"FALLING UP" a Flyin' Monkey Films production

[Rodney V. Smith]

FALLING UP

TAGLINE: Gravity should not be an option

Synopsis: An encounter with a hypnotist leaves Jay with the memory of being able to fly.
Now Jay copes with his ability and everything he has lost because of it...

WATCH FALLING UP (http://www.dvxfest.com/lossfest/index.php?id=2900443)
FACEBOOK GROUP (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?id=679455882&pid=2516579&cp=679455882&cps=510d4b8921#/group.php?gid=37642857286) | WEBSITE (http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup) | TRAILER (http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99d8b21e18eacb87)



http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1236102875.jpg

Trailer #1 for "Falling Up"
0a99d8b21e18eacb87
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99d8b21e18eacb87

Story by: Rodney Smith
Composer: Damian Sanchez
Color Correction & Grading: Dennis Midler, Lost Bajan Prod
Visual F/X: Jake Vincent
Production Date: December 2008-January 2009
Production Co: Flyin' Monkey Films
Location: Toronto

[Rodney V. Smith]

CAST:
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1228836952.jpg http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1229016880.jpg
JAY - Mark Rivard************ RACHEL - Jessica Sinclair

SUPPORTING CAST
HYPNOTIST - Frank Christmann
BUBBA SEAN - Sean Bradshaw
CAMERA MAN - James Dalzell
TIME MACHINE GIRL - Nicole Jacobs
CRACKHEAD GUEST - G. Tessier

FEATURING:
RED PHONE GUY - Aaron Peever
MTV CRIBS - B.J. Jeroy

MUSIC:

FEATURING MUSIC BY:
IN MY DREAM - Justin Ewart (website (http://myspace.com/justinewart))
YOU AND ME - My October (website (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/www.myspace.com/myoctober))

CREW:

DIRECTOR & CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rodney Smith
COMPOSER: Damian Sanchez
GAFFER & KEY GRIP: Jake Vincent
WRITERS: Rodney Smith & Andrew Stoute
PRODUCERS: Rodney Smith & Jake Vincent
DOLLY GRIP: Mike Cullen
STILLS & POSTER PHOTOGRAPHER: Meaghan Tellier

EDITOR: Eric Bray
POST PRODUCTION SOUND: Rodney Smith & Mark Rivard
COLOR CORRECTION & GRADING: Dennis Midler, Lost Bajan Prod
ADR/FOLEY: Rodney Smith

[Rodney V. Smith]

Meet Mark Rivard. He plays "Jay" in the film, the unfortunate side effect of a bad hypnotist
also featuring Frank Christmann as "the Hypnotist" and Sean Bradshaw as "Bubba Sean"
PODCAST #13 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/309fd2b81e1ae1c7be)
309fd2b81e1ae1c7be
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/309fd2b81e1ae1c7be

Meet Jessica Sinclair. She gives a little insight into her character and the project.
PODCAST #12 (http://www.motionbox.com/videos/309fdfb61f1de3c0be)
309fdfb61f1de3c0be
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/309fdfb61f1de3c0be

ADR Session #2 (the one where the computer actually worked)
PODCAST #11 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/309fdfb21b16ebc3be)
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/309fdfb21b16ebc3be (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/0a99d6b81d19e3c487/)

Production Day #1 (technically #3)
PODCAST #10 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/0a99d6b81d19e3c487/)
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/0a99d6b81d19e3c487/

Shooting the trailer
PODCAST #9 (http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99d8b01015ebcb87)
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99d8b01015ebcb87

Production Day #1
PODCAST #8 (http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99dbb71f1be6c387)
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99dbb71f1be6c387

Production is about to begin
PODCAST #7 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqxv0IH4Ut4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqxv0IH4Ut4

Storyboarding and scheduling
PODCAST #6 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/5495dfb01d1ee1d0)
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/5495dfb01d1ee1d0

Casting the leads, podcast
PODCAST #5 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/1192d2bc1619e49a)
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/1192d2bc1619e49a (http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93dbbf1014e564)

PODCAST #4 (http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93dbbf1014e564)
http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93dbbf1014e564

PODCAST #3 (http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93d3b11e19e064)
http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93d3b11e19e064

PODCAST #2 (http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee9cdbb21916ec64)
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee9cdbb21916ec64

PODCAST #1 (http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee9cdfbf1418e664)
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee9cdfbf1418e664

[Rodney V. Smith]

PRODUCTION STILLS FROM "FALLING UP"


http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot3.jpg
Scene #1: Frank wakes up (on the "Bubba Sean Show")

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot1.jpg
Scene #1: Rachel (Jessica Sinclair) and the Camera Man (James Dalzell) react.

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot5.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot6.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot7.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot8.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot9.jpg

[Rodney V. Smith]

Reserved for Production Diary

[Rodney V. Smith]

So far we're thinking a comedy, some light hearted fare. If that's the case, I might have to hand over the directing reins to someone else... either that or try my hand at directign comedy and not be so intimidated by the prospect. I know that I tend to lean more towards the darkside.. my sith instincts kicking in, but I'd really like to challenge myself this time and come up with something that is genuinely funny, and not only just darkly funny, if you stop and think about it.

Lots of color and lots of light is the order of the day... hell: maybe I'll even do...(cue dramatic music here)...A MUSICAL!

Maybe... maybe...

[Simon Höfer]

Good to see you in Rodney! You know that twilight fest is over, right? :D

[Richard J. Johnson]

Nice poster. I wish I had photoshop skills. Welcome back, Let's do this thing.

[Erez Henya]

All the best with Falling Up, my friend!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Nice poster. Good luck, man.
Way to jump right back into the fray! :thumbup:

[ZazaCast]

Good to see you in Rodney! You know that twilight fest is over, right? :D

LMAO! :Drogar-Smoke(DBG)::Drogar-Smoke(DBG):

Great Poster, I'll be looking for this one.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Good to see you in Rodney! You know that twilight fest is over, right? :D

You're funny Simon. reeeeeeeeeeal funny. :grin:

You entering this one? Get your butt back in the game man: we wanna see some more cool stuff from you.

[Simon Höfer]

Well, I am not sure yet. But I don't think so. I want to concentrate on some paying jobs now and at the beginning of the year I have to study for exams that I have to write in February. Gotta finish my diploma in electrical engineering.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Well, I am not sure yet. But I don't think so. I want to concentrate on some paying jobs now and at the beginning of the year I have to study for exams that I have to write in February. Gotta finish my diploma in electrical engineering.

Oh damn. real life calls. That's one call that's impossible to ignore. Good luck with that man, but I'm sure you'll be keeping an eye on the proceedings.

By the end of February you;re not going to be able to resist the call... the call of the fest! Muhahahahahahahaa.

Seriously though: good luck on the exams.

[Rodney V. Smith]

irony of ironies: i just lost my harddrive partition where all of my music is kept. I'm doing a file recovery on it, but in the meantime I have no music to write to.

I'm at a loss...

[Rodney V. Smith]

Okay brainstorming is beginning to hurt. Lots of good ideas but trying to avoid the low hanging fruit like memory loss, death or relationships. That just leaves from for a lot of headaches and us trying to think from different angles and making a story out of it... or at least seeing what's so interesting about it...

Brainstorming continue...

[Susanne G.]

Very funny poster - loved your TwilightFest entry. Welcome to the fest. :)

Susanne

[Rodney V. Smith]

Very funny poster - loved your TwilightFest entry. Welcome to the fest. :)

Susanne

thanks suzanne! will you be entering as well?

[Susanne G.]

Big question!!!! I think we (Jason and I) will start writing a script (seperately) and then we will see if there is money left for a film, because we don't have a video camera and have to rent the whole stuff. I am not sure about an entry, also because there are some other things to do at the moment. We will see! :huh:

Susanne


thanks suzanne! will you be entering as well?

[Rodney V. Smith]

Okay working on 2 main concepts right now and then we're going to hash out the details, but we've definitely settled on a couple of really nice ideas that takes a different look at loss.

I'm still thinking MUSICAL but nobody else is feeling it. I personally think that they just dont want to write the songs.

[Tom Marshall]

Odd, this doesn't look like a musical comedy... :huh:

[Dustin R. Rogan]

I'm not loking forward to this one...just being honest

Rogan

/sarcasm

[Rodney V. Smith]

it was a decepticon type thing. It still might evolve into a musical.. just depends on how much convincing can do...

[Tom Marshall]

Hey Dustin, where's your thread??

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Want an idea before I make a thread, Rodney and I are/were tossing around idears for a project...stay tuned it could happen

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

He's just going to lurk here for a bit. As long as he doesn't post pictures of his ass, we're all fine.

[stinkpot]

Just checked out your poster. Looks great man! I can't wait to see your film.

:beer:

[Rodney V. Smith]

Rough draft hammered out, full of hole though, but I LIKE it. and no it;s not going to be a musical after all. maybe next time. right now though this one is pretty damn nice.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Little distraction from Sabi this morning that's got me thinking on how to promote my film as well as the DVX Fest. The opportunity is really too good to pass up, especially if we can make something cohesive and cool at the same time.

The Facebook page is definitely getting a lot of users signing up, some just out of curiousity and we;ve got to fill the next 4 months with a lot of hype to keep curious passersby interested enough to commit to view our films.

For my part in this, I've been mulling over some cool concepts in terms of promotion (shameless and otherwise), that will keep the interest.

Meeting with my writing team tonight to hash out some problems with the script, and I think the tagline is definitely going to change, as well as the title. Now I said earlier that this wasn;t going to be a musical, but guess what? It's still not a musical... at least not out and out....

Oh and I'm not writing this one, only co-writing and producting. Alexis LaSalle (my actress in "Act 2" and in "UnBecoming") will be co-producing.

