Wednesday, Jan 5th 2k5; 2:15 P.M.:


This is obviously the first time posting about this, which is terrible because I have about a month of info to update on.
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On about December 10th, my mom came to me saying that there was going to be a film fest in my local town. At first I thought "whatever". Then two days later, and burning with anger for my old highschool, I took to the Powerbook at 2am to write a script. That night I completed my first ENTIRE script in almost a full year. Sad, I know. I wanted to write a bunch of features, but the days are just too short, even though for about 3 months I was unemployed.

Well, this script is based on my being unemployed for that time.



The next day, I went and wrote up a "Christmas Card/Newsletter" and sent it as if it were something official from my "company" Random House Entertainment. I said that planning and writting phases were complete and that it was time to move on to production, scheduled for December 15th.
I also claimed I had a lead actor for the part, one Ty Hall. Of course, I hadn't spoken to the fellow in over a month and had no clue as to what his reaction would be if he got hold of the newsletter, or how he would react to me telling him I wanted a guy who wasn't and actor to act as lead. Well not lead... but... a pretty huge part.

I ended up going to his new apartment a couple days later and happened to run into him just as he was coming home from Christmas shopping. We went in and I told him my old actor had moved away. He then volunteered to be the lead in another movie that the guy who moved played the part of originally.
I then told him that that was essentially why I came over there.
Knowing now that I could use him for my profit, I confronted him a couple days later saying I had a great NEW script written just for him! Huzzah! He didn't understand at first... but yeah. Eventually he did.


I then took off to Wetaskiwin, which is about 20 minutes from Camrose. I had an actress there I had used before (in more than one sense of the word "used"!_!). I got her to do some brief cameos where she played my gf in the movie. She essentially dumps my *** in those shots. They will be interwoven with other shots once they are filmed to create ONE scene.


I then gave Ty the script, and told him that I had decided to reverse the roles. He now played my parts and I played his.
The reasoning behind this was with my movie "<_< exageration >_>" I had done everything but the other actors roles. I had directed and acted the main role. While it didn't fall apart completly, it did fail in my opinion. I felt my acting was incosistant, and the "Jonathan" character I protrayed ended up shifting emotions far too often.
So now in "Unemployed" I play the best friend and roommate to Ty who has recently been fired from his job. He then turns into a recluse drunk who eventually gets hired at Sports Mart. That's the story right there guys! That's essentially everything!



Well, today we're going to film at Sport Mart (the place we both work in reality). I still need someone to play the role of the theif though.
I have got my manager to help. He plays himself, Chad. I might get him to double as the thief too, if it seems feasable... that is of course if this fellow named Caleb (who has the perfect build in my opinion to play the part) isn't at work today... I hope to hell he is!


I went out and bought new miniDV tapes last night. Got them all ready. Camera is clean in everysense of the word. Powerbook and camera batteries are fully charged. Storyboard is drawn (albeit not very well, through it together in exactly one hour)!
My only problem is that my Mic is at a friends house. I don't know if he'll be home in time for me to get it. He's still at school... and might not be home till later because of work.

I plan to leave here at about 5 p.m. This gives me an hour to get there and set up; oh! It also gives Chad a chance to glance the script and for both him and Ty to view my story boards!
Commence filming and stuff at the stores closing time of 6 p.m. Be out of there at 7 hopefully. It's not a long scene, really.

You see, I did a lot of planning compared to what I normally do because I want to impress Chad. Not just because he's my manager, but because he's also one of those fancy *** actors who went to the Victoria Comp in Edmonton. For the many of you who don't know, it's a highschool for gifted artists. He's only 20 now remember, so don't say that was years ago, lol.

Well, I'm heading off... wish me luck.

2:41 P.M.

so

good luck...sounds like a cool project

Thursday, Jan 6th 2k5; 11:55 A.M.
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I got to Sport Mart about 1 hour before closing. I gave the scripts to the actors and others.
We filmed for 3 hours (6-9) to get 2.05 minutes of final cut.

It came out terrific though. I had some capturing problems for a while, but eventually all worked out fine.
The final cut of the scene, atleast graphically is almost flawless, albeit there is one continuity error, but apparantly, no one else noticed it.

There are audio problems. Sport Mart is a big place and it seemed to echo into the mic. Most places it all worked fine, but one shot in particular is messed up. I'll change it for FINAL cut... but this is just something I'm burning to DVD to show the guys right now.
Don't have to have it done for a while yet. I got 10 more days... I think. Probably considerablby less. Jesus...

I did mess up by burning the first DVD in 24fps, just to play around, but that went all to hell; so obviously the logical step is to burn at 29.97.



My actors did fine. They were offering suggestions and for some reason I listened (I usually just poo-poo their ideas... maybe it has something to do with me working with these people as my employment... hmm).
Except the person who was supposed to play my theif. Little did I know that I would end up wanting the only person at Sport Mart who couldn't act to have a big roll.
We traded him for some our technician, named Sam. He did a fantastic job.
Ty did good too, and would have been FANTASTIC had he been able to remember his lines.
Chad did a superb job of playing himself. It was pretty fun editing his parts.



This came out really really good guys. I'm pretty proud of it so far and all we've done is 1 and a half scenes.

Congratulations and god luck for the festival.

And by god I mean good.

or, Godspeed

sounds great! good luck with the rest of it! I knew, before reading your second post, that it would take three hours. It ALWAYS takes three times as long as one thinks

Thanks guys!



Turns out though, that due to schedule conflicts and such nonesense... it looks like there is no way we can make the festival. The film has to be completed in four days now. It's impossible, what with work and previous obligations.

Sheet.

Oh, well. We'll still finish the movie, that's for sure.
And I'm still going to send this scene described above in to the fest.


I personally had never read the regulations. Turns out the flick has to be 5 mintues. That's almost impossible. This scene has a run time of 2 minutes and some. It'll qualify. It just won't win... probably. lol.
My movie would have probably been atleast 15 minutes... but... probably lesssss... knowing my judgement.


I'm not really too discouraged, honestly. Like I said, it will be completed and entered in other fests. Just not this one, unfortunatly.

too bad! But, if its aprox. half the max run-time it might be alright. Just put some neat titles on it.

Which is entirely why I have Motion!! lol