Todays activites.

So, my day so far...

Was woken up at 8am, to wait for another delivery :( but i fell back to sleep. At 8:45am i received a phone call saying that the delivery truck is 15 minutes away, at this point i decided to get dressed and actually wake up.

At 11am i left for my 3 mile walk to the job centre, i could get buses but i'd rather save the £2.60 it would cost for two buses and just walk it, besides, i need the exercise. Signing on at the job centre is now simpler then before, now that i'm on a work program they don't really care, i'm signing the piece of paper before they've even looked at my job searches. It used to take 30 minutes because they always wanted to chat about what i did over the last few weeks to find a job.

After that i figured i'd figure out a few things, wait......... yeah that's right?!?

I had a 2pm appointment at the security company again, just to hand over some paper work, proof of address, passport and certificates. But i had 2 hours before i needed to be there, so i thought i'd figure out a few routes to the hotel i'll be working over the next few day and might be working full time soon. I jumped on the tube just down the road from the job centre and rode it all the way to Euston, i then left the station and walked to a bus stop, this bus pretty much goes past my house and runs 24/7 pretty much all year round, except maybe Christmas and new years, but anyway i stood at the bus stop then started to walk towards Kings Cross, 5:16 minutes in i passed Euston station and a 10:35 i reached Kings Cross. So now i know that i can 1, travel to Kings Cross tube, which is located directly under the Hotel i'll be working. 2, If there is a rail problem at Kings Cross or on the Bank branch of the Northern Line i can go instead to Euston and then walk 5:20 minutes to Kings Cross. 3, If there is a major problem with the Northern Line and i can't ride it to either Kings Cross or Euston i can just get the bus which is about 41 minutes then a 10:35 minute walk, so if i leave about 90 minutes before i'm due to start, i should arrive in good time.

I then jumped on the Kings Cross tube and rode that to Oxford Circus figuring i'd just wonder around London for an hour, as it was only 1pm and my next appointment wasn't until 2pm, i headed for Trafalgar Square, i was just around the corner when i got a phone call from Greg, the dude i had the interview with on Monday, he asked me if i could get to Kings Cross in an hour, i told him i was in London but not dressed for work, He said he wasn't in the office and i was to hand over my paper work to Mel, so i just went straight there instead of wondering around London, after that i just came right home.

Long'ish day of walking around not really getting much done. Now it's time to rest as i have to be up at 4am tomorrow morning............. yes 4am : / for a 7 hour shift. So i guess i'll be having an early night, first one in years, about 11pm i think.

I Procrastinate. 750 Words Monday, 5 September 2011.

BLAH

Kinda bored today.

 I was hoping to spend my day flirting with a cute a sweet french chick but instead, she went to work :(

 So I spent the day doing fuck all. I did read through the script again, but I don’t want to make any changes as she is going to take a look at it.

 She is very cute.

 Dang it, I got distracted.

 So anyway, I sat listened to rock music, refreshing web pages hoping something would come up that might hold my interest for more then five minutes but I wasn’t that fucking lucky, so I’ve been here all day doing sweet F.A.

 Man, Sundays

 Always boring unless you have something to do or someone to share it with. To just sit in silence with someone and read a book, go to the park and sit in the sun (If it shows its face) to go to a pub for lunch or a cafe for a coffee (Or in my case tea). 

 But to sit here wasting light is boring. Music playing, drink flowing...

 I'm hungry...

 I would rather work on a Sunday then do nothing on a Sunday.

 I haven’t been in a tea drinking mood today. Which is kind of odd for me as I usually drink it like its going out of fashion, but today I wanted cold drinks. And as I had no more diet cokes and 4 bottle of beer I went with the beer, and bought 6 more. Its been a slooooow day, boring with nothing but nothing to do and I’m nearly at the end of my rope. GOD SOME HAPPEN PLEASE

 Sooo how are you?

 A little procrastination today. I like procrastinating.

 And I’m not even at 400 words yet. Awesome.

 So. This girl I’ve been flirting with is a proof reader. As a writer (Trying to be anyway) I kind hope she doesn’t read this stuff. Can you imagine with my spelling and grammar, she’ll see this and her head will explode. Poor girl. She is cute though, and very sweet. Of course I base this on her actions and interaction on Twitter and Google+.

 Sundays always start out great, you get up late, if your lucky you even get breakfast in bed. Its the lazy day of the week, the day your allowed to be lazy without feeling like your wasting your time. It wears on and during or after the mandatory Sunday war film you’ll eat your typical roast then you might take a nap, only an hour or two then the rest of the day rolls over slowly then to bed early to be up early for work on Monday morning.

 I’m tired now. And its only 22:37. BLAH

 She is sweet.

 I’m having the urge to watch the Evil Dead Trilogy.

 200 words to go, yayyyyy. I need a beer.

 What would you do, if there was a chick you thought was cute but had only “seen” online, has a good interaction with but had only “seen” online,personally I think she’s lovely.

 Geez I’m flirting in here too.

 Is to wrong to continually flirt with someone?

 Right as I can find anything to write about jus yet I’ll just do this

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Writing a Short Film Script. 750 Words Saturday, 3 September 2011.

