FEATURE: DEUCE OF SPADES - How I made a period full feature film all by myself on ZERO budget

Sumfun said:
Could you please post a picture of the "birth giving" position? :beer:

Might be fun the try that one day.

If the film screens in Daytona, I'll definitely go see it. And bring some friends, too.
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Unless you are female, I don't recommend that position ;) HAHA!
OK, looks Like I will have to post the screening info on here when we get closer to it. Looks like they will be screening a director's cut, since I will not have the color correction and sound mix done by then... No matter, car people want to see THE OLD CARS :))... And the cars will definitely be there... ALL 500 of them!! :)

PS: I actually don't know how many cars are in my film, it would be fun to try and count them all, one day soon :).

roblutz said:
Thanks

I'm in Orlando, could make a Daytona screening as well. I'll be releasing my own zero budget 45 min for some screenings in October (although 45 minutes seems to be in that awkward phase of not quite a short and not quite a feature... so I'm editing down to 30 or close)

I'll be keeping my eye on the thread, look forward to seeing it.
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I feel your pain, I had the same problem with THE PARK BENCH which clocked at about 40 minutes. I wonder who came up with these contriving time restraints? Why can't we make a film the length it wants to be? Why do we always have to fit in little pre established molds GRRRR... I guess I see the necessity when doing TV stuff cause they have their commercial breaks and own TV schedules to abide by and you must fit in it or you are out... But for DVDs???
 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME - EEEE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!!

:birthdays:

Weee-heee...I can't believe I am ______________ (fill blank yourself LOL) years old today!!!

(you didn't really think I was gonna tell ya my age, did ya?)

So what am I doing for my B-Day? Editing... What else? :)

But saturday I am having a cast and crew blooper party at my house and that promises to be a riot. I have saved over 60 minutes worth of hilarious candid bloops moments clearly showing that to err is only human... Heck, I could make a second film with all of that!! maybe I'll call it "DEUCE OF BLOOPS" hahahahaha!
 
Deuceofspades said:
[
maybe I'll call it "DEUCE OF BLOOPS" hahahahaha!
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Good clean fun.
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Happy Birthday Faith. :beer:
Frank
 
Thank you you guys :) - You put a big smile on my face... It's good to be looooved...

:love4:


Recorded some voice overs yesterday to finish scene #2 100%.

Went back to my lst edit of scene #13, only to find that, somehow, all my volume and opacity curves had been "reset to none"

:badputer:


I was pissed.

Wasted a good 40 minutes restoring chunks of my timeline, thanks to my "saving every few moves under a new file name" habit, which saved , once again, my fannies.

Did a really neat transition between the letter crane shot and Johnny Callaway driving his deuce at sunset, drenched in blood red skies....

Gave me shivers :)

SCREENGRAB%20Scene%20Letter%202.jpg
 
Hi Faith,

I m watching the teaser on vimeo and I noticed some frameblending.
Did vimeo compression add the frameblending or did the NLE editing software you're using leave that in there ?
 
Everts said:
Hi Faith,

I m watching the teaser on vimeo and I noticed some frameblending.
Did vimeo compression add the frameblending or did the NLE editing software you're using leave that in there ?
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I have noticed frame blending too and it has been a mystery. Maybe osmeone here canhelp solve it. It is not in my timeline and is not in my DVDs, but shows up in online footage. I will have to open up the MPG4 file inside my PC to see if that file shows it too, or only the viemo online file. I'll let you know...

Honestly, I had forgotten all about it cause I'm so busy filming and now editing around the clock, but it certainly is something I have to look into, especially since I will soon enough upload a real film trailer on eth net, and would prefer to do it right from try one LOL.
 
UPDATES:

Editing around the clock. Really moved fast yesterday and kicked serious ass. Edited an entire scene in one setting. Working with older actors presents it's own set of challenges. They tend to forget their lines, hesitate, and are not very good at doing the same thing twice, so continuity is an issue. I also had a volunteer on my set that day who had a knack for making background noice in the middle of my best takes. (And that's why I really prefer to have the least amount of crew people possible the more people on my set the less happy I am).

I WANTED TO KILL HER YESTERDAY (repeatedly). It took a lot of tricks to clean up everything.

Well, if I don't make it as a filmmaker, I can sell my services to the small indie filmmakers and my moto will be:

"Don't worry about it: I CAN FIX ANYTHING IN POST!""

(I'm sure I'll have tons of clients ;) )

HAHAHAHA!

As of this morning, tearing into 2 hours of dragstrip stock footage and condensing it into 1 minute... but boy that is going to be one exciting minute!!! :thumbup:


PS: My website is experiencing technical difficulties so all my photos are down, should be fixed within 24 hours...
 
Had a great wrap party, with a large number of my cast there, and we all piled up into my livingroom to watch the 40 minute blooper reel on my big screen TV.

I got to tell ya, I have never laughed so hard in my life. Everyone was in histeric. We had a great time watching the bloops. :D

Yesterday I condensed 2 hours worth of nostalgia dragraces stock footage into 14 minutes, then took the 14 minutes and condensed them into 4 minutes :eek:.

I am not done. I now have to take the 4 minutes and condense them into TWO MINUTES...

The cutting room floor is COVERED with gorgeous takes that are not going to be able to make the cut...

OYE.

But I guess that's a good problem to have?? :)

Finally I got tired of looking at burn outs LOL (believe it or not) and tore into the box scene. I am missing two inserts to get it 100% done, so I'll film them saturday. Got the rest of the scene finished, then tore into the next section (the internet old newspaper archives surfing scene) and I am about halfway through it. Can't wait to go home tonight so I can get it done.

