Wulf

El Director

El Director

Veteran
What follows are excerpts that relate to the feature film "Wulf" from the various journals I kept making the short films and the feature. We start in the Spring of 2005 when I started making scary short movies. I was only 19, about to turn 20 at this time.

Saturday, April 02, 2005
I talked to Miyeko the other day about doing my Scary Movie idea before we do Jesse & Jack as a sort of screen test. And this way, I get a short film out of it. I called her today to see if she can do it next Thursday. She said yes. Brittney is getting her wisdom teeth out this week, but hopefully, she'll be healed by then.

Thursday, April 07, 2005
The scary movie thing (I'm calling it "Production 13") turned out awesome. I had Miyeko and Brittney come over; we shot the 4-minute film in about 3 hours. I just got done editing a rough cut, or first draft. It flows really well, for a first cut. Miyeko did really well, I was impressed. And the two girls found their chemistry with each other, which is great. We ended up having to set dress my room to make it look like a girl's room. We did this because it was ultimately easier to make my room look like night.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005
I'm completely finished with "Production 13". It is probably one of my best works. I took it into work today, and everyone loved it. I showed it to Emily, and I got her to scream. I think that I've finally found my niche-Horror films. I'm going to try and write another one, using some of the same techniques that I learned in this one. I feel very confident now that "Jesse and Jack" will turn out well, but for some reason, I'm just not too happy with the storyline right now. I'm just so stoked about this scary movie thing. I had so much fun doing it, and it was so easy to do.

Friday, April 29, 2005
I learned a whole bunch of stuff when I did Production 13. First, I feel confident that both girls will be able to act the parts I need them to. Second, I know that if I'm unable to use my parent's camera, which has a mic input, I can use my ADR method: re-record all the dialogue after it's shot. More than likely, I'll end up doing the sound effects this way, they just sound so natural. Also, having the ability to do my own music with ACID is great! Had I just used music that already existed, it would have been very difficult for me to get the feeling I wanted, when I wanted it. This movie was also the first movie that I shot in my camera's anamorphic 16:9 mode.

Thursday, May 05, 2005
I had a totally excellent idea today! For some time, I've been considering doing my own version of the tale "Little Red Ridding Hood". Today while I was at Old Navy, I came up with a great modern twist for the story-What if Red met Hannibal Lector? I thought that it'd be cool to have a girl cut through the woods on her way home from school. On the way home, she encounters a hermit by the name of Wulf. He lures her into his camp where he eats her. I had also been thinking about doing a sequel to my Jesse movie. I was talking to Theresa about it, and she recommended that since Jesse & Jack end up running away into the mountains, why not continue the story from that point, instead of telling two totally different stories. I didn't think that Brittney would be all for it, since it deals with a very controversial topic. When I picked up Brittney from school today, I told her about it, and she thought that it is awesome. She actually agreed to do it. We got to talking about it, toyed with using it as an extended ending, but ultimately, thought that it would make a better short film. We wrote a very rough draft of the script, action only. Now I have to flesh it out.
 
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Monday, May 16, 2005
I got the script finished for Jesse Part III. I'm calling it "Wulf". I talked to Jon at Old Navy about playing the title character, he said he'd read the script then give me an answer. I'm ultra excited that I'm going to have my own little trilogy. But I'm not doing anymore of these "Jesse" movies. It's gonna be a lot of pressure on Brittney, and I don't want to do that to her. Fortunately, I've killed her off, so I don't have to worry about it. Unless I do a sequel where she comes back to life.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005
I shot some opening footage for Jesse III yesterday. I'm going to open it with a beautiful shot of fire. The camera slowly zooms out as the opening credits are overlaid.

Thursday, June 16, 2005
I had Brittney come over today and we shot her solo scenes for "Wulf". It turned out really well. No problems at all. It took us about half an hour to shoot, then we came back to my house. We actually finished ahead of schedule. After she left, I edited the two scenes, and did the music for them. They are so awesome! I think I'm pretty much stuck on shooting digital. The reason? In the old days of movie making, you paid a lot of money for the film stock. You shot your movie. Then you paid more money just to see your footage a few days later. Then you could edit very cumbersomely. Finally after a week or two, you would have a completed scene. I shot two scenes, edited them, and added, no, composed- music in one day. It just makes more sense.

Saturday, July 09, 2005
I was talking to a customer today at Best Buy. His friend runs a film festival in Las Vegas. Anyway, the guy was telling me that as of right now, the most marketable films out there are horror films. I need to start watching every horror film that I can, so I can make a kick ass film. I'm thinking about moving up my feature date from 2008 to 2007. I need to get into Hollywood ASAP. I'm planning on shooting the rest of "Wulf" tomorrow. Hopefully everyone can make it.


Monday, July 11, 2005
Shooting yesterday went awesome! The only hang up was that Jon was a few minutes late, but it was worth it. We planned to shoot for 2.5-3 hours. We finished after an hour and a half, just as it started to rain. Jon was totally into his character. I was watching him, and he reminded me of Jack Nicholson on "The Shining". He also did a voice that was similar to the Emperor's in Star Wars. Sure enough, I asked him what his favorite horror film is, and he said "The Shining". We shot all of the scenes very quickly. While I set up the shot, Brittney and Jon would go over their lines. I shot about forty minutes of footage, and got over 100 setups. And we only shot for an hour and a half! Imagine if we shot for 12 hours on a feature film! I just did the math, and that would be 800 setups. Wow! We had a lot of fun shooting the death scene at the end. And there were these kids who were hiking, and they stopped to watch us. It was great! I got home and cut all of the footage together. It took me 3 hours. I just need to get one more shot, but I can't get it until after I shoot "Jesse & Jack." I need a shot of the bloodied hat lying on the ground. I'm having Jon come over on Friday to do his ADR. I'll get Brittney's sometime this week. Cut together, my movie is 8 minutes 30 seconds. The script said it should have been 8 minutes 15 seconds, so I'm right on track as a screenwriter.
 
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
I spent the past two nights editing. The first night went as follows. I got home, ate dinner, then edited for three hours to complete the rough cut, which includes the basic shot placement, color correction when needed, and cropping from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1. Last night, I went through and made a list of the sounds I needed to get, and then today, I did the Foley work. Also, I scored the movie today. Now, all I need is the one last shot, some dialogue, and I'll have "Production 25" in the can. It's funny, it was the last movie I wrote, but the first one completed. I talked to Megan Zipperer, a girl I work with at Old Navy, about doing some voiceovers for the last scene. She said she could do it sometime next week. I should have this movie done just in time for the relatives who are coming up for a reunion. Sweet! I'm ecstatic that I've finished "Wulf", but I'm bumming as well, 'cause I'm just not as excited about part 2 anymore. I think it's because "Jesse & Jack" will be a drama, not a horror film, and I really love doing the horror thing. But, now I'm kinda stuck with doing part 2 'cause otherwise there are bits and pieces in part 3 that don't make sense. Oh-as of today, I'm officially in the film business. I got a job at Hollywood video.

Saturday, July 16, 2005
Yesterday, while I was working at Best Buy, I came up with a totally awesome idea for a movie. It would pick up in the middle of "Wulf", and then continue the story of Wulf. Since it was so slow at work yesterday, I grabbed a few pieces of paper and wrote out about 15-20 plot points. I came home and fleshed it out. I love the story! There will be suspense, action, and of course, horror. I even wrote in a chase scene and a scene where Wulf goes flying off of a cliff. And in true horror film fashion, one of the girls dies, and I wrote in one last scare at the end when you thought that the movie was over.
My movie (Wulf) is totally finished-except for two lines of dialogue that Jen and Megan are coming over on Monday to do. The ADR went off without a hitch. One of Brittney's lines didn't match up all the way, so I used the original camera audio for that bit. Fifty years ago, if you told someone that you could shoot and edit a short film within one week, they would have thought you were loony. But by shooting digital, it's so easy! Did I mention how much I love shooting digital???

Sunday, July 17, 2005
I'm so excited now! Tomorrow, "Wulf" will be completed. I'm very happy with it, and I'm happy that there was hardly any digital work needed for it. I had to fix two glitched frames, and color correct two scenes, but that was it. Everything else is as I shot it. Not bad, eh? I just got done with draft 1 of the script for Wulf 2. I love it, but it needs a little work. I am, however, pleased that my writing is getting better the more scripts that I write. The chase scene is really going to be cool, and if I do it right, it'll be suspenseful.

