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.

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. 

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.

All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. 750 Words Monday, 22 August 2011.

Closer

Well its Sunday again.

I wrote an outline for another two shorts. I’ll start printing them off and get started on re-writes. I want to write more about the stories themselves but I don’t want to put anything out there thats to revealing not until I’ve either made them decided that I can’t make them or come to a realization that I’ll never make them. Either way I still need to re-write them all.

I think I’l try to stay away form the writing thing for the rest of this post, because thats all I’ve talked about all week.

So, what have you been up to today, anything interesting?

Ah cool. That is interesting.

So anyway.

 I’ve written 8 short film scripts this week and tons of treatments/outlines I’m a good boy.

 Sorry about that I couldn’t stop myself, I really need to get back to the gym, seriously I feel like I’ll getting weaker. I love my Gym, its a great place to stare at myself and pose for 30 minutes straight. Ok that was a lie, its not really 30 minutes. More like 25 but who’s counting right :D

 Craving Fish ‘n’ chips

 Lazy - Deep Purple just started. I like this riff.

 Struggling to write stuff.

 Christwire.org is fucking hilarious get over there and look around. If your sane, have read a book that doesn’t centre around your invisible friend, have half a brain or have had sex have at least a 5th grade education you’ll love this place its filled me with such joy over the last 30 minutes or so. The site itself is backwards and the people that comment there actually believe everything it says, because they are all mostly backward bible bashing fun haters, but there are sooo cute and funny to read. You can’t read an article or a comment with out wanting to put just a little fact in there. One dude actually say, “We discovered AIDS 5 years ago” he must have been so proud. OF course the rest of the world has known since 1981. Which if you’ll permit me to say, was 30 years ago. So Science has known about the AIDS virus for 30 years, where as the Church only found out 5 years back. And people say they need to live in the now, in the present. I bet these same people think the world is only 6000 years old. Maybe thats there logic here. They realised that they need to bring the date forwards because of the way that calculate the passage of time.

 Anyway, its a site that needs to be seen to be believed.

 Now I have nothing else to write about :(

 Okay I just found out that Christwire is a satirical website, but still hours of fun and putting the world to rights ;P

Was playing about on Vimeo again, joining groups and adding my videos, I want to get noticed. My stuff isn’t great but I hope to be adding some good stuff soon.

 Birds singing outside my window. Sounds nice.

 Anyway, There are time when the view outside my window is quiet nice, just before the sun sets, I can’t see the sun, its on the other side of the house, but its light looks great on the sky and the building I can see. It looks nice.

 So yea I hope to be adding more films, and I use the word FILM properly. I may go to a local acting school to fine “talent”. Am-Drams might be worth a try I guess.

 And I think I need to reorganize anything on my computer, and on my external drives, for back ups. Everything seems to be everywhere and all over the place. Its annoying. Things need to be easier. I like easy.

 I need to make a film soon, real soon.

 Okay now I’m just trying to make up the 750 words thing. And I’m a little under 100 to go so.

 All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. All work and no play make Jason a dull boy. 

More film stuff, again. 750 Words Sunday, 21 August 2011.

I shaved

So, today (Saturday) I write these a day early. And if you just asked why, I just do okay, deal with it. So today I looked at an outline for a short film and I thought I might need to cut it down and simplify it a bit. As it turns out I didn’t.

 So I did what I’ve been doing all week, I turn on iTunes and clicked on the Classic Rock playlist where I have housed my Led Zeppelin and recently purchased Deep Purple albums, grants I only have one Deep Purple album and a best of Led Zeppelin album, I hit play and started to write the screenplay. Of course making sure shuffle was selected. And so I write.

 Every now and then I would just save my work and get up, go down stairs and make a cup of tea, and as my sister, on her weekend visits, brought her two pups down as well, so I would sit down stairs and play with them a little for a bit. I guess to waste time or think about where the script was and where it was going.

 It was around that time I remembered that I have another best of album in iTunes, ‘The Who’, so once back up stairs I threw that double album into the classic rock playlist making 83 tracks of mid 60’s to early 70’s classic rock. Its a good playlist.

 Having a new set of music added to the magical mojo playlist, I started up writing again, and every now and then I would take a break pop down stairs and play with the pups and make a new cuppa tea. Go back up stairs and write some more. I did this routine a few more time. Maybe 6 times in all.

 And after 4 hours of classic rock I had finished the short film script, 12 pages of it. Ok its not “finished” its in a rough draft, need a little bit of work, but I think it’ll be fine.

 I can’t remember a time when I wrote for so long and kept the quality of writing up the whole time, like the rest of this week, I think it’s been the breaks, I’ve usually just gotten my head down and typed until I couldn’t type anymore and I’ve always noticed a significant drop in quality which has alway meant that I’d have to go back and retype it, always a pain to do. So my mantra for writing is now to break often, get a cuppa tea and where possible, play with puppies. I’m so confident I think I could take that script out now and shoot it with out much trouble. But I won’t. Or can’t. Yet.

 So now I’m at 8 scripts in a week, I started last Sunday and since then I’ve written something every day, weather it be a treatment an outline or the script I’ve written something and that is key to everything. Even if its just this 750 exercise, its something written, keeps the skills sharp so to speak/type.

 I just took a comedy break, I have Comedy Central on the tele and it was distracting me, but instead of turning it off I figured I’d just watch it.

 I now have a total of 15 ideas for short films, some I might not be able to do, or even get them to work, but I’ll just move forward, I added another idea today, its a VFX video rathe rather then a short film, but lets face it, if you can’t have fun doing this then why bother doing it. So I would like to make a few video that are just for shits and giggles, no story or plot just visual effects on a grand scope, and a little ridicules. I think only making short films with a message or for recognition would get tiresome after awhile, so taking a break to make something silly and fun is needed for someone like me, if I can’t have fun with it then I don’t want to do it.

