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.

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...

Back in the saddle again!

The first week of December brought us one night of lecture and then production starts on our first documentary. Our class was setting up and shooting B-Roll footage on our doc. The class was led by Stephen. We took a table and put a bunch of personal artifacts on it trying to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. We then lit the table, set up the camera, and then set up a monitor. The new piece of equipment we used for this lesson was the slider. The slider is essentially a 2-3 foot bar that you set the camera on and it acts like a dolly. This is what it looks like. Very cool little tool. Makes your shots a little more dynamic.

Before we jumped headfirst into production the school organized a Mixer/Lecture on Thursday the 4th. The speaker was James Savoca, filmmaker and instructor at school, and he discussed making indie films and financing. According to Christopher, SFSDF Marketing Director, the Mixer was a huge success. There was turnout of over 100 people and I think they were expecting between 30-50. The above pic was from the lecture. It was great to make some contacts which is incredibly vital to the industry. It was also cool to have some of my friends come out and see what I've been up to. I am in the process of creating a Film Society/lecture series out at school where we will bring in Bay Area Filmmakers, let them screen their project, and then have a Q & A where we discuss the specifics of their career and getting the movie made. The group is called the Friends of Alfred Film Society and I presented it at the Mixer. We are trying to have our first meeting in Jan. or Feb. '09!

With production underway I ran camera for Adi and Nitin and then did lighting for Ephantus. Docs are interesting and a lot of times you are at the mercy of the set or the subject. We filmed on location and that was a first for us. It actually all worked out well. My documentary subject is Sue Pemberton. She is a friend who does whale and seal rescue up and down the coast and then is involved in the animal's rehabat the Marine Mammal Center. The center is closed to the public but we were allowed to film there. We sat down with her and did a one hour interview and then got some great B-Roll of her working with the animals in their tanks. it was great being that close and filming the animals.

My other B-Roll I captured was animals in their natural environment and then pics that Sue gave me. The pics are "graduation" photos of the animals that are successfully rehabbed and then released in to the wild. My day filming the animals at the beach was one of my favorite days so far. Jen and I loaded up the car and drove down the coast. We captured most of our footage at Moss Beach during low tide. They have a lot of Harbor Seals there. I did most of the shooting using a Figg Rig and a tri-pod. Driving up and down the coast, stopping at beaches, filming, eating and drinking good food.... it was indeed a good day.

The last day before Winter Break was classroom work with William. We had a test! Crazy... It was actually a little weird being tested. i know this is school, but in the months since school started we have yet to have a test. Viva La Art School! haha. Our test was a one-on-one with William where he tried to stump us using Final Cut Pro commands... I did pretty well.

Now I am off for a few weeks! Happy Holidays!!

The bird is in the oven...

Ahhh the week of Thanksgiving. Due to the holiday we have an abbreviated school schedule. Just two nights of class and the first was a work-at-your-own-pace Pre-Production Lab. We pretty much just goofed off this night and talked about docs for a minor part of the class. 

The second night was a completely different story. The class was led by a past studio who now works in the "industry." Daniel lights professionally and that is what he taught us. How to light. This is actually a rather elusive skill set to master. What Daniel had us do tonight was light three different rooms or "scenes." It was great practice. Which is what lighting boils down to, for me at least. Both the practice of setting up lights and training your eye to what looks the best. It is an art form and you will people talk about "painting with light." Good class tonight. 

Truth on film.

With our first project in the can we moved on to our next assignment. Documentaries. While I love watching them, I am not overly interested in making one. I do have the desire to make a concert doc. That would be wicked cool. 

Monday night's class was unique in the fact that this was maybe the first lecture we had regarding film history. We covered the history of documentaries starting with the Lumiere Brothers in 1904. Other documentarians that we discussed were: Robert Flaherty, Dziga Vertov, Leni Riefenstahl, The Maysles Brothers, Fred Wiseman, Barbara Kopple, Ken Burns, Michale Moore, Ross McElwee, & Mark Kitchell. Along with specific filmmakers we also covered Direct Cinema vs Cinema Verite, Post Modern Docs, and Reality TV. Being a huge movie nerd I enjoyed this lecture quite a bit. I could easily sit and discuss film for hours. Post lecture we watched Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line and followed that with a discussion of the film. Another first for us. 

Intro to Doc. Filmmaking was covered on Tuesday of this week. We covered both audio and video and where to place your subject and should they look at camera or off camera etc. Also covered was B-Roll. B-roll is defined as supplemental or alternate footage inter cut with the main shot in an interview or a documentary. A-roll consists of your subject talking and B-roll is video or the subject that your interviewee is discussing, to put it simply. 

