Oz Veeter Zang, Good Night

Well i had a lot of fun in this class. Learned a lot and sharpened my knives. Heather and i worked well together. I'd like to see what she's gonna do with WCRD next year.

Most of my work before this class I worked as a loner. Now I can appreciate the wonders an organized crew. I had to learn to trust people with work that i would normal leave to myself. It is amazing how much you work improves when you don't have to occupy your mind with little things.

Basically I've learned to craft a work flow. The crew needs a leader at the helm. and that to me means manipulation. The word sound so malicious but it's the truth. It could be anything from asking nicely to waving a pay check/contract in front of someone's face. (i'd hate to have to do the latter)

I don't know. I think I have a point in here somewhere. I learned something from everyone who was involved with my projects. Filmmaking is a thing you really learn by doing. I can't wait to see it in a full-time environment without having things like classes, etc.

Be well,
Andy

The End

Well overall I would say that this class was a great experience. I really think that The Galilean turned out better than I could've even pictured. I'm really proud of the final product, and grateful for all of the people I've had the opportunity to work with.

Good Experience

Overall this class has been a very good learning experience for me. Narrative filmmaking is an area in which I didn’t have much experience in before this class. I think managing time and balancing schedules have been the two most difficult aspects. I have also been fortunate to have dependable casts and crews throughout. Teenage Wasteland has been an extensive film. Kelly and I were talking the other day about how long it seemed since we had auditions. Since he wrote the film last semester I’m sure the process feels longer for him. I wish we had time to make an outtake piece. There were a lot of memorable lines that occurred on camera that we couldn’t fit into the film.

Project Numero Dos

Wrapping things up for the sound effects of the film. We had most of the editing already completed, therefore, not a lot to report this week. Hopefully we can get the rest of our sounds before the end of the day. The one that we would have the most trouble with is a broken copier.

And this concludes my blog. Wicked.

Wasteland Update

Teenage Wasteland is finished, and I am very happy with the final product. I find myself constantly wishing I could go back and do things differently. Not because it was wrong the first time, but after watching the same footage over and over, you pick up on possible improvements. I know Kubrick struggled to finish films on time because he would constantly find other ways to make his shots "perfect." The reality is, I don't think any film or shot is perfect, and a filmmaker can kill themselves trying to find perfection.

Most of the experiences I had in the CEC were a great opportunity to learn things about making films. I think filmmaking is something you have to learn by going out and trying to make a film. Certain things can't be taught out of a book. I'm really tired, and I'm going to sleep before class, then write a 15 page paper that has been in the back seat for the past two weeks.

Project 2 is finished!

The second video is done! Big ups to Cyrus for doing the audio because I know I would not have been able to do it with my schedule the past couple weeks and having the hearing loss that I do. It does suck though that we lost our audio crew, but I guess that is just the way it goes.

I really don't have much else to say. I have learned a lot about the video making world because of this class and after going through two videos of scheduling nightmares, I am glad I am going into sports production where the events are almost always on time and scheduled months and months in advance.

Finished Project 2

Project 2 is up on the server. I had some compression problems, but I think that maybe I figured out the problem. I really worked my butt off on this project and I hope people like it. I put a lot thought behind the visual and sound styles. I have seen some of what other people have done and I am very impressed. There are a couple great shorts that have come out of this second half. Sorry, but I don't have much else to say. I am tired.

...Done?

I'm a little bit confused about what all we're supposed to be doing since we don't have an audio group. Since I was so behind on the first project, I'm confused about what we are and are not supposed to do for this second one.  Oh well, I finished it and put it in the Final Assets folder.  That one scene that needed ADR is better with it. That air conditioning from the break room was ridiculous.

Bracken is so convenient when you can get a computer--one of the new ones against the back wall in the basement.  It's the only place where you can find a Mac with After Effects and final cut at 2AM.  Unless VIA2 is open still. I didn't even check.  Too bad it doesn't have Pro Tools though.  

Last Blog

Well this is the last blog I need to do to get my points for the class so I don't flunk out with about 8 weeks left. Well, Cyrus and I are in the process of getting our poster designed. I'm a little upset that I didn't get to see the movies last week but I guess I'll live. Hopefully no one had any problems getting them turned in and everything. Well I guess that's about all I have to say. I bid you farewell.

Fingers Crossed... [final post]

Well, it's done. Almost.

From my understanding, Andy's finishing up some final touches, and just needs to pair everything together and we'll be set and finished. I believe we'll be going with the audio mix from our originally assigned team. It has definitely been interesting having 4 different teams work on audio mixes for the film- I wish I could hear every version. Maybe at one point.

I really like how everything has turned out on this project. I think Andy and I were able to work well together- we kind of filled in the gaps the other had (i.e. I'm not much of a director, Andy's not extremely organized, etc.). Everyone who's worked on this project really did a bang-up job, and I think it'd be awesome to see our film at Pruis on Wednesday. :)

Lucky is DONE

Lucky is done. Forever. Gone, finished, awesome.

The audio team did an amazing job replacing the voices that Sean and I messed up; they worked above and beyond what we thought was possible. Huge A+ for them on this project.

I'm exporting the movie now. In reflection, this was a great project for me to work on audio wise. I learned a lot from my mistakes on this project... We fixed most of them, but just little things I won't do in the future.

wrap up

ADR was a fun challenge for our project. Between subtitles and lip reading however, it went surprisingly well. There was a couple lines that we had to go back and tweak with a second session, but I think we nailed them on the second run. Overall, this project was fun to tackle.

The Wasteland

Jeff and I continue to make progress on Teenage Wasteland. Mike and Andy helped with our ADR sessions, so we got some solid dialogue where it was a little spotty. I'd really like to learn how to get better on-location audio because I have a hard time focusing on audio with all the other stuff going on during a shoot. We seem to have bounced back from the loss of our audio mixing team. Overall, this film was a blast to shoot, stress included. The actors were professional and very willing to do what it took to make an interesting film. I learned a lot of things that you can only get through trying to make a film. Thats always fun.

Finishing Touches

Kelly and I are putting the finishing touches on our project this week (color correction and the final mix). The credits will take a little bit. Lots of people to involve and as always some extra special thanks to. The ADR sessions went well. The actors and mix engineers were great to work with. We were able to find someone for our cop ADR. Unfortunately, the police chief in Fishers couldn't make it up for the sessions. Anxious to see how the other projects turn out.

ADR

ADR went fine. Our actors were in a great mood and there's a lot of positivity in our group. Since Tori and I apparently have no audio group, I captured sounds on my own and will export them in the server this week. Easy. Project is almost done, and I'm rather sad that I'm graduating. Mainly b/c I have no job. 

Toodles

Quick Post - Venting Anger

I just had finished posting my CEC poster, now I am messing around on the computer -- just remembering to write this blog. I have been thinking back on this class, and I was thinking about how much I was looking forward to it... I wouldn't want to say that it was a complete disappointment, but I am discouraged with the entire process. Part of the reason I joined this class was to have help with these big project so I could focus on the more important aspects -- like directing, story, and cinematography. But, I've never had that help -- not once. I've done everything myself, all the way back since project 1. I've never had help from the audio side. Sure, I've had ADR and Foley sessions for me - which do help a lot - but both times I've had to do my own mix. That's hardest part of all the audio team's duties -- It's nothing different from the past years and the projects I've done on my own, but that was why I joined this class was for help. If I am doing everything myself, I'm gonna write the script too. It is just a headache. It would have been nice to have help with this stuff...

Post Up

Poster's up.  One of several designs I came up with...didn't get the pics we were gonna use for some of the others, so I went with that.  ADR went great last week...further proving the awesomeness of our cast.  It's pretty awesome to hear the VO with the film--makes a huge difference.  Gotta say, it was pretty difficult editing for pacing without the VO, but it turned out great.  Good commo with the audio team...coloring/vfx is going well.  Everything's coming together.  Really excited for the finished product.

Peter Posted a Pretty Poster

Heather and I finished our poster. For it we had a photo shoot Friday and we had a chance encounter with a racist 6 year old. He's also "a KILLA" apparently. It was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, We had to use copyrighted music our last film. It'll work for the grade but the score is gonna take a lot more work. It's a shame. I think I'm close to settling on a title though.

This racism is killin' me inside!

-Andy

ADR & Poster Work

Well we had a lot of ADR to do, but I think it went pretty well all in all. I love our cast!

I finished up the poster this afternoon and it turned out exactly how I wanted to, though from the looks of some of the other ones, I'm not too certain it'll be picked. Great job all!

Audio and whatnot

I think one of my favorite parts of the editing process is figuring out how the music can fit in.  I got some songs off of first com and I'm kind of cutting them up to fit in with the action...it's kind of fun I guess.  We did ADR on Thursday and it went really quickly.  They only had a few lines to do and even though Liz was sick (and you could tell) I still think she did a good job trying to sound upbeat.  Desiree went out and recorded some foley so we should be adding that in the next few days.

For some reason, I'm having a lot of trouble getting onto the server. I don't know if it's the server's problem or mine, but I hope it gets fixed soon since I haven't started the poster and I kind of need the logos and stuff to do that.  Does anyone already have the logos that they could send to me so Brad and I can finish up our poster?

Early blog

I'm going to go ahead and blog early since I won't be around this weekend/early next week.

Our ADR went great, and we pretty much "fixed" the car scene. While the audio team mixes, Sean and I will be doing color correction and effects to fix this thing up. Should be a good product with very limited snags!

Okay, going to Vegas now.

P2 ADR

So Al and I had our ADR sessions last night with our group. All I can say is that Meg and Alli saved our project from our goof with the location audio. Both sessions went very smoothly, and have many great takes for the audio team to work with. We still need to work on color correction, but other than that, I think the final product will be great. We originally had a MusTech major interested in composing a piece for us, but unfortunately his schedule didn't allow for that. We did find music that fits great though. Hope everyone else's projects turn out great.

