During a recent trip to Berlin I got the chance to see some of Berlin’s many abandoned houses. Bringing all my gear I had the wish for doing some sound recordings as well, but well inside the building I felt a bit uncomfortable rigging everything (due to the people living there), so I did some “Mit out Sound” filming instead.
I really recommend watching it in HD (here) and with sound (despite the title).
Found some interesting information about the mini-movie-method, regarding screenwriting. I’m in the middle of writing at the moment, but will come back to these theories later on together with some book reviews on screenwriting books that I have read.
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Created in 3D Studio Max 99
Abstract: If you wan’t to be hardcore, learn Maya. If you want to create, use 3d Studio Max. If you have a mac book air and wan’t a great 3D program for free, download Blender.
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Before writing any screenplay a good thing is to test your idea with a LOGLINE. A logline is a short synopsis written in about 25 words about your story. This is my attempt a while ago at logline.it
At logline.it you can submit your logline and get feedback from others like you! There are also some “judges” that usually give very good feedback both about language and story. Comments usually mention already made films with similar story that you might not have seen which prevents you write a movie that is already made.
I just like playing with ideas, and I usually give some feedback back to others.
Here’s some rules (guidelines) when writing loglines given by “sharkeatingman”, one of the judges.
L = Lead. This is your protagonist. Unless they are famous and are a household name, do NOT use their name in the logline. Always use one or two perfectly descriptive adjectives when describing your lead.
O = Obstacles. What is preventing your protag from achieving his goal? Speaking of goals…
G = Goals. What are the protag’s goal/goals?
L = Lose. What does your protag stand to lose if he/she fails to accomplish their goal? Also referred to as “stakes”.
I = Irony. It helps a logline to include irony, as it more clearly defines a conflict. A sheriff of a coastal town who is afraid of water; a heart-broken wedding singer; a garbage collector who is a compulsive clean-freak.
N = New and Unique. This is your “hook”. What is it about YOUR story that is different from all of the others in that genre? You MUST have a hook (most important).
E = Enemy. For every protagonist, there is an ANTAGONIST. Use perfectly descriptive adjectives to define your antag. The enemy MUST BE a specific person. It cannot be “the military” or “the government”. A person was properly represent that entity.
Before throwing away all large proxy-files and 100s of project files I decided to make a VFX-breakdown on my short. As said before, being only one person I had to do quite complicated VFX for a follow shot that would have been pretty simple to do otherwise.
Ok, I’m not a composer nor a musician and I can’t read notes, but I play some piano sometimes. As a Mac owner I also have access to the free music program called GarageBand within OS X. The fact is that you can make quite ok music with this software, and as an independent film maker this is good if you ever want to score your film without expensive music rights (damn copyright laws). However, there are some tweaks that I found out that may improve your music if you haven’t used them..
Now the film has been accepted to the Dragon Award! Take a look and vote if you like it :)
Cheers
YEAH!
I have now finished filming/editing everything for my 3 minute (2:46) short, all completely made by one person!
The film can be seen at Dragon Awards. Look at it and vote if you like it :)
RED SCARLET XL light weight collection for about 17 000 USD.
Since it’s Christmas and all I decided to set up a wish list of things I would need in future projects. Of course I need a RED SCARLET 4.5K camera with accessories. This camera is what the big guys use to shoot film (The Hobbit, The social Network, Prometheus), but to be realistic, I’ll buy that myself whenever I can afford it. Also, I wouldn’t have the CPU power to handle that footage on my Mac Book Air anyway ;)
Rather, my next upgrade will regard the audio.
At the moment I’m recording all sounds with my TASCAM-DR05 recorder, which does quite a good job, but the recorder is not directional, which means, it picks up sound all around it. That makes production dialogue (the dialogue that recorded on the actual set) hard to record without ambience noise.
Mic Kit:
Røde NTG-3 shotgun mic
To be able to pick up professional sound during filming
Boom pole
The Røde mini boom pole at 2.1 m is good for getting the mic close to the subject.
Deadcat (Not a Dead cat, please):
This furry thing is a must have around the mic when recording outside. The deadcat eliminates any wind-noise without removing the higher frequencies. I have a deadcat for my TASCAM that I bought for 10$ from eBay, and that’s magic against the wind!
Also I need some new socks, a pair of gloves and some new shoes… any donations to any of above would also be appreciated :)
Merry Christmas!
