FLIP blog

Advertising your short

2007-01-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

You've lost all touch with humanity due to being locked in the editing bay for 18 hours a day. You can't remember the difference between scene 2 and scene 22 anymore. This strange daylight phenomenon happening outside is confusing to you. Congratulations! You are now finished editing your short film! Sit back, relax, take a deep breath...deeper... a little more... Ok. Good. Now, let it out and GET STARTED PROMOTING YOUR MOVIE!

As many times as you may hear this, it's true. Finishing your short film is only half the work. Now comes the hard part. Convincing people to see your movie and yes, maybe even paying to do so. At last check there were about 10,000 short films made in 2006. How do I know that number? I don't. I made it up, but for the sake of this post, we will assume it's accurate. So, you have a 1/10,000th stake in the short film community . How do you let the masses know about your latest opus? Well, if you are age 27 and under like most short filmmakers seem to be, you are probably quite familiar with this inter-web-net thing. (Heck, you're already somewhat Internet savvy if you managed to find this blog.)

How can you make the Internet work for you? Easy! There's several ways of advertising on the Internet and some don't even cost you any money. We'll start off cheaply. Start a blog/myspace/chain-letter. (Maybe not the chain-letter). Blogging about your film serves many functions.

It generates awareness of not only your movie, but it also shows everyone that real people made the movie. It's not just some faceless product out there floating around on the Internet. Adding a human element to your project can make it that much more interesting.
You can update the blog about the film festivals your film has been accepted to. This can be useful in bringing more people to your festival screenings. (The Internet is worldwide after all.)
On your blog, you can post helpful articles and how-to's regarding filmmaking. If you do these on a weekly-ish basis, people will keep returning to the blog (and in the process they will be more interested in the progress of your movie).

Another free method of advertising is to find an online message board (preferably one that relates to movie making, or at least the topic of your movie) and tell their users about it. Now, this can be difficult to pull off without sounding like a spam post. The best way to do it is sign up about a month or two in advance of when you'd like to announce your movie. In that time, check on the board, post as you see fit, and try to fit in. Then, after you've been accepted into their tribe, casually mention your new movie. If the board is a supportive and nurturing type, the users will inquire further and you can start a dialog. If your post is deleted as spam, accept it and move on with your life.

The next Internet marketing technique is, duh, start a website. In this modern day, a short film without a website is like a... something without a something else. You don't need anything flashy (in fact, the less Flash, the better), a simple one page site is fine. Have your movie's main image on the site, along with a synopsis, some credits, and an email to contact the director. You can get as in depth with your website as you like, but I believe that simplicity is key. This website will at least make your presence known online and give people an opportunity to contact you about it.

Moving up in price, we reach banner ads. Now, I am presently paying for several banner ads on a variety of targeted websites. Having said that, I believe that most banner ads do almost NO GOOD in terms of getting people to purchase your DVD (if you are doing a self-distribution thing). My website's server tells me where the visitors were referred from and less than .5% came to the site as a result of the banner ads. That's not to say that online banner ads don't serve a purpose. They certianly do. They help generate awareness of your movie and can make people feel more comfortable with it down the line. Imagine if you had seen this ad on several sites over the course of a few months.

Then, you happen to find yourself at a film festival and you see that lo and behold, Flip is playing. You'll put two and two together and very likely go and see that movie you'd been "hearing about" for the last few months. In that situation, the user never even clicked the ad but it still served a purpose. And this is why I still buy banner ad space. I believe it can benefit the movie in the long run by getting people to become familiar with the title.

So, where do you buy your banner ad space? Well, consider your target demographic. For my movie, I listed all the possible people who could benefit from watching Flip. I narrowed it down to the following: Filmmakers, Men ages 17-30 and Women ages 25-40. Of course, the ages are somewhat arbitrary, but just listing "Men" or "Women" as demographics is a little... broad. Finding a place to post the banner ad to attract filmmakers was easy. My favorite message board, DVXuser was my first stop. Getting a banner ad there for a month cost me about $300, which I was happy to pay because it was not only a perfect demographic, but I felt good finally giving back to a site that had provided me with so much free information in the past. Another site I have ads running on is Filmthreat. Filmthreat fits all my demographics so it was a real no brainer. Best of all, they are very supportive of independent filmmakers and they will work with you to maximize your advertising budget.

Speaking of the Filmthreat ad campaign, I'd like to point out another form of advertising. Video! I know, it seems so obvious, but many filmmakers completely ignore this aspect of online advertising. If you already made a movie, you clearly posses the skills to cut a trailer for it. Go make a 30 second trailer and post a link to it anywhere you can. (Specifiably, your website/blog/myspace). This can be the most influential factor in terms of getting people interested in your movie, so take your time and make it a good trailer. And, while you're at it, go out shoot some original video content using the characters from the movie. You can use these to pique people's interest in the movie as well. For a better example of what I'm talking about, you can view a PSA (public service announcement) type clip we shot for Flip to be aired on Filmthreat in January.
Flip - Aldo's PSA (Give it a minute to load).

These ads are intended to familiarize people with the characters and hopefully get them to visit the website. As an added bonus, they were a chance to get together with the same cast and crew from the movie, which is always fun.

Well, those are just a few of the traditional ways of advertising online. If you really are a filmmaker, you should be creative enough to figure out some more original ways to get your name out there.

Liftoff!

2006-11-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

The Official Flip Website is now indeed official! It's up and running. It's already logged a ton of hits in the past few days, so thanks a bunch everybody! I'd just like to mention that the DVD is available now for $14.99, and as a special thank you to those "internet-savvy" people out there, if you enter the code "FlipBlog" at the check out, you get free shipping!

I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everybody who supported myself and the rest of the cast and crew while we were making this movie. If you're name was missed, please let me know and I'll add it in a BOLD, 48pt font!

Thanks to:
Tim and Mary Jane Torpin
Jarrod Weintraub
Rebecca Seubert
Geoff Goodloe
Matt Jarbo
Charley Miller
Matt Masten
Nick Munoz
Romeo Gutierrez
Dan Orr
Fernando Huerto
Brian Valente
Jarred Land
Dmitry Kichenko
Rachael Dillman
DVXuser.com
Josh Freeman
Lauren Maiman
Joe Maiman
Melinda Seubert
Winona & Paul McNitt
Jerry Seubert
Target Stores Inc
That guy in Vegas that left the full bottle of Grey Goose outside his room
All the wonderful MySpacers and Bloggers who've shown their support!