Details to come....

[Rodney V. Smith]

our first major set piece is going to take a bit pf practical shooting and perhaps some greenscreen work since it involes having one of the characters plastered to his bedroom ceiling....

this is getting complicated and possibly expensive, but it's a shot that we definitely want to keep....

Any VFX guys out there wanna chime in or PM me?

[Tom Marshall]

Expensive? Nah, rope is cheap! :laugh:

[Rodney V. Smith]

but we'll need lots of rope! at least a whole $12!

[Tom Marshall]

You can get it at Costco for much cheaper than anywhere else... :thumbsup:

[Rodney V. Smith]

costco.... can i get actors there too?
is costco the interdimensional portal to all actors? where you can eventually find them all.... eventually?

[Tom Marshall]

No. All the actors hang out at Sam's Club. :D

[Rodney V. Smith]

damn! i dont have a sam's club card... only costco...

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Stealing thunder makes baby jesus smile!

Rogan

[Brian Parker]

Good to see you in again puck. We're definately gonna collab this time.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Atlanta unite! We'll definitely be working together. It will be cool to see what you come up with and how kickass we can make these films. Now is the time to get writing so all schedules can be taken care of. woo hoo!

[Rodney V. Smith]

I'd actually been wondering about posting trailers for advertisement purposes so I;ve started to throw a few together. Right now it's about the DVX Fest, but there will be more trailers coming for "Falling Up".

Right now, this is the first one (in no particular order.. well actually films from A-L and a random sampling at that)

http://www.vimeo.com/2292044

and from motionbox:
ee9cddb61d1fe364

[Rodney V. Smith]

dammit.. one of vimeo's slow days. not ready for another 50 minutes...
In the meantime, here's a man eating a chicken:

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1098/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1098-274B.jpg

[Tom Marshall]

http://www.oswald.us/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/bunny-pancake.jpg

[Rodney V. Smith]

why thank you Tom! I;ve always wanted a pancake... wait, what's this under here?

[Tom Marshall]

Those are raisins. :cheesy:

[Rodney V. Smith]

ewwww. thanks a LOT

[Tom Marshall]

You asked...

[pauly_the_hitman]

Rodney hope everything works out with the man eating chicken and the pancake wearing rabbit. And now for something completely different... (http://www.vimeo.com/1733142)
Pauly

[Rodney V. Smith]

do i have the honor of first thread to be hit with THAT thing?

[pauly_the_hitman]

I hope so I didn't want it to be me...So...
Of course I could take it down if you ask nicely...

[Rodney V. Smith]

hell NO! leave it for everyone to enjoy. that video is da BOMB! or something like it.

[Tom Marshall]

Rodney hope everything works out with the man eating chicken and the pancake wearing rabbit. And now for something completely different... (http://www.vimeo.com/1733142)
Pauly

Very disturbing. Kind of like a David Lynch film...

[Rodney V. Smith]

Okay video is up so here it is: http://www.vimeo.com/2292044

Share and enjoy
ee9cddb61d1fe364

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

You can't embed Vimeo, just link to it. DVXuser doesn't allow Vimeo to embed.
Cool video though! :thumbup:

[Rodney V. Smith]

damn! motionbox was FAST at converting the video.. i think i may be in love....

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

damn! motionbox was FAST at converting the video.. i think i may be in love....
Nice video! I'll have to check out Motionbox myself.

Cheers,

Mike

[Rodney V. Smith]

okay got 3 more of them to upload... I know I should be writing too...

[Rodney V. Smith]

There's something to be said for working in the late hours of the night after everyone else is gone to bed. No one is yelling for you to do this or that, no babies insisting that you keep yor eyes only on them, no phone calls or emails from pushy clients wondering where their video is even though its nowhere near the deadline... add to that tthe fact that it's snowed and quite peaceful and beautiful outside (first snowfall) and I can't see it cuz I'm in the basement (not a bad thing, since I hate snow).

So yeah: kind of the perfect time to work. Now if only I had brewed the pot of coffee like I was thinking about earlier... still it's not too late and there's lots of writing to be done.

Oh on the story: rewrote dialong, threw it away and now rewtiting 2 whole pages.

Writing comedy is HARD!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Podcast #1 is up. Mainly I'm just rambling but I promise it will get better as we progress. Otherwise it will be just me sitting in my basement picking my nose and trying to be witty.

or something like that. direct link is here:
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee9cdfbf1418e664

[Tom Marshall]

"Ideally, we'd like for our shorts not to cost so much."

LOL. Well said, sir. :beer:

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

That was great! Music is perfect as well.

I love these Podcasts. Adds a whole new dimension to these festivals.

Cheers,

Mike

[Rodney V. Smith]

I figured it was a little better than saying: "we're broke" :-D.

Seriously though, I do try to keep budgets to a minimum although I have recently started to spend more on costumes and props. We had our first taste of set design on "Blood & Coffee" and we're thinking of doing the same thing with this piece.

Winter has come to Toronto so most of our shots are going to be indoor, like say 99% of them. That leaves us the opportunity to actually build the main set piece of THE BEDROOM and actually design it so it's got everything that is needed for production, including some of the more practical effects.

I've been making a few tentative inquiries about using part of a warehouse to build the set, but I suspect that search is going to take a bit of a while. In the meantime we're also putting out feelers for use of a large bedroom with high ceilings, a loft even, and maybe the cost of renting that (please borrow) will be less than renting/borrowing a warehouse space and building the set.

Worst case scenario that I've been kicking around is trying to kill 2 birds with one stone and come up with a concept for a music video that will use the same set. That way it will help to defray some of the actual expense. One project facilitates the other, but that's a bit of a long shot. As it is I still have to finalize some of my upcoming projects.

Still, the notion of getting exactly the image, or set that I see in my mind, exactly like I see it, instead of having to depend on how the actual location looks... well that's an attractive notion, one that may tip the balance toward me actually spending money on seriosu set design. We'll jus thave to see how that one goes...

[Rodney V. Smith]

I love these Podcasts. Adds a whole new dimension to these festivals.

Mike


Thanks Mike. Kind of a "meet the filmmaker" thing. And it can only add to your EPK if you ever want to take your short to festivals. Good practice to get set up for the bigger projects where more is at stake.

I love the fact that DVXUser gives us the opportunity to just try some of this stuff out, and not in a vacuum where you;re just amusing yourself and your friends and family.

[Tom Marshall]

Yeah, but keep in mind that the people around here tend to gravitate towards the "nice" side... :)

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Yeah, but keep in mind that the people around here tend to gravitate towards the "nice" side... :)Still mulling over your positive acting reviews from TwilightFest? :huh:


:evil:

:grin:

[Tom Marshall]

Still mulling over your positive acting reviews from TwilightFest? :huh:


:evil:

:grin:

Awwww... excuse me while I go find a place to curl up and die...


Thanks Mike... :crybaby:

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Awwww... excuse me while I go find a place to curl up and die...


Thanks Mike... :crybaby:LOL! I was just teasing :)
Just throwing your advice back at you. :Drogar-Love(DBG):

[Rodney V. Smith]

Yeah, but keep in mind that the people around here tend to gravitate towards the "nice" side... :)

Dude you want to see nice acting? check out your expression in the trailer when the ball disappears. CLASSIC look. That's actually one of my favorite scenes from the entire fest.

As for nice, you get some. People do try to be encouraging, but some don't either make the effort or they just speak their minds. I know I've held my tongue on a couple of occasions and I still come off a little harsh and abrupt.

[Tom Marshall]

LOL! I was just teasing :)
Just throwing your advice back at you. :Drogar-Love(DBG):

Oh just wait, Mike... You know what they say about payback... :Drogar-Smoke(DBG):


Dude you want to see nice acting? check out your expression in the trailer when the ball disappears. CLASSIC look. That's actually one of my favorite scenes from the entire fest.

As for nice, you get some. People do try to be encouraging, but some don't either make the effort or they just speak their minds. I know I've held my tongue on a couple of occasions and I still come off a little harsh and abrupt.

Yeah, Accidental Hitman was a lot of fun to make. We all had a great time on it.

Actually, thinking about it, I guess this forum is sort of like real life. If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it and that's what seems to go on around here... It's nice for a change as opposed to other online forums.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Well it's not entirely a lovefest, but better than the flame wars and nasty attitudes that you find elsewhere, that's for sure. Hopefully I won't get laughed out of the house with my podcasts. Gotta come up with new stuff for them.

[Tom Marshall]

No way man. The podcast is cool. Just don't show your 5 dogs like someone else did... :D

[Dustin R. Rogan]

o.O, guess i should jump on the podcast banwagon

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

jump on up! there's plenty of room for all of us. remember what I said about the EPK (Electronic Press Kit)? It's one thing that alot of indie films lack: that documentation of every step. This is a a good bandwagon to be on.

[Jeff Anderson]

No way man. The podcast is cool. Just don't show your 5 dogs like someone else did... :D

Hey hey hey - just because I currently have nothing of substance to say doesnt mean I cant put videos up!! I'm thinking about getting one of those fluffy little lapdogs that yips alot and calling it Tom Marshall. Or Sir Walter Raleigh. Its down to those two...

[Tom Marshall]

Jeff, you have enough dogs! :laugh:

[Jeff Anderson]

Jeff, you have enough dogs! :laugh:
Good point, I have a feeling little Tom Marshall would be a pain in the ass anyways :Drogar-Love(DBG):

[GrizzlyGuy]

Cool Poster! I can't wait to see how you pull off the ceiling scene.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Good point, I have a feeling little Tom Marshall would be a pain in the ass anyways :Drogar-Love(DBG):

a real "biter" eh?

