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Pretty big update and using the same old thread. How does script to screen translate even from the one who wrote it? Well, there can be some pretty significant changes and stuff you never ever thought of. The old thread is here. I post the thead just to see what comments were left and how they were incorporated. You'll also note I thanked these people in the end credits for giving me their feedback.
While I'm not 100% satisfied with the final result, I think it turned out decently for my first effort. I did a lot of post work to fix a lot of stuff, but some stuff just couldn't be corrected. The sound problem was somewhat fixable in Adobe Premiere, but when I play the DVD over a good sound system, the buzz is now a low hum; it's not audible on the Internet version. If anyone has any questions about what I did on any part of this, feel free to ask.
It's only about 3:30 for the main picture, and another minute or so for the credits. Enjoy and feel free to comment here or on myspace.
You know, you hang around this industry long enough (even on the outside where most of us are), and you start to block out the hype that comes across the forums about things being sold or produced or whatever. I admit that I've been guilty of it before so I've taken to keeping a lot to myself unless I actually have something to show for it or know that there will be something to show for it. Sorry, folks, no production diary here.
On Saturday, the 21st, I got behind the camera and shot the short I posted here in the WIP boards several weeks ago called "No Better Loved Than Lost" (had a couple rewrites since then, so it ain't the same script exactly, but almost). I did it with some people I knew and even had some minor emergencies to overcome (such as someone mysteriously leaving town that morning and begging the husband of one of the two actresses to step in -- he did fine). My brother handled lights and sound, and the rough footage I have is all right. I made a slew of mistakes I can readily see, but can only work around at this point in post.
The run time at this point looks to be around 3 minutes, which is shorter than I expected, but it's a tight little story that delivers two perspectives on a single situation, which isn't bad for something so compact. I've got it in the non-linear editor at this point working on tweaking the shot lengths and overall look as well as pondering music for the scenes and dreading syncking up the audio. Last night, I wrote the music for the final montage and inserted a few sound effects here and there.
The plan on competion is to have a final cut by the end of the week at which time, I'll post it on myspace/youtube and I'll at least link to it.
How did I feel about it at the end of the shoot? It was an incredibly exhausting and yet very rewarding experience. I was dead tired by the end of the five hours it took to shoot my 16 minutes of raw footage made up of almost 60 shots in two locations with three actors to make a 3 minute film. My actual shot-listed shooting script was 8 pages long, and (I hate to say it) you can see it sitting in the background of some scenes.
But at the end of it all, I really enjoyed it. This is a job that could wear me out whenever it wants to. I may have been tired, but I was using those creative machinations that make up most of my mind, and they were grateful to be used so extensively. This is less a plug for my short than it is a relay of the experience of doing it. I can easily tell this sort of thing is not for everyone, and some would go crazy trying it. After 3 hours, I was wondering if I'd ever reach the end since it was taking so much longer than I expected, but I pressed forward, and I got there.
I hope to do it again at some point, but before I do, I gotta finish post on this first one. Just thought I'd spend a minute boasting and such. It's not in the can yet, but I figure it's close enough to comment on it.
Good luck with it George. My wife and I have discussed producing Not Even Death and have decided to do it (the last guy that I gave the okay to produce it has disappeared on me).
I'm joining a group of filmmakers in NYC where I hope to meet a director that I like and have have control over the decision making parts of production
Thanks for the kind words. My hope in this is that I made my little amateurish mistakes, and next time, I'll be watching for everything I didn't do right this time. When I do get a final cut, I'm sure most of you will be able to pick out several of my errors.
But everything is a learning process, and next time (oh yes, there will be a next time), I'll be sure and make a whole new set of mistakes. Right now, in post, I'm pondering sound...
An update, of sorts. After several attempts to tweak the audio we got on set, we found our audio (which garnered an odd, electronic buzz) to be wholly unsalvagable, which left us with marginal audio off the camera's on board mike. This being hardly acceptable in any realm of movie-making, we've found we've got to pull everyone back together for an ADR session to get what we need. I was hoping to have it done this weekend, but the audio we currently have is quite bad, so hopefully, we an get it done something this week and I can complete fairly soon. I don't want to rush it, though.
What caused our buzz? No, it's not ambient sound. We discussed this for some time last night, and since we know our equipment does not normally create this phenomenon, it leaves somewhere in how it was connected. It could be a cable, a wrong plug, or any number of things we can't determine at this point since it's all been torn down, but my brother (who ran the sound and has quite some experience doing so) said it told him he needs to remember headphones so he could check it on set next time.
I do have a rough cut, which is something, and while (as I indicated before) I'm not 100% happy with every shot, I think it'll pass for a first attempt, and I just won't repeat my mistakes next time. If I learn anything else going through this, I'll continue to share.
The ADR will probably work out for the best anyway. You'll be able to get a much cleaner sound in the end and you won't have ANY ambient noise, which will be cool.
Also, as I recall the script, it shouldn't be too big of a challenge for the actors to sync up well. Lots of short lines and probably none that are too confusingly delivered. I think the ADR will work out great.
Yeah, looping always tends to produce the best results in the end.
As for the noise problem it might have occurred by running cables parallel to each other, a problem I had at one point. Also, if the mic is near something like an AC adaptor, that also tends to create humming.
You recall the script correctly in that there aren't that many lines to sync up, so not only will it not be difficult to complete, but it shouldn't take too long either. We're talking about 3 minutes here, and not too much of that is dialogue (using the term "dialogue" loosely).
