Old School Columned Paper

Film Budgets never ever stay the same.... EVER..... EVER. So the best thing I can tell you to do is get an Apple Numbers or MS Excel program. Too many young filmmakers think they gotta' have Gorilla Scheduling or Movie Magic Scheduling to schedule their $2000.00 film. I have news for you. I don't think those programs even work with anything less than $10K. I usually buy some columned paper and do about five revisions of it on that paper, then when I get close I would sneak into work early and compute my numbers into Excel for presentation purposes. I finally bit the bullet and bought Apple's answer to Excel, 'Numbers,' and I still use the column paper. I'm so old school. Anyway, anybody interested in how we're going to make this film, (money wise,) here is the 4th Revision. The budget has ballooned quite a bit since this write up, but I plan on working it back down by whoring myself on the weekends.... Kidding... Not Really though.

Here's where OUR money goes for the time being for Jeopardy.

Jeopardy Begins to Take Shape In Vision

I feel storyboards are a key element in the filmmaking process. It for me has always been better to show than explain. I do Storyboards religiously. For Meter, I storyboarded the whole film, and never looked at one of them during principle photography. The shoot got rushed and I just simply did not have the luxury to take alot of time to refer to my notebook of sketches. But just actually sitting down and doing them made myself visualize my film more carefully. Even having to rush through shooting on Meter, I still had ALMOST every shot in my head. Half of the reason the shots were captured on film they way I envisioned them... Those Storyboards.

Jeopardy's Storyboards are a little different. With this film, I will use them on set religiously. The reason I am so adamant about this is because this film's story will be told through pacing, angles, shots and reaction unlike Meter that was based completely around dialogue. There is no room for error in missing key shots.... Also, my camera man and camera will only be here 4 days. There will be NO reshoots.

OK, besides this little bit of information, my storyboards had other purposes as well, this time around.

1. Business Package- I am taking extra care and time for the Jeopardy storyboards, because my finished cells will be used both in the printed business proposal and I also plan to make a Powerpoint/Slideshow from each cell that I will add music and narration to. It will be included in the Budget Proposal Package and will basically be a Picture Book/Graphic Novel telling of the story to help potential investors visualize my film.

2. My Technique- For some odd reason for as long as I have drawn, I have always had so much trouble with 'Perspective.' Unfortunately, everything I like to draw needs 'Perspective.' I thought this to be a perfect opportunity to force me to learn it because as much time as I have already spent on them, heaven forbid, me go back and draw some of them all the way over because my angles are wrong.

Meter Storyboard Example:






The first sequence of Jeopardy Film in Storyboard form:








FLASHBACK





BACK TO PRESENT



More to come.

The Welfare Rig

You ever heard of a Fig Rig? If you have you know that Mike Figgis, the famous Digital Vid Director of Leaving Las Vegas and Timecode joined forces with Bogen/Manfrotto to come up with the what they call the Fig Rig.

For anybody that has not heard of it, here you go...






It is basically a light weight ring that your DV or HD camera attaches to that is a operator friendly answer to a 'Steadi-Cam.' It gives you lots of versatility with moving shots because of its size, shape and weight. It's a perfect alternative to use in low budget films where you need mobility with the camera at any given time with out killing your credit card on Steadicam Operators and thousands of dollar rigs just to grab the kinetics of the scene. It comes equipped with vice clips that allow you to put a boom mic, c- light, lunch tray for your sandwich whatever on it. It's a brilliant little invention that works well. I used it once down in Florida. I had planned on buying one when I made my million dollars.... I hadn't bought one yet, if you're curious.

Well, Jeopardy came along where the freakin' whole movie is basically moving shots. When budgeting for Tag Along, I had actually budgeted to purchase a 'Fig Rig' for that shoot, but the shoot did not turn out so here I was in a predicament. Jeopardy was already going to cost alot more than Meter and I didn't find a $700 steadicam rig being an easy sell in a budget already bloating in the equipment account department. So what to do...? I've seen "Fig Rigs" made out of PVC pipe, Hoolahoops, and believe it or not, coat hangers. Although these are all smart innovative ways to mount your camera, let's be serious for a minute. The PVC fig rig I ran a test on was just not firm and stable enough. If you want a climatic moving scene, your tools have to be stiff.... Ha. The guy argued that it was $5.00 to make.
I agree that that's pretty cheap,(but c'mon five dollars? The PVC Glue is $7.00 by itself.) The PVC Rig is cheap but does it do what you need it to do? No. If it isn't bouncing and flemsying around on the beam when you are moving, the pipe glue and joints moan and pop with every stride. This isn't good if you need sound. The Fig Rig itself is not completely bump proof to begin with. With minor bumps on top of a horizontally bouncy camera, due to the flexxy PVC piping, you are better off to hold the damn camera.