[Tom Marshall]

Good point, I have a feeling little Tom Marshall would be a pain in the ass anyways :Drogar-Love(DBG):


Very true... just ask one of my ex-girlfriends... that's why I'm single... :Drogar-Smoke(DBG):

[Mile Bozicevic]

Waaa too many threads here!
I'm gonna say do your best!
I'm gonna say surprise me like The Trade did!
I'm gonna leave now and stop writing these...these-->!--->WHATEVER their name is on english!
And I wish you good luck!
See you at the fest!
:beer:

[Rodney V. Smith]

Cool Poster! I can't wait to see how you pull off the ceiling scene.

no pressure right? :grin:

We're going to see if we can deliver. It was the one image that solidified in my mind when i thought of the concept, so I'm going to try very hard to get it to work. Might have to trade a few favors in (cheaper than cash) or whore myself out (make the cash back, but my wife won't let me). I;d sell my first born but I already promised him to Google, so no go...

[GrizzlyGuy]

no pressure right? :grin:

We're going to see if we can deliver. It was the one image that solidified in my mind when i thought of the concept, so I'm going to try very hard to get it to work. Might have to trade a few favors in (cheaper than cash) or whore myself out (make the cash back, but my wife won't let me). I;d sell my first born but I already promised him to Google, so no go...

Hey, maybe you could just feed your actor a whole bunch of iron supplements and use magnetic levitation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation

Or build a set inside the Vomit Comet and shoot it there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomit_comet

:laugh:

[Rodney V. Smith]

I think it would be cheaper to staple actors to the ceiling. Where's Tom got to anyway?

[Tom Marshall]

That would take a lot of staples. I think you're better off with the rope. :thumbsup:

[Dustin R. Rogan]

theres always duct tape...or chewing gum...

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

arghhh!!! Why don't any actors ever let me use the STAPLE GUN?
They hardly ever hurt... not really. and there's not that much blood. Sams Club going, Buell cap wearing wusses...

[Tom Marshall]

I think you meant to say, Sams Club going, Buell cap wearing badasses. Right?

[Rodney V. Smith]

Actor != badass

and now us geeks shall have a laugh at your expense. Yes I said I'm a geek, I know it. I'm proud.

[Tom Marshall]

Wait till you see me in Jason's entry...

Actor.isBadass = true;

Damn it, look what you made me do... :D

[Rodney V. Smith]

Actor.isBadass = true;

Damn it, look what you made me do... :D


Oh no you didn't. Okay, fine, so you did. You're a man of hidden depths Mr Marshall. We'll be watching you carefully. If you see any people in trees with binoculars, ignore them. That won't be us. (can't climb trees at my age)

[Tom Marshall]

Don't worry, I'm already paranoid... :undecided

[Rodney V. Smith]

hey anything I can do to help.

[Rodney V. Smith]

New trailer up for promo purposes.

Complete Trailer (all 67 films) - featuring music from Justin Ewart
ee9cd9b61416e764
Embed Code:
<embed src="http://www.motionbox.com/external/hd_player/type=sd,video_uid=ee9cd9b61416e764" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="416" height="312" allowFullscreen="true"></embed>


Maybe now I can really focus on writing.

[Susanne G.]

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yeeeeees - this is a nice work. Thanks and compliments! :thumbup:

Susanne :bath:

[Rodney V. Smith]

All the best with Falling Up, my friend!

hey Erez, are you working on any projects for the fest yet? You did some pretty good stuff for Twilight there.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Yes, yes, yes, yes and yeeeeees - this is a nice work. Thanks and compliments! :thumbup:

Susanne :bath:

Thanks Suzanne: i now have one more to go.. the finalist trailer and then, finished.

[Rodney V. Smith]

I JUST HAD THE MOST BRILLIANT IDEA! WHOA THIS ONE;S A DOOZY!



oh wait.. wait... lost it...

[Rodney V. Smith]

new podcast is up. enjoy my ramblings. i'm goign to bed.

[Rodney V. Smith]

So my morning was almost ruined by my night. Being the sometimes insomniac father of a sometimes insomniac 6 month old has it's downside. I call him my little "Productivity Killer" since my mornings are now spent entertaining him (Evan) and trying to get into some kind of work groove. Last night I wanted to crash and Evan wanted none of that. For the first time in months, he's decided that he'll be sleeping in 2 hours shifts. Oh and instad of waking up at 10:30 AM, he's going to be up at 7:30 AM. Sharp.

There went my night and any thoughts I had of sleeping in and catching up on my sleep.

Add to that the fact that all he wanted to do this morning was play, climb, practice standing up, play, look out the window and the snow, practice climbing some more oh and finally practice his whole "chemical factory" routine. The stinky kind o "chemical factory" if you know what I mean. For those that don't, I'll be clear: poopy diapers.

BUT there's a different side of this. For all of the joys of fatherhood, there's at least the upside that while I'm distracted by Evan: I can't be distracted by anything else! So I'm sitting with him and playing and thinking about how he's going to be running before we know it, and oh by the way, should I maybe get a leash
(leash)
for him? After all he's going to be a runner and for the first time maybe I could actually appreciate those leashes
(leash)
that I always see on kids.

It was like something was trying to tell me somebody.

Then it clicked.

The idea of how to solve my actor stapled to the ceiling, expensive set building, tricky SFX shot problem. You know the one I've been talking about.

I finally had a solution and it was indeed elegant, and truthfully a lot more human and real.. poignant even, than the orignal shot. So it's rewrite time.

I'm going to hammer out the next draft and get the plot points, the humanity of it in first. Then we'll do another run through and get the dialog as funny as the situation.

Right now though, it's time to write.

[Rodney V. Smith]

The imagery of something like this on film is till quite interesting though:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_dnvOCLjVPZc/RcW7T9X_s3I/AAAAAAAAADE/VP3sikb2J8Y/s400/falling+down.bmp

I got an estimate on a warehouse I was asking about and it's a little ridiculous. Might as well get a BIG storage unit for a month and build the set in there for the price they;re asking.

I swear, people hear the word "movie" and think we're all made of money or something. The general public tends to forget about people like us. That we even exist.... somewhere on the periphery of broke and not so broke.

Cost for warehouse, $300 per day, including construction days. And we're looking at possibly 14 days on the good side of things. This doesn't even include having to get space heaters since it's a warehouse and all... or contruction material, plus labor.

Maybe it's for the best that the rewrite is in progress.

[Jason Sanders]

Sweet poster, good luck man.

[Rodney V. Smith]

thanks dude. should be an interestign production

[Rodney V. Smith]

It's OFFICIAL! I FINALLY know what my story is about. Second draft is going blazingly well (and not as expensive) and it's genuinely funny! A synopsis will follow by the end of the day.

Best thing for this draft (which was different from the 1st draft) is that I have a clear idea in my head of how it ENDS. I also know how it begins, so now it's about filling in the spaces in between and bringing the funny!

That's a good status: Rodney is bringing the funny.

[Tom Marshall]

Sweet man. :thumbsup:

[Rodney V. Smith]

synopsis and production details added.

[Tom Marshall]

Great synopsis. :)

[Rodney V. Smith]

The loss theme is definitely being thoroughly explored. These are just the circumstances surrounding it. And of course I wouldn't want to give too much away...

[Rodney V. Smith]

I'm doing things the wrong way here I think. So yesterday I got a confirmation that my short film "Act 2" (the remake which I'll have to link you guys to) was accepted into a film festival, through WithoutaBox. However I'm still working with a composer (Ghennek) to finish the score. ADR and Foley were only recently completed and now the score is inching it's way toard being complete. So I've been accepted, have my EPK read to go.. just no movie included in the package. This is clearly the WRONG way to do things.

Think I'll be a little more cautious with the others in the future. Still have to submit the new edit of "THE TRADE" as soon as I get my pick up shots, AND I'm working on getting UNBECOMING completed as well, but most of that is editing and a couple of pickup shots.

Looks like December is about to get really busy, especially since I'm planning to start full production on "FALLING UP" in the first 2 weeks of December. Let's see how that goes.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Synopsis: An encounter with a hypnotist leaves Frank with the the memory of being able to fly. But Frank is afraid of heights.


That's great! :)
Should be pretty funny.

Cheers,

Mike

[Rodney V. Smith]

Dialog is coming out nicely right now. The actors I'm talking to should pull this off nicely. Got some who i'm absolutely sure of and we'll be doing a read through next week. Still trying to finalize the script, but should have the completed thing in had today. Just working out some of the kinks. You know how that one goes.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Oh, I just signed up Francesco De Leonardis (FDL film music composer) to do the score for FALLING UP. Woo hoo! Time to go full tilt boogie and get my production boards up. The walls are going to be FULL.

[Rodney V. Smith]

New podcast is up. Today we talk about why I'm watching Dustin's empty living room. Seriously.

http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93d3b11e19e064

[Robbie Comeau]

I can help with post sound/VFX man.

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

I can help with post sound/VFX man.

Robbie

Awesome. Hope you're better at mixing sound and compressing it than I am.
Welcome aboard!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Great podcast, man. I love these things.

Cheers,

Mike

[Rodney V. Smith]

thanks Mike. Trying to have some fun with them. Maybe someday I'll actually get out of my basement!

[Rodney V. Smith]

I'm ashamed of myself. I just went and set up a few key lights in my office so that my podcasts would be better lit. I feel like such a whore now. And now I may actually clean up the office and dress "the set" a little bit... at least that's what my wife is urging me to do.

Finished the current draft today and contacted actor Mark Rivard about starring in this thing.

Heading over to my sister-in-law's place now to drink beer and play Rock Band (TM). Maybe I'll actually write some more tonight (tweaking the script) but I doubt it.