Friday, July 29, 2005
I finished draft 2 of The Feeding Continues. I added some flashbacks on how Wulf became a cannibal. I've also written the treatment for Wulf III. Possible title: "The Last Supper".

Saturday, July 30, 2005
I have a bunch of people who are interested in being in my movies. I love this feeling. It's funny how once you start to make movies that are actually watchable and good, people want to help you. I have two people who have acted before and two people who haven't. I considered putting both the actresses in the same movie to really bring up the quality, but ultimately, I think putting one in each will be better.
 
Note:
At some point between July 17 and August 11, I decided that I was going to make my first feature a feature version of "Wulf".

Thursday, August 11, 2005
As I was shooting some scenes for "Jesse and Jack" today, Rus Seaton asked me if I was going to film school. I told him no, that everything I've been reading says that the only reason to go to school is to have access to the equipment you need to make your movies. I told him that $2000 got me everything that I need. I told him about my plan for making a feature in two years, and going down to Hollywood to sell myself as a director. I told him that even if I'm unable to sell myself, the video market is always looking for films. I can sell the film for $40,000 easily. He agreed and seemed to think that it was a good idea.

Monday, August 22, 2005
I rented a horror film the other day, it's called "The SlaughterHouse Massacre" I thought that it would be a good one. It sucks. It's more of a porno film than horror film. I can also tell that it was shot on video and the effects totally suck! They did a digital decapitation of a girl, and it looks horrible! If this movie is that bad, I can't wait to see how mine turns out.

Thursday, September 01, 2005
Well, I finally have all the cast members that I'm going to need for my next two "Wulf" movies. In part two, I have Marie Crispino and Jocelyn Wickwire. In part three, I have Brooke Hamburgaren and Alicia Cassetters. I'm so excited about these movies, since they will be done by the end of the month. Or at least shot by the end of the month.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
I'm planning to shoot Wulf II on Sunday. I've cast all the characters for both films, and I'm ready to go. Marie Crispino and Jocelyn Wickwire are the two girls. And of course, Jon Jordan will be returning as Wulf. I've given Wulf an axe in part II. I think that it will make it more menacing than the hokey knife. Jon and I were talking at work today about the different ways we can kill off Marie's character. We came up with some really good ideas that I like.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
I shot all of Jon and Jocelyn's scenes last Sunday. Shooting went extremely well. No big problems. This movie is going to have so much gore, it's awesome. It's amazing what you can do with a few blood capsules and kool-aid. I've edited together everything that I've shot so far, and it flows pretty good. I just have one more day of shooting, and I'll be good to go. I love shooting digitally! I had Jon act like he was throwing a knife, and then I digitally added in a virtual knife. It looks great!!! Also, in one shot, the sky was totally blown out, so I replaced it with a photo of blue sky via a luminescence key. Totally seamless!

Note:
I never did finish this original version of Wulf II. But it all worked out. The version of Wulf 2 that I did finish is way better!
 
Saturday, August 12, 2006
For the past year I've been working on a feature film adaptation of my short film, "Wulf". As of right now, the plan is this-to have the script finished by December, and to shoot it next June, and to sell it by the following May. My goal is to first use the film to get an agent, and second, sell it to the video market. I just shot half of a sequel to the short film so I could experiment some more with what I want to do with the feature-different camera angles, learning what I can do with practical effects, and so on. Up until yesterday, my biggest challenge has been "where do I get the money to do this film right?" Now, I'm very good at shooting a movie for nothing. I've hardly spent any money on the last three short films I made. For the feature, though, I want to compete with the big boys. I made the decision a year ago to shoot this movie, not on film, but on high definition video, or HDV. My reason is that I like being able to edit digitally and it will be so much cheaper than shooting on film. The only drawback has been that a hi-def camera costs anywhere from $1500 to $100,000. That could be a lot of money- a lot of money I don't have. Also, which camera do I use? I was seriously considering the Sony DCR HC1, which runs $1500, but although the video quality would be high, it wouldn't look like film. The camera that I really wanted was the Canon XL H1, for $8999. This camera has interchangeable lenses, it’s HD, and also shoots in 24p, which seems to be the key to achieving a "film look". But this cam was way out of my price range! Then, a miracle happened- I work for a company called Phoenix Protective Corp as a Loss Prevention Agent. One of my teammates committed suicide about two weeks ago. The funeral was yesterday. After the funeral, the team and I went out for lunch. Somehow, it came up that I was an indie filmmaker who was going to shoot a feature next summer. I told one of my bosses that I needed a Hi Def camera to get a really good quality movie. After a conversation, he offered to sponsor me! Basically, he'll get me what I need, as long as I produce some promotional pieces for them. He told me that he'd be willing to put up $11,000! I couldn't believe it! Today, I started doing research to figure out exactly which camera I should get. I discovered a new gem-the Panasonic HVX 200, which goes for about $7000. Shoots true 24p (which the Canon doesn't, I learned) it's HD, but it shoots to a 8 minute memory card. Everyone says that it's not that bad, just like shooting a real roll of film. However, each card costs $1700 and people recommend getting two cards. Then they also recommend getting a laptop to transfer the data from the cards while you are shooting. That doesn't sound too bad! If I use $11,000 as my budget, that equipment would max it out! I'd just pay for the actors out of my own pocket. I can live with that! On Tuesday, I'm going down to Huppin's, a camera store, to do some more research!

Sunday, November 12, 2006
Well, I still haven't gone to Huppin's yet, but I am now confident after all the reading I've done that the HVX 200 is the camera I want. If things go the way they're planned, I should have my new baby by the end of the month. As far as the script goes, I'd written about 40 pages, or half the movie when I decided that I didn't like the way it was headed and started over from scratch. I've been reworking the story, and some of the original elements are there, but I think it'll be a lot tighter, which is good. I've also taken on a writing partner. Her name is Kati Solin, and she writes for one of the local, papers. I originally asked her to be in my movie, but she says she's camera shy, so I asked if she'd be interested in helping me write it instead. She said she would. I also have a full cast for my movie, although I still don't know who will play who yet. I had been volunteering at a Haunted House put on by Ignite! Community Theater and I met a bunch of people who said they were interested in helping me out. Sweet! One girl said she would handle my makeup effects for me. I like that! So, yeah, things are totally falling into place. It's awesome!

Monday, January 08, 2007
I called up Huppin's like a month ago, and they said that they don't carry the camera I want, so I'll probably order it online. Kati and I have yet to get together to work on the script, but I know I can handle it on my own if I need to. I'm also dropping $1000 to buy a laptop in two days. It'll be nice to be able to work on all aspects of my movie whenever I want, wherever I want! Some of the latest additions to the story are a few stunt sequences. I want one of the girls to get hit in the head with a flaming log, and I want another girl to get thrown off a cliff. And another will be gutted from the pelvic region to her sternum, with all her guts spilling out. Yeah, I think it's time I make a big boy movie. As far as financing this project goes, I haven't heard back from my work yet, so I might end up getting a small business loan to pay for the camera. My laptop is going to be more powerful than my pc, so I'll probably edit on that.
 
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Well, I have my new laptop, and that’s what I’m typing on right now. I love being able to take this with me to work on my movies wherever I am. I’m just about done with the treatment, and as soon as that’s finished, I can start on the script. I’ve also loaded all my filmmaking software onto this thing so I can work on any aspect of any project whenever I want. I called back Andrea, one of the girls I met at the Haunted House, to see if she was still interested in being in my movie. She said she was! She also told me that she has a guy friend who is going to the local community college to study acting and asked if I would audition him as well. I told her I would, since I’m not sure if I’ll be able to use my friend from high school, Kevin Maynes, and I still need someone to play the male lead.
-LATER-
Okay, so it’s about eight o’clock at night and I’m at work. Again, I’m so glad I have this laptop. I got here early and before I started, I was able to start working on some music. And now, I’m sitting in the manager’s office, watching the beer aisle to make sure nobody steals any, and I’ve been working on the treatment. I just finished! Yay! I now have an ending for the story, which I haven’t really had a strong ending yet, but I think this will do nicely. It’s a good tribute to Friday the 13th, which is one of my favorite movies.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007
So with the treatment finished, I started writing the actual script yesterday. I managed to get about a page and a half completed. Not a lot, but I’m well on my way. Again, I think it was an awesome idea to start over. The first scene I have now is so much better than the first scene I had a few months ago. When I talked to Kati the other day, she said that she’ll be able to help me once we’re into February. But I don’t know if I can wait that long, so I need to just go ahead and get as much of the script done now as possible. I’ve also decided that this movie is going to be a huge tribute to all my favorite horror films-Friday the 13th, Cabin Fever, The Blair Witch Project, and The Ring. Mostly Friday the 13th and Cabin Fever, though.

