“In this high-octane action thriller, a man finds himself trapped in a time loop, doomed to repeat the same day over and over again. Desperate to break the cycle and escape the endless dread, he sets out on a mission to take down the witch and his minions that have been plaguing his city. An anti-hero armed with an array of weapons and new skills he learns with each iteration, he becomes a force to be reckoned with. But as the bodies pile up and the stakes get higher, his psyche lessens as he begins to question his own humanity. With a pumping synthwave soundtrack and a retro '80s aesthetic, this show is a non-stop thrill ride that will leave you on the edge of your seat!"
To begin, I first start my process with a basic storyboard. Since most of this submission will be done with live-action filming, it was very important to know how everything will be shot and styled. After the storyboard was completed, I wanted to write a script that would better help with sound cues and timing, since the piece is dialogue heavy. Lastly, during the planning process, I drew up some concepts of the character, to see what clothes I will have to wear before filming.
Filming was a breeze, but I'd spend most of my time in the post-production phase. I'm a poor student who can't afford to build the extravagant sets that I had in mind, so I had to resort to using a lot of green screen. Behold, me, in all my ridiculousness, sporting a marker-drawn beard.
The most unique feature of this piece was incorporating AI generative videos in the mix. I used Runway's Gen-1: Video-to-Video AI tool. This tool takes your source video and generates a video based on your text prompt. A $3 toy motorcycle is now suddenly a futuristic motorcycle! I overlayed these generated videos on top of my original footage to create this cool glitchy effect. I also put a wig on and Gen-1 turned me into the female love interest I needed for the show, but that’s another story…
I designed both, the fictional TV network and the show's logo in Illustrator. I also designed a a weird eyeball mascot that would fit well with the network's alternative brand, AW-DC (odyssey).
Rogue Repeater,
Determined to break the loop,
One of these many nights
Rogue Repeater,
What do you say?
What do you do?
After recording the voiceover, it was time to tie it all together by doing my favourite part of the entire production process—music. This show is reminiscent of the over-the-top '80s shows, so I wanted my song to reflect upon that. I wrote some cheesy lyrics that would be the theme for our reluctant hero. I felt the length didn't do the song justice, so sometime after completing this project, I ended up releasing an extended version of the song.
During the mixing stage, things like EQ, compression, delay, reverb were added. I researched on how to get that iconic '80s drum sound and added a noise gate on the snare. And I autotuned my vocals to give it a cyberpunk, robotic feel—this being the only time where I felt it was acceptable to work with heavy autotune!
This was when I started to shine and become more comfortable with After Effects. When it comes to motion graphics projects, I always like to push myself and go above what is expected because I will pick things up faster—while also acquiring new techniques. This time around, I experimented with AI generated renders. Specifically, I used Runway’s Gen-1: Video-to-Video technology. It's an amazing tool that I'll go into more detail later.
The character, Rogue Repeater, had such a profound impact on my creative work that I couldn't resist incorporating easter eggs or even having him return in later projects. Maybe one day I'll make it into a real thing...