I'ma shave tomorrow

So I’ve been chatting with someone on Google+ and Twitter.

 She’s a screenwriter and lover of films, which in my book are both groovy traits to have.

 Any who, on Wednesday, actually it might have been Thursday, it was around that time of night where the day changes, she asked me to write an outline for a short film by the am, I took that to mean by 11:59 in the afternoon. I didn’t do this, I had other things to do and forgot to do it, then made up a bunch of bullshit as a pretty weak excuse. But she called me on it last night and said she’d give me an extension. I then asked her to pick a number between 3 and 15, she chose 14. I said 3 to 15 because I wanted to write a script longer the 3 pages but no longer then 15. So she chose 14 and I told her that I’d not only have an outline written up today, but also a 14 page short film script with nothing more then a vague idea of what I’ll be writing.

 So this morning I woke up, made myself some breakfast and a cuppa tea, sat and watched a little television, then turned on my computer. Watched a little more TV, then and only then did I open the text edit word processor. Its very basic but I write all my treatments on it because its just rich text so the file will open on any computer. I thought for a few minutes, then want down stairs to make another cup of tea, I thought a little more about how to kick off this script. You see that was my problem, I knew what it was about, but I couldn’t get it started, so I thought in reverse starting at the beginning and working my way back to a point I thought would be good to start with.

 Once I found that point I got to work and wrote out about 6 lines for the outline of act one. Yep six line, after then I took another break, came back and wrote another 6 lines, which was the first half of act two, I had another break and came bake to write the second half of act two, I took another break then came back and write act three in another 6 lines.

 My outline was done in 24’ish lines. Humm

 From that I wrote maybe half a page of text to act as the treatment, it didn’t really need to be that extensive as I was making this shit up as I went. And figured that for a short 14 page script half a page of treatment was enough.

 So I decided to try and space out everything in three and a half page intervals, act one being pages 0 to 3.5, first half of act two is from 3.5 to 7, second part of act two from 7 to 10.5 then act three from 10.5 to 14. And so I figured I’d have 4 sessions each 3.5 page long. Act one ended up being about 4 pages, so did act three. But thats okay. And I only got to 13.5 pages, not bad really, I mean when you think about I had no idea what I was going to write this morning wen ti woke up and now I have a 13 page rough draft of a short film script. Think thats the most I’d written in one day. Not including the outline and treatment.

 I did end up going back and forth as I was writing it, so I could make the pages I wanted for each of the four sessions. Like act one was a full page short, so I found a point and added more shit to it, I ended up adding a page and a half almost. Sometimes it just kinda flows.

 I’ll be the first to admit, it needs some work, especially in the dialogue, I think the visual element in the action are fine, but of course I write from a stand point of filming this stuff, so I’m not thinking about someone else having to interpret it, I know the shot I want to use and I write these in when I fill a particular shot will add to the visuals, I even chose to add focus point directions in this script because that how I wanted it to be. I know as a screenwriter I shouldn’t do that but as the aspiring director I feel the need to. Sorry about that.

 So there you go, I uploaded it to my online server with Apple so she could download and read it, don’t expect to much from this, because I see this script in my head as I write it, I even edit the film in my head as I write it, I practically know what shots I would use, closes up and and wide shots and particular setups for master shots. Thats just how I write. If I’m writing for other people I’d tend to write more descriptive text. And even though this script was asked for by her, I wrote it for me.

Writing a short film

So I’ve been chatting with someone on Google+ and Twitter.

She’s a screenwriter and lover of films, which in my book are both groovy traits to have.

Any who, on Wednesday, actually it might have been Thursday, it was around that time of night where the day changes, she asked me to write an outline for a short film by the am, I took that to mean by 11:59 in the afternoon. I didn’t do this, I had other things to do and forgot to do it, then made up a bunch of bullshit as a pretty weak excuse. But she called me on it last night and said she’d give me an extension. I then asked her to pick a number between 3 and 15, she chose 14. I said 3 to 15 because I wanted to write a script longer the 3 pages but no longer then 15. So she chose 14 and I told her that I’d not only have an outline written up today, but also a 14 page short film script with nothing more then a vague idea of what I’ll be writing.

So this morning I woke up, made myself some breakfast and a cuppa tea, sat and watched a little television, then turned on my computer. Watched a little more TV, then and only then did I open the text edit word processor. Its very basic but I write all my treatments on it because its just rich text so the file will open on any computer. I thought for a few minutes, then want down stairs to make another cup of tea, I thought a little more about how to kick off this script. You see that was my problem, I knew what it was about, but I couldn’t get it started, so I thought in reverse starting at the beginning and working my way back to a point I thought would be good to start with.

Once I found that point I got to work and wrote out about 6 lines for the outline of act one. Yep six line, after then I took another break, came back and wrote another 6 lines, which was the first half of act two, I had another break and came bake to write the second half of act two, I took another break then came back and write act three in another 6 lines.

My outline was done in 24’ish lines. Humm

From that I wrote maybe half a page of text to act as the treatment, it didn’t really need to be that extensive as I was making this shit up as I went. And figured that for a short 14 page script half a page of treatment was enough.

