Project "UNNAMED" --- no story yet, done in a month :)

T

Tim Kay

Well-known member
Weird huh? Well I don't have a story yet but it will be short, under 5 mins.
I don't have anything started so I figured the best place to start would a journal here :)

I have a DSLR, 3 lenses, audio equipment, some production stuff and couple production people.

Hardest challenge will be to find actors (that are good). Doesn't matter what the story is, or production equipment used, your actors are the only ones your audience sees and connects with - they really don't care about much else.

So this is my challenge. Process will be to develop story, then create a script in Final Draft. While this is going on i'll be casting (reaching out to friends and some casting sites) then start production, film for a couple days, and then post. FCP to Color to 'The End' !

By starting here, I'll know I'll do it :)
I'll be posting pics through-out the process and maybe some behind the scene videos as well!

First step is to call my writing friends.

FYI - I'm in San Francisco so if any locals are around and want to help out, let me know!

Cheers,
Tim
 
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Today talked with some production folks and a writing partner. I like the direction we're heading and thinking of some cool locations that the 7d will allow us to film in. Main focus is keeping the cast minimal & maximize their performance. Also want to maintain high production values.

Plan is to dedicate the next week to working out a story. Something strong and compelling.

Also, you guys will be getting a link to the video once it's done! So theres a pay-off at the end :)
 
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Agree actors are key. Disagree that your story doesn't matter. Maybe you mean the "type" of story. Story is as important as actors. Great actors and a ok/pretty good story will impress lots of folks here. The further you get away from user, the less far that will get you. You need great actors and a great story. There's an acceptable level of acting from bordering pro to super pro. But no matter where you think the bar is on story, it's higher.

Not true for Hollywood vehicles of the week, but so, so, so true for unknown shorts by unknown filmmakers.

I'm all for writing for resources - meaning if you have a cool basement, write something for a cool basement, or if your brother's on a swat team, write something for a swat team - But story is just as important as good actors.
 
Hey Jack,

I do agree with you the value of a great story. I was using the extreme that if the actor is a really really bad actor they'll sink anything like the titanic. No matter how great of a story. They can make any piece unwatchable. But if one is just an avg actor, the strength of the story will compensate bad acting.


And yesterday we got a great idea of a story. I'm excited for this. And I definitely write for resources. No protagonist will jump out of a helicopter and land on a semi going 80mph in this one :D

I have a rough idea of my production schedule so pieces are coming together.
 
Yes yes yes.

It's been a while since being here. In between booking my own production work, life's wonderful challenges and writing...the story has advanced slowly. But in the writing stage this is expected. Just like editing. Lay down some ideas, walk away and come back to them with a fresh set of eyes. Ideas that I though were great were OK, and little ideas now start to shape the whole story line.

Now marks the gradual dissolve between writing and preproduction. While the story is being written in Final Draft , calls are made out to the crew and we're settling down on one day. Probably towards the end of the week. Also plans to scout locations trapped locations in my head. This is the time that I wish I had my motorcycle as driving around dt SF is much harder with a car (and to slow on Muni).

Ok, back to writing. Simplifying the script and moving forward. As the famous saying is said, you never go to production with the story you want but with the one you have. And i'm happy with what I have.
 
Today is an important day in laying down the ground work for a busy week to come. Yesterday I finished writing version 2, which is the first time writing it from start to finish. I've written pieces last week along with ideas but yesterday they all came together. Wrote off one character and combined two into one. Otherwise to many ideas would be brought in, and in such a short period of time to tell the story less is more. Let the story breathe as much as possible.

Tomorrow I'll be location scouting to finalize locations I have in mind. I'll post pictures on my blog of some finalist.

Also contacted some actors and reached out to new ones. Also going to meet up with some of my production folks this week, very excited.

So now i'm off to rewrite and will break down the script in terms of production. What equipment I'll need where and how much or how little.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I'm all for writing for resources - meaning if you have a cool basement, write something for a cool basement, or if your brother's on a swat team, write something for a swat team - But story is just as important as good actors.
Click to expand...


Ahem.......... or if you know somebody who can outfit and train a "SWAT" team. There are a lot of resources here on DVX. Never go without, just because you didn't just ask.
 
Don't need a swat team, but if anyone has a cool location/office to film a short scene (one actor, on the phone) then let me know!

Thanks :)
 
Today was a very productive day.

I got the chance to scout my locations. One location in particular will be exciting to shoot in, the public hall of city hall. I want to shoot inside as the buildings interior is beautiful and shooting with DSLR's will be really easy. Because the crew will be small we will probably look like an ENG crew and with my main actor in a suit, people will probably think we're interviewing a politician (which is the idea of the shot). For the obvious reasons this will be my most challenging location, which is why i'm putting it first on the shooting schedule. If anything happens, or we can't film inside then I have time to find another location (which I haven't scouted, but have ideas of where to look).

The other location in the script calls for a museum that I need to film outside of. Finding the best ones that pop the most on camera, ons that have a presence and character. I believe I found it. And a suitable back up

The last location I found last week while parting at a friends house . An empty room. Can't get easier then that! But then nothings easy, right? Everything is always subject to change. And when change happens, it likes to happen in the last minute. Why should this film be any different then my last ones :)

Which leads me to change.

