December 30, 2006
At long last it’s available on Revver. Film #8, Forgotten or Abandoned, finished at around 2pm on Friday, finally available on Revver around 1am Saturday morning. Upload and processing took forever; approval was a snap.
None of the delay was due to high loads according to the folks at Revver, but they haven’t offered a clear explanation of what did happen. I’m frustrated, but things have worked reasonably well up to this point, considering that Revver is a new and quickly-growing service, so I’ll stick with them for a while.
I shot #8 on a Nikon CoolPix L3 in movie mode; I used available light. I edited with Avid Free DV, and licensed music from Magnatune.com.
Pre-production on Film #9 starts tomorrow. Sweet!
December 29, 2006
For some reason, uploading a film on Friday afternoon just takes longer. Why could that possibly be? Anyhow, Film #8 will be available soon, soon, soon–just as soon as it uploads, and gets reviewed by a real human being (to make sure that there’s no naughty stuff in it). In the mean time, I’m going outside, to see some daylight.
December 28, 2006
Miraculously, with the addition of music, Film #8 begins to make sense. It still feels like I’m only scratching the surface.
Part of the struggle making these films is staying true to the feeling I had when I first started. It was easiest with Film #1 (Leaves) when everything was new. That film was the product of a month of rumination. All of a sudden it was time to produce, and the host of vague ideas that had been floating through my subconscious had a chance to crystallize. I was able to suspend judgment until the last moment, which gave things a chance to grow. Now that I’ve produced so many films so quickly, I find it harder and harder to recall that relaxed, nonjudgmental frame of mind.
Films #9 and #10 will have more of a chance to leaf and flower, but I suspect that they, too, will be a little bit rushed.
The point of this exercise was to force me to execute some of my fabulous ideas, instead of sitting around thinking about them all of the time. Well: now I’ve proved (to myself, at least) the value of contemplation. There is some better balance, where I have enough time to think, but eventually I produce.
Discovered Dony Permedi’s short animated film, Kiwi. The drawings and their animation are simple, but I love the story, and I admire how simply it is told.
December 26, 2006
The shooting script for film #9 (the most complex so far) is nearly finished–six days before we shoot. This beats the typical situation, where I finish the script Sunday night and shoot on Tuesday or Wednesday. Unfortunately my Treo is running out of battery & the charger’s gone missing, thus depriving me of half the contact information I need.
The script for #10 is in good shape, and I hope to have it cast before the weekend, giving that group over a week to sort out their lines and characters. Which only leaves the painful task of finding a location. Oh, and working out the blood effects.
Now I just have to figure out Film #8. Which I’ll be posting on Friday. Bother.
December 23, 2006
Continuing to collect footage for Film #8, which appears to be becoming a mish mash. Perhaps like Film #1. But one never shows one’s hand this early.
Film #9, on the other hand, has a nearly-completed script and a rapidly growing cast. And, for the first, time, it will call for extras, whom I will have to find along with the main cast. I want to give the film as improvisational air as possible, so I may end up adding lines. How to manage this all without running over Revver’s 100M file-size limitation? And can I shoot it all in five hours, so everyone can go home at a reasonable time?
Sitting here in this screen porch, with the crickets and the neighbor’s air conditioner to keep me company, I think that it might just happen.
December 21, 2006
Film #7, Night, has been edited and uploaded to Revver.com. I actually finished it early Wednesday morning, but since I had a 7:30am flight to Florida, I chose to sleep instead of updating the website, blog, etc., at that time.
Artistically, this film is a stab in the dark (mostly in the figurative sense). Technically, it’s quite simple, but I’m happy with the layering of the sound mix. Finishing it early was a bit of a struggle, but doing so has given me more space in my brain to think about the final three films, particularly Film #9, which already has three pages of fragmentary script and a cast as well.
I am also painfully–or delightedly–aware that when all is said and done, I won’t have worked with everyone I’d like. And I’ll certainly have missed out on some genres. So I’ll have to make more movies. I just have to figure out how to keep myself motivated when 10Films10Weeks is done.
December 19, 2006
I have a preliminary edit of Film #7. I’m tempted to junk the entire thing and start over, but I’ll be traveling to Florida on Wednesday, and there’s no editing workstation waiting for me there. Besides, it would be nice to sleep. Oh, and start working on Films #8, #9, and #10.
Avid Free DV continues to take away with one hand and give with the other.
Finally, Mendy’s Soup and Half a Sandwich: their pastrami has been particularly tender of late. And who can beat a nice Cel-Ray soda to go with?
December 18, 2006
While I struggle to figure out what, exactly, I am doing, I’ve been taking solace in the following websites:
At this very moment I have the 500W flood powered up in my bedroom, and the place smells of hot insulation.
December 15, 2006
Film #6, That Guy in 4F, has been edited and uploaded to Revver.com. There were exposure issues, so I spent extra time with color correction. Because there were so many good takes, I didn’t have much trouble with sound, although I still take a few minutes to adjust to the differences between Avid’s and Sonar’s user interfaces when it comes time to do the final mix. Structurally I think it works, although once it comes down to making the final tweaks at 4am, I can no longer tell.
I discovered Revver’s Upload Client, which you can download for Windows here. It proved to be much more reliable than the web interface.