Alternative after alternative I looked at just wouldn't do. Finally, I took the specs of the real thing and Went to the CAD board and made my own specs, changing a couple of little things so that my rig would be better fit for my needs. I made a couple calls and ended up talking to a guy I had met at an oyster shuck a year ago who works for his father at metal manufacturer company. I sent him over my spec and told him what I needed:

A Lightweight Metal Support Beam for Video Camera. He said it shouldn't be a problem. Within an hour he had made it. It was spot on in measurements and mounting options. There were, (or are,) two differences between the "The Fig Rig" and "The Welfare Rig." The Fig Rig Ring is made of hollow aluminum and has a smooth black coat of ionized paint on it.

The welfare Ring is unfinished flat rot iron. The Fig, has a built in Camera Rest welding on the stem where you connect the camera to the mount and weighs 1/3 a pound lighter. The Welfare Rig is bare. You will have to go to Lowes and find a $.65 metal washer, (2 to 3 inch, with a 1/4' hole in it.) If you can't find a plate with a 1/4' hole, get a metal plate of the same size and find somebody with a metal drill bit and bore a hole. If you are smarter than me get one before you decide to get the welfare rig made in the first place.

OK, I live in the furniture mecca of the East Coast so finding a Metal Manufacturer for me was real easy. Well, honestly, there are metal manufacturers everywhere and if you call them on a good day and are real nice they won't turn you away. It may take longer than an hour for results depending on their volume. You may be able to find somebody that works with metal at home and is bored on Sunday since footballs over. Either way, it's worth the work. Dan did not charge me a penny for mine. I ask him if I was a bigger schmuck than I already am, how much would it cost me. He said if you were off the streets, I would charge $40 for the job. (It may end up a little more if you bring that plate with you and ask them to weld it on or bore a hole in it for you.) So, $41 for the frame including plate, $8 for Duct Tape and Sponge or Foam for comfort handles and $10 for the universal tripod pin screw is pretty cheap for almost the exact same rig that Manfrotto charges $700 for. With that being your budget, you can probably afford to buy the actual Fig Rig Clips they sell separately for $30 a piece that allow you to connect boom mics, remotes, lunch trays to the rig. (I don't have an answer for that yet.) Either way, after about four hours of cumalitive labor and research, I have a steadicam rig that mirrors the same rig that is becoming an industry standard for music videos and documentaries. Below is a picture of "The Welfare Rig" stripped down. I have not had a chance to shoot any footage with it, but honestly after using the actual "Fig Rig" before, I know there is no difference what so ever beside cosmetics.Underneath the picture of the actual prototype is the spec I gave my guy to make it.

Any Vid guys and gals, I'll make it easy on you. Email me or comment me and I'll send you a PDF of it to use to shop around. "The Fig Rig" or now in my neighborhood known as "The Welfare Rig" works like a champ for a low end makeshift steadicam unit. Learn your movements. Learn your angles. It will change the way you shoot footage. Guaranteed.




The Specs I used.




The Rig in Action...

Wearing The Pants on Public Radio

Mandi, Tasha, (Mandi's Sister,) and her mother Donna are huge fans of the Ace and TJ Show outta' Charlotte. Well I get a call Friday Morning around 9:35am from Donna stating that Tasha and Mandi were on the Ace and TJ show this morning talking about push presents and apparently talking about me and how "Mandi wears the pants in the family." That's all I knew. At that point in time I had no idea what was said, who said it and in what context it was used. I was flying blind.