So I decided to try and space out everything in three and a half page intervals, act one being pages 0 to 3.5, first half of act two is from 3.5 to 7, second part of act two from 7 to 10.5 then act three from 10.5 to 14. And so I figured I’d have 4 sessions each 3.5 page long. Act one ended up being about 4 pages, so did act three. But thats okay. And I only got to 13.5 pages, not bad really, I mean when you think about I had no idea what I was going to write this morning wen ti woke up and now I have a 13 page rough draft of a short film script. Think thats the most I’d written in one day. Not including the outline and treatment.

I did end up going back and forth as I was writing it, so I could make the pages I wanted for each of the four sessions. Like act one was a full page short, so I found a point and added more shit to it, I ended up adding a page and a half almost. Sometimes it just kinda flows.
I’ll be the first to admit, it needs some work, especially in the dialogue, I think the visual element in the action are fine, but of course I write from a stand point of filming this stuff, so I’m not thinking about someone else having to interpret it, I know the shot I want to use and I write these in when I fill a particular shot will add to the visuals, I even chose to add focus point directions in this script because that how I wanted it to be. I know as a screenwriter I shouldn’t do that but as the aspiring director I feel the need to. Sorry about that.

So there you go, I uploaded it to my online server with Apple so she could download and read it, don’t expect to much from this, because I see this script in my head as I write it, I even edit the film in my head as I write it, I practically know what shots I would use, closes up and and wide shots and particular setups for master shots. Thats just how I write. If I’m writing for other people I’d tend to write more descriptive text. And even though this script was asked for by her, I wrote it for me.


~ Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Emotional Connections. 750 Words Thursday, 1 September 2011.

What has become of me,

I am nothing compared to what I used to be.

I shadow of the man I was,

I am nothing.

But a dot in the plan of the great and powerful Oz.

Look at my Tri-Cept. What? i was bored and just took a bunch of random pics. Damn i need to work on my Bi-Cepts more.

 I tried. You gotta give me that at least.

 Anyway I think its time I wrote something here to keep the figures nimble. I need to keep them warm in case another poem like that one comes to mind, ‘cause you know I have to write down a bit sharpish.

 So, I’m listening to the Inception soundtrack, great film great soundtrack, Hans Zimmer is a genius. Yes I listening to movie soundtracks, I find them inspiring.

 Anyways today has so far consisted of waking up at 8:30am and walking 3 miles to the Job Centre, its the closest one. I sit for a few minutes talk about the previous few weeks, pick out a few jobs they have listed to apply for sign a piece of card then walk 3 miles back home to relieve my sister from Dad duty. So I take over Dad duty and that means I have to stay in and keep an eye on him. Oh wait I haven’t written or spoke about this before. I just now realized that, huh. I’m not going to start now by the way, not yet. Lets just say, he isn’t very well and need looking after.

 Wait, the Great and Powerful Oz. What the fuck was that about. It rhymed with was. Hey its my first poem. About how I feel sometimes, okay. Right now then where the crap was i.

 Ummmmm

 So how have you been?

 I don’t really care to be honest.

 I have been thinking lately. That part of the brain that deals with friends and family, that part that builds up a relationship weather it be personal or professional or romantic or whatever, that when you away from those people you miss them. That part of the brain, the part that tells you to miss certain people. Yea I’m not sure I have that. Could it be part of the old brain that makes us “Social Animals” the part that makes us reconnect with people we haven’t seen for awhile? It could be stronger in woman then in men as women feel the need to call people up at random and talk about how they are and ask “How’ve you been” Yea men don’t do that, but in me, its not existent. I never “Miss” people or places.

 Hey you wonna grab a beer sometime. Maybe watch a movie or just stay in and watch the Inception Blu-Ray?

 Am I weird for not “Missing” people. Family up North old work colleagues old friend from school. Or do I have an over active “Move on” part of the brain. I feel no need to phone people, or even talk to people unless I have something I think they’ll want to know. And then I just send an eMail.

 Does this make my Anti-social?

Or just build for adventure. Long trips into the dark heart of the Amazon or the African Jungles?

 Another thing, when I’m told that someone in the family has died, how should I feel exactly? Because when my favorite uncle died I was told “Jay, Uncle Jack died last night” my reaction to that was “Okay”.

 You might think its just some kind of delayed reaction but I really didn’t feel anything, then the day before the funeral ay the funeral or even now when I think about how he made me laugh as a child. I simply feel nothing, no lose or grief. I just hoped the funeral wouldn’t ruin my day.

 Am I cold?

 Yet I do feel, but usually only with women I’m sleeping with. That is a different an din my view a deeper connection.

 I thought at one point that I might be a Sociopath but after reading a book on Sociopaths I came the to conclusion that I wasn’t. But maybe part of me is. The part that deal with relationships. Maybe I just can’t connect with people in a way that makes me want to reach out to them.

