GracefulFILMS
GracefulFILMS
PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT
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GracefulFilms is a full service production/post-production company in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to creating bold, sophisticated, authentic, avant-garde media for Internet and broadcast. From development through post-production, we write, shoot, edit and animate projects on a wide range of budgets.
The film and video industry desperately needs empowerment of new, original, brave and progressive voices. One of our defining attributes is that we mentor up-and-coming women directors, writers, designers and videographers. This not only gives the artists a chance to present and improve their unique skills, it also establishes an environment where their ideas and voices are nurtured and encouraged and encouraged.
There is both a science and a spontaneity to creating imaginative, sensitive, comedic and revealing stories. As visual story architects, we work to guide the creative process with a congruent structure while infusing patience, understanding and empathy.
Shaping a project from conception involves exploring new ideas and images, taking risks and using obstacles as a platform to forge unique, ground breaking and cost effective solutions.
Foundation Phase
Defining Client Objectives
GracefulFilms works closely with our clients and key stakeholders. We identify the project scope and objectives and define key assumptions such as target audience and users, genre, length of video and projected delivery date.
With the basic project defined, our writer and director leverages the client’s key messaging and recommendations to establish a creative direction and strategic overview.
We apply our clients’ existing brand campaigns, content guidelines and style guides when generating the live action, animation, motion graphics, voice-over and music components.
Development
Writing
From feature films to brand narratives, we have extensive experience writing treatments and scripts. A script consists of a combination of dialogue, live action performances, animation and text treatments that come together in a way that conveys the key messaging clearly.
Style Frames
We develop and explore several design concepts for the genre, mood, style of animation, text treatments, and lighting. The client chooses the one that serves as the foundational visual aesthetic of the still graphics or video.
Storyboards
Every frame is carefully considered cinematically for its angle, foreground and background action, composition, camera movement and pacing. Planning the boards carefully facilitates applicable coverage on set and ensures a smooth ride during the editing and animation processes.
Animatics
This is a really important, cost saving stage for any project that involves animation. It helps to establish the pacing of the video before diving into the animation.
Production Phase
We manage production teams for live-action features, branding narratives, commercials, corporate videos, splash pages, B to B and promotional pieces, from 5K to 500K.
SERVICES
When production begins, the script is translated into sound decisions about budget, crew, talent, locations, equipment, schedule and process. We set out to negotiate a strategy in which all of the components will work together in a timely and affordable fashion.
The lead producer becomes the omnipotent keeper of a range of critical details. They are responsible for creating the schedule, hiring the crew, arranging the casting, negotiating contracts, locking in locations and permits, establishing a collaborative environment, balancing the budget and setting realistic milestones.
We also own and operate a state-of-the-art Sony FS 700 4K camera package and Ronin Steadycam which enables us to film independently, achieve superior quality and accommodate nearly every budget.
Post-Production Phase
At the heart of every edit, we strive to achieve a strong, well developed “content cut” as the foundation. This component appears deceptively simple but is very complex and takes many years of practice to master. While the structure is essential, it’s the intricate layering of the visual elements and the attention to nuances that ultimately breathes life into the cut, creating mood, emotion, lyricism, tempo, musicality and metaphor. We excel at recognizing and extracting even the smallest of gems from the roughest of ideas and performances.
Rebecca Grace, the founder of Gracefulfilms, has over 20 years of directing and editing experience and is a member of the Motion Pictures Editors Guild. "The Black Tulip", a dramatic feature film which she edited, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2011.