And BrandNew, we've thought of several things that might have caused it, but our main lesson is to test the system and listen to the result before we start recording. It could be the line thing. We're sure it's in the cables somewhere. The looping only makes me mad because you see the like in a couple of shots and now it didn't even need to be there. Oh well.
The link you have directs to the script/wip thread, not to your myspace page. I was able to find it through my friends list though...and I enjoyed it. It does look like you had some problems with the sound, but everything was audible anyway, and the editing looked pretty clean.
Hey GW, again it showed that you have lot of skills and strength to do what you propose to do, pal. I have just a critic, (but it is not a real problem) there were lots of handcam move. The rest is okay. Oh, yeah the sound is better, but is not ideal. I think that Ben McBride has talent and maybe with more exercises he will succeed in the business.
Anyway, I congratulate you for the effort and also to the people involved on it. I hope you can make another video and this time not too complicate plot like this one.
Mr. McBride looks like Norman Reedus in The Boondock Saints haha.
Congrats on doing this, George, and looking and sounding relatively professional at that. I didn't think the sound was too bad at all to be honest. I do agree with Helio about the handicam...I would recommend building a Steadicam, you can do so for very cheap, or buying one if you're so inclined.
I have a tripod and used it all of the static shots. I made a steadicam-type apparatus and left it in the car when my wife ran off and left me there, so I didn't have it...doh! I felt a lot of the moving shots didn't turn out too badly, really. The outside moving shot is the one I disliked the most as it shook a lot and the one I most wanted my steadicam for. You can tell I had to chop it and transition it for it to be even close to acceptable and even then, it's not so good...oh well.
A quick amusing anecdote on Ben McBride...he wasn't supposed to be in it. His wife, Michelle, was scheduled to be there along with Jenifer, and our guy was going to be someone else who had been in theatrical productions before, but he texted us with a family emergency in Arkansas after we were supposed to meet, and Ben, having brought Michelle, graciously responded to our begging to play the male role. He was great.
Thanks for the compliments thus far, and I hope everyone else enjoys it.
It's always satisfying to see something move from the page to film -- and even though the credits were my favorite part (you didn't have to do that) -- I suppose I should comment on the rest of it.
I thought the sound was fine. It seemed to improve later, in fact. But I am no expert on that.
I liked the garbled voices, and found that to be a very effective device, with it's implications for insanity. And you credit yourself as doing the music. Is that original? Good job with the music at the end, either way. It corresponds well to the action on screen.
I liked how when Ben walks and disappears from the frame you can still see his shadow on the wall haha.
I might have put the bullet hole someplace else. What she has there doesn't look like a kill shot to me.
Your actors did well. That girl screaming "NOOOO..." was startling, and I had to turn down the sound. You can tell Ben that he has a good presence on camera, too.
A good first effort from Willson Pictures. I wonder when they will start soliciting scripts?
I felt like if you and the others were good enough to help me improve on the script (which I used a lot of the comments from, you may notice), then it's not too much to go ahead and say thanks in the credits. And yup, there is a shadow on the wall after Ben disappears...that's one of those things I couldn't fix.
Yes, I wrote the music for the final montage. Thanks. Music was actually my first interest in the writing field, and my first scripts were musicals, so that's my umpteenth composition.
I had some concern over some sound being too loud and I guess the NO! scream is too loud then. I may go back in and turn it down.
As for uploading it elsewhere, the major providers of streaming video all use the same basic devices, so if you can't see it here, try going to http://www.myspace.com/georgewillson and see if you can view it there. I may do youtube at some point since it's short enough, but I don't know.
I wrote the music and played it on my Yamaha sequencer. The credits sound is me overdubbed about 8 times saying a variety of different things as well as whispering more stuff overdubbed another 8 times or so. These sounds were mixed into the final films under the credits. Both of those sounds were used within the film as well.
I did use some sound effects, but 95% of the sounds and such were completely original including the music.
Hey George, that was a neat little short. It was kinda trippy. The acting wasn't so hot, but that's a flaw that you personally couldn't help. Overall, I liked it. Good job. Here's the links to a couple of short films I directed if you're interested.
Highly stylized picture that you brought to the floor here. I assume that this was done in Windows Movie Maker, as some of the sounds/effects look familiar. The acting was good, especially Ben's part. I found him to be a little more believable, but kudos deserves to go around.
The primary editing was done in Moviemaker along with the all of the effects and the title at the beginning. About the only thing I used Premiere for (as I didn't want to use an editing system I was unfamiliar with to cut this together) was to extract frames to color out the microphone and/or pole (there were nearly 200 of these frames that I had to color out in Photoshop one by one), and to correct my rather large sound issue and then mix the sounds. None of the sound was done in Moviemaker, and while I originally did the end titles in MM, I had to redo them in Premiere as some of the alterations changed the titles I'd originally done. Tere were some minor edits done in Premiere as well, but not much to make note of really.
Moviemaker is a really good editor and it has some powerful effects that worked well for me. I had to go online for some of the coloring and such and add some of those in, but it did really well for a free editor. If I didn't have the sound issue along with being incapable of keeping the mike out of the shot, I probably wouldn't have used Premiere at all.
Thanks for the watch, Golem and Greg, and I suppose a watch for a watch is fair, Golem, so I'll have a look. I did try to do something interesting and make it look and sound like more than just a home movie, and while it is not perfect, I do think I achieved that, and my next one will be that much better for the experience.