 Research has shown that foster kids can’t form a lasting relationship with either foster or adopted parents because. The first 6 months of our lives are very important in this, we form an emotional connection with our parents, usually always the mother because they are the one that we spend most of our time with at that age. This interaction build the neurons in our brains that allow for emotional connects with people, if those neurons aren’t developed at that stage in our early life then it becomes much harder for us to develop an emotional connection with other people so those neurons never establish in our brains and we can’t get emotionally attached to people.

 Maybe somewhere in my forgotten past, those neurons just weren’t developed and sustained for a long enough period for them to become permanent. And maybe that is why I can’t develop lasting emotional connections with people.

 Now, I love my sister and her three kids (Two 16 and one 6) but I do because I now I have to, she’s my sister. My mother and father however, is a different story. To them I hold nothing. If they cry I feel no obligation to comfort. If they are in pain I feel no need to help. What crosses my mind is, if I do help will it stop me form doing something else more interesting.

 Does that make me a bad person?

 If those neurons aren’t developed enough because I never had that connection with my parent as a child, is it my fault that I can’t connect now. Not on an emotional lever but only because I know I should because we share DNA.

Apple TV sync sucks. 750 Words Wednesday, 31 August 2011.

Sometimes i hate you

Not sure where to start here, I was going to write up a Post production blog but its a little late so I just want to get to 750 as quickly as I can then get on to other less important but necessary things. Which I hate doing and could make doing it easier but don’t.

 So yesterday I wanted to sync up the latest iTunes download to my Apple TV, so I turned it on and waited for the Apple TV icon to appear in iTunes. Once it did I clicked on it and as usual I check the storage, 435GB out of 928GB, good, I selected the episode I wanted to sync the clicked sync. 

 Once it was done syncing I noticed that the storage had changed, it was now somewhere around the 34GB make. Somehow I’d lost 400GB of material on my Apple TV, I checked that everything was still selected and they were. Odd, but iTunes and my Apple TV have done this before, I now have to re-sync everything again, not fun, as my WiFi also hates Apple TV, if I select everything to sync up over night my internet basically cuts off and resets, stopping the sync this happens pretty fucking quickly so not much is synced.

 So today I plugged the Apple TV into the hub via Ethernet and things were better, I could sync much more in one go, but still only 8 TV shows at a time, and even then my entire internet bandwidth is fucked and I can barely use my web browser, even posting tweets is an issue. I mean its only a max of 140 characters, its file size is in the kilobytes and yet it won’t upload, kinda shocking really, that Apple TV can use up so much bandwidth leaving nothing else.

 Gotta wonder if the newer Apple TV is any better. My internet connect with ATV’s has been shit so streaming to it is never really an option, I hate it when a TV show stops after 30 minutes because the connection was lost, I then have to wait for it to re-establish itself and navigate to the point it stopped then continue. This is no way to watch TV or Movies. So I hacked my ATV (The only tech I’ve ever hacked) only so I could add an external drive, I 1 terabyte external drive.

You also have to wonder why Apple didn’t make there own external drive for it, I mean I don’t wan tot leave my computer running 24 hours a day or have to turn on my computer just to watch movies and TV shows through my ATV. Apple dropped the ball here. Well thats my opinion anyway, give us the interface i.e. the ATV with a nice internal drive or in the newer one, nothing, but at least give us the option to add external drives to it without having to hack it. I don’t want to stream my media over an internet connect thats as unreliable as mine is, its annoying to the point of never using again because its useless, if I do buy a new one I’ll be hacking it and adding the external drive because thats what I want. Oh and Airplay, yeah, not to interested in that either, mostly as I only know one other person who has an Apple TV so unless people are in my bedroom theres no point. And if I want to watch a video on my iPhone I’ll just watch it on my iPhone. For me ATV is simply for my TV shows and Movies nothing else, I have music on it but don’t listen to music on my Apple TV.

 And who’s to say that my syncing problem (Above) won’t happen with the new ATV.

 Anyway, I’ve been reading the ‘Guerilla Film Making Pocketbook’ again this time about film festival and marketing. Its interesting how much I already knew but didn’t know that I knew or ignored myself or something like that. Using Social Media and forums specialist websites and such, being able to provide people with all the information they need about the project. I’ll be pulling out my ‘Guerilla Film Makers Blue Print’ book after and going through that too. More to cross reference what I believe with what other have actually done. I know its most likely going to be a little different for me on some level but its nice to have a foundation to build on. And I like reading this stuff, so there ;P

 So I reached my 750. Bye.

Principal Photography. 750 Words Tuesday, 30 August 2011.

My mind is still taking to me.

Principal Photography.

 So your first day of filming has arrived, good for you. In the pre production phase you should have set up a call sheet, not sure I mentioned that, sorry, but you should have, basically it tells everyone on the film, cast and crew, when and where to be. Cast usually get a later call unless they have special make up to apply. You the boss should be the first one on set and the last on off set, set the example so know one can complain about working long hours, so long as you don’t complain.

 Talk to your crew and tell them what your going to be doing today, this is of course something you have already done in Pre, but its always nice to make sure everyone is on the same page, get set up and block out the shots, thats means setting down makers so the actors know when to stop moving, if there are moving, this also helps the focus puller, if you have one, ideally you want to be ready to go when the actor arrive. You don’t want them to have to wait around for to long, the cliched “Hurry up and wait” is something you should at least try to avoid, call your actors when your ready for them this includes any extras.

