Week 9 EOC: Things to do

So only a week away from my final presentation and man do I have my work cut out for me. Luckily this past week I really started to do a lot of ground work and start researching and writing out some more sections. I can honestly say that I have been eat sleeping and breathing this business plan for the past week or so. I have always really enjoyed the business side of filmmaking and this past week researching really led me to a point of no return. I finally know what it is going to take for me to merge passion and profession into one. God knows its a ton of work but if I plan on working on films one day and not flipping burgers, there is leg work to be done. This business plan is really helping me think of how to make a living and what steps need to be taken. I only have a few sections here and there along with forms that I need to print out. I will finish this project and it will be impressive. I can't and wont settle for anything less. This business plan has become more of an assignment and more of a next step of my career. Leather binder is prepped and ready for documents! Here comes phase 1.

EOC Week 8: The Producers most important role

There are many types of producers when it comes to movies. Executive, line, associate, the list goes on. But at the end of the day your supervision is key to whatever position you may have. A producers job isn't always the most creative one but it is what helps keep the production afloat. Without your executive producer you would have a hard time finding and managing the budget for your movie. A standard producer is in charge of things like helping find cast and crew along with some other logistical aspects. Line producers are actually on set and make sure that each day runs smoothly and helps coordinate. And then you could have a associate producer who could be a part of everything or nothing at all at the same time. The role of a producer isn't always the most glamorous but in order to make your film happen you better believe that there role is important. When it comes to smaller productions the perfect producer is someone who will find the funds for your film, have a strong direction and knowledge for what needs to be done to make the film, good judgment when hiring cast and crew, and be a great organizer. The producer may not be on the screen but without them you wouldn't be watching anything in the first place.

Week 7 Photo Challenge: Screenplay Cover

Exciting? Probably not. Real? Very much so. Door to Door was a short comedy film that I recently did a couple of months ago. The screenplay ended up being about 11 pages with the short coming in just over 12 minutes long. This was the longest project that I have ever shot and man was I in for it. People backing out, shooting late nights, and a plethora of other challenges came up along the shoot but in the end my team and I pulled it together. I came up with the idea after brainstorming with a couple classmates on a genre and topic. I had never really done a comedy and anything long so I said why not. Superbad was a huge influence when it came to the tone of the film. I wanted to have that teenage, ridiculous night, trying to get the girl type short. I jotted done countless lines, themes, and other ideas in my notebook like I do with everything that I write. For this story in particular I sat down with my cousin and together we basically came up with the order of events and what happens throughout. I'm glad that I had the chance to bounce ideas off someone and write because it took a lot of the pressure off of me. When it came down to actually writing the thing I just opened Celtx and started typing away using my notes. It took all of about 2 full days of writing and refining to get the story where I wanted it. Now when it came down to shooting the short was everything shot for shot as written in the screenplay? No. But it definitely laid the backbone of the story. This was also the first time I had actually gotten to see actors improvise and adapt my script to there own personal interpretation. Some of the things that happened and where said in the heat of the shoot I could have never of come up with sitting in front of my computer typing. But I guess that's all part of the movie magic!

Week 7 EOC: Biggest problem creating business plan

To this point forming my business plan has been a bit of a challenge to me. I love what goes into making a production and planning for one but I never really looked into how to sustain a business doing it as a career.The most challenging thing for me is not so much making the business plan but actually being honest with myself to how I need to mold the company into something that I truly care about and what services I legitimately am good at and take interest in. Breaking my services down line by line and putting a "plan" with a price behind it is kind of a scary thought for some reason for me. Maybe its just the fact that to this point I've always done things on a whim. I have always freelanced and shot my little videos on a whim. But now I'm having to look at this as a business. When will I shoot? How much would I charge for the shoot? What kind of services can I offer? These are all things that I've honestly never really sat down, thought about, researched, and executed a plan for it. But as I develop my plan I have more confidence in my role as a individual in the entertainment industry. Getting everything up and running is going to take some hard work and time. But I'm positive once I finally get this under my belt I will have a new outlook on my career.

Weekl 6 Photo Challenge: Special Effects

This screen capture is from a short film I did awhile back called No Bueno. The film is about a young tagger who winds up in pet cemetery after he runs from the cops. After he tags a headstone of a dog called "Bueno", he begins to hear noises of animals and starts becoming paranoid. From there its all about his escape. You can check it out on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BLC-bjgack. But more on the actual screen shot. I myself am not a huge special effects guy. Partly because that's really not my strong point in film making. I love seeing them but when it comes to low budget filmmaking I feel like often times its better to have a solid story shot in the camera rather then some lavish special effects film that sucks. For this shot though I had a cool idea of while the tagger is doing his thing you see a montage of his painting. One of my favorite ideas was of him tagging the camera and seeing the paint on screen. I had my friend help out with executing it because at the time I had no knowledge of after effects, I just really had the idea. But I'm pretty happy with the way the shot came out. As I get more comfortable with fx I will eventually start incorporating them a little more. Until then story is king and always will be.