Last Blog

Well this is the last blog I need to do to get my points for the class so I don't flunk out with about 8 weeks left. Well, Cyrus and I are in the process of getting our poster designed. I'm a little upset that I didn't get to see the movies last week but I guess I'll live. Hopefully no one had any problems getting them turned in and everything. Well I guess that's about all I have to say. I bid you farewell.

CTT & ADR

Well CTT is done and it looks really good. We have a lot of ADR to do, but we were able to schedule everything in so as long as nothing catestrophic happens with scheduling I think we'll end up with a great final product.

Post

Finally, we are ready to begin post production. We have allotted some extra time in the audio studios for ADR - as I understand it this is a big week for actors and call backs. Overall, I am very excited to see all of this come together. Kelly and I made some crucial cuts to the opening of the film. To be most democratic, we showed our rough cut to our actors and tried to incorporate their suggestions into the CTT.

P2 Progress

Well Jeff and I finished the CTT last night to put on some finishing touches. I am very happy with how the film turned out. We were in an awkward position because we were at 13:30 with the rough cut, and we had to cut the first scene. Its sad to do, but I think with the pacing and style of the film, it should work better. We are going to need plenty of time with ADR and color correction. I trust the audio team, they worked on my Tattle Tail film so I've had a chance to become familiar with them. I am very anxious to see the final product.

Hurray for CTT!

We finished shooting the transition scenes. For some reason, part of the footage that turned out is in this strobe looking effect, whereas, the rest of the half is fine. The logical answer is that either the camera was dirty, or the tape deck was messed up. Either way, we'll try to recapture the tape later within the week. Everything is looking spiffy. Tori is pretty kickass. Short, but kickass. 

Bummer

Well...I don't need to say anything regarding this class and what's happenend. As for project 2, I've done everything I'm going to do on it. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else's turned out. I have high hopes for the Galilean. I think that was the lone good script in the selection and I think JD and Kathleen will do a great job on it.

Cut to Time is finished

After a week of reshoots and editing, we have finally finished our CTT. It turned out really well and I am anxious to see what other people will think of it in class. We are over on time which is not what we planned, but we think audio wise, it will be a fairly easy mix and hopefully we can get it figured out with our audio team.

We are doing ADR on Thursday and luckily there isn't much that needs to be done in that session. We have a lot of time blocked out, so either way we are safe. We still need to do color correction, but I am confident that we are certainly heading in the right direction and we will have an awesome final project when all is said and done.

CUT TO TIME IS FINISHED and over 10 mins

I am just now turning in the cut to time. I have to say it is one of the best products I have made here at Ball State. I think it turned out much better than project 1. I am really worried about the time, though. The final cut is 14 mins 45 secs. -- 45 seconds is the credits. I watched this thing a bunch of times and tried different things, but I couldn't make much sense out it without these scenes. Some of the scenes are drawn out but I was trying to show off the actors. Our nat sound turned out fairly decent. I don't think that this mix would be especially hard. If I am being graded on my storytelling ability, then there's no way that this movie could 10 mins. I am sorry. To tell the story, it had to be longer.

Cut to time

Just finished the cut to time. Once the music gets on there, I think it will be pretty alright.   We filmed a few transition scenes right before we went to finish up editing tonight and for some reason, something funky is going on with the frame rate for some of it. I don't know.  

Filming went okay this week. Kind of sucks that we don't have an audio group anymore and I'm not exactly sure what that's going to mean for us, but it's not too hard to do foley and at least now we know exactly what we'll be getting.  

We're supposed to do ADR on Thursday, but there's not much to be done I don't think.  Most of the audio came out okay and there's not really a ton of dialogue.  There's a little tiny part of a scene that will definitely need it, but besides that I think it's okay.

Audio Week

Not much to report on the CEC front. Cut To Time is finished and uploaded; we've got a ton of color corrections and effect corrections to go through this week, and we need to get started on our poster. I'm sure we'll be busting our ass off with ADR this week as well, but that's the way it goes.

I'm very excited to check out NAB next weekend too. Very excited.

Almost Done

For the most part it appears the film is going well. I've emailed our main actors to try and schedule possible ADR just in case, although right now Andy and I don't think we'll need it. Andy's been getting B-roll this week to fill in some transitional gaps, so he's actually done most of the work this week. Also, the Star of David necklace is MIA, but he's worked around it.

I'm a bit concerned about some of the audio team members. I trust Kelly because he knows how both sides work, but Andy was supposed to meet with some other members earlier this week and was blown off essentially. I'm hoping this will not be a pattern during the post-production process, since there's not a lot of time to get everything done and we want to bang out the best film we can.

Is anyone else just kind of ready to be done? This has been a long semester and I'm kind of glad we're now passing the films onto the audio team and we can be finished with it.

P2:Director's Cut

Nothing to report on much this week. Things are going well. I am excited to start working on audio this week. We have scheduled our ADR sessions to hopefully cover up our audio goof. I hope everyone else is progressing. I enjoyed watching the rough cuts finally coming together.

Hurray

Project is coming well. Nothing new to report on, for the exception that I got lost in Muncie for the first time in my life trying to find a printing place. I'm from Cinci!!! I am almost pretty sure that my car is going to need a new under body after I graduate due to all the potholes in this great town.

Anyway, nothing new to report. All is well.

P2 continues

I am very pleased with the rough cut of Teenage Wasteland. It is still rough, and we have a small amount of shooting still to do. Overall the experience has been great, other than one crazy night that resulted in Jeff and I driving back to Muncie at about 4:30 in the morning last Wednesday. Luckily I was riding the excitement of having most of the film shot, but of course, went to sleep right when I arrived. Its a very interesting experience to watch some ideas from my imagination translated on to paper suddenly become something that everyone can see. I couldn't be happier about how this project went. Now back to the work in all my other classes that carried no weight about a week ago.

Update

Nothing really new to report. We had to push back filming to next saturday so it will be a tight squeeze next week. That's about it for my progress. It's all set up. I'm filming a little today actually.

Working hard on P2

We weren't able to get the entire film shot before the rough cut due date. I apologize for that. However, we do have about 90% of it shot -- not counting things that might need to be re-shot. Some of the scenes have turned out pretty well visually, but other not so much. While editing I noticed that certain scenes need somekind of build-up. Things that weren't in the script but I definitely have a good eye for.

We have a busy shooting schedule this week. Anything that's left over I plan on taking care of.

Rough Cut

Filming was finished last Wednesday morning at 4AM in Fishers with the exception of one small but important car scene. As a whole, everything went smoothly. Kelly's family, I think needs a special thanks to in the credits for sure; they provided food and drink to all cast and crew for three nights. We couldn't have asked for a better location. However, we did disappoint our oldest actor when we failed to fulfill his request of a small trailer with assorted goods and support (licensed masseuse, etc.).

Editing the rough cut this past week/weekend was a unique experience. We still have a lot of cleaning up to do with sound, lighting, cuts, etc. We both agree that this is a "rough" rough cut, but the pacing is definitely there.

Good stuff....

Well JD said most of what I was thinking already... things went really well this week. It's been such an amazing experience to work with the cast that we had, they truly are a very talented bunch. Scheduling was ridiculous of course, but it was completely worth it for the production that this film is turning into. We've also had some truly amazing locations that have really allowed this production to look extremely professional.
Also, and I'm not saying this just because I know he can read this, but I'm really grateful to be working with JD. He truly has a great eye as far as camera angles and he's been willing to do whatever it takes to get the shot exactly how it needs to be for the film.
Long story short: Things are good....

Almost to Post'

We're one scene away from post.  Even though schedules were a beast to work around, everyone made their times and filming went really smooth all week.  Each scene continues to increase my excitement with this project.  Everything looks like I imagined it.  I built a track/dolly this week that has yielded a couple really sexy shots.  It looks unwieldy--made of PVC pipes, aluminum triangle trim and skateboard wheels with a big ol' flat top and some 2x4s thrown in the mix, but it produces a nice smooth tracking shot.  Ladders and my Steady-Stick were also called for.  I can't express enough gratitude to our location contacts for allowing us to film and for giving us a pretty free set of reins once we started.  Got a lot of ADR work on the horizon for next week due to wind and echoes on locations, and already have someone working on the score.  

We'll show a sample of what we've got tomorrow in the rough cut.

Crackheads, TV, and Mildew Mops...

Oh man. We filmed SO MUCH this week. A couple cancellations here and there, but for the most part everything has worked the way it should have. Hopefully Andy's got every shot he wanted and we'll have minimal re-shoots next week, because that'd be AWESOME. It'll definitely be nice to have a cohesive project now, and I'm interested to see how the other teams fared with the extra week.

Outside of the technical stuff, filming this time around has been a lot of fun. Our actors and crew have been real flexible and fun to be around, which always makes a set not so stressful. And we have lots of pictures too, so I can't wait to see how those came out.

P2/P1

We haven't filmed since my last blog.  That would normally worry me, but I think we'll get it all together in this coming week.  I hope so.  We're supposed to be filming this Monday and Tuesday and hopefully that will work out.  We have about 4 more scenes to film.  I called a printing shop in the city to see if we could film there, but when Desiree went to "location scout" it (at the time he told us to come in) they had already closed. Weird.

My P1 is almost done, I think.  I think it turned out better than I remember it turning out, even though I didn't get the scenes re-filmed that needed re-filming.  The ADR was pretty painless, besides the fact that it started late because of technical difficulties.  I think Swingley said that it should be done (ADR, foley, etc.) in about 2 weeks.

Lucky Lucky, Audio is Lucky

I'm glad Sean and I have had this extra week to work on the rough cut of Lucky. I'm very worried about the audio in the car scenes though. The ADR may look a bit strange. We can't reshoot it because we borrowed the car mount from Hammer Motion Pictures. So we'll try our best.

