Not dead. Just napping.
by David Shute
It's been awhile since anything has been posted and I wanted to take a minute to update as to what's going on.
THE NEW FACE OF SECURITY
I don't know if I posted this. I get the distinct feeling that I did not. We shot the footage for this late last year. Other projects were on my plate to be edited so this got pushed to the side for a few weeks. When I finally got back to the footage I found that we couldn't use it. I'm inclined to blame the equipment we were using.
We were using a Canon XH-A1 with a RedRock micro kit running out to an SD monitor. I was aware there were some focus issues during the start of the first day of shooting but I wasn't aware of how bad the focus was. It appeared to be in focus on the camera. It appeared to be in focus on the SD monitor. Going back over the footage it was definitely not in focus. This wasn't a camera operator issue. At some points three or four different people were verifying that appeared in focus on the camera.
I'm inclined to say equipment. The combination we had likely wasn't configured to work together. The same RedRock kit works just fine with a JVC camera Ed Video has in inventory and we're not the only crew who has faced this issue.
All that said we need to reshoot. With one of our actors in Saudi Arabia for several more months and our original location no longer a viable options we're working around those issues to try and pull together another shoot. It's coming along.
RENAISSANCE UNFAIRE
I'm slowly slugging my way through set design for this. It's a single set but I have a specific idea for how I want it to look so it's taking a bit of time to get everything together. Add the fact that I'm building it all in my spare time so it doesn't get as much attention as it should.
EVERYBODY'S DEAD
I started working on a new one act play earlier this month. A first draft has been completed and it just sitting to rest for a little bit while a couple sets of eyes look it over. It's also a good chance for me to get some distance from it. This way when I come back to edit it's fresher than if I just jumped in to editing right away.
SCRIPT FRENZY
Script Frenzy '10 is coming up. If you haven't heard of Script Frenzy it is a collective self challenge to write a 100 page screenplay in the month of April. I took part in '08 and '09 and jammed out a zombie script each year successfully. I'm considering, should my schedule permit, taking part again this year. If you're in to screenwriting and have some problems with completing a script this is an awesome chance to break that cycle. The point is not a script you can sell but filling the page count with the best content you can in a month.
BUTTERFLYBULLSEYE
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before but my personal site is at butterflybullseye.com. I tend to talk in a bit more depth and more informally about what I'm working on there. It also spans far beyond the confined of just heavyliftingindustries projects.
If you've already visited there and subscribed to the RSS feed you may want to pop over and grab the new link for the new feed. I've had to update it switching from blogger over to Wordpress.
Three Tall Women
by David Shute
Sue Kluckow, who we adore, is already one week down out of three on stage for Three Tall Women through KWLT. Also in the show is Aleriel Lear who was in my stage production of A BRAND NEW HELL. I'm heading out to see the show myself this coming Friday.
Renaissance Unfaire
by David Shute
I took some time to actually get out and pick up some materials I've been meaning to grab since before Christmas. I've had my little stop motion project "RENAISSANCE UNFAIRE" kicking around in my head for a long time now. As I mentioned previously, I've already had actors perform the dialogue for me. It was intended to be a set design project for my wife and I. With an infant in the house though it's rare we both have time to sit down and do anything together. I finally gave in and just got the materials so I could start working on it by myself.
I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it tonight but enough to test out some ideas and see how they worked. The first thing that I did was test out my grass. I want an uneven field with some texture and colour variation. I already know how I'm going to do my uneven field but I wasn't quite sure on how to get text and colour at the same time. I saw some yarn while I was out the crafts store picking up materials. It's nicely textured and have a varying green colour. Perfect.
I tested out putting it together by cutting strips of it the length of a piece of cardboard, putting glue down on the cardboard, and laying the strips over top. It works, better than I expected actually. The only problem is that the yarn I got was a little too dark. It's not bright and cartoony enough. A necessity for this project.
The other, and much larger, chunk of work tonight was figuring out how to make my trees. Jumbo popsicle sticks, a brown marker, and green pipe cleaners. When I started putting it together I had no idea what I was going to do. Once I put together the trunk and branches it just came together. I had intended to do more green sections, covering the top half of the tree, but once I had the tips on it just looked right.
