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]
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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.
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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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Hmmm... I never said anything about being lazy. Just as much effort and care can be put into shooting a mockumentary as shooting any sort of narrative/drama/thriller/horror/etc/etc/etc...

Just wondering... why include the genre on the form??:rolleyes:
 
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I've just filled in the form, but please don't take that as a definite confirmation of being able to shoot. My resources, people in particular, are still pretty low.

Also, I couldn't select a genre. If I could have picked just one, I'd have chosen horror, but I'm happy with sci-fi, thriller, comedy or mockumentary also (just not a fan of drama).
 
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I'd be more than happy to go with mockumentary if that's what most people want. I was just giving my personal opinion, and given that I'm not going to be actually shooting anything, it should be taken with a pinch of salt.
 
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Personally quite wary of mockumentary. If the script is well written it could be good, but oftentimes mockumentary comes of as cringeworthingly painful (maybe that's just my taste though). Of course, if that's what happens, I'll go with it, but I just think it's tricky to pull off.
 
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1) A video seeming to show a UFO is uploaded to the internet and becomes a viral sensation. Across the globe, people are affected by the footage in different ways, prompting a variety of investigations. Some believe it is a hoax, some prepare for the end of times, whilst others consider our place in a rapidly shrinking universe...

2) An international postage company delivers packages to a group of seemingly random people across the world. Once opened, these packages are found to contain nothing but a fine white dust. As news of the packages spreads across the world from America, the race is on to prevent more people falling victim to the attack, and to unravel what connects the recipients...

3) On their 25th birthdays, a group of highly talented people across the world find that all trace of their existence has been eradicated and that they are legally deceased. What is the meaning of their erasure? And what happened 25 years ago?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I've tried to use a couple of ideas that I've been sent by IT members and turn them into a pitch that I think could work as a script. Obviously, these are not synopses, so I'm not going to pretend that I have a neat ending already lined up! But I am confident that any of these stories could be turned into an intriguing short film, with a satisfying conclusion.

But yeah, what do you think? Which is your favourite and which bits do you like/not like from each of them? These are by no means that only options on the table - I'm just submitting them to see whether people are relatively happy with heading in one of these directions.

As I've previously said, in order to make sure that this project actually happens (!!) there won't be design by committee at the script stage (although everyone will be free to make alterations to their section, so long as it doesn't affect the overall arch of the story) but I want to try and produce something that people are excited about, so let me know what y'all think.
 
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I think I like #3 and then #1 best. Though it would of course depend on where you went with them, as otherwise I feel it could come off a bit mediocre and done-before. Though with both, I like the idea of depicting someone slowly isolating themselves from everything and the effects of that.

Also, regarding #3 - maybe you could make it so that other people don't know they exist too? So i guess they're ghosts, but not quite ghosts. I feel there is good potential to make character reflect on their mortality and how they lived (and are living) their lives.

Personally though, I'd prefer a slightly more experimental/out there sci fi direction I think. I'd also like to give a crack at horror (something I've not done before, though)
 
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1) SciFi Drama.
Drop of SciFi + whole lotta existential self naveling drama + maybe a little DRAMA drama.
Think of a way to make the UFOs contact each international group.
Really punch up the SciFi aspect much more than some 'Signs' variant.


2) Crime Thriller (as is), could be Horror Thriller if the dust delivers something much worse than hemorrhagic fever.
Could be good, if done right. Could be made a lot more marketable with a strong horror bend to it.


3) Drama
Meh... The weakest of the proposals.
These erased identity things always overlook all sorts of simple things and invariably end up with "It was all in my mind. I'm in a mental institution" or "It was all just a dream."
Not crowd pleasers.
Would be VERY dependent on character - not the strong suit of no-name actors across multiple continents shot by multiple directors.


As is, I'd vote for #2.




Also, Sammi's been asking for some color correction practice.

Three (or more) global peeps oughta do some equipment and lens math to figure out ahead of time how to standardize some input settings to achieve a common standard "look" across different cameras.

Different chip sensor sizes and lens properties create different "looks", different in-camera perspectives.

Shoot three (or more) interview like settings of dude on a sofa reading the first two pages of Green Eggs And Ham or whatever.