Sunday, January 28, 2007
I just got back from a short trip to Montana to work, and it was awesome being able to work on my movie while I was gone. I’m at 25 pages of script, which means I’m a little more than a fourth of the way finished with it! The move is going to rock-I was writing the scene where Sarah disappears and I was even getting goose bumps. That doesn’t happen very often-and when I consider it, if I, the writer/director was getting freaked out, then imagine the audience!

Monday, February 05, 2007
I’m just about halfway done with the script. I’m at page 39! I still haven’t been able to work with Kati at all yet, so this is still a Chris Tempel original. Hopefully I can work with her sometime this week or next. My goal is to have the script finished in five days. That’s my plan, we’ll see if that happens. Oh, I'm formatting the script with a Microsoft Word template called "Drama Dog". It’s freeware, which makes the price just about right. Here’s an update on the camera: JC Shah, the vice-president of PPC was in town the other day. He told me about some plans that he had about me and my camera. I told him that I found a guy who is selling four of those cameras on eBay, for about $4500. He told me to email him the link to the page. I did, and I haven’t heard back from him yet, but hopefully I get the camera soon so I can learn how to use it before I start shooting Wulf. As a minor note, I’m considering changing the name Sarah to Paige. Here’s a current cast list:

Wulf Jon Jordan
Tanya Erin Downhour
Brianna Andrea McKeever
Nicole Candice Smith
Ash ???
Paige/Sarah Brittney Gerard
Hank Joe __________
Bartender ???
Man ???

Considering that the script isn’t even finished yet, I think that this is so cool that people are being this supportive of me! They’ve literally signed on blind, and I won’t let them down!
 
Monday, March 12, 2007
I feel like the script has stagnated. I’m not sure what I can do to fix it. It’s been really strong up until this point, and I’d like to get at least 15 more pages in. The ending I’ve got will be about two pages, so I need 13 more. Here’s what I’ve got:

Prolouge-Man and Dog are hiking, Dog dies, Man dies.

Opening Credits-Newspaper reports about missing hikers.

Act One-Five teens have just graduated from high school and are on their way into the mountains to celebrate. They get a flat tire and stop in a town to get it fixed. While it’s being fixed, they grab lunch at a diner where a trucker tells them that the mountains are haunted by a werewolf. Brushing it off, they continue onward. Once they hit the mountains, it’s time to start hiking. They quickly become lost and decide to camp in a small clearing. They party, alcohol is involved. The boyfriend tells a scary story and freaks out the girls. Something is watching them from the trees. The next morning, the kids wake up and find some rather large boot tracks from someone who had been peeping into their camp. Ash and Tanya head off to see if they can find their way back to the trail. The others remain at the camp. Ash and Tanya discover a more permanent camp about two hours away. They head back to tell the others. When they return, they stumble upon some more tracks that look fresh. Tanya looses her cool and flashes the woods, asking the "****in' sick perve" if he "likes that ****!" It's too late to head to the permanent camp, so the kids spend another night. They decide to take turns staying guard, and Sarah gets to go first. Not long after the others are asleep, she hears some noises and goes to investigate. The light from her flashlight slowly disappears into the dark. (Ends on Page 24-25)

Act Two-The next morning, the remaining kids find that Sarah is missing. Initially thinking she's run off playing a joke, that soon changes when they follow her tracks to a small clearing where a struggle occurred. Ash and Tanya realize that they're close to the other camp and they decide to go there looking for help. After poking around, Wulf-a friendly mountain man, introduces himself and his camp. The kids explain what's happened, and he offers to help them. But, seeing how it's getting dark, it'll have to wait until the next day. He gives them some food, a type of meat that's "a rare delicacy in these parts of the woods". After he goes to bed, the kids decide to go find Sarah their selves. Wulf hears the whole conversation and as soon as the kids are gone, his eye's fly open. The kids soon start going around the woods in circles and decide to split up, two by two. Before long, Wulf jumps out from behind a tree and grabs Ash. He kills him by ramming his knife through Ash's skull. Nicole freaks and takes off running blindly. She jumps out in front of Tanya and Brianna, scaring them. Unable to really speak, Nicole leads the girls to where Ash was taken. They are able to follow a trail of blood from there back to Wulf's camp. The girls find Ash's body, but no Wulf. Wulf suddenly appears, and grabs Nicole. Tanya grabs a log from the fire, and swings it at Wulf. He ducks and she hits Nicole in the side of the head, knocking her out. Brianna grabs Tanya and they take off running. (Page 44) Tee and Bri soon become lost again. Brianna remembers seeing a map and compass back in Wulf's camp. Regretfully, they head back. Meanwhile, Wulf is have a grand ole time torturing Nicole. He starts by mentally messing with her, then starts pulling out her hair, and finally ends up snapping all her fingers one by one. He finally kills her by slashing her throat. Brianna and Tanya come up with a plan. Tee will distract Wulf and get him to chase her so Brianna can grab the map and compass. Tanya goes running into his camp, cursing at him using every word/phrase she can think of. It works. As she bolts, Wulf follows. Through the trees they go, branches slapping her face. Back at the camp, Brianna starts looking for the map. She comes across a box full of trinkets, including things from Ash, Sarah, and Nicole. In the trees, Tanya looks back behind her only to find Wulf isn't following her. As Brianna turns to leave the camp with the map, she runs right into Wulf, who grabs her and ties her up. At that moment, Tanya comes to a ridge over looking the camp. She sees her sister and starts to climb down. She slips and rolls her ankle. Wulf appears over her. She swears at him and uses her good leg to knock out his feet from under him, causing him to smack his head on a stone. Tanya limps to her sister and frees her. (Page 53)

So, I need something for Act Three that will lead into the ending, which is Bri and Tee, or just Tee (haven't decided) survive the trip back to the car. As they open the door to get in, Wulf jumps out at them (right into the camera) Cut to black.
 
Saturday, March 17, 2007
So I got a great idea from Joe the other day. He had replied to my blog post on myspace about me needing help with the third act. He suggested having Tanya kill her sister. Hmmm… I like it! Also, talked to Andrea the other day, she's still game for the movie. Turns out the guy she was recommending is her fiancé. Sweet! It'll be a family thing! I emailed him the other day, he said he sounds intrigued and can't wait to do a screen test.
I was at an ACN training event today, and I met a friend of Alicia-one of the girl's from Wulf II: The Feeding Continues. He's into movies and wants to direct and act. Act? I told him about my movie and I'm going to screen test him as well. If I end up liking both actors, I think I'll write in another character. After all, six people to go after is more fun than five!
Also, I finally sucked it up and posted the short films on youtube. Then I embedded the video into my Wulf myspace page. Now everyone can see my movies!
Whoo-hoo! I just finished the first draft of the script! This is HUGE!

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Awesome news for today! I had my parents read the script (I trust them because they don't give it to me gently-they are very, very critical of my work). Although the subject doesn’t interest either of them (not big horror fans), it seemed like they thought the overall story was good. My mom did mention that Tanya swears just a little too much, So I went through and changed some of that. Draft 2 complete! I haven't added any new elements to the story yet, but I think I need too. If I could just get the movie (without credits) from 71 to 75 pages, I think we'll be jammin'!
Also-
I went to go see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the other night with my old roommate. I usually don't get popcorn, but this time I decided to. The guy behind the counter is a guy I went to high school with called Mark Richardson. We talked and it came up that he's into music. Really into music! Mark told me that he's thinking about going into film scoring as a career. I asked him if he'd like some practice and told him about my movie. Although I could score the movie myself, I think bringing him in will make it a lot better. He found me on myspace and told me what kind of music he can do. I listened to some of the songs on his page and really liked them. I emailed him back and told him about how everyone is working on deferred payment, so we'll see if he's still willing to work with me. I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again, I still can't believe how well things are going on my first feature so far!

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
So I had two friends whom I hadn't seen in a while come over to hang out tonight. One of them, Brittney Gerard, has a bit part in the feature film of Wulf and she was also in the original short that started this all. Anyway, she hadn't seen the short film, "Wulf 2" so I showed it to her. There's a part in the movie where Wulf holds up the severed limb of a girl and says, "Need a hand?" Both Brittney and my other friend Emily got kinda grossed out. It was awesome!