 Now we look at your shot list, something you should have done in pre, figuring out what ‘coverage’ you want. Coverage being the shots you want to use. For example, I’d start with a master shot, everything or everyone in shot playing out the seen, you could have radio mic’s on the actors but I’d just stick to a decent shotgun mic as any dialogue will better once you move in for the closer shots. Get the master, then move in for any mid shots, if someone is speaking or reacting try to shoot something. Its also good to know how your going to edit the scenes together, if you wrote the script you might have some idea how you want this to stitch together, meaning you just shoot what you need, making things move quicker, but this is best for seasoned experienced directors. Then after the mis shots, usually form the naval to just about the head, move in for a close ups and extreme close up if the scene demands them, they do show emphasis on dialogues. Also particular angle might denote certain emotions. In one script I wanted a man to feel alone so I thought of moving the camera backwards through a door way, by the end of the shot the man is framed within the door frame, reducing this space down to almost nothing and filling the rest of the frame with a wall. Again this is all stuff you should have thought of before filming started, but thats not to say you want come up with something else on set, or someone else for that matter. If someone suggests a shot don’t just dismiss it because that someone isn’t experienced or a lot younger then you, visualize the shot and see if it’ll work. You never know, it might work better.

 Get all the coverage you can in the time you have, this is why indie’s like free hand shooting, less set up per shot and more set ups in your day. But don’t rush it, make sure you get the shots you need, nothing worse then finding out because you rushed a shot it doesn’t work and you have to reshoot it, wasted time is bad for your own morale. As for takes, I’d tend to get at least 3, even if the first one was great. But don’t stop until you get a great take, good is ok, great is better.

 Take each day at a time, but you will need to know what is coming and if you’ll need any special equipment for it and if it’ll be there on time, make the calls don’t wait until your setting on your ass waiting for it. You have to stay on top of everything, this is way you need that producer and you need them earlier so your on the same page from start to finish.

 Principal Photography will pretty much run the same each day until your finish, if its a low budget film or a short and not very complex. Just wake up each day and get to set weather it be a location or studio, get there shot what you need, log and capture the days footage check your dailies make notes on pick ups or reshoots if any. If you have time edit a little so you have some idea of how if fits with everything else from that scene that you’ve filmed.

 Remember that you are going to go over budget, if you have one and you will run long. When calculating how long it’ll take to shoot, you might want to account for this by added, extra time, how much depends on what your shooting, but you need it, you’ll most likely run through that extra time as well, just expect this and get on with filming what you need. A good idea would be if you have a scene that isn’t important, but for whatever reason you want to shoot it, put it at the end of the schedule and if you have to cut it, cut it. This again is where rewrites help out again, any dialogue that might be needed can go somewhere else. Plan for this.

 Once you done, have a party.

 This isn’t that in-depth, mostly because at my level it’ll just be the same thing over and over until you’ve filmed everything.

Pre-Production. 750 Words Monday, 29 August 2011.

From my mind to yours

This is more for me then anyone else, and its a bit all over the place so forgive the uneditedness of it.

Last night, instead of writing it down, like I should have done, I had a chat with myself. In my head not out loud, that would be weird. I usually do this if I need to figure something out, because I can then visualize the situation as if someone is asking me. I seem to be able to deal out good advise on subjects I know about but can never deal with it for myself. Which is odd but there you go.

 So last night I asked myself a question from the perspective of an amateur film maker wanting advice of bigger productions, doing this also helps me set out a game plan.

 I then proceeded to detail everything I currently know about the process, starting with Pre-Production then principal photography then post-production and film festivals and distribution. That, at best you might be involved with this film for many years.

 So I should try to remember what I said last night, this mind chat lasted a few hours. I sometimes have these mind chats about science stuff black holes and what not.

 So Pre-Production, it always starts with the idea, that idea can usually be very vague, it might actually only be a scene that you now need to put into context. Once I’ve written down as much detail about this idea as I can I write up an outline, which is usually only 3 or 4 pages long and is very rough, but I try to get the basic plot and story with the hooks and twists and turning points. After that I write a treatment and I pack as much detail as I can into this, which is why its usually 20 to 25 pages long. Here I get to know my characters and their dynamics and relationships I decide on locations, or at least what I would like to have, I even throw in dialogue if I feel I need to, like if I came up with something that sounds good I what to remember it later, if there is an action scene I’ll just write ‘ACTION SCENE’ and not write anything, unless something happens in that scene that will affect the characters afterwards. I had an action scene in a previous script where a main character lost an eye and was tortured. So I just wrote that, “So and So is tortured and looses an eye” I then continue, letting it flow writing lots of detail even though I might not use any of it, its nice to have. I then look at the treatment and cut it up into the three acts, I then cut up those acts into scenes, and write them out onto index cards, and now I spend a little time sorting them out moving scenes around if I need to. I tend to write for the Hero (Protagonist) and neglect the Villain (Antagonist) so here is where I look at the film from the villains perspective, I now “become” the bad guy and decide what he or she is doing while the hero is doing his or her thing, I then add the extra index cards and update the treatment, which can grow to maybe 30 pages. Once the treatment and index cards are done, and I’m happy with them, I start the script. Having everything already sorted out, knowing where your going with the story helps me write and I can get it done a lot quicker. I’ll usually try to get between 5 and 10 pages done each day. If I write for to long I tend to get vague, stopping for a bit, even if its just an hour helps me continue writing at the same level. Also I try to write scene by scene rather then seeing the whole picture because then I just try to get to the more interesting bits quicker. And I always keep in my head that its only a rough draft and will be edited in rewrites later on.

