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

danpass said:
Congratulations :beer:



Are you starting/done on the extras (like the actor interviews) for the DVD :laugh: ?


How did you finance (just curious)? You had a bunch of savings?
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Funny you should mention EXTRAS cause that's exactly what I am doing right now. Just sent a list fo current assets to my DVD authoring guy to see how much space (if any) is left on my dual layer disc to squeeze in some extras. I have tons of ready to go material, the only problem is disc space.

I was cutting my lead actor TIMOTHY LUKE's interview over the past two days and enjoyed going back to editing immensely. I honestly missed it. Filming too.

Fellow dvx user Chris Simmons is getting married next month. He helped me on a full day shoot for my film and even loaned me a lens for my Canon 7D for a photoshoot. So I offered him to film his wedding for him :).

God I hope I don't find myself yelling across the church:

QUIET ON THE SET!! ROLLING!! ACTION!!!!

LOL that would be funnnnny.

Or, when the time comes to kiss the bride:

Me (director stepping in) - STOP! No, you are not doing it right. We have to SELL the audience. Lean over her some more. Now put your left hand under her waist... No no no no - NOT like this, LIKE THAT... Wait. Your face is shiny. where's the make up person??

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
Deuceofspades said:
Funny you should mention EXTRAS cause that's exactly what I am doing right now. Just sent a list fo current assets to my DVD authoring guy to see how much space (if any) is left on my dual layer disc to squeeze in some extras. I have tons of ready to go material, the only problem is disc space.

I was cutting my lead actor TIMOTHY LUKE's interview over the past two days and enjoyed going back to editing immensely. I honestly missed it. Filming too.

Fellow dvx user Chris Simmons is getting married next month. He helped me on a full day shoot for my film and even loaned me a lens for my Canon 7D for a photoshoot. So I offered him to film his wedding for him :).

God I hope I don't find myself yelling across the church:

QUIET ON THE SET!! ROLLING!! ACTION!!!!

LOL that would be funnnnny.

Or, when the time comes to kiss the bride:

Me (director stepping in) - STOP! No, you are not doing it right. We have to SELL the audience. Lean over her some more. Now put your left hand under her waist... No no no no - NOT like this, LIKE THAT... Wait. Your face is shiny. where's the make up person??

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
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Oh no, with tons of extras, I can see the future... "Deuce of Spades: Two Disc Collectors Edition"!
 
WEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.


Color correction has begun. We have done two reels and 6 more to go. :thumbsup:
I like my colorist he is not only VERY good but also really laid back and nice. He was nominated for an Emmy award for his work (what is it with me and Emmy award nominees / winners? LOL) and from what I heard through the grapevine I am in really good hands.

Him and I seem to have the same tastes so the session has been going smoothly. He has been able to save quite a few of my "problem' shots and make them blend nicely with the rest of the scene.

I am REALLY excited to finally tackle this last stage of the film... This means that I am

ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Yeah, they are adding little flowers to them :grin:.

Subtitles are added in DVD autohoring stage, and basically merely appear against the feature footage. So basically you do not render a new feature with subtitle for each language you have subititles in. so no need to color correct again.

Likewise, the director's commentary is merely an alternate sterao sound mix, synched to the same .mov film image file. So teh DVD only contacin one big .mov file for the film's image and a bunch of text subtitles files, a seperate audio mix with commentary, one withotu, one with 5.1 surround sound mix.

You then have your extras (if any) which can be little .mov files, compressed to fit the extra space (if any).

You also have your DVD menus, including the home menu which in my case will be animated. That menu contains one .mov file (a one minute loop of footage from the film) and one 1 min .wav file (a minute loop of the scoring), which will play continuously when you first put the DVD in your player until you make a selection.

There are of course sub menus (extras, set-up and scene selection) that also take more space on the disk. Those can be animated or static.

I tell ya, I sure have learn a whole lot making this film!!
 
I think the fee only applies when the Dolby Digital logo is displayed on the screen or in the artwork. Otherwise you can do a 5.1 DD compatible mix on anything, as long as the logo is *not* shown.

Also, as far as I understand it, if you do want/need to show the DD logo you have to be Dolby approved, which presents a whole very stringent set of requirements that have to be met, including a minimum mix room size, amp and speaker characteristics, etc., etc., in addition to the fees that you mentioned.

At least I think that's how it works...
 
@Ted - that's correct. That's because the mix needs to be dolby mastered with someone from dolby present etc... And dolby just wants to make money :)
 
Ted Spencer said:
I think the fee only applies when the Dolby Digital logo is displayed on the screen or in the artwork. Otherwise you can do a 5.1 DD compatible mix on anything, as long as the logo is *not* shown.