Thanks a bunch everybody! It means a ton!

Countdown... 10... 9... 8...

2006-11-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

Well, it's officially countdown time. My DVDs will be arriving Thursday, which, coincidently, is the same day the Official Flip Website will launch. The website will serve as a place where people can read about the movie, view trailers, get bios of the cast and crew and much more!

The website will also be the only place to buy the Flip DVD! The DVD is packed with hours upon hours of special features and enough commentary tracks to... well, let's just say there's a lot. The DVD will be available only through the www.flipmovie.net for a limited time only. After that, it will also be found on Amazon.com and other online retailers, who will likely charge a higher price. You can buy the DVD now (well, not quite now, but soon. Very soon.) for $14.99.

As a special treat for all you loyal bloggers, by entering the code "FlipBlog" at the checkout process, you will receive free standard shipping to anywhere in the USA! Just a little "thank you" from all of us here at Component Pictures. Stay tuned, it's going to be an exciting couple of days!

Update

2006-10-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm well aware that it's been almost 3 months since an update (heck, I think it's been exactly 3). I appreciate everyone's patience with me while I'm finishing up the Flip DVD. I'm currently wrapping everything up with it and it's going off to the Replication house on the 9th of Oct. Until then, you can get your "Flip Fix" here at the Flickr Gallery (I did a huge update to it!) Talk to you all soon! Carleton.

Flickr Gallery for Flip

Cover art

2006-07-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the fine photography of Josh Freeman , I have the first composite image of what the DVD cover will look like. This is a rough assembly of several separate elements. The BG is currently white, but I will be replacing that with something more visually dynamic. Also, the logo on the chip itself is a little too clear, so we'll be working on that too. As I said, this is a rough composite of what I'm going for. So far, I'm happy with how it's looking. All in all, Josh ended up shooting about 600 pictures for us. It took some time, but Rebecca and I narrowed it down to about 70 images. Most of them are for use in the press kits, but I can use elements of the images for posters and other artwork for the movie.

Sound mixing

2006-07-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

I've been working in Soundtrack Pro for the last few days, trying to make the best of the audio we recorded on location. I've mixed in all the ADR that was usable, but it's still not enough. Too much of it sounds canned and some of it is out of sync. So, we are bringing Jarrod and Rebecca in tomorrow to record more (this time with videoplayback for their benefit). The picture is more or less "locked", meaning that the video is edited the way I want it to be. I need to shoot one more shot (of a clock) and then it will be done. I'm working to get this movie finished by July 15th. Once it's done I can submit it to festivals and then get started cutting the Behind the Scenes footage and featurettes for the DVD. I've worked it out on paper, and to get all the features on this DVD that I planned to have, I need to edit about 8 hours every day for 3 weeks (to get the long BTS feature done). Starting in August, I will need to shoot and edit a featurette every day for 2 weeks (I've got 14 featurettes planned). That takes me to mid-august, then I have to go on a vacation for a week. When I get back, I have to get the DVD all set and ready to go. That should take about 3 weeks as well. Then, I am sending it off to the duplication house. I'll go into that later though...

Premiere Party

2006-06-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

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)

2006-06-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-19T14:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-09T15:51:00.001-07:00

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!

2006-06-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-02T01:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-01T04:27:00.000-07:00

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!

Flickr Blog

2006-05-31T19:55:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post a link to the Flickr blog I set up for our Vegas pictures. Check it out sometime! We'll be updating it constantly.

FLIP Flickr Blog

4 AM in Las Vegas

2006-05-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

This morning, we shot the second half of the scene where Aldo and Jennifer get married at a strip-mall wedding chapel. It's right down the street from the "Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. The scene itself involves the characters stopping to take a break from their drunken wandering, and Jennifer turns around to discover that there is a wedding chapel. She suggests that She and Aldo get married, then annulled, so that way their second marriage (to other people) will work better. Aldo, still drunk, sees some logic to that and agrees.
Since we don't really have the cooperation of any businesses in Las Vegas, I was sure to scout the most generic looking "WEDDINGS" sign I could find. It was just a happy accident that it's so close to the famous Las Vegas sign. We arrived right around 5:00 AM. I learned from this site, that the sunrise would occur right around 5:28 AM. That gave us about 45 minutes of good lighting to work with.

As it turns out, the wedding chapel stays open until around 5 AM, then they close for a few hours. We lucked out in that sense, so we were able to pretend to come out of the building. In the scene, Jarrod is carrying a Polaroid of himself and Rebecca at the altar (taken at my house earlier in the week) and a small container of bubbles. Rebecca clutches her marriage certificate to her chest. They walk out of the chapel and towards the street, then she suggests that they go back to the room.

For the scene I used the FigRig again, this time, with a 28mm lens. This let me get right up to the actors while still keeping most of them in frame. Since there was quite a bit of light outside, I was able to shoot at an aperture of around 5.6 which gave me a little more DoP to work with. I had them walk to me, stop, turn left and walk down the street. Once we got that shot, I switched to the 50mm lens. This is great for close ups of the individual actors because it makes the background really defocused. I got some close ups of both of the actors, then I got some insert shots of the bubbles and Polaroid. I realize as I am typing this that I forgot to get an insert shot of the marriage certificate. I'll just get that when we get back home. It'll be a tight enough shot that you wont be able to see the BG.

Once we were done with that, we headed back to the hotel. Casinos are really nice and peaceful in the early morning. The only people playing the machines are angry loners and people waiting to go to the airport. We went back up to the room. Everyone is asleep now, except me. I plan on sleeping soon as well. We'll get up around 1:00 PM and then it's lunch time. We have a big scene to shoot today. It's a 6 page scene that takes place in the room. We are shooting about half of it today (hopefully.) I'll write all about it soon. Bye guys!

End of shoot day 2

2006-05-31T00:43:00.000-07:00

We shot on Freemont street tonight. In the movie, Aldo and Jennifer get drunk and walk around Las Vegas. I wanted to shoot somewhere visually interesting AND well lit at night. The Freemont Street experience was just the ticket. We got there around 10:00 PM, and loitered a bit. Geoff got kicked out of a casino, cuz he looks like he's 12 and a half years old. I waited outside with him untill Rebecca and Jarrod returned with their Yard-Long drinks (for the scene, of course).

