Part 2 of a MASSIVE Catch-Up Blog

December 28th, 2010

Back to the story of Two. I feel like this could have made an interesting documentary. “Two: The TV Show That Never Was”. Had I thought of it then. Damn. Moving on. We began filming again the next morning. Keith ran all over East-Jesus to find a damn fog machine. We found a K-Mart that sold them the previous night, but he went to Target, thus making it useless. Anyhow, we had one now. We could finally film the way Nuna wanted to, which makes me wonder why he made me director? When we got down to brass tax things began to feel more right. The fog machine was kicking in (slowly), but it was kinda doing it's job. I explained how I wanted the scene done. Nuna, with his facial tattoo completely covered, and in his spiffy digs got into character. All was going well.

The first scene we thought we should film would be the fight in the opening sequence. So, I set up the shot. I knew where I wanted Nuna to come in, I knew when Scott should come in. Nuna and Scott set up the fight. Scott was a bit worried about the giant knife. Etc. Whatever. In the end, Greg and I were both filming. Him with his camera and me with Nuna's, which I used, like, once. Riley also had to use audio equipment he wasn't used to.

In the end, we maybe got like 2 minutes of usable footage. I did get scolded for running the camera way too much. I thought it was the best thing to do. During Brutal Nuna CONSTANTLY had the camera running. I guess he changed his way. Also, the audio didn't come out and we didn't even get the shoot done. Joy. We had two weekends to finish and we couldn't film too late because Scott had to leave and Nuna was filming for Brutal 2. All in all, the shoot didn't go well at all. Torn up by this, Greg and I went to Graveyard Records then watched a few movies at my house. I believe we watched “Otis” and “Behind the Mask”.

A few days to a week after this headache of a shoot (if you want to call it that), we got word from Riley, who spoke with Nuna, about the show's future. Apparently the agent hated our idea and thought it to be one of the worst he ever read. He wanted us to go back to a previous idea Nuna had. At this point my heart wasn't in it, so I quit. I still plan to save the script for the future. I would have love to have kept working with him. Making Brutal with him was and will always be one of the best experiences of my life and he'll always be a good friend.

After the dust of “Two” had cleared Riley, Greg and I weren't sure what to do with our time. All of our free time at the time that wasn't dedicated to homework went towards “Two”. It became such an insane collaborative effort and we made a script all three of us were proud of. We still hang out and talk and try to collaborate on a piece again, but it's never been as fluid of organic as it was those few weeks. After that Riley went back to trying to get his art classes done, Greg went back to finishing some shorts he was working on and writing his first feature length screenplay. I also had to go back to the real world. Trying to pass Math and Bio plus finishing my shorts and so on. The dream ended. We were back in the world.

At this point I went back to editing my short film, “Coins”, that I filmed with my friend at the time. Coins was an interesting little film because it came out of nowhere. It wasn't planned so much as it was thought up on the spot and filmed in two days. I was sick at the time, but it was still a fun shoot. “Coins” is the story of a girl whose collecting flattened coins on the train tracks and she stumbled upon a dead body in the woods. Everything was fun until I had to sit down and edit. I had to do extensive work to the short. Audio was horrible because I could be heard breathing in the background because of being so congested, so I had to lower the audio levels lower than the standard level. I then also did a lot of color correction work, which I strangely enjoy. It gives your work a nice look and can make average looking work look a lot better. I did a lot to the color and always had mom coming in to my editing room and asking her “Which looks better? A slight blue tint or a slight purple tint” and then we'd talk about the content of the scene and what I'm trying to do and she'd tell me which she felt was better. She's great.

After I had a falling out with the actress it was hard to keep editing the short, but I power through and made three versions of the short. A class cut that's a bit shorter and has a slightly different color correction to it, a longer cut that has my favorite color correction and then a black and white cut of the extended version because while filming I kept picturing it as a black and white piece. No one at this point has seen the black and white version in it's entirety. Perhaps in the future.

