopher Nolan about how he pulled together his first feature film, "Following". Found this on cinephilearchive Enjoy!

Psalm 1, 2012

Synopsis:

"A short film meditation on Psalm 1. A woman alone in a city follows a mysterious young girl through a magical doorway and embarks on an unexpected journey."

Written and Directed by Christopher W Bailey.
Staring: Hailey McQueen and Zoe Moshovelis.
Produced by: Sara Van Bentum & Hailey Mcqueen
Music by: J. Minus
Production Design: Haimee Code
2nd AC: Eleni Bailey
Shot, Edited, VFX and Color Grade by: Christopher W. Bailey

Psalm 1 Set Photos

27 February 2012

GREAT CAMERA SHOOTOUT 2011

28 October 2011

This is a fantastic comparison of the cameras out on the professional market today. Hats off to the team at Zacuto who put this together, an incredible resource. Enjoy!

MY PROCESS FOR SCREENWRITING: PART 2

24 October 2011

A good idea for a movie is a rare find, and it takes a lot of work to dig one up. That's why brainstorming ideas, and not leaving the brainstorm phase too soon, is so important.

The Perfect Place, 2011

Synopsis:

"When burnout takes its toll, a fake sick-day forces Caitlyn Edwards to confront the workaholic within and discover what it means to have enough."

Staring: Hailey McQueen and Luke Smith.
Written and Directed by Christopher W. Bailey.

SET PHOTOS

20 October 2011

BREAKING IN: ADVICE FROM SCREENWRITER ALICE ADDISON (THE HUNTER)

20 October 2011

Recently, I had the chance to ask Alice Addison, screenwriter of The Hunter, a few quick questions about getting started as a working screenwriter in Australia. Here's what she had to say:

Q:

In your opinion, what is the best way for a screenwriter who has yet to develop any relationships with feature film producers in Australia, to get his/her material in front of those producers, especially those looking for new talent?

SHORT SYNOPSIS:

"The Hunted" - Fantasy/Thriller "In a medieval world, a man named Mendell moves his wife and son to a new farm beneath the shadow of a haunted mountain. One morning he wakes from a night of heavy drinking to find his family missing - and all he can recall are the fragmented memories of a horrible creature's attack in the dark. Convinced that they've been taken by the beast, Mendell embarks on a quest to save them, entering the dense jungles and maze-like gorges that surround the mountain. Right at the start he rescues a young boy who is lost in the gorge and they are forced to carry on together. The boy doesn't believe the stories of the monster and he begins to fear more and more that Mendell has invented the story to avoid a more horrible truth - that Mendell himself has murdered his own family. The boy fears for his life and all the while the two draw closer and closer to the supposed lair of the beast, and the terrible truth that awaits them..."

Written by Christopher W.Bailey
Project Status: Draft 5

Read the first 5 pages of the script.

Open publication - Free publishing - More fantasy

VR FILM. ACROSS. 2016	SHORT FILM. THE PARTING GIFT. 2015	SHORT FILM. LOST IN THE DARK. 2013
SHORT FILM. ONE LAST TIME 2014	SHORT FILM. Psalm 1. 2012	SCREENPLAY. The Hunted 2013.
SHORT FILM. The Perfect Place. 2011	FEATURE FILM. City on a Hill. 2006.	FEATURE FILM. Book of Caleb. 2008.
ONLINE ANIMATED SERIES. Profound-lets. 2012	VFX. COMMERCIAL. Respect The Moment. 2009	VFX. COMMERCIAL. Cosmic. 2010

Directing Reel and Recent Short Films

Motion Design Reel

VFX REEL

Corporate Video Directing - Class Plastics

"Lost in the Dark" short listed for the John Hinde Award 2016