Freemont street is a closed down section of old Las Vegas. The area directly above the street and sidewalk is covered with lights that act like a giant TV screen. It plays a show every hour. I shot a bunch of stuff of Jarrod and Rebecca walking around, mostly handheld stuff with the FigRig. I used a 28mm lens for the shots of Aldo and Jennfier walking around. I used a 70-210 zoom for a shot of them walking down a long corridor. We had been shooting for almost an hour and the show still hadnt started. Just as we were getting ready to leave, all the lights went out and the Freemont Street Experience started! Not wanting to miss any of it, I grabbed the camera and put the 50mm on it. Once I had enough footage with the 50, I changed to the 28mm. They both worked really well considering the lighting circumstances. So over the course of 1 and a half hours, I used just about every lens I have. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more!

Day Two: Electric boogaloo

2006-05-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Oh man, this morning was a rough day of shooting. Last night we shot till around 12:30am and got a good three hours sleep. Then we woke up and went on down to the Las Vegas sign to shoot the godawful sunrise scene (well, half of it). After being awake for over 24 hours, we finally got to sleep.

Waking up at around 1pm, we left for lunch, then immediately returned to our shooting schedule. We've shot a few more scenes, with a focus on Jarrod being semi-nude. I had to push and pull with utmost concentration....

Focus I mean, pulling focus... because that is my job.

The shots are all looking great, I can say with one hundred percent certainty that nothing I have shot looks bad. So hopefully they all match up and look super cool together. That's all I have to say now, check in with you cool cats later. Geoff out!

1 day down...

2006-05-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

The beautiful Las Vegas strip at 9:00 PM. (Click to enlarge)

Yesterday went very well. We had lunch at Tyler's Taste of Texas around 7:00. The Venetian blinds made everybody look like they were in a film noir movie. After that, we filled up at Acro for an incredible $3.19! (How depressing is it to get excited over a $3.19 gas price?) Since there was NO traffic going into Vegas, we arrived in Vegas about 3 hours too early (Noon), so we went to the Grand Canyon Experience, Gameworks and The M&M's store (which is super lame). After we had killed enough time, we mosied on over to the hotel and checked in. I decided we would be as inconspicuous as possible if we had the bell-hop bring our various bags up, rather than everyone taking a single item (which would take forever). So, $40 in tip money later, all the bags were up in the room. An hour or so later, we started setting up for the scene in the bathroom where Aldo talks to himself in the mirror.

That scene worked well. As I stated before, we shot the scene two ways. The split-screen and the greenscreen method both seemed to work equally well. I opted to use the green posterboard on the mirror, rather than the chromakey tape we had tested the scene with earlier. The decision was made mostly for time reasons. (The tape took a long, long time to remove successfully.) Also, it gave us more green surface area to work with which means Jarrod wasn't as confined in his movements.

After we shot that scene, Rebecca went to the store (K-mart) for provisions while everybody else went across the street to have Dinner. (We picked Rebecca up something there). Around 8:30 or so, we set-up for scene 4 1/2 which involves Jarrod and Rebecca sitting on the couch playing drunken card games. This scene is another Dolly/Crane move, so it took about 2 hours to set up. I just used a 1K on either side of the actors. Each 1k provided the key for the actor it was closest to and the fill for the actor it was farthest away from. After numerous tries to get the camera set-up to remain level, I finally abandoned that idea and just decided that the scene would work better with a Dutch Angle. (Because Rebecca's character is not being entirely truthful with Jarrod's character.) After the moving shot, we shot coverage of the scene from a tripod. And that was the end of the first night's shooting in Vegas. I couldn't be happier with the way it went. We are all about to go out to lunch now. When we return, expect another few posts.

Leaving (for) Las Vegas

2006-05-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

In about 7 hours, Myself, Rebecca, Jarrod and Geoff will all be on our way to Las Vegas . We are eating breakfast at 7:00 am, it should take about an hour. And then we'll be back on the road again at 8:00 am. With a stop in Barstow for gas and various foodstuffs, we should arrive at the hotel right at 3:00 pm (check-in time). We have two scenes to shoot when we get there. The first scene is the bathroom scene with Jarrod talking to himself. The other scene is a scene where Jennifer and Aldo are playing cards and decide to go outside to walk around. That will be another crane/dolly shot, so I've budgeted extra set-up time for that. If everything goes according to schedule, we will be done shooting by 1:00 am. I'll post an update as soon as I get an internet connection again. Bye guys!

Another post about the first day of shooting

2006-05-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

Well, everybody's doing it, so I think I'll make a post as well.

I headed over to join the boys on-set at 9:45pm. I sent Carleton a text message to let him know I was coming and to ask if they needed anything. I got a call from him almost immediately. The portable dvd player had died, which they were using for an important shot, and he needed an S-video cable to connect the laptop to the hotel room tv.

Producer springs into action!

I jetted over to the closest store that's open at 10pm AND sells electronics. I picked up 6ft of S-video cable and headed to the hotel. My job for the day as a producer was done. Hooray!

They've torn apart the room. One of the beds is on its side out of the way, and I think they rearanged almost all of the furniture. They needed to make room for all of the equipment, so had to move stuff.

At present, we're at least 70% through today's shooting. Then, in approximately 30 hours, we leave for Vegas! YAY!

Mid-shoot

2006-05-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

It is time for a new camera angle, so while Geoff and Carleton are setting up the crane, I am posting (such a valuable way for me to be spending my time). The first shot is now done and waiting for editting. It is awesome having such great equpiment, we can get all the angles we need, with (and I'll use this word loosely) minimal work.

It's nice to have something shot and done, even if it is just one scene. I am excited to see how it all comes together, as I know it will be great.

Well, onto the next shot! Then, onto Vegas!

"See" you all soon.

Let the first day commence!

2006-05-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

On behalf of the crew, I welcome you to our first day of shooting! We have started tearing apart our room and setting up what we need for this scene. Fueled by mall pizza, a box of powdered doughnuts, and square cans of soda we embark on a journey to, as Carleton puts it "A magical fairy land with... uh I don't know, wine and roses." or as I like to call it "Moviemaking."

Picture of the square can of soda. I don't know why it's like this, maybe God hates it.