[Tom Marshall]

Rodney, man, things are shaping up great! :thumbsup:

[Rodney V. Smith]

Rodney, man, things are shaping up great! :thumbsup:

you talking about my movie or my podcasts?

maybe i'll do a video when i meet mark, let you guys meet him.

Thing is I'm actually now wondering if a cute female lead (I have 2 in mind) wouldn't be better for the role, and instead have the male as the "friend". The role is not one that's male centric so some flexibility with casting is possible.

Thinking about using my sister-in-law's house in Brampton as the main location. it's a good size, accessible and the neighbourhood fits the look I'm going for. I'll take a few pics and talk to her about it.

[Dustin R. Rogan]

No Bueno on the duel podcast my friend...sorry...at least on my end :(

Rogan

u can put urs up or give a quick rundown of what i said...if ya wanna.

[Rodney V. Smith]

No Bueno on the duel podcast my friend...sorry...at least on my end :(

Rogan

u can put urs up or give a quick rundown of what i said...if ya wanna.

now that sucks. I'll figure something out. Gotta go take some location photos now.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Tomorrow I gotta meet with Mark Rivard and formally audition him for the lead. I hate auditioning, but it's a necessary process. Normally I don't even audition actors I've worked with, but in this one case it's necessary.

UPDATES on ACT 2
spent the day shopping and the rest of the afternoon finalizing the audio for "ACT II". Redesigned the poster and the DVD cover and prepped for printing. Kinkos actually does a nice job of printing off DVD covers on 8.5"x14" paper and usually I print the DVD faces here, but my printer is busted. Gotta find a new printer now.

Anyway, here's the new poster.
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1227498053.jpg

Working on mixing the audio and finalizing the ADR tracks tonight. Damian did an awesome job on the score and i should have a link ready tonight FINALLY.

Once this is done it will clear my edit schedule up a bit and I can take this project off the boards. Next will be a re-edit of THE TRADE and then UNBECOMING. with any luck and according to schedule, I'll be editing FALLING UP in January/February.

New Podcast will be up in the morning.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Title design. That's usually an often overlooked part of a movie and it's a credit that you see and go "oh wait, they hired someone to design the title sequence". I think I've designed the titles for "ACT 2" about 5 times now, trying to find the right feel and I've settled on one that's perfect. I don't know how many designs I'll go through for FALLING UP, but it's one of those things that I'll be looking at designing early on. It adds so much to a movie to have attractive titles, and with enough time and planning, they can be an important part of the flow.

So I'm spending the morning getting the title sequences all set for ACT II. It's the last bit to go before I render out to DVD.

Now it's got me wondering if there is any DVXUsser who specializes in title design. Might be worth checking into.

[Kyle Stebbins]

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/

Cool!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Anyway, here's the new poster.
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1227498053.jpg

Amazing poster! Nice work.

Mike

[Rodney V. Smith]

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/

Cool!


PHEW! Missed the bullet there! Glad I'm not using balloons!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Amazing poster! Nice work.

Mike

Thanks Mike. The photo was actually shot while we were going through costume choices (2 days before we actually shot). Figured it was better to use an amazing shot that I could direct right there on the spot, than trying to do it later and forget. If you have a digital camera handy and your lead actor (or all of your actors) AND you have an idea... well this is the start of it. I photoshopped out the living room in the background and manipulated the images to get exactly what I wanted.

Got a digital camera and your actor for your new movie? :grin:

[Rodney V. Smith]

New podcast is up. Tomorrow, we meet our lead actor. But first...

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

New podcast is up. Tomorrow, we meet our lead actor. But first...Cool. I have CS3 myself. What do you think of CS4?

[Rodney V. Smith]

still trying out the new features. its got some really cool stuff going on that i have to try out, like "search video by speech" where it finds keywords in speech. can't wait to try that one out. so far it's pretty nifty and i think a little more memory intensive than CS3. i still have CS3 installed though..... just in case... I'm paranoid that way.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Kicking myself today. Yesterday I threw away the last 5 pages of my "perfect script" when Andrew looks at me (well he gave me a "look" over IM.. its was more text. but you could feel it) and asks me: so where's the loss?

SO we started over again. And I find myself slowly walking down the dark corridors of a place called "Drama". The current argument is to at least write the new storyline dealing with loss, and then go back and tweak it. But while there was much comedy and a certain level of joy and cool stuff in the last draft... this one is going into a dark place... maybe not as dark as THE TRADE and defnitely not as dark as ACT II (someone called that one deadly depressing), but still potentially dark.

FALLING UP is supposed to be a light comedy and I have to keep that in mind, but maybe I should accept my limitations... and the fact that maybe I'm not that good at writing comedy to a theme.

I'll see how this draft goes and if some hilarity can be added to the situation and dialog to make it more joyful, more kinetic... and not devolve into a sobfest.

edit: i have Dr Horrible's Sing-A-Long_Blog on in the background while I write. Maybe it will help my mood.

[Rodney V. Smith]

First purchases for the film went on yesterday. Me and Jake took a trip out to Home Deopt and Canadian tire to find materials for the harness and cabling system to pull the actors into the air. We're also consulting with a rock climbing pro about safety gear and some of the best systems we can use.

One of the things we really want to stress with the building of this system is safety. Our actor is going to get up to about 9 feet off the ground, so aside from the main 2 cable pulling him into the air, plus a guide wire, there's a redundant safety cable in case anything goes wrong.

I don't know the name of the rock climbing guy, since Jake is the one who found him, but he's going to be our consultant for this particular effect. We're already working out the details of the hoist, especially for the internal shots, which can possibly be trick shots, and we just leave the main Practical FX shot for the EXT. For Exteriors we're probably looking at either using a Cherry Picker... if any are available in Toronto during the winter. Time for more research.

Dolly MK 2 has also been constructed and it's been inspired by Ben Sliker's shots in "My Name is Harold Allen"... the shot from above. We'll have to do a test and see how well this runs, but to give you an idea of what we're doing, let's just say the camer runs below the track...

Should be a busy weekend. Off to find the safety harness now.

[Rodney V. Smith]

No tests on the dolly yet. jake is still looking for the harness so we can get the tests done as well as a few test shots. Those might make it into the podcast since it will be good forward movement.

We've got 2 green screen shots planned for two major scenes that I've had in mind from day one and we'll be doing screen and FX tests on those shots next week.

I'm still celebrating my birthday weekend, so I'm off to get another bottle of Chimay Red and that can kick my ass like the other one did last night. At least this time I've got a bellyful of sushi. Found this All-You-Can-Eat Sushi restaurant ($22 per person) called Wasabi and it was well worth it. I like sushi, and the only thing i like better is LOTS of it.

Off to drink my beer now. Hopefully we can get some shots off tomorrow.

[Rodney V. Smith]

I LIKE the new version of the script. It brings the funny, there's drama of course, but not heavy moody dark drama, and there is definite LOSS! I think that has been the hardest thing for me so far: dealing with loss as a definite and not an abstract. If people have to LOOK for i (especially in a film this short) then there are problems. If it's right there in their faces, well then that makes a hell of a lot of difference.

Of course it probably took me about 5 really good beers to make that discovery, but most of it is time and a lot of plot development. I wrote down the first idea I and i continued to write the others, so that gave me a framework that I could actually build on.

Once the note taking began about attributes of the character and what he has lost and especially how we can ilustrate that.... show it AND tell it, the story began to take on a life of it's own and I began to see the true shape of it.

Funny thing is, what I wrote in the first draft is the same story, I had just began writing at the WRONG POINT in the story.

Today I'm proud to say we're going to finally have a locked script for production.

[Tom Marshall]

Yeah, 6 minutes is hard to write for. You have to decide where you want to start and end in a much larger story. Or compress the hell out of your timeframe.

Is your goal to be a writer as well as a director? I see you put a lot of time into the script and most people (at least around here) just hand it off to different people. You seem to take a more active role in the development, which is cool. :)

[Rodney V. Smith]

I like writing way too much to give it up. I was a writer first, then an artist. Movie making came much later for me so I've been a writer much much longer than I've been a director.

It's nice to be able to develop a script so completely. Usually I;ve just written a script, made some edits and then found problems in the shooting of it becasue it hadn't been completely developed. Or worse yet, found problems while viewing the finished thing and KNOWING that were were issues with the story becasue so much time hadn;t been spent on answering all of the questions before hand.

Questions that can be answered in the script we can deal with up front and be prepared fro the actual cost of a production. Set Design is going to be a key element for this movie and knowing the environment and the WHY of the environment is extremely important.

As a result of this development period, I now know every single prop and picture that needs to be placed on set and what visual gags we can introduce. They all form part of the characters and draw us further into their world, so by the time we roll camera, we're just making it real for everyone else....

[Rodney V. Smith]

I now wait with bated breath for notes and critiques of the script... anyone else wants a read, let me know.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Well the script has gotten the blessing of Mr Stoute and has survived with a couple of edit notes. We pretty much hashed out the rest of the storyline this evening and agreed on a coupe of points. The current running time of this script will probably be around 8-10 minutes according to pacing. During our writing session, we agreed to let it run long, but made note of certain points where we can actually cut it to the six minute mark.

How do we do this? There are parts that have been put in mostly for pacing and a little more character development. while these parts are important to the full story, with them missing, we actually don't see a difference in the story being told. It just feels FULLER with them in. Last word will be spoken during the edit stage. In anycae, the DVXUser Fest version will run 6 minutes.

Better to have too much than too little, right? I'm sure lots of us can argue that point, havign had to trim out masterpieces down to festival length. I know I have. But this time I'm PLANNING for it.

