Approaching Completion – 11-7-20

The first take I stood at a slouch to remain eye level. This was a mistake, as I had to repeat the posture for all 20 subsequent takes.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I am not far away from having episode 4 completed. I’ve put together the first working draft of the entire film, start to finish. I’ve gone through the audio and brought the levels up. The pictures are all color graded.

The only items I have yet to edit are:

2 scenes in which I need to adjust the pacing

Creating a blood spatter animation

That’s pretty much it. But I’m trying to go about completion the right way. I am confident that the episode I’ve created is my best work yet and can help propel me to the next level, whatever that is. I plan to send the film to a couple contests, I’m just not sure which ones yet.

I want to get 10,000 views on this video. I know it’s a long shot as episode 3 only amassed 300+. I know that on my own I can get it to 1000. But I’m aiming for 10,000. I had a small cast of 6 people help me with this. They have family members and family who will undoubtedly check the video out. That’s not something I’ve been able to say before.

Beyond the contests, my two other obstacles are

1. Create a method for future supporters to assist in financing the next episode. If I can secure financing of any means, I will be able to create films more frequently. The greatest challenge I presently face is working a shit ton of over time to pay for things. On top of that, I haven’t been able to spend as much time with my girlfriend as I’d like to (I love you babe).
2. Learning after effects. I can’t understate how excited I am that I’ve been able to create 2 shitty animations this week. The program felt like hieroglyphics for me 2 weeks ago.
3. Marketing. I’m going to create a couple of trailers for the film. I’m going to blog regularly. I might even create a twitter account for the web series and invest in advertising.

Ok fan base of 2-10 people. That brings this post to an end. I hope you are all having a good week.

Editing is a nightmare – 3-19-20

If you’re a writer you know the feeling of crushing procrastination. You love your story but there’s a certain roadblock you can’t quite wrap your head around. Why does your antagonist take this action if what he really wants is this? Why doesn’t the protagonist make the reasonable decision to contact the authorities and instead take matters into their own hands? The lists of rock-and-a-hard place choices is endless.

Well I’m finding out swiftly that goes the same for video editing. There are two action sequences in the short I’m editing (if we can even call them that). I already spent my entire Sunday afternoon cleaning up a simple sequence that features me unclasping handcuffs, unlocking a latch, picking up a rifle, and entering a cell room. As the week progressed I moved deeper into the scene where I’ve met my next major sequence obstacles.

My scene partner looks at the piece of jewelry in his hand, continues on with his dialogue, then hurls it into the cell wall and flees the cell. That’s it, it sounds so simple (and maybe it should be) but it’s turned out to be the crux of my scene. We have multiple takes of the same sequence, but none of the pieces seem to fit together. He pulls out and looks at the jewelry at different times. He practically jogs out of the cell after distracting me. And I am slow to flinch and grab for the jewelry.

It amazes me how such a simple action can make my scene look so f*king stupid. You remember The Office, when Michael Scott shows the James Bond type movie to his coworkers and they all laugh at him? Yeah, this is what that feels like. Funny enough, my only goal right now when I make a short is to keep it from looking like some teenagers put it together on one boring afternoon with an Iphone.

Anyways, thought I’d share my bullshit with you before I get off work and try to figure this sucker out. I’m messing around with different editing effects on Adobe pro premiere, such as zoom in/out and slow motion/speed up. Some of them look really good. An issue with slow-mo is I shot at 30 frames per second, when it appears much better if you shoot at 60 fps for that. When I decided to start directing, I made it a goal to let the story come first. I’ve never seen a film where insane visual effects improved the emotional impact of the story, so I’m trying not to get too invested in that aspect of the process. Anyway, thanks for listening to my complaint.

Building a desktop for Video Editing

After purchasing roughly $1000 in camera & microphone equipment, I’ve come to a jarring realization – my current computer is not strong enough to support video editing.

According to desktop documentaries, there are certain spec requirements for fast and efficient editing, capable of 4k:

 

• Memory/RAM: 8-32 GB RAM or as much as you can afford (ideally at least 16GB)
• Processor: Multi-core Intel i5/i7/i9 models (i9 is best). Preferably 4 or more processor cores.
• Storage: At least 256 GB hard drive, 7200 RPM, preferably SSD (fastest)… buy as much as you can afford, you can always add external hard drives.
• Graphics card: Depends on video editing software. For example, Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve do well with both AMD and NVIDIA. (Minimum 2GB memory)
• Operating System: Windows 7 (64 bit edition), Mac OS X, Linux (Your OS will likely determine the editing software you go with)
• Nice size screen – 19-21 inch minimum
• Firewire or Thunderbolt Port built in or as an external dock

I spent the weekend educating myself on computer components and compiled a list of all the accessories I would need to purchase to transform my desktop into a video editing machine. Then I discovered my motherboard is so outdated it will not support any of them, so I might as well build a computer from scratch. I discovered this super helpful video for the low-budget filmmaker and have nearly all of the items “Adam with Tech Dive” recommends waiting in my amazon cart. It will cost me under a thousand dollars but will be capable of doing everything the modern day filmmaker requires. I’m not excited to spend more money, but I don’t have much of a choice. If you are going to build a video editing computer, I highly suggest this man’s helpful video.