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When your new movie is set in a part of the world most Westerners are
not familiar with, how do you place the location in a global context without
losing dramatic effect?
That was the problem facing filmmaker Paul Devlin during the making of
his award-winning film Power Trip - a story of corruption and assassination
set against a backdrop of street rioting and political intrigue.
The action takes place in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia where
the story of chaotic post-Soviet transition is told through culture clash,
electricity disconnections and blackouts.
"Many Westerners have no idea where this country is," Devlin
explains, "so I knew I would need a map sequence of some sort. But
I also wanted to make the movie as dramatic and entertaining as possible,
and I was concerned that a bunch of static maps would bring the movie
to a grinding halt."
The answer to his problem was Curious Software's Curious World Maps.
This innovative software, which has rapidly become an industry standard
amongst top broadcasters and video editors, allows users to create high
quality maps and geographical animations in a fast, versatile and cost-effective
way. Curious World Maps also has sophisticated multi-layered animation
facilities that allow for the addition of any number of overlays, video
clips, movies or text. Users can animate everything with the World Maps
animation timelines and the entire animation can be saved, making it easy
to apply a complete multi-layered animation treatment to any new map location.
From simple reveals and write-ons to full-blown sequences flying viewers
from outer space to street level, World Maps' animation facilities offers
complete control over every parameter.
For Devlin, the software proved invaluable. "I was looking for something
unusual and Curious Software provided the solution. I found the software
when I was surfing the Internet - it cropped up several times on sites
like CNN.com, so I decided to check it out. The company's US representative,
Halid Hatic, was really helpful and arranged a short license in return
for a credit on Power Trip. I can't thank him enough because it worked
out brilliantly."
By using various tools including the animation facilities and by fading
in and out of colours, Devlin suddenly had very dynamic visuals available.
"I used a funny, engaging interview to describe the geography and
political context, added some lively Georgian music, and my potentially
deadly boring sequence became a very entertaining portion of Power Trip,"
he says. "The great thing about using Curious Software was that I
was able do all the design and animation work myself. The program is admirably
user-friendly, and with very little experience besides knowledge of Photoshop,
I was making my own animated maps very quickly. This was important to
me as an independent filmmaker with a limited budget - designers and animators
can be expensive."
Power Trip, which is now being distributed world-wide by Films Transit,
International, was released to great critical acclaim and subsequently
won top awards at film festivals in Berlin, Florida, and Hot Docs in Toronto.
Devlin also made the award-winning film SlamNation and won four Emmys
for his video editing work with NBC at the Olympic Games and with CBS
at the Tour de France.
"I'm delighted with Power Trip's success. The film's now playing
in theatres and on television all over the world and I was very happy
to give Curious Software a big fat credit at the end." he says.
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