Community Project

NickClapper

NickClapper

My greatest regret, during my time on IndieTalk, has been my failure to get a community project off the ground. We came pretty close with the organ lottery project, but it never quite worked out. The past few days has seen a new member trying to get another community project off the ground, but is, I suspect, going to fall into a number of inevitable traps.

I am currently studying for the final exams of my academic career (*sob*) so am just sitting in libraries all day, every day. I'd like something to break it up a little bit (in addition to the couple of projects I am, slowly, working on). So I've come up with a new way to do a community project.

If you would like to participate in this project as a director (or in a shooting capacity), I need the following information out of you:

What actors are at your disposal? [i.e. two men and a woman]
What locations are at your disposal? [i.e. a house, a bar, an abandoned quarry]
Can you record decent quality sound? [i.e. yes]
Click to expand...

Please be conservative with your responses. In order for this project to be realistic and work, I need to be sure that people can (and will) shoot their scenes in the allocated manner.

Once I have a bunch of participants, I will go away and write a short script that incorporates these various shooting units into a single coherent story. I will ensure that no member has more than a maximum of two days shooting (though generally will try and keep it to what can be done in a single day). If you cannot record decent quality sound, I will give you no dialogue to shoot. Everything will be kept as simple as possible (within the constraints of a very tricky project!) so that we have the maximum chance of success.

Additionally, if you are not willing to direct (or arrange the production of) a shooting unit, there are loads of other roles that are required:

Composer
Editor - individual units should edit their scenes but a central editor will put it all together and try and ensure that the editing matches throughout.
Post-sound
VFX - will not be VFX heavy, but we can incorporate some if there's someone who can supply the talent.
Marketing - with so many cooks, would be great to have someone responsible for pushing the film.
Click to expand...

In order to make this attempt as successful as possible, I will only accept forum regulars into the scheme. New members (and I'm talking people who've only been around a few weeks) are welcome to input and help out, but it is of paramount importance that I know people will stick around and see their unit through to completion.

The deadline for signing up is 18th April 2014, giving people two weeks, after which we will allocate two months (and a bit) to complete production of your scenes, meaning a shooting deadline of 30th June 2014. As I have said, should be no more than a day of filming over the course of two months, so if you can't commit to that then please don't!

I really hope this works, and I think it can. Let me know if you have any thoughts and get signing up!

Current units:
David.rhsc (San Francisco, USA)
cheeseandachallenge (Wellington, New Zealand)
Cracker Funk (Richmond, USA)
wheatgrinder
Flicker Pictures (Boston, USA)
mad_hatter (Birmingham, England)
Dreadylocks (Omaha, USA)
Lucky Hardwood (New Orleans, USA)
ChimpPhobiaFilms (Ohio, USA)

Fence-sitting-maybe-merchants:
WalterB
Dreadylocks
sfoster
mad_hatter
ChimpPhobiaFilms
ItDonnedOnMe
jax_rox
Flicker Pictures

Music team
JoshL
mike mcguill

Sound team
mike mcguill

Sound maybes
AudioPostExpert
Alcove Audio

Marketing maybes
RayW

And remember to fill in this form if you want to have a shooting unit in the film!

(Of course, if you're local to an existing unit, why not team up?)
 
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rayw said:
2. ...For this same reason, sticking to the script for each take provides more dialogue editing opportunities.
Makes sense. Pretty limiting, though.
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It doesn't have to be limiting. If the script is wrong on the day, change it. If you want that improv feel, then record near perfect production sound, so none of the syllables/words need to be swapped out. Otherwise you're going to need ADR and you're going to loose all the spontaneity which was presumably the whole point of the improv in the first place.

rayw said:
5. Good file management! A common/consistent file naming strategy would help efficiency in post, as would a sound log from each unit.
Do you have a preferred system?
Name-date-number?
What? How?
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File naming: Scene number + shot/angle/segment and take number + camera, for example, "Scn002b-Tk3a" or Scene number + shot and type and description, for example: "Scn002b-WildDX-characterName" or "Scn002b-WildFX-RummageInBag-mono" or "Scn002b-WildAMB-ForestNight-stereo" or "Scn002b-WildRT". The idea being that the audio files will automatically arrange themselves when indexed on name and that we know what each audio file contains just by looking at the filename rather than having to audition it. This saves time in audio post when you've got maybe 100+ audio files to deal with and an inordinate amount of time in the case of a feature or long form project which may have thousands of production audio files.

