shoot day

We just had our second shoot day for the new short film. Everything went VERY well. Let's see. What went right?

1) The home made camera boom nailed the shot. The movement was smooth and it looked great on the preview screen (we'll see how it looks once I import it for editing).

2) The faux legs I made out of plaster? They also looked awesome! They were heavier than I thought they'd be, so it took some steady arms behind the scenes, but darned if they don't look like someone floating past behind the star actress. So cool!

3) The stunts went over great. First we did the shot where Ray pulled Amy down the hallway by her hair, she spins around, and kicks him off. Then we did the shot (sequentially before he pulls her down the hallway) where he pulls her back off her chair, by her hair. It was awesome. The actors both did what they needed to do and I think it'll look great. I loved it!

4) The actors were great. The tag-alongs that came with one of them were also great. The people, all around, just nailed it. Heather helped with setting up a scene that was giving us trouble. Mary Beth, who I'd never met before, totally came up with the idea of padding the ground so Valerie didn't hurt herself when she went backwards over the chair. Just all around the people made it happen. It was just perfect.

I'm really happy with how well today went. Just awesome. Thanks to everyone!

Not blogging enough?

I've been informed that I'm not blogging enough. I can hardly argue since I'd have to be blogging at all to be blogging enough. I'm just not that fond of my own voice, but if someone's complaining I suppose I should heed the call.

I am working on a new short. The name for it (this wee) is Sweet Dreams. It's been a couple other things because I just haven't been able to come up with anything really good yet. So far Sweet Dreams appears to be the best, but that doesn't mean I'm sold yet.

Things I could blog about it?
- Well the script was done in record time by the talented Morgan Richter. I just had a jumbled outline and she whipped it into shape for me.

- I've had one day of shooting so far, that went pretty well I think. I've also done a couple single pick up environmental shots and had a crack at opening credit footage (which I think I'll have to redo).

- I made my own camera boom. The things are bloody expensive so I made my own out of $50 worth of supplies from Home Depot. More than one person has told me that I should sell them. I'm pretty sure that no one would really want to buy my half-assed design, but it's flattering. The funniest part is that it's heavier than my cheap-o tripod and perpetually in danger of snapping the head off of my tripod. It's sort of a use-with-caution item at this point.

- I love my tripod dolly. I bought the thing for cheap off of Amazon. This one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YB862E. Apparently it's currently unavailable, but the thing rocks.

- You don't need to be an actor to be convincing. No one on my projects is ever a pro. I don't know anything about SAG, and I prefer a lack of attitude about things. Even so a couple people turned out inspired performances that I can't wait to edit together.

- Software upgrade. iMovie has it's advantages, in that it's free with anyone's Mac, but it's limited in many ways. Right now I'm trying to learn my new editing software. I feel like a beginner with this stuff which is something I haven't felt with software for a long time.

I think that's about it for now. Today I'm going to be doing some prep work. Painting plaster legs, that sort of stuff. Next Sunday is another shoot. Good times!

Thank you if you're bothering to read my ramblings, by the way.

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

Well I suck at this blogging thing don't I? Roderick Kills has been sorta unceremoniously killed. I feel kinda bad about it. Really. But the ambitious nature of it, coupled with the fact that I couldn't offer up any money to keep people motivated sort of doomed me. That and a few more personal turns that were against my control.

I still have an actress that wants to do the scene where she's in a bathtub filled with blood though. Well hell, why not?

In the mean time I'm trying to get another short film off the ground. I have actresses and actors lined up and we're working on filming our first set of shots in a couple of weeks. Kinda cool.

Now let's see if I can actually pull this puppy off. More as it occurs to me...

You light up my life

I've been scoping out various types of filming gear on line. One of the consistently expensive items is lighting. Sadly, one of the things I've learned is that you can't go wrong with decent lighting. My DV camera auto adjusts for darker areas, but the image comes out dull looking. So lights are a good idea if you want your footage to look anywhere near good.

I've had mild success with clip on desk lamps, which work fairly well. The up side is that they fit party bulbs, allowing you to emphasize colors and add contrast to a shot.
I quite like using the black light party bulbs to make whites pop a bit more than is natural.
The down side is that you need an awful lot of them to get a decent amount of light. They're just not that bright, even if you do something silly like putting higher wattage bulbs in than the labeling calls for.

I was recently art directing a photo shoot and chatting with the photographer about his lights. You can spend hundreds and hundreds on photography lights, easily. For a full set you're looking at thousands. EEEK!
After asking about various options he admited that he's shot using everyday work lights before. He does a lot of work for the Red Cross, so I imagine that emergency situations call for all sorts of odd lighting.
The downside is that they're not very adjustable and not necessarily the best quality of light. You can't turn them up just that wee bit or down that wee bit when the situation calls for it.

The upside here is that they're a fraction of the cost of the photo friendly versions. I picked up this little gem at OSH for $20. Replacement bulbs appear to run about $4 a pop. The thing runs very hot so you don't want to use it while filming around lots of gasoline soaked paper, but I'm not sure I was going to be doing a lot of that anyway.
There are also models that come with tripods for a little bit more, which I think are a bit more versatile. I may get a couple of them next weekend.

The way I figure these puppies aren't what the pros are going to use, but I'm not a pro. For my semi-pro status I'm pretty happy with something that lights the area up for one tenth the cost.

My next project for them is to try and make diffusers and gels of some type for them so that I can have a more general light with less shadows. It never ends you know.

Hope for amateur actors everywhere

So the Scream Queens finale was this week, and we have a winner. Sometimes it's hard to get an idea of what's actually going on in a reality show. They can work magic with editing and showing things out of context and other devious bits of creative story telling where there was no story. But based on the parts of the performances we got to see Tanedra really was the best of the batch. I'd go so far as to claim she kicked ass.

According to the VH1 site Tanedra "obsessively watched movies and television shows in an effort to teach herself how to act." Sounds pretty DIY to me.

The thing is that you don't have to have years of experience to be successful at this crap. It just helps a whole lot. Actually getting a contract with a studio to be in one of their big-budget wonders? I couldn't even fathom how to do that aside from (now) going on reality TV. But that doesn't mean that you have to be in their club of success to be any good.

I like my volunteer actors and actresses, and Tanedra just gave me good cause to my faith in them, I think.

More editing mayhem

This time I thought I'd point at a trailer that goes the other way. Our happy go lucky Jack appears to have found the boy to open up his heart. Now I bring you the teaser for the story of Scary Mary:



I'm not sure who these people are, doing these alternate trailers. But I'm a fan.

The Wonders of Editing

Someone once told me that it's all in the editing. The best editor can take crap and make it edit well. There's also a lot of control over the tone of a film in the editing.

When all you have to do is fill a one minute trailer? You can completely turn a film around. I give to you, exhibit A: