Premiere Party

Tonight is the premiere party for the cast and crew. We're having the party in a hotel in Pacific Beach. It's going to be awesome. Here's the suite we'll be in.

I am showing a quasi-final cut of the movie. Normally, I wouldn't show something until it was totally done and I was %100 happy with it. But, due to various patches of unavailability by the cast, this will be the best time to do it. I am confident of the editing though. The only thing I really need to work on is the sound mix and finding the right music. I've got a temp track on it for the premiere. Anyway, hopefully the next update will come while we're sitting on the beach!

I'm selling some stuff on Ebay. (Shameless promotion)

Just wanted to post a link to some things I'm selling on Ebay. I bought some royalty free animations from the Digital Juice website, but I don't really have a use for them. (Impulse buy). They are HD Jumpbacks and they are being sold for $250 a piece on the manufacturer's website. I'm putting them on ebay for $35 each, so here are the links:

HD Jumpbacks Vol. 1 - High Tech and Internet

HD Jumpbacks Vol. 2 - Corporate/ Industrial, Time and Money

HD Jumpbacks Vol. 3 - Medical/ Health, Education and Science

HD Jumpbacks Vol. 4 - High Impact

Final Cut Studio!

I received my copy of Final Cut Studio today. I installed it about an hour ago. It took up a whopping 33 gigs of space! I've been experimenting with Motion 2 and the latest version of DVD Studio Pro. They are both great programs. One program I had no idea was even included in Studio was Soundtrack Pro. I haven't had much time to mess around with it, but it looks like it may supplant Pro Tools for my audio mixing.

I also went out and bought a small Sony MiniDV camera for shooting more BTS features with (since many of them involve me using the DVX100a). It's the DCR HC42. I like it so far, I'm not a big fan of Sony's all touchscreen control system though. I prefer a switch for everything I need. I plan on updating soon again once I get around to playing with all the programs.

Blogger problems

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Blogger has been down infrequently and I never seem to be able to post when I want to. That problem aside, I have some updates on Flip.

First, I have started editing. All the footage is captured and backed up on 2 HDs. I have cut about 3 minutes of the movie so far. I should finish a very rough cut by the end of the week. Once my rough cut is done, I'm going to export it to tape and save it for future use on the DVD.

I will have a feature on the DVD showing the progression of a short movie from rough to final cut. I will include a few different stages of the movie on the disc, with commentary on each. (This may seem like a boring feature, but since I am going to be replicating to DVD-9 instead of DVD-5, that means I will have a lot more space.) I intend to cram this disc full of features. My goal is to be as comprehensive as possible about the making of a short film.

I have also started keeping a video-log of each day I edit. This footage will be edited together later for the "Post-Production" segment of the Behind the Scenes footage. I've conferred with some friends about features they would like to see on DVD's more often, so far it's been just about everything I am planning to include. Most just ask for a more streamlined way of watching it all. (ie: A "Play All" option for the featurettes).

That's it for now. I'm upgrading to Final Cut Studio on Wednesday! I'm excited to see how DVD Studio Pro 4 works. Stick around!

DVD Specs

Here is a list of everything that will be included on the Flip DVD. The DVD is scheduled to go on sale at the end of October. Price: $14.99

• The Feature, "Flip" (14 minutes)
• 6 Commentaries
• Director
• Director + Crew
• Director + Cast
• Director + Cast and Crew
• Cast comm (Drunken commentary)
• Special Guest commentary
  
• Behind the Scenes feature (1.5 to 2 hours runtime)
• Commentary with Cast and Crew
  
• 10-15 "How-to" Featurettes (5-10 minutes run time each)
• Editing
• Sound Design
• Scoring
  
• Special Effects
• Make-up
• DVD Creation
• "Shooting film on DV"
• Technical specifications
• Gear run-down
• Lighting
  
• Promotion
  
• Photo Gallery
  
• Deleted Scenes
• Commentary with Director
  
• Outtakes
• "Robot Trouble" - A short film made with same group of people.
  
• Commentary with Cast and Crew
  
• Bios of cast and crew
• Storyboards
• Trailer
• Sequence breakdown
• More to come!
  

