mdifilm
Well-known member
Hi everyone, a quick intro about myself, I've been making movies since 1998 and I've been fortunate enough to have every one of them shown at festivals/conventions worldwide and a few of them has been distributed (feature and short), and not to mention, was always a pleasure to provide help and workshops, giving lectures at several festivals (yea, building myself on a higher expectations so you can start ripping me down) 
My background is more in marketing than in filmmaking, I started making film since I noticed it would be a venue to release my creativity, since filmmaking runs in our family and my dad loves movies. lol (Anyone remember Betamax? I've over 10,000 tapes at one point).
I grew up being alone most of the time as mom/dad works (mom owns a beauty saloon, while dad was a diplomat), so I spent most of the time playing imaginary games (like coins wars, soldiers, pretend to be superheroes, etc)... So yea, had way too much free time lol (surprisinngly I didn't end up to be a serial killer or something) lol
In the past, all my films has been self-funded or with features, we had investors, but I was never the person going out and look for films. It was a bit different this time around, as I'm first time ever venturing into the world of crowdfunding (via Indiegogo), and I hated it, BIG TIME.
Back in Jan 2014, we made a short film called T.R.A.C.E. A Doctor Who Fan Film Episode 1, it was a combination of Anime-styled live action with sci-fi something I've had experience in the past. It was a challenge, we shot the whole film in a day (8am - 10pm) with only one break of 30mins for lunch), with only 4 cast and about 10 crews.
An experience that I would never do that again (even though in the past we have made shooting easier, this time, since the location was closed to the public only for a day of the week and I didn't want to drag everyone back, we opted to do everyone in a day).
The talents had to rehearse for 2 months prior to the shoot, I asked them to choreographed a 3 mins long fight sequences and that since they are using sharp swords, we will shoot them doing the scenes in 50% speed and we will speed it up in post. Due to the location and how well they had rehearsed, we agreed to do everyone in 100% speed (and we had a medic on hand in case of someone's fingers get cut off).
the 3 mins fight sequences were too long for the day, especially when we had about 10-15 takes each shot... So, I've made my decision to cut off areas that I don't necessarily need and move the story along.
During post production, we had a nightmare to match colors, due to the fact, 1. we use 4 canon cameras (Canon 5D3 and Canon 70D) and we forgot to white balance so, we had to apply first a color correction and then color grade them to match, that took 2 months, along with the time spent adding visual fx etc.
In sound design, we ADRed everyone (small lines), and then added sound fx mixes, a bit different on my scenario is that we actually made the sound fx to be close to reality but some are very much the familiar punch/grab/noise... So, in real stereo at a theater, it would sound better.
So, now Episode 1 was completed and we are moving forward with E2-E7, we started a crowdfunding effort, boy it is the MOST annoying and difficult thing for me to do, especially when you want to get a high gogo factor so it would be featured (And I think that's a fake thing, it's more about how much $ you would want to pay to indigogo's partnered companies).
I will be using this page to document and write more about the process, so you can learn more about what not to do.
For now, here's the 6 mins short Episode 1:
PS: So many of you asked why make a fan film?
Answer: Original idea is to make a short martial arts film, but there are tons of them on youtube and such and they are way better than what we can create, so I decided to make it a fan film, not only now I'm venturing a fan base of people that may eventually follow me, this would be one of the better quality Doctor Who fan film that is available online. And of course, I'm a Doctor Who fan and one of my good friend was part of the BBC's Doctor Who's 40th Anniversary event and exhibitions.
My background is more in marketing than in filmmaking, I started making film since I noticed it would be a venue to release my creativity, since filmmaking runs in our family and my dad loves movies. lol (Anyone remember Betamax? I've over 10,000 tapes at one point).
I grew up being alone most of the time as mom/dad works (mom owns a beauty saloon, while dad was a diplomat), so I spent most of the time playing imaginary games (like coins wars, soldiers, pretend to be superheroes, etc)... So yea, had way too much free time lol (surprisinngly I didn't end up to be a serial killer or something) lol
In the past, all my films has been self-funded or with features, we had investors, but I was never the person going out and look for films. It was a bit different this time around, as I'm first time ever venturing into the world of crowdfunding (via Indiegogo), and I hated it, BIG TIME.
Back in Jan 2014, we made a short film called T.R.A.C.E. A Doctor Who Fan Film Episode 1, it was a combination of Anime-styled live action with sci-fi something I've had experience in the past. It was a challenge, we shot the whole film in a day (8am - 10pm) with only one break of 30mins for lunch), with only 4 cast and about 10 crews.
An experience that I would never do that again (even though in the past we have made shooting easier, this time, since the location was closed to the public only for a day of the week and I didn't want to drag everyone back, we opted to do everyone in a day).
The talents had to rehearse for 2 months prior to the shoot, I asked them to choreographed a 3 mins long fight sequences and that since they are using sharp swords, we will shoot them doing the scenes in 50% speed and we will speed it up in post. Due to the location and how well they had rehearsed, we agreed to do everyone in 100% speed (and we had a medic on hand in case of someone's fingers get cut off).
the 3 mins fight sequences were too long for the day, especially when we had about 10-15 takes each shot... So, I've made my decision to cut off areas that I don't necessarily need and move the story along.
During post production, we had a nightmare to match colors, due to the fact, 1. we use 4 canon cameras (Canon 5D3 and Canon 70D) and we forgot to white balance so, we had to apply first a color correction and then color grade them to match, that took 2 months, along with the time spent adding visual fx etc.
In sound design, we ADRed everyone (small lines), and then added sound fx mixes, a bit different on my scenario is that we actually made the sound fx to be close to reality but some are very much the familiar punch/grab/noise... So, in real stereo at a theater, it would sound better.
So, now Episode 1 was completed and we are moving forward with E2-E7, we started a crowdfunding effort, boy it is the MOST annoying and difficult thing for me to do, especially when you want to get a high gogo factor so it would be featured (And I think that's a fake thing, it's more about how much $ you would want to pay to indigogo's partnered companies).
I will be using this page to document and write more about the process, so you can learn more about what not to do.
For now, here's the 6 mins short Episode 1:
PS: So many of you asked why make a fan film?
Answer: Original idea is to make a short martial arts film, but there are tons of them on youtube and such and they are way better than what we can create, so I decided to make it a fan film, not only now I'm venturing a fan base of people that may eventually follow me, this would be one of the better quality Doctor Who fan film that is available online. And of course, I'm a Doctor Who fan and one of my good friend was part of the BBC's Doctor Who's 40th Anniversary event and exhibitions.