The popsicle sticks are pretty soft so I was able to shave them in to shape easily with an exacto knife. From there I took a brown marker to them. Since the wood have a bit of colour variety to it naturally so I shouldn't need to do any detailing work on them. I took the pipe cleaners and wound them in around themselves like pinwheels. I glued all the popsicle stick pieces together and then the pin wheels on to the ends of the branches.
I still have a few things to figure out, like the best way to ensure they stay standing and stable, but I like where they're at so far. I should have everything sort, my designs all planned, and started on proper building by next week.
Renaissance Unfaire
by David Shute
While we were doing some work on The New Face of Security I had Nicole and my wife record some quick dialogue for me. My plan was to start working on a short stop motion project at the beginning of this month. Something I could really jam through in an afternoon and maybe an evening once I had a set built. It's taken a little time to get up and running with other things going on.
The plan, currently, is to take a peek at some materials tomorrow for set design. My wife is a graphic designer by trade and loves getting messy and building silly stuff. I think she's going to have a lot of fun working on this with me. I would prefer to actually get some set design ideas down on paper first, maybe a sketch or seven, but we're headed out to a crafts store tomorrow. No reason not to get some stuff while we're already there.
Refactoring Is Your Friend
by David Shute
After I took about thirty seconds to look at what I'd written for my Ruby script in the last post I realized I had over complicated a few things. I refactored it a little bit because it was bothering me that I'd been a bit more verbose than I really needed to be.
text = <<EOF
video_catpure_%03d.m2t
scene:
shot:
take:
performance:
focus:
technical:
notes:
EOF
output_file = File.open('shot_log.txt', 'w')
1.upto(160) { |y| output_file.puts text % y }
output_file.close
So, what does this really have to do with writing and filmmaking. Not a lot but enough. There's always another way to do things. A cleaner method. A more elegant way of solving a problem. Options. We tend to be fairly myopic with our stories. Once we've figured out the path, once we've found something we like, it's difficult to see anything else.
While I haven't changed the end result of the script above I did make it easier to modify and maintain. If I do decide to make major changes it's going to go a lot more smoothly than with the previous version.
All The Cool Kids Are Doing It
by David Shute
If ever there were an argument for creative individuals to learn how to program this is it. I've made this argument in numerous arenas before. At many points in working in creative endeavours I've found a need for a tool that either doesn't exist or is going to cost me money. They're not always essentials but anything that saves me time and gets me working on the task at hand is beneficial.
I've written lightly complex programs when the need existed. Typically, the programs that save me are the tiny scripts that turn repetitive tasks in non-issues. Recently I've been going through and logging some footage. I generally shoot all my own material so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking at before editing. I also don't go this long without putting some eyes on what I've got. I really needed something to help me logging all this footage for later organization as I start cutting everything together.
I looked through a couple of applications that I use regularly but nothing was jumping out at me. All I needed for the task was to be able to have a simple text file with the following: the name of the video file, the scene, shot, and take number, and performance, focus, technical, and general notes. That's it. Use some tabbing to get a little bit of form to it so it's easy on the eyes. Cake.
I needed 160 of these in a text file. I could just do it once and then do the copy paste cycle. Seven cycles of highlight, copy, deselect highlight, paste and I'd have 128. Next step is either 256 if I keep the pattern going or 192 if I just hit that paste key combo after the last copy. That's not too much work to get there but it still has faults.
It doesn't account for the number in each video file incrementing; video_file_001.m2t, video_file_002.m2t, etc. I have to fix that manually after the fact. I don't have the proper amount of any entries through any quick combination of copy / paste either. It's also just repetitive and boring work. There's no reason to do this when a simple script can do it quickly and better.
Here's the Ruby script I used.
text = <<EOF
scene:
shot:
take:
performance:
focus:
technical:
notes:
EOF
output_file = File.open('shot_log.txt', 'w')
1.upto(160) { |y|
output_file.puts "video_catpure_%03d.m2t" % y
output_file.puts text
}
output_file.close
It's simple, elegant, and took slightly more time than it would have taken just to write out my first block that I would have been copy pasting. It addresses the auto increment of the video file names while creating a file for me to work from. The monotonous work is out of the way. I can use this skeleton document to start taking notes while I sift through my footage.
