Bi-weekly wrap up time! :cool:

What have you learned and/or done in realm of film over the past two weeks?

Found a good book? Learned a new technique? Had a screenplay rejected? Rejected a screenplay?

Big or small... something film-related must have happened in your life, since the last time we did this.

_______

I helped an actor who wanted to film a demo-reel. Nothing glamorous... just angled some lights and waved the fog-machine around. So I guess I learned a bit more about lighting tricks. :lol:

How about you?

I had the premiere of No Place, but I've written about that in other threads.

I had a friend from Croatia over to stay who loved No Place and is going to try to set up a small lecture tour for me. Apparently my Serbian flashback sequences were very acurate and she thinks Croatians will really like the movie. Of course, it's all very tentative at the moment.

This week, I've stepped out of film and messed around with some other projects.

1) I helped set up a girlband, designed some logos for them and found them a producer for their first single.
2) I recorded a new album for my wife, designed the artwork and arranged the copying.

The only film related project I started, was the editing on an experimental video art project about my friend the artist Robert Gammie. Stilll trying stuff out really.

I am moving to NYC!

I am moving to NYC!

NEW YOK CITY!!!!

Get a rope. http://community.the-underdogs.org/smiley/celeb/vcowboy.gif

I am bogged down in doing a coupld of wedding video projects (shots of them as babies, young adults, and their relationship together set to music) for family members. I have started talking to 7studios about the storyboards for "The Stream, The Cave, Jim, and Dave." And one night I actually got to write a bit on a feature length screenplay I've been working on.

Poke

Just did the Toronto 48 hour film challange!
We're in love with our movie, and hopefully we'll take home the festival booty!
Can't wait to see it on the big screen!!!

Any chance we'll see it online sometime soon?

Poke

I did some work on the script for the tenth episode of The Portal. I'm still waiting for these bloody clouds to go away, so I'll have decent lighting and can get back to filming, though.

Any chance we'll see it online sometime soon?

Poke


I have to get permission from the TFC executives, but if all goes well and we win, it would probably be hosted on www.torontofilmchallange.com and shown on TV. Crossing my fingers.

If all else fails, I'll find some way to get it to you guys.

I wrote three more pages for my script . Read through several tutorials on website design. Storyboarded a scene for my animation.

I spoke to some people about a screenplay that I wanted to do which was full of things that I wanted to say which felt to me like I was forcing points down the readers throats. It didn't feel right. Some have suggested giving it a go as novel. It has changed medium.



Found a good book?

In my desperation for a good post-modern crime story I came across Paul Auster's New York Trilogy for inspiration. Its all of the above, only great (as opposed to just good).

Rejected a screenplay?

I was offered a role being a script doctor for a comedy script someone sent me. It was shocking stuff (all sexual impotence jokes and dream sequences - way too many references to willies). I politely declined. No matter how good a doctor you are, some things are just going to die.

Well let's see...
I bought a 200gig hard drive for $100 at office depot. I started offloading the data on the 2 internal SCSI drives in my editing PC.
I also started work on the dual proc rendering server. The plan is to have that host my Sun D1000 SCSI array. The D1000 is set up on a RAID so it will #1 operate faster and #2 be fault tollerant. I have 22 extra SCSI drives sitting in a box just in case one of them fail and I need to swap.
We also upgraded out production environment to MAX7 and am possibly getting another animator attached.
I rendered a test scene, testing my FX, and almost have the lead character nailed down.
What else did I do....?....'hmmm.... Oh yea, I washed clothes and BBQd some chicken and hot dogs.

way too many references to willies

Where is the real Nique, and what have you done with his body? Pod-person!! http://www.stevenrichards.com/images/smiley_mono.gif

Mr Sutton... loooong overdue for another Portal episode. http://www.stevenrichards.com/images/smiley_dance.gif

p.s. Bird, you can practise your webskills by making a new website for me, if you like... http://www.stevenrichards.com/images/smiley_coy.gif

Zen,

I'm just reading about writing HTML code and CSS, but when I feel competant enough, I'd love to give it a shot. :)

I wrote 6 pages of a first draft, forging closer to the realization that this script will never work. Always have to try though.

Bird, same script as before?

Let me think... the week was a blur, really.

Did lots of yardwork, that much I remember.

Built a platform for the green screen studio and put a Robo-Sapien in place. Figured I could reduce the number of variables (locations and actors) to practice camera angles and movement. And it's just plain fun to play with the robot.

Edited more of an event documentary. A local Temple had its Mitzvah Day which I filmed and now have to compile a video.

Edited the same footage on the PC with Vegas and Premiere, then on the Macintosh with Final Cut Pro. I really can't decide which environment I like better. But I'm leaning toward editing with Vegas on the PC and cranking iTunes on the Mac, it's a great combination.

Toyed with After Effects, playing with the lightning generator. I can now produce fairly convincing "Jedi Force Lightning" at will. The force was with me.

Read the short story, "A Victim of Higher Space" yet again. I really want to adapt this as a screenplay. Dusted off an old, highly marked-up copy of a science fiction story a friend and I have been working on for a couple of years.

