"Carpe Diem" A Musical by Ramsaur Films

[ramsaur]

Download Film - HERE (http://dvxfest.day7studios.com/quest2009/Carpe_Diem-ramsaur.mov)

CARPE DIEM

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/carpediem.jpg

Thanks to Puckthemad for the Teaser Poster
Final Poster: Coming Soon!


Pre Production: May - Early June
Production: June
Post Production: June - Deadline

Production Progress
3.24.09
Came up with idea of just 2nd entry and Musical

4.23.09
Hard to get an idea or write a musical in 6 mins or less.

5.02.09
Idea became firm and began writing.

5.07.09
Lyrics began.

5.13.09
Final Draft written.

5.29.09
Green Lit and working on lyrics and music.

6.01.09
Lyrics complete. Working on Music.

6.18.09
Music, lyrics, vocals complete! Contacting all actors for a recording session.

6.20.09
Talked to actors and they like what we have and recording sometime next week!!
Filming this coming up weekend or that week of the deadline so i'll be pulling off some 24 hour days editing a wonderful musical.

6.24.09
And we're set! Music and Lyrics are done!
Recording Session: June 28th
Shooting: June 30th

6.28.09
Had our recording session today and it's sounding GREAT! Can't wait to shoot this thing, which is tuesday!
Lacking one location for tuesday. Will be on the phone all day tomorrow!

6.30.09
Shooting Complete!

7.01.09
Now Editing, looking great so far.

7.02.09
Editing Complete. Uploaded. Waiting Approval.

[ramsaur]

Cast

Sarah Jayne Burt as Woman 1
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/Sarah-1.jpg

Melissa Ramsaur as Woman 2
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/Melissa-1.jpg

Jabari Thomas as Manager
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/Jabari.jpg

Adler Birmingham as Mail Boy
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/Adler.jpg


Crew
Director: Matthew Ramsaur
Writer: Alex Whitmer
Producer: Matthew Ramsaur
Director of Photography: Matthew Ramsaur
Editor: Matthew Ramsaur
Music: Dee Alexander
Additional Instrumentation: Ben Hase
Assistant Director: Eddie Armes
Lyric Writer: Dee Alexander
Visual Effects: Matthew Ramsaur

[ramsaur]

Screen Grabs - Not Color Corrected Yet

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/001-2.jpg
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/003-1.jpg
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/ramsaur/005-2.jpg

[ramsaur]

Reserved for BTS

[Chris_Keaton]

Hah, Alex came through. I can't wait to see the musical.

I would say this will be one of a kind. I can't imagine anyone else is going to take the challenge of a musical.

[stinkpot]

Sweet! A musical. Can't wait to check it out.

I like the poster too.

:beer:

[Ki-Ki]

Good name, and poster. Best of luck, should be interesting.

:)

[Noel Evans]

Awesome! A musical. Good luck with it.

[Rodney V. Smith]

It's a brand spanking new musical! Rock it dude.

[sschedra]

Woah! A musical? That's a really ambitious project. Talented people you have working on this one. I wish you all the best on this one Matt.

Stephen

[fixitinpost]

I'm a sucker for musicals. Looking forward to seeing more as this project develops.

[ramsaur]

Thanks for the comments guys. The update right now is script written, lyrics written, recording music, then we get to record voices then we get to film!! Can't contact the guy who is recording music till monday. Grrr can't wait so long! Ready to film this thing!

Hoping to film the middle of June since editing a musical will be longer than editing a normal film.

[AmyO]

I'm impressed, 'cause, 1) its a musical & 2) you're posting a second entry. Coolness. Can't wait to see what you come up with on this one.

[Ki-Ki]

and I'm impressed because your still online at 8.26am. Get to bed Ramsaur!

[ramsaur]

and I'm impressed because your still online at 8.26am. Get to bed Ramsaur!

haha
8am your time - 2am my time. I'm up because do you want this musical made or not? Kidding, but yea it is late here.

