"the overs"

[Chamber005]

WE HAVE LAUNCHED!!

:::dancin:::

I'd only ever reveal to my closest peeps and to you all on DVXUSER how incredibly challenging this was to make happen. Before like four or five months ago I'd never attempted filmmaking, make-up, music, website design -- none of it. DVXUSER has been so important (integral really) to helping me get this big beast off the ground.

I cannot be more thankful for having met all of you wonderful people. And although the first webisodes will probably be a little rough around the edges (this first one certainly is), I believe that I'll improve over the length of the webisodes and it will prepare me for the finale.

Again, thank you all so much and please enjoy the webisodes and the accompanying website!!

Username: JAMIELANE

Password: DAYDREAM

www.thegreatindependent.com

Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreatIndependent

Facebook fan page:

www.facebook.com/theovers

MySpace film page:

www.myspace.com/thegreatindependent



POSTERS:

 

[Chamber005]

PRODUCTION NOTES:

Shot on an HF200 at 12mbps (since I knew it was going to be an online-only kind of deal, and because my computer is only a Penny D, 12 worked just fine).

Shoot was 100% indoors (as will be all 8 episodes). We used lots of natural light, the normal lights around the apartment, and a couple times for a more dramatic effect I brought in a halogen or two. I used the camera's onboard system to correct for the different lighting environments.

I built a weighted, balanced little rig for a couple shots (like moving down the hallway). It worked better than handheld, which was all I was hoping for.

Sound was probably the most bizarre thing about the shoot. I was going to originally shoot the thing on this DSR200 that I had lying around, but it turned out to be inoperable, so I turned it into my sound machine. It has dual XLR inputs and records at 48k so, again -- good enough for YouTube. I bought a small mixer (40 bucks) to navigate between the mic and the DSR for power. And it turned out to be a pretty good buy since the trim (gain) on the mixer was more crisp than what the DSR had. The mics used were these CAD drum mics that I picked up 2 for 50 bucks. They're intended to be used for high tops, so they worked pretty well with the voices once I dropped the low hz way down. I couldn't find a windscreen that would fit them, so instead I just grabbed a 10 dollar pop filter. Once I had the sound recorded on the DSR, it was just a matter of deleting the video track and lining up the wav lines of the DSR audio with the wav lines of the HF200's onboard sound recording. We didn't slate, so without those wav lines I would have been screwed.

We started make-up at 11AM (later than I'd wanted). It was only my third time every doing make-up in ANY regard, so the piece took me about 2 hours. Overall I'm happy with the result. I knew I would have to come pretty close to getting it exactly the way I wanted it because we can't exactly change the make-up midway through the series, AND I had to make sure that I could repeat the process, ya know?

So we finally got around to shooting at about 1PM. The night before I had scribbled down a kind of bizarre "shot list" that no one who reads any sort of language could probably discern except for myself. Since I'd written the episode, I had a intuitive understanding of how everything would happen, regardless of what order it was shot. That being said, NOTHING was shot in order. I didn't even allow him to finish a sentence. I knew I was working with someone who had never acted before AND we only had one day to shoot, so I thought the best thing I could do would be to just create a performance in the edit. Again, what you see in the first episode is the best of the best. There's one shot that I wish I'd never done (and will never do again) that happens right near the beginning where it's almost like he's talking to the camera. Shudder...

So I'm moving him into different rooms, having my girl as boom person, trying to get the cat to perform, etc, right? lol Completely insane and hectic and bizarre. We finished at around midnight with about 5 hours of footage. Overall, for my first time filming or recording sound for anything and only my 3rd time ever doing make-up, I was really happy with the result.

UPDATE: After listening to critiques here and on other forums we've moved to using wired countryman lav mics as well as enhancing the amount of light, choosing to do any darkening of the footage in post.

 

[legend of the steelstring]

Hey Chamber.... very nice for first effort
what I noticed was it was very dark at the beginning
too dark but that got better when he moved into the other room
the sound dropped in level pretty significantly when he sat by computer
I didnt like the dialog sounded to Quentin the way the caller told the story about the table
and even Quentin sucks at Quentin most of the time just doesnt sound natural to me

keep it up I look forward to more

 

[Chamber005]

Hey Chamber.... very nice for first effort
what I noticed was it was very dark at the beginning
too dark but that got better when he moved into the other room
the sound dropped in level pretty significantly when he sat by computer
I didnt like the dialog sounded to Quentin the way the caller told the story about the table
and even Quentin sucks at Quentin most of the time just doesnt sound natural to me

keep it up I look forward to more

Hey, thanks so much for the feedback!

