Almost done!

I finally have a true rough cute. I have all the footage I need. Today I got more VO work done since I changed some stuff. After getting our comment cards back I realized what parts were a little unclear and luckily with VO I can easily change a sentence to clarify something. Thank god for VO. The comment cards were very useful, yet at the same time, how seriously can we take them? 

Let's see, I loved the comment Kyle received under "Q: What do you find confusing about this film? A: Why did you make it?" And someone wrote on Chris' card: "This is why I hate UCF film students." My funniest comment was: "Why does the guy seem more gay than the lesbian?" Oh and Steve Cohen got by far the best comment "It's like I got shot in the head 5 times." Or something to that extent. Yes, yes, those cinema studies students sure are harsh. I was one for 2 years but I mean, I didn't hate the people in the film program, I was friends with all of them and envied them. They were making films and I wasn't and it was such a horrible feeling. So for those kids to be that harsh, they must be assholes to begin with. At least they make us laugh, and at least we're actually making films... unlike them. Have fun with your theory classes. I have room to talk. It took me 3 damn years to get into the film program. 

I'd like to get even more opinions on how to edit my film. It's already edited but I know it needs lots of little fixes. I'll be meeting with Cris and hopefully Rich too. And if any of you like editing, I'd love your opinion and suggestions as well. 

Hopefully someone will put together an e-mail on how to export all our stuff to get the best quality. I always forget how to do it. 

BTW, I made a facebook event for our D3 screening so invite all your friends!

We were hoping to shoot the rest of the scenes for my film earlier this week but because Reid Nicewonder went out of town with this camera, we'll be doing it this coming week. It's probably cutting it close but it won't be a ton of footage to edit and with me and Cris both editing, we should be able to work really fast. 

Recently I've started asking around for possible music to use in my film from local/indie bands. I have a lot of friends in bands and friends who make electronic/ambient music and a lot of them would love to have their music in a film. It's crazy how many people there are in Orlando who make music in their houses and just don't have any way to get it out there but it's ready and available if you can find them. I'm really interested in seeing what kind of music people use in their D3's and how they find it. It's getting more important since our films are getting longer and we'll probably all be sending our D3's out to film festivals so we'll need to use music we can get the rights to. 

Editing

I've been editing to get a rough cut together. I hope it will be ok that I just have a few scenes I can show. I didn't get all of the footage from Cris because he's still color correcting some of it. Plus we still have a few scenes to be shot. Cris will be editing the scenes that are emotional and have coverage and I'll be editing the more fun, experimental parts. I hate dealing with coverage and would much rather be creative than find the essential emotional moment and luckily Cris prefers doing that. My film definitely needs 2 editors if not 3. As I get more edited, I'll definitely be wanting people's opinions and suggestions. 

I'm wondering if we're going to go over marketing in class. I took the Film Producer and it was very helpful in that field but I'd still like to learn more. I mean The Blair Witch Project was successful mostly due to its marketing, right? I feel like we focus a lot on pre-production and production but sometimes the most important thing that's going to make or break a film is how its marketed. You can have a bad film but if its marketed right, a lot of people are going to see it. And you can have a great film but if it doesn't get the right marketing, no one's going to see it but your classmates. Film Festivals are all we have. That's our door in. Grad school and LA will always be there but it seems Film Festivals are what's more important.

Done filming

I wish I could've updated my blog sooner but my life has been chaos. I just got done shooting 2 hours ago. We shot Mon-Thurs and did everything we needed the equipment for. We still have a little more to shoot and are just going to find other days in March to get the rest shot. 

First, let me say where I found my actors. I was at Backbooth dancing and saw this kid that looked the part so I went up to him and yelled over the music while him and I were dancing "Can you act?" He said "Act? Yeah I can act." I said "Cool, wanna be in my film?" He said sure and I got his phone number. Apparently he thought it was just a cheesy pick up line to get his number and he was a little confused when I texted him the next day about it. But it worked out. I found Lacey through the audition. She was the only one who was silly enough. 

On the first day we lost most of our footage when Cris Mertens tried to transfer the footage of the P2 card so that was a set back but I didn't freak out, I just figured out when we could re-shoot it. We barely had a crew all 4 days and it was people coming and going to class the whole time including my actors. No one had a position, everyone was just doing what had to be done. I even did sound and slate a few times. My actor Jonathan was pretty much a crew member and we filled his van with equipment. Yes, it was very rag tag. And I loved it. I worried the whole production would fall apart. But it didn't. 

Cris and I made an excellent team and I had no idea we'd hit it off so well. And I loved my crew, even though it was whoever I could get at the time, they were all so helpful and giving me all the time they could. It was a lot of wait around, hurry up. At one point we were sitting under the shade of a tree in a park eating sandwiches and at another point we were just barely grabbing one last shot at magic hour with the sun going down. 

We definitely got a lot of great footage and we were able to experiment and improvise and just have fun with it. That's what I think made these last 4 days chaotic but amazing, there were so many locations and it was all beautiful shots and really fun scenes. I'm so happy with the script I wrote and I've never had so much fun while under so much pressure. It took like 4 hours to get the straight down overhead of the bed shot but it was totally worth it. 

I couldn't have made this film without my friends. They let me borrow all their cool clothes for the wardrobe and they showed up early to be extras and I put a hole in my best friend's framed silk screen. That sucked. But through all the chaos and getting little sleep and making calls to all the locations and being totally freaked out everything was going wrong, by the last day, I was so happy to have it over with that I realized how amazing this experience has been. Seriously. I feel like this is exactly how it's supposed to be and all my hard work will result in hopefully an awesome film and definitely has been the best experience. 

And I don't think I spent more than $200 when my budget was $1500. Nice. 

Thank god, I have finally got a DP. The lovely Cris Mertens will be using Reid Nicewonder's equipment. This is a relief. I'm having trouble finding actors. I don't want to go with some random person on craigslist but it seems none of my friends can act, which sucks because they definitely look the part. Who would I cast if I could get anyone? I think Shannyn Sossamon and Jason Schwartzman or Gael Garcia Bernal. 

If anyone has a connection to them, just send it my way. In other news, I'm going to go location scouting some more and maybe try to find some places around here. Because for instance, I need a field with a tree and that could be found at even a park. Although I'd prefer a more wheat looking field then green grass. We'll see. I definitely want to use this place:

I've gotten permission to film in the photography room at UCF. It was actually a very easy process. It was all through e-mail. I had to get permission from 3 different people. I'm wondering, does Lisa need something in writing or can I just print the e-mails?

That's all for now.

Welcome to my Directing 3 film blog!

I will be tracking the typical process of identity crisis, loss of self-esteem, and downward spiral into madness, all of which usually accompany anyone making a film. Oh, and I'll sometimes update how the production is coming along too. 

  

Today I drove around Colonial near the town of Christmas to go location scouting. I need a lot of exteriors that look like the country, and I don't mean Florida's nasty palm fronds, I mean dirt roads, empty fields, junkyards, trailers, that sort of thing. Maybe even orange groves, which I found plenty.

  

It was a lot of fun and I found some good places so I'm not really sure how to go about the next step of locking those locations. I mean, some fields didn't have houses so how do I know who's it is? Oh no, I'm already getting boring. 

 

 I have no idea who I'm going to use for the male lead in my film. He'll be doing VO throughout so he has to not only look good but have a soothing voice haha. It's going to be tough.

I'm still fixing my script so if anyone wants to look at it and give me pointers before I do a 2nd draft, give me your e-mail so I can send it to you.