Okay, well, that sort of went well.
Everything shapes up quite nicely in the beginning, with everybody showing up and taking along what they needed. We went to the one location, picked up all the required things from there, and then went down to the store to buy the other required things (plus a bottle of vinegar and two packs of cigarettes. My film partner was out of smokes, and didn't manage to find his wallet in time for us to take off).
We got to the film location, scouted out where we were going to film the first scene, and started rolling.
It was really, really cold.
This was an old abandoned house, naturally quite drafty thanks to doors that couldn't close all the way, not to mention windows that looked like the neighbourhood brat had smeared C4 on the panes and then detonated it. We were filming in a little room that had a lovely view of the countryside provided by just such an obliterated window.
My costume consisted of a 1930's-style cotton undershirt, jeans, and a pair of nondescript leather shoes. The undershirt was unbuttoned down the front of my chest. And, being a lost soul, I had to spend a significant amount of time standing perfectly still and staring off into space.
It was cold.
Filming went quite smoothly for that first scene, hit a couple very minor snags as we progressed into the unknown (trying to figure out camera angles, actor movements, and filming location on the spot is not a particularly glorious thing to do), and then went along relatively smoothly as we passed from dream sequences #2 and #4, and brought out the other actors for dream sequence #5 (which technically isn't a dream sequence, but that takes too long to describe properly so you can technically bugger off). We began filming for a little bit, did a number on one of the costumes as the lead female role got roughed up and tossed around a bit, and then we discovered a delightful little mistake we had made.
The story essentially centers around one particular room in this house. Dream sequences #2, #4 and #5 all take place outside the door to this room, and dream sequence #6 ends at the same spot.
Well, we had made quite a few on-the-spot decisions as to where we would be filming the various scenes, trying desperately to find which rooms worked best for that particular scene. Well, we had made the slight mistake of not filming in the same place each time.
We now have a door that leads to two different rooms. That's pretty freaky stuff right there.
But as it turns out, we didn't manage to get all the filming we needed in one go. It was quarter to five when we were trying to crank out dream sequence #5, and the sun was starting to get pretty low in the sky. We need that sun, since the place lacks all electricity required to power an artificial light source. This is an indescribable pain in the ass.
We're going to have to go back and finish up the filming anyways, and since we're going there again I might as well bring up the continuity issue as an excuse to redo those first two scenes (which, quite frankly, was composed of cramped shots and crappy maneuvering). Unfortunately, that means I'll have to stand still in light clothing again.
But y'know, I'd rather be cold for two hours than be unsatisfied for three months.
The only mildly disappointing thing about this is that I managed a rather creepy stare during one of the takes. I'll just have to try and do it again.
When we decided to leave the location and head home due to light deficiency, we had some minor problems that were not exactly related to the film. Namely, the bus we had been using had melted the snow underneath it and was sitting in a lovely little ditch of frigid water that it couldn't get out of due to the piles of snow right under the tires.
Introduce improvised plank-shoveling and synchronized minibus pushing to our list of activities for the day.
So, anyways, we spent the whole day filming in a pseudo-professional manner. What we got was a little over thirty-four minutes of footage, about five to ten minutes of which will make it into the finished film.
We've been remarkably productive, I must say. What bites me right now is the fact that we're going to spend ten to fifteen hours editing the stuff into something usable.
We've already gone over the deadline for our film project. Twice, actually. We currently have nothing to show for it aside from the raw footage (which, without the aid of color filters and musical scores, is donkey excrement). As such, I kinda feel like making a trailer for the damn thing, just to prove that we are indeed doing something.
We were assigned the task of making a ten-minute film. We have pretty much ignored that completely and gone off to do our own goddamn thing, thank you very much. Personally, I'm impressed. I don't think the teachers will be, though.
What I do find kinda funny though is that the other groups (both of whom are still not finished, which means that they both missed just as many deadlines as we have) are riding the time extensions that we ask for, while never saying that yes, it would be nice if they could also have a little extra time. Hell, the blighters even boast about how much farther ahead they are.
They are quite a bit ahead, no doubt about that. But they still haven't finished yet. Bloody freeloaders...
So, yeah. Need to film some more. Also need to edit in ways that will leave me drained in ways a sick man does not want to be drained. I supposed a person could find several different meanings in that last sentence, but I will leave that up to the reader to define.
Woohoo, Film and TV... Hey, at least we managed to bugger off from principal's hour. That kinda makes it all worthwhile, really. I wonder if we need to schedule some heavy-duty filming next Wednesday... Hey, it could happen.
Anyways, cheers y'all. It's quarter to midnight, and I have so many things I would like to do right now it's annoying. I really want to sleep (more importantly, I don't want to wake up tired. Again. Again-again.), but I've also got three different games I recently downloaded that I want to play, not to mention starting up a new character or two in Dungeon Crawl or blasting a few hundred zombies in SCZ.
Bleh... Can't wait 'til the weekend...
Oh, speaking of the weekend, music's student night is on Saturday. They've been crunching rather significantly this past week, which means they are spending considerably more time on preparing than we did. Should be fun. The only hitch is that they've asked everyone to dress as a known artist. The problem with that is that I don't have any known artists that I could dress up as. No, I am not going as David Bowie. I told you, my hair's too long. And I'm not cutting it, dammit. I don't care how many people come up to me and say "Hmm, I really wonder what you would look like with short(er) hair", I'm not trimming the bleedin' stuff until I damned well feel like it.
One thing is getting that line from your mother, it's another thing entirely getting the exact same statement from schoolmates. Schoolmates who have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and are thus stating completely unrelated opinions.
Now, where was I? Ah, yeah, dressing up as a musician. I briefly considered going as a Blues Brother, but then I thought about the possibility of going as myself (remember that boy/girl party with the death metal music video? I've still got all the clothes (that is to say, lack thereof) for that costume). Might be fun. Might also be damn cold, not to mention a joke that nobody gets.
Meh. I've also got a singing and voice usage seminar on Saturday, something a sick man with severely stuffed sinuses does not often look forward to. On second thought, maybe I can wait until the weekend...
Right, that's enough yammering. I've sufficiently worded this digital location for the time being. As such, I bid you all a good night. I was about to say "and good luck", but that would've caused me to mention the black cat which started to cross out path when were driving out to the film location, but then changed its mind and went back the other way. I also would've mentioned that this was interpreted as meaning that a great catastrophe would happen, but everything would turn out alright.
But I didn't say that, so I didn't have to start mentioning it, thus extended this already over-extended post. So there. Ha.
Gonna shut up now.
Author
Topic: Sandy Fjord (Read 96335 times)