The scene we are shooting today is where Aldo (Jarrod) is in his crappy business class room, where we will be using the 5 1/2' Kessler Crane for the first time! Well, gotta get back to work, and remember Push it to the Limit!

MEEE! Posting. Note my fabulous, limp-wristed typing style.

Photo opp!

2006-05-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Today everybody involved in the movie (except for Matt Jarbo, who has a job which precludes him from all fun activities) met at my house. We had some burgers then we set up for a photo opp. Originally, the script called for Aldo to see the bubbles, the marriage certificate and Jennifer before he realized what happened the previous night. Rebecca had the idea of showing a wedding photo instead of the bubbles. I liked it, but told her the only way I would do it was if we got an old 1970's style Polaroid camera and shot the picture on 669 film. 669 film is different from what people normally think of when they think of Polaroid. Rather than the square, low res pictures that come out of modern polaroids, 669 film produces pictures that look almost like 35mm snap shots. After finding a camera that works (to a degree), we got some props for the picture. Rebecca wanted a cheesy veil to wear and I wanted balloons. We got both. I set up the shot on an empty wall in my house. Altogether, I shot 7 polaroids of Jarrod and Rebecca in costume. I have one that I really like. I also shot some digitals, for backup.

After that, we went back to the dinner table and cleared it off. This was to become the boardroom table for scene 1. I wanted to rehearse the camera move for scene 1 to see if it would indeed work as I intended. I had Fernando be the boss and taped a big "motivational poster" to some cabinets. Once the camera was set up on the crane and dolly, we tried out the movie. Geoff pulled focus very well. The shot looked pretty good. It will look better when we really shot it on location. I also set up the shot I had planned for scene 2, with Aldo in his crummy room. That went well too. All in all, it was a productive night. Only a few more days until we start shooting! Stick around!

Creating an equipment checklist

2006-05-25T01:17:00.000-07:00

How many of the moviemakers out there have been in this situation? You pack everything into the car, arrive on location, pull out the camera and tripod- then you realize that you left the tripod adapter plate at home. I've had it happen to me twice, which is the main reason that I have taken to creating equipment checklists.

Equipment checklists can seem like an unnecessary step if you're just doing a short film, but I speak from experience when I say that they are as essential as the tape you are recording on. Basically, an equipment checklist is just like it sounds. It's a sheet (created in Excel) that lists what equipment is needed for the days' shooting. They are really quite easy to create, and they'll save you a lot of time in the long run.

First, open your spreadsheet program. (I use NeoOffice, cuz it's free). For my equipment checklists, I use a template given to me by my producer friend, Barbara. I like to create a header at the top stating the name of the project, the production company and the date. After that, create several columns down the entire length of the page. Add a few rows going across, and viola', you have a template.
It should look something like above. (Click to enlarge)

From left to right, the columns are: Need/Number (# = serial number), OK at check out (this more important is if the gear is from a rental house), Item Description, and Ok at return (if the item is not ok at return, there is a space at the end of the document for comments.) At the very last page, create a large blank space (half the page or so) labeled "Comments". At the very bottom of the page, be sure to have an "Equipment Verified by" signature space and the date. This ensures that you receive the full blame for any problems later on.

I have divided this into different segments by creating new rows. The entire contents of my various cases is listed in it's own row. This helps me stay organized, by checking things bit by bit. As I go, I'm sure to check the appropriate items off the list. If there is something I can't find, I make a note of it and come back to it later. Often I will find the missing item in another case. If I don't find it, I usually go back into the house to find it.

If you are doing a movie that is fairly prop-heavy, it may be useful to use the template you created to make a property list/ wardrobe list. There's nothing worse than showing up to a shoot without a key prop. That's it for tonight kids. Check back tomorrow for more tomfoolery!

The Man behind the "Man behind the scenes"

2006-05-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Ah, the glorious and glamorous position of "First AC." How can you watch a movie and not comment on his wonderful work? With so many recognizable names, who have been immortalized as the best of the best like Eddie Garvin, David Lenham, and Laurie Frost, how can anyone not help but be impacted by such important work?

Well while that might be dripping with sarcasm, it is usually very easy to spot a bad First AC. Look at your picture. Chances are it is nice, crisp, and in focus... Well if its not then either the director wanted to go with some "artistic license" and confuse the hell out of you or the First AC messed up. A small, but important, part of the big picture lies in his nimble hands...

Now that we got that out of the way, howdy! My name's Geoff and I will be debuting as a first time First AC! I am extremely pleased to be working on this production, as I have worked with Carleton in the past and I know what he can produce. See you guys at Sundance!

Hello!

2006-05-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hi all. My name is Jarrod Weintraub. I am the leading actor in this film. I have been acting since I was 15 and never turned back. I have mostly done theatre, but I have done a few films.

I am very excited to be a part of this project. Out of the rehearsals we have had, I can tell that this film is going to be awesome. The director, Carleton, knows what he wants and how to get it (he's also easy to work with, which is always a plus). He is going to be trying some different things with this film and it's really cool to be a part of that.

We start filming in 4 days...I can't wait!

The only Special Effect in FLIP

2006-05-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

(Click picture for larger image)

In the movie there is a scene where Aldo (Jarrod) talks to himself in the mirror. Since short movies can play around with reality more than features, I'm going to do a splitscreen effect where it looks like Jarrod is talking to another Jarrod on the other side of the mirror. (Think of the scene in 25th Hour where Ed Norton talks to himself in the bar's bathroom). I realize that this technique has been done many times in movies before, but I think it'll be fun to do and will break up the monotony of the scene.

I want to tackle this effect via greenscreen. (If you are not familiar with greenscreen, visit this link .) As you can see from the photo, I outlined Jarrod's... well, his outline with green chromakey tape. I figured this would be the ideal way to do it for several reasons. Since only a small part of the mirror is covered, Jarrod will still be able to make believable eye contact with himself. Also, while I do have a greenscreen big enough to cover up the entire mirror, that would involve evenly lighting it. The bathroom is not really the ideal place to be running a bunch of hot lights, nor is there space to accommodate everything I will need. In addition, if I used a green screen, there would be a TON of green spill all around the mostly white bathroom (A huge giveaway as to how the effect was done.)

