Pre-filming prep night

Tonight I'm getting ready for tomorrow's shoot. It's a low key affair, not much pressure if it turns out like crap. The actress is someone I've shot before so I know what to expect from her. Tonight's activities are just to be sure I'm taking everything with me I need to.

I'm checking that the batteries for the camera are both charged. Wide angle lens, mic, new tape, spare new tape, and both charged batteries are in the bag. I'm also checking to be sure that the cats didn't break the tripod while I wasn't looking.

I've been asked to bring my Ukulele for a prop. Oh, and I'm having a nice stiff screwdriver. It has nothing to do with the shoot, but I wanted a drink and I'm out of cheap-ish wine.

I think I'm all set. I'll watch some more Ghost Hunters Live, and then I'll hit the sack.

Happy Halloween, one and all!

Extra little job

I've somehow managed to pick up an extra filming deal for a friend. His gaming guild is having a get together coming up and he wants to create a music video to announce the location. I happen to be the guy with the camera who can edit stuff together.

It's going to be a super easy shoot. Three or four takes of my regular actress, dressed as a madam, singing along to the karaoke version of a song. I'll run the stereo mic to get her vocals clearly, and then dub the music back over later to make sure it's all in balance in the audio mix.

Editing style I'm looking to emulate cheesy 70's era videos, with lots of fading between the wide shot and a profile of her face. If I had a green screen I might use that too, but fortunately he's got some curiously velvety furniture to be used. Nice!

That'll be this Saturday. I expect to have it mixed and done by Sunday, cause he's on kinda a deadline for uploading the video for the announcement. Should be fun!

Everyone in the pool!

I've been doing a lot of research lately on homemade camera rigs. Something I can strap my little My First Digital Video Camera™ to in order to create more elaborate shots. The result has been a lot of instructions involving PVC pipe and other fascinating DIY components. It really is quite fascinating.

A second thing I found, inadvertently, is a certain amount of backlash against the DIY film maker. I'm not sure that the level of hostility some people appear to display towards the DIY film maker is well placed, but it's there none the less.

I have a background in creating packaging in the music industry. Working at an indie record label for just over nine years I experienced the music side of the notion that: Just because you can make it, doesn't mean you should make it.

We would get frequently laughable, sometimes sad, occasionally disturbing, unsolicited submissions by people.
There was one man who sang his heart out about America over stock keyboard drum beats. He was a favorite of mine. He may have been off key in many places and musically awful, but there was a certain happiness that came from listening to the man sing. You always were in a good mood by the time the song was over. Usually laughing. Sometimes singing along.
I think the worst was the just plain mediocre. It wasn't something you could put your finger on it, but it just wasn't great.

But you know what? Just because they arguably sucked doesn't mean that there needs to be some active effort to stop them from making their music. No one was twisting my arm, making me listen to them. If I got to the point where it was painful to listen I'd shut it off.

So should I be making films? Should anyone with no experience and only home made equipment? Yes! If it sucks and you hate it I'm not going to hold a gun to your head and make you watch it. I'm making films because it's fun. Hopefully the people I'm dragging into my deranged little world are also having fun. I have a job that I'm pretty good at, that they pay me for. Since no one is paying me to make my own films, shouldn't it be fun?

One Day at a Time

So I'm learning that even when you don't have a budget to speak of snags, bumps and roadblocks are a-plenty. At this point we're soldiering on like good little troopers and hoping for the best.

My current goal is to get everything ready to go on paper. Even if something falls through with R.K. I want to have the horror sided props ready to go so I can just shift the plot and location if need be. So I'm also keeping my eyes open for potential props now, that may come in handy later on.

To that end, every time I see a skull, or fake blood, or something spooky in the store I immediately evaluate its potential to look real enough on film. Even given the abundance of real spiders around my house, you can never have enough fake spider webs. Right?

One of my favorite finds in this years Halloween season has been the bags of "Type X" blood. It's cherry flavored candy syrup of some kind that comes in a little faux i.v. bag. One of the creative types over in another department at my work brought it to my attention. Mind you I don't care to taste it. Something tells me that cherry flavored syrup is not my thing since I'm no longer ten years old. But it sure does look cool.

Sadly, its move usability appears to be nearly non-existent.

On the more usable side are my already purchased items like the bag of foam bones and bag of rubber fingers. I'm also enjoying the Sci-Fi channel and its entire month of Halloween themed viewing. Even if I somehow run out of DVDs, or Netflix sticks me with too many comedies the Sci-Fi channel is there, pulling for me. The research shall continue!

Last night, hit with another bout with insomnia, I caught Return of the Living Dead. It has some classic moments, but I have to say it's not really my fave. Still, when I'm not sleeping what else am I going to do?
Earlier in the night The Grudge was on. I like The Grudge. It's not a fast-paced thrill ride of a horror film. But its slower pacing interwoven with the sudden spurts of something there where there shouldn't be, it really rings true to me.

I did mention that it's the most wonderful time of the year, right?

Dark and stormy skies...

There's currently a bit of a cloud hanging over the production of Roderick Kills. If I'm a little silent it's because there was a situational change that's happened that may limit my ability to shoot it like I wanted to. I sent out for word and I haven't heard anything back for a few days, which makes me nervous. Very nervous.