That's too funny about the Quentin comment. I've never actually moved towards writing as any kind of writer. I just write it the way the character says it in my head. Maybe it's just the kinds of people I associate myself with...

And yeah, the sound thing was a mess in this first episode. Learned alot, though. And If I'm going to have a major sound issue, I'd rather it occur in a massive break like that.

Again, though, the webisode is really just a pebble on the beach for this project. The piece as a whole is something that's never been attempted before -- that's where the website and the username/password come in.

Thanks so much for your feedback, though! I can't believe that no one has been giving me any feedback when I've got more than 300 posts of giving people feedback on their stuff. Really bizarre...

Who knows. But thanks!

 

[Chamber005]

Posted Ashley's audio transmission from THE OVERS: REMNANTS

www.youtube.com/user/thegreatindependent

 

[Chamber005]

Gearing up to shoot episode two tomorrow. The read through went pretty well. This will be a really interesting shoot considering the constraints I'm putting on it. Should be a good time!

And 199 fans on facebook and 640 video views on YouTube!

That's an enormous audience IMO to be delivering the next episode to. Super happy to be getting some awesome feedback.

Hopefully someday I'll actually get some subscribers!

 

[Chamber005]

EPISODE TWO IS UP!!

This one was really awesome as The Beautiful Girls donated a song to us for the production.

So this is my second time ever using a camera -- and the second episode! lol Having an awesome time of it!! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreatIndependent

 

[mainstreetcm]

Any update on how The Overs is performing?

 

[Alex H.]

I'm not sure I get the piece. But here's my technical assessment:

The acting was flat. Your lead needs to learn how to deliver lines without sounding like he's reading from a cue card. And even the voices on the phone sounded forced and uncomfortable.

Get the mic in close for dialog. There's too much room in his on-cam, and that is exacerbated by the fact that the background recorded in the dialog cuts in and out with each line. Room tone underneath will smooth that out, but a closer mic will give stronger dialog with less background. There are also some audio clips that have hiss in them, and that's distracting.

Also on sound editing, too much is missing. There are places where you rely on the phone dialog and completely cut out any hint of what's happening on camera (when he goes into the room with the cat and sits down in the chair). Foley and FX editing can add back in some of those sounds if needed, but again the room tone layered underneath is going to smooth the whole thing out. And the phone ring was too loud and up front... it sounded like FX. Bring it back in the mix and add a little reverb to try and match the natural reverb of the room. You want it to sound like it's acutally in the room, and not added in post.

It's dark and noisy. Your camera wants light, and it looks like you're shooting only with what's available in the apartment, which isnt enough. Yes, there are some rooms with lots of sunlight coming in and those are certainly better for exposure, but then you end up with blown out windows and other things that can be controlled. Even films that want to look dark actually shoot with tons of light and then pull it back in post.

Keep on working at it. For a first effort, you're well on your way.

 

[Chamber005]

I'm not sure I get the piece. But here's my technical assessment:

The acting was flat. Your lead needs to learn how to deliver lines without sounding like he's reading from a cue card. And even the voices on the phone sounded forced and uncomfortable.

Get the mic in close for dialog. There's too much room in his on-cam, and that is exacerbated by the fact that the background recorded in the dialog cuts in and out with each line. Room tone underneath will smooth that out, but a closer mic will give stronger dialog with less background. There are also some audio clips that have hiss in them, and that's distracting.

Also on sound editing, too much is missing. There are places where you rely on the phone dialog and completely cut out any hint of what's happening on camera (when he goes into the room with the cat and sits down in the chair). Foley and FX editing can add back in some of those sounds if needed, but again the room tone layered underneath is going to smooth the whole thing out. And the phone ring was too loud and up front... it sounded like FX. Bring it back in the mix and add a little reverb to try and match the natural reverb of the room. You want it to sound like it's acutally in the room, and not added in post.

It's dark and noisy. Your camera wants light, and it looks like you're shooting only with what's available in the apartment, which isnt enough. Yes, there are some rooms with lots of sunlight coming in and those are certainly better for exposure, but then you end up with blown out windows and other things that can be controlled. Even films that want to look dark actually shoot with tons of light and then pull it back in post.

Keep on working at it. For a first effort, you're well on your way.

