Enigma

Enigma Worldwide!

2009-08-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Enigma has been on a roll since its premiere at the end of May. We have been officially selected into 7 festivals, Won 2 awards, and are currently finalists in 2 fests! And we've applied to lots more we are waiting to hear back from. So far so good! Audience response has been great! We hope that continues!

We wanted to share our awesome new behind the scenes look at the film. Check it out and share it with your friends! See how awesome our cast and crew is!

-The Shumway Brothers

ENIGMA IS FINISHED!

2009-06-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true! Almost 5 years in the making from concept to completion we have finally finished Enigma!

We premiered Enigma to a sold out crowd May 30th 2009 at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. The screening ended in a standing ovation. Jason and I are so honored to have such and amazing cast and crew and really enjoyed being reunited with some people we haven't seen since production.

Enigma will make its Festival Debut at Dances with Films in Hollywood.

Details:
What: Festival Premiere of "Enigma"
Where: Laemmle Sunset 5 in Hollywood
When: Tues June 9th, 5pm

www.danceswithfilms.com
Come check out the film!

Enigma Fund Raiser a huge success!!

2008-09-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Last night we had a wonderful time at our fund raiser! Thanks to everyone that came out to support us. We hope to do you all proud and make this film everything it should be.

Only a couple more months, and we have a huge party at the premiere! Hope to see you all there.

Each day a little bit closer to done...stay tuned!

Party Info!

2008-09-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Getting close!

2008-09-02T10:25:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

Enigma is getting close to completion! There were a few bumps this summer and looks like things are rolling forward again. Sound work is almost completed, the FX are moving along great, and the marketing has begun!

Come Join us on Sept 9th, at the Palms Bar in West Hollywood. There is a $20 cover, and that includes 2 drink tickets. It is a fund raiser, so the rest of the money goes to the film. We still have several expenses to get this thing out the door. So come join us and support your favorite scifi film!

I have set many completion dates, but this one is actually in stone.

Enigma: November 2008!

Take care!

-Matt

Up and rolling again!

2008-04-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

My time on Hulk is coming to an end, and I can now focus my attention back to getting this epic done! There are 23 VFX shots left to finish (with over 150 finished!), we're about 85% done with the sound design, the DVD design is well underway!

So we're looking at an early summer release. We will throw out details as soon as we figure out where we are going to premiere this thing!

This has been a giant project for Jason and I and we are really excited about getting it out there for all to see. Thanks everyone for your great (and patient) support of Enigma!

-Matt

How's Enigma going?!

2008-02-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone!

Enigma is moving along well, I didn't quite make my deadline. I got called back to work a bit earlier than I was expecting. They need me to take over as one of animation supervisors on The Incredible Hulk. So for the next 5 weeks, Its crazy 12 hour days, and 7 day weeks. But after that, I should be able to focus on completing Enigma. Things are still moving forward, there is alot of rendering to be done, so this is a good time for that. Also, Sound design is taking a bit longer as well. So all in all, things are still going well, But it looks like its going to be a late spring completion. Not exactly what I wanted, but that just the way it has to be.

On a side note, Rhythm and Hues just won an Oscar for The Golden Compass. This was my first time as an animation supervisor, so Its pretty sweet! and yes, it is as heavy as everyone says.

Thats me and Bill Westenhoffer (VFX sup for compass)

Now I just have to finish up enigma so we can gather up some awards for our crew!

Take care all!

-Matt

Phobos time!

2007-12-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

Well the fx are still moving along! I'm giving my full attention to phobos now, our cute little cg character. I'm hoping to have his animation done by the first week in Jan. Then at that point, all I will have to do is ships and comps! Slowly that light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger.

I have given myself a deadline for the FX, Jan 27th. Mainly because Jan 28th I have to go back to work! So thats it, VFX must be done....or at least just rendering..

We are still shooting for the Feb completion....should be close!

Happy Holidays...

back to animating...

-Matt

Thats alot of VFX!

2007-11-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody!

Well, things are still moving along well with this little film. I only have 3 green screens left to deal with! We are slowly plugging all the holes with finished shots.

I have also taken a big step and actually counted how many visual effect shots we have in the our 40 min show. This is something I have avoided since the beginning, cause it would have just stressed me out way to much to actually know....buuuttt... Now that we are getting closer to the end..I decided it was time....so give or take a couple.....the grand total is going to be...

175 shots!

Secretly I was hoping we were going to top 200....but I'm OK with not having 25 more shots to deal with!

We have just over 30 left to complete...Of course they are some of the more challenging ones, but its exciting to start to see that glimmer of light at the end of this very long tunnel.

We are still shooting for a late Jan early Feb completion, and so far we are still on target.

Hope all is well with everyone!

till the next post!
-Matt

Still going, and going, and going...