Also, as far as I understand it, if you do want/need to show the DD logo you have to be Dolby approved, which presents a whole very stringent set of requirements that have to be met, including a minimum mix room size, amp and speaker characteristics, etc., etc., in addition to the fees that you mentioned.

At least I think that's how it works...
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That might very well be the case and I would think that way as well except
a year and a half ago I worked on a small indie release (only like 180 theaters)
but when they went to make film prints the dup place wouldnt touch the 5.1 mix
without the proper licensing. Same thing happened when they went to make
dvd's. It wasn't just about the "logo"

I could see smaller dvd duplication houses just ignoring the license issues though and just tell the clients to not put the logo anywhere as you mentioned.

I just don't think it's as cut and dry as "you're ok if you dont put the logo on the box"
 
Ok...interesting story. I'd like to hear more about this exact kind of situation. Anyone else care to weigh in?

It was my impression that the logo-less terms thing was explicitly permitted by Dolby.

Rippie said:
That might very well be the case and I would think that way as well except
a year and a half ago I worked on a small indie release (only like 180 theaters)
but when they went to make film prints the dup place wouldnt touch the 5.1 mix
without the proper licensing. Same thing happened when they went to make
dvd's. It wasn't just about the "logo"

I could see smaller dvd duplication houses just ignoring the license issues though and just tell the clients to not put the logo anywhere as you mentioned.

I just don't think it's as cut and dry as "you're ok if you dont put the logo on the box"
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When I looked into it a few months back, I came to the same conclusion as Ted. That if you don't use the name Dolby or the logo anywhere you're okay. As far as a fee, that was paid when you purchased your mixing software and it came with the the AC3 codec.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Ok...interesting story. I'd like to hear more about this exact kind of situation. Anyone else care to weigh in?

It was my impression that the logo-less terms thing was explicitly permitted by Dolby.
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As i said, it very well might be exactly as you said.
I can only go by what happened with this particular project though.

The film print thing I could see happen.
I wasn't involved in post or anything related to dealing with duplication places
but if they went to a place that as a little bit "too pro"
I could see someone raising a fuss.
 
Hey Faith, I can't remember if you covered this already but who actually did the musical score for the film? You? If so, what did you use or how did you go about it?
 
Azmyth said:
Hey Faith, I can't remember if you covered this already but who actually did the musical score for the film? You? If so, what did you use or how did you go about it?
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yes, I did the score. I have an extensive music background so that elped a lot. It still was a hige struggle because although I have 500 live shows and 3 allbums under my belt, two of which I produced, I had never tackled 'classical" music nor used samples before. And had only 10 days to figure it out.

came out pretty good though ;).

I was a Cubase user for 10 years but Cubase was not working for me at all with East West sound module (classical orchestral samples) so I jumped ship after 1 week and downloaded the demo of ACID, and since it is laid out exactely like VEGAS, I was like a fish in water. ACID is not listed as "supported" by East West as is Cubase, but ironically it worked way better with East West than Cubase ever did.

Albeist a couple of glitches that come from teh new PLAY engine of the East West samples, everything went well.

I loved the ease of mixing with ACID, using volume curves like I do on a VEGAS timeline when editing my film :thumbsup:.

I now can say I got the hang of it and could score my next film as well (and will hehehehe).

cap10kirk said:
I'm sure it's been said before. You go girl.
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Thanks man!!!
 
As far as the DOLBY thing, my film is not Dolby. It will have the LT / RT setreo mix that can mimic surround sound should a DVD player not offer real surround.

I too was very confused by the whole dolby thing, and to this day still ave not really gained a clear picture of the story.

I guess my DVDs will not say "dolby" on them and nobody gives a rat's behind, if you know what I mean LOL.
 
Deuceofspades said:
yes, I did the score. I have an extensive music background so that elped a lot. It still was a hige struggle because although I have 500 live shows and 3 allbums under my belt, two of which I produced, I had never tackled 'classical" music nor used samples before. And had only 10 days to figure it out.

came out pretty good though ;).

I was a Cubase user for 10 years but Cubase was not working for me at all with East West sound module (classical orchestral samples) so I jumped ship after 1 week and downloaded the demo of ACID, and since it is laid out exactely like VEGAS, I was like a fish in water. ACID is not listed as "supported" by East West as is Cubase, but ironically it worked way better with East West than Cubase ever did.

Albeist a couple of glitches that come from teh new PLAY engine of the East West samples, everything went well.

I loved the ease of mixing with ACID, using volume curves like I do on a VEGAS timeline when editing my film :thumbsup:.

I now can say I got the hang of it and could score my next film as well (and will hehehehe).



Thanks man!!!
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Ok, on that note.. east west sound module? I'm not familiar with that.
 
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