BACKSTORY
In my house there has not and will not ever be any "pants" worn. We, (or I,) don't believe in that sort of "Make my dinner woman slash Civil War Family" theory. I have always given Mandi all the freedom she wants as long as it does not interfere with the upbringing of our child or effect our family system. I clean laundry because I have time to do it. I cook cause I'm always hungry and don't mind doing it. I clean and try to keep the house straight, because well, it's the first house we've owned and two, Mandi likes it when the house is straight. That is her big tiff. She goes nuts if the house is scattered so I try to keep her happy by not being a guy and leaving shit everywhere. I stay with my kid on the weekends not because of obligation. Not because Mandi expects me to. Not because I HAVE TO. BUT BECAUSE I WANT TO. I am one father who refuses to miss a moment with my kid. My father did the same for my sister and I and he "wore the pants in the family." I could die tomorrow and could say in almost two years I never missed an opportunity or moment where I have to say, "man, I wish I would've been there." Anyway, there are many people that because I am that way, think that I don't wears the pants or I'm not a manly man. Whatever.... BACK TO THE STORY.

So I have ten minutes to defend myself before their show went off the air on Friday. I threw together an email based solely on the idea that Mandi and Tasha stated on Public Radio that I didn't wear the pants in the family and that basically Mandi got her way. I emphasized that the reason Mandi doesn't get gifts are this, this, and this and that I resented the "pants" theory. I sent the email about five ‘til ten which ultimately sank my chance to redeem myself. I listened to the teleplay after the fact and boy was I relieved to know that my email had not made it in time, because, Tasha had basically mauled my name by calling me... "A very weak, weak man..." Mandi did not defend me when asked but had not thrown me under a bus either. The weekend goes by. I wasn't mad about the statements made. I did use a moment with Tasha and Donna to defend my case on Friday but generally, the fifteen seconds of fame Tasha and Mandi experienced had all been forgotten.

Monday morning, I wake up, grab my phone to find there is a text message from Mandi. It read: YOU ARE IN SOOOO MUCH TROUBLE.

I knew right then my scorned email had been read aloud. I had not talked to Mandi so I was sure she was dead serious in her conviction. Apparently, I had missed Ace and TJ defending me by reading my email to the public and commenting that I didn’t seem like such a weak man after all. Then I missed Mandi's call back into them where she defended herself on top of admitting my email was actually true. Then I missed her mother call in to back me up so for a good fifteen minutes this morning on public radio the family was on the radio talking about my wife and I’s love life. I was in the shower and of course, missed all of it. In a way I'm glad. In a way I'm not so much. My original email was not well thought out due to lack of preparation time so I really sounded kind of pissed and childish. Had I known the full conversation I probably would have defended myself better on the "weak man, pants" pot shot. So now I'm just the faceless scorned husband who sent in an email and never surfaced to talk to the press. It put a smile on my face that out of all the people they could have talked to Monday morning and out of all the emails they could have read, Mandi, Tasha, Donna and I's dispute over who "Wore the pants" was the an important fifteen minutes of subject on their show.

I don't think I'm allowed to host or republish the actual segment but if you CLICK the link below and download the mp3 from Monday, February 11th entitled 'Push Present Recap,' you can hear the "drama unfold.” If you wanna' hear the original conversation, CLICK 'Push Present' from the previous Friday show.

CHECK IT OUT

Off The Air For A Stint

Every now and again, I burn out of sitting in front of a computer. So much CPU work goes into what seems like everything I do that sometimes it's just good to walk away from it, even if you can't.

I can actually say, this time, when I step away for a bit that I can. I just finished up a slew jobs that have been hanging over my head. In fact, the only thing there is left to unfinished that involves a computer right now is a updating my website and finishing the Jeopardy Business/Press Kit package.

Nobody looks at my website so it can wait. And the Jeopardy Business Package does not matter until I finish all the pencil and paper work so.... YOOO HOOO! I'm gone for a bit.

I've gotta' move the chair over to the drawing desk and get to work on some other stuff like the Jeopardy Storyboards and my daughter's picture I am trying to finish by the time Little Man shows and I go to work for myself.

For Now:

THE PARTY OF THE YEAR DVD IS DONE!

(The DVD Cover)

THE TO THE MOON WEDDINGS FLYER

(I Need Wedding Business to Keep me afloat.)
THAT'S MY GORGEOUS WIFE BY THE WAY...

If you miss me, (highly doubted,) come see me on the other side of my brain.

I'll Take Recreating the Jeopardy Stage for 50, Alex...

For the past four months while visualizing Jeopardy, I always had it stuck in my head that the final shot of the movie would have to be done entirely green screened. After watching Jeopardy, studying the set and visualizing that last shot, I realize that maybe green screening may not be the direction to take. The shot itself, less than twenty seconds long would and moves from a Close Up to a Medium Close Up. With in that range only about 50% of the actual podium will show, leaving the back ground covered by it and Henry himself to an extent.





