FILMMAKING: Musclin' - My Short Film - Part 3

Today, July 31, was to be my first day of principle photography as it was the first time everyone on my cast and crew, all volunteers, could get together on the same day at the same time. Everything was ready, and I had everything I needed, except for the weather. The story takes place on a sunny day and today was not that.

Not all was lost as I now have, as mentioned, all that I need, and time to tweak what was "just good enough for now." Here is how I prepared for this shoot.

In preparation for the shoot I did not have the fortune of having a storyboard program, nor even the time to draw it by hand. However, I do need some sense of what the shots will be, how they will be set up, how to light the shot, and how best to position the camera and get as many of the shots from that position that will be taken, before moving the camera and setting it up again. This is really important during those intercut over-the-shoulder conversations. This is also necessary to maximize efficiency.

What I did was create a "Shot List." This is a list of all the shots I will be taking, the camera position, movement, the angle, distance, and a note of the action for reference. I have never learned or even read HOW TO DO THIS but I came up with a plan that seems to make it easy for me.

MOVIE FAN CHAT: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Well, I love the books, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Girl Who Played With Fire, so naturally I wanted to see the movies.  So last night I saw Girl with Dragon Tattoo.  Of course I know everything can't be transferred from book to big screen but they did a pretty good job.  Funny how your mind's image of the characters sometimes doesn't match the movie's pick of characters.  I thought the main character, dragon girl, was a pretty good match except I thought she would look younger in the face due to the constant reminder in the book of how young she looked.  But I liked the look the movie gave her otherwise.  I found the most interesting part of the movie was when she was on the screen.  Also in the book we watched her keep her vigil on her evil government parole officer.  I thought the movie did a good job on the rape scene and its horrible violence.  They did give us a glimpse of bad times in her past but just to tantalize, not to clarify.
 

DAY 145: MAKING THE THRILLER/HORROR FILM CRAWL

....and finally - on our way to the movie set location!





...next - renting the warehouse for the set build and setting up the edit studio ;-)

Be sure to become a member here - extremeindie excitement coming down the road friends ;-)

Oklahoma Ward

FILMMAKING: What George Lucas Did to Me - Part 2

While I was a teenager I of course built models of X-wings and Tie Fighters. I wanted to work in a prop department but other than interest and ambition I knew I didn't really have anything to offer. I got married in 1985 and we had one child right away. My life was now committed to a family life and all the responsibilities that entails. My dream of making movies was put on the back burner while I worried about getting a paycheck. It was shortly after the crash of the economy in 1982 and keeping a job was not easy. I was laid off from 4 jobs in the 1980's alone.

DAY 144: MAKING THE THRILLER/HORROR FILM CRAWL

Jumping over the last hurdles of
getting to the film set. Beware the alien finger at the end of the video....

Gotta love the indie filmmaker life!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 143: MAKING THE THRILLER/HORROR FILM CRAWL

The trials of moving across states for the filming of the movie CRAWL - part of being indie is doing it all yourself. Nikki and I working hard packing up studio and trying to get on location to start building the set for the movie filming this summer.


For the next week or so of vid blogs - the quality will be a bit rough as there will be no finetuning on the G5's - going straight from iPhone to YouTube. Lean and mean indie style baby ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blindness...

Well it seems yesterday is supposed to be our last day of rain until fall.  And horribly hot this coming week.  If today is any indication, they may be right!  Last  night I watched a movie on tv which I had never heard of, etc. and even though it had a lot of problems, it kept me to the end.  Blindness, the movie.  Directed by the same man who directed City of God, which surprised me no end.

Julianne Moore was the main character in the story.  Seems the world was suddenly infected with a mysterious illness, which suddenly with no warning would render the victim totally blind.  When it first develops, the people in charge decided to round up all the blinded victims and put them in a concentration camp due to the highly infectious disease.  Julianne's doctor husband has become blind so he is condemned to the camp.  When the van and all the suited guards come for him, Julianne joins him even though she is not blind.

FILMMAKING: What George Lucas Did to Me - Part 1

I was only 13. How could I have known? I thought I was just going to the movies to see a new, exciting film that looked real cool in the commercials on TV, especially that gold robot. Little was I to know that a man named George Lucas was about to shape my life, and I would never be the same again.

Watching this movie was NOTHING like watching any movie I had seen before. It had the feel of a real place instead of a sterile movie environment like other space movies where everything was new and shiny. There were rusting and damaged spacecraft, broken down robots, dirt was in all the usual places of things that have been around, and only the bad guys were wearing real, proper space uniforms. This was a place I could believe in......and I did.

Persons Unknown, The Book of Eli and more...

Well, it has been a really unusual rainy rainy summer here!  First it was blazing hot for weeks, then the rains came.  What a year!  Anybody else keeping up with Persons Unknown?  We are, due to the fact that there is nothing else out there right now.  Not Lost by any stretch but its interesting enough to keep us coming back.  We now know a traitor in the midst and someone has been eliminated!!!  Killed, in other words.  Sounds like Daddy of the victim is involved with the baddies too!!  The victim's death is being hidden from the rest of the group still trapped in the "village." 

ACTORS TIP: It's getting closer...

We officially started moving out of the edit studio as of yesterday - and I couldn't help but get giddy at the thought of what's happening - we're packing to head off and film a movie! I can't wait to get to Oklahoma and start building the set and start getting to physically be "in" the world I'll be living and acting in. 

Now, this may sound strange - but besides physically - I've already started making small changes in my personality and my lifestyle to start feeling more like the character in the movie I'll be playing:Tank -  and it's so freeing! See, all my life I've been the type of person who cared a lot what people think of me. I'd never leave the house with my hair a mess or without my makeup on. I always had to be presentable - and I guess it was my way of feeling accepted. Even going to the gym - which didn't happen often back then - I would make sure my clothes were just right - my hair - tight in a ponytail with hairspray so I didn't have any wispy hair sticking out. I felt that if I didn't look good - people would judge me. Make fun of me - or - I don't know. Anyway - point being - it was this inner fear of just being myself and being ok with that which I lived with.