Right after filming “Coins” I began on my short dedicated to my dad, entitled “Steve”. My original script for it was intended to be at least 10 to 15 minutes long and would mix in narrative elements, some experimental storytelling aspects and real footage of interviews I've conducted with my dad. It was am ambitious process. I even found an actor named Scott who was interested in playing the character of Steve. He told me he was really interested after reading the early draft of my script. I would go on to like Scott's work so much that I'd ask him to play the killer in “Two”. It's a shame it never continued.

Now I say Scott would be playing a character, even though my dad is a real person. Steve is a character, he's a representation of my dad. I described it as such in my script.

NARRATOR

(V.O.)

The man holding the picture is Scott. He's the person I've chosen to play "Steve". Now, let it be clear. My dad is Steve, but Steve isn't necessarily my dad. In this sense, Steve is the vehicle I use to tell the story. Is it my dad's story? Partially. Is it Steve's story? Completely.

See? The short would be almost like those Unsolved Mystery shows where it was part real interview and part dramatization. The short was originally about my dad's battle with smoking and him trying to quit. Scott would play Steve who is the embodiment of the everyman. The way Steve deals with smoking would be different than how my dad dealt with it, but, they're similar. It's sort of metaphysical.

Well, Greg and I went to Scott's apartment to film the opening scene where Steve has a battle with smoking and is haunted by a pack of cigarettes. Scott's process of getting into the character was truly amazing to watch. He really made me feel like a confident director because he was really getting into the character with me. It was great. He then taught Greg and I a bit about lighting. The man is a lighting wiz and helped me get an amazing tone with the piece and the lighting. I owe the man a lot and I always have his back.

Well after that initial shoot I went home that weekend and did an impromptu interview with my dad. It was very impromptu. I had no idea I was gonna do it. I didn't even set up lights or use DV cameras. I used a 720p camera that the CEO of Braeger bought for me set up on a tripod and used a lamp for lighting. The only real piece of equipment I used was a zoom recorder for the audio and then I synched them up later. It worked like a charm.

After editing the footage of Scott and doing color correction to make some Day for Night effects I got it looking really good. Hell, I impressed Scott who is a firm believer in doing those effects with lighting, not editing. The class all liked my cut, but the common consensus was that they wanted more of a my dad. It was an interesting process from this point on because the more that the need to see more of my dad rose the less and less I had of Scott. I eventually cut him out completely and was strictly using footage that, at very most, was going to be used as cutaways or throwaway. I shot it with a low quality camera in a very guerilla style. Emotional content was high but I felt less and less like a real filmmaker because I felt like I was working with found footage and wasn't using anything I set up myself. I had interviews with my dad and I, footage of his radiation treatment, a lot of shots of him interacting with people and stuff with doctors. It was a real headache trying to find a good way to put it all together. As this went on I showed my project and people began to like it more and more, but I felt more and more ashamed of my visuals. My audio work is good and I did a lot with the audio recorded with the in camera mics but there was little I could do with the visuals. I color corrected some and used filters, but I couldn't make them look “good”. I was nervous going into the portfolio review process. Luckily my amazing instructor Alex Torinus had my back going into portfolio and was going to explain my process of why and how I ended up with what I did. I appreciate that because I passed Portfolio review and I have her and my dad to thank for that.

As the semester winded down I began to freak out. My math grade was alright, but I was freaking out about not passing. Even more so with Bio because none of my tests in the main lecture where above 65%. I was kicking ass in the lab with an A, and the lab is 40% of my grade, so I had hope that that would propel me into passing range. It did. I passed Math with a C- and Bio with a C.

Winter break came up and it's much needed. I spent some quality time with two of my best friends visiting from out of town and I saw “Black Swan”, which I loved, and “Tron: Legacy”, which was OK. It was a lot of fun but lacked substance. It's 3D was pretty good, so that helped it. I've also gotten back into the grind of writing. I'm currently working on re-writes of my first feature, trying to get an outline done so I can finish my second and work on a few shorts. The only thing remotely close to filming and editing I'm doing over break is to film some test footage so I can teach myself how to use the program Color that came with my Final Cut Pro studio. I want a professional color grading program. I may do some editing for a fellow student on a short film he wants t make, but I haven't heard back on that yet. I have time to rest, and you're completely caught up for now. Thanks for reading.