The Documentary Treatment was our next discussion on Tuesday night. This is similar to writing a screenplay for a fictional movie. It is your outline of what you wish to cover . Your treatment, style, and intended audience. We have to prepare and turn a treatment in for approval in this project. This is the guidelines for our documentary:

-Portrait or a family member or friend. 

-One 10-hour shooting day. 

-Interview one person and shoot no more than a 60-minute tape. 

-Include B-roll. 

-Can be on location or at school. 

-Length= 5-7 minutes. 

Wednesday the 18th was a writing/development lab devoted to preparation of our doc. treatment. 

Thursday brought us some fresh blood! A new instructor was introduced to us. His name is Darcell Walker and he spent a few hours with us covering audio. This was only our second in-depth audio lecture and it was incredibly informative and helpful. Darcel has a ton of experience in sound and is still currently working in the field. We spent a lot of time with learning lavaliers and portable sound mixers. Post lecture we took the camera and sound kits and recorded three scenes in three different locations while using both boom mics and lavs and adjusted for room sounds. It was a great exercise and showed us that we could capture great audio. 

The last lecture of the week was the Documentary Camera on Saturday. This was a rather intense day where we covered an array of items including: lenses (wide-angle, polarizing filters, promist filters), jib-arms, fig-rigs, and the slider. It's always a blast to get your hands on new "toys" that we will have at our disposal. I especially liked the fig-rig. This is is steering wheel-shaped camera mount which is named after it creator, director Mike Figgis. It is a handheld camera stabilizer that allows the operator a lot more freedom in moving the camera around the set. Stephen led this lecture and once again ran us through some much needed 3-point lighting exercises. 

Lots of ground covered this week...

Rough & Final

We got together as a class, both day and night classes, and watched our rough cuts on Saturday November 8th. It was great to see what the day class had been working on as we hadn't read their scripts or helped on their shoots. It wasn't just watching the rough cuts, we also held a group critique. After each film was screened 12 people gave their opinions on it. I was still at the point where I wasn't happy with my cut. It is a horror movie with some action in it. I had only been working on editing and had not done any work on soundtrack or sound effects. This had a completely negative effect on my film. The "hits" just weren't believable without sounds. 

With our final cut due on the following Saturday I spent a huge amount of time in the editing labs. First I finished off the video editing completely then I moved into adding sound effects. This was a lengthy process as you had to look through a"Sound Library" on the school's shared hard drive. Once you found sound which you think might work, you import it to Final Cut Pro, lay it into your short and then play it back. Of course there are a ton of different impact sounds and you can't really tell what will work best until you see/hear it. Having gotten my sounds in (hammer hits, kicks, glass breaking, door hits, etc.) I moved onto the soundtrack . William Davenport helped me with this as we really aren't learning this program yet. Same with the sound effects, you look through the library, pick a song, and lay it in. Another lengthy process, but essential to a film like mine. I was out at school every day this week spending hours and hours working on three minutes of film. Three minutes of a film that I have seen every frame countless times... Three minutes of film that I am tired of looking at. 

The final draft critique was once again a group effort. Where last week we spent our time critiquing coverage, this week we covered story, acting, and production value. It was a long day and rather brutal. Everyone picked apart everyone else's film. Some of the critiques regarding my short was that there wasn't enough character development with my main character and that it felt like a scene from a movie and not necessarily a complete short. These were completely valid and I felt the same. We discussed the lack of character development when I first started working on this project as it would be tough to add to a three minute short. Overall, I was really happy with my finished product. For a while every time I told myself that I wouldn't show it to anyone. haha. Now I am proud of it. Would I change anything? Of course I would. I would like to have the entire shooting day to do over... 

A few of us walked over to the Dogpatch Saloon for a post game analysis (read: drinking session). It was both cathartic and incredibly necessary to drink a beer! No rest for the weekend as we start our first Documentary Class in two days...

Music to murder to...

Spending endless amounts of hours in front of the computer while editing I've come to realize I really like to edit the non-dialog scenes while listening to music. What have you been listening to Bucky? The world wants to know! Well I will tell you. I've been listening to the same band that I listened to quite a bit while I was writing Death Rattle. That band would be Clinic. Specifically their album Walking With Thee. They have a very dark, atmospheric, and cinematic sound to them. This is a great indication of what they sound like: Harmony. After Walking With Thee I would recommend Winchester Cathedral. 

Not a whole lot else to report besides editing, editing, editing....

Final Cut Pro & Me.