Doing some tests with different gels, glass, fiberglass, I am thinking just literally dressing a "set" or making a similar to show the background would be the cheaper and easier route to go. To really think about it: If we green screened the shot, we would still have to build the podium. And then I would spend countless hours in Illustrator, Shake, Photoshop, AE, Swift, building and recreating the hanging frames you see in the picture below. And even then, it may take me four months to get it right if I get all the textures and looks right. The simpler approach: Build the podium out of wood-- Use metallic paint and texture to cover the wood and give it a plastic/metal feel. Buy a metal flat for the LCD monitor-- Keep the camera static, CG the lights on top of the podium and blue LCD monitor. Construct some makeshift metal or wood frames and put gels, colored fiberglass, and the same metallic textured paint in them. Hang on those from the ceiling in front of a light blue background add some filters and post production touches to the footage to make it look like TV and BADA BING! Henry is on the Jeopardy set.

The NC Incident is Complete Seven Months to the Day

This is the final hours of my wedding weekend wrapped up into ten minutes ending in an emotional hair raising montage of time with friends and family through the years. Cutting this was one of my favorite moments in the editing bay of 2007. I captured about five hours of archived footage to use in that small four minute montage.(The Clip is ten minutes, the montage is about four of the ten.) I could have captured another ten hours. Like I've always said, my kids are going to have a great time going through my 600 to 700 some tapes I've captured over the years. If I would have had time and resources I would have done it myself for this clip. I just simply didn't have time to go through every tape of every friend and family member and pick their best moment I've captured of them. What lays out in the final is almost just as good.

The NC Incident, (Mandi and Garrick's wedding,) is being packaged and completed this Sunday. The third and final installment of the three part epic wedding trilogy is behind me. From the tens of twenty song and clip alterations, to the month long grind fest of getting my ceremony to at least what I could call a viewable stage, to half assing the final credits to say I was done.... IT IS OVER, seven months to the day. I ran a test DVD of it Saturday and it only needed one adjustment.... (THE WHOLE THING!!!) -- Kidding. This DVD is packed with stuff to keep you entertained for a good two and half hours. On top of the actual hour and a half movie, there is a commentary track that explains what you don't see, five full ridiculous karaoke performances from the reception. Alternate sequences, trailers, deleted clips, poster and picture gallery's and trailers from the past two wedding movies.

If you attended my wedding you will be receiving a copy. If you didn't make it, I may not have your address, (Jazz excluded,)so if you are interested in seeing it, drop me your address through email, (Don't post your address on a blog comment,) and I'll send you a copy.

SPOILER ALERT: This clip is the end of the film. If you want the 'build' of the movie before you watch this clip. Don't watch it now. Wait for the DVD.

To see other information, exclusive web clips, and other stuff CLICK HERE. Sunday the complete package of media, clips and other useless information will be available there.

So What Did the Jewish Pedophile Say?

The title of this entry and the little teaser poster above was a joke that was told Thursday night at the Tap Room the night everybody arrived. After it was told orignally, it was repeated and laughed about at least 20 more times throughout the weekend. It became almost an ongoing joke throughout the weekend.

During the six month post production period of this epic wedding video another ongoing joke arised: "Garrick, try and be subjective and selective." If you are a professional cameraman and editor, I employ you not to try and cut your own wedding video. It is not healthy and in all honesty, you may find that because in fact you may not be able to be subjective as to what to leave in and what you leave out you may end up with a huge mess as I did... I think. I had nine hours of footage to jumble through and believe me, I wanted to keep 75% of it. The longer it took me to edit the thing, the more I second guessed everything I had edited. This same situation happened to me when I cut 'The Jersey Bootleg.' Of course in that situation, there were 21 hours and there was, (no exaggerating,) 18 hours of stuff we could've kept. It's tough, because you were there and remember how it all went down. Sometimes, the camera doesn't capture it like that and as an editor, you have to try and tell the story without using every pause in conversation and reaction unraveling in front of you.

