Failure to Launch

So my movie is now complete, but I have to finish the interview and the slide show. We had our film festival Monday night and everything went wrong for me starting Monday morning, from me getting sick to my mother being admitted into the hospital, to my appointments being canceled after I already arrived to the places I was supposed to be. Then I found out my film didn't make it into the film festival, and that just made things worse. Maybe I'll have better luck somewhere else.

Anyway, I give you the final copy of "Puzzle to My Heart". You might want to turn your volume all the way up. YouTube messed up the sound levels.

Pushing My Luck

I'm hoping to shoot the final shots I need on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. I'll bring the hoodies to have Julia and Jimmy wear and then get a camera from the school, along with a digital camera to take photos with.

I decided that I would lay my old interview over photographs and stills from the footage I already shot and will shoot in the near future. This way I won't have to redo the interview and will have very little work left to do.

I still need to finish editing the footage I already shot, but I'm starting to think that I won't finish in time for the film festival. True, it's about three weeks away, but I'm nervous. I should probably edit tomorrow after my history class until I have to work, and make a list of the things I need to shoot still. That way I'll know for sure what's left to do.

For now, I might as well go out and buy my own Rubik's cube because I won't be able to borrow Jane's before Tuesday. Maybe I'll have the two actors pose in Delaware Park, where we're shooting, with books instead of a Rubik's cube and a book.

And don't get me started on the DVD stuff. I haven't even thought about compression and design or anything. I totally forgot how to do the compression of the movies, and the music I have I haven't even imported yet into Final Cut Pro. Sooo much work. Sooo little time.

And no credits, done, either.

Some Things to Consider

I was hoping I wouldn't need to shoot much for my second day of shooting, but I'm thinking I might do the three shots I need of outside and then do a photoshoot and stage the shots, which means I'll need the uniforms back from the library that I borrowed. I also need to reshoot some of the book footage I originally shot because I'm not happy with it, and I might have to reshoot a few book scenes with Cassandra with better lighting.

I need to shoot my interview because the one I did on the spot while shooting Saturday was terrible and I don't like anything that I said. I should probably interview the cast as well, but I am terrible at asking questions so I'll probably stick to the very basics, such as, "What was your favorite scene to shoot?" and "How did you enjoy acting in this role?"

Julia was really good at interviewing us, and she asked a lot of good questions so maybe I'll ask her to help me come up with a list of interview questions.

I still need to find music for the movie's introduction and conclusion, and I'm running out of time. It seems that all the people I've talked to about making music are either busy or uninterested, which is quite surprising since most people would jump at the opportunity to have their music featured in a movie.

And also, I need to take photos for the background of my DVD menu, the cover of the DVD and DVD case, and some photos for the bio pages and if I decide to make them, other sub-menu pages. My professor showed us how to make DVD menus and whatnot so hopefully I can make something really cool. Obviously my movie has to do with puzzles, love, and books, so I need to come up with something coherent and entertaining that will get the message across. I was already thinking of doing the Rubik's Cube footage as a background for the main menu, unless I get the shot I really want of Cassandra and Simon overlooking a bridge with a Rubik's Cube in Cassandra's hands and a book in Simon's.

First Day of Shooting: A Success!

I just got back from today's shoot and while we ran into several problems (broken tripod, forgotten lines, patron interruptions, accidental pressing of buttons that influence received light), it was overall a major success. We shot about ninety-nine percent of what I had planned in the storyboards.

Due to the weather being crappy, we couldn't shoot outside at Delaware Park because the swings weren't up, and it was fairly dark and cloudy and too many people were outside to shoot the flowers scene.

I also realized that I can't have the guy who plays Simon play the person who pops up in Cassandra's thoughts after each clue, so I'll need to find someone else to go through the motions of the three short scenes.

The quality of the camerawork isn't as good as I'd have liked, but I believe I grew from the experience. Joe, unfortunately, had to work today, which is why I was stuck doing the camerawork, but Ryan (actor who played Nick) and Julia (actress who played Cassandra) alternated with me to get the sound recorded correctly.

We had a few instances where the microphone wasn't turned on and we had to reshoot three scenes due to bad audio and poor lighting. It took me about an hour to figure out how to use the camera in the first place, and we didn't start shooting until about ten, but we finished around two.

The opening credits I shot last night, and they're beautiful. I just hope my other credits and my actual footage isn't awful, 'cause we spent a lot of time working on scenes and I really would be upset if the quality isn't as good onscreen as it was on the camera.

As I see it, I'll rent the equipment for a Monday or Tuesday afternoon in April, when the weather is nicer, and I'll shoot the final scenes then.

As for editing, I booked the editing suite at school for Monday night from four to six, though I'll stay until about nine to see how much I can get edited. I need to download the music from No Time to Think's website (their permission has already been given) and move the songs to either a jump drive or e-mail them to myself. I also need to find some more music to use for the introduction and/or conclusion credits.

Production Date

So I am officially filming on Saturday the 12th of March. However, my first actor who wanted to be Simon said he can no longer be in the movie because of his commitment to the school play. I can't reschedule the date so I just recast his character and gave the position to the person who wanted to play Nick, the secondary character, and found a replacement for Nick. The guy I chose to play Nick has a very similar personality to the character so I believe it shouldn't be too difficult for him to remember his lines or physically perform.

The First Problematic Encounter

So I ran into my first real problem for this project. My artist friend and I had a falling out after she completed the first sketch of the storyboard. What I learned after we fought was that her cat had passed away, but that still doesn't excuse the way she spoke to me and treated me when I didn't know what had taken place. Before I knew of the death, I asked her when she thought she would be done with the final version of the storyboard and she freaked out because she had been skipping her other classes due to depression at the loss of her cat.

Therefore, I will be finishing the storyboard myself. I will cut out each frame, place six of them together on a page, and copy them. Now, she drew the initial sketches on tracing paper so I'll need to lay a thicker page or a solid white piece of paper over the back of each sketch so each frame comes out when I'm done copying it.

With roughly seventy to eighty frames, I have my work cut out for me. But I will do my best to get this storyboard completed. I will still give her credit for doing the storyboard but because she didn't finish it or put in specific details, I'll probably have to add my name to the credits as well for the work that I'll do. Hopefully the next post will contain some pictures of the storyboard, or segments of it. Her work truly is amazing. It's just too bad she won't be a part of the team anymore because we share a similar aesthetic preference and she would have been an incredible, helpful co-director.