I guess I should also mention my Winter playlist of movies. I will list it below. Suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Clerks

Clerks II

Natural Born Killers

Grindhouse (Planet Terror/Death Proof)

The Quick and the Dead

Re-Animator

Saw

Shaun of the Dead (w/ director commentary)

Vulgar

Young Guns

Neil Gaiman's NeverWhere

Inglourious Basterds

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

A Clockwork Orange

Almost Famous

American Splendor

The Anarchist Cookbook

SLC Punk

The Aviator

The Backyard

Bringing Out the Dead

Coffee & Cigarettes

The Crow

The Dark Crystal

Dead-Alive

El Mariachi

From Dusk till Dawn

Hard Candy

Hostel

Hostel Part 2

Hot Fuzz

Raising Arizona

Jimmy and Judy

I've finished some, but still got a lot more. On a final note I feel I should express my excitement for Kevin Smith's new flick "Red State". He's almost completely reinvented himself and I'm excited. Check out the teaser below.

And, finally, for those interested in "Two", if you ask nicely I'll talk with you about it and explain my plans for it, but, if you want an idea of how Riley and I wanted it tone wise, watch the Exorcism scene from "the Unborn" (yes, I'm aware it's not a good film) while listening to Ennio Morricone's song "Ecstasy of Gold" from "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly" and you'll get an idea. Seriously, do it. It works very well.

The Wheels of Fire Have Begun To Turn Again...

It sure has been a while since I've updated this. I've felt it's useless to update if I have nothing of importance to talk about. Well, I finally have something to say. I'm involved in a new project: Producing Void (blue).

I'm sure I've spoken about this project before, but I'll re-cap in case I haven't. Greg, a friend of mine in film school, made a film in High School called "Void". It was an eerie video that I still don't quite understand but reminds me of a modern-day fairytale for some reason.

Well, a year or two later, he has felt it's time to re-investigate the idea and re-make and extend it. Void was Evil Dead and this is Evil Dead -- part re-make part new idea. Well as he was writing it he asked if I wanted to Produce. I accepted.

For almost an entire semester, which isn't that long, we've been preparing. We still aren't completely ready to begin full-on production but we have enough to shoot a few scenes.

We shot the first scene on Monday. It wasn't the fun, easy shoot I was hoping. Greg recently had surgery and couldn't do a lot of heavy lifting. I was still sick from a few days before. The school was hot as hell and the two hours we were there felt like four.

I'm not sure how much I can go into as far as the scene goes, but it involved a canvas, trick photography and a rather annoying dolly shot we tried to do with a computer chair. I'm not sure how many of you have tried to use a computer chair as a dolly, but it's hard because it doesn't like to go in a straight line. Ours liked to veer left. That was annoying.

After the day of shooting I was feeling light headed and annoyed. Greg seemed stressed. I'm not sure how the footage turned out. I heard it was good, but I'm still worried about sitting down at the editing room and playing with it. We'll have to see.

I promise a better update is to come.

Production Journal #7: It's a Wrap!

Wednesday, April 28 2010

Finally, the filming of Commedia dell'arte has come to an end.

It's been a long journey. About two months, I think. I've been physically exhausted for weeks. I'm too tired to do much of anything. It's been a lot of long nights lugging around heavy equipment for the sake of art.

I don't regret a moment of it though. Thus far, this is my favorite film I've made. My rough cut is a little over 5 minutes so far (will be more once I add the new footage) and I love how it's turning out. I'm truly happy with this film.

Perhaps I should show this rough cut to a few more people. Thus far Leanna, Scott, Morgan and Greg have seen it. Most other people have shown their cuts to the class and have gotten feed back and what not. The reason I'm not is because I want to see how this turns out if I stick to my intuition and make the movie I feel is best instead of getting peoples opinions and stressing me out. It's an experiment. Once I'm happy with my rough cut and can call it a fine cut, sure, I'll show everyone. Until then, I want it to stay special. If I show too many people, the final won't be as special.