The NC Incident, was the same way, and because it of course was my own wedding video, I wanted it to be perfect. I'm a nit picking bastard anyway when it comes to the real footage I am given. This was no exception. From Color Correcting and Sound Editing every snip on the time, (2123 of them,) to re-rendering and positioning all the text twice, (once to change it, once to change it back to the original way,) I methodically made an absolute mess of it all. Now, nobody has seen this video yet, because I am still working on the perfectly laid END CREDITS, DVD MENUS and DVD SLEEVE, so maybe just to me I feel this way because on top of the CC and Sound Edits, I reworked every Sequence at least four times as well. The only two sequences that were approved by me the first cut through were the: 'Opening' and 'Ceremony' sequences. (The Ceremony was not reworked because, well there wasn't really anything else I could do with it. If you keep up with this than you that story. If not CLICK HERE upon finishing this.)

I said the other night, this hour and a half finale to my 3 Wedding Video trilogy, will be either a master piece or a f*#%ing Snooze Fest. By February, 'The NC Incident' will hit the proverbial 'shelves' for my little part of the world to see. The outcome will be determined then...

For now, I've provided a glimpse of the variations this S.O.B has gone through in the past 6 months. The two sequences below were the two I had the most trouble with. From the music to use, to the pace, to the amount of footage added to subtracted, they were reworked four times. The clips on top were the first cuts abandoned after the month long ceremony edit debacle and two month following hiatus. The clip below it, is the fourth run and will have to be final cut, done three weeks ago on a belly full of tequila a couple hours of sleep.

Let me know what you think.



FRIDAY - REHEARSAL DINNER

Edit 1

Edit 4

BACK AT THE HOTEL

Edit 1

Edit 4

Making Funny Papers

Jeopardy's early, early pre-production stages has already surpassed the early stages of 'Meter' by over a mile in the tolerablebility race. The pre-production stages of any film can be pain stakingly, slow. In the case of my films... Deathly slow. Meter was agonizing and the 'conceptual art' or 'art department' was utilized by the count of big goose egg. Jeopardy... A whole different bird. I won't say it has been agonizing though. Sure, I want all the red tape to be done so I can begin really planning the shoot but I know I have props and sets to build on this one so I've tried to keep myself a little more grounded. The schmetics of the newspaper stand are complete and building has begun. (Even if it just be nail a day... HA! HA!) On my week off from the "norm job," I managed to storyboard the first 2 pages of the script and even cooler, really began to spend time on one of the more timely jobs of prepping the film, the Art Direction/Set Design.

In the original story the "Serial Killer Threat," was told through third person narration. For the film, the Narration was not going to work so a 'Backstory Catalyst" had to be inserted. From the first draft until the final draft we had the same idea on what that catalyst would be. In the big cities I've lived in, I was always a frequenter of the street vendor newsstand. You could get any magazine, newspaper, tabloid in any language at most of those vendors. If you wanted a Playboy in Cantonese at midnight on a Sunday.... No fear... The corner of Ventura and Coldwater's LA Times Stand had you covered. I thought, what could be more fitting than to use the street newsstand as the narrator for this fast paced, light dialogue driven film. I knew going in that committing to this would mean building an actual stand.... Or fly to a metropolitan area to find one and get them to let us shoot in front of it with little control over one of the key scenes in the film. I chose the first option. I was not worried about building the stand. It was filling the stand with periodicals that I semi worried about. Building the stand would mean I would inherit the task of making at least 2 newspapers and five magazines of my own to cover the racks of the stands. When I say making, I mean creating my OWN funny papers. I may even have to create more than than that. We will have to see. (If I were to use Time Magazine, Baltimore Sun etc... My budget would quadruple times another quadruple.) So like Quentin, who created 'Kahuna Burger,' and 'Red Apple Cigarettes'

and Kevin who gave us 'Mooby Fast Food' and 'Nails' Cigarettes,

Garrick gets to create his own brands and world. Of course, there are no cigarettes or fast food needed, but like LA Confidential, you can assure there will be some cool tabloid titles like "Hush Hush" Magazine in there.

The actual story is based in Baltimore, but we may leave it ambigious so we can make our own world with our own rules. Here is the traditional newspaper conceptual drawing, 'Metro Post.'

 

There will also be a more New York Post style paper. (My personal preference over the NY Times.) There is the 'THE METRO MAGAZINE', (the logo will stay like that, but the cover will change to a more autumn feel, since the story takes place on October 18^th.)

Then there is the Reader's Digest slash New Yorker magazine, "THE CITY STORY." The sketched belt and blood will be a real photograph for the final print. Stuff like this is extremely fun.

You got any good ideas for magazine or newspaper names. Let me know. I'll be happy to use them and give you credit for them as well.