Week seven of film school brings our journey to the editing/computer lab where I will be spending copious amounts of time over the next three weeks. At the beginning of the week we spent the first night going over three modules with Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro or FCP is a digital non-linear editing system. Modules are training exercises for FCP. These modules take quite a bit of time and can be a little on the dry side. FCP is relatively easy to get started on but the program is just amazingly massive, overwhelmingly so actually, and will take years to master.

After learning some basics the first night, our second night we had a capturing lab where we took our raw footage and converted it to digital then uploaded it to our hard-drives and then imported it to FCP. Speaking of hard drives, we are required to have both a flash drive (at least 256 MB) and a hard drive (at least 250 GB with a 800 & 400 FireWire interface). I went with a LaCie hard drive. Capturing lab was great as this was my first opportunity to really look at my footage. I went through it all and made notes on each scene and labeled each scene in FCP then grouped them in bins for easy access. That alone took quite a long time.

The rest of the week was modules and editing. I spent a lot of time reviewing the footage before I put the first piece of footage in the timeline.

We did have a lecture on the last class of the week that I found both helpful and invigorating. The lecture was titled "Editing:Cinematic Language" and was taught by Stephen. We watched some great clips and dissected them. My favorite of the batch was a chase scene from Road Warrior, one of the Mad Max movies. It was just a badass scene and it was put together beautifully. The use of audio was impressive... it all tied into the lecture. At the end of the class he talked to us about having patience and staying motivated during the editing process. This was great to hear... as it is tough to keep working on the same footage for hours and hours.

All Pro!

Somebody in my crew posted this on the door to the stage where I was shooting... obviously it's film school not grammar school.

The Lost Weekend....

I woke up the day after my shoot and it felt like I had ran a mini-marathon the day before. Not that I know what it feels like to run a mini-marathon, but I imagined that's what it would feel like. I was on my feet all day long, running from point a to point b or sometimes just running around lost... I did a lot of pre-production work and midday we realized we were running so short on time, due to my actress having to leave earlier than expected, we ended up throwing out most of my pre-production material . The shot list was the first to go, then we took the camera off the tri-pod and went hand held, then I starting removing scenes from the script on the fly. Hopefully this will add to the overall urgency of the film. Hopefully...

What was crazy about this weekend was that I began assembling my set at 1 o'clock on Thursday (furniture from home, carpets from the prop room down the street, etc.) and once that was completed we built a restaurant scene (see above) for Tyler's Friday shoot. We had to build walls (flats) and everything from the ground up. It actually ended up looking very believable. We did this on stage A which also contains the green screen. After a late night of building we shot Tyler's short on Friday. We started off the day with a skeleton crew due to everyone's works schedules so at one point I was setting up camera, lights, and audio. Tyler got a lot of coverage in his shoot and we even got to play with the jib arm. (see the above pic with the camera/crane). The jib makes camera movement look seamless.

That brings us to Saturday. My intense all day long shoot followed by a nice celebratory dinner at Serpentine with my lovely wife. Many Whiskey Smashes were consumed. Waking up early on Sunday was not fun. Why did I have to wake up early? I was DP for Adi's shoot. Another 12 hour day at school. Adi shot in black & white and was going for a Hitchcock-esque feel. The DP or Director of Photography works the camera as you can tell from the above pic of me and the camera. It was a cool shoot and we once again battled time.

I would love to say the we get a break after filming our shorts, but no, we start editing and learning Final Cut Pro tomorrow...

Right here, right now.

For better or worse.... my first day of directing was upon me. After a night of restless sleep I started off the day by swinging by Noah's for bagels and coffee for my cast and crew. Remember, craft services is required on your shoot. Speaking of cast & crew here is the breakdown:

Jo (character) = Heather

Intruder (character) = Ed

DP = Adi

AD = Tyler

Lighting = Nitin

Sound = Ephantus

Instructor = James

Craft Services = Jenny

Jenny would be Jenny my wife, she completely kicked ass and catered by shoot. Hawaiian Bar-B-Que, cookies, and beers! Awesome woman.

Back to the filming. As with all of the other shoots, it took forever to hit record. Lighting is incredibly critical and incredibly hard to get just right. At least for beginners such as us. Combine that with the fact that my first shot was a dolly shot. In a dolly shot the camera moves towards the subject. This requires laying dolly track and then setting up the camera on the dolly with the camera operator. You also need a cord wrangler and someone to push the dolly. So incredibly smart for me to make my first shot of all time a dolly shot, no??

Time management is a big part of your time and you are constantly racing the clock. Today was no exception. We started to run very short on time so we just pushed the tri-pod aside and hand-held the camera the entire rest of the day. Hopefully this will add to the overall effect of the film.