For these reasons and more, I will attempt to do the effect using the outline-method. Once the shot is set-up and lit, I will have Jarrod deliver the "reflection" lines to himself (with me giving him his "Aldo" lines). Once that shot is done, I will outline the mirror with the green felt tape. It will be very, very important that I do not touch the camera during this, or the registration will be off and the effect will not work. Once Jarrod has enough of a green "buffer", I will shoot the scene with him giving the "Aldo" lines and a video playback monitor giving his "Reflection" lines from the previous take. This will ensure that the timing is right and it looks like he really is having a conversation with himself.

In post-production, I will go into the shot with the green tape and digitally paint the same color green over the rest of the mirror. Since the scene is locked down, this should be a relatively simple procedure (in Motion, or AE, or whatever). This will make the shot seem as if there had been a large greenscreen there the whole time. The benefit to this method is that I know it will be evenly lit since I will be painting it in myself.

Once these shots (called plates) are both done, I will have Jarrod do the scene again, this time, I'll frame it off for a simple split-screen effect. Aldo will be screen right, the reflection will be screen left. This will be my backup in the event that the greenscreen does not work as well as I want it to. The problem with the split-screen approach is that Jarrod can not cross the invisible dividing line in the middle of the screen. If he brings his left hand up to point at himself, the hand will disappear when it crosses the line. So, this will take a little more pre-visualization and rehearsal than the green screen method. Here is a video of a split-screen test I did with Rebecca the other night. (Note, since we were working quickly and without a script, the timing isn't just right. Also, you can see that the camera moved between takes so the dividing line is clearly visible.)

Obviously, the greenscreen method would be ideal. It would appear the most real and not draw any attention to itself. If it doesn't work though, I have my back up effect ready to go.

Set dressing and avoiding copyrights

2006-05-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

One of my many responsibilities as producer is to make sure we don't come across any copyright infringements. The rooms at our hotel have copyrighted artwork hanging in them, so we need to cover them up with original, non-copyrighted artwork.

Having a background in theatre, I decided it would be easiest to paint these originals on pieces of muslin fabric. Muslin is a lightweight cotton cloth that is an off-white color. It's inexpensive to purchase and easy to work with. At a local fabric store it should cost you around 99 cents a yard and our particular fabric happened to be a yard in width also. Muslin is used in theatre mostly to paint scenery. If anyone has seen "The Honeymooners", they used muslin covered frames, (aka soft flats), which is why the walls wiggle when the door shuts.

Another benefit of us using muslin is that it won't take up much space in the car on the way to Vegas. We will be packing 4 people, their luggage, and ALL of our equipment, (lights, props, crane, dolly, wardrobe, etc.), into Carleton's mid-size SUV. It will be cozy, and there wouldn't be room for anything delicate/ fragile, like a painting on canvas board. Muslin can be easily folded, rolled, etc. and won't take up any space at all.

You can paint muslin with pretty much any kind of paint. I chose to use acrylic fabric paint, because that way we could roll/ fold/ spindle/ mutilate the finished piece and not worry about paint possibly coming off. While painting, I used a technique called wet blending This is a technique where you blend the colors together while the first application of paint is still wet. You can use a spray bottle to keep it damp. I used this predominantly on the sunset, but also in the other two. I used another technique on the green one called scumbling. In this technique, you use a series of unorganized overlapping strokes in different directions. The blue one is a little bit of everything.

As Im sure youve already guessed, I am the artist who created these. In order to create something both Carleton (Director) and I (Producer) both liked, I did research into various painters and paintings online to come up with inspiration. I had a lot of fun working on these, and am rather proud of them. It's difficult to tell from the pictures, but these are all fairly large scale paintings. The first one is about 3'x3' and the others are about 3'x 18".

How to block a scene

2006-05-19T23:50:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had rehearsal for the movie. I want everything to go smoothly when actual on location in Vegas, so we are planning out camera moves now to see what might give us trouble later. When scouting the room in Vegas, I measured the dimensions and wrote them down in my handy-dandy notebook. When we started rehearsing back here in San Diego, I took some gaffer tape and taped out the layout of the room on the floor of my house. This way the actors can get a feel for the scale of the room, and develop a sense of spatial awareness.

The first thing we planned out was a continuous shot with the camera following behind Aldo as he enters Jennifer's suite from the hallway. The move covers a distance of about 20 feet. We are using the FigRig for this shot, with Geoff pulling focus via an 18" whip. What we did first run through it with the actors. I saw what their natural way of doing the scene was (where they stood, how they moved, ect.) then we re-created it and tweaked various aspects.

To start with, Jennifer opens the door to her room and holds up a bottle of Jeff Daniels, she then moves aside and gestures for Aldo to enter, he does and she follows behind him. Aldo walks to the end of the room and stares out a big window overlooking Las Vegas, Jennifer stands about 8 feet behind and stares at him. Then Aldo turns around and asks what else she found in her mini-bar. The scene, if shot with a normal video camera, would be fairly simple to shoot handheld. I would simply use 2 hands to hold the camera, use mostly existing light with maybe a tota pointed at the ceiling to raise the base light level of the room, and leave the focus on the DVX at... pshh, I duno... let's say 87 (Just to throw a number out there.)

Shooting with a Micro35 adapter means however, that I can not do any of the above. To get this shot with the set-up we are using means a substantial amount of pre-planning and rehearsal. First, the scene must be blocked out very specificity. Each time an actor stops or pivots in the shot, their mark must be taped down for reference ("spiking" as it is called). They must hit these marks with machine-like precision each time. Once the actors have their marks, the First AC (Geoff) will take a tape-measure and measure the distance from the focal point of the camera (a metal handle on the Micro35 adapter) to the actor. I was told once that it is always best to focus on the actor's eyes when measuring for focus. So I had Geoff measure to the actors eyes, or if they were not facing the camera, the very back of their head. Once he measures a distance, he turns the lens to the corresponding focus distance and makes a mark on the follow focus' wheel. I suggested he number them in the order he will pull the focus. Once we have done that for all the actors marks (there are 5 marks, which, in this case, gives us 5 focus pulls) we are ready to light the scene.

For a rehearsal, I didn't waste a lot of time lighting the scene. I just pointed a 1k in the actors general direction, and shined a 300 watt Tota at the ceiling in the part of the room they end up. Then I turned the gain up to +12db (I don't care about the quality of the rehearsal footage). When we actualy set up this scene at the hotel, I will have to spend a lot more time on the lighting.

