16 for 19!!! - May 21, 2008 Here's my rejection from Skip City: SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema Festival 2008 Backyard Films Presents Thank you very much for submitting your film to our festival. Your film, „Ungirlfriendable“ has been considered with great interest, and carefully discussed by the selection committees. Unfortunately it has not been chosen to be included in the program of SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2008 feature competition. Please kindly understand that this will not mean a judgment of quality: with around 700 submissions, it was not an easy process to reach the final selection because the program has to be built under various aspects. It was our pleasure to review your film, and we wish you all of success for this film. Thank you again for your interest in our festival. We would be glad to hear from you with further projects. Sincerely Yours, Yuji Takizawa Festival Director SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema Festival 2008 Guess I won't be going to Japan! I am waiting on two more rejections from Fantasia and Toronto, so check back to see when I get douched by them! I have entered 19 fests, but I don't count one, as it was the "reject" film fest and rejection is part of their motto, so 18 Film Fests, rejected from 16. I should enter two more contests to make it an even twenty and I'll win a set of tea cups! Here's the list: Austin Film Festival Kern Projections Northhampton Middle East - (Film didn't even make it there in the mail!) Rockport Indie Film Fest Tromadance Slamdance Sundance Cinequest Boston Underground Film Fest New York Underground Film Fest First Glance Houston Worldfest Cannes Skip City International Hooray!
|
|---|
Two More Fests - May 5, 2008 Cinco de Mayo! On Friday and Saturday, I sent the movie off to 2 more festivals. My good film buddy Scott Feinblatt steered me in the direction for sending my movie to the Toronto International Film Festival. The ratio for getting in is something like 1 in 12, but that was last year. They might get more submissions this year and the ratio could be higher. But, pretty decent odds. It's supposed to be the largest film festival in the world. Might be nice to go. The other was also mentioned to me by Scott, Fantasia:
There was no submission fee for Fantasia, but the film was supposed to be in their hands today. I wasn't about to spend $40 to send it overnight, so I just wrote a letter pleading with them to just give it a shot. If that doesn't work, so be it. Seems like a cool little fest. Not too little though. Next week, Dave and I should work out the kinks on some audio issues and export a final soundtrack. I will then send it a few places to see if I can sell it. The next step will be to start making DVDs and sending them out to all the people who worked on it. Yay!
|
|---|
Cannes' Rejected Film - April 7, 2008 Pretty quick turnaround on their part. They don't mess around. Paris, 02/04/2008 Réf. : Présentation du film « UNGIRLFRIENDABLE » au Comité de Sélection du 61ème Festival de Cannes (14 – 25 mai, 2008). Monsieur / Madame Jeffry CHAFFIN Nous avons le regret de vous informer que votre film n’a pas été retenu par le Comité de Sélection du Festival de Cannes pour sa Sélection Officielle (Compétition, Hors Compétition, Un Certain Regard). Nous espérons que vous nous ferez l’honneur de nous présenter votre prochain film. Avec nos meilleures salutations, Ref.: Presentation of the film «UNGIRLFRIENDABLE» to the Selection Committee of the 61th Festival de Cannes (May 14 - 25, 2008). Dear Jeffry CHAFFIN We regret to inform you that your film has not been selected by the Selection Committee of the Festival de Cannes for its Official Selection (Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard). We hope that you will do us the honour of presenting us your next film. Yours sincerely, Christian Jeune Adjoint au Délégué Général / Directeur Département Films Deputy General Delegate / Director Film Department Tel.: (33) 1 53 59 61 74 Fax : (33) 1 53 59 61 70
Straight and to the point. Very nice. Don't try to sugar coat it with BS which makes me feel worse anyhow. I paid for my rejection letter. Done deal. One more fest to go. In other news, I got through 25 minutes of the movie re-calibrating music levels with Dave. We are to meet some more this week and hopefully by next week, we will have a finished film! Then it's off to the presses to make some copies and try to sell it. Weeeeeeeeeee.
