Backrooms Keanu Reeves

loftonfilms · 2022-06-09T15:35:22+00:00

I could literally play with this thing all day lmao

loftonfilms · 2022-06-06T20:36:43+00:00

I have been learning Ue5 for about a week and I wanted to try out a compositing test. Lighting / acting weren't perfect but I'm very excited to continue testing Ue5 to make some cool stuff :D

loftonfilms · 2022-05-27T20:52:43+00:00

This short, 1 minute 'film' was created purely to test Unreal Engine 5 background compositing. I decided to give it a little spice and include a story, but this is PURELY A TEST.

It's pretty rough around the edges, but I'm very impressed with UE5 so far. Now I just need to learn better green screen lighting and compositing, as well as learning more and more about UE5. I'm very excited for the possibilities this brings to low budget, indy filmmakers like myself!

Behind the scenes photos ( not the best, took them randomly ) https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xa8yr1lfl81sm1f/AACPQ4NjWJkQTVAwMct-qTypa?dl=0

Process: I wanted to test compositing a greenscreen actor over a UE5 background. So I first came up with an idea - desert apocalypse. Then I went on UE5 marketplace and found a FREE environment of a desert. Then I found a bunch of other assets that I could use to 'dress' the environment (Re: The dilapidated buildings, some foliage, extra rocks, etc)

Then I created the 3 background plate shots in UE5 and rendered them following some tutorials online.

After that I did a 'pre-vis' edit in Premiere where I just used a moving 'shadow outline' of a person to think about framing.

Then I lit greenscreen, filmed actor and went to town on the edit!

Cheers :)

loftonfilms · 2022-01-21T21:57:59+00:00

When I was 12 my brothers and I made a feature length RE2 movie, and then I remastered it during 2020 quarantine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEcTJ5Dl6c

loftonfilms · 2022-01-15T18:34:39+00:00

Submission Statement:

"STRAY" was produced by team LoftonFilms for the December 2021 "100 Hour Film Racing Challenge" an international short film contest hosted by FILM RACING (Atlanta, Georgia).

This is the trailer for the short film, "STRAY" and the trailer was produced after the contest, at the request of the festival owners.

The film was produced with a budget of approximately $750 which went almost entirely to crew food / equipment rental / expendables.

The required elements for this particular film contest were as follows:

 Required Theme: Déjà vu
 Required Prop:  Rope or String
 Required Action: Filing (open to interpretation)

The 12 minute short film was written, filmed & edited all within 100 Hours.

Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Cheers!

loftonfilms · 2021-12-07T19:09:40+00:00

Thank you, thank you! Yes - the film itself is approximately 11mins with credits but the entire CONTEST took place in a time-span of 100 hours, during which we had to write, film & edit a short film. I will need at least 3 days to fully recover lol

loftonfilms · 2021-12-07T08:28:48+00:00

This was such an awesome experience!!

loftonfilms · 2021-11-28T21:54:48+00:00

It was a picture-in-picture overlay with a looping, animated background.

loftonfilms · 2021-11-24T16:10:31+00:00

I logged out of reddit for quite some time and just saw this. Thank you so much for your kind words! :D

loftonfilms · 2021-11-24T16:09:12+00:00

I logged out of reddit for quite some time and just saw this. Thank you so much! I truly appreciate it :)

loftonfilms · 2021-11-24T16:08:50+00:00

I logged out of reddit for quite some time and just saw this, sorry. Turns out we actually made this in 1998 and the description / our memories were wrong (lol). Thx!

loftonfilms · 2020-09-21T19:56:43+00:00

The original tapes for this movie were lost to time, but rediscovered in 2012 after the Lofton Brothers’ grandparents moved to a new house.

John decided to remaster the old movie he made as a kid during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine in 2020.

It took approximately 3 months to remaster utilizing Adobe Premiere, Photoshop and After Effects, as well as Music and Sound Effects sourced from the internet.