Once the lighting is done, we are ready to do the scene. Before anybody asks me about it, all the dialog in this shot will be picked up via a concealed wireless lav mic on Jarrod. We don't have the extra hands for a boom opp on the shoot, nor would we have a place to put him in this shot. So, I am ready to go, Jarrod is standing behind Rebecca, I'm standing behind Jarrod, and Geoff is standing behind me. As the actors move through the shot, I follow behind them and when they hit their marks, Geoff pulls focus. For the sake of my forearms, I only want to do this scene a few times. (The entire rig weighs about 17 pounds, fully loaded) So after a few takes, I am confident we are ready to move on to the next scene.

Here is an image of the scene we are working on next. I will tell you more about it tomorrow...

The Shooting Schedule

2006-05-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

I just want to post our shooting schedule for everybody. This will outline the days we will be shooting. I will be posting at the end of every shoot day. These posts will go over what we were able to get shot that day and how we solved (or didn't solve) any problems that occurred.

May 27th - Shooting scene 2 (with Aldo) in San Diego hotel.

May 29th thru June 2nd - Shooting in Las Vegas. (More detailed breakdown of scenes to follow)

June 5th - Shooting scene 1 in Downtown San Diego hotel.

Also, we are rehearsing tomorrow night (Friday, May 19th) and next Friday night (May 26th). Both of these will be followed with in-depth posts about various aspects of movie making. (Expect a post from Geoff my First AC, likely about his experiences pulling focus).

Stay tuned tomorrow night. Rehearsal is from 7-9:00 pm, so expect a few decent posts shortly thereafter!

I wanna be a producer!

2006-05-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Jarrod is a fantastic actor, and we are absolutely thrilled to have him on this project, but back in November or so, when we first started thinking about casting, Jarrod wasn't someone who either of us knew that well. Seeing as how we're all sharing a room in Vegas for a week, we wanted to make sure that everyone knew everyone really well before going. We had first asked another actor to play the part of Aldo. He was someone who I had worked with previously and, like Jarrod, is predominantly a theatre actor. We had been in some classes together and were friends. We took him out to a business lunch to try and court him for the film. The following will be a few of the mistakes we made at our lunch and in the process of asking him to do the movie, plus, a few things that you might want to think about.

-Don't go to the restaurant at a busy time. If you have no other choice, make a reservation.

-Make sure you have your credit/debit card or enough cash on you to cover whatever anyone orders. Plus $10.

-Make sure you, (the producer), have your wallet.

-Pick up your actor. Don't rely on them to find there way there or to be on time.

-In addition to that, make sure that they aren't dropped off by their embittered girlfriend who is not only jealous of his possibly of being in a movie, but doesn't like you because you're a female he's friends with.

-When the actors first response to being asked to be in the film is "I am interested...but I don't really want to be on a weeklong out of town trip without my girlfriend....but if you can cast her in it, I'm all ears", just give up right there. It's not worth the hassle to try and convince them otherwise, no matter how good of an actor they might be. Even offering pay does not work.

-Should you not take the advice to pick up your actor and arrive before they do, don't fill up on bread and appetizers so that you wind up not eating while your actor is eating all by themselves. This not only further isolates them, but makes the meal that much more longer and awkward.

-Don't eat while pitching the story. Food in mouths and talking are not a good combo.

-Maintain a business atmosphere and a sense of professionalism.

-Make sure you have a copy of the script that the actor can keep, regardless of their interest in doing the project.

-In addition to the script, provide a one page outline.

-Let them order whatever they want, with the exception of hard liquor. You don't want them drunkly agreeing, and then leaving you the morning after.

I think that just about wraps up this post. If I come up with more, I'll add 'em on. Or if you yourself have any additional comments, feel free to leave them. Have a great day, kids!

Planning ahead

2006-05-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

Planning is important when you want to make a movie. Sure, I've done movies that had almost no planning at all and they turned out well enough. But, when a producer is putting up money for a project, they want to see that you know what you are doing... and when you will be doing it. So I created a production schedule in Excel. (I was actually given the template for it by my Producer friend Barbara). It broke down like this:

This is the schedule for our shoot on the 27th. The Excel file made everything really easy. I simply input the "Start Time" and "Length" and it created the "End Time" for me. When I went to the next line, it auto-completed with the correct start time.

To make this kind of sheet on your own in Excel (or NeoOffice) just click the box you want to auto-calculate for you and tell it which boxes to add together. Ie: in the "End Time" box C2 I would type "=A2+B2". This tells the program to add cell A2 and B2 together to get C2. Skipping on down to the next line, for box A3 I would type "=C2". This will tell the program to bring down the results from the last "End Time" cell.

This all sounds a little confusing when it's not shown visually, but it is really easy to do once you have it formatted correctly.

Another thing that is essential to have on a production is the Cast and Crew Call Sheets. These are the sheets of paper that tell everybody on the production where and when to meet on the following day and who else will be there. I make one of these for each crew member and give them out the day before. Having everything in black and white ensures that there is no confusion on the day of. If the sheet says meet at 8 AM, it means meet at 8 AM. No excuses.

As you can see, there are several things to put on a call sheet. At the top, put the name of the project. (When I made this one, the movie still had no title so it just says "Component Pictures Project"). After that list the day the sheet is for. A few rows down you want to list your Crew Assignments. This can be 1 person (Director/Cameraman/Boom/Window Washer) or it can be a list of the 20 crew members needed. It just depends on the size of the production. Make sure to have at least 1 contact phone number for each person (2 is ideal). After that, I leave a few spaces for notes (if needed). Then I list Crew Transportation. On this day, that's just me and my Ford Exploder. On larger productions, this will likely be a Teamster, so get their dispatcher's number as well. After that comes Cast Assignments. This is a scene with just Aldo, so only Jarrod is listed. There is a column labeled "Release". This is to indicate whether or not we have a talent release form signed for him. If not, better get one before the end of the day! After all that junk, I usually have a section with Driving Directions to the shooting location along with the address and phone number.

That's just a small sampling of the kind of paperwork needed to get a production off to a good start. Obviously not every production needs this much, but it's always good to err on the side of caution. I hope not to "err" at all, but Murphy's Law is fond of moviemakers.