|
|---|
Cannes' Received Film - March 25, 2008 Thought this was kinda cool. It's not every day you get an email in French, at least not me, but it's really not every day you get an email from Cannes Film Festival: Monsieur / Madame Jeffry CHAFFIN Nous avons bien reçu votre film UNGIRLFRIENDABLE La conférence de presse annonçant les films sélectionnés pour le Festival de Cannes se déroule durant la seconde quinzaine d’avril. Si votre film est sélectionné pour le Festival de Cannes, vous serez prévenu avant cette date. Nous essayerons dans la mesure du possible de donner des réponses à tous les candidats avant la conférence de presse. Cordialement, Festival de Cannes Département Films ______________________________________________________________________________________ Dear Jeffry CHAFFIN We have received your film UNGIRLFRIENDABLE The press conference will be held in the last two weeks of April. If your film is selected for the Festival de Cannes, you will be notified before the press conference We will do our best to notify all candidates before the press conference. Yours sincerely, Festival de Cannes Film Department
|
|---|
HOUSTON Worldfest SAYS F$%# YOU - March 20, 2008 The hits just keep on coming:
I find this one to be the most hurtful yet, because of this paragraph: "Our festival jury very carefully reviewed your outstanding entry, and though it received a very good score in the review sessions, I regret to say that your entry was eliminated in the final competition judging round. I do so hate to have to send these letters out, and I'm very sorry that I am not able to bring you better news." It's heartbreaking. It truly is. I won't lie. Each rejection chips a little more of my resolve away. When I got the small envelope, I knew it couldn't be good. I imagine an acceptance letter would come in a paper size manilla envelope with a form you need to sign to accept your award or an inclusion of passes and such to the fest. I had higher than usual hopes for the film because Dickie said he would talk to a few people. The last two left are Cannes and Skip City International. I really shouldn't even consider that Cannes would give it one thought. So, really, there is one fest left that might give it consideration. There are a few festivals coming up I might enter if my thick candy shell of a head gets the notion of flushing more money down the crapper. Other than that, I have no news to bring you on the new sound mix which technically should be done by the end of next week. Seeing that I haven't heard from Dave, I'm going to go ahead and assume, the sound mix is still a ways away. Good eve. |
|---|
NYUFF R.I.P. and SAYS F$%# YOU - March 18, 2008 Got another great form letter this weekend: Dear Filmmaker, It all sounds very familiar, as if pulled from the book "Rejection Letters for Film Festival Submissions." They also add insult by saying it's their last year, so I will never be in their festival, ever. Last week was an exceptionally shi$%y week. I had an ear infection in both ears, getting over some throat sinus thing, found out I defaulted on a loan by having my last payment in six days late and my bank account dipped below, so they thought because I have no money, they should take money from me, so I continue to have no money when I do put money back in. You'd think things would start to look up, but they only moderately cheer me up until I get the next load of crap, like an infestation of weevils in my apartment that must have burst forth from a bag of rice we bought from the store, so thank you Kroger for selling us weevil eggs! Have a great day!
