The Two Front Strategy

So, after my epiphany of turning one of my Unreleased-Named-Future-Noir-Project shorts from a short film into a webcomic, it freed my imagination a quite a number of ways.  With the excitement of approaching it in a different format, the story came together quite easily.  It will still be cinematic, and if the economy gets better by next summer, I will use it as a visual basis for an adapted short.

Generally, as I work out the story, I write a list of all the situations I want to happen in it and a list of the most interesting characters I can think of.  I then rearrange them until I can see some sort of pattern- and find some sort of relationships that form between motivation and action.  Some writers will write them down on cards, but generally I just cut and paste in my text editor... than I transfer them to that little freebie gem Celtx.

So, the web comic's beat sheet is done and the first few scenes have been fleshed out.  I'm really excited for this one.  Now, I just need to stretch those old drawing muscles and get my butt into gear!

Winter Plans

Editing on Oisin has been slow but steady... things have been extremely hectic lately and I've been interrupted quite a bit, so it's made it challenging.

Salt of the Earth is on hold until I can finish Oisin, but I found some concept images I had created that I was originally planning on using at the beginning of the short. The idea was to have a flying car fly down and into the city:

than behind this statue:

than over a building which we use in our establishing shot, where it tilts down showing Yolanda Arrey having her morning breakfast at a sidewalk cafe. But it didn't seem convincing to me and we don't have flying cars in any other part of this short (they are a part of the story's world, but we found they're expensive to rent) so I decided on a more sinister approach to the beginning- which I have been storyboarding out.

Because of our rickety economy, I've decided to turn one of the three future shorts I had for the Unreleased-Named-Future-Noir-Feature-project into a web comic. Don't get me wrong, I am not taking an easier path by doing a web comic- they are very time consuming and tough; I'm trading in hundreds of phone calls for arrangements for hundreds of hours cramping up my drawing hand... not that I'm complaining :)

But in all reality, the main reason is the season- the future noir shorts take place during warmer weather... so it's a wait until spring time to get those going again, and I'll be doing something over the Winter in the meantime.

The Post-Production Run

I'm in the process of editing 2 shorts right now- My short "Salt of the Earth" & Russ Adams' "Oisin". Not really a big deal, SOTE is pretty much done- it just needs a few VFX, a couple of Pick-up shots and sound design... and to be scored. I was hoping to finish it up this month but I'm going to have to push it off until November.

Oisin is forming rather nicely. Where we shot SOTE on location as the near future, Oisin was shot on a soundstage period set, built by the filmmaker himself. It was actually rather ingenious: Russ had built four panels of "brick walls" to create the period feel of an interior of a castle- everything from the local lord's chamber to the dungeons the prisoners were kept in. We did use one old metal door within the complex and moved the walls to simulate that it was the cell doors, and the illusion came was impressive. Later, he had flipped the walls around to create the tavern walls for the happier times of the protagonist.

Once I am done editing Oisin (both sound and video), I'll hand it off back to Russ so he can add the sound effects and get it scored. I also agreed to create the titles for it.

In the meantime, I have been fiddling with a very old DIY 35mm Adapter I had built from scratch three years ago for my first mini-dv 3ccd Panasonic PVGS-120. I used it on my first short "Love's Confession", and the outcome was pretty nice- though it gave my friend and DP Brett Stagg a headache since there was no way to flip the image on the viewer.

I've been wanting to purchase a 35mm Adapter for my Canon HV20 from a couple of vendors, but with the rollercoaster economy right I decided to tweak my old one to see how it looks. The exterior is ungainly, it utilizes the spinning Ground Glass concept, and it is housed in an old cookie tin. I mounted a Pentax K-Mount camera lens mount to the front of it via JB Weld (I love that stuff), and the camera connected via step up rings. I have a few lenses which I think will look pretty nice.

Oisin Stills

Russ and I have been discussing the final look of the film, which he wanted to have a real cold, dark, stark grittyness to it. Part of the issue was our location was flooded with light and no electricity- which presented the challenge of shaping the light with flags and drapes. We cut down quite a bit of light, but the ambient was very wild.



Unfortunately, a generator wasn't an option- it would have killed our sound, and we didn't have time to make wild takes since the location was triple booked, much to our chagrin.



However, we did it. I'm happy with the results- though we agreed some of our last takes will have to be re-done because we were rushing in the end not to impede on the party with the third booking. Ah! The joys of micro-budget filmmaking!






This weekend, we're finishing up with the happier times of Oisin, and some gritty and horrific injustices that he must face.