Rode my motorcycle a lot. After the miserable spring we've had in New England, I'm making up for lost mileage. Oh, I forgot... tested out the intercom system in my new helmet. If I set my cellphone to auto-answer, I can receive incoming calls directly to the helmet while riding. Seriously, how geeky is that?

I think that was about it.

This week I transferred the mini-DV footage of my short "Death Knocks" to VHS, for preliminary viewing. I freed up about 7 GB of space from my laptop's drive; I've got to upgrade it, 'cause a 40GB just ain't cutting the mustard.

I also have been enjoying as much time as possible on my sailboat, now that the weather here on Long Island Sound has finally gotten summer-like. It's really hard to edit a movie when the sun is shining!

www.futuredv.blogspot.com

Bird, same script as before?

T,

Yep, it's been slow moving :grumpy: . How about you? Sounds like you've started a new work. :)

Built myself a dolly (about time I suppose) and am in the process of making a crane with an 8' reach (starting from the top of the tripod used). Dolly works quite well and only cost me about $50. Not bad I figure!

Spent some time sleeping (hey its good stuff).

Shaw, can you post a link to your $50 dolly plans, or tell us how you built it? I made a $25 dolly...it works like a $25 dolly.

I figure a $50 dolly would be only half as crappy. ;)

Bob

I can draw some up I suppose :). I don't have any plans right at hand.

It's basically the usual setup though - a piece of 2'x4' plyboard that uses rollerblade wheels to roll on a PVC track. I'll post some pics when I get s a free moment. What type of dolly did you build for $25? Work ok?

...hmmm, lets see;

I found two grants I am going to research, I worked (hi-ho, hi-ho) and recovered from a bad newscast on friday. (we need a scream smilie!) Talked to a friend about Final Cut Pro.

...I went to see the movie 'Crash' :pop: and I am now watching(listening to) Headbangers Ball...

...gotta love Pantera....\m/ :devil: \m/ ...and I am now on vacation for a week! :woohoo:

--spinner

Shaw, can you post a link to your $50 dolly plans, or tell us how you built it? I made a $25 dolly...it works like a $25 dolly.

I figure a $50 dolly would be only half as crappy. ;)

Bob

Search google for "skateboard dolly" and there should be plenty of results.

...gotta love Pantera
--spinner
:evil: Hell yeah.

Pantera was awesome, yes. http://www.stevenrichards.com/images/smiley_rock.gif

Pity about Dimebag. :(

speaking of Pantera..... I borrowed a great little ibanez pedal for my guitar this weekend and now everything I play sounds like a cheesy 80's song. I could record some 80's style riffs for a short film but i'm sure there are enough of them around. :yes:

This week I put an Ad in PCR for some cast to be in my latest film that I'm Producing alongside director Chris Dwyer called 'Daydreaming Sexy'. Got lots of replies but no lead role suitable... so again I've got a casting report going in on Monday, which will hopefully yeild some delightful british talent from our native actors! The next step for me is to find some Audition / Screentesting space in london to film their shenanigans!
Currently, I'm looking into the funding part. We're shooting in August.
What did I learn this week? Milk left on the doorstep all day on a hot day tends to go off - note to self, get up early on a hot day to bring the milk in.

Pantera was awesome, yes. http://www.stevenrichards.com/images/smiley_rock.gif

Pity about Dimebag. :(

...Yeah, just tragic. I was just learning who and how important he was when he was killed. I've been educating myself of Metal and I love it now. Its just a tragedy...

--spinner :cool:

Shaw, I built a wheeled dolly; it looks similar to a furniture dolly. Basically it tends to jiggle a bit over most surfaces. I was hoping to come up with something cheap that would be free of tracks, but it looks like I'm going to have to go the PVC track/skateboard wheels route. Or the wheelchair/hand-held camera route.

Or the $14 steadycam route, which works reasonably well for shots that don't require a lot of motion.

Ah, gotcha! The PVC track really isn't too bad. I specifically went with a track design because I plan on using it outside most of the time where the ground is uneven. A track dolly lets me get smooth shots in these instances.

I talked to a guy in Vegas who was with a group of Danish film makers out of LA. He was a producer for a few indie films (none of which I can remeber because I was extremely intoxicated) but it was a good conversation because I wanted to know more about producing and found out its similar to the job I currently do, except more involved. But he was friendly enough and I got a lot out of the conversation despite the fact I only remember parts of it.

Started writing "Day as a Democrat"

I worked all day, took care of my kids most evenings and then spent the wee hours editing a fockumentary (fake documentary). Mostly that consisted of using Photoshop to create newspaper headlines, print ads and the like, pan and scan them into Imaginate and then plug them into Premiere. Also used AfterEffects with the Cinelook plug in to age some footage. I'm new to the forum, wanted to start plugging into the community now that filming is done, submissions are coming up and our premiere on the big screen is coming up.

I just wrote a few pages for my sequel's script then slept and went out dancing. yah, how not filmmakiing like weekend.

aghhhhh still working