[ramsaur]

My DP will be out of town who owns the Canon EOS Rebel T1i. So I'm thinking of other DP's and what cameras they own that I would like to shoot with. The only options I can think of with DP's I know that own cameras:

Canon XL2
Panasonic HVX (don't know what kind)
RED
Panasonic DVX (don't know what kind)
Canon HV20

My first option OF COURSE is the RED followed by HVX, HV20, DVX, XL2

[Rodney V. Smith]

Any luck with the camera yet? Music? Updates?

[ramsaur]

Just spoke with the composer and his wife is in the hospital and hasn't gotten there yet. So I told him the due date and what's up and I told him I need the music no later than next week and he said he can do it.

So my plan is to:

Recording Session: 3rd wkend of June
Shoot it: 4th Week of June; then edit the film.

That's all I can tell you for now. Is that we're just waiting on the music and then we can all jump in. As far as a DP, haven't gotten there yet. But will keep all of you updated. I'd just check the 1st page of Progress here and there.

[ramsaur]

There's no synop on the first post but I'm going to say that this musical takes place in a day at the office. Of course it won't be like this, but here's something to entertain you until we get an update.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gowBExbkFZk

[Sarah Daly]

Yay for spreading the good word about The Week That Was and good luck with everything Matthew!!!

[ramsaur]

Alright so the guy who wrote the songs and that's doing music... he just gave me a cd track of all the songs he sung. So getting those to the actors TODAY! He still hasn't done music yet! he said he'll get on it today so crossing fingers! I'll be going up to him today to pick it up so then I can check out his progress.

This film will make it too the festival! Cross your fingers too!

EDIT: turns out he has done the music! So just getting with the actors now to give them what they need then schedule a recording session then film! Still need to find a DP. If not it'll just be me and my HV20.

[ramsaur]

alrighty, last update till I get some screen grabs going. We're recording this sunday and shooting this coming tuesday.

Two conflicts at the moment.
Waiting on a call back for location and finding someone with a better camera than the HV20. The HV20 (my camera) is nice but I don't have any lenses or focusing and I want that. I was so close to getting the Canon XH-A1 from one of my good friends but then he didn't let me borrow it cause apparently he let someone borrow it a while back and didn't bring his power cord back and then I bought his shotgun mic then didn't like it and he gave me 2 triple A batteries and I didn't' give the batteries back so he's not letting me for that reason as we.... ugh. some people are just weird!

So talking to a guy who has a RED because he know our DP very well so we have a slight chance at that.. other than that. Looking for a camera with lens and focusing.

and also we'll show a few BTS pics on sunday after doing some recordings then some grabs tuesday till the deadline from the shoot.

[ramsaur]

This will probably be my last post till anyone comes in and gives feedback on the film. But it's shot Thanks God! It was extremely challenging to put all this together! Crazy, Crazy!! But it's shot, music is good, and now I'm editing. There's some grabs posted on the first page. Not color corrected yet, but getting there. Go to the first page for grabs or just click HERE (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showpost.php?p=1650012&postcount=3)

[Girgej]

Hmm ... a Musical ... Interesting ... Good Luck

[Mattykins]

I just got done with it.

It was cute. There were distractions. The lipsync was off most of the time. I know how hard musicals are to do. It was a nice piece. Don't get me wrong. The music was good. The sync, not so much. And it didn't look like it was a hair off, some parts were pretty off.

I enjoyed it, I think it's awesome you did a musical. Just keep an eye on the sync.

[Noel Evans]

Quick first up impressions - nice music, solid voices, good story - timing was a real issue.

[ZazaCast]

Cute. Musicals are never easy and hats off to you for not only taking this on, but entering 2 films! I know how much work that can be having entered 2 films in TwilightFest. Nice little story that I think everyone can relate to. I won't repeat the sync stuff, but that was the killer for me. Good choice of actors, they all did a great job.

Congratulations to the cast & crew for a job well done!

[MrFluffy]

Great Musical, loved it.