Footage! Finally!

I'm finally ready to post footage from the movie. This footage is taken directly from the camera into FCP, then output to quicktime. There has been no color correcting or adjustment of brightness levels. The only thing I did was flip the image because the M2 records things upside down. (Quicktime seems to mute the colors a little, so just know that it looks more vibrant that this).

View the video here

The first shot was taken with a 28mm f2.8 lens with the gain turned up to +3db. The second shot was taken with my 70-200mm zoom f2.8 (constant) gain +3db. I was following focus by myself for this one since Geoff had to stop people from walking into the shot, so it drifts occasionally. The final shot is with my 50mm f1.7 (no gain). All the shots were shot with available lighting, with the camera mounted to the FigRig.

As I am able, I will post some more footage to view. Stay tuned.

Chapter 2: The Editing Process

With all the footage shot and my release forms signed, I am ready to begin the long, laborious process of editing. I am currently in the process of capturing the footage to my computer. I have 7 one hour tapes to log and capture. I'm currently about halfway through it. I hope to be done by tomorrow afternoon.

during this process, I will be recording a daily video-log of my progress. This video will later be edited into a feature on the DVD about editing techniques. Today, I went to Circuit City to buy an external hard drive. I knew I wanted a 7200 RPM, Western Digital external drive, but I wasn't sure what size I wanted. When I arrived, I saw that they had 2 different WD models to choose from. The 250 GB version cost $199 and right next to it was a 320 GB version on sale for $189. Obviously, it wasn't a hard choice to make. I bought the 320 Gig HD and was on my merry way.

When I'm done for the day, I will post the specifics of the DVD (what the content will be, replication, sale strategies, ect) and when I get closer to finishing the actual movie, I will be posting my film festival strategies. Stick around for fun times!

Ah! Sleep!

Now that we are done shooting, I can catch up on my sleep. Hooray!

Anyways, I'm glad we're done, but I'm also sad it's over. I had a wonderful time with my three boys, and it will be odd not being together all the time anymore. I got dropped off at a friends in LA on the way home from Vegas, and was very confused when I woke up in the middle of the night and my boys weren't there. There were times when I was ready to pummel them this last week, but I was one girl in a room with three boys, and I know that sometimes I was a bit on the bitchy side. I love them all terribly, and am so glad that I got to share the experience of making this film with them. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people.

Things I learned from last week:
-Don't fall into a door from too far away while kissing someone, on or off camera.
-Try to arrange the shooting schedule so your actress doesn't have to change her hair, clothes and makeup multiple times a day. It's much easier to keep the bed-hair hair and smudgey makeup than change it.
-Always look like you know what you're doing, even if you have no freaking clue.
-When going on a weeklong trip and sharing a room with three other people, make sure you all like eachother and get along. That is what will keep you from killing eachother.
-How to play blackjack at the tables, (thanks Jarrod!).
-Vegas is much more interesting if you have something to do while there other than drink and gamble.
-It's fun to walk down the street with a 3ft alcoholic beverage.
-4 & 1/2 inch heels at 4:30am is no fun for anybody.
-Remember to have fun! You like making movies, acting, and doing this! Remember that at ALL TIMES!

I really had a good time, and I'll post more later.

NON-COMPENSATED release form template

Here is the appearance release form I promissed. This is essential to have signed if you plan on hitting the film festivals or selling the DVD. Simply copy and paste it into a word document, change the words in RED to your own company and movie title, and you're set. Enjoy!

Appearance Release
(Non-Compensated)

Full Name: ________________________________________________

Address: ________________________________________________

City/ST/Zip: __________________________________________________

The above named and undersigned (“Participant”) does hereby consent to the use by Component Pictures and Carleton Torpin and their successors and assigns, assignees, grantees and licensees (collectively referred to as “The Producers”) of Participant's name, voice, picture, likeness, poses, actions and any other combination of any of these in connection with the production of the short work, “FLIP” (The Program). Participant also hereby assigns and grants unto The Producers the irrevocable and unconditional power, right, privilege and permission to exhibit all or any part of said Program in any and all media in the world and in perpetuity.