The thing is that when it's all volunteer and you're not paying anyone the same number of things can go wrong as with any film, it's just that there's not the motivation of money to make people follow through. And if I have to go to play B... well it'd be nice to have a plan b.

Only time will tell I suppose. More word for those interested when I have more word...

I don't know what my problem is.

Boy-Morgan gave me his suggested script changes on... let's see, I'm scrolling through my in-box here... Saturday, September 27th. And not only have I not started to input his changes, I've barely even looked over his suggestions. As both Boy-Morgan and I have mentioned before, these changes are piddling -- no lie, changing "floorboard" to "baseboard" is one of them. It'd probably take me, oh, an hour to blast through them and send the script back to him.

And yet...

I've been derailed a bit by outside influences. I spent the past weekend and the first part of this week battling a series of pernicious computer viruses (I clicked on something I shouldn't have, and it took me to a dark, dark place). My personal favorite virus hijacked my browser: whenever I'd use Google, it'd send me off on some merry chase 'round the internet instead of just taking me to my search results. It added a fun random factor to my browsing.

But really, that's just an excuse. Script momentum has sort of abandoned me at the moment (I have another screenplay I'm working on right now that has similarly stalled), and no amount of positive thinking or caffeine has been able to kick-start me into action. It'll come, I know... but it's frustrating that I can't seem to push through it naturally.

Anyhoo. The turtle in the top photo was making a mad dash for freedom from the koi pond in the Wilshire Courtyard (right). I don't know where he thought he was going, but he was moving at a surprisingly zippy rate across the grass, away from the lush sanctity of the pond, making a beeline for the hot asphalty danger of the nearby street. There's a script metaphor in there somewhere, but I can't quite puzzle it out.

Just say no!

I had something really strange happen. I had someone actually say "no" when I asked if they wanted to be in it. I can joke all I want, but it suddenly occurred to me that I've been really really lucky so far. I've half-heatedly asked people, who replied by looking at me like I was crazy (maybe I am). But for the most part people have been agreeable, cooperative, and in some cases down right tickled about the whole thing. I don't suppose that there are too many nut jobs out there doing this. I'm special that way.

I should also say that she's way nice, and I have to agree with her reason for not wanting to be in it.

The hunt for an actress for this part continues.

Research, research, research

After taking a few days off from swimming in papers related to "Roderick Kills" I got back to it today with a bit of research.

Girl-Morgan touched on this a bit when commenting about the fading importance of film schools, but DVD commentaries offer some of the best research available. How else do you get direct advice from actors, directors, and production crew? It's not diluted into the lowest common denominator that text books often give, and the topics generally pertain to a real movie that was successful enough for someone to make a commentary on.

I'm making a no-budget horror film, so I'm watching every horror film that crosses my path. Currently I'm just about done with Bruce Campbell's commentary on Evil Dead (with a short break at the moment for Heroes). He explains how the shots were done, what they had the camera bolted to for various shots, and he doesn't sound like an ass. It's pretty damn informative.

Mind you, not all commentaries are created equally. I can't remember how many commentaries there are for the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended DVD sets, but I'm not sure they were all necessary. Orlando Bloom may be as pretty as a Carrie Hall painting in spring, but I don't think that I learned anything from his contribution. (Ok, lets be fair, I never made it all the way through his contribution.)

I'm also soaking up featurettes. Half the time they're promotional pieces created to be shown as teasers or interest generating pieces about the film. Even so they can provide fantastic insight into how various things were filmed.
CGI featurettes tend to be less interesting to me right now, due to the lack of CGI budget (no-budget remember) but if you stick to films similar to what you're planning on doing it's time well spent.

Even without commentaries, I'm finding style, tone, editing, and cinematography lessons in other films. Weekends on the Sci-Fi channel in October can be great for that.

Last night I caught something called "Wind Chill" in an insomnia induced viewing. It wasn't the best horror film I've ever seen, but I liked how non-derivative it felt. Let's face it, it's damn hard to come up with an original concept for a horror film any more. I also was wrong for once when I predicted a predictable upcoming plot point. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing if a film proves me wrong.

And it was educational. For example, I learned that if you have a character coughing up blood and it's really dark out, no one is going to be able to tell that they're coughing up blood. I also liked how they filmed with the fogged up windows, not that we have fogged up windows in "Roderick Kills" anywhere.

It's not a bad way to do research. I get entertained by the films I like to watch anyway and I learn. All at once. Look at me ma! I'm multitasking!

Touching evil

I may have found my guy to play the villainous namesake of Roderick Kills. I've received the preliminary "ok" from him with a couple understandings that I don't think will be enough to dissuade me from thinking he's the source of my evil.

I've heard a lot of actors say that it's more fun to play villains. I can see that. You get to play around with it and in some ways the door is wide open for how you want to interpret creepy. Some actors have made careers of it. From Robert Englund to Jack Nicholson to Tobin Bell to old school folks like Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff there's a proud tradition of actors who play creepy over and over again.

While my choice is technically not an actor, few people in this production are. I think there's something fantastic about not using anyone who has the ego or acting guild associations that come with a lot of "real" actors.

In any case I hope that he'll find it fun, being creepy. Having your villainous actor chosen in a horror film named after the villain is kinda essential I think. So I know it's at least a relief to me. And if he enjoys it enough maybe I can talk him into the sequel?