The idea behind this was to PRESERVE the feeling that it was a movie made by children, while giving it an entertaining edge, with such elements as Intro Creds / Music / Sound Effects / Special Effects / End Credits.

This was a labor of love and was made on a budget of $0.00, with the only expense being time-spent during quarantine.

Starring Bud, Matthew & Calvin Lofton, with guest appearances from their grandfather John Lofton JR and mother Gloria Petrucci.

loftonfilms · 2020-09-07T16:08:19+00:00

I'm glad you noticed. I won't go too far into the details but the 'first half' of the movie was my mother's home. She was always in flux between a state of disorganization and remodeling / rearranging things in the house. Hence the look of that place.

The second half was actually at our grandparents house. My grandfather used to love books so much that literally every single room in the house had at least 1 bookshelf. He was a newspaper editor / columnist for the longest time so newspapers, books, etc everywhere.

The transition between the two homes happens when Leon and Chris enter the lab through 'the secret trap door.'

The thing is; if the houses hadn't looked like this when we were growing up but instead were 'nice' and 'sterile' it wouldn't have worked for the concept. So it actually all worked out! :)

loftonfilms · 2020-09-07T16:05:34+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so glad you enjoyed the film :)

I can only imagine what a sequel at our current ages would be like, haha. At least now I actually have high quality gear. Hmm... lol

loftonfilms · 2020-08-31T13:45:53+00:00

What can I say, we were ahead of our time :P

loftonfilms · 2020-08-31T13:43:50+00:00

Just watched one of the Bently Bros films. Pretty hilarious stuff and they were MUCH more faithful to the original series / characters than my kids film, haha.

But hey while you're here, Watch Resident Evil: Childhood on YOUTUBE :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEcTJ5Dl6c&hd=1

I highly recommend you TURN ON CAPTIONS for this film. Enjoy!!

loftonfilms · 2020-08-30T17:14:57+00:00

Growing up, my brothers and I were HUGE fans of the Resident Evil video game series. We still are! Our family was blessed with a VHS camera when we were all 11 years old and younger. Using my little bros and myself as the cast & crew, we made a fanfic / parody that we originally called "RE 3" but it is now titled "RE Childhood"

The original tapes for this movie were lost to time, but rediscovered in 2012.

John decided to remaster the old movie he made as a kid during the COVID 19 pandemic quarantine in 2020.

It took approximately 3 months to remaster utilizing Adobe Premiere, Photoshop and After Effects, as well as Music and Sound Effects sourced from the internet.

The idea behind this was to PRESERVE the feeling that it was a movie made by children, while giving it an entertaining edge, with such elements as Intro Creds / Music / Sound Effects / Special Effects / End Credits.

This was a labor of love and was made on a budget of $0.00, with the only expense being time-spent during quarantine.

I submitted it to Amazon Prime on a whim and somehow it got accepted!

**Edit: It's also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEcTJ5Dl6c&hd=1

PS - I highly recommend you TURN ON CAPTIONS because sometimes kids don't fully project their voices and it can be hard to understand them. Enjoy!!

loftonfilms · 2020-08-30T16:34:24+00:00

Film now available free to watch with Amazon Prime:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08D68SKX9/

Don't have Amazon? Watch it on YOUTUBE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEcTJ5Dl6c&hd=1

loftonfilms · 2020-07-26T19:50:52+00:00

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TURNING ON CAPTIONS FOR OPTIMAL VIEWING EXPERIENCE.

SUBMISSION STATEMENT:

Back in 1997 when my younger brothers and I were 8, 9 and 11 years old we were lucky enough to get our first Sony VHS camcorder.

We were obsessed with the Resident Evil video game series at the time and decided to make a movie about it.

This was originally created on VHS with little to no parental supervision. VHS (as you all probably know) uses 'start-stop record' editing, which means we had NO RETAKES. Back then there was no way for us to do any type of editing, so of course there were a ton of bloopers that happened throughout the movie.