Another benefit, one not always immediately obvious, is reusability. This script, as is, isn't very configurable but it's simple and can be updated in the future if I find this method of shot logging to be useful. I don't need to write a whole new text block and copy / paste out a new document. Instead, I change a few pieces of information and run the script again. I now have a new and fully customized document to work from for the next project.
Plan Z
by David Shute
Did I mention PLAN Z is done and public? Well, it is.
Plan Z from David Shute on Vimeo.
Busy Time of the Year
by David Shute
Sue Kluckow, one of the two actors in 'The New Face of Security' and star of a short I shot earlier this year, is celebrating a birthday today. Happy birthday Sue!
New Face Post Mortem
by David Shute
It's been over three weeks since we wrapped shooting on The New Face of Security. I figured it might be time to say a few things about shooting.
We were shooting within a large garage that was previously used to service diesel trucks. Needless to say it wasn't the most pleasant smelling place. Before filming I swept the entire garage on three different occasions. Each time I came up with piles of dust.
If you looked toward the ceiling you'd see black covering the length of it. This, of itself, isn't so bad, until you realize it's supposed to be the silver of corrugated metal. Those black fans on the ceiling? Yup, those are supposed to be white. Guess where all that dust I was sweeping up kept coming from?
The real fun was in how cold the place was. It somehow managed to be a good ten degrees colder inside than it was out. I kept expecting the lights to warm the location up but they didn't really perform as much as I was hoping. At one point it was around 12 or 13 degrees Celsius outside. Inside we could see our breath.
Despite the cold, the smell, and the near certainty we were surrounded by carcinogenic dust, the cast and crew were fantastic. The girls helping out with hair and makeup spent the large majority of their time out in the car to keep warm when they weren't needed. Nicole, fighting off a pretty nasty cold, slept in between takes where she could. The heaters came on when we could and having a hot lunch on one of the days helped.
We managed to stick to the schedule fairly well. I booked out two days each at ten hours including our lunch breaks and we really didn't go beyond that. It's nice when the schedule is maintained, though I'm a little shocked with how our last half a day went that we managed to make it through.
Our first day of shooting was as smooth as can be. We moved through shots pretty quickly and got everything that we had planned for, a good two thirds of the footage. I put a lot of time in to planning in advance and the planning paid off. Of course, we left the difficult shots for the second day. The morning on day two went smoothly as well. We moved in to the equipment dependent shots in the afternoon and things started to unravel.
We were largely using rental equipment and some of it was not in it's prime. The tripod that we were using had the arm completely stripped and the head was not nearly as fluid as it should have been. This meant that Amanda, our camera operator, needed to essentially hug the redrock assembly and the tripod to do any tilt or pan movements. Not the greatest way of doing things.
From there we moved on to the tripod dolly. It liked to move in elliptical curves quite well. Straight lines, you ask? Not so much. Which brings us to the crane.
The crane wasn't meant to hold a lot of weight which forced us to do all those shots with the stock lens on the camera, removing the redrock kit. For very basic shots it was fine, especially the simple overheads. Anything that required wider movements was torture.
We had a few audio snags. Chances are we'll be going back and doing ADR for the entire short. Came down to some equipment issues. Truthfully though, if it wasn't for being able to blame the equipment I would blame it on the natural echo in the room. Getting the audio to feel natural across an entire edit would have been murder. Either way we'd be redoing all the audio, regardless of the excuse.
I know it sounds like a rough shoot but it went really well. My cast was awesome, though I fully expected them to be. They'd rehearsed well and they knew their characters. They delivered what I was hoping I'd get out of them. The crew was pretty much on it as well and we had a chance to expose a few new people to a film set. The majority of the problems we encountered were largely technical. Those that we couldn't fix we worked around. It was a good experience and I took away a lot from it.
Editing should be starting on THE NEW FACE OF SECURITY in the next week or so. I'm just finishing out the last few details of PLAN Z and then it's moving forward.
The Fourth Kind Review
by David Shute
I've got a review of The Fourth Kind up over at Horror-Movies.ca.