Update 7/30/07. I'm taking the first two working videos off YouTube, the completed movie can be seen at this link (http://www.cruelworldcomics.com/deadlydouble.html).

Actually this is a collaborative effort, but it just goes to show that a 13 year old can come up with some imaginative stuff.
My son loves to make movies and he doesn't put much planning into them, just gets out the camera and shoots, which is what I need to be doing all the time.
He's on his annual summer visit and I just asked him what he thought we should shoot, so he came up with this idea of an alien that takes him over and then takes over Merlin the pekingese dog (our only cast members). You'll note the "takeovers" when you hear the Irwin Allen sound effect.

We banged this out in a couple of hours before dark yesterday and didn't worry about lighting (obvious).
It's not perfect by any means but it shows that I need to be shooting more and planning less.

I embedded it in a webpage (http://www.cruelworldcomics.com/deadlydouble.html), I hope it shows up ok.
There will be more to follow but I thought everyone might get a kick out this so far.

His enthusiasm is infectious when it comes to shooting and he just plans out the scenes in 2 minute blocks.

I'm learning a lot!!

haha- I liked that quite a bit! When the kid gets shot in the beginning.... BRUTAL! And his acting was really good. I like little spontaneous shorts like this.

Personally, I would've used the Transformers sound effect for when he turns into the dog, LOL. Great stuff!

Kid prodigies rule! I'm trying to get my six year old into film by allowing her to assist in every aspect of the process. She loves it!!!

I can't wait until she shoots her own film.

That was fun. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the kind words, Spencer was ecstatic to hear good reviews.

We cranked out another segment today that picks up where the other leaves off, the alien escapes his surroundings.

We also were striving to do something unexpected.

Spencer is all jazzed up to shoot the big finale and the opening sequence where the alien lands.
Big ideas, and now we have to make them translate to film

more to follow, and remember, watch the skies!

Neil

We also were striving to do something unexpected (http://www.cruelworldcomics.com/spencer3.html)


HAHAHA! Loved it! A Lost in Space Martini!

I'd love to see the saga of the alien continue!

Just updating, we completed my son's movie, it runs 10 minutes and he is extremely proud of the result.

It's called "Deadly Double" (http://www.cruelworldcomics.com/deadlydouble.html) and gives an insight into what 13 year olds are thinking about when it comes to movies.

Neil

Just updating, we completed my son's movie, it runs 10 minutes and he is extremely proud of the result.

It's called "Deadly Double" (http://www.cruelworldcomics.com/deadlydouble.html) and gives an insight into what 13 year olds are thinking about when it comes to movies.

Neil

Wow. That's pretty darn good without a script. Child prodigy, indeed. Gotta love that Lost In Space homage. It's time to give him a script!

There were a couple things that bugged me, and this is coming from a semi-responsible adult in hand gun happy Texas. I kept wondering, where were this kid's parents and why would they leave a loaded hand gun laying around?

There were a couple things that bugged me, and this is coming from a semi-responsible adult in hand gun happy Texas. I kept wondering, where were this kid's parents and why would they leave a loaded hand gun laying around?

I understand your concern, and originally we were going to have the "alien" rummage around until he came up with the gun. We got caught with time constraints trying to keep the whole thing under 10 minutes, so we just used the device of having the gun lying on the old radio.

The whole movie idea grew out of us trying to come up with a way to make a believable gun flash without any special effects software. We did that take of Spencer holding the gun and I dropped in the white blank and we went from there.
When we got to the last part of shooting, we considered using something that looked more like a space gun that the alien would have brought with him, but since we had all the other footage in the can we just went with it the way you see it.

Of course if it were all up to Spencer, we would be buying out the Airsoft gun dealers and there would be machine gun fire aplenty throughout the movie.
I told him maybe next year.

Those MP-5 replicas are pretty good.

And to address your other point, the parent was running the camera, and the kid did have that big vicious dog to look after him!!:P

Neil

Nice film, how much of the direction was Spencer involved in? There's some pretty good story telling there i.e. establishing and close-ups etc.

Steven

Thought this was great, and it does teach us to go out and just shoot something.
I thought the effects were really good and very b flick worthy. Just exactly right for this picture.

Spencer and I shared directing duties, I let him come up with as many ideas as he wanted and how to lay out the shots.

I think he was surprised at what we could do with the editing, there were a few times when he said he didn't know how the scene should be working out while we were shooting, so we just kept shooting until we had something that seemed cohesive.

We were definitely looking to see how many simple effects we could create with items around the house, we didn't even bother with lighting and that was taking a chance, these Optura cameras are extremely light hungry. We liked the cheesy effects look and even considered calling it a "Cheese Factory Production".

Same for sound, we just used the microphone on the cameras, I was impressed with how well they picked up, but at the same time being an old radio guy I would far prefer to mic and mix everything.

As far as just getting out and shooting something, it let me see really quick what I need to work on from the photographic point of view. You can't get enough practice!

As soon as we had this one done and posted he was already planning a big epic for next summer, this time with a real script and more characters, featuring Confederate zombies and called "The South Shall Rise Again"

Story still in development!!

Neil

...

As soon as we had this one done and posted he was already planning a big epic for next summer, this time with a real script and more characters, featuring Confederate zombies and called "The South Shall Rise Again"

Story still in development!!

Neil

Oooh, oooh! When all hope seems lost you can have the North rise up from their graves with your principal characters caught in the middle of the conflict to carry the story to its climax!

Sorry, I just pictured an intense battlefield of zombies fighting zombies and ran with it. You could call it "Horrors of the Civil War". :lol:

I have the idea to throw in a deteriorating Southern officer sitting down at the table to negotiate.

It's a weird image that just popped into my head.

Spencer's idea takes place in modern times, with some supernatural reason the Confederate soldiers are back for revenge or who knows what.

Neil