Otherwise, not much to say. Just working on the cut to time, working on some special effects and ... looking forward to Vegas!

Much better week

I feel a lot better about our video after this week then I did this time last week. This past week we kicked butt when it comes to shooting and got it almost finished. Tonight we plan on shooting one more major scene and then all we will have to do are some minor scenes this week. Now it is a matter of making sure the actors can stay involved since we have stretched them to their limits with their shows going on and everything and then making them shoot late into the night three nights.

Hopefully this week will be a lot less stressful and life will be good!

Well, here we are again. Things seem to be going alright this week, time is always the problem though. I unfortunately had to go back and forth from home this week due to a death in the family. But hopefully our cut-to-time still works out. I am nervous about our ADR sessions ahead of us. We made a big goof in the audio when using our car camera mounts, and lost quite a bit of dialogue. I don't know for sure how hard of a fix its going to be. I am sure we can make it happen though. I hope everyone had a good week, and I look forward to seeing the roughcuts tomorrow.

P2 Continued...

Again, scheduling has been the most difficult thing so far, but I am more than impressed with our cast and crew once filming began Saturday. The actors, though tired and holiday weary, were very professional. We had two audio guys that never complained even when the weather turned "chilly". We also had great luck with craigslist, finding an older actor who made the set light-hearted to say the least. It seemed very unusual directing a police officer - telling him to say this and do that. It was like we were telling him how to do his job. I even think Kelly said something like, "well they usually do it like this on COPS". The officer also made it clear that he didn't want to end up on youtube. That scene was a lot of fun. As Kelly said, we have two big filming nights ahead of us (tonight and tomorrow). Anxious to start editing.

So Far So Grood

We wrapped the first scene (not the first scene, but the first to shoot) on Friday...pretty pleased.  If the rest goes this smooth we'll be sitting pretty by the end.  Looks really cool on camera, everything from the wardrobe to the performance to the location.  All the big stuff is still on the horizon, but it feels damn good to break soil on production.  Three days of filming left this week at four locations.  Here goes...

Student group unveils 'Grove Lake' to audience of 115 in Indianapolis - NEWS

Student group unveils 'Grove Lake' to audience of 115 in Indianapolis - NEWS

HURRAY!

Tori and I work very well together. It would be funny though if she posted a blog stating differently. She focuses a lot on direction, blocking, and shots. Whereas, I coach the actor on character choices, objectives, and what makes them look good physically. We both take cameras to shoots, and we both get very nice shots. Everyone is wonderful to work with including audio, main actors, extras, and businesses. The only thing that I can see us stressing over is the actor's schedule (surprise!). However, I think that everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end... 

P2

Project Two is going well, but with about half of the film shot, it is still going. Due to our actors' schedules, it has been difficult to setup nights for filming. Our first night of filming was Saturday from 8:30 PM to 4:00 AM in Fishers. We got nearly all of the outdoor scenes shot, but lighting at night was quite a challenge. For a few establishing shots, I climbed around on the roof of my parents house. When you look up at a roof from the ground, the angle doesn't seem so steep. When you get up there with the loose tiny rocks that make up the shingles, its all pretty much just slipping around and falling toward your desired destination. I didn't die, and the camera survived too. We also shot a scene with a police officer and cruiser. It was a lot of fun. We still have quite a bit of work ahead of us, but the footage looks great. We have really set a nice pace with the filming technique which we can compound with editing. Two more nights of filming, Monday and Tuesday, then we should be done. I look forward to not stressing about filming anything for a few weeks.

Finally Under Way

After tons and tons of scheduling disasters... Last night we had our first shoot and I will be honest, it went quite well. Everyone seemed to work well together and we seemed to get a lot done. Unfortunately our rough-cut is going to be nothing to write home about, but I feel a lot better knowing that we have some form of a start to the video. This week, we are going to shoot for two nights and then we will be done and it will be on to audio post. Needless to say I will be real happy when this week is over!

P2 Filming

Last night we had our first shoot for project 2. It went really well. We shot 3 scenes with limited amount of time. It has been a very big struggle to work around the main actress's schedule. I'm sure that I've mentioned it in blogs before. Brad and I just turned in our Rought Cut. Sorry, but there's only three scenes out of 9. It was all we could put together with one night of filming. Considering Spring Break and out leading lady's New York trip we were strapped for time. I never fail though. The cut to time with be the way it should be, the date that its do. I feel pretty confident that my team and I can get the job done. I apologize for the weak rough cut. We just need a little more time.

First Day

Even though we're just a bit behind, this is going a long a lot better than P1 which, by the way, still isn't finished. We're doing ADR for that on Tuesday.

We finished the first day of filming. It went alright, I think. I'm sitting here in my room right now editing a few things.  So many takes.  Why must I do so many takes? I think it's better in the end because there are so many options to choose from but jeez, it's a lot of tape to go through (3 pack of Sony tapes at Fry's for $10.00!).

So far, we've only filmed the office scenes with Joel and we should get the Frankie, outdoor scenes, and copier scene filmed pretty soon. We're not going to have a completed rough cut to turn in tomorrow, but we might have a little something.  Maybe. We'll see. 

Jerry from the audio class was great. I hope he can help us out again next time.  

Antz

Our shoot went well this weekend. It's always a challenge to work with live animals and still get the intended shots. Besides our goof with our audio while using the car mounts, everything seem to go quite smoothly. Our rough cut is very rough since half of our dialogue is currently inaudible, but should turn out nicely by the final cut.

I swear.

Between school and bedtime 6 year-olds don't have the time man. Kindergardeners really need to get their stuff together.

Well, we're right in the middle of everything. We won't have a rough cut to show. There's just not enough shot for a cohesive story. We didn't get to shoot over the weekend because of Easter. We have the middle.

I really don't like pushing everything back, but what can you do? I just don't want the Cut-to-time to be a rough cut.

Soundtrack I'm in talks with an Music Engineering Technology student to do the music for this piece and redo the music for the first.

All and all this is a lot of fun. Just wish people were being paid so i wouldn't feel bad about being so demanding.

-Andy

Lucky Lucky, You're So Lucky

Just finished the rough cut of Lucky. Oh, and just finished shooting it today too. 7am call time is the best! We worked hard, and got some great results. And editing was a breeze. Go key commands.

Everything is pretty good except NONE of the audio for the car-mount shots works. It's all wind. That was a stupid mistake. Really stupid. I'm good at reading lips though, so I think we'll be okay for ADR. We just may need to take our time on it.

Cheers.

We'll See.

Things appear to be going okay. I feel sort of bad for the other teams and all their actor problems... other than Stevie going home this weekend, we really haven't had issues actor-wise. The hardest part, I think, will be this next week, because we still have a good amount of stuff we need to shoot for cut-to-time, so scheduling and getting kickass footage is key.

We also got our audio teams... unfortunately we don't have my team from the last film (they were a lot of fun), but everyone's stuff sounded pretty good last time so as long as there's good communication we'll be fine, but Kelly's in our audio team so I'm not concerned 'cause he understands our side of things.

Murphy's Law

Everything that can go wrong is happening. I can't schedule my actors at all. I even set up a meeting that all 3 said they'd be at and only one showed up. We accomplished nothing but realizing what I already realized. 2 of my actors are in the play into the woods and will be tied up with rehearsal and the actual performances all week. My other actor won't work after midnight so I can't schedule it after they're done rehearsing and performing, either. My only hope is that Dwnadra has mecry on me and let's me get new, outside actors to play the roles. I don't know why they'd sign up for the movie if they knew they wouldn't be able to do it. It seems hard to believe that they would really think they could handle all that work, not to mention homework on top of it. Hopefully everything will work out and I'll just have to do it somehow whether it's with the actors or not. I know I've said it before but it's just been a hassle having to deal with the acting department in this class. It's been way more dificult than it has to be and most devastating of all, no fun whatsoever. That's the only thing I've ever wanted from making videos and these two movies are the first I've ever done that weren't a total blast. In fact, they've been the total opposite.

Frustrations

So... I would generally consider myself a compassionate, patient, and caring person... but scheduling 9 actors and 5 locations is stretching me to my limits. After 3 or 4 (or 5, I've really lost count) reschedulings I really don't think I can compassionately handle any more scheduling conflicts. I agree with Kelly and Jeff... It is truly so incredibly hard to be working with people who seemed to prioritize absolutely everything over what you're trying to accomplish. Unfortunately we have an incredibly talented cast, which means that they are all involved in other plays/projects and also, because of their talent, I am not willing to recast. I just hope and pray that our filming goes well and there is absolutely no need for reshoots.

Sigh.

impressed

so after watching the final cuts of all of project 1, I am impressed on how everyone's ideas came out in the end. I hope project 2 goes just as well. Al and I are running into some snags with scheduling. Some people actually celebrate Easter apparently. I'm just joking, I think we can still pull off our shoot this week, as long as no major problems occur.

So here I am sitting in class and I just realized I hadn't posted.

With 9 actors and 4 locations our scheduling has been a little insane and our main actor having tooth issues has only made things more complicated... I am still excited though about what I hope will come out of this project. It truly is an awesome script and an amazing cast so I feel like it's really going to be a film that we can all be proud of... if we're able to work out scheduling that is.

Well...SB08 obviously threw a kink in the plans (but it was quite needed and much appreciated).  Missing a couple shoots due to Michael's abcessed tooth.  I would have liked to have hit the ground running coming off of SB, but I'm not too worried about it.  Finally got the clearance for Crown Hill Cemetary (much back and forth and a $50 donation to seal the deal)...awesome.  Kathleen has been doing a lot of location work over SB, and we're doing hardcore scheduling immediately following class.  Here's hoping everything goes smooth from here on out.

