New project - EXCITED !!

Ok.. Im as excited and jazzed up as I can be at the old age of 50 right now. Im filming a short on Dec 9th thru the 12th. Im aiming for a 10 minute thriller. I have the "script" in my head and on a dry erase board behind me. Im auditioning 3 more people today and will get serious about getting the script banged out in the next week w/ storyboarding and figger out the camera moves I want to set the mood in the following week AND mebbe a week for "adjustments" and what not.

I've got the core talent all being experienced and most I have worked with or they have worked with others who I have and get along with. I will have one armed standoff/encounter and two killings to do in this project. This is not a splatter or a gore fest, but will have the killings to add to the story if you will.

The most dodgy of shooting days will be the last. I have a hair salon at my disposal and will have 4 actresses and mebbe 20 extras to deal with. I hope to get mebbe 3 1/2 minutes of material that day so I will need to get a good nights rest the night before.

This will be my most ambitious effort so far. I really want to focus on style, lighting, mood and camera work to make this a powerful short film. I have done some shorts, a horrid feature and now I want to focus on quality and style.

This is what I live for right now. Being creative and having people help me get the job done. this is a no-budget short. I'll make pizzas for the talent to eat and have some sodas available and that is it. I expect to have a small crew assist me as I am usually a one man film crew anyways ( with all the results one could expect ).

The working title is "Please Don't Leave Me alone", a story about a young lady who who has mental problems and was abused as a kid. The story has a bizarre twist at the end and Im challenging myself and the talent to bring it out !!
 
WELLL...Things just came to a head and an actress backed out. I would have to reshoot her scenes and the other talent is not willing or dragging their feet.... SOOOOO mebbe no feature after all ???

SOOOOOOO Im thinking either go w/ what I have for now OR rethink, recast and redeaux entirely.
 
Wheat, thanxx for the cheerleading.

not best ever.. but the BEST I can do w/ no budget and no crew..4 more weeks Id say I'll have the short done if Im guessing right

Kinda bummed right now, I had one of the actresses flake and that made 2 others not willing to do re-shoots, so.. im thinking... mebbe finish the short, or just do a trailer and go for a feature even if I have to start from scratch or do both a short using what I have and a feature after recasting, or be childish and drink a lot of booze cry break things and give up.

Im bordering on moving on...

There was an incident in the original filming. An actor got carried away w/ an actress and got a little wild pawing at her in a scene. I thought he knew her and had cleared everything w/ her on the scene. we all had talked about the scene before. he did not speak w/ her on everything and she was uncomfortable... it got weird and after a few weeks she flaked out.. Memo to me.. make damn sure everyone knows for damn sure what a scene will entail before filming ! OK.. you are going to touch HERE and then THERE, you will then say XXXXX.

Complicated story, but I shall not tell the world.. many ways to look at the scene, but I learned from it. LOTS pf gray areas
 
Wheat, thanxx for the cheerleading.

not best ever.. but the BEST I can do w/ no budget and no crew..4 more weeks Id say I'll have the short done if Im guessing right

Kinda bummed right now, I had one of the actresses flake and that made 2 others not willing to do re-shoots, so.. im thinking... mebbe finish the short, or just do a trailer and go for a feature even if I have to start from scratch or do both a short using what I have and a feature after recasting, or be childish and drink a lot of booze cry break things and give up.

Im bordering on moving on...

There was an incident in the original filming. An actor got carried away w/ an actress and got a little wild pawing at her in a scene. I thought he knew her and had cleared everything w/ her on the scene. we all had talked about the scene before. he did not speak w/ her on everything and she was uncomfortable... it got weird and after a few weeks she flaked out.. Memo to me.. make damn sure everyone knows for damn sure what a scene will entail before filming ! OK.. you are going to touch HERE and then THERE, you will then say XXXXX.
Complicated story, but I shall not tell the world.. many ways to look at the scene, but I learned from it. LOTS pf gray areas

You should be drinking a lot of booze anyway. Your performance at...hell everything, will get noticably better.:)

As for the scene: Yea major lesson learned there.
 
AARRGGG ! It takes for frickin ever to edit ! I spent the last 2 days on a 2 minute scene... Im 1/2 way thru I guess.. just locked in the video almost, now have to do the soundtrack, dialog, color, FX tweaking.

I still love doing it.. kind of a love/hate relationship goin here.. Im gonna work it and work it till Im done. I still did not get exactly what I wanted, but Im Ok w/ what I got. Will do some pickup shots to finish.. still mebbe a month away ???? It's like cooking, how long to cook ??? Till it's done, of course.

I have yet to "finish" scene but I'm making progress. I love the fact that Im working on a trippy surreal thriller. I have lots of leeway and can cut it any way that feels good to me. I have mebbe a 20 minute "short" here... still have to cut it down to a shorter film. Like to have it mebbe 12 - 13 minutes final cut. nut will let the story and flow decide final runtime. It's gonna be a David Lynchesque creepout.







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Still workin on it ! I will be filming tomorrow to "almost" wrap this puppy up.