So I sent out draft two of the script to some of the actors and crew members a few days ago. So far, it seems like the general storyline is good, but the dialogue needs work. Plus, Tanya swears way too much. So now I'm working on pulling out more of the cussing and such.

I just won a new knife for the cannibal on ebay. After shipping, it came out to be about $24.99-it's a replica Bowie knife! 15 inches long! I was considering for a while giving Wulf a machete to wield, in honor of the Friday the 13th movies, but I need to be different. What makes this knife so cool is not just the size, but it has a wooden handle. It'll be so easy to make a few handles with no blades for some of the impaling scenes. I can just glue the handle to an actor's head or whatever, add a little blood, and we're good to go! I love it! It's kinda rustic looking and just looks like a knife that Wulf would use.

Monday, April 09, 2007
So it's about 1:21 in the morning, and I just a rough cut of the opening credits completed. I really think that this is going to turn out better than I dreamed! If I can get a full out cut to Mark Richardson, he can maybe start on some credit music. That'd be cool! Also, I'm not sure how the whole camcorder situation is going to turn out, so I'm going to ask Mark Anthony if I can borrow the camcorder I sold him when I worked at Best Buy. It's not HD, but I'm actually starting to have second thoughts about HD. If I'm really trying to emulate a look of 70's and 80's horror, then I need a crappy image, not a pristine one. And I know how to manipulate the look of SD to make it look like film, so that's a bonus! Tomorrow, I'm off to see the Rodriguez/Tarantino flick, Grindhouse. Can't wait!
 
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Wulf's new knife arrived today! This thing ROCKS! I'm going to have to get a picture of his old knife and his new one side by side so everyone can see the difference. I'm thinking about putting his old one in the "heirloom box" as a sort of easter egg. Then, during the commentary, I can point out the reference to the short film version.

Monday, April 23, 2007
So I actually started scheduling the movie today. It looks like we'll be shooting about seven or eight scenes our first day! I've scheduled the diner scene that day so I can get it edited and possibly do ADR if I need to while the actors are still around, since I won't be able to get the whole place quiet. My other option would be to shoot it at night, and just frame the shots so you don't see outside any of the window, since the scene takes place during the day. I've toned down quite a bit of Tanya's dialogue, which is good. She really did swear too much!

Thursday, April 26, 2007
So I sent out a bulletin on myspace last night to check with the actors on our shooting dates. Everything is still going well except that Erin might not be able to be Tanya now. She works at Disneyland and they might be putting on a new parade that week. So now I need to find an alternate. This could be hard! On the other hand, I really haven't had much of a challenge yet, so I guess I had this coming!

Monday, May 07, 2007
For the past two weeks, I've been working on trying to find a new Tanya. I started out asking a girl who works in the deli at one of the stores I work at and she said she was up for it, but I haven't heard back from here. Next! I asked Jon if he might have any suggestions, and he told me about a girl named Tanya. I found her on myspace and she seems up for the task. I'm going to do a screen test with her tomorrow at the cave. She asked me where we would be shooting, so I thought it'd be fun to do the screen test on location.
This is cool-I've actually been able to get my old camera working again! I thought it was done for good, but I discovered a way to basically turn my old camera into a glorified webcam. The advantage is that I shoot straight to my laptop, but the disadvantage is that I'm going to have to be limited by my firewire cable.
I've also bought a digital still camera at Best Buy last week so I can get some production photos and keep track of my actor's costumes on a day-to-day basis.

Monday, May 14, 2007
So the screen test went well last week, I think Tanya really has potential. What I may do is have another script ready, in the event that Erin is able to be in the film, I'll write a new part for Tanya. Then there'd be six kids instead of five. And if Erin can't do the film, then Tanya will play Tanya, and we change the Tanya/Brianna relationship from sisters to cousins. Either way, I'm making this movie! I haven't done much on the scheduling end yet, so I'm going to suck it up and just crank out a schedule tomorrow, maybe even tonight.
Candice called me today, she said that she would love to be involved. Yay!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Well here's a nice update: I got an e-mail today from Tanya Morton, the girl who was going to be my new Tanya. Basically, she said she can't do it, one because of the cool snake we saw while doing her screen test, and two, she works at six in the morning, and if we don't start shooting 'till ten, then it would be hard for her to make that work. I'm not mad, but it still sucks. I hope something with Erin will work out and she'll be able to do it. I've had her in mind for the character from the beginning, and it's hard to picture somebody else doing that role.
 
Monday, May 21, 2007
Things are starting to look up, most definitely for the better! I had posted an ad on craigslist.com a few weeks ago, trying to find my new Tanya. I actually got a reply today. The really cool part is that this girl is the great niece of Rita Hayworth! She looks slightly older than I'm looking for, but I can work with that. Less than a month to go-I can't be too picky! I wrote her asking if she'd like to do a read tomorrow, and if she can't we'll have to do it next week. This girl's name is Ariel A. Cansino. I hope she works out. I always figured I'd have to recast a small part here and there, but this has been insane, trying to cast the lead! I just don't know that many actors here in Spokane.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Ariel came over today. She did a good job of making herself look younger than she is, since she's 23, and the character is 18. Since this was my first real screen test (the one with Tanya was on location and very casual), I wasn't too sure what to do. We started talking, trying to break the ice, and then got started with the actual test. When I tried to use my camera, I couldn't get the frickin' thing to work. I ended up just saying screw it, and we went on with the read. I chose three scenes that had some variety to them. We did each scene twice. Once as a read through to get the general gist. The second time, we did it like we would on location. I fed her each line, and she had to say it. She did an amazing job! I told her that she has the part, and gave her the details on when we start shooting.

Monday, June 04, 2007
After a few setbacks, the film is back on track! I finished the shooting schedule, which was a huge hurdle for me. I spent about twelve hours working the thing out. I also solved a major problem I had been facing. Since I want to shoot this movie at night, everything was going to be lit by campfire or flashlights. The problem with flashlights is that you have to point it at what you want to see. Therefore, my actors would have to point the lights at each other's faces. That just doesn't seem appealing to me. About a week ago, I went over to my parents and showed my mom some day for night footage. I couldn't make it look just right. Suddenly, I had an idea-Lanterns. A lantern gives off light a full 360 degrees. The characters could find lanterns in the camp and use those for the rest of the movie! I went to Wal-Mart last night and picked up two different lanterns battery lanterns. I tried them out when I got home and they work great! I also picked up a six gallon water jug so we can put out the fires each night.

Friday, June 08, 2007
So far on this film, I will have spent $410. Add another $100 or so for groceries and I'm at $510. That's really not too bad for a feature film! The power cord to my laptop went out again, so I'm looking at spending $125 to get a new one. I still haven't gone to the Otis Grill to make sure I can film with them. I'm a little scared that I waited until the last minute to do this, so if they say no, I really can't get mad. I'll come up with something. I always do. I called Jon today to double check with him about the film. He didn't answer so I had to leave a message telling him to send me an e-mail because my phone is off.
I'm so much more organized on this film than I ever have been before. It's crazy! Before, I would just kind of wing it, figuring out which scenes to shoot when on the spot. This time, however, I've made out a schedule that tells me what day I shoot what scenes, and what order I shoot them. I love it! This kind of preparedness is totally worth the work it took to do it.

Monday, June 11, 2007
Today a miracle happened! I had forgotten that my camera wasn't working and went to check to see what I had on a certain tape. And low and behold-it worked! I tried recording some video and it played back just fine! I captured a test from the tape into my computer, and it worked! I don't know why it has decided to start working again, but I'm not going to complain! The mere fact that I don't have to have my laptop with me is a blessing! Now, I don't know how long this will last, so if I need to, I can use the laptop. I went by Wal-Mart yesterday and it's only $35 for a power adaptor that will let me run my laptop off of my car battery in the field. So… I think I'll be okay! Got a reply back from Jon, he said he's good to go. I still need to go to the Otis Grill, I'm doing that later today.

-later

So I ended up not making it out to the Grill. But I did call Kati about her scene for the movie and we're going to be shooting it tomorrow! It'll be nice shooting an easy scene like this to get back into the groove of making movies.
 