New Project

Haven't started the new project yet but I totally rewrote the script and got it to the actors. Hopefully I can get the actors together to talk about it but so far i've only gotten response from one of them to tell me that he couldn't do it on the one day that could seemingly work out to have all three of them there. I don't know. Hasn't been fun using the acting department. It's much more of a project than it should be to get things scheduled. Just headaches. Ready for this class to be over with and be done with school period.

Schedules

Yes, Kelly summed up my opinion on our scheduling conflicts nicely. Bad timing has played a large part with all of this - just not enough weeks in a semester for everyone to do everything. Ironically, I think our actor would be more free next week when his show runs. On the plus side, I think I have rigged up a contraption for our "violent scenes". My aunt is a nurse and she was very helpful over Spring Break lending me some unique items. I also made a visit to a Goodwill and had some luck finding the actors wardrobe. I'm just anxious to get started filming. Should be an interesting week/weekend with many late nights. I just realized most of our shoot takes place in or around cars. Good thing gas prices are at a record low.

Project 2 starts with a fizzle

Jeff and I had planned to shoot a majority of the film yesterday. Unfortunately due to an actor's schedule we are having to rearrange our shoot. One of the biggest dilemmas is getting everyone's schedule to line up. I look forward to the day when everyone is under contract or atleast employed to be a part of the film. Personally, I don't need to be paid any money (at this time) to make a film, but using money to persuade a crew/actors to help us would be nice. Perhaps 1% of the Letterman building expenses could be moved to a CEC films budget. Just a thought. Everyone works harder when their being paid... Other developments, we casted "The Man" with a Fishers local with acting experience. I am working on getting the police involved for the final scene. I still think we will be alright for the rough cut turn in date. I hope...

P2 getting going --

I don't really have too much to say, except that I slightly behind on my production for project two. This project has come at rough time, being that most of the people involved in the production were gone for spring break. I have spent the time planning and preparing for the week to the come. The script has had several revisions and is near perfection. The biggest problem I am worried about is finding a child actor. I have a couple of different ways I can go, but neither of them are 100& definite. Hopefully I will have this problem resolved within the next couple of days. Despite these hardships, I am very excited about this movie. I've never made a horror flick before and I think I'm up for the challenge. This will be a hectic week for me, but you can expect the rough cut on Monday as assigned.

Project 2 is under way

Well, project one is now totally finished and it is on to project two. We got some supplies that we need for the video, but with all the actors being in NY over most of spring break, that was about all we managed to get accomplished. I think we are still looking fairly strong and should have a good rough cut. Our goal is to get every single shot that we need before the rough cut, that way we don't have to try and reschedule the actors. We'll see how that goes. For now, it is work hard to get a schedule together and start shooting.

...Time....Time

Things are getting pretty impossible to schedule with Project 2 on the line here. Looks like we will be shooting only next Friday and Sunday, with the cut due Monday... So long long days of editing and shooting. I really hope this all works out. I'm interested to see what others are feeling like on this subject - it seems like maybe we need another week to make things perfect, but maybe the stress is good.

ADR...still

Still haven't done ADR. This is messy. Apparently something broke in the audio lab and it's been delayed until after break. That's okay, I guess. I'll get everything else done. The music fit in there nicely and I'm excited about getting the ADR done so I can see how everything else fits.  

I'm having some trouble finding a location for P2. I think I'm going to go with that criagslist idea, maybe. Can't hurt to give it a try. I'm also hoping we get some days with rain and not this crappy snow. Or if it doesn't rain, I'm hoping we at least get some uncharacteristically warm days so that we can wet our lead girl's hair and she won't be freezing. I'm just kind of thinking out loud here.

Were we supposed to post for mon?

Looks like half did and half didn't.  I'll throw something in since I'm awake.  P1 is done....the audio team did a good job on the mix.  Wasn't as ideal as I wanted (some sound effects I specifically called for weren't even recorded) but it's pretty good.  One thing that is frustrating is that the audio mix is just an assignment for the audio team...while they did put in many long hours (that's part of the job for every aspect of filmmaking) I would consistently hear how there wasn't time, or it was too late now to fix/change/record what I asked for.  There are quite a few audio things that I will rectify if I ever revisit this film, but overall, they did a good job and were pretty good to work with.

P2 is exciting as hell.  I managed to clean up at the Casting Draft, and we got an amazing cast.  Laub's script is of course top-notch.  Have already discussed characters with actors, and have a creative meeting tomorrow with the full cast.  Me and Kathleen have discussed locations and are seeking permission for shooting after SB.  We have gone through the characters and I have sketched, then re-sketched digitally in Photoshop the Wardrobe Designs for each character and have posted JPEGS in File Exchange in our Group site on Blackboard.  Oh....and we're shooting this one in HD.

snag

So my audio team ran into a snag late last night while trying to bounce their files. They were unable to reopen the files in ProTools, and couldn't post them on the server. I am still waiting on a word of hope from Swingley. I hope to wrap project 1 up as soon as possible.

P1 is 99% done

I couldn't be more pleased with audio group that was assigned to my film. Because I am in the TCOM 333 class that is doing the mixes for class and the CEC, I've had a unique experience to see both sides of the audio work. My audio team stayed in constant communication and was very responsive to my criticisms and suggestions to complete my "vision" for the film. They were consistently on time and in the studios. I'm going to do some touch up work using FCP for my red effect, then run it through color to put the "film look" on it. I'm hoping the black, white, and red will become smoother after putting it through the "film look." As usual, I'm cutting it close to the due time, but that seems to help me focus. Looking forward to project 2 and Spring Break.

SwEepy

I'm currently working on an all nighter. Needless to say, I cannot verbally communicate currently. However, all I have to do is drag miss project one on the server. I'm ready for project two... Bring it. 

Frustrated and Tired...

It has been a long time since I've been out of the computer lab. My audio team is behind. The mix is garbage. Nothing is tweeked. The little tedious things that are simple and quick are overlooked and forgotten about. The ADR isn't close to match the location sound. Its very frustrating... I don't understand how someone can turn in half-finished work, especially when there is time left to fix it. I haven't left the building since 3pm today, but now I'm finally done. I am posting what's finished of this crappy mix, so that they can get a grade on it. I'll have to come in some time soon and fix this up. I don't know what to think. I hear other people's mixes, then I listen to mine -- sad...

The peer reviews had slipped my mind. Sorry about that. These last couple of days have been crazy. I will drop those off before I leave campus today.


-Cyrus

Video one complete

Everything with video one is finished! I have to give major kudos to my audio team because they really made everything in the video sound good. Now it is time to move on to video #2. I wanted to get video 1 finished and I feel confident that my delay on working on video 2 won't set me back any. I know one of my actors for the 2nd video, so fortunately some of the communication and get to know you stuff has already been done. Right now I am just happy to have a good product when it comes to the first video.

I couldn't be happier.

Just got back from spending time with Beth and Piers, my audio crew... as I type they're working on the surround sound mix.

I love it. Seriously, all the work they did was amazing. They were easy to work with and had some great ideas concerning foley and music, and I would love to work with them again on project two. I have to pop into VIA tomorrow and add their names to the credits before officially submitting the final assets, though. Definitely wouldn't want to miss adding them.

For project two, it's going a bit slow but it's going. I'm happy we got who we wanted for the leads, and once I get a confirmation from Andy, we'll have our mother and father and a script as well. From there it's figuring out production schedules. I can honestly say that the rough cut date for this film is unsettling. Buuuut why make myself prematurely nervous? That'd just be silly.

Sunday Night

We're finishing up some last minute things with audio tonight. Strangely no foley sounds were recorded for our film. I'll also say the mixing work was a bit loped sided as well with one person doing most of the work. It would be nice to pick our post audio crew for the next project. Besides all that I am excited to see it all come together.

Project two should be a fun shoot. Kelly and I are meeting this week with our actors to film them in a read through. Right now we are planning a late week night in Fishers for filming. Communication during Spring Break will be huge here. We are tossing around some ideas for filming in a car. Anyone have any ideas?

Hey -- guess what? All done!

I just finished the audio mix with Kelly and Amy, and I really think it's good. Also just finished up the last of the color correction -- uploaded it to the server, made all the files in compressor (including a DVD file). I haven't heard from the second group working on the audio for my project. They never emailed me back after I offered my help. I won't go after it... We'll just see how it turns out.

As far as my second project, Sean and I are meeting tomorrow to story board, later this week with the cast, and then shooting the weekend after spring break plus a quick edit. Should be pretty crazy, but we'll be able to do it. Very excited for that one.

Still Behind

I wish I wasn't so behind still.   I really appreciate getting this extra time.  You never know what will happen.  I think I could have caught up if I was able to do ADR this week, but Stan had it reserved so we're going to have to do it next week.  This upcoming week.  No problem. I'll just get everything else ready and when I get my ADR, I'll be good to go.

I got some songs off First Com on Friday.  I wish I could have gotten just one more, but the ones I got, I'm excited about them.  I think they'll fit nicely.  I like figuring out how music will fit in.  It should be interesting.  

I e-mailed the actors for the new project on Friday and I haven't gotten any responses back.  We forgot to show up to pick our actors (still don't know how that happened) and so we were assigned people.   I actually like the people we were assigned.  One of them is a good friend of mine and I've spoken to him in person. The other two...I don't know what they're doing.  I'm looking for office locations right now.  That, to me, seems like it'll be the toughest part.  After that, it'll be okay, I think.

Oops, I just realized I didn't post for last week...

Anyways, I am so excited about how the casting for P2 turned out! JD and I were able to get our first choice for all of the leads and nearly all of the other parts as well! I hope things turned out well for the rest of you!

I am also very impressed with Jillian in how her ADR turned out. We ended up ADRing the entire scene of dialogue between the two actors, but Jillian was amazing with it, and got nearly all of the lines on the first take.