Participant also understands that there is no compensation for appearance on or participation in the above named Program.

Participant hereby releases and discharges the Producers from any and all liability arising out of or in connection with the making, producing, reproducing, processing, exhibiting, licensing, distributing, publishing, transmitting by any means or otherwise using the above-named Program.

Participant certifies and warrants that Participant is of legal age, has full power, right and authority to enter into this Consent and Release, has read same in it's entirety and understands all of it's terms and provisions.


____________________________________________ _______________
Participant's Signature Date


If participant is under 18 years of age, Parent or Legal Guardian must sign below: I agree to all the terms and conditions of this release form.


_____________________________________________ _______________
Parent or Guardian's Signature Date

Finally done with shooting!

Today was the last day of shooting. We arrived at the Omni Hotel at 8:00 am exactly and unloaded all our gear. By the time all the actors showed up at 9:35 or so, we were just about ready to roll. I finally got my new Follow Focus from Redrock Micro, so I was very excited to get to use it. (I would have liked to have used it for the whole trip, but whatever). This follow focus is much better than my previous FF. As opposed to being a friction-based wheel that turns the lens, this FF uses gears that ensure there is no slippage. It also had an expansion port for me to connect an 18" flexible whip to it. This made the crane move a lot easier for Geoff to pull focus on.

Matt (Jarbo) had a pretty easy job. Being Key Grip means that he was in charge of pulling the dolly when the move started. But, he did have the harder job of slowing the dolly to a stop before it ran off the tracks. I lit the scene 2 ways. One side of the room (where Charley was) was lit by window light alone. The other side of the room (where the crane ended up) was lit with 2 1K DP lights, shining through a diffuser with CTB taped to it. This gave me a nice even white balance, while at the same time, made sure my exposure level was constant.


My actors were all great. The main actor (besides Rebecca and Jarrod) is named Charley Miller. Being a theatrically trained actor, he came prepared with several suits to show me. I picked the most "colorful" one and he put it on. The basis of the scene was The Boss (Charley) giving a lecture to a bunch of listless employees of some generic company. The shot starts on Charley, pedestals down and pans over to the table everyone is sitting at and tracks latterly across it untill finally arriving at Jarrod and Rebecca who are passing drawings of the boss to eachother.

I had a brief paragraph of dialog prepared for Charley, but I asked him if he could improv it. He must have done about 20 takes. Each one was different and each one was hilarious. I did one shot where I just hold on him for about a minute because it was such great stuff. After the crane move was done, I did an overhead shot of Rebecca passing the note to Jarrod. Then I shot coverage of the notes close-up in case I need to cut to show it closer.
After we were done shooting, (which took much less time than I budgeted for), we headed down the block to a restraunt called Dick's Last Resort. Everybody had food and got to talk. It was a fun time. I thanked everyone for helping me with the movie, and was sure to sign Non-Compensated Release forms for everybody who appeared on camera. (I will post a template of that in a future post). As I said before, it was a good day. I'm excited that principal photography is done and I can start editing the footage. I will be updating again tomorrow, so stick around!

Final shoot day tomorrow

Tomorrow we are shooting at a very nice downtown hotel. The scene is the very first scene in the movie and it's fairly simple. We are doing another crane/dolly shot, this time we start on a big motivational poster and pan to a boss talking then track along a bunch of really bored employees listening to him, finally ending up on Aldo and Jennifer.

logistically, the scene will be a handful. We have a lot of people to organize and I have to feed them all when we are done. (Always feed people who will act for free in your movies!) Myself, Geoff and Matt (Key Grip) will all be arriving at the hotel around 8:00 am. That gives us about an hour and a half to set-up the scene before the actors arrive. I have recruited my friends as extras. They are all taking the trolley to the location because it's cheaper and easier. Once they get there, we are shooting until 2, and then it's lunch time. After lunch everyone is dismissed and Matt, Geoff and I will have about an hour to get the stuff out of the room and back into the car.