Hard to do. Only part that felt out of place was the death and some of the audio, which was obviously location, compared to the studio singing.

Well done.

[MrFluffy]

Just out of curiosity, what was the quest?

[ramsaur]

Just out of curiosity, what was the quest?

A Girl trying to find her man and try to get rid of her job. At the end her manager dies so she doesn't have the boring job anymore and she gets her man.

[~jai~]

I am not a fan of musicals, but this one kept my attention. The singing track seemed to be a bit off from the video footage and at one point the manager seemed to be mouthing something entirely different that what was singing, almost like that person who forgot the words to the song and just hums along till they get to a part they knows again. I wonder was the music recorded before or after this was shot? My guess would be before, in which case you're trying to sync up video to singing that was done after in a studio or some such place (i'm assuming) and it's VERY HARD! As opposed, recording the song first and having playback going while filming would probably eliminate a lot of syncing issues. Just a thought...

I liked the manager's performance, except for the end leading up to the death, and thought the girls were okay, but could have taken it a step further. The mail boy was seemingly amusing, but uninteresting to me. The sound quality seriously degraded when there were spoken lines as opposed to singing ones. The songs sounded really good and the singing was enjoyable. I almost wished they had sung the entire time and not spoken at all.

Overall, good humorous film! Thanks for sharing!

[ramsaur]

I wonder was the music recorded before or after this was shot? My guess would be before, in which case you're trying to sync up video to singing that was done after in a studio or some such place (i'm assuming) and it's VERY HARD!

The music was recorded first. You have to do that in order to have playback when you film. I didn't think it was that bad (syncing) but come to it now I'm going to go back in there and fix what needs to be fixed so when I send to festivals. Thanks for the feedback.

[Ryan E. Walters]

A MUSICAL!!! WAY TO GO! That takes some huge guts and I admire that. You film kept me smiling all the way through - it is a fun one. Congrats :)

[Susanne G.]

Very nice concept - I smiled the whole time. I liked the detail with the stamps - I felt so much with this girls, which have this very boring job like in an post office. The best actor in your film was the awful boss. I loved his arrogant nature when he first came in the room.

Compliments

Susanne

[jpsheets]

That was a hoot man! Although I would have liked to have seen some more dancing throughout. Like through the halls, etc.

best,
Jon

[DarkElastic]

Hi Ramsaur,

I always look at a musical and say I don't really like musicals... but that's crap. I love Labyrinth (David Bowie), I love The Muppets Christmas Carol, I love Sweeney Todd and I loved that musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Anyway, I enjoyed this, but it does need some work. Some of the miming is out of sink with the singing, the live sound isn't as sharp and really stands out, and there is an out of focus shot in there.
You can't go wrong with sexy ladies... well you can't to me anyway. I thought the acting was really good. Well done.

[Sarah Daly]

Hey! Yep I agree that the acting was good - and the musical numbers are pretty polished (apart form some syning bla bla bla). Your leads were endearing and likable and that's half the battle. I would have either cut the dialogue altogether or put some more in for balance. Also I think this could have gone further humour wise? It could have had its tongue more firmly in its cheek if you get me. Overall though a good attempt at a difficult genre. Cute and likeable despite technical issues. The performances in particular stood out for me.

[ramsaur]

and there is an out of focus shot in there.

Where at? Give me the time code.

[DarkElastic]

4:48

[ramsaur]

Yea, I didn't think it was that noticeable? Well the canon hv20 does have manual focus so I guess I didn't notice when I was filming.

[DarkElastic]

Probably won't be to normal peeps, but to fellow filmmakers all blemishes are noticable ;-)

[ramsaur]

well if you noticed that.. seems no one has noticed this yet. The color change in the film? Start with dull color then towards the end it gets brighter. Anyone catch this?

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

The audio was off sync for much of it. I noticed that right away.
That being said, a musical must be very tough to pull off.

The audio was also jarring when people spoke (out of the musical). It didn't blend well at all.