|
|---|
Cannes Film FESTIVAL 2008 - March 12, 2008 I went to the post office today to ship off my movie to Cannes. Damn. What a hassle and what a chunk of money to spend and I don't even think it's going to get there by deadline. I am not thinking all that coherently with an ear infection in both ears and communicating with others is a little difficult. The Cannes instructions say to have it REGISTERED. I took it up there and said I need it registered. He says I need to fill out a Customs form. I fill out a customs form and add it to the package. I ask if it's registered and he says, no, here's another form to register it. I fill that out and another sticker goes on the front. He then uses some brown stick on paper that is activated with water, like a stamp or envelope and covers up the back of the envelope along all creases. He then stamps the thing like 15 times indicating that it is registered I suppose. Another $10 is added for registering. I think I paid only $4.60 for postage and it might be a 6-10 business days kinda thing, so for it to get there on Monday will be highly unlikely. Screw this international shit! Spent over $100 this past week sending my film off to two festivals and the likelihood of it getting into either one is pretty steep, but I'll say it's extremely steep for Cannes, so I think I blew a total of $58 for what will amount to a piece of paper stating, "We got an overwhelming number of film submissions this year, fifteen percent more than last year, and the quality of these films were spectacular. Unfortunately, we were not able to choose your film. Don't be discouraged to submit to other festivals as they may be more suited for your type of film, etc. etc. blah blah blah." |
|---|
SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2008 - March 7, 2008 Not sure if it was money well spent or more flushed down the toilet, but I dropped a whopping $66 just for FedEx postage on Wednesday to deliver my movie to Japan hopefully by the 10th, their "in hand" deadline. I am speaking of the above fest, Skip City International. It might have a good chance of getting in seeing that the entry fee was zero and you can not have directed more than three features. I believe it also only accepts movies made on a digital format. More info here SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL. So, here's hoping it does something. I have finished remastering the video side of things and I am pretty happy with the final look of the film. Now I just need to light a fire under Dave's ass and get the sound mix done and we'll have a finished film on our hands people! |
|---|
BUFF SAYS F$%# YOU - February 06, 2008 I spoke too soon. I guess bad news does come in threes. I would say in "fours" but that Cinequest rejection came to me a few weeks ago. BUFF, Boston Underground Film Festival has rejected Ungirlfriendable: Dear Jeffry, It appears they got a hold of the official rejection letter as well. Almost the same exact wording as the others. You could probably compare them all and find they just changed a few words. All they had to do on this one is change the name in the introduction. Lame. Also, today, I received an email for the winners or the Grand Prix Film Race. "Global Thermal, Inc." was not listed in any of the 4 winning spots. I've lost count of the rejections, but it's gotta be somewhere close to 16 or so. Yay! |
|---|
FIRST GLANCE SAYS F$%# YOU - February 05, 2008 I got an e-mail today saying to check out the selections for First Glance Hollyood, which I submitted the film to: http://www.firstglancefilms.com/8officialselections.php What's up? I don't see my film listed. Just three Narrative Films? Don't stretch yourself there people. Oh, and Cinequest told me to f#$% myself as well: Dear Jeffry, Thank you very much for your submission of Ungirlfriendable to the 2008 Cinequest Film Festival. We are extremely honored to have the chance to see the film and to have shared in the artistic experience. It truly is great to continue to see the wonderful films being made every year. As with any festival, we cannot select every film that we love, and unfortunately, we were not able to select Ungirlfriendable for this year. Cinequest selections are determined by considering the quality, the overall mix of the program, the relation of the program to our audience and the whether or not we feel that our efforts will be able to assist a film or not. When considering all of these factors, we often turn away films that we love, and this year was no different. There were many films that we would have loved to program this year that we could not. But we do hope that we may continue to see future films from you, as perhaps we will find a way to help you in the future. The programming staff really enjoys the process of watching the films, and it is always with great sadness that we cannot place all of the films we like in the festival. We hope your understand that this is our least favorite part of the process, as we really enjoy seeing all of the new, groundbreaking films that enter our door each year. We do wish you much luck with the film and hope to hear from you again in the future. Best Wishes, Michael Rabehl Halfdan Hussey Programming Director Executive Director
So, I am still an official reject. The film is still slowly progressing. I am meeting Dave this week to go over sound questions. I finally got him all the pieces of sound to put together. And on my end, I have added a grain filter to the entire movie to give it that "film look." On my little editing screen you can really see the grain, but once you play it on your TV, it won't be as noticeable. It sorta blends the foreground in better with the background, so everything doesn't looke so separated and as fake. I'm now wondering if I added enough grain. In other news, I'm nearly 4 weeks into Writer's Boot Camp and I can't say I'm doing so awesome. I'm not getting enough hours of writing in each week. I have been following along with the lesson plans and have all the major plot points written out and have written some scenes. The idea is progressing and I am molding it into different shapes. It alters all the time. It went from suspenseful action, to supernatural/psychological mystery to action/comedy. I want to make a JC film. Those are my initials, yes, but they also belong to John Carpenter, who I was trying to evoke in the writing process. |
|---|
WORLDFEST SAYS HELLO - January 04, 2008 I received a nice email from Worldfest just confirming that they have received the movie and I will find out something by January 15th. Still no news from Tromadance. They have announced a few, and I saw that "Stiff" was selected, which won the Asheville Rejects Film Fest. Happy New Year by the way. On that note, the Our Stage contest ended and Global Thermal, Inc. came in 11th place. I totally forgot to hunker down at my computer and repeatedly vote for it. It would be nice if they had some way to see how many times one ISP voted on a particular film and see that the contest is rigged. The film that won 1st place was horrendous, so they are popular people who got lots to vote on it or they voted a bunch of times on it. The soundtrack re-mastering is still underway. I made the project a bit difficult and have had to go through the whole film once again and find the in and out points of each chunk of dialog and send it along to David. It has been a lengthy process. I'm also finding glitches along the way in the picture. The new version of the film will hopefully be complete by the end of the month, then the process of getting it sold will get underway. Yay! Oh, and check out some nifty toys that now adorn my mantle. Brooke finally gave up on keeping our place looking like adults live in it...
