Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hail to the Mayor!

A plug for creative-types in the Seattle area.  The Mayor’s office of Film + Music sponsors all kinds of mixers and promotion events for us.  I’ve been to a couple and can report that they’re a great place to keep up with the indy scene, as well as network with your fellow creatives. Go check it out!

Post Mortem on making “Springtime”

Backstory

Springtime in Seattle was a study in fitting requirements with capabilities.  My goal was to create a (hopefully winning) entry for the Seattle Times’ Three Minute Masterpiece contest.  My secondary objective was to learn some more After Effects skillz.  Here’s what I had:

  • some time on my hands—I was one of the 1400 laid off from Microsoft in January
  • some small amount of experience making short films.  Check out my YouTube site for a compendium.  Pretty amateur stuff, but I’ve done it enough times that I knew to avoid certain pitfalls
  • a Sony DV camcorder (which died during the making of the film)
  • Adobe video editing software (with some experience using it)

Around the time I was starting to think about the contest, we were getting a lot of rain in Seattle.  There’s a lot to like about Seattle, but the winters are hard on me.  I was looking forward to our upcoming trip to Hawaii.  Another ingredient in the stew came from a voice actor I had worked with recently.  Her husband was recently hired by Microsoft, and she told me about how her transition from Texas to Seattle had been hard on her.

That combination led to my concept of a lonely newcomer in downtown Seattle trying to find her way past the oppressive rain.  I quickly came up with a bunch of images of it would look.  It was mostly a montage in my head, though—no story.  It was enough, though, for me to noodle on for a while.

I took my DV camcorder to Hawaii, figuring that having some tropical footage is never a bad thing.  I managed to get some stock, as well as a few beach shots of the family.  While I was there I began to realize that there was no way I was going to be able to do the lonely woman thing.  I only had 7 days after our return to shoot, edit, and submit the whole thing.  No way I could find talent, scout locations, etc etc.

So, plan B was to stay with the rain/springtime theme but use “available assets” for my actors—i.e. my kids.  I also had the footage from the Hawaii trip.

It didn’t take long (a few hours) to come up with a story line, which I would summarize as, “two Seattle kids wake up, excited to go outside and play on the first day of Spring.  They’re thwarted by the oppressive rain and try to find other ways to pass the time.  They finally have the idea to watch their vacation movies, where they capture some magic that unleashes Spring upon the area.”  Sort of a fairy dust theme.

As a story line, it’s OK.  Not great, but at least it’s coherent.

Craft and Mechanics

Once I solved the equipment problem, all that was left was to shoot the scenes, edit them together, and create the f/x.  I already covered some of the details in earlier posts, but here’s a couple of pointers.

  1. Make a shot list.  This is absolutely essential, especially when you’re working on a deadline and/or working with actors who might not be available.  I was surprised when I realized just how many shots my little three minute piece was going to require.  One adjustment I made was to cut an entire sequence around waking up and getting dressed, and replacing it with the alarm clock shot. 
  2. When editing, go broad, not deep.  That is, don’t spend time making a single shot or scene perfect until you’ve got the entire thing roughed in.  Editing is a subjective activity.  There’s always something you can tinker with or some setting you can tweak.  So instead of going for perfect, go for OK and move on to the next thing.  Time permitting, you can go back and refine.
  3. Always have SOMETHING you can do.  If you’re missing a shot, put a placeholder in your timeline and work on something you do have.  You should NEVER be stalled.
  4. Save visual f/x for last.  The f/x in “Springtime” are pretty poor.  I could have spent time improving them earlier in the process, but that would have come at the expense of something else, like a shot or audio elements.
  5. Audio is important.  The audio in “Springtime” was captured in the camcorder, and it shows.  It’s pretty bad.  If I had had more time I would have set the kids up with real mics and done it right, but I didn’t.  It’ll count against me.
  6. Have fun.  I took time to learn some techniques (like masking) in After Effects.  I also played around with many of the special effects just to learn what they do.  Most of that didn’t make it in to the movie, but even if the movie doesn’t win any contests or awards, I will have gained new experience and knowledge.

Wrap

Was my movie everything I had wanted and imagined?  Certainly not, but I achieved my goal of creating an entry for 3MM.  If you’re like most of us creative-types you have many projects that you started and didn’t finish, or that you want to start but just don’t know where to begin.  My advice for you is to do like I did—set yourself a goal that is within your grasp.  Get (or set yourself) a deadline.  Then go do it!  Rinse and repeat and you’re on your way!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

It is done!

OK, I stopped blogging for a couple of days.  That’s because I was totally engrossed in getting the project done in time for the Monday 11:59PM deadline for the 3MM contest.  I’m happy to say that I made the deadline, and I’m mostly happen with the movie.

I really wasn’t sure if I could pull it together in 6 days.  It took probably close to 40 hours of effort, all told, to shoot and cut a 3-minute piece.  I feel for those folks out there who do this every week for a 46-minute show.  Of course, they’re pros and I’m just a newbie.

I have a lot of post-mortem thoughts that I promise to write down and provide in a follow-up post.  Until then, here’s the finished piece:

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Day… what day is it again?

W00t!  I think I have all the footage I need.  We had to do a special f/x shot for the rain (fancy it not raining in Seattle when I need it to).  I am putting it all into Premiere now.  Not a lot of spare time for blogging right now.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Day Four

Woke up this morning to see rain.  Yay! Unfortunately, the rain had stopped by the time I got back from dropping the kids off at school, and the raindrops-on-the-tree effect doesn’t sell it.  I may need to resort to getting the shot with artificial rain(read—garden hose).  We’ll see.

Today is going to be all about cutting together the material I have so far inside of Premiere.  I’ve got my draft f/x in, but I’m going to hold off on refining them until I get all my footage and have a rough cut together.  I’m doing it that way because the AE work can be a complete time sink, and you’re never REALLY done.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Day Three

All hardware came yesterday.  I put together the visual f/x shot of the videos flying out of the TV.  Need to composite it with the video shot of TV.

Got 10 of the shots with the kids.  Everything looks pretty amateurish, though. Definitely need a wider angle lens and more control over the depth of field.   Don’t have time for proper lighting and this is the first time the kids have ever done anything like this, so they’re not exactly pro quality.

Still, progress is being made.  Hoping for rain tomorrow.  That’s a first.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Day Two

I’m behind.

Don’t have my shot list yet (it’s in my head, but that’s not real enough).  Spent some time yesterday with Allan going over a project he and I started on years ago.  We’re both keen to take it down off the shelf and have another go.

Got an automated call from UPS today warning me that I have to be home to sign for the (camera) package delivery.  So, I’m sitting here waiting and working.

I’m starting to worry a little that I’m not going to get the rainy day/sunny day I need to make this work.

UPDATE: Shot list is done.  Crap.  I’ve got 30 separate shots and about half as many setups.  All for a 3 minute piece.  Officially worried now.