I did notice it get much brighter/yellow as time went on. That suited things well since it was so bleak early on. I enjoyed the dialogue and the music was quite fitting.

Some more variety in your shots would have been good but it looks like you were shooting in tight spaces.

Either way, nice to get another one in the can. Well done.

MAH

[kurtmo]

I appreciate you going out there to do a musical Quite an effort. You did a nice job with this.

My first comment is that the audio sync was off a bit. That is killer for a musical. The lead singers performed well with good sound. I liked the reject stamp on the forehead bit. The framing was good for the most part, though one over the shoulder shot was not. Next time pay more attention to how you’re lighting the set. Another thing I noticed was that the mailboy changed shirts in the middle. Was that on purpose?

Glad to see some musicals. I grew up on them and actually like them. Maybe I’ll take a whack at one next time around!

[ramsaur]

Another thing I noticed was that the mailboy changed shirts in the middle. Was that on purpose?

Yes that was meant to be. Kind of like the color change how it got brighter through out the film. So did he with shirt colors.

[hoz]

musical! credits for trying to pull a musical off! the music was good too. the synching was tough to take though, it made me want to only notice that. the female lead was good otherwise, she had a real cute quality to her. maybe it would be better if you could expand the film to other rooms of the office too, like even a break room or something.

nice job.

[Girgej]

Hey ... Good Job Man ... I mean for a musical (i think it's a really tough job)... but anyway ... you need to fix some off-synch lipsynching ... I really like the fact that it was done in a single room ... Working as an Office / Claustrophobic and even as a small / cute room for a mini musical... Very Nice!!!

[dsto]

It seems the things I noticed have been gone over,(the sync, and I agree with hoz, I would have liked to have seen at least one other location.) But Man oh man, big props for taking on a musical! Good music. Good singers. Nice choice of actors. Well done! I was pleased to show this to my wife and daughter, if that means anything. I told them "Check this out! Dude did a musical! And it's good!" So, take that as you will, but good job.

[Brandon Rice]

Good effort.... the sync really killed this for me, however the music was actually well written and performed :)

[ramsaur]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. The sync is being worked on for the longer version. Only about 30 seconds more. I had to cut about 30 seconds for the fest but that's happening to when it goes to festivals it will have a better chance of getting selected.
Keep the comments coming they're all great stuff!

[Noel Evans]

well if you noticed that.. seems no one has noticed this yet. The color change in the film? Start with dull color then towards the end it gets brighter. Anyone catch this?

Matthew, Yes I saw it. I really appreciate the small touches like this. It did feel a bit understated though. But I think it`s fantastic that youre looking at all levels and opportunities to assist your story and define the mood.

Also saw a note from the composer in here and wanted to say I thought you did a great job. The mood from each piece was clear and flowed the performance nicely.

Matthew I think the tool missing for me that could really push this to the next level was lighting design.

[Brian Parker]

Ooo a musical. Nice. It was an enjoyable film. Most people have covered the technical issues oso I won't rehash what's already been said but I want to applaud you for undertaking a genre like this. Keep them coming!

[Jeff Anderson]

Notes while watching -

I love musicals! As mentioned some definite sync issues. Seemed to quiet in between songs around 1:05.

Well written songs and very pretty vocals.

Ha at the rejected stamp! Would like to see some more plot development and dialogue between songs. Almost feels like a showcase of songs more than a story. Ok, I take that back as that changes towards the end.

Lighting could have a little more "pop" to it.

Dialogue between songs could use some work - should match the level/quality of the vocals.

Love the framing of that last shot - very nice!

Enjoyed this! One of these days I want to try a musical - props to you for doing so, doesnt look easy!

[ramsaur]

thanks for the notes.

Wasn't easy at all man. Getting this thing together had to be the hardest film of pre production I've ever done before, but it was all worth it in the end. There's actually a longer version that looks better than this one that I'm working on including all the sync. So hoping to get that done so I'll be done with it. I love musicals too and always wanted to one. If I do one again I have more knowledge of it.