Storyboards start tomorrow. I might be handlign SB duties for the moment, depending om my schedule. Now have to decie if I'll be using my trusty pencils.... or doing a photos-storyboard.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Meeting my actors this evening. To play Frank we're still looking at Mark Rivard
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1228836952.jpg
I worked with him on my entry into the ColdPlay "Lost?" video competition, and he was pretty good. Now we're going to see if he has the chops to pull off this role. It's a pretty complex character with a definite story arc but he has to look believable. We'll see today, but he did look the part last time we met adn I wrote this script with him in mind.

I'll be meeting Stephanie Cima (everyone mispronounces her name as "SEE-ma" instead of "CHEE-ma" which is appropriate since she is Italian) a little eariler. I worked with her on a music video shoot that Jake was filming and shile she has a good look, she may be too much of a babe for the role of Rachel. I have to get a headshot of her.

Mark is bringing along his friend Tiffany, who has a lot of theater experience, but not alot of screen time. She does want to do more films, but seems to keep getting cast in theater. We'll see how she does.
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1228837543.jpg

I'll be doing a podcast of the meetings and we'll get a good look at the actors and the personalities that we'll be working with during the course of this production.

Once we get the part of Rachel cast, maybe we can lock down the location and get shooting before the REAL Christmas rush begins...

[Dustin R. Rogan]

i like podcasts

coming along great mr smith

now i have to get back to this annoying fly that keeps IMing me!

Rogan

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Love the script mang!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

Love the script mang!

Rogan

Did I bring the funny or what?

[Dustin R. Rogan]

It was well balanced both funny when it needed to be funny and serious when it need it to be. Well crafted sir!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

Locations, locations, locations...

So I did the reports from Final Draft after locking the script today. I've got my location report, scene report, and I;ve finally started tagging the script so i can get over to Budgeting and Scheduling. I still use Movie Magic Scheduling after all of these years, and it's amazing to me how resilient the program is. Biggest problem so far for me though is the fact that it doesnt work on Windows Vista, so I've been considering using Gorilla for my production needs... after all Gorillla does combine everything in one package that a Production Manager could want...

Anyway, I digress: I've now got the ornerous task of tracking down these locations for my film, one of which I may have to do a trade for, and two of which are more likely than not, to be snow covered and cold.

APARTMENT INTERIORS: BEDROOM, BATHROOM, KITCHEN, LIVING ROOM
Hope I can get a house instead of an apartment because I see the potential for art direction budget to go up. If the location doesn;t have interesting walls, we'll either have to paint or put up some of the ugliest wall paper I can find... either that or some really inventive lighting...

APARTMENT EXTERIORS:
Most likely I'll use a completely different house than the one we'll be shooting in. better visuals that way.

COFFEE SHOP, INT and EXT:
Second Cup around the corner. Gotta go by and take photos and talk to the owner. Its a franchise but not like a Starbucks where they have stricter policies.

BANQUET HALL:
I dunno why I wrote this scene the way I did, but getting this location would bump up the production value in a huge way, especially since it's the opening scene. There are 2 locations I'm lokign at, which are actual Banquet Halls, but they'll probably want money. One alternative I'm considering is using the school my wife teaches at and wrangle some of the teachers and parents in as extras. I'll probably have to sell my soul or trade some valuable time.... maybe shoot their Christmas Pageant, but it would be well worth it.
We'll see how negotiations go... next week is the last week fo school after all. I just don;t want to have to wrangle with the school board for permission...

[Rodney V. Smith]

It was well balanced both funny when it needed to be funny and serious when it need it to be. Well crafted sir!

Rogan


aw shucks! thanks dude. good to know I'm finally hitting the right notes. I haven;t spent this much time on a script in a long long time.

[Rodney V. Smith]

New podcast coming tonight, but as of right now my leads have been cast! Progress! Yay and hurray and all that jazz.

[Rodney V. Smith]

new podcast up. Introducing Mark Rivard and Jessica Sinclair.

Casting the leads, podcast
PODCAST #5
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/1192d2bc1619e49a (http://motionbox.com/video/player/ee93dbbf1014e564)
1192d2bc1619e49a

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Nice podcast. I'm really digging these.

Cheers,

MAH

[Rodney V. Smith]

YouTube link to the podcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXZgZwCQ0Ko

So we met the actors and as you can tell, it was a blazing success. Jessica (even though I blanked on her name a couple of time) was perfect for the role. She has the enthusiasm and optimistic attitude that really breathed life into the character for me. Made me realize for the first time that I had written the Rachel character as an eternal optimist.

It's kind of nice when you can get such good energy and feedback from an actor about a character, and it's better when you can just find yourself sitting and talking to your actors, just hanging out. The better and more engaging they are as people, the more of that energy and joie de vivre they can inject into their characters. Jessica did just that for me and got me excited to see the character on film fully realized.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1228881586.jpg


Mark was good as always and was pretty much what I had expected. He was the Frank character to a fault and that was good to see. Both of them together had such good energy too.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/16643/1228881628.jpg

I had some trouble with my printer earlier, it being in Atlanta and me in Toronto, and my attempts to use my father-in-law's printer ended in an inky disaster brought on by Dell and their stupid inks. So I was scriptless. Jake had printed one copy of the script, but I at least brought along my laptop. Hence our first table reading had me actually listening to the actors, and hearing them and what life they were breathing into the characters.

Oftentimes I read along and as a result I'm only able to hear the words as I wrote them.

This is a bit of a fallacy and in my experience, a bad auditioning technique.

Actors are more than movable props and good ones have so much more to offer than a pretty face and somewhere to point the camera and yell action at. Give them some direction and just listen and let them shine.... nudge them a bit, but all in all just listen and you'll hear the script in ways that you had never imagined.

That was what happened to me tonight. I listened and I really liked what I heard.

These two are the leads I was looking for and the fact that they so easily made the words their own and didn't just act... that made it all worthwhile...

[Rodney V. Smith]

Nice podcast. I'm really digging these.

Cheers,

MAH


Thanks Mike. glad to see you're back. thought you'd abandoned me there for a while. :dankk2:

Tomorrow's podcast will be on shot lists and storyboarding... ooh exciting!

[Rodney V. Smith]

That's it: I finally broke down and bought a new printer.

When the ink for your old printer costs more than buying a new printer, you've got some serious issues, and guess what? I had some serious issues.

This is one of the cases where I wish I had taken the camera with me to record it for the podcast, but as it happens, more often than not, I forgot the bloody thing on the desk. It wasn't until I had battled my way through the deathtrap of ice and snow that is now the street to the mall, and I had finally reached the corner without breaking my icy cold neck... that I realized that I had forgotten the camera.

I know, I know: today I'm supposed to be storyboarding. Well You can't storyboard without paper, at least if you're going to draw. I've had the drawing bug for a little while now (caught a minor case during summer when I bought a new canvas and completely failed to paint anything on it; said canvas is now sulking behind my desk beggng to be used) and was determined to actually commit pencil/pen to paper and take my time doing it. I had no paper, so I said: time to go to the mall. It's only 1/4 mile away, right?

So i set out with the intention of spending $5 and returning home quickly so I could exercize my agoraphobia a little more. Yeah... didn;t work out that way. One chinese food lunch and trip to the "Source" and I had spent over $60. From $5 to $60 in no time at all.

The printer was on sale for $30 (regular price $80) so I HAD to buy it right?

So I'm back with paper, printer and now it's time to unpck them all and get storyboarding....

[Rodney V. Smith]

Soundtrack update: Mr Justin Ewart, whose music I used for the trailers a couple of weeks ago, has agreed to let me borrow one of his tracks "In My Dream" for use in the montage scene of FALLING UP. Great music and I'm sure the scene will match perfectly. Plus it gives me something to edit to.

Also making an appearance for the closing credits music, will be an as of yet undetermined track from the Toronto based band: My October. Mark Rivard, who will be playing the lead role of Frank is the drummer in the band so he probably just pummelled them into submission.... either that or he just asked...

In any case: we have music!

[Robbie Comeau]

, has agreed to let me borrow

:huh: LOL.

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

:huh: LOL.

Robbie


Well you know what I mean. :P

How's your schedule looking these days Robbie? We're ramping up for production here. I'm almost done with storyboards and getting equipment into place.

[Robbie Comeau]

Pretty good.

Doing storyboard now. Got a couple pages in for it.

Deciding if I want to do this on the DVX or the A1.

Hopefully we can get use of your dollly!

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

We'll have to coordinate schedues so there's no overlap. When are you guys expectign to shoot? I'm looking at within the next 10 days here.

[Robbie Comeau]

Oh, maybe the next month.

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

If it's in January I can just leave my Toronto dolly with Kegan with the tracks. When I head down to Waco all I'm taking is another set of wheels and we're hitting the hardware store hard. You should be all set for this.

[Rodney V. Smith]

There is a point in storyboarding where the artist side of me clicks off. his happens around frame 4, page 2 where I look back over the first page and go: "dude, it's been 30 minutes and you only did 3 frames". Reality tends to kick in at that time and the gears start to turn. The filmmaker gears that is, the gears that say: "there's a production coming up and we need to have visuals, not a comic book" so quality and accuracy are often sacrificed.

This time around the care and accuracy got chucked right out the window. Frame 1 I realized that I still had quite a few frames to do and a lot of pre-production work to slog through including finding locations and scheduling at least one rehearsal. Christmas is fast approaching and I'd prefer completed storyboards over perfectly drawn and LATE storyboards. Their purpose is to provide clarity of vision to complement the shotlist anyway. Everyone can take a look and get an idea of the flow of the film from looking at them. They don't have to be Frank Miller perfect. We just dont have the time for that.