Monday, June 18, 2007
Day One of Shooting. A lot to update today! First, Kati and I ended up not being able to shoot last week. Her car broke down, so we're planning on shooting that scene this coming Sunday. I finally made it out to the Otis Grill, but when I got there, the owner wasn't there. Later that night, I called up Andrea to double check on things. Since she just got married, she was going to see two dads on Father's Day. That was the day we were going to shoot at the Grill. I called up my other actors and we agreed upon shooting that day's footage on July 1st. So today is now the officially the first day of shooting. I need to go get the tent from Joe, then it's off to the YMCA to set up Wulf's camp for the scene were Tanya and Ash find his camp. We'll shoot there for half an hour, break down, and head up to Sherwood were we'll shoot the scene were the kids find Paige missing and the scene were they start to go looking for here and find only tracks. Last night I started over from scratch with the opening credits. I like them a lot better now than the ones I made while at the Police Academy. I also made up the end credits. I figured I might as well get some of this stuff out of the way so I can edit the film as we shoot and in two weeks have a rough cut of the movie. I also went by a dollar store today and picked up hairspray and petroleum jelly for starting the camp fires. The sky is slightly overcast today, which poses minor problems. As long as it doesn't rain, I'll be okay.

-Later-

Shooting went extremely well today! The only problem we had was that Candice couldn't make it because she had a job interview. Therefore, we weren’t able to shoot as much stuff as planned, but we managed to get three minutes of final film. I really like having a script supervisor! It was nice being able to just focus on camera and actors, rather then keeping track of what everyone needs to say. I feel that given the awkwardness of no one knowing each other, I got some decent performances. I was most impressed with Ariel and Andrea, though Dan managed to do a good job too! I think he might have been a little nervous though. Once he warmed up, he was fine. We actually finished up an hour ahead of schedule, which was nice for everyone.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
I have a little issue. I called Candice today to double check with her about filming tonight and she's gotten herself in way over her head! She's made commitments to the church and just about everybody else, so she can't do my movie. She said she'd try to find someone else though. That's nice of her. I called up Rebecca Cook who runs Ignite! Community Theater and asked her if she had any ideas. She said she'd call me back with a list of girls who might work. I got the list of five and called them all. I heard back from one of them, she initially said she would do it, but when she found out about the deferred payment, she wasn't up for it. Oh well. Next! I called up both Ariel and Dan and they've going to talk to some people that they know and see if we can't get somebody!

-Later-
Yay! Ariel found someone! I haven’t met her yet, but I'm sure she'll do great. I told Ariel that I'm going to give her a producer credit. I wonder what I should pay her for that? The plan now is to pick up tomorrow with day three and shoot the stuff we would have shot today on July 2nd. Well, that's the plan anyway.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Day Two of Shooting. The girl that Ariel found didn't come through. I needed her to call me today and I didn't hear from her until we were in the middle of the shoot with the other girl I found. Her name is Chelsea Viren and she actually responded to my craigslist.com ad I posted yesterday. Shooting went extremely well today, except that Dan and Andrea couldn't make it. We had to shoot around them. We went out and shot some day scenes, went for dinner, and came back to shoot the night stuff. One problem: Some lady who lives next to where we parked was trying to tell us that it was private property and that we couldn't do anything. Since the tent and stuff was still set up, we told her that we had to go get it. We asked her to give us ten minutes. She said that she was going to call the cops if we weren't back by then. We hiked the two minutes to the set, and I told the others that we should leave everything set up. I knew of a back way into the woods from when I used to ride my bike up there. We grabbed a backpack to make it look like we were getting stuff and set up a piece of plywood to block the glow of the fire. We then left, and the crazy lady said she had our plate numbers. We drove for about two minutes and came to our new parking spot. We headed back out. This time it was a ten minute hike, but we got there, and shot our scenes. Everything turned out really well except that when I got home, I discovered that my camera had been acting up and didn't record any of the night stuff that we went through hell to get. Now I'll have to re-shoot at some point!
 
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Day Three of Shooting. Everything was going fine and well until my camera decided to stop working all of a sudden. I decided that I'd had enough of it, and I called my parents, asking if I could borrow their camera. They told me I could, because the want to see me succeed. I hope and pray that I've seen the last of the challenges for this movie. We should have had half of the thing shot by now, but it hasn't turned out that way yet.

Friday, June 22, 2007
Day Four of Shooting. Today was a great day! We met at the YMCA at 7:30. I had forgotten a prop knife handle and had to run back to my apartment to get it. That made me think that tonight was going to be like the last few days of shooting-very stressful. It was actually quite the opposite. I found myself having fun for the first time since I started shooting this film! We re-shot some of the footage from yesterday, then rehearsed Ash's death scene and the scene were Nicole gets hit in the head with the log that's on fire. We then took a half hour break while we waited for it to get dark. Once it was dark, we started shooting again. We shot the scene were the kids decide to split up to look for Paige, and then it started to rain and hail. We made haste back to the cave and waited it out. It was over within ten minutes and we shot the scene were Ash gets knifed in the head. The effects turned out really well, and Dan did a great job dying. And the actors that weren’t in the scene also helped by holding lanterns and such. It was great! We then came back to camp and I put on a Nomex flight suit to prepare for the scene where Nicole gets hit by the log that's on fire. We set up the camera and had Dan running it. I told everyone else to clear the area for safety, and I covered my head with another flight suit. Ariel swung the log and hit the foam head with a wig on it, but I wasn't able to see when she hit it, so I kept a hold of the stick. It looked horrible. We lit the log again and shot it a second time. This time I watched the swing and let go just as she made contact. This caused the head to go flying to the side. I checked the playback and it looked amazing! We finished up by 11:00 pm and were back at the cars by 11:20.

Saturday, June 23, 2007
Day Five of Shooting. Today was pretty easy. We shot for an hour and were able to get three scenes. The only real excitement today was that bugs seemed to be attracted to the lantern that Ariel was using.


Sunday, June 24, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007

Days Six and Seven of Shooting. We really got a lot done the past two days of shooting! We've done Nikki's torture scene, which came out really well, and we also got the big scene where Brianna goes into Wulf's camp to get the map. We also got some shots of Brianna tied up and moaning. We applied a makeup that made her look all beat up. When Chelsea (who plays Brianna) got home, her neighbor actually thought that she had been abused! I also re-shot the part where the log hit's Nikki in the head. The original was way too dark. As far as the editing goes, I haven't done much with it yet, but I did manage to comp the log on fire with Jon's eye. It turned out really well! I'm also really happy with the overall look of the film. I love how you can't see anything other than what's lit by lanterns! Everyone has done a great job with helping me light the movie as well. Whoever isn't in the shots holds a lantern just out of frame. It looks amazing!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Day Eight of Shooting. We had a really easy night tonight. We shot the chase scenes where Wulf is running after Tanya. Jill had to fill in for August as our script supervisor again, which was nice of her.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Day Nine of Shooting. We shot the scenes where Tanya sprains her ankle, where Wulf wakes up, where Tanya kills her sister, and the scene where the girls steal the cannibal's knife. No problems tonight, and we even shot some extra stuff that we weren't going to shoot until tomorrow.

Thursday, June 28, 2007
Since we shot all that stuff last night, we were only going to shoot one scene tonight. It didn't make sense to me to have everyone drive half an hour for one scene, so I called everyone up and told them to take the night off. We'll just shoot the scene tomorrow. I also shot some more stuff for the behind the scenes featurette I've been working on. And I worked on some menu design too! Jon gave me the idea of having one of the menus looking like Wulf's camp and that when you click on the footlocker, it could open, and you'd go to the short films, which I had wanted to include as an Easter Egg on the DVD. I also talked to my cast last night about doing a cast commentary on the DVD. They all said they were up for it! Talked with Brittney today to confirm that we can shoot on Sunday. She said yes. I also have a bar to shoot at now. It's called Sugar Ray's, and Ariel's parents own it! They said I have to show their logo and be out of there by 11:30 am. Fair enough!
 
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Day Ten of Shooting. We ended up not shooting last night because we had a huge thunderstorm come through. It let up by the time we would have been shooting, but there would just be way too much mud out there and that would pose some continuity problems. We're planning to still shoot tonight for four hours, and tomorrow will be the last day of shooting! I'm almost sad to see this film end. We've all become like a big family, and it's been a lot of fun. I've also learned so much on this film that will make me a better director on my next project. I've spent the morning playing with the look of some of the night shots that I have. I found a way to digitally boost the light levels without blowing out the image. I add a custom HSL adjust filter, then a custom Brightness and Contrast filter. It looks great in my software preview, but when I rendered it, it looked like crap. I got rid of the Brightness and Contrast filter, using just the custom HSL, and it looks awesome rendered!

