LEAP (An End Times Feature)

Thank you all so much for your input! I'll play with the blacks and see what I can do. As for the scare mongering, earlier in the film, that character starts out as a non believer. There's a scene early on where I used a question and answer format as he keeps trying to trip them up (ie: "If your God is so powerful, why doesn't he make us all love Him?"). So it's not quite as intense. For the scene I showed you guys, I felt it needed to be intense, coming off the demo and whatnot. I wrote the scene with with Azeem's "Join us" speech from "Robin Hood" in the back of my mind.

So basically, I've tried to suck in a non christian to the film through a lot of parkour near the beginning. Then there's the question and answer bit about faith. Hopefully, after that q&a scene, though a non christian might not agree, they can at least be understanding of and rooting for the characters. By the time we get to the business about using pk to evangelize, which as I said is more intense due to the demo itself (about 50min in), if the viewer is sympathetic, I don't think it'll seem as bad.

Again, thank you all for your input! =)
 
Last edited:
So I just got back from my most nervewracking screening of the rough cut yet-My parents! I know you're thinking, "Pfft. Parents. They're only gonna tell him how good it is". WRONG! I've been blessed to have a very critical parental unit. They've been known to tell me films suck, are no good, or even, "why bother". So I explained to them that this was only a rough cut and that my main concern at this point is story. When it was over, they told me that they really enjoyed the film that that it was a huge improvement over "Wulf". Their only critique was that I should reshoot the kidnapping sequence. As this is what one of my other viewers had told me as well, I'm planning to reshoot on Saturday for an hour. With the overall response being positive, I can't wait to finish the thing and show it to a crowd!
 
Okay, so this is fun. I have Magic Bullet v.2 for Vegas. It's just the plugin set. I love the looks, but I'm not too fond of the render times (a 3 minute video with MB effects takes about 4 hours). I was watching a video online on how to use MB to emulate the looks of blockbusters such as Transformers and Terminator 4. What I realized is that I can do all of that in Vegas without bringing MB into the equation! I took the pk demo (which I posted online a few days ago) and created multiple events on the timeline with it. Then, I was able to create the transformers look on the first event, T4 on the second, and I even played with an "HD" type of look on a third. Oh, I also tried using a "Saving Private Ryan" preset that I found online on a forth. I also created a diffusion filter that I've applied to everything to help hide that video look. For the twelve minutes of video, I"m now looking at 2.5 hours render time. Much more manageable. As much as I love MB, I think I'll be omitting it from this film.

Besides basic looks, I also realized I could emulate "power windows" by using two layers of video. The only drawback to this is that it looks so good, I may want to use it on the entire film, which will take a while to keyframe.
 
Since I'm always looking for ways to do things better, I've come up with a new workflow for Vegas that I'm going to try on this film. In the past I would cut, adr, mix, then color correct last as my system lags a bit when you add all the effects. My problem with the ADR is that I would always have these huge files as I had to capture the black video as well as the voices. I realized today that I can just render out the audio as a .mp3 or .wav then delete the original video, saving space. That's good. But I still have to wait for color correcting and other effects. Then I thought, "why not apply the same technique?" So now I'm going to color correct the film before the ADR, render it, then import it into a new timeline. Since all the effects are rendered, I shouldn't have a lag on my six year old system and I can just sync the ADR to that.
 
Well, I've graded and cc'd the enter flick, but now I'm at a standstill. We are supposed to start ADR on Wed, but I need to get the thing onto a DVD first. For some reason Vegas has been being a pain in my @$$ about rendering right now. I've never had any problems before yesterday. It doesn't matter which format or codec I try, the render keeps canceling due to some "unknown error". I've upgraded from 7.0a to 7.0e, deleted all unused media, and even tried a registry hack, but it's not working. It's not like it's the same spot either. It's totally random, but always around the one hour of render time mark. I wonder if it's my external hd that the footage is on. I was going to try to transfer the footage to my audio drive, but that drive is two gigs too small. My next option is to buy another hd and try that. But other than this, the film is coming along great!
 
I think my issue was the harddrive after all. When I think about it, it all makes sense. My footage is on an external hd. When I felt it after a crash, it was extremely warm. I cranked on my AC and unplugged the HD, allowing it to cool. After half an hour, I fired up Vegas again and I've now been rendering for three hours with no issues. granted my apt is cold, but it's a small price to pay. At least it works now!
 