The Production Design

2006-05-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

Since we don't have a colossal budget or any corporate sponsors for this film, I have taken it upon myself to do the production design for some key props. Since my goal is to submit this to various film festivals and eventuality self-distribute it on DVD, I need to be sure I don't have any unauthorized copyrights or trademarks in my movie. That means that any prop I had written into the story needs to have an Alter-Ego version (or Bizarro version, as I call them). With each of the following props, I have taken their existing logo/design and tweaked it to the point where it is no longer infringing on the existing look. Case in point: a bottle of Jack Daniel's Whiskey.

As you can see, the bottle no-longer says "Jack Daniels". It is now, Jeff Daniels. A few other key differences are: Old Number 7 is now Number 8, Tennessee Sourmash is now Mississippi Sourmash and the general decoration around the label is different.
It was relatively easy to do this all in Photoshop. All I did was measure the existing bottle's label, create a new project in Photoshop with those dimensions, and add the text accordingly. The shapes are all variations of the pre-existing shapes that can be created with the "Shapes Tool" in Photoshop. When I was done, I saved it as JPEG and had it printed at a local photo lab. Altogether, it cost me about $3 plus the cost of the alcohol.

The next product is a box of cigarettes. I don't really want to promote smoking, but I felt it was necessary for the story to have the main character smoke. This prop was a little harder to make than the Jeff Daniels label. I had to first measure the width of the box of cigarettes, then I had to measure the length of the entire box. My end result was a Photoshop project about 9 inches long by 2 inches wide. (Image on right, feel free to use in your own production)

The font I used was actually a font I downloaded for free from Typenow.net called Marlboro font. Unfortunately the lowercase "b" in that font wasn't long enough to match the long "l" in my logo. So the "b" on my package is actually an "l" with an "o" stuck on it. Once again, I made a look-alike logo with the shape tool and added some warnings about smoking to the bottom. I copied and pasted 3 of these onto an 8" by 10" size project and printed it out as an 8x10 at the photolab. This way I had 3 for the price of one. (In case I need to make back-ups).

I know what you're thinking. "Is this movie just about characters getting loaded and smoking?", well, not really. But they do drink and smoke, as people in Vegas are apt to do. These are the little alcohol bottles typically found in mini-bars in hotel rooms. I had to make a few different kinds for the movie. The first 2 are just Smirnoff rip-offs. I followed roughly the same procedure of measuring and printing as before, but this time, I had to make 2 different kinds of labels. I made the blue one first, then I just did a color switch for the red one. (I also changed a number on it). The Maui Rum bottle was pretty easy as well. The trees are standard shapes in Photoshop and I just created an orange half-circle behind them. To that circle I added an "Outer Glow" effect and it looked just great. When I was done with all 3 of the labels, I put as many as possible onto an 8x10 sheet and printed them at the photolab. So, for the cost of 3 8x10 pictures at a photo lab, I got plenty of props that need absolutely no legal clearances! What a deal!

Well, that's all for now. Tune in again tonight for another exciting adventure!

Breakdown of Scene 2, Shot 2&3

2006-05-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

I am making this movie with a DVX100a which means I will be running 24P. In addition to this, the Micro35 adapter will give me the shallow DoP that 35MM film cameras get. So with this set-up, I am able to get a look that is very similar to film but with the low-cost of MiniDV video. My entire budget for this production is much, much lower than a comparable short movie being shot on Super16mm film. And since I own all this gear (instead of renting), I can theoretically make another movie for just the cost of tape and food for the cast & crew.

There are some things that may slow me down with this set-up though. First of all, the image the Micro35mm creates is upside down, which means that I must digitally "flip" all my footage (HEY! My title has a dual meaning!!!). That will add to my overall rendering time when it comes time to rendering the finished product. Also, when the camera is fully loaded, it weighs in at just under 10 pounds. The DVX100a was not meant to be so front heavy, so it tends to tilt downward when held by the hand-grip. To remedy this tiltage, my producer bought us a FigRig. The FigRig works wonders with my camera. It evenly distributes the weight so I'm able to move the camera in a way that looks good cinematicaly and doesn't kill my forearms! (The best of both worlds).

Having a camera that is easy to handhold is a good thing because there is a scene in the movie that involves a camera move from a hotel hallway to inside a hotel room to over by a large picture window... in one take. If I didn't have the FigRig, I wouldn't be able to get this shot in one take. Also, since we won't have permission to shoot in this Hotel, I'd like to be as unobtrusive as possible.

One shot I am really looking forward to is one of the first shots we will be filming. In the San Diego hotel location, there will be a shot of Aldo (Played by Jarrod) sitting on his bed watching TV. I know what you're thinking, "Wow, what an amazing shot that will be", but I will be doing a push-in on him as he changes channels on TV. This will be inter-cut with the same push-in move being done to the TV he is watching. At the end of the shot, we'll end on Aldo as he is about to fall asleep.

Here are my crummy drawings. They are done on yellow notebook paper, but I B&W'ed it to save space. To get this shot, we'll have to lay down dolly tracks parallel to the bed. Then, on the dolly I'll put the tripod and crane. Then I'll put the camera on the end of the crane and we'll be ready for the move. This shows the intense kind of acting needed for this scene. Actually, Aldo is supposed to be falling asleep, but my drawings made him look retarded. So he is smiling instead. The shot will end just as a phone RINGS and we cut to a new angle. Getting this shot right will be more complicated than it seems, because my First AC (Geoff) will be pulling focus for the whole shot. Since the auto-focus feature will be disengaged to use the Micro 35mm adapter, all the focusing must be done manually. This means that Geoff has to be turning the follow focus whip the whole duration of the shot. Considering that Geoff has yet to ever use a Follow Focus, this will take a few tries to get just right. But, once we get it, it'll be a great show. Certainly not one you expect to see in such a low budget film. There are other shots like this but, I'll leave them to a later post.

The shooting location(s)

2006-05-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

We will be shooting in 2 cities for FLIP. Scene 2 with Aldo in his small hotel room will be shot in San Diego at a local hotel. I picked a local hotel because it will mean one less scene I have to shoot in Vegas. I scouted the hotel a few days ago, and it looks perfect (in a depressing, gross way). Also, I want there to be an obvious difference between Aldo's small, cramped room and Jennifer's larger suite. The other scene we are doing in San Diego is a scene at a prestigious downtown hotel. The very first scene of the movie takes place in a meeting room. Since we will be blowing out the windows (exposure wise I mean, no actual explosives are used in the production) you won't be able to tell it's not Las Vegas outside. Since there are several extras, this scene will be a bit of a hassle to coordinate, but I have it planned out with a little bit of time to spare.