Finishing P1 and Preparing for P2

We did ADR last night for almost an hour and a half. It went really well. My audio team is excellent and Lindsey was able to ADR a scene that we had no original audio for. Of course, that was my mistake on location, but with a little time, her voice syncs up perfectly. I am excited for P2 and trying to make arrangements for shooting locations in my hometown of Fishers. I had always envisioned the setting of this film being a "suburban bubble." Fishers is the blue print of suburbs. I'm going to see how expensive getting the rights to The Who's "Baba O'Reily," which mentions Teenage Wasteland through out the song. I will also have a better chance of getting the local police to participate in the film. Tonight after auditions I will be able to picture the scenes a little better, knowing who's face will become each character. I really want to put in a lot of effort for P2, and hopefully, send it into some contests.

Project #2- the Beginnings

So project two seems to have potential. I am looking forward to auditions this week; being able to cast our own characters will be a new challenge. I don't have much to say about this week's blog so I will end saying this. The purpose of this blog forum is to benefit the rest of us as readers and to trouble shoot our technical and time problems. If someone has an issue with a group member or a professor, be professional, and contact them in person and do not use this resource as a bitch-session. This class is about collaboration, and preparing us as directors and producers. Directing is about leadership and teamwork. If you are only in it for self-benefit, and not willing to take the time to help others, then you need to step down. Be professional, or get out.

Capt'n "Time" Crunch

So ADR went very smoothly, I overbooked time, and only took about 45 minutes. I am still worried about the FOLEY work. I haven't been able to contact my 330 group members, and haven't heard of their progress yet. I am hoping to wrap things up Friday since I have a wedding this weekend. I hope everything works out.

Crap

I feel horribly behind. I need to get into contact with my group and get this ADR under control. They both have similar schedules, so this is nice. After calling Swingly about 30+ times, I finally gave up, and worked upstairs in via two. I think it's interesting that he encourages us to be professional, yet he can't control his e-mail or phone calls. I understand people are busy, but frankly, you're a professor, and should be professional enough to know what you can and cannot handle. PS- I'm tired to tutoring your beginning audio students. 

fuggit

Not sure what the deal is with ADR...had a meeting with the audio guys on thursday, and they had a pretty good list of foley sounds to get.  however, i did learn that they planned on using canned sounds.  canned sounds sound like canned sounds, and therefore sound like unoriginal shit.  they didn't seem to be willing to go foley their own sounds, so i'll probably have to do that myself this week.  i had drill this weekend so i left muncie early on friday and heard back via txt message what my actors' schedules were for me to schedule ADR, so i called in to one of the audio guys to sign us up, but apparently the slots were taken.  worked it out to record one actor at 10 tonight, not sure when we're gonna get to record our actress...probably gonna have to do that myself.  just got back to muncie a couple hours ago from (drill, meeting, and interview w/ federal agent) so i'm abso*******lutely exhausted and not knowing what the current status of everything is.  gonna try to piece it together in the next couple minutes.  in my current state i have more in common with bruce banner than anyone else (read: hulk) and my patience well is dry going into the day; here's hoping i can get a sitrep/figure things out/work everything out without turning green.   (disclaimer: if i should happen to 'hulk smash!' and rip your limbs from your body or break you in half and/or eat you, i apologize.)

Ready to be Done

Once again I can't get word from anybody about scheduling ADR for the movie. I'm not talking about the audio crew but the people in my movie. I've just had the worst time on this damn project. I wish I had a time machine so I could go into the future and be done with this God damned project. I can't wait to get my grade and delete from my hard drive so I never have to look at it again. I have a horrible feeling in my gut that I'll end up having to do the ADR in Letterman or Clone to get it finished. I've never felt so helpless in getting a project done.

As far as the other script goes, I've already rewritten it and picked out the part for the acting student to do. The easiest, shortest part in the movie. I think the movie will turn out pretty good. The only difficult part will be getting permission to use a funeral home. I'm confident I can do it though.

Catch Up

Okay, so I think I'm almost caught up...almost.  I don't think scheduling ADR will be that bad for Tara now that her show is over. I don't know what LA is looking like, though. We'll see about that.  I'm excited to get this audio at the end corrected since you can hear the traffic so badly.  

I went to re-film the beginning this weekend (because it's too bright), but there was some confusion and my friend wasn't home and I couldn't get into her apartment.  On top of that, it snowed again, so I took all that as a sign that I didn't need to be filming.  Maybe I would have gotten sick or something.  Who knows.  

ADR/New Script

Like everyone else, scheduling ADR has been difficult. Although, with the quality of sound we are getting from these sessions it is very tempting to skip a couple nights of sleep and re-dub the entire film. With our next script taking place both outside and in a car I will definitely keep that as a consideration. Speaking of the next script, Kelly and I are anxious to get started. Looks like there will be a few challenges in terms of production, but should be fun. We are in the process of looking for an older actor from Cornerstone Center for the Arts possibly. Auditions for the other three guys will obviously come out of the Theatre department.

ADR & Such

Scheduling ADR has become hell for me -- my main actress is in LA, and won't be back until Monday evening. Luckily, I was able to find a spot (while skipping class), so all should be okay.

I haven't really looked into my second script all that much; been very busy. But I'm slowly coming up with ideas to jazz it up. I'll for sure go over it tomorrow and get a good idea with Sean about what we want and how we're going to pull it off. Should be exciting!

ADR and communication issues

At the beginning of the week, everything was going great. I had the video all done and there seemed to be no problems getting it onto the pro-tools program. Even better, my audio people were actually responding. I had a time reserved to do ADR on Friday and turned out my actress couldn't make it. We still got some ADR done because the other actor was able to make it. However from there, the communication has dropped dramatically. I tried to contact my actress several times to try and figure out when she was available to do her part of ADR, but she didn't start responding till Saturday morning (actually really late Friday night after I was already asleep). By the time I got the email and looked at the times, everything was full.

At this point I don't really know what to do. I sent Swingley an email yesterday to ask for his advice and told him we would be willing to go in at 4 in the morning if we have to. I know he does freelance work on weekends, so he hasn't responded to me yet. Hopefully we can get this all worked out, but right now I am a little on the edge. Why can't people just check their cell phones like most normal people do? Especially when you know you are a part of a crunch time scenario.

ADR/script escapades

So ADR was recorded at the lovely time of 11 pm- 12:30 am for my film [Thanks, Theatre rehearsals- ugh.]

Anyway, they went really well, I think Stephanie and Matt were really amused and excited with the process and the takes we got were pretty good. I got to officially meet my audio team, and from what we were able to talk about, I'm confident that they'll do a great job on the post-production. I still have to figure out music, though- has anyone gotten anything from Rich about when he'll be in his office to look over music libraries? I think that'd help me a lot in the process.

Other than that, we've already picked scripts and I feel ready to go for auditions next week. My only concern is that I was talking with Stephanie and apparently there aren't many big female roles in the scripts chosen, so she's making it sound like there might be a bit of a draw for me and Andy's script (our protagonist is female). Good thing or bad thing? I guess we'll see!

Last week and this week

I didn't get a chance to post last week because my video was giving me all sorts of trouble. In the end I got it on the server on time and as far as I know, everything is working fine.

As for this week, it is going to be a fairly boring post. I plan on communicating with my audio team and seeing what they think needs to be done audio wise. I would also like to meet with my partner for this project and discuss any preliminary plans.

Like I said, I know this is a pretty boring post, but they will get more exciting as the weeks roll on

That's a wrap... Sort of

Post for Monday Feb. 18...
Well, due to some conflicts with my filming location, I had to turn in my "Cut to Time" about 18 hours after the original due date. I still need to correct some visual things and perfect the credits, but it is ready for any and all audio work. Overall, I think the black, white, and red works in nearly all the shots that it is applied, but I need to fix some of the red bleeding into areas where I didn't want it. I managed to cut the run time to 7:20 without credits. I imagine it will be about 8 minutes from end to end. This was an excellent experience for directing and working with an amazing actress. Lindsey's performance was great, and I hope I can do her justice with the final product. I was able to expirement with some creative shots and techniques. That always makes the filming a little more interesting. I think this film will rely heavily on audio and music, so I'm anxious to see the work done it.

Finally Done

I finally got everything done last night. I seperated the audio and video and dropped it into the server. I couldn't be happier to be done with this project for the most part. This was easily the worst experience I've ever had making a video. I had no fun doing it which is my main concern about doing a video. I didn't like the script. I didn't like having to use a set person to act in it. I didn't like anything about it. Hopefully the next project will be a good time to make like it should be. My fingers are crossed.

As done as done can be...

Like everyone else, my cut-to-time is done. It took forever. I had a good amount of issues reworking the final scene with my reshoots, which took a lot of extra time, and I'm still not completely okay with it. But then again, I don't think I ever completely got into this project. Too much stuff going on, and I didn't feel like I could be completely creative with it, and like I've said before, I'm really more into the production side than being the director.

I'm excited to get a script we get to pick this time around, and I'm excited to work with Andy- I liked his rough cut and I'm interested to see how we can play around with stuff on the second project. I hope that two people from the class working on one film will help making it not so overwhelming. If not, I might flip out, throw the Country A-K rack out on the street, and go work at a Virgin Records store...

Bonne chance!

Cut to time is done! Yay! Things actually went really smoothly with all of it, other than misjudging the time it would take to render. I try not to think about how many hours of my life have been wasted in rendering... But yeah, I'm happy with what we accomplished and I'm just hoping that I will have as much luck with the next project.

C-C-C-Cut it!

Finished the cut to time. It is much tighter and decently shorter than the rough cut. But no way is it going to get under the 7:15 mark. So i'm gonna have to do the final audio mix myself. Which is fine. From my critique i got back it sounded like they were expecting me to want miracles of sound engineering. Which i don't. It's a quiet and tense piece.