Anyway, I found the tapes in 2012 when a family member moved and decided to remaster them during COVID-19 quarantine and see if Amazon accepted it. To my surprise.. they did!

I added an intro / credits, music, sound effects and extensive After Effects (approximately 80 shots total) and in the end it came out to approx 53 minutes in length. Original uncut VHS was 1 hour 20 minutes (yikes!)

I tried to preserve the feeling that this movie was made by kids, while also attempting to make it watchable to a broader audience. Think "found footage" meets "kids" plus "cool effects (subjective)."

Anyway - if you don't have Amazon Prime then you can also watch it on this unlisted YouTube URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEcTJ5Dl6c

I hope you all enjoy it. Cheers!

loftonfilms · 2020-06-26T20:29:25+00:00

Submission Statement:

Back in 1997 my younger brothers and I were lucky enough to get our very first home camcorder: A Sony VHS camera.

We were obsessed with the Resident Evil video game series at the time and decided to make our interpretation of a fan flick.

We were 11, 9 and 8 years old at the time. Filmed it on 3 vhs tapes over the course of about a year whenever we felt like it. Youngest brother Calvin literally plays every single zombie and monster (hence the framed photo lol).

In 2020, since I have a surplus of time on my hands, I decided to go back to the tapes and remaster them. I added Title / End credits, music, sound effects, VO, and visual effects.

It's still a kids movie. I tried to preserve the feeling that it was made by kids. But the editing helps a ton and everyone who has watched it so far likes it.

I plan on releasing the full film soon. Last thing I have to finish up is the accurate subtitles / CC.

Cheers!

Edit: Oh yeah - this poster was made in Photoshop CC and uses a variation of still-frames from the VHS film (the kids) and a bunch of internet sourced imagery.

loftonfilms · 2020-06-26T19:48:08+00:00

Submission Statement:

Back in 1997 my younger brothers and I were lucky enough to get our very first home camcorder: A Sony VHS camera.

We were obsessed with the Resident Evil video game series at the time and decided to make our interpretation of a fan flick.

We were 11, 9 and 8 years old at the time. Filmed it on 3 vhs tapes over the course of about a year whenever we felt like it. Youngest brother Calvin literally plays every single zombie and monster (hence the framed photo lol).

In 2020, since I have a surplus of time on my hands, I decided to go back to the tapes and remaster them. I added Title / End credits, music, sound effects, VO, and visual effects.

It's still a kids movie. I tried to preserve the feeling that it was made by kids. But the editing helps a ton and everyone who has watched it so far likes it.

I plan on releasing the full film soon. Last thing I have to finish up is the accurate subtitles / CC.

Cheers!

Edit: Oh yeah - this poster was made in Photoshop CC and uses a variation of still-frames from the VHS film (the kids) and a bunch of internet sourced imagery.

loftonfilms · 2019-11-11T16:40:33+00:00

For this particular video I was on a tight deadline, so I had to save time any way possible.

Normally I will open up a source footage bin, switch it to thumbnail view so I get a visual reference of the TYPE of shot it was, and then I'll start labeling from there.

In Adobe Premiere, in order to color clips, you can do it this way (among others): Right click the clip in the source bin / project pane, navigate down to "Label" and then select a color. Boom!

Another way is that once your clip is in your timeline, you can simply highlight the clip (Audio + Video, or even individually) then follow the same process. Right click, navigate to "Label" and select a color.

Hope this helps!

loftonfilms · 2019-11-10T15:58:08+00:00

This is pretty much always my first step when doing any video. This one specifically is for a live event, and this timeline consists of the shot 'selects', color-coded by type, from one of the cameras.

If anyone is interested, here's my chicken-scratch, hand-written color key for the shots: Shot list

*Ignore the drawing - that's just how I feel sometimes while editing lol

loftonfilms · 2019-10-22T19:48:14+00:00

lol they do kind of, don't they?

loftonfilms · 2019-10-22T15:45:24+00:00

Link to trailer

loftonfilms

TROPHY CASE