So I'm continuing to slog through the storyboard whenever I get a free moment. I've got my shotlist all done including the shots I listed for coverage. The "Nice-to-have" shots that so often add that additional level of perfection to a shot.... instead of just serving as a cut away. You know the ones I mean: the shots that are stylistic rather than a cover-my-ass shot becasue I shot this one angle wrong and the next cut doesnt match, so let me throw this in instead...

Anyway: progress is progressing. Now I need to lock down the dates.


SHIPPING UPDATE: Turns out there is a problem with UPS and customs. My lights and grip gear won't be delivered until Monday/Tuesday. They're clearing customs today, and if I'm REALLY, REALLY lucky, I might have them tomorrow. This last was spoken by the UPS agent and I coudl swear I heard a smirk in her voice when she said it. It IS Christmas season after all....

[Rodney V. Smith]

you can check out the songs we're using on their myspace pages

http://a76.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/7/l_4ce529b337eb21f2c6db58bf8e8cdeb3.jpg (http://www.myspace.com/justinewart)
artist; Justin Ewart
song; "IN MY DREAM"
From the album "In The Morning I Woke Up"


http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/images/MyOctobercdcover1.jpg (http://www.myspace.com/myoctoberband)
artist; My October
song; "MY WORLD"
From the album "My October"
Buy Now (http://www.myspace.com/myoctoberband)

[Robbie Comeau]

I'd check, but I don't want to ruin the surprise :)

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

the surprise is in how the songs are used. go on and appreciate the music.

[Rodney V. Smith]

so we scheduled our first rehearsal for tomorrow night over at jessica's place. should be a fun get together and they'll get a chance to stretch out and have some fun with the characters.. see what fun things we can come up with to keep it fresh and funny.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Mark Rivard is being like uber-cool right now. He's volunteered his house as the main house location and he's gonna check with his roommates to clear it with them. I'll get photos of it later. His band My October is ALSO providing one of the songs for the soundtrack (feels weird to say that about a short: soundtrack) AND get this: his girlfriend is a photographer and she's going to take some photos for the production tomorrow. So we're scheduling some cast shots and the ever important poster shots for tomorrow, as well as rehearsal.

I love it when people can get so involved. It gives them a sense of investment and they're willing to do everything they can to make it better. Now just wait until ADR comes then I'll see his true worth. Muahahahahha!

[Rodney V. Smith]

new podcast, and I'm not wearing any pants

Storyboarding and scheduling
PODCAST #6 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/5495dfb01d1ee1d0)
5495dfb01d1ee1d0
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/5495dfb01d1ee1d0

[Tom Marshall]

Making good use of that stapler I see. :laugh:

Cool video man. You're really planning the hell out of this thing. Right on. :beer:

Oh yeah, I dig your background music. :)

[Rodney V. Smith]

i've got stapler magic! Actually using Magic Tape for now. We're supposed to be getting a new bulletin board for the wall, but it's never big enough.

and I'm tryign to plan as much as possible, so all of the work is done. having a bit of fun since I usually dont have this much time normally unless it's for a paid gig.

[Robbie Comeau]

I went and shot my podcast number 1 today. Came back, captured wrong, (not used to DV anymore since I've been working with HDV) haha, and then I just said screw it I'm not doing this.

It's weird watching my self on camera..

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

I just shoot on my little Kodak digicam. it's small, light and goes almost everywhere with me. record to MPG files that are easy to edit. if its too much work you;re not really goign to bother....

[Dustin R. Rogan]

U love me...you really love me

Nice shirt by the way...i love it when my g/f wears mine to bed hehe

Note for your podcast....can't hear you over the music through most of it.

Rogan

ps i'm not that much of an attention whore am i?

(don't answer that)

[Rodney V. Smith]

First chance I;ve had to finally wear the shirt on camera. I actually wore n on the set of "Act II" and then again on "Unbecoming" but we were running around so much we forgot to get any decent BTS shots. I'm still kicking myself for that one cuz for an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) or even a printed Press Kit, they always ask for Behind the scenes and on location photos.

And yes Dustin: you are an attention whore. In fact you are an attention slut cuz you don't even get paid for it.

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/images/attentionslut.jpg

[Dustin R. Rogan]

HAHA thats great!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

So today, we have a delivery from UPS. I'd finally gotten around to getting my morning coffee (this was 2:30PM and it was a very active morning so yeah it was my first cup of the day) and there's this knocking. All I want to do at this point is finally drink my coffee, but at the sight of the UPS driver I forgot all about that. I was about to be reunited with my camera and lights and stuff. I'd felt kind of neutered the past couple of weeks here in Toronto without any gear, especially with my HVX off in ATL working without me.

So unpacked it all and I'm now making an inventory of what's here, what's in ATL and what I can replace/rent here in Toronto. One of the barndoor holders on the 1K snapped off, but I think that happened at the last shoot. Gotta check with Dave to make sure of that. But everything powered up and is good to go so now I gotta keep with preproduction on Falling Up.

Now that I have the lights, I'm going to try to schedule some actors for a greenscreen shoot on wednesday. This is for some of the on set stuff. We're going to have a "Judge Judy" type show playing in one of the scenes, so we're going to record some footage of actors and composite all of this together. Do a quick and dirty edit, enough to be believable for the on set tv and we're good to go.

Tomorrow I hope to lock down the locations. Wish me much luck.

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Luck with much added in

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

so a slight change has occurred in the script, due to the difficulty of location. There is a snow storm coming in to Toronto this Friday and apparently it's going to be a bad one. So it looks like my plans for shooting the courtroom "Judge Judy" type show are now completely up in the air. Friday is going to be bad and so will saturday (so there go my exterior shots). I was about to just postpone the entire thing until January/February after we shoot "In Black" and spend a little more time in pre-production and getting the perfect house, and while it looks like we're to have to do that anyway, an opportunity to get some important footage haas presented itself.

According to how things go we should be able to scrap the location of the banquet hall and get a much cooler shot than what was written. The scene as it is written is for a hypnotist at a banquet hall... and then that's the last we see of that location. This new location allows us to refer to it further on in the script. Now instead of him being hung up on watching "Judge Judy" we've created a new character "Bubba Blackstone" and a television show to go with it.

We've got this awesome basement location with vintage 70's furniture that we've been dying to use for ages, so we're going to make that the set of the "Bubba Blackstone Show" complete with Jake's old television camera to give it the feel of a tv show filmed in a guy;s basement. accordng to how we dress the set it could look bigger, but I'm planning for makign it look like authentic cheese.

So we'll film two episodes of the Bubba Blackstone Show, one where Frank is hypnotised, and then a much later show that Frank will be watching on television at his house.

And we get the first shot of the movie out of the way.

Time to go shopping: I still need some gels and it's harder to get them here in Toronto.

[ZazaCast]

This sounds interesting...is this the same basement you were going to use as a "porn shop" set a few fests ago? ...or am I remembering something else?

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what you put together for this one! I also feel the storm thing, it always comes right across the state and hits us here in upstate NY too. We still have people without power from the ice storm last Friday. (and I have 3 trees down in my yard...they missed my house by THIS MUCH!)

Happy Holidays & best of luck in the New Year!

[Rodney V. Smith]

actually it's another basement. Bubba's basement to be exact. We'd dhot a music video there a couple of months ago and had really dug the place. It wasn't until me and Jake were kicking around ideas for shooting the some of the courtroom stuff in Bubba's basement and using this great big deask he's got as a prop (think Judge's office) that it clicked: we could just change the whole set up and get somethign cooler going on.

The pornshop set is still ready to go in jake's basement. we just have to assemble it. You'll eventually get to see that set once we get around to spring/summer, but that's another story...

Good luck with the snowstorm dude. We get the snowstorms AFTER they lay chaos and damage on upstate New York, so if you're feeling it, believe, me: so am I. Hope no more trees come looking for you.

Happy Holidays to you too and keep us informed with the goings on for "Miss Laid"

[Rodney V. Smith]

it's official: i HATE snow. just thought you should know.

[MrKilloran]

it's official: i HATE snow. just thought you should know.

I hear you on the snow, it's a bastard and gets in the way.
But hey, Good luck puck.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Merry Christmas everyone. Dunno if I'll have time between now and Frday to update, so getting it out in the open. MERRY BEERY CHRISTMAS.

We've had a shit-ton of snow come down on our heads over the past week, cancelling our weekend shoot (very depressing) and pushing it back to this weekend. Unfortunately our lead actor is out of town this weekend, so it looks like we'll be getting the basement set up with lighting and props etc and shooting an episode of the Bubba Show. We'll just have to shoot with Mark when he gets back into town. And that will be for the real thing. This weekend, we'll just be going with the naked HVX Lens for that cable access show look.

Now I gotta go check with the weather and see how much I pissed of Thor and that bitch Khione.. and hope there's no more snow heading my way. Of course calling the snow goddess a bitch isn't going to help my case any...

[Rodney V. Smith]

Driving down to NYC from Toronto today. Heading towards Mecca (B&H Photo) while I'm there. My wife may have other ideas about what's "important to see", but no way I'm going back to NYC without one visit.

Maybe I'll take pictures.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Fresh new start to a brand new year. We're ready to roll.

So after my week in New York (very long drive with a 7 month old in the back seat) I managed to grab some of the gear that I'd forgotten Ii;d even had in my dad's basement. My old Bogen 3066 head and legs, and some other stuff like a video distributor, a mixing board, my sennheiser boom... you know: little stuff. Makes me wonder what I was thinking leaving all that stuff there, but oh well. Now it's with me.

I've spent the past week getting gear ready. I've made a couple of flags, improved my dolly and got some new track (40 ft now),checked lights and replaced bad bulbs, got gels from Production Services (2 half rolls) here in Toronto and scheduled actors.

