Creepy... for sure.

I met with my partner earlier this week -- and I think we'll be able to produce a great product. The script leaves a lot of headroom for the director, so I think I'm going to take a strange dark angle with this. I want a very depressing tone, a lot of blood, and great great sound design and odd saturation effects - the product is all about mood.

We've got it cast, we've got a location, and we've got an animal - I think. I'm actually more worried about physical production than I am post-production, which I can typically do within hours. My strong point is post production, weak point is production. But I've done enough with Something Else that I expect a good product.

One thing that I'm worried about is getting the equipment I want. I want to shoot this HDV and I want the DP lights. For some reason, everything I shoot on the PD-150s, no matter how well I light it, doesn't turn out the way I want it. The camera is terrible with color, the resolution is bad, and the DV-format cripples what could be a good standard-definition project. That's why I like HDV. HDV isn't a good alternative for HD, but rather a good alternative for cheap 10-bit SD; I can get the color and resolution I want, I don't get the DV grain that ruins projects, and the final project can be broadcast ready... not so amateurish. So hopefully I'll be able to pull off getting a better camera.

Beginnings...

Well, I'll be honest, at first I was not too excited about the script. Dog-killing is not really my preferred topic, and being a fan of Poe, I really wasn't too sure about the attempts at the adaptation. But now that I've had a few days to let it sink in, I'm beginning to convince myself that it has potential to be quite good.
I met with my partner, Jillian, on Thursday and now I am quite excited to get started. We're still very much in the beginning stages as far as casting or crew recruiting, but it does seem like it will be quite easy for us to work out the general logistics of the project. I also feel like we are very much on the same page as far as the artistic direction of the project. We've already discussed some shot ideas as well as location and character motivations. I'm really looking forward to starting to shoot this project soon!

Initial meetings

I don't really have a whole lot to report the first week. I got a hold of my theater partner Stevie and she seems really nice. From what I can tell we should be able to get along well. We decided to report back to each other next week and make final decisions on filming and then hopefully sometime next weekend do the actual shooting. We are both real busy during the weekends so we don't know how well it will work, but that is the plan for now.

That's all I really have for now, next week's post will probably be more entertaining.

Hate To Say I Settled

Just met with my theater counterpart for this project, Alli. Her and her roommate seem nice and I think she'll be fun to work with. We're both trying to get our bearings but once we do I'm sure it'll be a gas.

I was able to get a hold of the one of the writers and go over some ideas I had for the script. He was very receptive and a pleasure. It seems like the 3 minute restriction they had on their writing project hindered their adaptation of Poe's story. To fit such a character into 3 minutes is quite the feat. Thankfully we have no such restrictions.

We might be running into strains on location and other actors. The rewriting is making for a much more interesting piece but add just one more thing to think about and another and another. On the other hand, I absolutely hate to settle for the locations we can easily find rather than the ideal location. Without proper staging Tell-Tale Heart totally falls apart and is just sad to watch.

This should be a lot of fun. Just remember to breath.

-A

Meeting 1: Jan. 10th

I met with my partner Liz today and we are both really excited to get rolling with this film. Right now we’re trying to hash out the major issues like location, crew, and the other actor. We weren’t sure if there was going to be a formal casting process or if we should just select the additional actor on our own. Either way we are both confident that we have enough connections to facilitate a dependent cast/crew.

I plan to contact the writers soon asking for a more detailed character analysis for the girl. Liz’s feels the script is a little vague when it comes to explaining her character’s appearance and motivations. What I’m mainly focusing on now is a central look or style for our film. Overall, we both agree this will be a great class. Definitely, some nice material to use on a future demo reel.

the always-awkward first post

I figured I would wait until I met with my theatre partner to write my first blog, and now that we have, it’s bloggin’ time.

Basically, the format of this class is a lot different than I originally thought. I don’t know if they’ve changed it or if I had the wrong perception of the class, but I was really concerned on Monday when Tim told us that for the first project, we would direct and co-produce on our own, and have to find our own crew, actors, edit on our own, etc. That pretty much freaked me out and made me strongly consider dropping, just because of the workload.

I met with my theatre partner Stephanie today though, and after going over notes and discussing all the aspects of the first project, I feel a lot more relieved. We seem to really be on the same page as to what we want to do with the script, availabilities, and even when we want to shoot. Depending on how organized we get our team, we might be shooting as soon as this weekend if we can swing it, which I appreciate greatly. I know I’ve already tapped a few people for crew, and she’s going to recruit the other actor.

So, you know, maybe there’s hope after all. ;)

Day 1

So I'm not sure what to talk about for this week's blog. I am excited about this class, but worried about time. I think most would agree that by only having the two projects, we should be able to put forth more effort and focus to produce even better projects. I look forward to working with everyone this semester, and expect this to be a great experience. Good luck to everyone on our first project.