Sound Log: I'm going to suggest a custom sound log. We won't be using TC for example, which is included as standard in sound logs.
Header: Unit Director + contact details (email, skypename). PSM + contact details. Mic/s used. Recorder used.
Columns: Filename. Scene. Take. Circled. Comments. Mic (SB, HB, L, P, ST). "Circled" is a box to check for the best audio take. Comments is for any observations, faults or description of contents. SB, HB, L, P stand for mic types (Shotgun+Boom, Hyper-Cardioid+Boom, Lav, Plant, Stereo).

rayw said:
6. Obviously all the raw (unprocessed) audio recorded by every unit should be made available to the audio post team, not just the audio used in the picture edit.
In another conversation you stated WAV files had compression (or was it MP3?).
What input settings make the process most time/effort efficient?
48k or 96k sample rate?
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It was MP3, avoid at all costs the lossy compressed audio formats (MP3, AAC, etc.). The most common lossless format is WAV (.wav or .bwf), so I strongly suggest everyone/every unit uses wav at 24bit 48kHz, as mixing audio formats in picture editorial can cause errors/failure when exporting an AAF/OMF to audio post. Having said this, I think one of the NLEs, maybe a version of Premiere, falls over trying to export OMF with wavs and they need to be converted to aiff format (the other common lossless audio format). As every prosumer/professional recorder that any unit is likely to be using will definitely record in wav format (but may not support aiff) we should keep it all the same and stick to wav.

rayw said:
To be honest I don't and to an extent, it's irrelevant!
There's little or no grey area to exploit, eh? Very little Lo-Med-Hi time & effort input?
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Depends what you mean by grey area. "Commercial standard" is not a single absolute line but a range, for example commercial theatrical standards are considerably higher than commercial TV documentary standards. I've been working to these standards for 20 years and my livelihood depends on me meeting or exceeding them, so I don't really know how to work any other way! It maybe for one reason or another that there are parts of the film where I can't meet commercial standards, for example; poor quality production sound files and not the budget/equipment/time/skills necessary to record acceptable ADR. If there's no practical option, I'll just have to do the best I can and accept lower than even commercial doco standards but I'd rather cross that bridge if/when it arises!

JFYI, at this point in time I'm working on the hope that Alcove will be available and amenable to the idea of being the Dialogue Editor and maybe with mikemcguill (who showed interest on the first page of this thread) also taking on some of the Foley? Of course I'm open to suggestions if either of them have a specific request and I'd fill in where necessary, in addition to all (or some, depending on requests) of the SFX/sound element design and all of the re-recording/mixing. Depending on the amount of time I have, the amount of help I get and the level of the film festivals we end up aiming for, I might even consider making a 5.1 mix (in addition to a standard stereo mix) but that's a decision which can be postponed until we're nearing the end of picture editorial.

G
 
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AudioPostExpert said:
JFYI, at this point in time I'm working on the hope that Alcove will be available and amenable to the idea of being the Dialogue Editor and maybe with mikemcguill (who showed interest on the first page of this thread) also taking on some of the Foley? Of course I'm open to suggestions if either of them have a specific request and I'd fill in where necessary, in addition to all (or some, depending on requests) of the SFX/sound element design and all of the re-recording/mixing. Depending on the amount of time I have, the amount of help I get and the level of the film festivals we end up aiming for, I might even consider making a 5.1 mix (in addition to a standard stereo mix) but that's a decision which can be postponed until we're nearing the end of picture editorial.

G
Click to expand...

As I've mentioned, I'll do a lot of work or just one aspect (like the DX edit) depending upon my schedule, the project schedule/deadline, and whoever else wants to become involved in the audio post.


Do we have a UFO design yet? I would definitely like to play around with the sound design for it - something I haven't had a chance to do yet. I can do that in my spare time.
 
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Sorry, I've only just gotten round to reading the revised script, too. Here's my thoughts, based on a quick read-through:


I don’t mind the beach dialogue. The only part that I don’t particularly like is the “Roswell….” reference. It seems pretty meaningless. Was the show really that popular? If you really want a pop-culture, TV reference in there, it might be better to go with “The X-Files”.

I’m also not keen on the After Effects reference at the pyramid. Just feels a little forced.

In the artist’s studio, perhaps the subject of the painting shouldn’t be revealed until a little later, once Sophie enters (or even, right at the end of the scene, once she leaves). Just an idea, something which could probably be played with in the edit.


Page 2

Man (O.S.)
Steve, you gettin’ this on your camera?

Only needs to be:

Steve, you gettin’ this?


Page 3

In Marks Dialogue, there appears to be an erroneous “their” instead of “they’re”.

Then, “Who am we…” as apposed to “Who are we…” or “Who am I…”.


Other than that, I like it. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!
 
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Alcove Audio said:
Do we have a UFO design yet? I would definitely like to play around with the sound design for it - something I haven't had a chance to do yet. I can do that in my spare time.
Click to expand...