Week 6 EOC: How do I see my role starting in the industry?

As I've said before in a previous post I really had a late start in film. I've been watching movies and analyzing them for years but I didn't really get into the nuts and bolts of film making until about a year ago. Audio has always been in my blood, I went to school for years as a guitar player; audio was all I knew. But I believe since I've been in school my love of audio bumped me into video. For me film was really the next logical step in having a career in the entertainment business. As of now my time spent in creating is really all over the place. I write music, play, write screenplays, shoot shorts; I honestly do it all. But when I think about how I see myself starting into the industry I believe I'm really going to have to hone in on one of my skills. To this point I'm willing to bet for the time being I'm going to stick with film. I would like to be able to do enough of my own small projects over time and build a portfolio for myself that eventually other people will want to come to me to work on there projects. I personally prefer telling stories to commercial videos. Can you make money shooting commercials and doing little ads? Absolutely! But that's not necessarily what I want to focus in on. If shooting the next Honda ad is going to give me the chance to work on and fund my next film I would absolutely do it in a heart beat. But you won't find me trying to make a career shooting concerts or Tide ads. I love movies, I want to make movies, and I will find a way to work into the business to do it for a living.

Week 5 Photo Challenge: In the Director's Chair

For this weeks photo challenge I decided to throw myself into the directors chair of Black Swan, one of my favorite films. First I had to figure how I would get myself into a directors chair since I don't really own one. To do that I just found one online and took a picture of myself sitting in a bar stool with a similar pose as if I were sitting in a directors chair. Then I just used some good old cropping and magic wand cutting to get paste myself actually on the chair. From there I did some more tracing to cut myself from the chair background and onto the photo of Black Swan. I then used a couple of different filters to try and match the photos colors and style. That consisted of curves, blurs, desaturation, and adjusting my actual size in relation to where I was. All in all this was a really fun assignment and kind of reminded me where my photoshop skills are. I'll definitely be brushing up in the near future. But man can I picture myself in that chair one day!

Week 4 Photo Challenge: Original Move Poster

This is a short film that I wrote a couple of months ago after a group of friends and I had just finished the 48 Hour Film Festival. The idea of the short came up as a second choice for the first short we filmed for the festival. The whole concept was to do this dark musical that really hasn't been done before. The tone that I was going for was very Tim Burton. The screenplay is written along with a bunch of other preproduction work for the short. It was put on hold for the time being but I hope that sometime in the future I can get around to it and shoot it. I planned it out to be around 15 minutes long making it one of the longest projects that I have ever attempted to work on. Three songs were to be sung in the musical all with very wide ranges. The best way I could put the sound and look was Trent Reznor meets Edgar Allen Poe. (Side note I tweeted that and Trent Reznor actually retweeted it!) But anyways I hope to get it filmed and off the ground sometime soon. Until then it will sit with the other stacks of screenplays.

Week 3 Photo Challenge: Storyboard for a commercial

Here is a example of a storyboard that I recently did for a commercial that I plan on shooting some time this week. The ad is for the sunglasses company RayBan. I used there Wayfarer model for the campaign since it is easily there most recognizable pair of glass's. I am going for a very rough feel for the tone of the commercial. I was inspired by the movie Drive for the look and style of the ad which lead me to pick the song Tick of the Clock by The Chromatics for the music in the back. The shots are going to be very slow and dramatic pulling all of the attention to the glasses but allowing you to see the person in action wearing them. I chose people in motion doing something exciting because that's the feeling that a lot of people get when wearing RayBans. They are more than sunglasses, they have become a huge part of pop culture and can be seen throughout the better half of the last century worn by some of the most talented and famous people. I wanted to take that history and combine it with the every day person. The one who walks to get where they need to be, rides there bike, drives there car, and cruises on there skateboard. Its for everyday people in motion. I hope when someone sees the commercial it will evoke a feeling of drive and passion in somebody. Everybody moves, but something is different when you move with RayBans.

Week 3 EOC: Where are you now and where are you going?