|
|---|
FILM IS OFF TO WORLDFEST - December 17, 2007 For anyone keeping track, Ungirlfriendable has just been sent off to its 14th or 15th film fest, this time, the 41st Annual Worldfest - Houston International Film Fest.
Dickie says he knows lots of people in the Houston area and might be able to get the film into the contest. Certainly would be a boost. No official rejections from recent fests except for Slamdance, of course. I am meeting with Huff to go over sound tomorrow night, at least that is the plan today. I went back through the entire movie, all of my edits and got the raw sound from the 41 different edited sections. I think by the end of January we will have the final soundtrack. I'm also thinking of running some filters over the video to clean it up some. Don't know yet. |
|---|
UPDATE - September 25, 2007 |
|---|
It has been sent to the big one, Sundance. Technically, it's the 7th festival I've entered, but really just number 6, as Middle East never got my film(see below). I was driving to work this morning and thinking, "If I got into Sundance, my career would pretty much be made. I would be in!" My career wouldn't be "made" but it would greatly improve just to be on the roster at Sundance, to put those leafy things on the poster and print on there "Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival." I am realistic and the chances are 1 in 20,000, or how many submissions there are, but it would be something, considering there was practically no budget, no name stars and an unknown director. I'll be submitting to Slamdance next month with even greater odds. Those will probably be the last "big" festivals I enter. I'm setting my sites a lot lower now. Every submission is around $35 to $50 and my bank account is empty, so I have to be really selective and subjective. For free, I entered the Asheville "Rejects" Film Festival. Their special guest this year is Lloyd Kaufman, known for his film company Troma, and has directed such classics as "The Toxic Avenger 1 - 4", "Class of Nuke 'Em High" and "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." The acceptance rate is really high and is made for the films that have been rejected by all the fests they have entered. Speaking of rejection, I won't be going to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East thanks to the wonderful service men of the US Postal Service. The movie never arrived maybe due to customs or the fact that the Middle East doesn't have postal codes! Step into the 20th century, even though we're in the 21st. This coming weekend, I'm doing the 12 hour filmmaking race, so wish me luck and if your in Austin and have worked with me and want to join in on the fun, send me an email or call. |
UPDATE - September 10, 2007 |
|---|
The movie has been sent to another festival, Indie Film Fest USA. That is number 6. The first rejection has come as well from the Austin Film Festival. In the rejection letter it says, "The quality of the entries this year was extraordinarily high across all of our categories," meaning that the quality of my film was not. I'll just say that that statement does not make the blow of the rejection any easier, in fact it pretty much says, "Your film sucks!" Thank you Austin Film Festival! I do agree with them saying it's not a film that fits into every festival though. I was going to enter Trail Dance in Oklahoma, but it said not to send "pornography or vulgar material," so I thought it best to not waste money on that one. If it said "Please send perverted and morally corruptable films" then it might be a shoe-in. It also seems I have thrown money away on the Middle East Fest as they haven't even received the film. Boo hoo. I also just sent out a mass email to crew and cast of Ungirlfriendable to see if any of them would like to participate in Film Racing, which will be in Austin on the 29th of September. In case you weren't included in the email and want to help out, then drop me a line. |
UPDATE - August 29, 2007 |
|---|