Today, I reviewed 5 of the 12 Behind the Scenes tapes. I took extensive notes on them with the timecode noted, that way when I go to edit the entire BTS stuff for the DVD, I'll be better prepared. I am intending to load the DVD with TONS of behind the scenes footage. The idea will be to market to people interested in making their own short films. I was sure to talk about how I did everything on camera while we were shooting.

Check back tomorrow for more exciting news!

Back in San Diego

We left Vegas today at exactly 11:00 AM (checkout time at the hotel). The traffic was mercifully light and we all got back to San Diego around 7:00. We have another day of shooting on Monday and then that's all. I will be updating again later tonight with more info on yesterday's shooting.

End of Day 4!

We just finished shooting Scene 6. As I have stated before, Scene 6 is a whopping six pages long, so getting it done is an important milestone. We worked on the stuff in the bathroom. It was nice shooting in there, because the lighting was already pretty bright. We used both the 28mm f2.8 (with the gain turned up to 3db) as well as the 50mm f 1.7 . As Rebecca posted previously, the scene is emotionally intense and requires a lot of energy from both actors. Whereas the previous part of scene 12 was mostly handheld to reflect the mood of the actors, this half of the scene was all tripod mounted stuff because the characters are talking calmly about their situation.

As before in the scene with Jarrod talking to himself, we tried to dampen the sound in the bathroom as best as we could. We taped a furni-pad to the ground to eliminate the sound reflecting off of it. I also took the comforter off the bed and hung it over the shower. This eliminated a lot of the resonance in the bathroom while still retaining the overall ambient quality.

After the main shots with the actors were done, we moved on to the signature shot of the movie (hopefully). The shot involves Aldo flipping a casino chip up in the air and letting it land on the ground. For the shot, we used the Kessler Crane with the short tip. This let me position the camera right up against the ceiling, pointing directly down at Aldo. For this shot (and this shot only) we removed the M2 adapter and shot with the DVX stock lens. I did this because it would be impossible to get the focus just right with the M2 adapter because of the extreme changes in distance in such a short amount of time.

After about 30 tosses of the chip, we finally got one that worked just right where the chip landed in just the right place. I was very happy that we were shooting on video and not film! After that shot, we cleaned up the room a bit and shot what I am thinking is going to be a deleted scene. The scene is Rebecca waiting for Aldo to arrive. It's about 3 minutes of just watching what she does when she is waiting. It's a funny scene to me because, it's one of those situations where you don't want to get really engrossed in something and then have the person show up, but at the same time, you don't want to seem anxious so you do small, menial tasks around the room.
Rebecca preforms her random, menial tasks in the future deleted-scene. (Click to enlarge)

After that scene, we moved on to a scene that has been postponed as long as possible. Aldo and Jennifer have to make-out against the door of the room. This didn't really bother myself or Jarrod, but Rebecca (also my girlfriend) had some misgivings about me filming the scene. So I volunteered Geoff for the job and I went in the bathroom to wait for her. We set up just outside the door, using a 50mm f1.4 and the FigRig. Even with the f1.4 lens, I still had to turn the gain up to 3db to get a well enough lit picture. The first take was good, but Rebecca wasn't able to get the door open. The second take was good as well, but unfortunately, Rebecca leaned into him a little too hard and she ended up cutting her lip with one of his teeth. (Whoops!) After some minor first aid, we we're ready for take 3. Take 3 went great. They really got the tone of the scene and totally committed to it. Geoff had to keep both hands on the FigRig, so he wasn't able to pull focus. As a result, anytime they moved closer to him, he just moved back slightly to keep them in focus. It's an effect that works really well in the scene and reflects their "somewhat altered "POV as well. As an added bonus, when the door finally does open, they both seem to fall down into the room. It's great punctuation to the scene.

Tomorrow all I have to shoot is a scene in an elevator (Aldo says "whee"!). We do need to do the ADR work tomorrow too, but that shouldn't be too taxing. (A few hours of work) After that, the day is ours to do whatever we want with. Stay tuned kids!

Acting!

I've been having a lot of fun playing Jennifer. She's sneaky and manipulative, which is very interesting to play. She also truly cares about Aldo, and thinks that she's doing the right thing for the both of them. Jennifer is definitely a unique character and very different from all of the other characters I've previously portrayed.