I'd have no problem with that. Bare in mind though that it might not be as satisfying as you would like as ultimately it will probably be in mono and futz'ed to sound like it was recorded on a phone.

G
 
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mad_hatter said:
Sorry, I've only just gotten round to reading the revised script, too. Here's my thoughts, based on a quick read-through:


I don’t mind the beach dialogue. The only part that I don’t particularly like is the “Roswell….” reference. It seems pretty meaningless. Was the show really that popular? If you really want a pop-culture, TV reference in there, it might be better to go with “The X-Files”.

I’m also not keen on the After Effects reference at the pyramid. Just feels a little forced.

In the artist’s studio, perhaps the subject of the painting shouldn’t be revealed until a little later, once Sophie enters (or even, right at the end of the scene, once she leaves). Just an idea, something which could probably be played with in the edit.


Page 2

Man (O.S.)
Steve, you gettin’ this on your camera?

Only needs to be:

Steve, you gettin’ this?


Page 3

In Marks Dialogue, there appears to be an erroneous “their” instead of “they’re”.

Then, “Who am we…” as apposed to “Who are we…” or “Who am I…”.


Other than that, I like it. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!
Click to expand...

Good cal MH, that's some sloppy stuff.

I'll make some more amendments and post a third version of the script, hopefully later today.
 
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Just a thought on the beginning:

Code: 
INT NEW ZEALAND
Laura sits on the couch doing stuff on her phone while the ambient 
light of the TV flickers

                MALE VOICE FROM TV
                What remarkable video do have to share with us today, Lindsay?

                LINSAY FROM TV
                I found this one this morning.
                It's a UFO video.

                MALE
                UFO?

Laura looks up with sudden interest

                LINDSAY
                Yeah, and it look quite convincing.
                Look how it pulsates...
                And now it's gone.
               
                MALE
                Wow!

                LINDSAY
                The amount of views in going through the roof.

Laura stares with an astonished look on her face

                 MALE
                 Let's watch that again, while you keep quiet for a while

ALIEN VIDEO

BLACK & SILENCE

TITLE

EXT TOKYO SKYLINE & STREETS
                          JAPANESE RADIO/TV
                          Recent footage of a possible alien
                          spacecraft has gone viral
                          overnight.

EXT MOSKOW SKYLINE
                         (in Russian)
                         A more plausible option is that this is a new experimental 
                         aircraft of the Americans

EXT ROTTERDAM SKYLINE
                         (In Dutch)
                         Twitter exploded. Millions of people are discussing it.
                         [I]"Twitter ontplofte gewoon. 
                         Miljoenen mensen hebben het erover."[/I]

EXT PARIS SKYLINE
                         (In French)
                          This footage is either a really
                           well-executed hoax, or the real
                           deal...

EXT LONDON SKYLINE
                         (in Brittsish BBC English)
                         It's pretty ridiculous people believe it's anything 
                         else than a marketing gimmick.
                         Within a week we'll know who behind this 
                         and that will probably be ridiculous as well...
 
EXT SOME SPANISH SKYLINE
                        (in Spanish. [I]Or Portugese if we can get it together 
                         with Soa Poalo Skyline[/I])
                        Finally we can say we're not alone in the universe

EXT NEW YORK DAWN
                      PHONECALL ON RADIO
                      I believe in extra-terrestrials,
                      and this is the evidence that I’ve
                      spent fifty years waiting for!

EXT GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (SF, CA)
Morning traffic jam

                      RADIO
                      Next: a Visual FX Specialist from Hollywood will 
                      explain how he would make such a video but first 
                      we'll listen to the new hitsingle from... (fade out)

EXT SAN FRANCISCO BEACH
(Someone can shut a radio off in the first shot?)

Probably not coded very well: I never really coded script before...


Challenges:
Moskow, Paris and Spanish/Soa Paolo skylines for free.
I don't know any portugese speaking persons...
 
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Global Movie XP's first week view stats:

2014%252005%252013%2520GMX%2520First%2520Week%2527s%2520View%2520Stats.png



http://globalmoviexp.blogspot.com/

Both the contact sheet and camera specs sheet have been locked to "view" only to anyone with the link.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RvQUKGU6bvj_s92MZNYl50NQgEVen_Ky-vY-BFxoA7g/edit#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Rzk9_4xuKu5MZX_drun4pdyd8i44XF_qlOGleKgIDw/edit#gid=0

Still a lot of preferred project contact point, social media, and camera spec info to fill in.
PM me here at IT with what I can C&P in.

My life got hairy for a li'l bit, I'm behind on fabricating new posts.
You guys are welcome to type up something for me to spread to the world.
Would be good if some of you FB and Twitter folks would give it a shout on the next post. Nothing outlandish just yet.

