FEATURE: Rise of the Beast-the new feature from STARS Pictures

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You finished your bottle of Jack?
 
It's been empty for a while. If you look close in the after pic you can see it next to the speaker.

LOL. It can now be used as a prop. Watered down Coca cola usually does the trick if you ever need to used that in a scene. Nice blow out. What scene is this? Oh and I saw your vid on Youtube. Ouch man. Take it easy out there.

-Nate
 
Good idea about fake whiskey! Don't know if I'll need it, but I'll keep it in mind.
The shot is from the opening scene (the one that everyone hated on back in Feb. ;) ). We blew it out for two reasons. One is to hide that fact that it's Shane until he pulls of his hood after the fight. Second was to hide the fact that it's a totally different location from where the chase took place. lol
Yeah, that stunt was fun. Hence why I'm grinning ear to ear when I got up. I put stuntman in my sig for a reason. =D
 
"Yes, film is almost always a collaborative effort. But what portions are collaborative are up to the artist, assuming one has control... By dictating an artist's palette, we risk destroying the very creative process itself."

Check out this blog:
How dare you edit your film
 
It's like in comic books, they prefer the artist not to ink their own pencils, but I like when Bart Sears or John Byrne do their own inks. The assumption is that you won't know how to edit the film because you're too close to it, but honestly if I shot it I want to edit it. We rarely slate, so only I know what goes where anyway. Once I get a rough cut together, then I'm ready to hear the advice of others.

My friend is a good editor, but not for action stuff like I do, but he has taught me some tricks and things. I'm good at noticing when things should be cut closer of if something just doesn't feel right. But what I do is show him my stuff and let him see it because he does notice things I don't catch. Maybe having someone with that second eye is all that's needed for those who want to edit themselves.

-Nate
 
I totally agree. Let me have full control over the cut and ask for input when needed, much like on here, but ultimately it's going to be my call whether or not I use the ideas
 
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It would seem to me that on an indie level like we are, it would be harder for someone else to edit it than it would be for you to just edit it yourself.
 
The thing that cracks me up is that it's starting to become more acceptable for a director to cut their own work, but everyone gets their undies in a bunch when you tell them that you're a director/cinematographer. I personally enjoy that part of the process and I want to get better, hence why I continue to run my own camera. People tell me, "Oh, you can't judge the performance". Bull. By shooting solid state, judging performance is a button press away. If someone has no interest in shooting their own movie, then get a DP. That's cool. But stay off my case for wanting to do things my way.
I've actually been pleasantly surprised with the DVXuser community on this film. Once we started shooting, everyone has either been supportive or said nothing. Much different than last time around ;)

On the update front, I'm still looking for a new location for the bad guys since the aircraft hanger bailed on us. Other than that, things are going well and the picture is looking good!
 
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My crossover cable arrived today =)
The bad news is that when I went to go connect the two computers, only my editing rig had the ethernet port. So I pulled out my other computer, a Linux machine which does have the ethernet port and swapped out the hard drives. I hook everything back up and restart. BSOD! I tried repairing the windows installation through DOS, but that that didn't work so I'm currently repairing via my Windows CD. Hopefully this works so I don't have to do a clean install again. I really don't want to have to reinstall all the service packs and software. The plus side is that when I do get this up and running, STARS Pictures will officially have it's first network and be able to share files between the two systems =D
 
My network is up and running! As an homage to my high school days (over seven years ago) when I learned digital editing, I used the IP address of our main editor as the address for my editor. How I remembered it after all these years is beyond me. I guess I sent way too many projects back and forth =D

I have to say, being my own IT guy is brutal, but if you don't have the money to pay someone, doing it yourself is a good option. In any event, I don't have to use thumb drives, hard drives, CDs or DVDs anymore to move stuff around. I love it! And since my production rigs stay off the internet, I don't have to worry about hackers or anything.
 
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Production Journal
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I set up my first network yesterday! I had been helping my parents at their place building a new deck and came across their old computer in the basement. They said I could have it so I brought it home and did a clean install of Windows XP. My initial plan was to use it as an effects station but the specs on it weren’t up to par with what I needed. Instead I decided to make it into a music station. This way we can compose while watching an edit and not have any latency issues. So I installed Mixcraft without any problems. Next I decided that I wanted to network my editing station with my music station. I ordered a crossover cable on ebay for three bucks. It arrived and I go to hook it up…


Uh oh. There’s no network card in my parents computer. I pull out my linux box (which actually has a better processor) and it does have the card. So I pulled out the hard drive from my parents computer and swap it out with my linux drive. I go to fire it up and it won’t go past the OS select screen. I bite the bullet and do another clean install of XP. Now it boots up. The a 30 day trial notification pops up. WHAT?! I check the sticker on the back of the machine-XP Professional. I installed Home. I dig through my CD’s and find one for XP Pro. Another clean install. Now when it starts up I have no sound, 800×600 resolution and 4 bit color. And oh by the way the network card isn’t working, nor is the keyboard for Mixcraft. I spend the next few hours downloading drivers.


It’s 1am when I finally get the computer working the way it should. Now I have to get the two computers talking to each other. After a quick Google search I discover how to share files using the crossover cable and a Shared Documents Folder. By 1:30am, the first network for STARS Digital is up and running.


After spending more than 12 hours getting things working, here’s what I get out if it. I can play the movie on my edit station while composing to the video on my music station. I can then render the music and send it straight to the editing station where I can then drop it in to the mix.


Phew! Being my own IT guy is a lot of work!
 
They backed out after stumbling across the wonderful support we had on this thread at the time. If you read through the posts you'll see where this was all discussed a few months back. Things have changed though.
 
Phew! Being my own IT guy is a lot of work!


Try and work with some other people.

Nothing shouts 'cheap' more than a sole trader listing his endless accomplishments. I hope when you present stuff to interested parties you don't describe your role as:

"Writer / Director / Producer / Cinematographer / Editor / Composer / Stuntman"

We recently had to commission some photography and the job did not go to the guy who - on his business card - described himself as "Photographer / DJ / percussionist / film maker / clothes designer" (seriously, this was his business card) - it went to the guy who described himself as "Photographer".
 
Try and work with some other people.
Read the link I posted a page or two back. I'm not against working with other people, but I'll decide who and when.

So they were cool with the script, the acting, the production and so on - it was just this thread that put them off the project ?
I'd prefer not to dig up a dead horse. Ultimately that teaser doesn't even come come close to representing what the movie is now.
 
The thing that cracks me up is that it's starting to become more acceptable for a director to cut their own work, but everyone gets their undies in a bunch when you tell them that you're a director/cinematographer.

Unless you have bux, or find someone that has a very close agreement with what you are doing, I don't see any problem with 'director/writer/cinematographer/editor'. (or heck sound... we don't need no stinking sound...)...

The reason for this is that 'writer/editor' does significantly play into 'story'. Director/cinematography significantly plays in to 'look' of the film.
 
I don't see the problem as long as you do all those things.

I was always taught that being multifaceted was a good thing, means when your on the job if they need you to do something else.. guess what? you can.
 
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