Once the script is completed in rough draft I start rewrites, my first rewrite isn’t really a rewrite, as such, I check my spelling and grammar. Then I go through a check list of 7 things to sort out in the coming rewrites, Characters, Conflict, Action, Plot, Construction, Content, Practicalities.

Do the characters work, are there to many, as this will have little or no budget, its better to have less characters, so I hack the characters if one isn’t needed they are gone, only main characters that move the story along are immune to the axe, if a supporting character only has a few lines, I get rid of it and give those lines to someone else. Basically rewrites give you the opportunity to tighten up everything, once your happy with a “locked” script it could be several pages lighter. This isn’t a bad thing. And don’t for a minute think that your script rewrites are over.

This is where I’d bring in a producer, if its a short film or super low budget feature you might end up also being a producer, but its always nice to have an extra pair of eyes. Because now your going to break up that script into a the different locations, characters and film days, you need to know how many different locations your going to need because you only want to visit that location once, get everything you need then move on, you need to know what characters are needed for that location, and roughly how many days you going to need that location. This will all help you build your shot list. Do this for all the locations. I location manager would also be nice but you might not have the budget for one, so get out there and find what your looking for. Its best to visit locations around the time you intend to shoot there, take light and sound readings, this you’ll give to the DoP and lighting crew, you should already know the angles you want to shoot, so this is also a good opportunity to see if you can get the shots you want, never underestimate the value of getting as much information on a location as you can, the more the crew knows before they get there, the better. Check each location for access, and weather the neighbours will be an issue, it might be a good idea to produce a leaflet to inform the neighbours, if any, that you’ll be around, when your going to start and how long you intend to be around and and weather you might be making any noise. Check for some kind of “green room” a place to put the actors before and after set ups, a place where the crew can eat and relax, also if you having craft services (Catering) where will it go.

During this time you should have already sent out a notice for actors to audition. Its better to not have auditions in your house, find a place comfortable where you can put the actors before they audition, then see them one at a time, as it might be the first time for some and even seasoned actors get nervous, try to see if its the nerves that are coursing a bad performance its important that they feel comfortable, so you can get their best, give them a page from your script and give them the context of it. Then test the actor, ask them to do it again, but this time as if they are on drugs or perform a sad scene happy. Once you picked you call backs, try to put actors together, test out dynamics and chemistry. Take you time, if you have the time. You want the best possible performance for you film, and good actors will make you film better. So once you’ve picked them, I’d bring them in for costume and make up tests. If your going to use a HDSLR or a 16mm cine camera you want to know how they will look, if they have any blemishes that need covering, again the make up artist will appreciate the heads up before hand, and if the costume look right for the characters and if your using radio mic’s do they hid will. It better to deal with this now rather then on set where you’ll be wasting light, time and money. Get as much done before filming as you can, find the problems now and find solutions. You going to have problems most of the way through your filming, thats a fact of film making, so reducing the amount before hand is always a good idea. If you have special make up or gore then again, get this all sorted and tested, if you know you’re going to be close on a prosthetic then your going to want to know how it looks in the format your using, better now then in post. It’ll give the special make up people a heads up on how much scrutiny their work will be under.

Back to the locations scouting, knowing what shots you want and where they are going to take place will inform you of what equipment you need, jibs, cranks dolls etc. And if there will be issues. Like if you want a crane shot but a tree is in the way, can you get the crank in there? Will it damage the ground, tear up grass. Ideally you wan tot leave the location in the same conduction you found it, don’t burn your bridges, you might end up having to go back there for a reshoot or pick ups, and then there might be other film makers that want to use that location. Keep relationships good with the people that own the location, if you do damage something, let them know immediately and take photos for the insurance company. Also knowing where your going to film will help the script, so once you have details on all your locations your in for another rewrite, nothing extensive just more information for the crew and cast so on the day, there are no surprises.

Pre-Production is a lot of work and could take as long as the filming and post put together. When I was doing carpentry in collage I was told to measure twice and cut once. Think of film making the same what, you want to cover as much as you can before you start filming, find those problems and the solutions.

Ideally you want all your cast and crew in place long before you start filming, that everyone knows what they are doing, when they are doing it and where, so day one can be a good day, and hopefully that first day will go without a hitch, you’l need that good day or morale.