Also, if you'd like to see something specific on the project blog please drop me a PM. :yes:


Peace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cool:
 
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cheeseandachallenge said:
For the screens shown in the film, are we going to actually video the screens (which can often look a bit poor) or use screen replacement techniques?
Click to expand...

I think the most efficient/effective way will be to ensure that the 'viral video' is completed first and then we can create a faux YouTube page which all the unit directors have access to.

So, order of business:

Who's going to create the video? Someone needs to film it and someone needs to do the VFX?

I got an email from Santhem who said he might be interested in helping with the VFX. Are you around? (I wish you could tag people on here...)
 
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A1
F9
O1
O4

Unless you want something silly looking.

FWIW, I've been watching (and trying to record) several Boeing 712s and MD-88s on their landing approaches to the local airport.
These 125 - 150ft long aircraft look pretty miniscule on screen.

Better plan on having that faux footage make them appear to be sky monsters, otherwise there won't be much to "Ooo! Ahh!" anyone with.
 
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i dunno... look at what is out there already. most all the UFO footage out there is a little blurry dot in the sky..

Now, I think we should go for more awesome AT THE EXPENSE of being REALLY consider as a REAL UFO sigthing..something along the lines of

blud92b.jpg


rather than

article-1190481-0531795D000005DC-401_634x419.jpg


Thoughts?
 
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Yeah, I think the benefits of going with something visually bolder outweigh the negatives of the audience having to suspend their disbelief somewhat.

I'm happy to leave the final decision to wheat/Santhem, though I think we'd all love to see some options. What's great about the option you posted (is that District 9?) is that it's a realistic spacecraft – like Ray says, the better options are the less silly ones – but it has proper, recognisable craft detail. That's what makes it look so good.
 
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Link to a SciFi spacecraft relative size chart:
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2...fiction_spaceships_by_dirkloechel-d6lfgdf.jpg

That 'District 9' craft (bottom of chart, off-center right) is listed as 2500m/8202ft = 2.5km/1.5miles across.

So, how about something less... ridiculous for our purposes?
Somewhere between "silly" and "ridiculous"? :yes:


More this: http://www.openminds.tv/wp-content/uploads/Branson-Virgin-UFO-Balloon-ftr.jpg
And this: http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article412995.ece/alternates/s615/ufo-651432644.jpg

Not so much this: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02593/Bracknell-UFO_2593504b.jpg
Or this: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/06/26/article-2008437-0CBED75300000578-914_468x286.jpg

Something about 300-500ft/100-150meters in length/diameter?
More solid, not so much "lighty"?
 
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Asset Mamagement

For any unit director who hasn't already done so, please read the related Sound Design thread.

Particularly though this post, which contains a template Sound Log for you/your PSM to use, along with instructions and an example of how to use it.

Nick: I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet but if not, I have some commercial secure FTP server space available for use (free of charge of course). I don't have enough spare space for the whole project but there's certainly enough for all the audio requirements (All the production sound, deliverables from the Picture Editor to audio post and the audio post itself). I could create a root folder on my FTP server with sub-folders for: Deliverables, final mixes, audio editors' sessions, plus a sub-folder for each unit. Each unit's sub-folder would contains further sub-folders for: All production sound, ADR and Logs (sound and ADR logs). I would send you the username/password for the root folder (and therefore all it's sub-folders) and you could share these with whomever you think necessary (the picture editor, dialogue editor, etc.). There would be separate usernames/passwords for each unit director, to access their specific unit folders. BTW, even if I'm not able to take part in the audio post when we get to it, I'm still fine for you to use my FTP server space. Let me know if you want me to set this up.

G
 
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AudioPostExpert said:
For any unit director who hasn't already done so, please read the related Sound Design thread.

Particularly though this post, which contains a template Sound Log for you/your PSM to use, along with instructions and an example of how to use it.

Nick: I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet but if not, I have some commercial secure FTP server space available for use (free of charge of course). I don't have enough spare space for the whole project but there's certainly enough for all the audio requirements (All the production sound, deliverables from the Picture Editor to audio post and the audio post itself). I could create a root folder on my FTP server with sub-folders for: Deliverables, final mixes, audio editors' sessions, plus a sub-folder for each unit. Each unit's sub-folder would contains further sub-folders for: All production sound, ADR and Logs (sound and ADR logs). I would send you the username/password for the root folder (and therefore all it's sub-folders) and you could share these with whomever you think necessary (the picture editor, dialogue editor, etc.). There would be separate usernames/passwords for each unit director, to access their specific unit folders. BTW, even if I'm not able to take part in the audio post when we get to it, I'm still fine for you to use my FTP server space. Let me know if you want me to set this up.

G
Click to expand...

Seconded, I have lots of free server space and can create a password protected directory for each unit to upload.
 
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