Sorry, my website is still down, but it will be back up tomorrow so I'll be able to post screen grabs then.

Special thanks to dvxuser Chris for filming the Internet searching scene :), it came out real good Chris!!

Cruising along!!! :D
 
I am a firm believer in putting ideas out there... good, bad, really bad. So while I was reading your post and I came up with an idea. Take it for what it is worth, you won't hurt my feelings if you don't like it.

What if you took all that drag racing footage and started editing it together in a bunch of little 10 to 15 second clips/teasers and then at the end through up your title and your website. Then take those little teasers and plaster them all over the internet and I mean ALL over. Random websites, indie websites, friends facebook pages, etc. Any where and everywhere. I know that this would take a lot of work but maybe have your marketing person (if you have one) help you out. You know start to draw a big viral buzz.

Just an idea. Either way, I'm excited to see it.
 
Brooksy said:
I am a firm believer in putting ideas out there... good, bad, really bad. So while I was reading your post and I came up with an idea. Take it for what it is worth, you won't hurt my feelings if you don't like it.

What if you took all that drag racing footage and started editing it together in a bunch of little 10 to 15 second clips/teasers and then at the end through up your title and your website. Then take those little teasers and plaster them all over the internet and I mean ALL over. Random websites, indie websites, friends facebook pages, etc. Any where and everywhere. I know that this would take a lot of work but maybe have your marketing person (if you have one) help you out. You know start to draw a big viral buzz.

Just an idea. Either way, I'm excited to see it.
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This idea has its merits :) - But it also has its flaws. One of which being that people might think DOS is a documentary. Or that it is like "the fast and the furious" (just a bunch of cars burning out LOL) or even that it is a modern day film. I feel that small clips of burnouts are not representative of the film and could be potentially misleading. Currently all the clips I have of my film stand out amongst the hundreds of hotrod clips one can find on the net, because one can immediately sense that it is a film and that it is period.

I do appreciate a lot your taking the time to tell me about this idea, it shows you like to help and it speaks volume about the kind of person you are, so THANK YOU :)...
 
UPDATES:

Well the box / archive research scene had me beat for a long while, but I finally (in the last round) got the upper hand and won the fight! hehehehehe...

Careful incorporation of the right music just at the rigth moment added a huge amount of tension to the scene and I am now very happy with it. Let's just point out that it didn't start that way though ;).

I find that scene that are both technical (a lot of information being conveyed) and emotional are hard to nail. Watching a girl open and unpack a box is not that thrilling, yet it is a turning point in the film. So how to add thrill to box unpacking shots was a bit of a mystery to me, but I finally got the hang of it.

I then tore into the next scene, which is very dramatic, the TOMMY scene (Scene #21). There, I bumped into a problem I rarely encouter: The actor gave me so many GREAT takes I just couldn't make up my mind as to which to use. It took all day to make my pick but it is now cut, although needing some more fine tuning and sound cleanup. I was especially lucky with the lighting on my actor in that scene, came out great.

Next I tackle the PEGGIE phone call scene (#22), which is already half edited (all her shots are edited) all I need is to edit my side of the conversation. I will then have the pleasure to attach THREE entirely finished flashback scenes to the puzzle. (Flashback 2, 3 & Jalopy race scene - aka teaser #2)

Right after the Peggie scene I come to two scenes I already edited :)

We heeee :thumbsup:

But I will then bump into a hole, which is the one scene I still have to film, scene #25.

the great news is that after that, I am going to fly at incredible speed, because I then come to scene # 27, the SANDY scene which trigger 80% of all my already edited flashbacks so I am suddenly going to have two hours of film, done in a mere three days.

WE HEEEE x 4 :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Looks like, God willing, I will in deed have a first cut ready for the Premiere Test Screening in Daytona Beach in October. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
 
Deuceofspades said:
Looks like, God willing, I will in deed have a first cut ready for the Premiere Test Screening in Daytona Beach in October. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
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Boy do I wish I could be there for that. I hope you'll let us know here if there are any screenings planned for the NYC area. I'd be there in a heartbeat...
 
Ted Spencer said:
Boy do I wish I could be there for that. I hope you'll let us know here if there are any screenings planned for the NYC area. I'd be there in a heartbeat...
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I'll make sure to post screenings here, as they come along. I do have a possible screening in the works for New Jersey, so keep your fingers crossed. :thumbup:
 
MOVING FAST!!

Yesterday I finished the Tommy scene and added the quick flashback in it. Today I worked all day and completed the Peggie scene, added the two flashbacks in it and edited the conclusion of the scene. then attached the house of cards and nightmare scene to that.

YEAH BABY!

At 10PM I dived into my dragstrip scene and condensed it further from 4 minutes to 2 minutes. I am not quite done yet, I will work on it on and off until it is pure elixir.

Tomorrow I am filming pick up shots to complete my box scene. I had cnotinuity problems in my inserts so I need to fix it. fortunately it was filmed at my house and involves only me, so easy enough LOL.

Monday I dive into the Sandy scene (which triggers the reminder of all my flashbacks scene - all 30 some of them- which are already edited) and then ALL HELL BREAKS LOSE!! That means that by thursday or so I will have another hour and 45 minutes worth of movie attached to what I have currently...

I cannot believe how fast it is going now.

It is almost scary...

Oh my God, I am going to have my film done soon...

(What am I going to do with myself when it's done???? Oh wait... PROMOTE THE shi* OUT OF IT???????LOL)

:beer:
 
If frame blending is not on original footage then how about uploading avi file to one of the hosting websites ,like megaupload.com or rapidshare.com ,so we could see real quality.
 
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