2007-11-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

Yes, Enigma is still moving forward...at a fast pace now! I have officially finished my duties on the Golden Compass, and am taking 3 months off of work on finishing this beast. Everything is moving along smoothly. A large majority of the VFX are done, and just have some of the more difficult ones to finish. We are looking at around late Jan for the completion of the film. Then its off to the festivals! and of course, we are going to throw a huge premiere party as well, probably in Feb. We want to have the DVD put together first so we can hand it out at the party.

I'm going to try to update this blog more, Maybe I will even try to post some shots here. The film is looking good, I can't wait to show it to all of you.

Thanks, till the next post...

-Matt

Enigma still going strong!

2007-05-14T22:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

Sorry about the horrible lack of updates lately! Things are still going strong, we have officially finished the score. After 2 years of work by Jermaine Stegall, we now have the finished and mixed score.

VFX are still going strong. We are currently taking delivery of 22 completed comps and about 50 green screen removals from Rhythm and Hues Studios. Phobos is moving along too, a little more animation everyday.

We are projecting to be completed with the film by December with a Festival run in 2008.

I am going to try to keep up to date with these updates. There is a lot of exciting stuff coming up in the next few months!

Stay tuned!

Soundtrack.net

2007-02-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

Hey there Enigma followers!

A fairly busy week for me, but kinda slow for Enigma. FX work continues. Currently textures are being created for the models. It's slow and tedious work, but hopefully will look really nice in the end. The Genesis is slowly coming to life...soon it will be flying!

The exciting thing this week is continuing coverage of our recording session last week. Soundtrack.net, the top source of information for the film music world, attended the session and wrote up a really nice article about Jermaine. Check it out, and see some more pictures at www.soundtrack.net

Hope everyone enjoyed the Oscars tonight, That short live action film category looks pretty nice huh? Does the academy like scifi?! I guess we'll find out!

Take care!

Score!

2007-02-19T00:06:00.000-08:00

What an amazing week for Enigma! After much hard work by our composer Jermaine Stegall, this past weekend we got to record a 24 piece orchestra at the historic Capitol Records building in Hollywood! For Jason and I, this was truly exciting! It was something we wanted to do since the early beginnings of Enigma. Jermaine was able to gather some of the most talented players in the city, or as he said, "in the world!" Most of these players can be heard on most of the biggest movies in Hollywood. They were truly amazing. They just sat down without ever seeing the music, and just nailed it on the first pass through. Jason and I were already in love with Jermaine score and were actually curious how much better it could possibly sound. However, the moment the first cue started to be played, we knew that it just took the score to a whole new level. This score is just going to be straight up amazing and completely unique for an independent film, and it is completely to Jermaine's credit. We are looking forward to the final mix, and I promise I will post a few cues when Jermaine is ready. Till then, check out a whole bunch of pictures from the session last Friday. http://www.enigmathemovie.com/EnigmaRecSesWeb/index.html

Have a good week!

Recording in 5 days!

2007-02-11T23:54:00.000-08:00

Progress continues this week on this epic known as Enigma... This Friday we are going to be recording a 25 piece orchestra for the score. The picture above is a piece of the sheet music Jermaine sent me. This is really exciting for me, something I really wanted to do since starting this project. Jason and I really early on decided that we didn't want to go with that typical independent film score...which is usually a guy playing a piano. Fortunately for us we found a brilliant composer in Jermaine Stegall (www.jermainestegall.com), and let me just tell you how amazing the score already sounds, I can't wait to hear it with the orchestra added! It's a truly unique score with haunting themes and fantastic percussion. I will post a couple sound clips when Jermaine is ready.

Enigma VFX are progressing this week as well. All but one model is done, and I will be texturing the models for the next couple months. I will post some renders as they get done. Right now i have artists in 6 different countries working on Enigma, its truly a global effort!

Hope all is well, and I will be posting lots of pictures on my next update from the recording session.

Take Care!

ADR round 1

2007-02-04T23:29:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we did our first round of ADR, which is basically the re-recording of dialogue that was either non existant, or was covered up by foot steps or a variety of other sounds. There's a great part when Vinny, (Captain Rhys) is stepping down from the upper part of the bridge, he grabs the pipe to support himself on the way down and it makes a sound just like a cow...So after we laughed for about 10 mins, we understood why John wanted to re-record that bit of dialogue. John Griffen is our Sound Supervisor, and this was our first day working with him. It was really enjoyable and I really look forward to hearing more work from him. It was nice to see Vinny and Nadia again, Since this film is taking so long, we've had all these mini reunions. Which is fun, but also really makes me want to get this thing done. Soon..We are getting ready to record a 25 piece orchrestra for the score in 2 weeks, I will defentally post some pictures of that. I will post more Enigma news as it comes in, there should be some exciting stuff coming up....till then...

Take care!

2007-01-29T13:53:00.000-08:00

Enigma has a blog!!