A very exciting update today: My producer and I are starting a blogtalk radio show on no budget filmmaking and the first episode is tonight at 9pm Pacific Time. Tonight's broadcast is simply to introduce us and what we do. Future broadcasts will cover a specific topic of filmmaking, each with a no budget theme. So if you're curious about my thoughts on techniques or how I do things, click the link below.
Tune in Here
 
Last edited:
So I made a discovery yesterday. My producer and I were talking about what we were going to talk about on tonight's broadcast (9pm pacific time. Listen Here). We're going to be covering equipment of the no budget filmmaker. When we were talking about computers, the subject of music came up. We agreed that GarageBand on the Mac is a pretty good way to go. Since I'm a Vegas user, I'm a PC guy, so the closest thing I had is Sony Acid. I decided to look around online and did a search for "PC GarageBand Equivalent. The number one result is a DAW called Mixcraft. Dude! What an amazing bit of software. First, it's only 80 bucks, so it pretty affordable for us no budget guys. The virtual instruments sound amazingly real, and the loops were way better than any of the ones Acid came with. The interface is also much easier to use. In about five minutes, I made a metal song for the chase in Leap.

Now that I've sung it's praises, it does have a few short comings, two of which will be fixed in the next version. My biggest complaint was that I couldn't use my computer keyboard to play the virtual instruments like you can in GarageBand. Second, you can't load video and compose to that like you can in Acid. Both of these are to be added in the next release. I did however find a workaround for the keyboard issue. I downloaded a free "virtual midi keyboard". It's a lightweight app that allows you to use your computer keyboard to play it's virtual piano. I was also able to find what I can only call a virtual midi cable that allows Mixcraft to recognize the lightweight app. I can now compose directly with my keyboard, at least until I buy a real one. My only other issue is that I had to download most of the loops. All in all, well worth the time! The other part I liked is that all my non realtime fx from Vegas are supported as well!

As far as Leap is concerned, we shot the parkour 101 bonus feature yesterday, and I had the guy that created the end times song I'm using digitally sign the release form for the music. Gotta love computers! I'm taking the next few days off to go backpacking and get away from everything for a bit. I'll get back refreshed and ready to start ADR!
 
Nice info. I believe in buying too. Nice computer info too.

-Nate
 
Last edited:
I have my first ADR session with an actor tomorrow morning. It's great that things are still coming together.

Also, broadcast number three is tonight at 9pm pacific time. We're starting a series called the poor man's film school. We'll be covering pre pro tonight and you can listen live here
If anyone wants to call in, we'll have a Q&A at the end.
 
I finally picked up a MIDI keyboard. I found one at Best Buy for $80. The board is from M-Audio and has 49 keys. Not a bad deal. Definitely a lot better than using the computer keyboard. So far I've composed the music for the vigil and the funeral. Both are pretty slow and dreamy, so it was pretty easy. Next up is where Shane commits to Christ, so we'll see how that goes. It's pretty cool- You can pick up Mixcraft and a medium size keyboard for $160. Not too bad for a music setup.
 
Last edited:
Well this is cool. I was stupid and caught a virus. The nastiest I've ever been up against. The only way to win was total anihlation... meaning to wipe my c drive completly. I lost a few good men in the process (the vegas file for Leap) due to not having any re-enforcments (a back up of the vegas file). So here I sit on a practially new computer trying to reinstall my suite of tools (Vegas, DVD Architecht, Photoshop, Blender, Mixcraft, and Celtx). I also have to re-customize everything again, as well as recut the entire film. I'm going to catch up in a week. The part I'm really bummed about is that I lost six years of photos on the computer. All this because I didn't handle the virus like I usually do.
 
I finally came up with what my next film is about. For now, until I finish the script, I'm just posting the title and tagline.

Leap: Rise of the Beast
Tagline: "If what you believed was wrong, would you want to know the truth?"
 
Well, it's almost 3am right now and I'm a bit more than a third of the way through the recut. Considering that I've only really hit the editing hardcore yesterday and today, that's not too bad. Yes, I admit it. I had slacked off for a while. I kinda took a break from the film to gather my thoughts and come back with a fresh set of eyes. Seems to have worked too. I've changed a few takes, sometimes ordered a shot differently, but it's all for the best. It's a lot more difficult to cut the second time around as I'm having to actually motivate myself. The first time is great because you're actually seeing the film come to life before your eyes. Now the novelty's worn off. Haha. In order to keep motivated, I figured I'd need to light a fire under my butt, so I've set up another rough cut screening with my composer from "Wulf" and a mutual friend. For early next week! My plan is to pull a few all nighters this week to finish the cutting, then another to recompose all the music I lost.

Tomorrow (today I guess), I'm taking Amanda to go see "Where the Wild Things Are".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top