Sent to another festival, Rockport Film Festival. This is one I would really like to go to. Sort of bittersweet. My grandmother on my Mom's side, Florence Sharp, lived in Rockport, TX pretty much all of my life. She worked as editor or something in that capacity for The Rockport Pilot. If you look on the poster below, you'll see the name of the newspaper reads "The Observer Times Herald CHRONICLE." The full title is actually "The Observer Times Herald CHRONICLE Pilot," but the coffee cup covers it up. It was Brian's idea to not have an affiliation with any city so the movie could pretty much take place anywhere, so the newspaper name is an amalgam of Texas newspaper names, Dallas Observer, Dallas Times Herald(which some of you may know was bought by Dallas Morning News some time ago, but I remember getting the Herald and liking it better), Austin Chronicle and Rockport Pilot. Out of respect for my Grandma, I guess Pilot should be visible as the poster is the only place you'll see the name of the paper, but how many people actually recognize Pilot as the name of a newspaper? So, I'd like to get into the fest to visit Rockport. My Grandma passed away a few years ago, 2001 I believe, and it wasn't until a few years later that her headstone was put up, which I haven't seen or visited yet. It'd be a nice trip for my Mom, sister and I to take. |
|
Here is what I hope is the final version of the poster. It could probably use some more photoshopping, but I'm pretty happy with it. I'm in talks with a friend of mine who can hook me up with a printing place and I'm wondering how many to get made. I'd be interested to know how many of the actors would like a poster. If any of you read this, hit me up. |
UPDATE - August 23, 2007 |
|---|
Just a quick festival addition update. I entered the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi. It's really pretty cool. If the film is accepted, they will fly me over there and put me up in the Emirates Palace, a three billion dollar luxury hotel, which is also where it all takes place. All sounds well and good. It'd just be nice to be accepted to a film festival anywhere. |
UPDATE - August 14, 2007 |
|---|
Here is the latest DVD cover. Still has a little work to be done on it, but it's basically the gist of what I'd like the cover to be. The front cover is pretty much what the poster will look like. In due time I will get some posters printed up, as some fests ask for them and a few of you might want to frame a copy to hang above your toilet. For the few that might read this today, one of the musicians I used in the movie is up for three Dallas Observer Music Awards tonight, Johnny Lloyd Rollins. Wish him luck. I may very well be there to see they hand the award to the right person. |
Here is an extra that's on the DVD and has been up on YouTube and it was shown on Austin Community Television. It was for a show called "Between the Scenes," which is shot and edited by Austinite Erik Mauck. Thank you Erik for doing the interview and putting together a nice little piece for my film. IN FESTIVAL NEWS: The movie has been delivered to the Kern Projections Film Festival in Bakersfield, CA and Northampton Independent Film Festival in Florence, MA. I should have news in October. I will probably send it in to another film fest this week or next. Stay tuned. |
UPDATE - August 7, 2007 |
|---|
My 2007 Austin Film Festival Trailer Competition submission. The idea can be all attributed to Brandon Dolgner who was squeezing out a gruesome log at 3 am and thought "What would happen if I tried squeezing a turd out really hard and shit myself through the space time continuum?" Obviously, you'd have to wear aluminum foil and hold onto an aluminum foil roll in order to not be taken by the Aluminatis (that's pronounced Al-loom-ah-naw-tees). Brian called me up and told me that was the idea for the trailer. I felt there was no way we could turn that in as a trailer because it has nothing to do with movies or the festival or Austin. I think it has ZERO chance of getting accepted, because only 3 people find it funny and they were all involved in making it. IN OTHER NEWS: The UNGIRLFRIENDABLE DVD is 90% complete. All that is lacking is the re-mastered soundtrack from Zooky. Hear that Zwckxally? It started out as one dual-layered DVD with loads of extras. Two weekends ago, I travelled down to Austin to record an audio commentary with Brandon and Brian. We got good an liquored up and sat in Zooky's storage space studio and rattled off the commentary for the movie. I had written 20 pages of notes and maybe got about half a page's worth of that knowledge into the commentary, so the following week I recorded a solo Director's commentary in my office. While in Austin, we also recorded commentary for all the deleted scenes. I added all this on to what I already put together and it didn't fit, so now I will issue it as a Two-Disc Special Edition. Here's a sample menu and the contents. |