Everyone gave a 100 percent on the film and I couldn't be more grateful to them as it is a long day of hard work . I was stressed a big chunk of the day and none of my stress was from an exterior source which I guess is something to be incredibly happy about. Hah! Even though I was stressed all day the second it was over I missed it and I am already looking forward to my next shoot.

Some notes on the pictures. Pictures 1 & 3 three are both of studio B where I held my shoot. Before and after pics if you will.

Picture 2 is me at the monitor. You spend a big portion of your day at the monitor communicating to your crew on the set what needs to be done to make it look how you envision it and watching each take to make sure you captured what you needed/wanted.

Picture 4 is some props/costume from the shoot Death Rattle!!!! So dramatic...

There it is!

Holla at me if you're on my block!

Blocking is the movement of your characters and camera. The goal is to make the movement look natural and then place the camera in the best location to cover the action. This is what we were doing in the above pictures. Everyone meet Heather and Ed. Heather and Ed... everyone.

We got together to rehearse the short which entailed a script read through or three, blocking, and discussion of the short and characters. This was the first time we all met each other which was also another goal of us getting together.

Both Heather and Ed were consummate professionals all night. The scene we were rehearsing was pretty physical and they attacked it! They were all over the studio. On the ground, the bed, out the door. Good stuff. This night helped a ton and also it caused more re-writes for the script. My 9th re-write to be specific.

Adi, a classmate and the DP on my short, was able to pop in for the latter half of rehearsals. It was nice to have another set of eyes and to convey to him what I want to try and accomplish. Successful night all around.

Long days on the set...

What it do? What it do? I finally got to do what I came out here to do. Make a movie. In between prepping for my shoot, I crewed on three of my classmates films. Anne, Ephantus, & Nitin. I did sound for two and was DP for another. DP is Director of Photography. Sound is okay but kind of boring after a while. Basically with sound you stand off to the side of the actors and hold a pole with a microphone attached to it. Always wearing headphones you let the director know if you captured sound or any other unwanted noises during a take. It's super easy to zone out so I kept reminding myself to stay in the present. DP is another story altogether. You are the camera man all day and it is incredibly collaborative with the Director. You are always communicating his needs/wants and your response. It's your job then to let the actors know when they are in frame and what you need from lighting on the set. I had a blast being the DP and it was a great learning experience. I definitely need to train my eye for capturing a shot. Where's the best place to set the camera, should you move the camera during a shoot, what angle should you use, etcetera, etcetera??? I had a blast running sound as well. Hell, it was just cool to be around a movie being made.

The days were definitely long. On average, close to eleven hours for three days in a row. By wrap on day three I was tired as all hell.

When I wasn't shooting wasn't crewing or working or sleeping, I was at work on my upcoming shoot. Picking crew members, planning props and room layout, talking to my actors, choosing food, emailing my instructor constantly with questions (which I am sure they adore), rewriting my script... Etc. Lots to do in little amounts of time. It will be here in just a few days.

*the two pics of above were from Nitin & Ephantus' shoots respectively.

Pre-Production, Pre-Production, Pre-Production.

Can you guess what we continued with in this weeks of class? Getting in to Film Festivals! Nah, it was pre-production which meant working with actors, team logistics, storyboarding, labs both writing and pre-production (which is now officially the word of the day), and intro to sound. 

Intro to sound was a great day. We worked with the day class and essentially had a dry run for our shoots. The class entailed us dragging out the equipment, setting up a set with lights and audio writing and filming a scene. From start to finish in the span of a few hours. I worked with Jimmy and Chris who are two funny dudes from the day class and we made a short about an asshole (me) who wouldn't get off the phone in the computer lab. Milena ran class to day and she is another one of instructors who does a lot of focus on editing. She is a great and easy going presence in the studio. 

As I mentioned earlier, we had a lecture entitled Working With Actors which James ran point on. Another great lesson. One director and two actors. The director hands the actors a script that  they've never seen before and the work it over... and over... and over. From one dry line read to almost where it is filmable. This is where the director really lets the actors know what he or she wants out of a scene and this is where the actors bring their ideas about their characters to the big dance. Give and take and communication . Creating trust and an avenue of communication that will continue up until filming. 

In regards to my film... Death Rattle!!  (ominous ain't it?) I spent time this week rewriting and casting. Both the actors I sent my script to and that I asked to be in my film accepted!! Heather Parsons and Edward McCloud will play Josephine and the Intruder respectively. I couldn't be happier to have these two in this project with me. 

I've been drawing inspiration/straight-ganking ideas from these films while writing & setting up shots: High Tension (Haute Tension) and bit o' The Shining. Peep 'em if you haven't seen 'em.