Thanks, and yeah -- the acting is something that's going to have to come along as it comes along. I thought he did better in the second episode. We never actually rehearsed in either of the first two, so for the next one we're going to rehearse and hopefully that will make a difference.

I'm not completely positive that the dark noise is because the camera needs more light. I think that it plays pretty clear in the original footage; when I encode and then post it online is when it seems to get noisy. Also, I'm shooting at 12mbps instead of 24mbps because of the editing equipment I'm using. I've seen the blacks from the HF200 at 24mbps and they're pretty clean.

Sound is an iffy one. I have to use high-top mics for cost reasons. My plan on the 3rd episode is to actually clean up the sound in post after synching (which I haven't done yet).

In regards to the phone calls and the ambients going in and out, I debated a long time on that. The fact of the matter is that if we're hearing what's going on inside his headphones, then any ambient noise would be exstinguished when we're hearing the caller's voice. Like, you can't have it both ways, ya know? We're not hearing the call the way you do in most movies (as if the phone is just REALLY loud so that we can hear it because we're standing in the room); when the caller speaks we're hearing as Collin hears, not as the viewer. So in that, we're jumping back and forth between observer and listener, the same way you would move between POV and 3rd person shots, ya know?

I think in the end getting rid of the audio hiss will allow for this effect to exist properly. I don't want any foley while the caller is speaking -- unless it's foley on the caller's end. When the caller is not speaking, foley and ambient can exist. I think everything just needs to be cleaner so as to not be distracting.

But yeah, the webseries is actually only a small piece of the whole thing (that's probably why you didn't get it, lol). There's a whole multi-media thing, etc. It's been about 70/30 in terms of people taking the next step. Like, 30% of people just watch the show, the other 70% go on to the website with the password, etc.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I'm going to really work on the sound for this next one (which will be a perfect opprotunity since there won't be a caller).

Thanks!

 

[Chamber005]

Any update on how The Overs is performing?

It's going pretty well. I've tried to stop being so focused on numbers and stuff, lol. I think everyone probably goes through that in the beginning.

But yeah, we've got over 260 fans on facebook, so that's just ridiculously awesome. Still about 150 views away from the 1,000 milestone on youtube. I stopped any kind of campaigning or anything for the second episode, just as a test to see how many views happen over the course of the month.

As I stated in a previous response, the project overall is at about a 70/30 ratio with 70% of people after watching the episodes then moving onto the website.

Of course I'm always looking at shows like The Guild, Legend Of Neil and Webserials stuff, hoping that someday I can have the kind of following that they do, but some things will have to improve (most noteably acting and sound) before people will start encouraging the thing to go viral. Right now all of the fans are super awesome and supportive, but I think it's an akward sort of thing to forward to your friends and say, "Hey, watch this weird shtuff about this guy talking to some dirt" lol.

The best thing, though, is that none of our views have come from anyone on YouTube -- it's all outside word of mouth. So if I can someday tap into the YouTube audience, that would be awesome possum.

But yeah -- it's all about trying to get better right now. This is my first time out. TONS of improvement ahead, I hope!

 

[Alex H.]

I'm not completely positive that the dark noise is because the camera needs more light. I think that it plays pretty clear in the original footage; when I encode and then post it online is when it seems to get noisy. Also, I'm shooting at 12mbps instead of 24mbps because of the editing equipment I'm using. I've seen the blacks from the HF200 at 24mbps and they're pretty clean.

Compression is adding something, but it's also exposing noise that's already there. And it depends on where you watch the footage as to how much of the noise you notice. These cameras don't have chips big enough to shoot reliably in dim household lighting. Plain and simple.

And exactly what computer and software are you using?

In regards to the phone calls and the ambients going in and out, I debated a long time on that. The fact of the matter is that if we're hearing what's going on inside his headphones, then any ambient noise would be exstinguished when we're hearing the caller's voice. Like, you can't have it both ways, ya know? We're not hearing the call the way you do in most movies (as if the phone is just REALLY loud so that we can hear it because we're standing in the room); when the caller speaks we're hearing as Collin hears, not as the viewer. So in that, we're jumping back and forth between observer and listener, the same way you would move between POV and 3rd person shots, ya know?

I think in the end getting rid of the audio hiss will allow for this effect to exist properly. I don't want any foley while the caller is speaking -- unless it's foley on the caller's end. When the caller is not speaking, foley and ambient can exist. I think everything just needs to be cleaner so as to not be distracting.