Utilize the rule of thirds, X feet away from camera, mind top/bottom of frame head and shoulders framing, lighting, zoom/aperture/shutter speed/ISO all standardized, etc.

Send via dropbox or other method.
See what she gets to work with and how it turns out.

Good for her.
Good for you guys.
Good for the project.

Just an idea. :)
 
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If we do 2, we could start with short scenes of people receiving the dust, then cut to a slideshow of those people dead, and a group of scientists/cops/just important looking people talking about it, then them trying to trace to the person whodunnit. Or perhaps as they are looking for the person, we see scattered clips throughout of people receiving the packages. I dunno.
 
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ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
If we do 2, we could start with short scenes of people receiving the dust, then cut to a slideshow of those people dead, and a group of scientists/cops/just important looking people talking about it, then them trying to trace to the person whodunnit. Or perhaps as they are looking for the person, we see scattered clips throughout of people receiving the packages. I dunno.
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You're missing a large amount of drama if you cut away from the people in their last hours of life. It could be very interesting to see what people do with impending death
 
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I like the idea of one unit just being a news broadcaster. and their footage can be displayed across multiple tv's in everyone else's scenes
 
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My inclination with this project is to keep it as simple as possible. The trouble with introducing policemen or scientists, or that sort of thing, is that the expected level of production design jumps up massively. If one unit are filming a segment about a family, whilst another are shooting something about cops, then the cop unit will have to work really hard (and spend bucks) to match the level of verisimilitude that the family unit have.

So, basically, these ideas were designed so that I could take onboard the information that participants have already given me, and craft a script that come be done simply and realistically.

As Ray has noted, the first has some elements of Sci-Fi (but not too much), whilst the second has elements of Horror. The third could also have elements of Sci-Fi/Horror but I'm inclined to agree with those who have said that it's the weakest idea. Whatever idea we go with, I will try and make the script tense and believable, which I think is what will really sell it.

Ray's idea about comparing technicals is not a bad idea. Obviously, we want the footage to match as well as possible, so we should definitely look at ensuring that our methods of shooting are not wildly different. I think one of the easiest ways to do this will be to say 'no shooting with the camera on a tripod/dolly', so that we don't disadvantage members who don't have the same amount of gear (and also handheld, though not shaky cam, footage will be easier to edit together).
 
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No tripods and dollies? :(
;)
I love my tripods and Cinevate slider.
But you are right: we need to synchronize shooting styles, unless the atmosphere is so different that it's okay if shooting style differs.

I'd go for 1 or 2. (No real preferrence yet: need some detachment before choosing.)

1 can have suspense building up as more news starts to reach the world (or lack of news: is modern communication starting to fail?).
The challenge is in balancing the drama and suspense and keep cheasy VFX away.
2 can be horrific: imagine a rumor that 1 of the boxes contains a cure, but there is no way to open it safely to find out. Peer pressure vs self preservation while others try to find out who's behind it?

Both ideas need an ending with impact that makes sense in some way. (So, that was the most obvious remark ever ;) )
 
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No tripod sounds rather extreme.. if we can't have any style then what is the point of "directing"

I believe it was said at one point, to my idea of a masked person, that we should not try to hide the fact that this is being shot by different people at different locales but rather we should embrace it
 
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The more I think about it, I think #1 may be my favourite. When you first wrote "affected by the footage", I was thinking physically, but now I believe you mean more emotionally and/or mentally. I think the most interesting thing here would be peoples questioning their religious beliefs. Could be good.
 
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sfoster said:
I believe it was said at one point, to my idea of a masked person, that we should not try to hide the fact that this is being shot by different people at different locales but rather we should embrace it
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(I said this). To reempahsise my point, I think one of the big selling (not in the monetary sense) points is its unique production (not that it hasn't been done before, but it's unique enough).

Suggestion: Perhaps it could be an anthology/episodic type thing? So less trying to sync everything together cohesively, but a series of very short films all tied together by a more universal one. That's essentially what we're doing now, just released in a different format - but it allows people more freedom with their directing styles, as the differences won't be particularly jarring.

Or maybe that goes too far from the original idea, and detracts from the "several people across the world make a film in separate locations without ever meeting physically meeting eachother" thing
 
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