I was really happy to see the rough cuts last class. No two directors make the same film.

And here comes the next project. I hope I don't overload this one like i did the last.

Finished Cut To Time

Here I am, waiting for my video to export in the labs. I just thought you might appreciate an exhausted POV. I have made some subtle changes with the split screen effects, like you requested in your notes. It definitely makes more sense to have it in the video more than once. I also experimented with b & w during the door scene. I think it help raise tension. It reflects the main character's frantic thought process. I reshot this scene, as well. The first version was a little too dark. I tried to color correct but it wouldn't turn out. We reshot the scene and added another light on her face. I think that it turned out much better. I am really curious to see what the audio teams are going to do with the sound mix. I left it wide open for them to be as creative as they can be. I am pretty sure I took care of all the notes to correct. A lot the problems with mine was with the exporting of the movie. It didn't come out so well for the rough cut, but I've figured that out now. I have a lot of ADR notes, and sound pacing notes... I will bring this up in class tomorrow.

Cut To Time

Good week for Tattle Tail. I made a ton of very very small fixes and effects that boost the quality of my piece a lot - color correction, special effects, overlays, audio... I am very happy with my cut to time, and think once the audio is finished this will be solid. Post production is my thing, and I went a bit overboard with it... but it shows. The editing is not very linear, however, the story can still be followed and enjoyed.

Another great thing, I heard back from the people at Moby, and I was approved to use three select tracks for my project. I really love his tracks for this, because they're deep and fit well with what's going on.

cut to time

Everything seems to be going smoothly. I hope reshoots (if any) went well for everyone. Thats the only comments for this week. Good luck.

Editing

Finally got filming completed Tuesday.  Got around to editing shortly after that and I'm still working on it right now.  Hopefully the rough cut will be done for Monday and we can get to scheduling re-shoots, if there are any.  I'm sure there will be some. Some of the footage turned out kind of funky because of the snow and the light bouncing all around.  We actually might have to re-film the end and the little bit at the beginning because the snow is now melted and that would completely mess with continuity.  We'll see.

Re-Shoots Finished

We just finished re-shooting a few scenes Saturday afternoon. I think that made six total days of filming. Again, I’ll say scheduling was very difficult, esp. for these re-shoots. It felt like I was getting an inconvenience vibe from my actors this week. Also, trying to find a crew was nearly impossible. I am anxious to start mixing sound, though. A friend of mine in the music department is going to be performing the score. Right now we trying to schedule a night that we can record in the Letterman sound studios. Scheduling is tight – I think Stan had some band recordings going on this past weekend. To be honest, this is probably my favorite part of the production process.

Cut to Time

Not much to say this week. I enjoyed viewing everyone's rough cuts; interesting to see all of the different versions. Now its time to make a few adjustments before handing it over to the audio team. Hope everyone's cut-to-times go smoothly. see everyone Monday.

Christ...

I have to finish editing. Nothing much to say but: it's all okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. Needless to say, I'm trying me very best to stay positive. 

Rough cut

Well, filmed all weekend around work and meetings.  Edited all night. Rough cut is really rough, but gives a decent idea of what the final product will be.  Just for myself I threw it into AE and touched on it with some of the treatment, and it looks awesome.  However, you will not see any of that on the rough cut, just the rough footage cut together.

Rough Cut

We finished filming last Monday shortly after the end of class. Overall the filming went pretty smooth. Because we started to lose time, we are going to have to shoot some final and/or close up type shots during the reshoot week. I finished the rough edit with very few hang ups. The concept I was going for using the black and white and red was hindered slightly. For the rough cut I only applied it to a shot or two to save time. The look was okay, but I was using FCP and I may switch to Color for a more precise look. As of now, I feel like I am on schedule.

Everything is Done... Finally

I'm done shooting now except for one scene that will only take like a minute to shoot. It the beginning shot actually. Haha. The editing went well, though. Unfortunately I'm going to need a lot of ADR done at the end since I got two different cameras with broken wireless mics. I actually did the ultimate no no and used the camera mic because I knew we'd have to go back over it. Oh well. Everything else is good though. I'm happy it's all over. This has been the least favorite project I've ever done. I had no fun making it and I'm glad it's almost in the past. I am going to delete it from my hard drive as soon as we're done with it. I never want to see it again.... All in all a good experience. :)

Rough Cut thoughts

I had wanted to get this cut done earlier than I have, but I will settle with getting it completed on time. I am very curious to see what everyone else has done with the story. I wonder how different and how similar they will be. I'm sure how much I will need to fix for the cut to time. There are a few things that come to mind, but they would be simple quick fixes. One thing that I've noticed is that my film is going to need a lot of creative sound editing. I will leave a detailed list of notes for my sound team on discussion board, like we talked about in class. Music and sound effects will bring this story to life. Some of the scenes seem very bland or boring at the moment, but I know once the sound is tweeked it will add a lot. So far I'm about 75% satisfied with the film. Some of it was rushed, but, considering the circumstances, it has come out fine. I tried a unique style when editing the dialogue between the two characters. I'm very interested to hear people's opinions on it...

Head Cleaners

Mini DV Head Cleaning Tape. Buy one. Price range is about $10 to $20 dollars. For those of you shooting with the Sony PD150s you may have already encountered an instance where a dirty camera has ruined your tape and say five hours of shooting. This happened to me last Tuesday. Fortunately, I was able to regroup everyone this past Friday and reshoot. 90 percent of the time Mary and Co. does an excellent job of preparing the equipment and running a head cleaner through the cameras. However, I’d suggest having your own cleaning tape just to be safe.

Aside from that incident, I felt filming and the first round of editing went very well. I had a great crew each night and the actors were very easy to work with. Both actors even came in for an editing session which was a bit distracting but appreciated. As other people are mentioning, sound is also a huge hole in our film right now. I am in the process of making some notes for the audio crews for FX, ADR, and music.

Moving Along

I finished editing my rough cut tonight. In editing it, I realized there are a few things that we will need to re-shoot, but hopefully it won't be too bad. Overall I was pretty happy with how the rough cut turned out. I know I still have some work to do and need to work more with the audio people when it comes to music, but that is for another week. Now the hope is that I can get people back together for another shoot to finish everything up. Luckily I remember when the last shoot was, so hopefully everyone is available at the same time so we can knock it out of the park.

Style

I had a lot of fun cutting this. I had a ton of footage to play around with, a good amount of free music (working on licensing!), and even had a bit of time to play with color correction. I'm happy with my rough cut, and can't wait to see how it compares to the others. I think we have a unique project, I really do. It needs some work, that's for sure.

Some scenes need ADR pretty bad, others are fine. I really didn't have a chance to go through the timeline and make everything pretty, but that's kind of the plan for this week... Making things pretty and perfect. I may even toy around with sky-replacement and Apple Color a bit on this -- I wish the footage were HD, but I guess I can go ahead and give this a film look rather than a DV look to replenish that.

Breakin'

Filming = done
editing = done

I actually turned my rough cut in on Tuesday... I can't say that I'm completely content with it, but I know there are things I need to reshoot and at the time I didn't feel it was necessary to reshoot those things before rough cut. I don't know, I guess the script/plot wasn't extremely thrilling to me in the first place, which made it a little difficult to like my semi-final product. I've already gotten feedback from Tim and I'm taking this weekend as a break (finally!) and I'm home in Ohio, but still trying to coordinate reshoot schedules with my crew and actors. My theatre partner, Stephanie, began rehearsals for a cave show this week, so unfortunately getting her to be available might be an issue, but we'll see. I'm keeping positive because she's been so easy to work with.

I really hope everyone's doing well on their rough cut. It'll be interesting to see what people have come Monday afternoon.

Well I like it...

Well, we finished up our filming Tuesday night... filming from 8:30pm till 2:30am. It was a little crazy shooting that late, but the actors and the audio guys worked really hard even when we all got a little stir crazy....

I just finished my rough cut of the project, and I actually really like it a lot. I say actually because to be honest I didn't even like the script when we started. But now that it's put together I really like how it turned out, and I hope you will too.

Good luck everyone!

Timecode trouble

So filming went better than could have been expected. With a day and a half of shooting, and no real run-ins, I couldn't have been happier. The only scare my team had was the second day of editing, we ran into some trouble with capturing and timecode errors. I know we played back about 3 to 4 takes on the camera for each tape during our shoot, which can often lead to these timecode breaks. However, when we went to capture, more breaks appeared than expected; around every 5-10 seconds or so. After one bad night editing, and one helpful meeting with our prof, we had worked out the errors and was able to rescue the footage without having to reshoot. My team was able to put together a decent roughcut in the end. I am looking forward to watching everyone else's Monday.

Late FIlming

Finally got around to filming this past Thursday.  I had 4 audio guys because I guess there were more audio groups than there are video groups.  The ones who weren't working were just kind of standing around until I needed something moved or needed someone to hold the camera while I positioned myself on the floor or something.  That didn't really make much sense, so next shooting the date is Monday (yes, the due date) and only two of them are showing up for that one.  

Shooting was kind of frustrating. The dog didn't show up so we're going to have to shoot that stuff on Monday.  I hope we can get the light for the scene with the neighbor too.  Schedules are still unpleasant and I haven't yet figured out exactly how I want to take the grinding scene, but it'll happen...however that happens.