|
Disc One: The Feature-Length Motion Picture Masterpiece "Ungirlfriendable" "The Loudest, Most Obnoxious and Least Informative Audio Commentary Ever" with Actors Brian Wayne and Brandon Dolgner and Writer/Director Jeffry Chaffin "The Other Very Informative Behind-the-Scenes Audio Commentary" with Writer/Director/Producer Jeffry Chaffin Interview with Director Jeffry Chaffin for the Austin Community Television program "Between the Scenes" by Erik Mauck 10 Songs from the Soundtrack in their entirety Disc Two: 13 Deleted/Extended Scenes all with commentary Outtakes (including "69 Gashes" a compilation of how many times the word gash was used throughout the production) all with commentary Several Photo Montages (including over 250 Production Stills, Drawings, Storyboards and Before and After Backgrounds) Trailers (including a demo for the 2004 production of Ungirlfriendable that was intended to be used to raise funds) 21 More songs from the soundtrack in their entirety |
|
|---|
The film is on its way to 1604 Nueces. That would be the headquarters for the Austin Film Festival. Actually, it wouldn't. I just checked the AFF website and apparently, they have a new address, but the deadline has been extended to the 15th, so I still have a chance to get it in. Or maybe the 1604 address will be forwarded to the new address. I swear that 1604 Nueces was written on the application I had. Anyhow, the DVD cover art is above. Click on it for a bigger image. The front cover is pretty much what the final poster will look like except for a few added credits, Executive Producer, etc. The back will also be different on the final DVD version, various pictures and a list of all the extras that will be included on the disc. I will tell you what is really surreal is that I began filling out the application for Sundance. That is a trip. To go to Sundance would certainly be a wish fulfillment. I don't think I could afford to go, but what better way to go further into debt. I'll be looking into Cannes as well. I've also got applications for FLIFF, Omaha, Whistler, New York Cinema Market and the Accolade. We'll see. |
UPDATE - June 11, 2007 |
|---|
No poop this time guys. I am getting very close to finishing up video glitches here and there and adding in all the special effects, like Andrea's lightning bolt fingers. I also wrote some grafitti on the bathroom stalls. You can check out those two particular snippets on my YouTube page. www.youtube.com/bfpjeff That page also has my preiliminary Backyard Films Presents logo that will play before the movie along with Focus Features or Lionsgate or whomever might like to pick the movie up, The sound of the movie is also being re-mastered, so it should sound really good! I'm very excited to have a friend of mine down in Austin fix up the muddy soundtrack. In regards to the post below, all the music has been changed to protect the innocent, namely me not getting sued and stopped from showing the movie anywhere. A very close version of the finished film will be ready to send to the Austin Film Festival on July 1st. I'll also be down in Austin in a few weeks to shoot a trailer for the Austin Film Festival Trailer Competition. During writing that very sentence, I believe I came up with the idea for the trailer. Sweet. I may be calling on a few of you ladies to act in it. It has been a journey on this flick. I can't wait to start on my next one. |
Special Edition DVD Cover - April 23, 2007 |
|---|
For those awesome few who made it to the screening at The Hideout, here is a DVD cover to print out. For all others, you can just wish you had a copy and stare in awe at the cover. The difference between this and the final version is the music. This fine version has some glitches but it has all my dream songs on the soundtrack. Sweet. |
Screening @ The Hideout: April 14, 2007 |
|---|
Here are some pictures I took at the
first screening of Ungirlfriendable. An entire 15 people were in attendance(including
myself). The screening started late due to the late arrival of the proprietor
of The Hideout. Other than that, the screening went smoothly and I hope everyone
enjoyed it, but it was a biased crowd, mainly consisting of cast and crew and
a few friends they brought along. I feel the movie still needs quite a bit of
work and I hope the next and real official screening is a full house. |
February 16th, 2007 |
|---|