After 3 years of college I find myself in a interesting place between audio and video. My entire life I've only been focused on music. Recording, playing, mixing, its what I've done since I became a musician. I went to college solely focused on this one thing. But after meeting people and working on different projects I became very interested in video. Before college I had never even picked up a camera with the thought of trying to tell a story. I bought my first camera a year ago and since then everything has changed. I'm constantly in between projects and if something music or audio based pops up I grab it. But at the same time I find myself writing screenplays and shooting shorts. I work part time with a live event company doing everything from djing to stage setups which I think lends to my knack of doing a lot of different things. Eventually I see myself much more focused on video productions. I would like to build a name for myself as a director and have the opportunity to work on productions that I have creative direction of. I don't want to single myself out so I will continue to do video and audio both as jobs arise. In the end though I would like to end up in California working on both films and with bands. I know I have the capabilities to do both so why not!

Week 2 EOC: Get Some Copyright Law Under Your Belt

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
This website, which has been up and running since 1996, is filled with many different pages all with information pertaining to copyright laws and regulations. The webpage is updated pretty regularly with new stories and examples of practices. Actual attorneys and professors are used for insight giving a balanced view and opinion about certain topics.

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
This page is filled with a good amount of quick and dirty questions/ myths that may have been lurking in your head about copyright. The explanations are very simple and they don't try to through the legal jargon book at you. For someone looking for a couple of quick tips and popular questions this is a good site.

http://filmmakeriq.com/category/screenwriting/protecting-your-work/
While only a subcategory to this massive online filmmaking community, this webpage is loaded with great content. Often pooling top stories from around the internet it gives you some of the most entertaining and useful information that I have come across. For someone looking for specific examples of copyright in action this is a great page.

Week 2 Photo Challenge: Professional Photo of you working

This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago during a recording a few friends of mine did here in the studio at A.I. My friend wanted to do a live acoustic cover of a song for her demo reel and asked me to be the studio musician for the track. We went back and forth on bands to cover before we finally decided to use Muses song Time is Running Out. We broke down the recording into four main tracks. One is the acoustic guitar playing rhythm. One is another acoustic playing lead. One is the bass which follows the rhythm guitar and the final track was of the Cajon. My Cajon is one of my favorite instruments that I own. Its a small wooden percussion box that can give out a lot of different sounds depending on how you hit it. So we tracked out the entire session in protools and knocked it out in a couple of hours. For instruments and mics we used a Taylor acoustic and a Fender Precession bass. My Cajon was made by Meinl. An sm 57, beta 52, rode nt5's and a pair of earthwork mic were used for the entire recording. My friend did one mix of the session which she made very rock/electric sounding compared to the current mix I'm currently working on which is a lot more natural and organic sounding. I plan on putting the recording up soon for listening. At the end of the day though I couldn't be happier with how the recording went.

Week 1 EOC: What sacrifices are you willing to make for your Career?

I have always been a very passionate person when it comes to doing what I love. Music, art, film, I've always done whatever it takes to get the job done. When I think about making sacrifices to be where I want to be I can't think of too many things I wouldn't do. Taking up a career in the arts I've already told myself how hard of a life it can be at times. The starving artist saying can never be more true at times. On the other side of things I must say that when you finally do get to taste the accomplishments of your hard work in this industry it is bar none one of the best feelings in the world. At the moment in my life I don't really have anything tying me down. No kids, no wife, no mortgage, no crazy bills period. So when it comes to "responsibilities", I haven't really built too many around myself that can complicate things. I would love to travel and moving around for work I would really enjoy. I've spent most of my life growing up in Vegas so getting a chance to travel and visit other places would be no problem. I see the future as full of opportunities and because of how pretty open my life is right now I would honestly take a bigger chance on things then most people would. Live in a tiny apartment, ride the bus, top ramen for breakfast, working late nights, sign me up. If that's what it takes to get there I'm more then ready for the ride.

Week 1 Photo Challenge: Animation Festival Project

For this first post I decided to do a noiresque type piece. just a simple short in black and white that plays off of the stereotypical things you would see in a noir film. Narrations, suits and hats, along with the picture being very still and having a isolated feel. I knew I wanted to do a comedy but not some slapstick buddy comedy. I ended up making almost the entire piece feel like it was a drama but at the last minute threw the curve ball in and made it into something completely left field which I think helps make it pretty funny. This was my first time working with the website xtranormal but I found that it was pretty fun. I've seen plenty of these videos around the web but I always figured people made them from scratch. The whole interface was pretty easy to navigate and made telling a quick story pretty fun. I think for somebody who has great ideas and stories this is a good way to visualize in a sense what it would look like on screen. I kind of see it as a storyboard of sorts. The site is easy enough to bang out a few scenes here and there to get an idea of what the interaction could look like. Of course the actual speech is going to be drastically different since the playback for all of them sounds like a robot of sorts. That would be my main downfall for this site. The robotic playback of script is also probably what makes this site used for more comedy than anything because its hard to take a conversation serious when you sound like R2-D2.