Production Hell

Well, the post is late, but I feel the need to do it anyway.  Locations have fallen through, and ended up using my apartment for one of the locations--which works, but requires a lot of moving furniture and angles.  The storyboard calls for 167 shots.  We filmed a good portion this weekend, leaving about half of the scenes for the crucial "creepy" location I secured after much negotiation.  I receive a phone call from the coordinating personnel at the location, and can only use it Fri or Sun.  Major blow: principal actress is out of town Sat night through Sun, and unable to travel (location is 2 hours south) on Fri.  Looks like we'll have to go with a much less atmospheric location, much to my great displeasure.  Another blow: we're going for a very dark, claustrophobic feel, and I, in my brilliance, managed to get the dark part down...TOO dark.  Going to have to reshoot several major scenes.  Also having trouble securing the dog again for the remainder of filming (Thurs. and Fri., with some Sat. morning).  Add in two jobs and the CMD/IDEE Webisode project picking up, shit's getting deep.  This is my first priority though, and if necessary, I will BUILD a location and STEAL a dog (relax, I'll probably give it back.)  The greatest notion I am taking from this experience is that I cannot wait to do this in a situation in which everyone involved does this for a living and this is their only priority.  (That statement is not directed at Geoff or Lyss--who have been and are outstanding to work with--but a general statement referring to scheduling,  securing locations, equipment, etc.  It's so much more difficult to pull off a quality project with minimal time, few personnel, even less resources and no money, especially when you must divide those resources and time among other endeavours.)

Finally Filming

Well, we filmed all of the flashbacks on Thursday. Planning to film the rest tonight. I got lucky with the student from the audio class. Not only is he doing everything needed for audio, he's helping to setup lights, pulling a dolly, and a bunch of other random tasks, that in result, take some pressure off me. Filming the "execution" scene was interesting. I may have made it a little too gruesome, but nothing like "Saw." More like Hitchcock's Psycho. I used a small plastic syringe to shoot blood on the forearms of the lead actress, while filming at an angle so you cannot see her hands. As if the dog is being ground up and spraying blood and what not... Tonight should be another steady-paced, easy, shoot. I have used a combination of storyboards and a shot list to keep me focused. As usual I expect to film something in two hours and it takes five, but even so, I think tonight is our last night of filming... Hopefully.

So much for being on schedule....

Well, things must have been going too well last week, because this week was not quite so great. On Tuesday night we were going to be finishing our filming, but my co-producer called me and said she had bronchitis. So, we weren't able to film. We've rescheduled for this Tuesday and given ourselves plenty of time to film, so hopefully this won't cause any problems in the long run. I'm just planning on pretty much editing non stop this weekend... and I'm guessing I'll end up seeing most of your in either VIA or the downstairs lab this weekend...

Juggling Schedules

I would say at this point we have roughly 75% of filming completely finished with one scene from Saturday still to reshoot. The biggest problem up to now has been scheduling conflicts with my actress and her rehearsals for the theatre show. Also, it didn’t help much that she was sick last week too. In a strange way her sickness has added a new dimension to her character – giving her a more raspy voice which is creepy. For continuity purposes, I find myself now telling her to talk like she’s still sick. Of course she has to take a few breaks for tea. That kind of speech can be hard on anyone’s voice.

The location audio help has been great and consistent. We have all agreed that ADR will be essential for our opening scene – too much reverb in a small apartment hallway. We are planning to film again this Tuesday afternoon and maybe after 10:30 when theatre rehearsal is finished.

Shooting is Taking Longer Than Expected

My team and I had hoped to get filming done by the end of the weekened, but that wasn't the case. We got a late start on Friday night, which kept us from completing the scenes that were on the schedule. We scheduled to finish on Sunday, but at the last minute the location was not the available. The person who lives in the house was out of town. So, for right now, things are going pretty slow. I wanted to get the rough cut done early, so I would have more time to fix the problems needed. Also, the movie is going to need some extensive after effects work. Every project has its little problems... We only have two scenes left to shoot. I have been editing the piece as we go along, so I am not behind on that aspect. We are shooting again this Friday. It won't be long now before our filming is completed. As of right now, I am about 80% satisfied with what we have shot. One of the scenes ended up being a little too dark for my taste. I will try some color correction to fix that -- I'll probably have to reshoot that scene. Despite the slow pace, I will still be schedule with the due date for the rough cut.

Moving along

This week was a very productive week for my group. Wednesday night we got the video shot and I have begun the editing process. Since I had so many people volunteer to help with the shoot, it moved along quickly and we managed to get it all shot in one night. I was really surprised because I was worried that the "too many cooks in the kitchen" effect would become a factor, but turns out everyone was a huge help and I don't know what I would've done without them. Now my job is to finish the editing and get it ready to be shown as a rough-cut.

Up and Moving

Well we finally got filming on Wednesday and Thursday. Everything went well. Once we saw eye to eye on the character it all went smoothly. Thanks to Desiree (Sorry if I spelled it wrong), I was able to get an amazing dog for the shooting. I'm glad the other one didn't work out. I'm a little worried about one shot but if I have to reshoot it I'll just have to reshoot it. I'm also concerned about the webcam shots. I just don't know how smooth they have to be. The shots we have are pretty choppy so I'm a little worried how they'll translate in the sequence. The music is still up in the air for me. I don't really know what kind of music I'm wanting yet. Everything should come together soon. I guess it has to by next Monday anyway.

On another topic I got in contact with my audio member Ben. He was wanting to come and watch on Thursday but something ended up coming up where he couldn't make it. It was cool having someone so interested in getting experience to where he would just come and stand around and watch. Hopefullly things keep progressing as they have. If it does everything will be pretty easy.

Well... I guess that's all I have to say...Bye.

Squeaky hedgehog.

Done filming, have been since... Wednesday? Yeah, Wednesday. I've captured and started piecing together the footage while the person assisting me with editing has been unable to meet up. I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, although we do have to reshoot one teeny tiny thing due to a wardrobe foul-up. Oh well.

Editing should continue/almost be complete by Tuesday, other than the reshoot and any others that might pop up. I'm relatively confident that the finished product will be good, although in comparison to what I've heard/read from the other directors, I'm wondering how my film will stack up to the others. I'm not using HD, or a high amount of filters/gels/artistic symbolism yada yada yada. I don't really care about those sorts of things either. Call it minimalist, call it crap... I figure as long as myself, my actors, and my crew like our final product, I'm a happy girl.

More Frustrations

I'm having a super frustrating, ridiculously difficult time getting together with my partner for this project.  We've met only twice to talk (one of those juts for a few seconds).  Those meeting took a few weeks to set up and went through a few cancellations on her end.   And then we were all set to shoot this Saturday. We had the audio group set up and I got the equipment.  Then she finds out last minute that she has to do LA showcase rehearsal during that exact time.  I just...have no idea what to do.   Our week days don't work out (at least in the morning at all).  They seem to match up at the exact wrong times.  Her days next weekend are booked for more theater show stuff.    

This is seeming impossible and is making me hate and fear the "new email" sound on my computer.

fanatical!

We just finished shooting everything. Everything. We stayed up until 3:30am Friday night, then had a 7am call this morning. Just got finished about an hour ago. Two hours of sleep. I don't feel it though. At all.

Our actress was amazing, and Cody was very good too. We went handheld on most of the project, because the characters deserve the look. I have a steady hand too.

Have you ever mixed chicken hearts and gizzards, fur and fake blood together? Yeah, it's pretty awesome if you want to emulate someone tearing a creature apart.

I'll start editing next weekend. I'm tired now. And cold. But we'll have a great film. In fact, a fanatical film.

The Grind

The good news is that me and Geoff are on the same page with damn near everything.  We've got our actress lined up.  Storyboards are almost finished.  I have/had an amazing location lined up (granted a couple hours away, but a vacant, run-down/creepy dormitory fit perfectly) and am still waiting on permission/security clearance to film on location--it is at a military training facility.  It's a process, sure...but if it takes much longer, we'll be forced to move on to secondary locations.  So, we're searching for an alternate location.  I've done some experiments in After Effects on test shots...getting close to creating the look and (especially) the FX I want.  Also did some research in the audio world...my lips are sealed but we've got a neat little project going that will amp up the effectiveness of the film.  Finishing up final storyboards and building a list of sound FX for the audio kids to start work on.  The hope was to begin filming by the end of the week...the location waiting game is dangerous, and, to be honest, worries me.  It's a two-edged blade: if we get it, the atmosphere it provides will be worth the wait, but if not, we will have pushed back production a few precious days for nothing. 

Killing me slowly...

Well, pre-production for me has been quite a bit of work. I love collaborating with different individuals for projects. However, I wish that not every actor would question my ability to direct. I like people voicing their concerns; but damn yo'. Give a gal some room to breathe a wee bit. The actor that I found for the other character has been dismissed from the project, due to too many schedule conflicts. Therefore, I didn't want to bullshit around anymore. I have already found an actor to replace her. Things should be well on there way once I get in contact with the audio crew. After that, hopefully my drama on this end will be over. Thank god I don't have to edit with anyone. Christ. As far as my actor from Dwandra's class, I couldn't ask for more patience.

Everything is Smooth, so far...

Last night we had our first of two days of shooting. It went really well. I went and captured the footage, without any problems. This is a tough script to act. At first, I was slightly worried about my leading actress. When we showed up on set, she didn't know all of her lines. A few simple scenes took several takes. In the end, she got it though. I talked to Stephen and he's made plans to work with her more on the script before our final shoot on Friday. We still have the two hardest scenes left to shoot. With all the preparation we have been doing for this project, I hope it works out well in the end. Visually the film looks great so far. I am satisfied with how it is coming along. Another weird thing is that a 330 student still hasn't signed up to help during the shoot. I hope this doesn't hurt my grade. I have been posting my dates on the discussion board, just no one has replied yet.

Supplies Needed

After some good preproduction meetings, I do believe we are ready to film this week. I have obtained 3 people from the beg audio class to help with not only location audio but any odd jobs while filming. The actors and I have adjusted some of the dialogue in the script - making it sound more natural after a few read throughs. Right now we're stocking up on supplies (dog collars, a webcam, sausages, wardrobe, etc.). We have decided to keep someone on site to manage hair/makeup. Our last class meeting really helped open our eyes to this aspect.

