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Red Giant Films Presents ‘Go Bag’ VFX Short

Action-packed short film written and directed by Seth Worley showcases masterful visual effects and post-production completed with the help of Red Giant Trapcode Suite, Magic Bullet Suite, Keying Suite and more.

PORTLAND, OR -- Red Giant Films released Go Bag, a brand new short film written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Seth Worley. A high-paced action film packed with stunts, practical effects and CGI VFX, Go Bag tells the story of a spy who must fight for her life using only the contents of a stranger’s carry-on bag. Created by Red Giant Films, post production for Go Bag used every suite from Red Giant, including the Trapcode Suite 13 for muzzle flashes, sparks, smoke, debris, and the film’s cinematic end title sequence; the Keying Suite for green screen and compositing; and Magic Bullet Suite 12.1 for color correction.

“We always challenge ourselves when making our films, but this was easily the most ambitious project yet,” said director Seth Worley. “We’ve never done hand-to-hand combat or real stunts before, and there’s always a risk of first-time experiences failing horrifically. The one place I knew we would be solid was on the post production side, thanks to the tools from Red Giant. I’ve come to rely on tools like Trapcode Suite and Magic Bullet Suite in every story I tell.”

Contrasting greatly from Red Giant Film’s last short film Old/New (narrated by Patton Oswalt), Go Bag has virtually no dialogue, instead focusing on pure, gritty action. Born from the question of what famous TV action heroes might keep in their go bags (the bag of tools and assets one would need to pull out in an emergency) Go Bag tells the story of a spy with a bag full of solutions for any situation, except for the situation of losing that bag. Armed with an iPad, selfie stick, shaving cream, gym shorts and various sundries, our hero must fight off gun-wielding agents out to get her.

“This is our eighth Red Giant film, and something entirely different than we’ve ever done before,” commented Aharon Rabinowitz, executive producer of Red Giant Films. “Seth always delivers amazing work, but from the first fight sequence, this one had me at the edge of my seat. The action is intense and surprisingly fun. I love that what we do on the software side at Red Giant is integrated so closely with the stories we tell. We’re excited to take people behind the scenes to see how the film was made, so that they can do it, too.”

Red Giant Films puts its own products to the test with each short film it releases, and Go Bag was no exception. In fact, a number of tools and features that went into the newest version of Trapcode Particular (v 2.5), released as part of Trapcode Suite 13, were designed for the purpose of producing Go Bag, including fully customizable muzzle flashes, sparks and debris presets and sprites. The plugin’s brand new Effects Builder was critical in getting a lot of the VFX shots done quickly.

The end credit sequence for Go Bag was created by Territory Studio, whose work has been seen in Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Martian. The team used Trapcode Form to generate 3D objects and the brand new Trapcode Tao for the geometric interference patterns/glitching. 3D VFX for the short film were done by Coalter Digital, who worked with Red Giant Films on Spy vs. Guy.  Red Giant Films also used Magic Bullet Suite 12.1, which was crucial for color correction and finishing on the film’s tight timeline, as the tools run in real-time. For flawless green screen and compositing, the film team used Red Giant Keying Suite.

Source: Red Giant Films

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.