Scene 11 - Introducing Skyler Two posts in one week, whoa! Thought I'd give everyone a Valentine's Day treat. A few days old, but still yummy. I have re-edited the movie up to what I call the "3rd Part" in my computer files. As far as it's going right now, the movie could very well be 90 minutes, maybe 95. Out of the first 27 minutes, I've knocked out nearly 4 minutes, putting that down to 23. The next part I knocked out 4 to 5 minutes more, and so far in the 3rd part, I've chopped another 2 minutes. I read somewhere that comedy editing is fast. That couldn't be more truthful. I'm cutting to reactions quicker and getting to the next shot faster and it's funnier, because your brain doesn't have time to assemble what it just saw but it was humorous and while you're laughing, it's still moving along. A few frames here and a few frames there and seconds are dropping out and before I know it, minutes. I watched the 2-hour version a few weeks ago and took copious amounts of notes. The start moves right along, introduce characters, have some laughs, but then we get to the present day part of the story and it starts sagging. I noticed myself saying "Cut......cut......cut......cut," so I did just that. The first time out, I was including so many pauses, waiting for a facial expression or some little actory thing that was funny to me, but I realized I have watched each shot and each take over and over and critique every movement and every moment and know where to look and what I'm waiting to see. The average moviegoer isn't going to see those tiny things, so those little moments get chopped. There is an art to editing, but there is also a science. I have to step out of the director's shoes and into an audience members shoes and keep it moving and fun and funny. Enjoy the gassy clip. Sound effects may be scaled back a bit, but at least for now, it will feel like you're on the set with me. :) |
December 27th, 2006 |
|---|
|
So, I've already been asked for a copy of the film. Sorry folks, movie is far from ready. I have projected February, but that seems iffy. I'm getting through the backgrounds creation more swiftly now with the addition of a new filter I found. Yay! Above you will find a few new added scenes that have the backgrounds added in. I put an ad on Craigslist twice, both times it has been "flagged" by either the system or someone, meaning, it keeps getting taken down. First time, thought it might have been my inclusion of the website. I removed it. Second time, I'm thinking maybe it was taken down because I'm only offering deferred pay. If I don't get anyone to help with special effects and what not, it's going to take me a lot longer to finish this guys. Sorry. Here's to hoping the next time around, there'll be a budget and I can afford some crew during production and post-production. It's frustrating that it's going at such a slow pace, but keep in mind it's just one guy doing what it would take a room full of computer dorks to do for a big movie like Star Wars or something. The special effects aren't on that scale, but I think you get my drift. If anyone reads this, and they know an illustrator or artist or computer graphics person, see if they won't mind doing a little pro bono work. |
October 24th, 2006 |
|---|
More work on backgrounds ala Photoshop. It's not a quick method, but I have found a way to minimize work on backgrounds. I am taking a real image from my video camera or digital camera and painstakingly redo each part of the background in Photoshop rendering it to look like it's in a comic strip. As for scenes that have no green screen and have actual backgrounds, that's another story entirely. |
October 16th, 2006 |
|---|
Reality Look vs Comic Strip Look Not necessarily a break-through, but almost. I took a background image and drew over it with my trusty computer drawing interface and filled in some colors, comic strip style. I'm quite happy with the outcome. I encourage anyone to send me their thoughts. I believe this is the route I am going to take, as it will cut down on doing extensive background shooting and issues with matching background with camera movement. It also looks really cool! The vision in my head is getting closer on video. Yay! |
September 22nd, 2006 |
|---|
Murphy's desk explodes - SFX Test I happened upon some royalty free explosions and had some fun adding them into the movie. You'll also notice some additional ceiling shots with something mysteriously chipping away at the ceiling tile. Just thought I'd share my glee at how it looks! Yay!
|