I can't remember how much music was discussed and how much control we will have over that direction. Personally, I don't see us using much music (if any) in this piece. However, in the event that we do decide to use a score, I would like to interact directly with the composer in some way.

Final Shooting preparations

My partner and I met a few more times this week to work out exact timings for shooting and what we want to do specifically with the script. This coming week the blog will be more entertaining because we plan on shooting Wednesday night. We are hoping to get all the shooting done in one night, but we chose to start this week in case we need next weekend to finish up shooting.

More to come later.

Set-backs and Finish-ups

So, we filmed last weekend and everything was looking really good time-wise, and I was pretty stoked about finishing up this weekend. That is, until I went in on Thursday to capture some of the footage so that my editor friend could see what we've done so far.
Turns out, the tape was all messed up. Timecode breaks like nobody's business. Not a single bit of footage was able to be captured.

I was bummed. Extremely so.

But, I talked to my crew and Stephanie (my co-producer/actor), and we planned out how to fit in re-shooting the scenes and finishing up the ones we hadn't filmed as well, and other than like, 2 scenes, we finished filming this weekend (or so I hope).

I'm pretty excited to start piecing it all together and seeing how it looks as a cohesive unit. Hopefully everything looks great and we won't have to re-shoot anything else before the rough cut is due. And, depending on how much gets done, I might have an okay amount of time to relax or plot how to fix things before the cut-to-time is due. That would be wondrous.

All is well!

On MLK day my co producer and I met up with our other actor and worked through the script. Both of them contributed a lot to specific decisions we could make to develop the mood of the film such as possible music ideas, wardrobe, and characterization choices. We also blocked out the script so we would be prepared for filming.
We started filming on Saturday and it went surprisingly well. We're a crew of newbies in respect to producing narrative films, so I was a little worried about the things that may come up that we wouldn't have thought of, but so far so good. I was also really grateful that things worked out with our audio team from 330. Both guys were extremely helpful and gave some great suggestions as far as camera angles, set design, and lighting.
Hopefully on Tuesday night we'll be finishing up filming, and I can only hope that it goes so well...

Actors Kan't Reed

I've added a small role which is being played by a kindergardener. I've shot with her a little bit and it is a lot funner than it sounds. She can't read yet but that's a minor obstacle, so far. The dog has been more difficult.

Scheduling has been a nightmare. My partner is involved with both the New York and the L.A.
We haven't been able to shoot on weekends yet because of her commitment to that. To top it off I had to go and write a kid into the picture. Her parents don't get home from work 'till 5pm and her she has to be done by 8pm. So there's about a 2 hour window to shoot. The family has been absolutely wonderful and I'm learning a lot from them about directing.

So, scheduling sucks but it sound like I'm having an easier time than Tori.

Keep going guys,
Andy

Still in pre-production

I'm still having a problem getting together with my co-producer.  She's been really busy with the show she's in and everything else she's doing.  We're most likely going to be meeting this Monday to really talk in depth about everything we want for the project.  I've been in contact with an audio team, so at least there's that.  They're trying to work out their schedules with our schedules and we'll try to make something work.  We're most likely going to be filming this upcoming weekend, on Saturday.  We also might film a bit on Sunday night if we need more and then after that we'll see how it goes.   

Pre-Production Continues

I am still trying to set everything up to make sure the day of shooting rolls without any flaws, or as few as possible. My partner in the acting class is quite busy with a show that she is in, which is making it more difficult to lock down a solid shooting date. I imagine I will have it set by Tuesday. I spent most of this weekend acquiring props and testing some techniques that I plan to use. My plan is to go black and white, as a nod to Hitchcock, but then leave red as an active color. Just about every shot will contain an important item that is red. I tried this out using FCP and it looks pretty good. I have even found a way to keep something that is somewhat red in the shot, that should be black and white, to become black and white. I also did some experimentation with lighting for some of the night scenes. All in all, I'm a little worried about getting started, but once we lock down the filming dates, I should be alright.

Production under way

Production is finally under way with my crew. We accomplished more than expected last night with filming. We plan on filming all day this coming Saturday, with pick up shots reserved for Sunday morning. My partnered actress, Meg, has been wonderful to work with and has put forth many great ideas. Scheduling is still the main conflict, but if we continue to put forth the same effort next weekend as we did yesterday, we should have no problem producing a professional piece. Hope everyone's productions go well.

I've been working my ass off on the pre-production of this short. It's completely visualized in my head, and I just sat down and did complex storyboards and a very nice shot list. We're not going linear at all with this script, and it's very very stylized and high-pace. I'm going for a very strange feeling, a combination of Youtube's cheapness and 16mm film's over-saturated scariness.

We're holding a rehearsal on Thursday, and shooting Friday night, and Saturday all day. Sunday is available for pickup shots. It should honestly be a great time, and I'm very excited to get this short shot. I'm even more excited to edit it, because that's where my true art comes into play.

Miscommunication

The planning has been going fine but a miscommunication between Michael and me has set us behind and now dogless. If anyone has a dog that they would be willing to have in a movie it be great. We had one but Michael thought I was going to get back to him and tell him if we were shooting Wednesday or Thursday when I was planning on filming Wednesday and Thursday. No filming was done either day. So, again, if anyone knows a dog....

Preparing For A Big Weekend --

Stephen and I have everything ready to go for this weekend. It is going to be a lot of hard work, but we have an all day shoot prepared for the 27th - this Sunday. We have our talent ready, locations are ready, so everything seems good to go. I am bringing in a friend to help me film. He will more than likely get the DP credit. I am meeting with him today to go over my shot lists and storyboards for the movie. There are a few digital effects I am going to use, and we need to plan out how we are going to pull them off. I have posted the shooting date under the blackboard discussion tab. A 330 student hasn't replied to it, yet. If one doesn't come along, does that mean my grade will suffer? If they need to work for just a couple of hours, I can leave a few minor outdoor scenes to be filmed on another date. I'm worried that no one is going to reply before Sunday.

Pre-Production

Right now my acting partner Liz and I are focusing on pre-production. We have selected a male actor and have started doing some table reads. I emailed the writers and received a few paragraphs describing both characters more in depth. Both writers were very helpful. Liz is primarily concerned with memorizing her lines. She has made it clear to me that she wants to have as many rehearsals as possible before shooting. I'm working on storyboards, colors, and some filming options at our location. We're both still waiting on our audio crews so we can nail down shooting availability.

Tori: Just an FYI, I know your partner (from my hometown) and yes I'll agree she can be difficult to contact at times. If you continue to have trouble let me know and I'll track her down (ironically I will be living in her current apt next year).

On the way

All but one of the locations have been settled on. Casting is complete. Shot a little this weekend.

We have 3 weeks 'till rough cut and though I've done a lot of work already, I feel panicked and rushed. Guess I'll feel like that until I get a shot that knocks my socks off.

Shoelessly,
Andy

Difficulty Getting Together

This is getting a  little difficult for me now.  I joined the class a little late, so I had to catch up, but my partner and I are now having trouble getting together.  She's really busy with Ms. Ball State stuff (I think it was) and we haven't really gotten together to discuss the project in depth.  We had an initial meeting where we saw what each other looked like.  That lasted about 5 minutes, but she hadn't read the script yet, so we decided to meet today, Saturday.  Turns out she's sick and we're going to have to postpone again.  This is starting to scare me now because I don't know how often she's going to be busy. I know it doesn't take a whole week to film, I guess, but I'm just afraid that it'll get too close to the due date and we'll still need to get some really important stuff. We haven't even really talked yet.  I'm free basically all the time, and she's a busy girl, which I totally understand.  Maybe I'm just being paranoid and we'll have enough time. 

I'm supposed to send her some of my ideas through e-mail while she's recuperating.  So I'll just do that.

It! Has! Begun!

.. filming, that is. We just completed our first evening of filming. It was a little short due to wardrobe issues (Stephanie is having trouble finding a "crazy person" dress), but we were able to knock out a few integral parts. Originally, it was supposed to be an all-weekend filming thing, but Steph needs to go home this weekend, so we'll resume filming on Monday evening, and plow a lot of it out next weekend and then start piecing it all together!

Now that filming has begun my biggest concern is getting the shots right. One of the things that was stressed when we first met was that these films have to be above average. How do I know if what I'm shooting will turn out "above average"? The only thing I'm trying to do is get great framing, lighting, and acting, and from there we'll hash a lot of it out in editing. That's also one of the reasons why I want to get done filming as early as possible- that way if something doesn't fit well or looks bad when we're editing, we have plenty of time to go back and re-shoot without feeling rushed.

Oh, and I was pretty bummed that we don't get audio teams until next week. Oh wells. [PS- If you can get the subject reference, you get a high five.]

Week 2: Pre-Production

Well it's the start of a new week already, and the awkward first blog is already done. My co-producer and I have met, as most of everyone else has, and we plan to have a more in depth meeting later this week for pre-production discussion.
I am glad to hear that our audio teams will be joining us throughout the production, and not just in post. I am looking forward to working with a larger crew than usual. So far we haven't run into any problems, although scheduling time to shoot is still a concern.
Today's guest lecture was very interesting. I enjoy that we can diverse in topics to cover all of the expertise that go into creating a professional production. Overall, I am excited to get this production underway.

Thoughts About Tattle-Tail

I have met with my partner, and we are both very committed to this project. I have read through the script several times and found a few weaknesses in it. I have made slightly different version to tie up some loose ends. I have made storyboards for a lot of the film. I know how I want to shoot it. I think it enough time is dedicated to to it that it can turn out to be a pretty good movie. But, acting is crucial for this flick. There are a lot of long monologues the main character will have to go through. I am meeting with Stephen Glaspie, the co-producer from theater tonight. He should let me know who our leading lady is going to be. Then, we can get this thing rolling...