We Are The Strange

We Are the Strange, a 94-minute animation produced in the United States and whose workflow utilizes Blackmagic’s DeckLink HD Pro capture card, was screened at Sundance Film Festival 2007. The only full length feature animation at Sundance, We Are the Strange is also unique in that it is composed of mixed media consisting of 3-D, stop motion, and 2-D, taking almost three years to complete. The film was produced, written and directed by M dot Strange and Chaylon Blancett was brought aboard for post-production.

M dot, influenced and inspired by classic stop-motion animation, and his travels in Japan, is the ultimate animation auteur acting as Writer, Director, Animator, Compositor, Visual FX Artist, Composer and Mixer. In creating every frame in the entire film, M dot is a one-man animation studio. Completely self-taught, this project has changed his life forever. His trademark “Str8nime” style is a bold and vivid new style that is a mixture of “Strangeness”, 8-bit videogame culture, and Japanese Anime. When months of preproduction were completed, M dot began work on We Are the Strange in his family's basement. Two and a half years later, he was finished and screening at Sundance.

In We Are the Strange, two diametrically opposed outcasts fight for survival in a sinister fantasy world. After meeting in the somber Forest of Still Life, an abused young woman (Blue) reluctantly follows a carefree doll-boy (Emmm) on his unreasonable quest for ice cream. The character, Blue, is the main character from M dot’s Blue Wander series which led to the creation of We Are the Strange.

Chaylon met M dot by chance at a computer store. Friends for years, they have collaborated on several projects prior to We Are the Strange.

M dot and Chaylon used Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects 7 to create 1920x1080 Blackmagic 10 bit uncompressed movie files. In post, the final movies were exported as standard definition (SD) movies to be off-line edited on an Apple G4 and a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro 5. The online assembly was also done using After Effects.

The After Effects project files were bounced to a G5 dual 1.8 with 4GB RAM. Using the SD files as reference in Final Cut Pro, the uncompressed 10 bit files were then color corrected in After Effects. The DeckLink HD Pro was used to preview their Photo Jpeg files for color correction purposes on both an analog CRT monitor and a DLP projector with SDI inputs.

“The DeckLink HD Pro was fantastic and extremely easy to use and install. It allowed us to view all of our 10 bit uncompressed movies simultaneously, taking analog out of the card to the CRT monitor as well as SDI out to the digital projector,” said M dot.”. “We also enjoyed the flexibility of previewing anything we wanted through the card in any resolution. Unlike other programs, the DeckLink HD Pro provided a reliable picture to base our color correction.”

M dot wants to stay innovative and small, and do large projects. He feels that in order to achieve this, it is important to maintain a level of creative control in a micro studio environment. “With the availability of fast and affordable computer systems, and the changing face of entertainment, we believe that this film is just the beginning of what can be done,” he expressed.

Chaylon, co-editor on the film, concurred with M dot’s desire to stay innovative and small. He feels that editing on the Mac, with Final Cut Pro, After Effects, and DeckLink HD Pro is the perfect product for them - young creative individuals - to finish what they have worked so hard for. With the DeckLink HD Pro, they were able to work with the highest quality formats while manipulating and finishing the project perfectly, without any loss of quality. They were not bound by the restraints of digital or analog signals. DeckLink HD Pro made it easy to complete their vision for the movie because they were equipped with the right tools.

We Are the Strange is an outstanding example of what incredible results can come from creativity being allowed to work in every direction imaginable. With the right tools, and the right people, innovation knows no limits.

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