Jokes n' jokes n' jokes...

The time was upon me. That's right, I filmed another short. We filmed in three locations (The Dogpatch, Bernal Heights, and Sunset District) all in the span of one day. For what we had to accomplish, everything went really smoothly and we finished on time. Three actors and a crew of seven. Lots of equipment. Food. etc. Filmming is just a lot of work. Period.

My short is a comedy about superheroes. The rehearsal went well. Location scouting was okay... not overly happy with all the spots. Costumes were so so. I had to rent and borrow as I have no idea how to sew. I do believe next go 'round I will look online or craigslist or whatever for a costume designer. Essentially, what I am trying to say is that I wasn't 100 percent happy with my preproduction work which is insanely important and I don't think I performed as well as I should have this time.

Everyone worked really well together but we did have some speedbumps, mostly with sound. Faulty equipment and loud natural sound was the bane of my existence. It's just one of the things where you work your hardest and hope for the best. My final scene is on a rooftop and my opening scene is in a working elevator. not the best spots to get good sound. Will find out when I listen during editing. Before I can jump in the editing room , I have some more film work to do on my classmates' shoots.

The Sounds of Science...

Super short week for class as we are starting production on our next short. In fact we only had one night of lecture and that was devoted to sound. We spent time discussing booms, lavs, mixers, etc. Then we went out in the field and captured dialog in a few different settings. That was it. The rest of my time I was supposed to fill working on pre-production but I didn't as I always procrastinate. Like an idiot. Production on my next short is just a few days away...

Everything in its right place.

Writing Lab was scheduled for Monday so I spent a big chunk of the night working on my short story proposal. I am going the narrative route and my challenge to myself is dialog and to quit using the word myself more than one time in a sentence and also to cease the use of run-on sentences. The one-line and paragraph pitch was what I worked on. Not to sound like a total egomaniacal douche-bag, but I really like the idea I have for my next short. Should be fun...

Tuesday night we began our Camera 3 lecture. Details, details , details. Essentially we opened the hood on our cameras just to see what those babies could do. Achieving the "film-like look" was the goal of the night, or at least it was for me. We spent a lot of time looking at camera settings and lenses. Interesting lesson with Stephen.

James was up next on Wednesday with another look at storytelling through screenplays. We spent a huge chunk of the night discussing the 3 act format for screenplays and how essentially every movie ever made falls into this structure. A lot of this information wasn't new to me as I had read it before in books devoted to screenwriting, specifically Syd Field's, but it was excellent to go over it again.

Thursday was pitches with a dash of group critique. I pitched a comedy involving super-heroes and it went over really well. It's always exciting and interesting to hear people's reactions to your ideas.

The last school day of the week was all about Directing! In fact the lecture was titled Directing. This was our very first lesson that was specifically devoted to the art of directing. All day lecture as well. For this exercise, both my class and the day class met in the large studio out at school with James and two actors. James took a script and worked with the actors doing the following: script read-thru, blocking, acting, camera placement, directing.

All of this made me a happy lad. I am dead serious when I say that 99 percent of the time none of this ever feels like "school" to me, which just re-affirms I am where I need to be.

The Challenge.

Out with the old and in with the new...

Project three is up and running for us and it is a challenge film. We get to choose whether or not to make a documentary or a narrative film and it is referred to as a challenge film as we are supposed to challenge ourselves with a certain aspect of filmmaking. Which is a little on the odd side as most all of filmmaking is a challenge. I choose dialog/screenwriting as the area I really want to hone in on.

We started off this go 'round with a lecture titled Producing 3. This is our first lecture on producing, so maybe you can explain to me as to why it is considered and titled the third? A mystery for the ages. Jeremiah led this lecture and I was enraptured. Simply put we covered the business side of filmmaking: SAG, Shooting on Location, Production Insurance, Music Rights, Stock Footage. SAG stands for Screen Actors Guild and they do have an office in San Francisco which we are now supposed to contact for our future projects. Shooting on location from a producers standpoint covers the logistics and permits of acquiring the permission to shoot on public and/or private land and will involve contacting the San Francisco Film Commission. Music and footage rights is rather self-explanatory... hopefully. Really great night of class. Just one of those nights where I left feeling happy that I am doin' what I do.

We went from desk work (Monday) to studio work (Tuesday). The learning exercise and lecture was geared towards lighting for movement. Our goal was to film a scene, with no break, where an actor pulls up in a car OS (off-screen...boom, dropping knowledge) walks around a corner down a small hallway, opens a door, enters a room, and sits in a chair. Therefore we had to make/simulate: moving headlights, hall-light, door-light, and natural lighting for a room. Great exercise. Something of interest, or something that I find interesting you last from your end point and work your way backwards.

Wednesday night was a movie and discussion class. Frankly, being the movie nerd that I am, i love these nights and wish we did them more often, but I understand that it takes away form lecture time. Movie screened... Bubba Ho-Tep. Bruce "gimme some sugar, baby" Campbell.

Thursday night was pitches with James, which sounds like a lame-ass sports show. I enjoy pitching and listening to and critiquing others pitches. It involves a lot of "group-think" which I believe is rather necessary in the film world. My pitch went really well and received the almighty Green Light! Dun-DUH!!!!!!