Today was Jon's last day of shooting. It went really well! We first shot the last scene of the movie where Tanya stumbles out of the woods and has to break into the car. Then, when she's inside it, she has to hotwire it. When she sits up, Wulf is at her window. He drags her through it, throws her on the ground, and stabs her multiple times before swallowing the camera in one lurch. After that, we headed to the YMCA to shoot the scene where Wulf reveals that he's a cannibal, and the scene where he and Tanya get into a fight.

Sunday, July 1, 2007
Day Eleven of Shooting. We wrapped principal photography today! We met at 10:30 at Sugar Ray's Bar to shoot the diner scenes, then we headed to West Valley HS to shoot the driving scenes while driving around the parking lot. Next we headed into Idaho to shoot the scenes at the rest stop. After that, we took an hour and a half break. We met back up at 3:00 pm and shot some footage of the car driving through the mountains. We then headed up to the kids camp and shoot the rest of their day scenes from the camp. We then took a three hour break and met back up at 9:30pm. We shot all the night scenes around the fire and the scene where Paige disappears. We broke camp and headed back to the cars, getting back by 11:00pm. We took some pictures, said goodbye to everyone, and headed for our homes. It was a very busy and long day of shooting, but it was totally worth it! The major parts of the movie have now been shot! I still need to shoot the first scene when Wulf kills the man and the dog, and I still need to shoot the urban legend, but that's it! Now I have the long journey of editing to do. Yikes!
 
Monday, July 02, 2007
This sucks-I've lost the second to last tape. It has Wulf's death scene and the bar stuff on it. I don't know what happened to it. I remember changing it, but I can't find it! Now I'm panicking-If I can't find it, I'll have to re-shoot the missing stuff, and my actors will kill me!
-Later-
Yay! I found the tape! It was behind my laptop monitor. I just finished capturing all the footage to my external hard drive. 77.3 GB. That's a lot of footage. We shot 6 ½ tapes, which is about six and a half hours of footage.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007
I've been working on the editing for the past few days. I haven't gotten much done yet, but I'm sure I will this weekend.

Thursday, July 12, 2007
I got a lot of editing done on Tuesday. I spent about six hours and managed to edit the first ten minutes of the film (minus the scene I need to shoot with my dad and his dog, Kelty). I'm on my break at work right now, and I'm working on some edits and color correction. I really love the HSL Adjust filter! It warms up the shots, by adding color saturation. It gives the day scenes a nice, warm look, and it also brightens up the night shots while still keeping the blacks.

Saturday, July 14, 2007
Jill came over a few days ago to watch El Mariachi. She said that she wanted to see some footage from the movie, so I showed her a few of the death scenes that I had pretty much finished, including color correction. Her first words were, "Wow, it looks like a real movie!" To me, that's a huge compliment! It means I've done my job right so far.

Last night we had a big storm. The power went out in quite a few places around Spokane, including August and Jill's apartment. They called me up and asked if they could come over and watch "Friday the 13th" with me. I told them yes, especially since I wanted August to see it because it's one of my main influences.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
So I have a lot to update today. After I had almost finished editing, about to start on music and ADR, my external hard drive crashed. Now I have to recapture and edit all seven tapes! It's also about time I start the treatment for my next feature. For a while, I had lost interest in my movies, in part because I now have a girlfriend, Kelly. It's strange how being "in love" totally changes your perspective and goals-well until I saw the trailer I made for Wulf. That got my excited about the movie again. I just need to get myself back on track asap if I want to sell this thing by the end of Jan.



Monday, October 8, 2007
I'm back on track today! I managed to reformat the hard drive and I started capturing all the footage again. At least I'll be back to editing. I've also been working on the treatment for my next movie. I've got a good outline, but I need more story for it. I also need to get the script for my new film finished in time for when I sell Wulf, that way I'll be able to get some real funding, rather than nickel and dimeing it like I did for Wulf.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
I spent all day earlier this week editing and got 20 minutes done. I'm hoping to get ten minutes today and ten minutes every day for the rest of the week. If I can keep that pace up, the movie should be locked in a week.

Tuesday, October 23. 2007
Mark, my music guy called today. He wants to set up a time when we can start working on music. I can't wait to get some sound going on this film!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The meeting with Mark went well. I gave him a few scenes to start with and told him that I want an opening credit theme similar to Halloween. A few days later he called me back and said that he had a perfect idea. I can't wait to hear it.
I finally got past the scene where the kids meet Wulf. I figured it would take the longest to edit and I was right. I hate editing dialogue scenes like that. From now on, my movies will contain scenes five pages or less. Not ten pages. After I got past that scene, the editing has been flying.

Thursday, November 29, 2007
I finished a rough cut of the film two weeks ago, and I started scheduling my actors today to do their ADR sometime within the next few weeks. I went over to Mark's a week ago to hear what he has come up with for the main them, and I really liked it. It still needs a little work, but it's a good stating point. I also e-mailed a company called Retro-Media Entertainment and told them about the film. The said to just send them a screener when I get it finished. Cool! A possible distributor!

I came up with another idea for my next flick last night. Originally I was going to do a psychological thriller. But I just love horror so much! I was watching TV at work yesterday when I saw a trailer for "The Water Horse", which is about the Loch Ness Monster. I've always been interested in Nessie, so I got online and did a Wikipedia search on her. On that page was a link to another page about Bigfoot, another creature I'm interested in. I read the article, and looked at some pics. Just then, a coworker named Shawn Shay walked in. He's a makeup artist. Out of nowhere, I told him I was going to do a movie about Bigfoot. Shawn's first response was that he could do the suit and makeup. I started writing the script today, without doing a treatment first, and have about three pages done. I'm excited for this!
 
Friday, November 30, 2007
I am sitting on my floor on a couch cushion right now. I have a glass of bourbon, and I'm writing the script for Sasquatch, as I'm currently calling it. I'm almost on to page eight. I think this was an awesome idea-doing the Bigfoot movie! It's something that I know, and I'm having a lot of fun with the characters.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008
It's been a while since I've updated this, but not a lot has happened. As far as Wulf, I'm doing Ariel's ADR tomorrow, then I have Dan and Andi's on Friday. We had done Chelsea's a week ago, but I had the microphone on the wrong setting, and it sounded like crap so I have to redo it. I have yet to receive a piece of finished music from Mark, so I might be scoring the film myself. As for Cryptid, I'm on page 36 of the script, and I have a full, talented cast. My lead actor is from LA and has worked on Iron Man, Heroes, and The Suite Life of Zac and Cody. I'm so excited for this film, but I need to finish Wulf so I can finance this one. I don't want to do another zero budget film. I want Cryptid to be a $50,000 film.

Monday, January 14, 2008
Mark called me up yesterday. He says that he's been really busy and that he's now good to go on music. He said he can have the movie scored by Valentine's Day. Looks like I won't be selling until spring.

Thursday, January 31, 2008
So far, so good for the ADR. I still have to redo Chelsea's and still have to record Jon and Brittney, but I'm practically done. I still need to do the foley work, but that should only take a day or two. Mark has given me two songs so far. One is the montage piece for when the kids are building the camp, and the other is actually the main theme song. I love the song, but there's too much room tone in the version he sent so I'll need him to re-record it. I'm meeting with Chris Trechter on Monday to discuss his first feature, which I'm helping to produce, as well as go over some stuff for Cryptid.

Thursday, February 21, 2008
The meeting with Chris went well. We discussed both of our films and talked about some techniques and styles. I also took a full front and side profile pic of Chris to give to Shawn so he can start on the creature suit. A few days ago, I met up with Shawn and his partner, Mitch. We shot some stuff for Shawn's film and talked about the creature suit for Cryptid.
Mark is almost done with the music. He needs to do two more songs and we'll be done with the score. I've been very impressed by Matt's work. His rock songs are phenomenal and fit well with the rest of the film.
My new camera arrived today. It's nothing fancy or HD, but if need be, I can shoot Cryptid with it. The model is the Canon ZR800 and it has a mic input. Yay! I can actually finish the ADR and not have to keep borrowing my family's camera. Also, in the event I'm able to shoot HD on Cryptid, this camera will become my prop cam that the filmmakers use to shoot their horror film. Oh yeah, I changed the concept from documentary filmmakers to horror filmmakers. I thought it would be cool to have them be shooting "Wulf" when they run into Bigfoot. It just might work.

