John LaBonney presents "SHOULD'A" Adfest Entry

John LaBonney

John LaBonney

Well-known member
Should'a
A dvxuser AdFest entry by John LaBonney

Written and Directed by John LaBonney
Produced by Michelle J. LaBonney

Featuring:

Mom: Debbie Karnowski
Dad: TBD

and the Kinetica Kids:
Amanda Wilson
Jamie Wilson
Erinn Veach
Phalen Petersen
Bridget LaBonney
TBD
TBD
TBD

Equipment:
HVX-200 w/ FS-100
Rode RTG-2
Avid Xpress Pro and Adobe Creative Suite 2 Production Studio Premium

Shooting date: July 8th, 2007
Location: Las Vegas. NV
 
Last edited:
I'm In!

I'm In!

There's the ring. In it, consider my hat tossed.

I've been involved in SpyFest as a writer, and have also written one other AdFest entry. But it's way past time for me to get rolling with a project of my own.

Big thanks to my wife Michelle. She's turning out to be a pretty good producer. So far she's acquired most of the talent that we'll need, secured the location, and is working on all the other aspects of production. There's a big "to do list" detailing the aspects of production, and she's tackling pretty much all of it.

Thanks to Shawn at Full Compass and Julian at AVS for all their help with getting the right equipment.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the entries in August!
 
Location scouting photos

Location scouting photos

A smattering of Should'a location scouting photos. Taken June 23, 2007.





The car of Kinetica??? Perhaps!
 
John! I can't wait to see this! You're a very creative man so let's see what you got now. A good idea to hammer is the Kinetica Japan idea without getting anyone drunk, if you know what I mean ;)

our short NMG it's going to be submmitted to Sundance and Slamdance in the next few weeks!

take care
gv.
 
Having already had the privledge of reading the script for this particular commercial, I have to say that this is ones I'm most anxiously awaiting. It's a terrific idea! Keep us updated on the progress John!
 
Thanks guys, we're looking forward to making it. It's my first time using the HVX, so I hope I don't mess it up too much. I hope there's an "auto" button on it somewhere.
 
Update

Update

Most of the talent is in place. However we're having some equipment issues; hopefully everything will arrive by Friday! Most notably we're still not in possession of the HVX, although I finally have a tracking number. As long as it arrives, we'll shoot this thing as scheduled on July 8th.
 
Karl151k said:
You already have the Firestore?
Click to expand...

The Firestore arrived today. The HVX was held up and didn't ship until today. I think even with the 4th of July holiday, UPS should be able to get it here by weekend (California to Nevada, should be a snap (keep your fingers crossed)).

Also I'm waiting on a tripod I bought off eBay. Push come to shove, I'll get something temporary for the shoot. Of course, the camera is a more critical piece of gear that I can't manage to do without.
 
Disaster!

Disaster!

SHOOTING REPORT - JULY 8th, 2007

We were able to get several takes of the first scene of the commercial, and then moved the operation to a nearby park to shoot the remaining scenes.

Although I was able to get set at the park up pretty quickly, maintaining reasonable control over six kids was very trying.

The major problem we faced was the Las Vegas heat. At 111 degrees, I was using towels to cover the camera and firestore unit. I had a large cooler with bottled water and Gatorade at the ready. But the heat put more than the equipment at risk. About twenty minutes after arriving at the park, one of the kids threw up from heat exhaustion.

At that point, since the safety of the children was clearly in danger, I immediately made the decision to cancel the shoot for the day. Although we were seriously disappointed that we weren't able to obtain any usable footage, I'd rather throw the HVX in the trash than have a child hurt on one of my projects.

The children were immediately shuttled back to an air-conditioned house and I remained behind to pack up the gear. I am glad to report that the child recovered quickly and is as good as new. In fact, he demanded I take him out for pizza.

At this stage it is unclear what footage that was captured, if any, will be usable. It is more likely that we will keep our original product, but re-write a new script in a hurry, with a similar theme, but this time using adult actors.
 
Editing now - trying to learn Avid and After Effects in the process. There's no better way to learn than to get in there and do it.
 
That's very true John. Nothing like making mistakes yourself to ensure that you never make them again. Coincidentaly, I had to learn Final Cut Pro in about 24 hours when I was editing Robot Trouble for the first DVXfest, Sci-Fest. My PC had crashed the day before, and I HAD to finish the movie after all the work that went into it. It was the day before the deadline, so I was able to get a G5 as an early 21st B-Day present and I cut the whole movie again on that with FCP express. Good times!
 
Sorry to hear about one of your Kinetica Kids throwing up from the heat. I liked the sound of that in your initial post 'the Kinetica Kids' hehe...sounds like something that would have played after the Superfriends on Saturday mornings :)

Good luck with the rest of your project!
 
Finished. Will be uploading tomorrow. Now working on a last-minute second entry. I don't know if I'll be done in time on the additional commercial though.
 
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