 Create a shot list, Location list, character list, costumes and props list, regular and special make up if any, vehicles, camera equipment, jibs dolls cranes etc. Set dressing if needed, craft services or where the nearest food outlets are and coffee shops are to each location. Make sure any neighbours are aware that your going to be there. If any stunts, that the stunt team have enough time to check locations and rehears, if any visual effects or going to be used, that the VFX team get to the locations to get anything they need, they might even want to be around when your shooting those scenes. And its a good idea to have an editor ready to go, once you start filming stuff its a good idea to have the editor log and capture all the footage and even start the rough edit as you go.

 You need to be as prepared as you can be before you start.

Next up, Principal Photography. 

Hallucinations. 750 Words Sunday, 28 August 2011.

I sleep Supine

The following is from ‘WiseGeek.com’ 

 “Hypnopompic hallucinations are often discussed along with hypnogogic hallucinations. Both of these have to do with hallucinations occurring as people enter or exit sleep. When people are just on the edge of sleep they might experience hypnogogic hallucinations. If a person is about to wake, he or she could have a hypnopompic hallucination.

 What makes hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations different from dreams is that they tend to lack a story. Moreover the hallucinations may vary. People could experience a physical feeling, a smell, a sound, or quite frequently an image or sight.

 The image could be a simple line, dot, pattern, or it could be a full person, animal or other. It is important to add that whatever experienced, the perception of something not there can feel very real. Hypnopompic hallucinations might make people bolt out of bed, and then feel very disoriented, or they sometimes create the sensation that the person is paralyzed and cannot move.

 Hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are characterized by their “realness.” They also have a tendency to disrupt sleep. While they might suggest a person has sleep disorder, the hallucinations do not have much to say about the sanity of the person having them.

 In most instances these forms of hallucinations are associated with other sleep disorders, and often particularly with inability to get to sleep. This isn’t always the case. An interesting survey study done in the last decade of the 20th century collected data from a number of people to compare how often people reported hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Data of nearly 5000 respondents showed that quite a few people had had at least one incidence of either of these sleep or waking disturbances.

 As published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, over 12% of the people surveyed experienced hypnopompic hallucinations and close to 40% had had hallucinations when falling asleep at night. A conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that of the two types of hallucinations clearly hypnogogic sensations are more common. Another suggestion made by the authors of the study was that hallucinations occurring just before waking were more likely to happen if people did have a sleep disorder.

 This last conclusion is perhaps important because frequent episodes of hypnopompic hallucinations may suggest poor sleep or sleep disorders that could be remedied. Yet, people may definitely fear discussing this issue with a doctor because they might believe a doctor will look at them askance. As previously mentioned, neither of these types of hallucinations indicates mental instability, and there is plenty of medical literature to back this up. On the other hand, such hallucinations really can suggest poor sleeping habits, and that can be dangerous to health on a number of levels.”

I have written about this before, not sure or can’t remember if I’ve written about it while doing my 750, but as it came up today in a discussion, I figured I’d write it up here. You maybe be thinking that the information above being from a website can’t be true because its from a website called ‘Wise Geek’. Well I’ve looked this up and have seen the same or similar details on other sites, and I’m behooved to agree with it. As someone who has experienced Hypnopompic hallucinations.

So from my point of view, what are Hypnopompic hallucinations. As its happened to me, my mind or brain wakes from REM sleep, but my body hasn’t, its still paralyzed. Our bodies are paralyzed during REM sleep to stop us from enacting our dreams, yes I know its doesn’t quiet work for everyone, I wake up but can’t move, can’t even open my eyes, then I’d get a ‘feeling’ that there is someone in the room with me, this feeling can be anything, remember its your subconscious mind at work, sometimes the image or feeling is vague other times its detailed. The first time I can remember in recent memory, it was a woman, she said my name but she was vague I details at all, the last time, I ‘felt’ a woman standing by my bedroom door, she was standing with her body facing the opposite wall but her head was looking towards me, she was dressed all in white, like a long dress, her hair was vague, blond I think shoulder length, she walked around my bed, remember this is all just a feeling, my eyes are closed because I can’t open them, the bent down, her feet were staggered a bit, she bent her knee a little and placed her hands on her thighs, she bent down closer to me the simply said, in a soft non-threatening voice “Go” thats when I woke up. Other times I’ve not heard anything and sometimes its a voice I recognize. The problem is, the feeling of being trapped, you can’t move and you have a ‘feeling’ that someone is in the rom with you can bring on feelings of dread and fear, and this will only get worse the longer your there. No matter how hard you try to move, you can’t, the move you try the more you dread being there, you feel like this presence is going to hurt you.

 I always saw this as just a bad dream, because the presence could never be real, I don’t believe in ghosts and spirits, and would never look at it in that way, so I always thought they were dreams. What someone told me I might have Sleep Paralysis I looked it up and discovered Hypnogogic and Hypnopompic sleep, and that you can hallucinate. Once I started to read about both I was reminded of many occurrences from my childhood and of course these latest events. So now I had a name for what was really happening. It wasn’t some kind of spirit or ghost, it wasn’t a dream, it was very real, in my mind anyway, I was awake when it happened and my body was truly paralyzed.