Here is a taste, NOTE the scene is unfinished, needs color work, some ADR, foley & dialog sweetening. Im going to create some BG music for this scene, just dropped in something I was playing with for BG noise / mood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77kDErrySIg
 
Still workin on it ! I will be filming tomorrow to "almost" wrap this puppy up.

Here is a taste, NOTE the scene is unfinished, needs color work, some ADR, foley & dialog sweetening. Im going to create some BG music for this scene, just dropped in something I was playing with for BG noise / mood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77kDErrySIg

That was pretty neat. I have a question you can answer: How did you get the shots to be so bright and lively? What kind of lighting did you use?
 
I used a Smith Victor 600 W 3200K Quartz Can Light bounced off the ceiling and some 200w incandescent bulbs. I'm planning on doing color corrections and making the scene a little darker when I do the final edits
 
I used a Smith Victor 600 W 3200K Quartz Can Light bounced off the ceiling and some 200w incandescent bulbs. I'm planning on doing color corrections and making the scene a little darker when I do the final edits

My brother along time ago told me about bouncing light off the ceiling. That's something. I like the way it looks. The only shot that looks different, is the CU of the girl's face.
 
If you darken the other shots like you said, it'll blend in perfectly. Plus if when all is said and done, if people really notice it, then it's the least of your problems.
 
More stuff..unfinished.. I like to let people see the before & after.

This is still RAW. mebbe too dark, I will play w/ it and put some different sounds in the background and the timeline will change. I have a creepy character to chat w/ the young lady that I still need to shoot.. Im gonna have the girl say some different lines in the beginning as well

For some reason Youtube added solid gray at the beginning where it is supposed to be black

enjoy a taste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-G1V2p3Yco
 
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Night Scene - Homage to Mr David Lynch

I will be shooting a climactic scene for my feature Get Charley

Im gettin me some lovely ladies, all gonna be dope fiend street hookers ( Yummy ! ) . We are going do do a scene ripped out of Inland Empire & More Things That Happened by David Lynch, kind of. Im hoping to shoot tomorrow evening, have eight "girls" my trusty T2i, some battery powered lights, a zoomH4n, some digital recorders & lavs and we gonna go to Downtown Houston and pay homage to Mr Lynch & Inland Empire.

The scene will be street girls wasted out of their minds, my Lead actress who is going mad, lost everything and is now a killer hooker type will exit a previous scene where she was jilted by her lover and humiliated. The lead will enter the scene w/ the hookers she will get a phone call where her babysitter announces she will turn her son into Child Protective Services because she has refused to pick him up since she has no money, she screams and then out of nowhere her alter ego appears and stabs her with the below murder weapon. The girls will all circle around her now having pancake white faces w/ darkened eyes chanting..My lead will painfully pull the saw out of her guts and limp away to die. YAAAY !!!

murder.jpg


night.jpg
 
Well I did not get to film my big scene last night.. I had the MOST CRAZY night of my life !!!

I shot all day w/ my lead, shot a few scenes, Got my hookers together, shot a scene where a "John" window shops the hookers and then gets my lead to go with him, a second scene where my lead gets approached by muggers and saved by the street hookers... I was ready for my big scene and IT GOT FREAKING CRAAAAZY ! I was setting up getting my talent in line, my camera set up and a drunk Mexican Cowboy type stumbled into our street set. I ask him if he would move and he screamed at me. I got upset, told him I had permission from the police to be there and I would have him arrested. I pretended to call the cops and stated he was drunk and he lost interest and left.

THEN boys & girls...

I was getting upset cuz we were running late and once again, I was a one man crew / director/ sound guy !! THEN it got REALLLY bizarre. I started feeling flushed and dizzy two of my actors called me to tell me that their car had just gotten the "boot" for parking in a lot where I told them I felt it would be OK to park w/o paying. I started really feeling bad, very dizzy almost panicking. my two actors were understandably furious and were saying I needed to go pay the fees to get the boots removed. I had no money on me. One of them a 6'8 300lb guy w/ an attitude was screaming at me on the phone even after I was telling him I was ill and wondering if I need to call 911 for an ambulance.

It gets crazier

I really started feeling very ill and shut down everything. All of my talent was looking at me really funny saying I looked like shit. We loaded my car up and I tried to chill out, but no luck. I finally called 911 and had an ambulance come over. I did not know what was going on, being fat 50 and the like, I was getting nervous. The EMTs checked me out and said prolly just a panic attack and I should just go somewhere and calm down. DAMN that was crazy. I never had a panic attack before.. I guess I need to slow down huh ? Or get on the bus w/ Wilie when I get nervous like that



HOWEVER got some decent footage on my project Im gonna share w/ ya. Shot w/ T2i 18-55 kit lens on my Shoulder rig. Used a digital audio recorder & a lav for dialog recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trSDgJc8mVc
 
The attacks won't persist, if you've never suffered from them before, it's more so a combination of the unexpectancy and the unexplainable, that catches you off guard at the time.

If it happens again, you know it's an irrational fear perhaps brought on by stress, but often nothing at all.

Take five, breath and recover.

The project is coming along well, Indie!
 
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