I guess I should talk about the actual shoot. It was a relatively quick shoot. We filmed what I've been calling "antics" and some inbetweener stuff to round out everything so there are fewer jumps.

The antics were fun to shoot. It was a very mellow, very fun shoot. Morgan made this amazing coffee and some peanut butter sandwiches. It was great watching Morgan, in make-up, try and bite into her food. During the shoot, Morgan and I were switching out our iPod's to pump the place full of tunes. We didn't think it would hurt, considering we're not doing audio. Morgan was playing a lot of Panda Bear while I was sticking to tunes I was listening to while editing: The Dresden Dolls and The Indelicates new album. It really set the mood.

We did so many different things during these antics. We had Greg doing a silly dance with the ukuelele that I've dubbed "the Charlie Brown", we had him pull a bird out of his hat and even tickle Morgan's face with a rather long feather. He really sold the character. Morgan was great too, but most of the focus was on Greg. Greg has the hard job of being happy, yet depressed and ready to crack. To be zany yet subtle. He did it wonderfully.

After we wrapped on my film, we did some credits for Morgan, which was a wrap for her as well and listened to New Order's "Blue Monday". Then shot some stuff for Greg the next day and it was a wrap for his film. Commedia dell'art, Lucid, and The Lady in Black all finishing at the same time. It's a good feeling to be done. Now I just need to finish editing.

Now, time for a video.

"Blue Monday" - New Order

Production Journal #6: Editing... enough said.

Stress is a word. It's also a word to describe my life currently. Fun how that works.

I've been in the editing room for most of the week, and I think last week. I'm not really sure. The editing room has a weird effect on ones mind. Time doesn't exist. It's like the clock in the head is busted. Minutes feel like seconds, hours feel like fractions of that time. The simple process of cutting and taping film onto reels isn't as quick as you normally perceive. I spent an hour (I think?) just re-taping a scene and razor blading the edges to it goes through the projector better.

Yes, it takes time. No, I'm not just a shitty editor.

It's kind of weird to talk about editing, so I guess before I attempt to, I'll give a quick lesson on editing. Not sure how well it'll work. Also, my camera takes bad pictures, as you'll see, so please, bare with me. If you don't like it, fuck you, buy me a good camera.

Here we go.


First, this is the spindle thing we put our reel of film on.


The film goes to this rather dark spindle on the other side. Another reel, known as the take-up reel is placed on there. It takes up the film


This is the Movie Scope. The film runs from the spindle through this to the other spindle. With this, we can see an image.


See? Sorta...


Here's a drawing that pretty much describes what I just told you.

Now, lets say we found a shot we want to use. Well, we take it and attach it to this


That's the guillotine cutter. It cuts the film for you. We then take the bad footage and put it on an OUT roll. An OUT roll is stuff that you either don't want/need or stuff that turned out like crap. You save it for later. An IN roll is your current film or shots you want to use. Usually you assemble all of your good shots at one time. I don't. I just jump in and edit scene by scene and grab the stuff if and when I need it. It works for me.


Guillotine cutter in action.

When we want to attach the new footage to the good reel, we put the two pieces of film in the middle of the guillotine cutter's base.


Once there, we can put tape over the middle of the two pieces to attach them.


We just push the thing down and it attaches the tape and cuts off the excess. If there is still some tape, you just take a razor blade, Exacto Knife or any type of blade and clean it up.

That's editing. I've been doing this for days. It's so time consuming. I'm a perfectionist. I'm trying to get my match-on-action all right and trying to cut out excess time and frames that aren't needed. Plus, inter-cutting footage is a bitch as times. I love doing it though. I wish I had more to say. The days are running together. I can't really tell you about any experiences. Sorry. Perhaps next time I won't wait so long to post. Thanks for reading.