But when he's listening to the caller, will he not also hear everything in his own room? It still doesn't work with the noise floor changing with every edit. Getting rid of the hiss is one part, but keeping the noise floor consistent throughout the scene is also very important.

Record the voice for the caller in a sound-treated environment, and prefereably with a dynamic mic. That puts less ambient noise floor on the phone call and more control over the caller's voice in post.

Just watching, it's very distracting to see him sit down in a chair and not hear a thing. It's not going to take the viewer out of the phone conversation to hear some movement... in fact, it took me out of the call not to hear it. Some of the movement can be captured as production sound, and then use Foley and FX to fill in what's missing. The key to a good soundtrack is layers, built to create a believable sound environment.

 

[Chamber005]

Compression is adding something, but it's also exposing noise that's already there. And it depends on where you watch the footage as to how much of the noise you notice. These cameras don't have chips big enough to shoot reliably in dim household lighting. Plain and simple.

And exactly what computer and software are you using?



But when he's listening to the caller, will he not also hear everything in his own room? It still doesn't work with the noise floor changing with every edit. Getting rid of the hiss is one part, but keeping the noise floor consistent throughout the scene is also very important.

Record the voice for the caller in a sound-treated environment, and prefereably with a dynamic mic. That puts less ambient noise floor on the phone call and more control over the caller's voice in post.

Just watching, it's very distracting to see him sit down in a chair and not hear a thing. It's not going to take the viewer out of the phone conversation to hear some movement... in fact, it took me out of the call not to hear it. Some of the movement can be captured as production sound, and then use Foley and FX to fill in what's missing. The key to a good soundtrack is layers, built to create a believable sound environment.

Hmm. I think the noise on the caller's end is pretty much non-existent in the second episode. I'm actually going to reshoot most of the first episode once we're done with the series so that the webseries molds better with the greater four-part piece once it's on DVD.

I'm still iffy on your points about the viewer/caller soundtrack. I put on the headphones myself and moved around the office, and you can make out some of the sounds when, for instance, you get up from the chair, etc. So I think moving forward I will add some really drowned-out foley if he makes an noises (getting up from the chair, tapping something, etc).

The schedule is a bit tight on these, though. I get one day to shoot (wherein I'm doing all of the make-up, etc.) and two-three days to edit 8-10 minute shorts. Again, before we create the DVD with all four parts included (the webseries being only one of them), I'm definately going to spend a month just touching sound and colors up. I look at this webseries and the website as being a kind of...on-going trailer, ya know? The final DVD product is going to be dramatically different than what the viewer experiences online (it HAS to be -- no internet to surf, right?). But by presenting it in this manner I have the opprotunity to build a fan base of people who are so interested in the characters and story that they even forgive some of my larger mistakes.

As for the computer I'm using, it's a Pentium D. I have CS4 master collection, but I'm still editing and doing colors in Sony Vegas Platinum. LOL

It's bad, I know. I just have SO much going on with work and life and this project it's hard to sit down and learn something new.

Eventually I will be using After Effects and Premiere Pro to cut, edit and correct my stuff.

Heck, I JUST tried photoshop for the first time this weekend. I know if I take a couple days I can learn it -- just have to get around to it.

 

[Chamber005]

So I've just started concept drawings for the third aspect of this piece, which is a "motion" web comic that takes place when the team was in their teens. I've done a few that are close to the mark, and although this one isn't at all where I'm going, I thought it was too cute to trash.

 

[Chamber005]

Quick head study of teenage Nathan with and without his mask. I like that the colors are less pastel-y than what I've been doing as of late. Still not certain if this is the style I'm sticking with.

 

[Chamber005]

Original concept for Valerie. Capes work well in comics, but not so much in the real world. Still, maybe someday...

 

[Chamber005]

Ho-kay, so after an extreme amount of consideration I've decided to retool the structure (or. delivery) of The Overs.

Originally I'd wanted to release the 4 major parts of the piece online leaving only 2 or 3 very minor aspects for the DVD release in late 2010. After lots of mulling it over, though, I decided that the two other aspects I was going to release ("Trial By Fire" and "There is No Atlantis") should not exist as lone entities. While each of the four prime aspects each have their own arc, there is an overreaching arc to the first "season". If I release the latter parts individually it will be impossible for the viewer to experience that arc with any resonance.