Monday, May 05, 2008
I've now recorded everyone's ADR for Wulf, except that I need to re-record about 15 minutes worth of Ariel's and I have to be the voice of the bartender, since he now lives in Montana. My little camera has worked out great for the ADR, except that it only records a left audio channel only, so I'm having to combine channels everytime I use stuff from my cam. Jon came over yesterday and we recorded his lines. He had a tendency to speak a little slower than he did on set, but that's okay because I'm able to easily time shift his dialogue. That means that I can speed it up to match with what we recorded on set. Since I'm just speeding it up, there's no distortion, and I can preserve the pitch. Gotta love digital editing!

I met a guy when I was working for Deal or No Deal at the beginning of April who writes stories. He gave me a great idea for Cryptid, but now I have to start writing all over again. Plus, this new idea is going to run me about $50,000. Big movie. If I can't come up with the funding for that by July, then I'm going to put it on hold and shoot a parkour movie instead. I'm still trying to come up with ideas for that.
 
Saturday, September 13, 2008
So I just recently got back to working on the film. I had a lot of crap going on in my life that I needed to take care off, but I'm back on track and shooting for a Halloween release!

The time I had away from the movie did me some good though. I was thinking that it was disappointing that the movie was different than what I had written. It wasn't as gross or as scary. A good case in point would be the scene where the girls find Ash with a bag on his head. They pull it off and see him sitting there with an eye hanging from it's socket. Well, that's how it was written. When we shot it, I didn't have the money for the make up to do the effect, so we shot it with a knife hole in his head, but nothing else. After spending time away, I realized that there's no reason that the movie shouldn't come out the way I planned, so I started thinking. What I realized is that I should be able to do the effect with CGI.

While in a training class at my new job, I sketched out on paper how I was going to pull off the effect. I needed to model an eye socket, eyeball, and cord attaching the eye to the socket. Then, all this would have to be lit just like the scene, motion tracked, and super imposed onto the shot. But before I could start, I had another challenge. My laptop that I got so I could supposedly edit this film hadn't been handling the 70 minute flick as well as I had hoped. I decided to fix up my old desktop pc and see what I could do. First, I took my old, external hard drive, pulled it out of it's case, and installed it into the computer. Then I took my two laptop externals and hooked them up via USB. Next, I had to transfer over all the stills, and .veg files to my PC, as well as load Vegas 7, since that's what I had been editing with. Once all this was done, I had to tell Vegas where to find all the captured footage. Since this was a different computer, the drive letters had changed on the externals with the footage. After a few hours, I had my movie up and running on my desktop. So far, there's been no performance issues, and the ADR syncing has been going much faster that I thought it would.

Okay, now back to the issue at hand. I started up blender on my pc and modeled the eye within an hour. Lighting was pretty easy too. Motion tracking was easy, but time consuming. The process goes like this: I take the clip that I'm going to add in the CGI stuff to and export it as a series of .jpg files. Next I take those files and convert them to .tga. The next step is to load those files into another program called "Voodoo". This program can only read the .tga files (hence the conversion) and what it does is picks out pixels in the first image and tracks those from frame to frame. When it's done, Voodoo creates a "Python Script" that contains information about any camera movement in the scene. I take the Python Script and load it into the .blend file that has the eyeball. By running the script, my virtual camera now moves exactly the same as my real camera did when I shot the scene. By using one of the .jpg files as a background in Blender, I'm able to line up the shot, and we're good to go. Before I render, I change the background from the still image of Ash to a bright blue. The reason is that I'm going to composite the eyeball via a simple blue screen effect. After an hour of rendering in HD, I now have a video file that I load into Vegas and comp on to the shot. I added some grain to "crap up" the eyeball so that it matches my original footage. The effect is seamless! I now have a shot that plays out just like I wrote! I may have to do a similar process on a few other shots, but I haven't decided yet.

After spending two days on that one shot, I took a break and started working on the menu design. I decided that I wanted the main menu to look like Wulf's cave. Since this was for a DVD menu, I knew I could get away with CGI. People expect it. I modeled a virtual cave using a photo from the set as reference, and placed a campfire on the right side, just like the cave we shot at. On the left side, I added Wulf's green footlocker. The campfire was animated, and the scene was rendered in HD. I loaded this into DVD Architect as a menu background and the result is an animated scene.

I knew that I wanted to include the original short films as an Easter Egg on the DVD, and I figured that the best place for them to be would be the footlocker, like Jon and I had talked about. I turned the footlocker into a secret button and when clicked on, brings up another menu that has a background that's a shot of inside the footlocker, seeing all the trinkets and such. On this menu I placed the two short films. Back on the main page, I created buttons to play the movie, go to a chapter selection menu, as well as a special features menu. The special features I'm including are a behind the scenes documentary, bloopers, the trailer, a slideshow of photos, and commentaries.

So…
The movie is almost done, the DVD is almost done, and things are just going well and back on track.
 
Monday, September 15, 2008
I finished syncing up all of Brittney's lines and I made some headway with Dan and Andrea. Also, e-mailed my old high school to see if I could use their theater for a premiere. We'll see!

Friday, September 26, 2008
So my old high school wants more money than I can afford to rent their theater for a night. I'm looking into some other options. All the ADR is done up to the point where the kids meet Wulf. I've got a long ways to go, but I'm getting faster at syncing everything up. I cut a red band trailer the other day to a temp track made up of the burly brawl music from "The Matrix Reloaded" The audio is the original camera audio and some of the video looks crappy because I was experimenting with effects. The cool thing is, people LOVE the trailer! Everyone keeps telling me that it's just intense. I wrote to our local newspaper the other day and asked if they'd do a review of Wulf when it's done. The dude said he would and to send him a screener copy when it's ready. I'm going to try to time it so the review comes out the day of our premiere. One last update-I ended up doing a piece of music for the movie. I was never quite happy with the music Mark came up with for the scene where the kids are building their camp. So I took a stab at it and came up with a really good, earthy sound. I put my name in the credits under "Additional Music By".

Saturday, September 27, 2008
So my main goal for today is to finish setting up my editing system so I can fly through the rest of it. The other night I went ahead and re-sorted the files on my hard drives. ADR went on one external, raw footage on my other external, and then I made sure I had 60 GB free on both my internal drives. The next thing I did was start up Vegas, open the .veg file, and then shut off windows. This means that the only thing running on that computer is Vegas. With these steps alone, I've noticed a huge performance increase.

When I started syncing up the ADR, I did it all on one track. What I've realized is that since each actor is speaking at different levels, I'd have to go through and adjust the volume for each audio clip. To save time, I've been going through and separating each actor's dialogue onto it's own track. This way I can just adjust the track volume for each actor.

Through all these tweaks, what I've essentially done is created a stand alone editing suite, similar to Avid, where that's all the machine does. If I need to run another program, I just bring up the task manager (CTRL + ALT + DEL) and run the program from there.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
I was talking to Chris Trechter online the other day about where I would screen Wulf. This is what he said:

[FONT=&quot]hmmm, Spokane falls or spokane Community... Talk to Irv Broughton at Spokane Falls, Tell em Chris Trechter told yah to talk to him and just let him know you have a slasher movie that u made and wana show it. He is the advisor with the club I set up and would probably be more than happy to help yah. Actually he used to work in holly wood so he could give yah pointers for your next film![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
With the hit that the trailer has been, I'm toying with doing another Wulf movie instead of Cryptid for my next film. I've got the beginning of the film figured out: Tanya survives by slamming a rock into Wulf's head, then running him over with her car. She drives to a gas station/eatery down the road where the onlookers call 911 to treat her injuries from Wulf stabbing her. The credits then roll, and the very next scene would be Tanya waking up in a hospital three months later and still having nightmares about that night.

So now I'm at a crossroads on how I want to do the rest of the story. My initial idea was that Tanya tells her friends what happened. They believe Wulf is dead and head out on their own, looking for thrills. When Tanya finds out, she goes to rescue them. They all meet Wulf, and the rest is a good ol' slasher film. When I asked Ariel if she'd be up for a sequel, I told her that I want her help with the story. Though she doesn't know it yet, this is going to lead into her helping me produce. Heh heh. The idea she suggested is equally entertaining. She thought we should make it more of a psychological thriller, with Wulf coming out of the mountains after her since she's the only one who got away.

I really like that idea, if we were to do it right. I don't want a "Jason Takes Manhattan" type of film. I'd rather it be more like "When A Stranger Calls".