Tomorrow we shoot the first sequence in the movie and then the supporting footage for the Bubba Bradshaw Show. We'll also shoot some quick clips of commercials for the opening sequence. One of the commercials is for t-shirts and the "Robots Don;t Wear Pants" will be amaking an apperance there on a very sexy model. Some other clips are planned,but you can catch some of that on tomorrow's podcast.

Should be fun and I'm looking forward to gettign started. Woo hoo!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Wow! Sounds like you are well on your way. Keep us posted and good luck tomorrow.

MAH

[Dustin R. Rogan]

I don't know if I authorized the use of my slogan there guy! lol jk

You don't need my well wishes, just know that if you fail I'll hate you forever!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks Mike. Good to see you're back in the fray. Now we'll all have to compete for 3rd place. :grin:

No worries Dustin: failure is not an option. I'm going all out on this one: most shots are dolly and jib, or jolly OR jib. I've had more time to conceptualize because of those damn snow storms and I think we're going to have an awesome product. Now to get Production Design completed tonight. I already know what I need to "rent" from Walmart and Home Depot...

New Ppodcast is up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqxv0IH4Ut4

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Thanks Mike. Good to see you're back in the fray. Now we'll all have to compete for 3rd place. :grin:
Obviously you have not paid attention to the placing of my last few entries. :laugh:

[Rodney V. Smith]

Obviously you have not paid attention to the placing of my last few entries. :laugh:

I have paid attention: that's why we're vying for 3rd and not second. You have a lock on 2nd.

[Tom Marshall]

Yeah, good luck with the shooting tomorrow, man. :thumbsup:

And Mike's not entering this one, so I think everyone is vying for 2nd... :D

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks Tom.: should be fun tomorrow

Haven't you heard? Mike's back.

[Tom Marshall]

I didn't know he was. I don't usually check the Lossfest threads, just the ones that I'm subscribed to...

[Rodney V. Smith]

I didn't know he was. I don't usually check the Lossfest threads, just the ones that I'm subscribed to...

he caught me by surprise too. Rogan had to inform me of the fact and then BOOM! went the dynamite!

[Tom Marshall]

Haha... good luck with 3rd place there, Rodney... :D

[Rodney V. Smith]

Haha... good luck with 3rd place there, Rodney... :D

Well Mark Harris is also back in the fray... 3rd place just got very complicated. And I'm not sure I can compete with Zaza's naked girls...

[Rodney V. Smith]

Okay, headin goff to the set tonight to do some cleanup and set dressing. Hopefully it's not too much of a mess. I'll be podcasting so you guys can share my joy and misery. Hopefully MORE joy. I'd say there'd better be beer involved, but it's my shooot so I;ve got to do the buying. Dammit. Oh well: on somebody elses shoot then...

Jake is on his way so I gotta pack up the basic essentials. Gotta call Kegan and see about borrowing some light stands off him.

[Robbie Comeau]

Don't think Kegan will mind :)

On your newest podcast, I think you mean FRIDAY, January 9?

Robbie

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

I have paid attention: that's why we're vying for 3rd and not second. You have a lock on 2nd.Harris has the lock on second place.
He'll be the first to admit that. :laugh:

[Tom Marshall]

Wait, so who's going to win first?

[Rodney V. Smith]

Day One is wrapped. Uploading pics, screen shots and new podcast tomorrow. Right now I'm bushed.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Harris has the lock on second place.
He'll be the first to admit that. :laugh:

So that shoves you into first right Mike? :grin:


Wait, so who's going to win first?First place is easy: Tom Marshall for the win! (or since Tom isn't making a movie, see above)

[Rodney V. Smith]

Setting up the location on Friday night turned out to be one of the best decisions we made. I was scheduled to pick up James at the Sheppard and Yonge subway station at 8:00AM, and Jake was going to be on location at 8:30AM.

Got James, hit the highway and immediately got lost becasue I took the wrong exit. I had printed Google directions, but the most important thing about getting directions is actually READING them. So we ended up going south about 10 miles early. One call to Jake fixed that, but not before we had driven into snow and discovered that driving in Toronto and finding your exit is not as easy as you think it is. Damn express lanes took us almost back to my house. Funny thing is 5 miles osuth it was snowing... and back on the 401... no snow.

9:30AM we finally arrive to find that Mark and Jessica have already reached the location before me. I introduce everyone and Jake heads out to pick up the Hynotist (Franco). Most os the grunt work had been done so it was fine tuning the set and getting all props into place. Costumes were designated, coffee was drunk and much work done.

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-05.jpg
The cast of "Falling Up". (left to right: Franco, Jessica, Bubba, Mark, James)

I was glad that we had both my Altman kit and Jake's Flo kit becasue we had such wide area to cover. The main shot was for the opening sequence where we open on the "Bubba Sean Show" on a tv and pan over to Rachel (Jessica), who then turns and walks towards the set as we dolly to foolw her, then Crane past her shoulder and to Frank (Mark) being hypnotized by The Hynotist (Franco) with Bubb Sean (Bubba) waching in the BG. Easy right?

Three hours later...

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-08.jpg
Jessica Sinclair in position #1.

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-06.jpg
Camera at rest between takes. Dunno what James is doing

We had to get the main actors (Mark and Jessica) out of there by 3:00PM for them to get to work on time. James was catching a ride back with Jessica and Mark (helps when they all know each other) so we had to scratch the segment we were going to shoot with him. We decided that we could get the rest comedy troupe involved in shooting some hilarious commercials for the opening sequence and we'd come over to his place next week (Tuesday I think).

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-07.jpg
Still setting up the shot. A very patient Jessica.

With them gone we broke down most of the equipment and set up to shoot the supporting footage of the "Bubba Sean Show". The guys came up with some interesting characters and Jake had a few more actors come in to shoot alternate characters for the show. The main one was the Hynotist anad that segment is going to be used as a bit of promotional video for "Falling Up" and part of my LossFest promotion to get more people interested in what we're doing over here.

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-09.jpg
Nicky poses for the "commercial"

One final actor (Nicky) showed up around 7:00PM and we shot the last segment of the "Bubba Sean Show" and then a little 15 second commercial with Nicky vamping quite nicely for the camera.

Went home, passed out. Uploaded the podcast. Now go watch.

[Rodney V. Smith]

New Podcast is up. Details of production day #1

0a99dbb61910eac387

[ZazaCast]

And I'm not sure I can compete with Zaza's naked girls...

Just get Jessica to stripdown & you're all set!:beer:

[Rodney V. Smith]

but i chose her for her acting ability, not for her rack. when will i ever learn?

[Rodney V. Smith]

think there's something wrong with the encoding for the last podcast,; will reupload

[ZazaCast]

but i chose her for her acting ability, not for her rack. when will i ever learn?

You just need to find the girls with both....

[Rodney V. Smith]

You just need to find the girls with both....
Maybe next time. It is a comedy after all.

Gotta keep reminding myself whenever I'm doing a lighting setup that it's a comedy. otherwise i skew drastically to horror...

[kyrre]

Nice poster!

Best of luck! Can't wait to see it!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Latest podcast fixed now. Enjoy our Day One ramblings and shenanigans.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Cut the first sequence together and all I have to say is this: no reshoots!
I've got a couple of pick up shots listed, one that I somehow completely missed from my shotlist. Maybe I didn't hit record or something equally stupid. In any case it's a shot I can get without having to go back to the location.

I'll call Mark and see if he can come over tomorrow so we can get this closeup.

I'm editing long, more for pacing right now and the scene is a really good one. Now I gotta go back amd make sure it's funny as well as cool. Screen shots to come in a little while.

[Rodney V. Smith]

First Production still are now up from Day #1. Still can be viewd on Page 1 of this thread.

I've also edited together the first promotional videos for Falling Up/DVX Fest which will be released over the following weeks on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.

Since we can't use actual footage from the film we shot a little extra bits yesterday for supporting footage, but also for promotional pieces. Hope you guys get a kick out of it.

When each promo is released, I'll announce here in the forum and link you guys.

In the meantime here is the logo for the Bubba Sean Show, whom you guys will be seeing a lot of in the next couple of weeks.

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/bubbaseanlogo.jpg

[Rodney V. Smith]

We'll be shooting pickup shots and the trailer on thursday of this week. Mark just had a bit of a home emergency and he's about hip deep in water. The trials and pains of winter. Makes me paranoid about having my office with all my equipment down here in the basement now...

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Sounds like things are really coming together. Can't wait to see the screen shots from the finished product.

Cheers,

MAH

[Rodney V. Smith]

screenshots are on the first page. those are definitely final product.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Ah! Sorry, missed them earlier.
Looks great! Nice reaction shots.

MAH

[Rodney V. Smith]

they were riffing on it. I like when you have a bunch of good actors in a room who can feed off each other. All I said was "react" and I got all kinds of faces to choose from. Bubba went way over the top for some, which was perfect since it is a comedy (I really had to keep reminding myself of this), and James and Jessica came up with some great stuff on their own. I wish I could show all of that little clip, but alas it's one of those gems that are only meant to be viewed as partials.

I gotta say this though: it's a different animal when directing comedy and I;d forgotten how much different it was. My lighting and even camera angles and moves tend to skew directly towards horror. Watching the shots I could have sworn I;d had more color and light on the background, because I really wanted to keep it light... but some part of me just wants to go dark. Still the sequence did turn out nicely and it's got a definite Rodney "stamp" on it. Now I gotta make sure that this "Stamp" doesn't over ride the rest of the film and I can focus on the funny.

I'm bringing the funny dammit, even if it kills Rogan.

[Dustin R. Rogan]

I'll be the judge of the funny there guy. Enjoyed the latest podcast! Can't wait to see the final product!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

i was wondering where the hell you were. I knew it though: all I had to do was mention your name.