As a special treat, the Indelicates new album has been helping me in the editing room. Fits the feel of the film well. Here's a song from it.

"Europe" - The Indelicates


and another one...

"Flesh" - The Indelicates


Enjoy

Production Journal #5: Filming in a Heat Box

Tuesday, April 13th - Wednesday, April 14th 2010

It's been awhile since I've actually posted a Production Journal, so I thought I would. It's been a pretty odd week.

I guess by odd, I mean busy. I'm not sure.

Well, it all started Tuesday. We knew from the get go that Tuesday was going to be crazy. I had a camera reservation set up to film and was hoping to get some shooting in, but like every great idea, there is something in the way. Tuesday was the day George Kuchar was going to invade the Union Theatre and fill our brains with his own brand of humor via telepathic rays... and short films... either way, it was going to happen. That being said, I knew everything would be hectic, but I thought it shouldn't be hard to shoot 100ft of film. It's not much. Well, my original idea was to film some of Greg's big scenes at Morgan's apartment like we usually do. What I failed to realize was how long it takes to make Ziti. Why is that important? It's important because Morgan was making ziti and she'd be tied up for some time. I wasn't discouraged though. Just a change in plans. Instead, we decided to go to Riverview dorm, where Greg lives, and film the final shot of the movie. A shot that, in it's way, isn't super important, but is important. One shot is important. I know what it's like to try to take film out of a camera and pick up where I left off. It sucks. I decided not to do this and tried to find things to film.

We did some basic coverage footage. Greg's character, clean faced and all, leaving his residence and walking. Yes, like every good film student, I shot a lot of walking. It's what we do best! Ask around, it's true.

We then got to the important shit. The final shot of the movie. You're final memory. If a film has a shitty final shot, it can take you away from it. I needed this to be good. We (Greg, Vanessa, and I) went to this perfectly dank and dirty alley in the East Side and began to work. The final shot consists of Greg walking down this alley. He's no longer the harlequin of old. He's more matured. While walking down this alley, he leaves his derby on a garbage can and walks away. Fade out. The end.

Last time we attempted to film this, it went horribly! If you'll recall, it involved a clusterfuck of film carnage. This time went a lot smoother! We also got done ahead of schedule! So, we filmed trash for Greg. Why? That's not my place to say. Ask him.

After that, we had our Tuesday ritual of Taco Tuesday and we parted ways. I went home, dropped off my crap, grabbed my camera, did some Math and headed back down to UWM to see George.

This is where things got good. As soon as Morgan, Greg, Vanessa and I walked in we were greeted by a new acquaintance, Mark Borchardt, whom we met last Thursday. He remembered us! We gave him a copy of Greg's short film, Void, along with our contact info so he could tell us what he thought. We really want to know his thoughts. He appreciated this gesture greatly. He smiled, and asked us to all sign the DVD and date it so it's not just a random DVD, but a special moment in history for him to remember. Deep. So we did and he let us take some pictures with him like the lame fanboys we are. I asked him for some editing advice, which he kindly shared, and he told me where to get a VHS copy of Coven, his 16mm short he made back in the 90's. As Vanessa would say, "sweet dick". Below is the picture.



He was a cool dude. He talked to us quite a lot through the night. He took some pictures of all of us, and even proclaimed I am a new friend. Awesome. Mike Schank from American Movie, was also there, but he made me kinda uncomfortable. Too many Satanic questions. Sorry, Mike.

Now onto the Man of the hour, George Kuchar! Man, he was something. Morgan and I seriously feel he's from another Planet. We also gave him a copy of Greg's film. He gave me an autograph and let me snap some pictures. We didn't talk with him nearly as much because he was the man of hour, and everyone wanted a piece of him. He was super kind though. When we were going to take a picture he told me to sit next to him so I didn't have to kneel. He placed his hand on my leg. Didn't bother me. He's cool in my book.



He then showed us some films. He showed Libido Lagoon, Burrito Bay, Temple of Torment, Solstice, and Vault of Vapors. Fun stuff. He answered all of our questions with grace, even Vanessa asking how is love life is. Great man.

