Miniature Movie Review

For those of you on Twitter, I invite you to follow my new Twitter account called
www.twitter.com/miniaturemovie
Essentially it does exactly what it says on the tin; a movie review in 160 characters or less. Its a tough job, but somebody's gotta etc etc...

I see it as an exercise in brevity and editing and (hopefully) making my point/opinion on very restrictive platform.

Fuck it, I'm not going to over intellectualize it, its a Miniature Movie Review thats all!


I'll cover everything from what I see up to date to classic's that I've re-screened for myself that day.

Do follow.

Google Wave For Filmmakers

So i've joined the trendy geek masses and signed up for Google Wave.
I've only been "on" a couple of hours and have yet to experience a fully fledged "wave". I'm working with my web designer for my new website and I see the collaborative nature of GW being useful in that capacity. We had said we would send files back and forth via email, but this certainly seems like a way to streamline the collaborative process, particularly when I schedules and geography keep us apart.

I don't usually collaborate when I'm writing, but if I ever did, I could possibly see GW becoming instrumental for that too... Possibly...

In short, I didn't really see myself using it much at all, perhaps the odd time, that is until I came across the following article from The Chandler Blog.

Google Wave for filmmakers: A concept.

As someone said in the comments section: "It’s exactly this kind of “out of the box” creative thinking that will make Google Wave a success."


I tend to agree.

Horrorthon 2009

The program for this years Horrorthon has been announced.

I'm personally very excited about seeing Romero's classic and the TRUE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE DEAD TRILOGY* Day of the Dead on the big screen. And what's more, Joseph Pilato will also be in attendance! He also had a small role in Dawn of the Dead fact fans.

Horrorthon Film Festival
22nd - 26th October 2009 at the IFI cinema, Eustace St, Dublin 2

JENNIFER'S BODY (US, 2009)
TRICK 'R TREAT (US, 2008)
THE DISTURBED (Ireland, 2009) + Q&A with director Conor McMahon
GRACE (US, 2009)
BLACK DYNAMITE (US, 2009)
THE SINFUL DWARF (Denmark, 1973)
EMANUELLE AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE (Italy, 1978)
DAY OF THE DEAD (US, 1985) + guest, actor Joe Pilato
ZONE OF THE DEAD (Serbia, 2009) + guest, actor Ken Foree
THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (US, 2009)
CONTAMINATION (Italy, 1980)
RESURRECTING THE STREET WALKER (UK, 2009)
THE HILLS RUN RED (US, 2009)
AT MIDNIGHT I WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL (Brazil, 1964)
TONY (UK, 2009)
BLACK (France, 2008)
SURPRISE FILM
THE UNDYING (US, 2009) + guest, director Steven Peros
SAMURAI COP (US, 1989)
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (US, 1984)
NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE & BLUE (US, 2009)
BEYOND THE DOOR (Italy, 1974)
SALVAGE (UK, 2008)
THE HORSEMAN (Australia, 2008)
GREMLINS (70mm 25th anniversary screening) (US, 1984)
THE DESCENT 2 (US, 2009)

For information and bookings, contact the IFI Box Office at
+353 1 6793477
or visit
http://www.irishfilm.ie
http://www.horrorthon.com


*A controversial comment for some, but I don't really consider Land or Diary as part of the original series, but part of a new series.

New colour corrected version of my last music video now on Vimeo

There has only ever been a "straight outta FCP" version of this video online.

This is the colour corrected version that was used for broadcast.

I only got my hands on a copy this morning.

Direct link to Vimeo

Next screening for STFU

The Underground Cinema short film night has invited STFU to be screened there.

That is an awful bad use of the english language right there, but I'm going to leave it unedited.

Come to think of it, so is that sentence also, as is this one.

View the program here

Here's some details from the site:

Wednesday October 7, 2009 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
The Kingston Hotel, Adelaide Street, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin (map)

We're back! Last month seen Underground Cinema screen 11 fantastic short Irish Films to a full house.

For the month of October we'll be screening 13!

We're also launching our new website dedicated to Promoting Irish Cinema.

Why not log on and become a member of Underground Cinema. Members can upload their showreels & add their CV's. You will also have full access to Undergound Café a new forum for film makers. Member can also add events to the wesbite and upload videos with lots more to come.

