I'm sure all of my dedicated readers have noticed that I didn't post how the "Mr. Wrinkles" shoot went.
The shoot got pushed back to late May due to permit problems.*
*Note to anyone trying to shoot in a park: you can't get a permit for a weekend, only weekdays
So now we have even more time to prepare, although it does mean spending another day in the dog park to see if the sun behaves any differently.
My senior short (and the only one of my films to be in a festival) is going to be broadcast on St. Edward's University internet TV channel. I'll post up the link when it goes up. Oh, the name of the film is "Brownie's Story" and it's a mockumentary about the first teddy bear to attend college.
I've been asked to DP a project that will be directed by my friend Joe. The project is called Mr. Wrinkles and is a heartwarming short about two old men reminiscing about younger days. We'll be shooting in a dog park, which is something new for me. This'll be my first time shooting something narrative outside in broad daylight so I have lots of new obstacles to overcome. It should be a fun shoot. It will also be my first time working as a DP on a project with a producer, two cameras, SAG actors and a full (albeit skeleton) crew. We're shooting on April 13 and I'm very excited.
Sticky Floor is a short that was written by my boyfriend Kevin (who also directed and starred in the short). I shot and produced it. This film has had a long and arduous journey. We shot it while in the midst of moving apartments (something I will NEVER do again). So the film took about a week to shoot (shooting in the evenings after I got home from work).
I decided to edit the project at home rather than using Final Cut Pro at the production company I work for. Since I am a devoted PC person, I could not get FCP for my home computer. So I thought, hey, why not Avid? I had worked on it freshman year at UT Austin and didn't remember having too many problems with it. If only I knew what I was getting myself into. It's been awhile since freshman year, and I've only worked on FCP since then so my Avid skills are...rusty to say the least. It took me several months to edit the project (a Saturday here, an evening after work there) and I did it all on one 4x3 LCD screen.
So I get the thing picture locked (it's about 13 minutes long) and start the process of exporting it for the guy doing the music, a local musician friend of mine named Chance. And this is where the trouble starts. First off, I can't even get the thing to export properly. It spends forever exporting the thing but only plays back the audio. After much pulling of hair I find out you have to install a bunch of codecs for Avid (yep, I didn't read the instructions). So after getting that whole mess worked out, it's smooth sailing from here, right?
I finally get a usable full-size quicktime and I bring it into the production company I work at (Echo Entertainment) to show off the footage. I play it back on the nice big HD monitors and it looks TERRIBLE. There's this weird ghosting effect whenever the actor moves through the frame. There's also this strange white snow that's covering everything.
Meanwhile, my buddy Chance slaves away at an incredible score that totally brings the movie to a higher level. The end credits song alone just blows me away.
A colleague of mine, James, is kind enough to troubleshoot this export issue with me at home and while I do learn a great deal about formats and the like - there is a substantial bit of bad news. Basically, I imported the footage from tape at 24p but the camera I was using was the DVX-100B which doesn't shoot true 24p but shoots 29.97 with a 3:2 pulldown. So, now I have to re-import all the footage into Avid, re-create the edit from scratch (I can't use an EDL because it won't transfer from a 24p project to a 29.97 project), and I have to make the new edit match the old one exactly to fit Chance's fantastic score. Basically, I have a lot of work ahead of me. But the bright side is that the creative side of this project is pretty much done (the audio still needs to be mixed with some added sound effects) - all that's left to do is some tedious media managing and editing. Stay tuned for further updates...
February 2008:
Cameras used: Panasonic HVX-200
DPed a short called "The Runner" written and directed by my friend, Matt. This shoot was quite fun and definitely a little exhausting. We shot most of the film on the highest hill at Griffith Park (which was a 45-minute hike up some pretty steep paths). The shoot went pretty smoothly, but I was fighting the light all day. Unfortunately we had to shoot guerilla-style so I didn't get a chance to put up anything to manipulate light.
Shot 26 episodes of Season 2 of Naturally Delicious (a vegetarian cooking show airing on the Veria network: Dish channel 9575).
It was my first time on a Chapman dolly and while at least one other camera op was eyeing my seat with jealousy, let me tell you, that seat gets as uncomfortable as anything when you're sitting on it for 10 hours a day for 3 weeks.
Overall, working on the dolly was great - it really encouraged me to think more creatively with my shots (mostly heroes of veggie food).
Shot 13 episodes of Season 2 of Bedside Manor (a conventional vs. alternative doctor debate show, also on the Veria network).
Again, I was the dolly camera op, but the new experience for me was working in a large studio space. There were definite pros and cons to the whole experience. Not having to contend with traffic or plane noise was a definite plus (something we had to stop roll for several times on Naturally Delicious). But on at least one occasion, we had a studio worker interrupt a shot (his phone went off during the debate portion of the show). But other than that, the experience went rather smoothly.
Working on Bedside wasn't quite as stimulating as the cooking show because for Bedside my camera was basically used as a backup and my "clydesdale" of a dolly grip spent the whole shoot pushing me back and forth from one side of the set to the other. He was a real trooper - shout out to Mike Law!
March 2008:
Cameras used: Panasonic HVX-200, Panasonic DVX-100B
ACed a short for a DP friend of mine, Ali. The short was called "Eleanora" and was a cute little story about an old man and his goldfish. I love working with Ali because he's a true carpenter at heart. He's always building lighting and camera rigs from very cheap materials. So it's always a great learning experience working with him. His most impressive piece for this shoot was a dolly made out of PVC and plywood. It worked perfectly.
DPed a short for my director friend, Joe. The film was one in a series of shorts all put to the music of movements in Mozart's Requiem. The movement we were covering was 00:01:44 so the shoot only took half a day. This was more run and gun, which is always a fun way to work (keeps me on my toes, visually). You can find out more about Joe's Requiem project here.
I set this up primarily as a way to announce/showcase what projects I am currently working on.
So, welcome, new and valued reader.
This blog will cover:
rumors of potential projects
announcements about current or newly finished projects
questions/answers about troubleshooting during projects
and, of course, lots of pictures
Thanks for the click and I look forward to your comments.