We had a party for him in the basement of Mitchell. Food, drinks, and Steven DJing some pretty sweetly odd tunes. Fabulous.

Then, came Wednesday. I was so exhausted when I woke up that Morning. Everything started to go wrong. Morgan was very sick. Her throat closed. I was worried. She almost died and I still had to film. Two bad things! I was too stressed to sit in class. I told Rob I had to go and went to the editing room and just edited for two hours. I needed it. It helped.

Morgan was doing better. We finally got ahold of her. She had to go to the Doctor. She told us to just let ourselves into her apartment. Greg had her keys. So, I headed to Gregs, played House of the Dead a bit and we headed to her house. We got to the bus stop and Vanessa pointed out we forgot the camera! Greg ran like hell back to his dorm and ran back with almost 20 to 30 pounds of stuff. That's three blocks! Way to go Greg. I felt bad. We didn't miss our bus though.

It was odd just walking into her house. But we did. We rested and began to set up. It didn't take long to realize how freakishly hot it was in there! As I planned out the shots, Vanessa attempted to recreate Greg's make-up. She did a good job. We filmed what we could. We waited for Morgan to get home to finish the make-up.

Matt was playing Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, so we watched before we filmed.

This footage is also important, but was never too sure about it. The shoot went by way too quickly for comfort. The lighting set ups were quick, and they looked to be good. I don't know how I feel about what we filmed though. Maybe I'll like it more when I see it. I think I was just too out of it to care. Greg was a trooper. Those lights were hot. I know. I burnt myself. Thank God for Aloe.

Afterwards we headed to Piggly Wiggly and got some cheap soda and grabbed some Wendy's before heading back.

Before I went home I met up with an old friend. We had a very nice night at the beach and my favorite spot in Milwaukee. It made the stressful night so much better. I thank them. I then went home, did some Math and passed the hell out. Sleep. It's what I needed. God, was it good. Thanks for reading.

P.S. this was rushed. Running out of time. Bye.

Nothing can go wrong on George Kuchar day... except when it does...

Today was George Kuchar day. The film department was in a gleeful mood, to say the least. I haven't seen Carl Bogner so happy. He actually belly laughed! That doesn't happen often.

I was excited. I like Kuchar quite a bit. I really like his narrative work. I wish we would have seen more of that though. We mostly watched his video diaries. More on that later.

We didn't have a 220 class today. Rob was doing individual interviews with students who wanted advice on their films thus far. I was pretty confident with mine, so I skipped that and spent those two hours in the editing room. I was editing my first scene, which works pretty well, minus the inconsistent exposures.

I got angry though. I was being careful. I was even wearing gloves while editing, and somehow my film projected all gritty and scratched. I looked at the film with a light, and it looked fine. My verdict: the projector needs to be cleaned.

I also realized that editing with gloves can suck when dealing with tape. It sticks to your gloves. So annoying.

I spent two hours on one scene. I have to re-cut that scene twice as well because I kept making small, continuity mistakes. A reaction seen twice and so forth. Such is the drawback to inter-cutting footage.

Then I went to my film class and watched as George Kuchar talked a bit, and then showed us some work. He showed us a psuedo-documentary about the making of his film "Planet of the Vamps" and one of his Holiday videos and a film entitled "The Treasure of Creepy Hollow".

If I learned anything today from Mr. Kuchar it was this. 1) one doesn't need a script if you have actors willing to do anything and 2) you can get a woman to take off her top if you say the movie depends on it... and you're partly senile.

Let's hope he can talk a bit more tomorrow night. I also hope Mark Borchardt still allows me to take some photos with him and George like he said I could.

After that, I had lunch with Lea, went to my English class and went back to the editing room for some more fun. I showed Lea a intro to editing and began to work on a new scene. This scene is so much easier, and more fun to edit. Only got a few shots totally put together. Next time should be more productive.

Just for kicks, here's a short little documentary about George making a film with his class at the San Francisco Art Institute.