 Since learning about this, I’ve tried to induce it, with no success. I haven’t had it since then, February I think, and the reason I think it hasn’t come back is because I no longer have irregular sleep, its the one thing that changed, I get plenty of sleep and its as regular as a clock, as I always wake up at about the same time each and every day, give or take 10 minutes or so. Its so regular that I don’t feel like I’ve had a good nights sleep until I wake around that time no matter what time I go to bed, if I go to bed a few hours earlier I just get a few hours more sleep, but the out come is always the same, if I wake a few hours earlier then “Normal” I feel tired still, if I wake around that time, I’m fine and can jump out of bed wide awake.

 I can create all the causes of Hypnopompic sleep, irregular sleep, alcohol, sleeping in the supine position. But I can’t create the levels of stress or predict a lucid dream. Or I’d be having these hallucination more often. 

Living in a fantasy Land. 750 Words Friday, 26 August 2011

I Haz Camera

My opinion on the more, for lack of a better word, Popular Youtubers, and what they are doing wrong.

 Reading an interview with an Editor in _'The Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook'_ and i came across a paragraph which i think is something that all Youtubers need to read and listen to, I see so many bad videos (Not films) being put on Youtube and most of them have the same problems, the most important are story and characters. But another fundamental problem is this, they live in a fantasy land;

 Page 170 Paragraph 5.

_"Editorial mistakes that i see often are that films are too long. They haven't screened the film enough times, or only screened to people who have an emotional connection to the project or the director, so they will never give honest feedback on whats is and what isn't working. The Director will be living in a fantasy world where they think that their film is better than it actually is"_

I see this so often on Youtube, especially the Tier 1 tubers. Sure its only Youtube and it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but these guys put so much time and effort into making something that they truly believe is great. But if you try to tell these people what you think is wrong with the video, you get branded a hater and they fail to recognise what you were trying to say. Sure they get tons of hater comments, but haters and trolls never usually give specifics of what is wrong, they just say it was shit, they never mention things like pace, bad edits or poor dialogue and delivery, so any helpful feedback is ignored.

 They have the technology, the Canon 5D's or 7D's. The have all the peripherals for their cameras, viewfinders or monitors, shoulder mounts and such, they edit on Mac Pros using Final Cut Pro 7 or X. They have great equipment and they have the resources they need to make videos (Not Films) but they all lack a basic understanding of good story telling, dialogue that flows and the basic editing needs of any project.

 The ones that don't seem to have this problem are those that have actually worked, in some capacity, in the industry. Like Cory Williams (Mr Safety) and Freddie Wong (FreddieW) but the rest, i guess as they all help each other and preview each others work they can't or won't tell themselves what doesn't work, maybe through the fear of straining a friendship. But all this means is, they don't learn to make better videos (Not Films), they move forward under the impression that their last video was brilliant. They never learn form their past mistakes because they don't seem to understand when they make them, because no one is telling them or they can't hear them over the haters and trolls. And so they continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

 And at some point their work, which they hold so dear, will become stagnant and repetitive. If it hasn't already. Personally i would love to help these people make better videos (Not Films) and i try to, but i'm always branded a hater when i do.

 So thats it, I finally had something worth, well I thought it was worth it, only hope some of them get to read it and understand it, I mean actually understand it. I’m not sitting here typing out hater comments because I think they make shit and post it on Youtube, I would seriously love to help these people, I really would. But they would have to accept what I say was feedback and not hate, if I say that I scene ran to long or the dialogue wasn’t very good and that it felt forced then then so be it, they can then choose to listen to me or ignore me, either way I’m giving them something to think about and hopefully they will make sure that next time they recognize something early on and fix it. Everyone on Youtube can edit these days, but that doesn’t make them good editors, everyone on youtube and make a video with a narrative, but that doesn’t make them good film makers, anyone can tell a story, but that doesn’t make them good story tellers. If you can’t recognize your mistakes, you can help yourself to learn and become better at what it is you are doing. You’ll just continue to make the same mistakes.

 Oh and before you chatter on about me thinking I know everything, I’ll let you guys in on a secret that every professional film maker already knows. No one knows everything about film making. No One. Some know more then others, but no one knows everything.

 Let me give an example or this default hater thing. I watched a video on Vimeo yesterday, its basically a skateboard video, pretty good skillz actually. The guy who edited the video added a song, I forget which, but he kept cutting from the HD skateboard footage to VGA quality music video footage which looked like it was pulled from Youtube. And I honestly thought that it ruined the video, the feel was just gone every time it happened. Now this editor had only posted the one video so was most likely just posting it everywhere he could for free. I mentioned, just like a few others, that the music video footage is a bad idea. And we were all branded haters. Haters for giving actually feedback, I even said that I liked the video and if it wasn’t from the music video clips it would have been better, but no, I’m a hater because I didn’t like it out right.

 It used to be that a hater was someone who simply hated on stuff because they could. But now-a-days even giving out feedback that is not conducive with someone else’s view is hater’ish. First the internet gave everyone a voice. Then the haters used that voice to tell people that what they were doing was shit. Now trying to give helpful feedback is hater’ish.