So let's see you down in the Kingston Hotel Dun Laoghaire, Wednesday October 7th at 7pm to support Irish Short Films at their best

Long time, no blog...

Its been a while since I've posted on this here blog.

Didn't mean to neglect it, its just that my other job as a full time Dad has proven to be quite time consuming.

Nevertheless, I have been granted the visa to attend Philip Bloom's film look seminar this saturday in Dublin.

Now, it was seeing what Philip could do with a Letus35 DOF adapter that prompted me to by one, a year ago now. And an opportunity to learn from the master cannot be missed. I have struggled to get the clean crisp images I have seen Philip achieve using the EXACT SAME rig as I put together and am attending armed to the teeth with questions.

The first two being,

1. What am I doing wrong?,

the other

2. How do YOU do it?

Great opportunity. There is an afternoon session also that covers the new phenomenon of DSLR cinematography (Yes, I WANT and NEED the new Canon 7d, swoon)

Buuuuut, father duties take precedence and am unable to attend both.

There is also a Masterclass on the Sunday, which I'd love to go to, but alas its far too expensive.

Still worth it though, 12 places only, you bring your kit and get hands on tuition. Amazing.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Trailer for the short film "Shut the Fuck Up" online

direct link for vimeo

http://vimeo.com/5531018

also on IMDb

direct link for IMDb

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458991/

and youtube

direct link for youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdZyt1e-IYw

Help support independent film!

Feel free to copy and paste any of the above into your emails, tweets or blogs and share.

Thank you

Ian

Its the simple things

An aspect ratio calculator can be found here

Free from wideopendoors.net

There's nothing more precious in compression than preserving your aspect ratio.

I cut a 35 second promo trailer for Shut the Fuck Up for IMDb

The dimensions they requested the video be are 480:360 which is a 4:3 AR

I found this handy little app online and thought I'd share as its not the first time I've come accross this dilemma.

The answer in order to preserve your widescreen 16:9 AR is 480:270 fact fans.

1st screening for Shut the Fuck Up

One cannot help but feel that Galways Film Fleadh festival is going by the way of Dublin's International Film Festival by slowly petering out its short film content. I remember a proud moment during the 10th Dublin film festival where my animated short "Timer" was screened as part of the festival to a huge audience. Sadly Dublin slowly put an end to shorts in their program and it fills me with sadness that Galway seems to be going in the same direction.

My film Shut the Fuck Up was deliciously rejected from the Galway Film Fleadh along with what seems a LOT of rejections from short filmmakers this year. So much so that it has spawned a Fringe!

As Jeff Goldbloom said in Jurassic Park; "Life finds a way..."

The reason givin by the Fleadh was time constraints. I investigated further and got in touch with the shorts coordinator for the Fleadh and he stated; that more time has been alloted for feature length programming and therefore shorts were, well, being cut short!

Short film is such a great platform for the emerging filmmaker and for those who enjoy the freedom to experiment. To do away with the opportunity for a larger audience to see, usually more cutting edge work is appalling.

My hats off to Jason Butler and all at FilmmakersNetwork.ie for putting on this fringe and also for selecting my short Shut the Fuck Up for screening. (Ironically, their selection process was plagued with time constraints also!)

I've booked my ticket to show my support by attending, sadly I'll be taking the red eye back home straight after, such is the plight of the father/filmmaker.

In other news, post production on The Other Marty is progressing... slooooowly, but its progressing. My wife went back to work after maternity leave making me a full time stay at home dad... Its getting there though!

European Release???

Shut The Fuck Up on IMDb

So here it is a movie made with no money and no crew ends up listed on the prestigious IMDb Internet Movie Database...

It looks a little bare and empty right now, but I was told it takes up to a month before all the information I submitted is processed and up on-line.

When I can, I guess I'll put up the "poster"* and stuff like that.

For those of you who take the trouble to visit the page, please give it your vote. (I don't know what happens, but sher vote anyway!)

*Note to self: Make a Shut The Fuck Up poster!

I received some on-set photo's from The Other Marty shoot that I must post here. Some look real good.

Meet the Filmmaker Podcast

Probably the most insightful, helpful and inspiring interview I've ever heard.

Of course, I'm a big fan, but from his insights into how he writes, to embracing digital technology just make me want to get up and start shooting again!