The shooting in Las Vegas will take place in a very nice Hotel/Casino. I'd rather not say which one until we are actualy there and settled in. But it is one of the big ones on the strip. We will have 5 shooting days in this hotel and almost all of it will take place in the room. Luckily the room is a suite, so it wont be too cramped with 4 people in it.

We have 2 exterior scenes in Vegas too. One is at night (oh no!) and the other takes place in front of the wedding chapel at dawn. I'm not looking forward to that scene.

Well, those are our locations. I hope to do them photographic justice.

I forgot!

2006-05-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

My posts will be mostly dealing acting and producing relating subjects. Just thought I should mention that.

A quick "HELLO!"

2006-05-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say a quick hello and give a brief introduction of myself. My name is Rebecca, and I'm the producer and a cast member of FLIP. I'm very excited about this project, and can't wait to regale you all with tales of the process. I'll tell ya'll more later. Have a wonderful weekend!

The Technical Specs

2006-05-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

[WARNING: Unless you are a film nerd, skip over this post. It will have absolutely no relevance whatsoever]

As I mentioned in my first ever post, I am shooting this on a DVX100a. For those who don't know, the DVX-100a is a digital video camera that records in a format called 24P. All that really matters is that this format looks like film, as opposed to the "smoother" look of normal video. In addition to this I am using a Micro35 adapter (M2) This adapter lets me use normal 35MM SLR lenses to get the same Depth of Field (DOP) as larger 35mm motion picture cameras do.

Lighting-wise, I am pretty well stocked. I have 2 Lowel DP lights with both 1K and 500 watt bulbs. These will be my set light as well as my key on the actors. I have 2 Lowel Pro Lights with 250 and 125 watt bulbs. When put on a dimmer the Pro lights are great for adding a subtle rim light to the actors, which helps separate them from the background. I also have a Tota light for general light wherever it is needed. These are handy raising the base light level of a room, just point it at the ceiling! Those are my basic lights, but I also have a few smaller stick-up's for whatever I need.

We will be using a Rowe Cine Dolly as well as a 5.5 foot crane from Kessler Crane . These will allow us to move the camera freely, but at the same time keep the degree of repeatability that narrative work requires. For handheld shots, I will be mounting the camera to a Fig Rig, which is essentially a steering wheel that you can mount you camera to. It sounds funny in principle, but it works great!

In the audio department, I will be mostly using a Sennheizer shotgun mic on a boompole. For traveling shots where both myself and the AC (Geoff) must be operating the camera, I will hook a wireless lav mic to whichever actor has more dialog. For most all of the shoot, I will be within 15 feet of the actors so the wireless shouldn't be a problem. There are 2 scenes that take place outside, but I'm not too concerned about it... yet.

Lets see, Video? Check! Lighting? Check! Grip gear? Check! Audio? Double check! Ok, that's it for the technical specs. If anyone has any questions about anything relating to this stuff, please leave a comment. I'd love to talk about this stuff with someone who cares!

The Cast

2006-05-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get a whole bunch of extremely talented actors for this movie and I am very excited to be working with them all.

The cast of FLIP is as follows:

Jennifer Bright will be played by the lovely and vivacious Rebecca Seubert
Aldo Freeman will be played by the strong and manly Jarrod Weintraub
The BOSS will be played by the most excellent Charley Miller

Videogame Fan #1 will be played by the enthusiastic Fernando Huerto
Videogame Fan # 2 will be played by the somewhat less enthusiastic Matt Jarbo

There are also several non-speaking roles which will be given to my friends.

The crew for this movie will consist of the following:

Director/ Writer: Carleton Torpin (me)
Producer: Rebecca Seubert (yes, the female lead)
First AC/ Gaffer: Geoff Goodloe (not me, but similar)
Key Grip: Matt Jarbo (already listed in Cast)
Assorted other positions: Whoever is closest to what needs to be done

Well, that's the whole cast and crew. Unless someone wants to give me a whole bunch of money, in which case I can add an Executive Producer credit.

The Plot

2006-05-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

You all waited patiently for a full hour, so I will now go into the basic outline of the movie. READY?! Here we go:

It's a story about a 23 year old guy named Aldo Freeman. Aldo is in Las Vegas for a bussiness meeting. It is at the aforementioned meeting that he meets Jennifer Bright. They have worked together at the same company for a few years, but have never actualy talked. Later that night, Jennifer calls Aldo's room (they are staying in the same hotel) and informs him that she cracked her mini-bar open. Never wanting to turn down free alcohol, Aldo rushes right over to Jennifer's room.

After several bottles of schnapps, they decide to venture outside the hotel and go out onto the strip. They stay out until sunrise, ending up in front of a wedding chappel (which are a dime a dozen in Vegas). It is outside this chappel that they decide it would be a good idea to get married... and then go get divorced. That way their second marriages will be stronger when they get married for real (to other people). Well, they follow through with their plans, and do indeed get married. And what's the one thing that pre-occupies newleywed couples mind's more than anything else? That's right, they have sex.

The next morning Aldo wakes up and...

Well, I think I've given away just about all I care to now. So far I have taken you up to page 7 of a 14 page script. Stay tuned for more updates!!!!

LOGO

2006-05-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

This is my tenative logo for the movie. I made it real quick in Photoshop.

First post! WOW!

2006-05-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know it's not OK to start a sentence with OK, but what the hey! So, this blog (or "web-log" as it once was called) is to keep up-to-date on the progress of a new short film entitled FLIP. The basic story will be layed out in a future post, what I can divulge right now is that it's 15 minutes long, takes place in Las Vegas, and will be shot with a DVX-100a video camera.

This blog will follow the Director (myself) and my daily activities with the movie. There may also be posts by Rebecca (Producer and Actress) , Jarrod (Actor) and Geoff (First AC). It will start in the pre-production stage (now), move on to production (later) then finally post-production (after the "later"). That's really all I can say now, but stick with me a while and I'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about moviemaking! (AND MORE!)