I'm sitting here right now working on Tanya's dialogue. My back hurts, and carpel tunnel is setting in. I spend all day at work in front of a computer, then I come home and spend six more hours in front of one editing before I go to bed. This really sucks. I can't wait until the day when I can just work on movies for my job.
 
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Wednesday, October 01, 2008
I finished syncing all of Ariel's lines (that I've recorded anyway). She's still coming over tomorrow to finish recording about ten minute's worth of stuff. I'm also going to rope her into helping me produce the next movie.

Thursday, October 02, 2008
I skipped work today so I could hopefully finish the ADR for Wulf. It's 10:45 in the morning and I just finished syncing Chelsea's lines. All I have left is Dan, Andrea, and Wulf. This weekend, I'll get the sound fx done, and then next week I'll color correct each and every shot. I just hope I don't get fired when I go back to work tomorrow.

2:08pm. Just finished Dan and Andrea's ADR. I probably won't get Wulf's done before Ariel gets here, but that's okay. The big thing today is to finish getting her lines, and start planning the next movie.

Well, Ariel was a no show today. I did however sit back and watch the movie straight through. It was the first time I've done that since I added the music and synced the dialogue. WOW! It made such a huge difference, and the movie is actually halfway descent. I might be able to sell this after all! I'm exhausted from editing all day. I'm having a pizza, then going to bed early so I can be at work tomorrow and hopefully keep my job.

Sunday, October 5, 2008
Well, not only did I keep my job, no one noticed I was gone, and I got promoted! I get to start helping to train the new hires, which is better than being on the phones. Also, Ariel came over today to do her ADR and the commentary. Everything went well. Also, she's all for producing the next movie. We were talking about ideas, and decided that since Tanya would be all screwed up and just out of the hospital, she should be at a halfway house. The cool thing about the halfway house is that we can still have some fun deaths because there is more than one person. I told her about Friday the 13th part 5 and how that's the premise of that movie. I think we can do it. She says she has a location that might even work. I told Ariel about my plan for being able to get financing for this movie, and how if we go in together, it'll give us more credibility.

Sunday, October 12, 2008
I've synced up the rest of Ariel's lines that we re-recorded, as well as synced up her commentary. As far as ADR goes, I just have to record my voice for the bartender and then check the volume levels. I still need to record the sound fx, I'm hoping to get some done today. I also finally got the shot I needed of the campfire for the scene where Ash is telling a ghost story. My initial reason for the campfire was because I was never able to shoot the ghost story. I thought it would be a cheap, unique way to make the audience feel more a part of the film, like they're actually sitting around the fire with the kids. The only problem with the campfire is that I currently don't have a car, so it's not like I can drive to the woods to make one. My dad suggested that I could maybe stage one in my BBQ, but I didn't think I'd be able to hide the reflection of the fire off the sides of the BBQ. That's when I realized that I could do it in miniature. I ran outside with a plate and filled it with dirt. I found some small rocks and some sticks. When I came back inside, I set the plate on top of my toilet in the bathroom. I used the bathroom because there are no windows. I could completely shut off all excess light. I set up my camera on a tripod and pointed it down to the plate. With the angle I set up, I knew that when it was dark, the dirt would fade off to blackness, since the floor was so far below. The other thing I did with the camera was place it as far from the fire as possible. I then zoomed in and was able to create a shallow depth of field. I built a miniature campfire pit with the small rocks (pebbles, really) and broke the sticks into a proportionate size for logs. I think the biggest stick I had was as thick as a pencil. That's how small this was. I tried to get the sticks to light with some matches, but they wouldn't take. Finally, I poured a small amount of white gas on the miniature and lit that. Presto! I recorded about two minutes worth and then captured the footage to my computer. I applied a slight slow motion effect to the fire, to give it some size. Something still didn't look right. That's when I realized that one of the rocks was on fire from the white gas. I digitally cropped out the rock and ended up with a nice shot of the coals and some flames. I then gave the entire shot a nice red hue and the shot was complete. I dumped this into the timeline with the other footage. Now I have all my video in place, I only need to finish color correcting the shots. I think I might have this film done by Halloween after all!

I've also been working on the behind the scenes feature for the DVD. I reshot myself talking to the camera and telling everyone how the movie came about. I had a version that I shot before, but it looked like crap, and I was pretty boring. This time, I kept it exciting.

Friday, October 17, 2008
I skipped work again to work on my movies. These things better pay off! I just finished the treatment for Wulf II. I'm pretty happy with it. Now I'm off to start recording some sounds for Wulf. I'll start on the script for W-II while I'm uploading the sounds. I just did about half of the sound effects. Everything I could while leaving my camera stationary in my living room. I still have more to get, but I need to get some veggies first to use for body hits and such. Also, I just started writing Wulf II, which is exciting! Maybe I'll have this script finished by Christmas. That'd be cool. Then Ariel and I can start to try to raise funding.
 
Sunday, October 19, 2008
I sent Ariel the treatment I typed up to see what she thinks. Also, I talked to a girl I used to work with, Helen Waller, to see if she'd be interested in auditioning for Wulf II. She's done some modeling work, no acting, but she looks like Deanna Russo from the new Knight Rider show, so I'm hoping she does well.
It's 9:44am right now and I just finished doing all the ambient sounds for Wulf! I'm going to watch it right now, and check for any extra sounds I need. I'll add them in and do the final mix at that time, then watch it again to finish color correcting and the movie will be done!

It's now 5:16, and I just finished all the sound! I've got maybe an hour of color correcting, then it's done!

6:24pm. I just finished the movie! It's been a long process, and there were times when I wondered if the film would ever be done, but that moment has arrived! I'm quite proud of what I've done. I did the impossible. I shot and edited a 70 minute movie for $600 with no crew, and had just about everything that could go wrong go wrong. Overall, the experience was totally worth it. The way I see things, I got an entire film school education for $600. Not a bad way to spend some money.

I just did a print screen of the entire project. I ended up working with 18 tracks! 3 for video, and the rest were audio.


  • "Property of STARS Pictures" Screener Tag
  • Compositing Track for custom transitions and the fire in Wulf's eye.
  • Main Video Track
  • Tanya's ADR
  • Brianna's ADR
  • Wulf's ADR
  • Nikki's ADR
  • Ash's ADR
  • Paige's ADR
  • Hank's ADR
  • Bartender ADR/Extra Sound FX
  • Sound FX Track 1
  • Sound FX Track 2
  • Sound FX Track 3
  • Tone Track (Room Tone)
  • Ambient Track (Background Sounds)
  • Music Track
  • Original Audio (From the Camera)

Also, I just exported an EDL (Edit Decision List) and found that Wulf has 3081 pieces of media in it and 743 Cuts.

Tomorrow, after work, I need to add the Chapter Markers and record my commentary. Yay!
 
Monday, October 20, 2008
Heh heh. No one knew I was gone again on Friday. I really like my job. I added the chapter markers today and double checked my list of things I needed to finish for the final edit. The movie has now been rendering for and hour and a half, and it still has nine and a half more to go! Maybe I'll do my commentary tomorrow. The great thing about all this render time is that I can be working on the script for the next Wulf. This will be the third movie I've started writing since I shot the first Wulf feature over a year ago. I still need to figure out how to sell this thing. My family might be coming over this weekend as well to screen the film. I'm nervous.

Saturday, October 25, 2008
What a night! I had my parents and little sister come over to screen the movie and give me their honest opinions. The cool thing with my parents is that they are very critical of me and my work. They don't give me the old "This is so amazing" thing. They tell me what's good, what sucks, and leave it at that. For Wulf, they gave me lots of great input. Finally, after all was said and done, I asked them, "Knowing that this was supposed to be a B movie, and if you didn't know how much work went into it, how would you rate Wulf on a scale of 1 to 10." Surprisingly, both of them gave it a nine. They don't even like horror films! My dad said I should enter the thing into a fest as soon as possible. I think I'll take his advice.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008
The cast and crew screening went pretty well, except that half of the cast couldn't make it. I haven't done much work on Wulf 2 lately because I've been trying to work out the story. It just seemed like the movie was going to be too short. At work today I came up with an idea to work it out. Actually, I stole a concept I originally had for Cryptid. I decided to basically make two movies in one, like I did with the original Wulf 2 short film. I took my idea for Wulf 3, added it to the end of Wulf 2, and came up with a new idea for part 3.
 
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