Saturday class cancelled due to a nasty flu bug rampaging through school... which I totally got. Ugh.

Documenting the home stretch.

One week of editing was all that stood between me and being done with this documentary. I realized during this project that I really don't have a huge desire to tackle another documentary. I can't imagine tackling a documentary feature film. Tons and tons of work. Seems like it would be a labor of love... Now if it was something I was completely passionate about, I bet I could work on it. (I know I am completely contradicting myself right now). The other issues regarding docs are that they don't garner a huge audience, typically don't make money, and take a couple of years to make. A concert doc. would be pretty cool... I should start contacting artists that are coming into town.

With editing completed and a few lectures thrown in for good measure (paper chase, markers, sub-clips) I entered the Thunderdome that is group critique. This go round was led by Jeremiah Birnbaum, who is the other co-founder of the school. I do believe this was my first official class with him. He is super laid back and very welcoming.... I just wish my project was better being that this is his first exposure to my work. Speaking of which, we watched it and all the complaints I had myself were shared by others. Not enough B-Roll and main interview out-of-focus.

Lesson learned. Now time to move on to the CHALLENGE FILM!!!!

Video on Vimeo!

My first short is up on Vimeo!! You can view it here!

This is a lo-res version. I plan on putting a HD version up at a later date.

Pro of Soundtracks...

This week brought us another seven days of editing and lecture. Our lecture that kicked off the week was on Soundtrack Pro. This was taught by William and it was a very cool and insanely useful lecture. Soundtrack Pro is another Apple program where you can create music (royalty free!!) and sound effects for your films and you can also use it to clean up your audio from what you have already filmed. 

Tuesday night we spent the evening learning how to do V.O. or voice overs for our doc. Incredibly simple and straight forward. 

Wednesday and Thursday I sent the entire two days editing. And editing. And editing. 

Saturday was a Rough Cut Critique and here is my feedback:

Add more B-Roll. 

Edit it down. (My original draft was 19 minutes and it needs to be between 5-8...)

Add a strong start.

Show more of her dedication. 

Also heard, "Did you know your subject is out of focus?"

Why yes I did. That's right... my subject was out of focus for the entire interview. The base of my doc. Out of focus. 

The only bright spot of the day was that we watched Man On Wire. This doc. was completely badass and one of the better movies I've seen in a long time. Watch it if you haven't already!!!

Hunt & Peck

Still in the midst of post production on our Documentaries, we began the week with a lecture on Inqscribe. If I remember correctly, Inqscribe was created for legal transcribing. We are learning how to use it for transcribing our docs. What you do is bring your un-edited interview that has been captured into Final Cut Pro program into the Inqscribe program, press play and start transcribing. The nice thing about this program is that you can time stamp at any point to give you markers for editing. It's incredibly user friendly and I would love it if I could type well. As it stands I type using my index fingers and thumbs. Occasionally I get a little crazy and use my pinkies. Watch out now! Achim who is a current staff member and past student at SFSDF taught us the Inqscribe program.

Tuesday night we were with William again and we worked with Final Cut pro that night. We did a great exercise where we created an animated clip from scratch which we will add sound effects and music to it a later date. The animated clips were 30 seconds long. I made a clip about randoms circles/balls bouncing and landing in beat.

Due to MacWorld being in town, there was a SuperMeet in town on Wednesday night. SuperMeet is for the the Final Cut Pro User Groups or FCPUG and it organized in part by the SF Cutters. I ditched class and attended this lecture series. I know, I know... I like to live dangerously. It was a pretty cool night. I actually learnt quite a bit and knew what most people were talking about. haha. Lots of vendors were set up before the lecture and them post lecture there was a raffle with some incredibly sweet gifts being given away. I won nothing. Insert sad face here. The people who spoke at the event were as follows: Christine Steele, Bruce Nazarian, Craig Yanagi of JVC, Apple, Eric Escobar, Yun Suh, and M Dot Strange. Not everything applied to me but I am glad I attended.

Thursday night was back to school and back to working with William. William introduced us to SoundtrackPro which is another Apple program that you use to create what? Anyone? Anyone? Soundtracks. We learnt how to create and add both music and sound-effects to our short films using this program. As an exercise we create a audio drama using only sound effects. Mine was about an alien ship landing in the middle of a crowd, attacking the humans, and the humans fighting back. Next we created a multi-layered song using the program. Very cool yet very large in scope program.

Saturday brought us another work at your own pace editing lab. This was led by Stacy, past student/current staff. I transcribed all damn day. My typing skills are horrible.

Being that school is closed on Sunday, I rested. Then I went and saw a Swedish Vampire movie with my lovely wife. Let The Right One In. Go see it! Great flick.

No rest for the wicked.

Over the break I took some books and reading material with me. I found them all incredibly helpful. They are as follows:

Magnolia Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson

Digital Filmmaking by Mike Figgis

Three issues of American Cinematographer

I liked the AC magazine so much that I bought a subscription to it. Lots of good stuff in each issue. The Figgis' book was particularly informative. Should be required reading for students...