Something else I realised today, and that is that when I watch videos and films on Vimeo I get inspired, even if its a video on BMX bikes or skateboards I still feel the need to shot something that likes that good. Vimeo for me equals inspiration. And Youtube, not so much, I watch videos on Youtube, made by the tier 1 tubers and all I feel is sick, all those resources and nothing to show for it, I doesn’t inspire me at all. And as there are people on Youtube uploading great content, but not getting the recognition they deserve because the tier 1’s always do the same thing, and that is, at the end of their uninspired poorly presented badly acted diarrhea ridden dialogued videos, they do a ‘talk to camera’ section where they say how happy they are that you watched their utterly putrid pile of insect infested bile they also ask you, or their “fans” to like, favorite and comment “and lets see if we can get this video to the featured section”, I mean they have enough viewers that that will most likely happen anyway, it might take a day longer, but it will happen eventually. The way I see it, there are videos out there that deserve to be on the featured page far more then their dog vomit, but because they ask you to do all that crap their video might and I’m guessing does, push the better videos out of sight, so they never get seen. That is criminal. But I guess we can all live in the hope that at some point the tier 1 tubers will slowly disappear from the front pages allowing new, more inspiring video to shine through the mist of youtuber bullshit. My message to them, you’re already the most popular people on youtube, mostly because you were there in the beginning, so if you see a video on youtube from someone not very popular, and you love the video or the film, tell people, promote that video, give these people the opportunity to shine. Or maybe the reason you guys don’t do that, is because you don’t want better people with better material pushing you off the front page. You game the system because your in a position to, and to those that aren’t, I guess its tough shit. You say that you youtubers are all one big family, so act like it, or is it that the younger or better looking or better film makers in your extended family are basically the competition in a race, a marathon where they might be fitter then you and be able to run faster and longer then you, but don’t have mopeds like you.

 Congratulations, your stunting the content on your beloved Youtube to shit contrived fart jokes, making sure to keep your videos short enough so not to exceed the attention span of your prepubescent viewers.

 The last two paragraphs were for the tier 1 youtubers, the people you see on the features and front pages of youtube every fucking day. And no, I’m not a hater or a troll, I’m a fucking realist. 

A Short. 750 Words Monday, 15 August 2011.

I writed something

So today I finished a rough draft of a short film scripts called ‘The Copy Boy’. I’d only written 5 pages of a possible 10 before and today I thought, I have nothing to do, so why not finish it. Not exactly sure of how much I’d actually write I sat down turned off the TV and turned up my iTunes, I selected the Led Zeppelin playlist and just let it play.

 I opened up the Final Draft file and stared at it for a bit, 5 pages, why did I only get that far. I opened up the treatment file and read through it again, I was half way down the thing. I only wanted this to be a minute minute script, hence a 10 page script, and being 5 pages in already I thought it shouldn’t take to long to finish up.

 I made a cuppa then got to it, I remember stopping before because my brain simply gave out on me and I couldn’t figure out what to write next, this time I just sat there and it started to just pour out of me. This happens a lot by the way, if I leave something long enough.

 I must have wrote 3 pages by the time I figured it would be a good time to have a break, some family had turned up and were downstairs, another excuse to stop for a bit. I had a few cups of tea spoke to them and about an hour later they had left and I was back in front of my Mac writing, checking my treatment then writing more.

 16 pages. The final rough draft is 6 pages longer then I wanted it to be. But thats ok, I could easily shorten the film in post, by tightening up the editing or just removing some parts. I’m actually happy I wrote to much, this gives me more to play with later on.

 All I’d need to film this short is;

A cast of 4 or 5 main players. Two of which are principle cast the others supporting cast. Some extras. Redressed to fill different scenes from different angles. A Taxi, which I’ve done before and isn’t an issue, you just slip the drive a little extra. A bus, I have no idea how this would work, either rent a bus or, as the scene is at night, wait until its really fucking late then ask the driver if we can film stuff quickly. An office, a reception, a copy room. A bar a few quite streets and a flat. A decent camera and simple lighting, a china ball and some fill lights with gels. And a hugh roll of clear plastic sheeting (Don’t ask).

 Of course I still need to play with it a bit, I already know that I need to change a few things and add one or two others. Just to make a point a little more clear for the audience. I usually write scripts from my point of view first, and as I get everything thats going on I usually forget that the audience might not. So the first rewrite is usually to make sure that the audience can understand whats going on. Again, stuff can be removed in post so filming to much doesn’t really matter, I can then make it obvious or subtle in the editing phase.

 Now I’ve written this and finished a rough draft, I’ll print that off in A5 size so its easier to carry around and with a red pen make revisions. And I can start the next one. I think Horror and thriller are most likely going to be the main genres I write, mostly because they are easy and I don’t really need to get in-depth with the emotional content of a character. Happy, sad, scared, afraid, crying, easy. In this script I stayed away from the blood, and the violence is more implied. I think it just worked better for the story.

 If I do happen to come up with a story thats either romance or drama then I’ll write something down, but I doubt I’ll actually be able to write something like that and make it any good and worth watching. I’ll give it a go though, if I came up with something. Don’t hold your breath though my mind usually defaults on horror or thriller.

Of course I need a job and a budget a camera and a new iMac (Not really) but it would be nice. If I get this job, the one I had an interview for on Friday I’ll be doing all the over time I can get. So I want be around much and doing a daily 750 will be harder to get done when I’m working the day shifts, night shifts I can write it at work.