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...