5.25.2005

Project meeting

To anyone who's interested in Survival Record, as well as the ten or so people who I've corresponded with via email, there's a project meeting at 4 PM tomorrow, Thursday, in the Plaza of the Americas. This is on the UF campus next to Turlington and near the bell tower. Hope to see you there.

I'm leaving for Japan and Hawaii on Monday afternoon... won't be back until the beginning of July. That means no updates. I will be working on Survival Record as much as possible, however - revising the script, storyboarding, and planning costumes and props. I probably will have very little internet access, if any, so there won't be any news until July.

5.19.2005

Taco finished.

Taco is completed, and available online at:

Taco (MPEG4, 35 MB)

Let me know what you think.

Survival Record is still in pre-production. If you want to act or work on the crew, e-mail me.

5.13.2005

Quick update.

Just a brief update before I watch a great Polish film ("The Debt," 1999). The Nikon R10 Super came today by FedEx, after they nearly lost the package yesterday. It appears to be in great shape. This will be the A camera for the shoot. The B camera will probably be the Nizo S560, which should arrive in less than 2 weeks from Germany. The second reel of "Taco" is also on its way; hopefully by the end of next week.

My immediate concerns are refining and improving the script for "Survival Record," editing "Taco," and composing music. I've made about 15 minutes worth of ambient music for "Survival Record." Obviously not all of this will be used in the final cut. I've been considering the amount of music used in films - Hollywood productions tend to have music for much of the running length - approximately half of the film, maybe. European films use it much more sparingly - a soundtrack I have for a 100 minute film contains slightly over 30 minutes of music, and not all of this was used in the film. Achieving the maximum impact from the least (music/running time/editing/plot) is the guiding principle for this project. Restraint is difficult to maintain, but I'm preparing to eliminate at least half of the music I've composed so far.

5.10.2005

Turnaround.

I've decided to shoot Plus-X black and white on parts that are dimly lit. K40 will be used whenever possible to save costs. In post, I'll desaturate the K40 footage and add contrast to bring them to a similar look.

I've started reworking the script significantly. The new version will focus more on the cameraman as the main character, who encounters the various situations presented in the other script. It's going to have a more episodic feel, but also more isolated. Since he is alone most of the time, and only encouters other people as they are dead or dying, dialogue is rendered unnecessary.

5.09.2005

Taco continued.

As I said in the previous post, "Taco" is now in the can. I dropped off the film at Wal-Mart today after finishing the cart doing some exposure and focus tests in the forest for "Survival Record." This revealed that in many areas there simply isn't enough light for K40 to properly expose. I may shoot some or all of the project on Tri-X high speed B&W reversal film. The whole project will be in black and white anyway, but I had intended to shoot the whole thing on K40 (color) to get $4.88 processing. B&W costs around $10 for processing. Your input?

Taco details.

More from the previous post - "Taco" is now in the can, so to speak. I finished off the rest of the cart shooting forest scenes as exposure and focus tests for "Survival Record." This revealed that in some areas not receiving direct sunlight, there may not be enough light to properly expose K40. This discovery was compounded by the news that Kodak is discontinuing K40, their most popular Super 8 stock. I may shoot this project in black and white - tell me what you think.

5.08.2005

Taco wraps.

I wrapped "Taco" today... tired. More later. Footage will be back in 2 weeks.

5.01.2005

Script completed.

I've finished the first draft of the script for Survival Record. It's 18 pages long (estimated 17-18 minutes running time). If you want to see a copy, e-mail me and I'll send it to you as soon as possible.

I'm about to start location scouting over the upcoming week. I'll probably do some test footage as well to see if the lighting conditions are suitable (K40 is pretty low speed film, and needs a lot of light to expose properly). I still need to find a "prairie" location that is isolated enough to use without attracting too much attention, and not underwater. Also, the spring situation needs to be resolved.

I'll put out casting call in a week or two. If you're interested, you can e-mail me before the official call.