Today we shot a very emotionally intense scene. I had to be very upset/distraught. Now, I don't like to cry in front of people. Unfortunately for me, I'm not an actress that can produce tears at the drop of the hat. I have to work up to it. I have some emotional blocks on the things that upset me, and I've been quite happy/content in life for the past two years or so. To get into the mood, I did a number of things. I listened to sad, angry music while reading unpleasant e-mails from old boyfriends(I keep almost ALL of my e-mails). I thought about when my dad passed away. I thought about my diabetic cat that died a week ago. I thought about how I would feel if this was all happening to me. Therefore, I spent most of the day rather depressed, but it worked to get the emotional connection that I wanted. Meh.

We shot in the bathroom, so Carleton put down a furney pad and filled the tub with pillows to cut down on sound reflection. The floor of the bathroom is cold, hard marbley tile, so I got to sit on a pillow. Geoff stood in the tub with the boom mike while Jarrod waited outside the locked bathroom door for us to start. Before each take, I had to take a minute or so to get into the right mindset. As the scene progresses, I go from being sad to happy, so I have re-sadden myself each time.

I'm very pleased with the acting on both of our parts in this scene. It helps that Jarrod is a good actor, and I can work off of his energy. I've truly been enjoying this experience, and I'm very glad that everything has been going so well.

Starting day 4

Today we are finishing scene 12. The rest of the scene takes place in the bathroom, fortunately, the bathrooms in this suite are larger than most normal rooms in this hotel. The good thing about shooting in the bathroom is that there is no sunlight comming in, which means I can use my lights without gel on them. (Which cuts their intensity).

The internet will not be available to us untill tomorrow, so stay tuned for another update. If I can post in the mean time, I will but the internet service at this hotel is really expensive, so we're trying to budget it out. Bye guys!!!!

The end of Day 3

We are now down with day three of the Las Vegas shoot. We shot some of scene 12, which involves Rebecca lying in bed (it's a play on words). He enters the room and sets some flowers down on a pillow next to her. He then proceeds to smoke his Carlboro cigarettes untill she wakes up. Jarrod accuses her of setting the whole marriage thing up. For the scene I need to utilize the existing sunlight coming in from 2 large picture windows on the opposite side of the room. I supplemented it with a 1K gelled with CTB (Color temperature Blue) to match the daylight color. I also used a tota light with a blue gel to raise the base light level in the room.

Since the scene grows more and more confrontational by the minute, I decided to shoot it mostly handheld (with the FigRig). I started with an establishing shot with the 28mm wide angle. As the characters got more "in-your-face" with eachother, I got closer and switched to the 50mm. The scene ends with Rebecca running off to lock herself in the bathroom. We are shooting that part of the scene tomorrow, pretty much all day.

After having a so-so dinner at a restraunt in the hotel, we moved on to the scene where Aldo shows up at Jennifer's room for the first time. I wanted a smooth-moving pullback of the two characters walking into the room, which means another Dolly/Crane move. The shot involves not only a dolly move and a pedestal up move, but also a 180 degree pan following Jarrod and ending on a big picture window. The shot is very difficult to light because we don't have control over the hotel room like we would on a set. I can't fly walls out if they are in my way, also I can't attach lights to the ceiling. So, in an effort to keep the lighting simple and effective, I pointed everything at the white ceiling and just hoped for the best. This got rid of most of the shadows my crane was casting on the walls.

We had another problem when it came to the window. It was not only reflecting Jarrod and Rebecca, but also the crane, the camera, myself and Geoff. This problem was remedied by wrapping Geoff with a bedsheet that was similar in color to the wallpaper. We also wrapped the crane in beige masking tape, which was also the same color as the wallpaper. This helped the make the crane less visible in the reflection. The problem of me obeying reflected was solved by me ducking down just after the movie as completed. So, after all that work, we finally shot the scene and it looked great. I am really happy with our footage so far. After we finished, we went down to the casino floor and I won $200! Jarrod played blackjack and won some money too. Our scene tomorrow starts around 1:00, so stay tuned for more updates!