So, it's kind of a bummer, but since the series is in its infancy I should be able to make the changes I need to without much of a ruckus.

So until the DVD is available for purchase, Remnants will still run concurrently with Suicide Watch. Once the DVD comes out Remnants will be closed (due to us filming all of the blog and comment entries for the film) and only Suicide Watch (including the DVD reshoots) will stay on for new viewers who stroll by YouTube, etc.

It took a lot to get to this point. I hate changing a game plan, but in the end it will be better for the piece to be delivered in this manner.

 

[Chamber005]

Busily editing episode three. The shoot went well. It was really great to have two whole actors in the same scene together!

I'm really trying to pull out all the stops in this one. Better sound, better lighting, better acting. So far I think we've achieved it on all fronts. I'm really taking my time looking at the colors, tweaking the sound, etc. Hopefully this one comes dressed to impress.

As long as every episode I deliver gets better and better, I'm happy.

 

[Chamber005]

So kind of a sad but also probably a good, some private equity guys I know have shown some interest in helping me produce a feature based on my webseries. Totally and completely awesome on the surface, but it means having to walk away from the entire point of what I was doing.

I had this idea that I could release the webseries and get feedback, etc, grow an audience, while I learn (which has been awesome and great and I've gotten really good feedback -- which I've even implemented in the 3rd episode that I already shot and edited). The problem is they're getting all businessy with me, which is TOTALLY understandable but means that I might end up having to take the series off line.

Their position (and I'm good with these guys, I trust them as much as any solid aquantence) is that they want me to form an LLC for the production, take everything off the web including the guts of the website regarding the property, and then I'd be free to release the webseries as a single entity once the LLC and all of our negotiations were finalized. Their reason is because they want to purchase part of the LLC that holds the rights to the series, which I'm in (preliminary) agreement with.

Everything feels really cool about this, but it means that I'm going to be stuck creating something that I can't share, which means little to no feedback. I mean, I JUST started doing this. I'm concerned that without any feedback I'll end up with something that could have been better had I had feedback all along. Everyone I work with are just buddies who don't know the difference between a boom pole and a bong, right?! LOL The other option is I could hire someone to work on the series with me, to sort of ensure a certain quality was being met, but that wasn't the original INTENTION of doing all this. *I* wanted to learn on a zero budget while getting consistent feedback from my peers and audience members.

The entire point of all this web stuff was to learn filmmaking, that's it. But I started writing script after script and got talking about it with some guys who could help me realize it all and now I'm kind of in a weird (but not completely bad in ANY sense) position.

The ONLY thing I can think to do is to ask them if they'd be okay with letting me show a few people (other guys I know here, for instance) some of the stuff as I go on just to make sure that I'm doing everything correctly. The problem is they feel the web series is whatever I want it to be but they're not about investing any money into it (which is understandable, heck I'M not even investing any money into it!!). The feature is something I won't have to be as concerned about because I'll have hired help (DP, sounds guy, etc as well as much better equipment) and they'll be providing the bulk of the funds.

In the end this isn't really a legal question, it's like a learning/artistic one. I feel SO incompotent as a filmmaker and a make-up artist, and while the 3rd episode looks much better, we did lots of rehearsing, rented the Countryman lav mics, etc, I'm just nervous that without the feedback from my audience and other filmmakers I won't know if I'm taking the right steps.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this isn't a normal set of circumstances, but does anyone else have any experience/advice on something like this? Do I chuck the feedback/critiques for some certainty that the feature that follows the webseries will have additional funding (at which time I'll have HELP with the film), or do I say thanks but no thanks and just tell them that if they're still interested they can come on once the series is finished?

Bottom line I'm planning on re-shooting the first two episodes anyway, so I feel like that's going to be stunting to the audience regardless, AND I have SUCH A SMALL AUDIENCE! It's like under 300 people on the facebook fan page. Once I'm at 3,000 or 30,000 it's going to be much, much more difficult to turn around and say that I have to stop everything because of some "deal".

I thought it would be at least 5 years before I even had to start dealing with this kind of stuff, and maybe I should just ignore everything and every offer until then -- until I feel like I know what the heck I'm doing.

Any advice from a CREATOR'S perspective? Ironically I feel completely confident in the business aspects of all this, but if I end up with something that could have been better it's there forever (and, who knows, it could even HURT the final product of the film, right?). I just don't know.

I am definately going to take the holiday to consider all this, but it would be great if any of you guys could chime in.

Thanks!