One of my camera/actor guys just picked up a weeks worth of work which is great because lord knows we all need paying gigs. And the fact that I have 3 days notice is practically a gift, so i'll take the positive!

Phone contact with all the actors and production crew (have a few more positions if anyones free!) and basically now building up a safety net to make sure this production happens. I'm excited as this is the week where all the independent pieces come together. I always feel once I get past production it will get easier...but that never happens.

OK, so once I finish up my todays duties for this project, it's now off to talk with my friend who's building TimKayFilms.com which i've painfully neglected. I'm excited about this website and getting it up and running in a professional manner. And if thats not enough need to build a great demo reel, but first must finish editing the paying gig ( have to fund this some how! ). Gotta love multitasking


Bye for now
 
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So I wanted to blog all the way up to the start of day 1 production and it didn't quite work out that way. Work got crazy and kept me busy from everything including preproduction in the short! But with all projects that are passion driven, such things as sleep can be put off for a latter time!

Today was a great day of shooting our exteriors and inside of City Hall! Did a two camera set-up with the 7d's (props out to Anthony for his great work filming and bringing his steadi-cam to the 1st location) and to Alan (whom I met here) a great audio guy for bringing his rig out.

Also the actors were great and great sports about shooting in fairly busy locations and staying professional infront of a hall full of elementary students exploring our civic institution. It was also funny how few of my crew had actually walked inside!

One more filming day on Sunday. Another half day. Lets see if I can't find any pics of our shoot!
 
Just wrapped on another editing night.

Today was a fun learning experience. First time I shot with a green screen. But not a full one. Just a partial. I had a mini tv and I cut some paper around the front which would have worked perfect but the camera picked up the hot pink as a color closer to red, which is of course what the walls behind the TV shared. So it was a fun day of figuring out the best way to salvage shots and I mostly succeeded, just one shot that i'll have to take into motion to fix (as I need to have it more 3d as it's a weirder angle).

But the second day of shooting went well. Next shoot i'll have to figure out a more consistent light look but the mini creed LED's came in very hand!

Time for me to watch some professionals (IE: a DVD) and hopefully get a bit inspired and sleep. Tomorrow hopefully i'll have a picture lock!
 
Bottlenecking!

That is the theme of todays post. Why, because my renders are crawling!!!!
I'm learning many things on this project, and many of them are the unexpected. Let me back track.

My current model 2.4ghz was my first mac since my parents introduced me to the Apple IIc. Yes, I used floppy disk. Then hard shelled disk were introduced & I though they were gods gifts to computers. What were they, 1.5mb ? Anyways - my current computer only has a 320 internal HD. The problem is one a good day, i have about 80gb free. It's been a bad week. Unfortunately I have a work project & a regular project, which leaves me with 10gb. I shot almost 16gb for this project.

Not wanting to mess with my work stuff, I decided to edit this from my FW800 2tb drive - man am i kicking myself!!!!!!!!!! Not only that. I covered a TV screen to green screen, going to do a little motion, so it has to do graphcis rendering. Just shoot me. Needless to say, i'm now very well researched on the quad 2.8 which I oh so desperately want along with FCS 3 (currently FCS2)

Besides the painful render times, the project is moving along well. Most of the timeline is constucted. A lot of first here. The greenscreen went surprisingly well. The almost problem was I used a pink sheet of paper, which the camera read as close to red, which was close to the wood trim walls! But all the shots are working, just took a while to fix.

Did some Voice over recording with the Tascam DR100 tonight. Sometimes it records audio very low, which was the case here ( I did have gain turned down). When I dropped it in the timeline I couldn't believe how soft it was. But with problems come solutions. Sent it to Soundtrack Pro where I clicked on Normaliz, which should be called "magic" because it made the audio perfect, without adding any distortion.

Also what I used for the first time was Pluraleyes.

For those of you unfamiliar - it's the audio syncing plug-in (big in the DSLR community for obvious reasons). I had no idea what to expect or how complicated it could, considering I didn't know how to operate it. Expecting the worse was surprised how easy it is. The few times I though it's screws were loose it ended up me bring in the wrong audio file. I hate it when machines are smarter then us.

Lets see, what else is new. Oh, used a dual monitor set up. This is actually the 3rd project I've used it on but the first time I dragged over all my source files to the 2nd monitor. It's great seeing the files without the need to use a microscope. Then I did Dual Display ups (2 monitors on top) which was great in the beginning. Now that i'm going in and fine tuning edits I'm back to normal mode.

Woo, render is finally done! It only took the length of Lost Season 1. I'm dreading sending it to Color...lord help me
 
Whilst in the midst of another endless and painful render, i'm now thinking what could possible be more enjoyable then waiting for one to finish. I have since added to the list:

a root canal
a root canal administered by myself
actually being interested in watching my 1st episode of "Glee"

OK, i'm not actually that desperate...yet

But I have figured out a plan. Once I lock edit ( VO I was waiting for has arrived) then I'll go into media manager and save it to my desktop. This way i'm only working with the files in my time line. Seems like it will work - any thoughts ?
 
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