Date Started: Aug. 2000

Date Completed: May 2001

Company Name: Blaze Film Company

Group Members: Taylor Kingston, Adam Tillich, Justin Marx, Derek McCrone

The Matrix II, is easily the biggest and most extravagant film that Blaze Film Company has ever completed. In fact it was this film that started the BFC. With a dynamic and evolving story line, serious drama coupled with intense actions scenes, and never before seen special effects this was to be the biggest film ever produced at Nelson High School.

The film started in the summer of 2000 with Taylor and Adam (who worked together at the same job) planning a premise for a video that would come around midway through the 2000-2001 school year. Anticipating the major video to be a walk through of the school (as had been the case in past years) and inspired by Tristan Gough’s Indiana Jones walk through video, Taylor and Adam wanted to come up with a similar spin off of a big movie franchise. Another important aspect was to take advantage of Taylor’s 3D animation and effects knowledge that had become a staple in all of his work.

What resulted from the collaboration was a sequel to the hit sci-fi film the Matrix with Matrix II and would result in almost six intense months of scripting, story boarding, filming and editing before the film’s completion. Taylor and Adam wrote a screen play during Christmas vacation and the other members wrote the script. In the original concept, there was no Derek and so Justin would be planing the role on Neo. But after the inclusion of Mr. McCrone, Justin was changed to Tank as Derek would play Neo, Taylor as Agent Smith and Adam Tillich as a new character called Proditor.

After the script, screen play and story boards were completed the majority of the group started choreographing the various fight scenes, while Taylor experimented with camera shots and 3D animation that would power the films revolutionary special effects. Choreographing proved especially interesting because none of the crew had any martial arts experience and basically had to play off their knowledge from films.

Then the grueling 4 month shoot began. Staring in late January and going to mid May, the shoot would prove very complicated and during its infancy seemed too daunting to complete. Many problems arose on the set due to the technical nature of the filming that would not appear during a normal film. Effects shots that were planed were deemed to time consuming and had to be either scrapped or re-shot. Many injuries were sustained during the shoot, shared mostly between Adam and Taylor, sustained during the mid point bo fight, these injuries proved to be one of the least annoying problems. Prop trouble, costumes missing, missing film, script conflicts, time constraints, limited access to key areas, an overwhelming amount of footage to film and an ending that was never fully agreed upon were the main problems that seemed to crop up every day. To get around many problems, the majority of the filming was done after school.

Half way through the shoot Taylor started the editing process which was one of the hardest things to get around. With over 3 hours of rough footage and very limited time on the editing computers, Taylor found himself at school till 10:00pm at points, editing scenes. At the same time, the effects were created and added. Using a combination of 3D animation, editing effects, time compression and camera tricks a vast array of effects were put into the film. When tallied up the total effects shots ranged about 27 – 30 shots. Also of significance was the sound. Due to complications that arose during filming, some scenes needed audio touch ups and many, many sound effects.

Finally during May, the many months of hard work paid off. The film received a rousing opening night and to this day has never had a negative review on it’s part. Members of the filming proudly display it as one of the finest pieces of film in Nelson History. Between the effects, the sound, the action, the drama, the story and the LACK of comedy (a genre which 99.9% of all student films go under) the film was unique and something special. This film has been a spring board for the members, particularly to Taylor who has pursued an amateur videographer career because of it’s success.