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Gabe, no worries about the questions. That’s why I started this thread. I wanted people to get an idea of the process going from script to film. I quit posting after awhile because I was afraid people’s expectations might get to high. Remember, my goal here was only to make something better in quality than last years Pumpkin Nightmare. I’m pretty sure it will be, but I don’t want people to think “big budget high quality”. This is a small production short using local stage actors and crew.
We are starting editing tomorrow. As soon as I have a rough cut, I will show it to SS’s own George Willson so he can get started on the music. I’m hoping to have the film finished by mid October and online for everyone to see.
As far as directing goes, by the time we wrapped the shoot it had been a grueling 60 hrs or so at the beach and at the fort. I told everyone Friday’s shoot would be over by 11pm and we would party a little in St. Augustine...at 4am we left the beach exhausted and totally eaten by bugs. I didn’t sleep at all that night... On Saturday we started at 6pm at the fort. Again, I totally misjudged how long the shoot would take. I told the park rangers that we would be out of there at midnight. At 3:30am I got in my car and drove the 110 miles or so home...no sleep and two lane country roads. Not a wise decision, but... So, at that time, I was painfully reminded that I’m not 25 anymore and I swore I’ll never make another film again. I’m totally okay sitting in a dark room by myself and just type. Then I woke up after the longest nap on Sunday and I found myself debating what kind of project I would want to do next!!!! I can’t explain that one.
Thanks Pia for sharing and please do recount all the details, as i find it fascinating.
I've never been involved with a production and probably won't.
Your story reminds me of people doing up a house. They under estimate the time and effort, almost kill themselves in the process, swear they will never do it again...but...after it all settles down, realise they loved it and have learnt so much it should be easier next time!
Finally, when you hear on the news that there were reports of "strange happenings" on the beach at night, this is not what was expected.
The Elevator Most Belonging To Alice - Semi Final Bluecat, Runner Up Nashville Inner Journey - Page Awards Finalist - Bluecat semi final Grieving Spell - winner - London Film Awards. Third - Honolulu Ultimate Weapon - Fresh Voices - second place IMDb link... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm7062725/?ref_=tt_ov_wr
I remember when I shot my feature, No Kind of Life, I underestimated the time it would take to do it as well. I knew for sure we could do it in a day since it was all one location, 5 actors and 73 pages. We started at 7am and went home at midnight. Did the rest on the evening of day 2. Still, it was a feature in 2 days. My only regret is not rerecording the dialogue. I figured out I needed to do that after 2 of my actors moved to California and another to Arkansas. Dang it. Good movie. Crappy sound.
I continue wishing that I could shoot something else, but other things have always been more important to deal with, so no other movies from me yet. I've been happy to be a part of other productions though as I do like writing music. It was where I started.
Making movies is hard work, especially if you're the one in charge. You drag yourself through hell and back and then for some reason, you want to do it again.
I wouldn't bother reading the shooting script. The actual shot list was much more detailed than that. Also, we had to make some changes on the spot. One of the scenes in the script has Rhiannon leading them through a narrow passage and then a shark tooth points the way for them to go. When we got to the fort, I was informed that there was a crack in that passage way and no one is allowed to go into the turret. They were actually afraid that it might fall down!! So, we had to come up with something else. I'm sure that happens a lot, things don't go as planned. As you can see from the pics too, the old gypsy was changed into a voodoo pirate. Reason being is I had to work with the actors available to me. Same thing with my daughter. There was just no way she would agree to be soaken wet with seaweed in her hair.
The film, I'm sure, will be quite different than how bert imagined it. I've had 20+ shorts of mine made and none of them has looked the way I imagined them when I wrote them, that's how it goes.
looks like we have to rerecord some of the dialogue too. I had a great mic, a Sennheiser shotgun, but the waves were really really LOUD. Not a nice waves on the beach sound either. More like a constant crashing. Always something, isn't there?
Yeah, always something. I've learned that the majority of modern movies rerecord the majority of their dialogue. The dialogue on set is purely for reference purposes so the actors can hear what they sounded like at the time and emulate themselves. I should have just redone it at the time.
I hope there's a big turnout for this at The Hippo. I will be there, damnit! And I will be drinking Jager like it's going out of style...or is it already out of style?
It's always exciting to get something on tape! Now comes the hard part - color correction, re-recording dialogue and editing, editing, editing.
Have fun with that.
I'm prepping to direct my first short (it's actually roughly 40 min long - is that a short?). I will not be editing, but I will be there for the editing. Not my favorite thing to do, but someone has to do it!
Chazz, you should read Bert's original OWC script. It's very good. You should also read my competing OWC script, The White Women. It's very, very good!
Sorry guys and gal/bear/Pia/angry...couldn't help myself!
Seriously though, I actually love editing. I'm no good at it, but I love watching the magic take place in post. We still have a lot of work to do and although, I am pretty happy with it, I'm thinking I might never want to shoot at night outside again. We used two different cameras and both have some low light grainy issues.
Jeff, you know I would never try to hurt your feelings, but truth be told, I only remember three or so scripts from that OWC. IMHO, bert's was the best of the bunch.
Yes, Bert's was the best. Bert is the best. And Bert rocks...even if he still deletes my posts every now and then or has to chime in to calm my ass down.
Award winning screenwriter Available screenplays TINA DARLING - 114 page Comedy ONLY OSCAR KNOWS - 99 page Horror A SONG IN MY HEART - 94 page Drama HALLOWEEN GAMES - 105 page Drama
I haven't made any updates to this in awhile. I've been busy with other stuff. Including trying to write a a sequel for the vampire film. It took five months out of my life and almost brought me into depression. Finally, I decided that I just couldn't do it. Call it giving up if you will, but to me it was just realizing facts. I'm not that level of a writer. Once I realized that, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The floodgates opened up and I wrote two features in just four months! I'm almost finished a third one for this year, so in the end, I think that was a good decision.
Anyway, TTD short film had some serious issues with low lighting causing huge amounts of grain on the video. I was VERY disappointed when I saw the footage for the first time. When I sat down to start the rough editing, I almost wanted to give up that too. I didn't want to disappoint anyone involved. Especially Bert. I'm sure the film is nothing like he imagined it when he wrote it. It also seems that nowadays, people expect shorts to look like million dollar productions, even for shorts! Thanks James!! I rented a lot of extra lights, but you just can't light up a whole beach and an ocean!!!!! Lesson learned there!!! That's why Cornetto and I came up with the hurricane motel story. It would all take place inside and lighting and everything else would be easy to control! Then my student friend Nick totally rescued this short film. He ran everything through de-noiser softwares and whatever else magic he knows. So, I'm hoping that this will come together soon and be finished before August. Btw, just rendering took 14hrs!!!! and 12 hrs for exporting!!!!