We're filming the commercials tomorrow, including the Robots Don't Wear pants one

[Dustin R. Rogan]

I was off on Sunday and on set for Gary's movie. Just got back to work bub

Rogan

[Dustin R. Rogan]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Cia_Rogan37/SEAL.jpg

[Rodney V. Smith]

Drove over to Mark's house today to shoot 2 promo pieces for the film. The aim was to shoot 3 trailers today to promote the heck outta the film and Lossfest as well. Mission accomplished.

We met around 3:00PM despite a little bit of car difficulty on my end. I was supposed to drop my wife off at school, so I could have the car for the afternoon, but this morning our 8 month old (evan) decided that he was going to wake up and ruin the game plan. It gets a little complicated why his waking up stopped the plan, but the whole point is this: I was vehicle-less. I pretty much had to get a ride from my father-in-law and with his car packed full of production equipment (minus dolly and tracks) I managed to make it to the shoot.

Mark's house was a little different than what I had expected, but most houses in Toronto are nothing like what I expect. Ever. It actually had some decent space and was visual.. helps that there is a girl living there. Anyway, I set up lights, found the best angles and played around with a few ideas. It was the least stressful shoot so far and I was glad for the opportunity to just hang out with my actors and just try things. We had a limited window before the roommates returned home, but we had planty of time to just experiment, and if something wasn;t perfect, we just tried a different tactic. Good reminder of why I like actors and working with good actors. The good ones always have so much to offer, even in a look, a gasp, a nervous tic... they just take their personalities and put them onto the character and it's fun to see it.

Anyway, the trailer is going up later tonight as well as a new podcast. So keep any eye out for it.

Oh yeah: He have secured the location for the house. Mark's roommates are out of town this weekend. So we're shooting the house scenes on Sunday morning 8:00AM. We might be able to wrap on Sunday, but I'm not rushing anything. I want to take my time and make sure I got all of the shots I need and that they're all as perfect as they can be.

Showed Jessica and Mark the cut of the opening sequence and they loved it. They'd had something different in mind from seeign what we'd shot, but once they saw it, they completely got it. Oh! And it is FUNNY!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Trailer #1 for "Falling Up"
0a99d8b21e18eacb87
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99d8b21e18eacb87

[Rodney V. Smith]

New podcast up detailing yesterday's shoot. I didn't have the little canon with me so I ended up setting up on tripod with the HVX.

SHOOTING THE TRAILER
0a99d8b01015ebcb87
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/0a99d8b01015ebcb87

[MDCFILMS]

Fun group of people! Seems like you guys are having a lot of fun. That's what it's all about! I'm really excited to give this fest a stab too.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Come on in! Join the party! And if a guy named Rogan approaches you and asks if you wanna see some buttshots... well, up to you...

[Dustin R. Rogan]

hey now, that stuff isn't free buddy!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

so now he's CHARGING people to see his butt... what has the world come to?

[Dustin R. Rogan]

gotta charge for things these days so I can get back out to LA for the next screening!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

you make a very good point. Now I need some kind of freakshow to charge for...

[chaconkevin]

gotta charge for things these days so I can get back out to LA for the next screening!

Rogan

whoa whoa wait theres gonna be a another screening.

[Tom Marshall]

I need to raise some money for the next LA screening too... gas isn't cheap and it's going to be at least a 5 mile drive... :evil:

[Rodney V. Smith]

I was planning on selling Rogan's ass to the highest bidder. Gonna be his pimp. Any bidders?

I'm gonna have to fly to LA for the next screening.

[ZazaCast]

I need to raise some money for the next LA screening too... gas isn't cheap and it's going to be at least a 5 mile drive... :evil:

Just put your feet through the holes in the floorboards of that old Mustang you have & 'Fred Flinstone' it there! :)

[chaconkevin]

hey tom if you want to fred flinstone it there and you need help

ill be barney!
lets yabba dabba do this thing!

[Tom Marshall]

Hey, come on now Joe... the floorboards in my 67 are fine, thank you... :thumbsup:

[alex whitmer]

Love the trailer, Puck. I'm hooked. Nice CU on the girl, and the layered colors (red chair, yellow shirt, red glasses). Sweet.

Set design matters.

a



www.brooklyngarrison.wordpress.com



.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks Alex. Jessica has been a huge part of the design process and she and Mark have to constantly remind me that it's a comedy we're shooting. They ask for costume, I say "something black", they say "comedy!", i say "gimme color" and what you see in the trailer happens.

Think I'll need to use more lights to light up the set on the production shoot (tomorrow). I'm still skewing towards dark, but at least the trailer was a good experiment (on location to boot) and I have a fairly good idea of what we can do to help the color and lighting schemes as well as bring out the set design even more.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Rendering out the tv screen footage that will be playing in the background tomorrow of the Bubba Sean Show, featuring Sean Bradshaw. Biggest thing will be syncing the video up to the action so a few continuity problems might occur. I'll be looking for those in the meantime. Not too worried.

Gettign all of my gear ready for the shoot and I'm considering going handheld on a couple of the shots, but that's only a last ditch, desperate circumstace. Space is a little tighter thanI would have liked, but the shots remain pretty much the same, just with a few adjustments.

Still gotta get a few props picked up tomorrow, like the weight boots, but we'll just rent those from Walmart.

Biggest worry tomorrow is sound and I'll be double checking that we have the mics placed appropriately tomorrow. I don;t have a sound tech tomorrow since I can;t afford to pay anyone and most of the guys here want paying, which I can totally respect, since I'd also want to get paid in a similar circumstance. Helps when you have friends nearby to help out like in Atlanta or Houston. Unfortunately here in Toronto it's about mustering as much crew as I can and that's currently me and Jake.

Here's to a smooth shoot tomorrow, and if not, well the podcast should most certainly be interesting. Unedited, Uncut, Uncensored.. just like last time. Even if I look like a total ass.


:beer:

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Even if I look like a total ass.


:beer:
Which you will! :D

Rogan

[warau]

Looking forward to the next moonin..er, podcast!
Hope your shoot goes well.

[GoodLuck]

impressive poster!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Day 3 is wrapped. I have to say that this is definitely the most time I've ever put into a production. My shoot ratio is now officially through the roof, but we've got crazy coverage from all over the place. I think we just have only shot 2 pages today, and most of that was spent shooting 1 1/2 pages for the opening scene.

More later.

Later: If there's anything that I've learned from today's shoot is this. No matter how much planning you've done ahead of time, storyboarding, shotlists, 3d renderings... whatever. NONE of it counts if you haven't nailed down your location and gone in there with a camera and shot test footage. If like me, you didn;t get your location until the last minute, don't dick around about it. Make it your top priority over anything else to get in there with the camera you;re using and with a mind towards production and SHOOT something, even if it's only your 1st AD fooling around.

We lost quite a bit of time this mornign because of the above scenario. I didn't know the location, so my shotlist meant absolutely nothing. I got cocky that I could just wing it and get a nice shot and that's just stupidity. First off, the dolly and jib shots that I had written for a larget location, which we didn;t end up getting, well they were all out the window. Turns out I ended up using the shoulder support system I built last week anyway. That and I had to break my dolly down into the base components to make a mini-dolly slider type of contraction that meant I killed yet anohter hour building. While it worked, it wasn't something I should have been building on the day of the shoot. A system like that should have been planned for and perfected way ahead of time owing to the location. Had I known about the tight corners I was insistent on shooting around, I would have done this.

Okay, enough beating myself up. Now I know what went wrong and how I can fix it, I can plan for the shoot later this week. Most of those shots will be the brevis handheld or on the dolly. The jib shots will be singluar shots and not mixed with the dolly footage. the location simply is not big enough for those kind of shots.

We had a good shoot and we found our groove, so day 4 will be a heck of a lot better.

As soon as we can schedule it we're good to go.

BTS Shots are available on the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=37642857286&ref=ts. Check em out to see our shenanigans.

Podcast will be up in a little while. Then I'm off to edit.

[Rodney V. Smith]

the files from yesterdays podcast seem to be corrupted. I'm going to have to sort out how to uncorrupt them so I can get the next podcast up, but right now, I've got actual work to do. maybe later.

or maybe i'll just podcast mnute of me editing with aan animated girl dancing at the side of the screen....

[Rodney V. Smith]

New podcast up detailing the trials and travails of Production Day #2

Production Day #1 (technically #3)
PODCAST #10 (http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/0a99d6b81d19e3c487/)
0a99d6b81d19e3c487
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/0a99d6b81d19e3c487/

[Rodney V. Smith]

BTS PHOTOS FROM DAY #3 (set 1 of 2)
Photos by Meaghan Tellier

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-22.jpg


http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-23.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-24.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-25.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-26.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-27.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-28.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-29.jpg

http://flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-31.jpg

[Rodney V. Smith]

CONTINUED FROM DAY #3
Photos by Meaghan Tellier)
(Set 2 0f 1)
http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-19.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-20.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-21.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/D1-22.jpg

[Robbie Comeau]

Dude!

Any more shoot days? I wanna come out and watch.

Man, nice BTS!

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

thanks robbie. still trying to schedule the next day. i'll let you know when it will be

[Robbie Comeau]

I'll be the video BTS guy! :)

Robbie

[Rodney V. Smith]

added 2 more production stills to the first page

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot5.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/fallingup/photos/Screenshot6.jpg

[warau]

Nice BTS shots! Compared to what I am using you have a LOT of light to work with, looks great!

[Rodney V. Smith]

I HAD to get more lights... comedy demanded it. I've lit with less, but it's a chore. Kinda nice to have options on scenes and know that I still have a couple still in the box waiting to be used.

Anybody gives me any chat about my Altmans not being as good as Arri ais, I'll just give them after them a self satisfied smirk and walk away...