I am of course talking about Francis Ford Coppola, follow this link to the iTunes store and the interview with him at the Soho store in New York that occurred recently during his promotional tour for his new film Tetro.

I'm bleedin' scarlah!

Just release it already!

I've decided to sell all my camera shit and get one of these babies.

HURRY UP!

New Coppola

I'm very excited about this, although I seriously doubt it will get a theatrical release in Ireland.

I missed Youth Without Youth in the theatre as it was gone in a week. I was appalled.

Fingers crossed!

Bring the Noise!

Thanks heavens for nerdy plug in developers!

My friend Paul, who helped remove reflections in glass on STFU has pointed me in the direction of a plug in called Neat Video an amazing plug in that removes noise from HDV footage. (See That Syncing Feeling Note below)

I'm downloading the demo as I type, but from reading the site it looks like a purchase is in order!

I've searched the net and on some forums mention that the plug in is processor heavy and prone to crashing, but totally worth the pain for the result. It works out around 85 euro, which is not bad considering what it does.

I'm going to send a quicktime of the worst footage to Paul and see what he can do with it before I fork out.

I've also discovered an alternative by Revision Effects (the guys who made the insane Twixtor) called DE:Noise which pretty much does exactly what Neat Video does, but costs 150 dollars and is Intel Mac only, which is a problem for me as I still rock a G5 for editing. (I know I know! Insane for HD).

But beggars cant be choosers!

I attended the Give Me Direction conference today. I may do a write up some other time, but not today. But let me say just one thing; I was totally wrong in what I predicted about John Moore.

More later.

Shane Black no show.

Was looking forward to this this evening. I actually quite like some of the brain dead action movies he has penned.

I haven't seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and was keen to see it this evening. But the following was emailed this morning:

Shane Black said, "I've been working on the planning end of many a similar conference, and am all too aware of the inconvenience that a no-show guest inflicts upon the people who've been kind enough to sponsor his trip. This error on my part, though inadvertent, shows a terrible lack of forethought. I call upon what remains of your goodwill and please convey my apologies to those that bought tickets to attend."

Ah well, at least we get a refund for the cost of this evening.

John Moore has been added to the panelists for one of the sections tomorrow, although I fail to see the relevance as he is not a screenwriter. Still, he might have something interesting to say for himself.

Give Me Direction TOMORROW

The full line has been announced for GIVE ME DIRECTION, a new screenwriting conference organised by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) in partnership with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF) focusing on the how and why of writing for the screen.

Confirmed international and Irish guests for the event include Hollywood legend Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Paul Fraser (A Room for Romeo Brass, Somers Town), Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit), Jim Sheridan (In The Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Trying), Conor McPherson (The Eclipse), Damien O’Donnell (East is East, Heartlands), Tanya Seghatchian (UK Film Council), Pat McCabe (The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto), Roddy Doyle (When Brendan Met Trudy), Kirsten Sheridan (In America) and Mark O'Rowe (Boy A, Intermission). Actors Michael McElhatton (Whistlerblower, Spin the Bottle) and Eileen Walsh (Eden) will also take part in a showcase of new Irish cinema, reading scenes from Memorabilia written by Kevin Barry and currently in development with the IFB.

GIVE ME DIRECTION will champion great and original writing for the screen, and is an opportunity to deepen the IFB's engagement in addressing industry concerns. The conference will follow an informal, mixed format of sessions, screenings and interviews: plus a preview screening and rehearsed read-through.

The event will include a public interview with Shane Black, plus a wide-range of informal discussions and sessions. Amongst them we have DON’T GET WEIRD ON ME: a debate on the limitations and realities of arthouse and commercial cinema; LIVE LONG & PROSPER: a hard headed discussion on making a living as a scriptwriter: GRAB ‘EM BY THE THROAT: a focus on how to get the best out of your collaborators; and MONGRELS: a conversation on what it takes to move between formats as a writer with input from a range of writers with a background working in of theatre, film, and TV.

The running order for the event is as follows:

THURSDAY 4TH JUNE

VENUE: Light House Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin 7

From 17.00: Registration

17.30-19.00 MY ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN-TRADE

A public Interview with Shane Black by Grainne Humphries, Festival Director, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

Introduction by Alan Maher, IFB Production Executive

19:00 – 21:00 Screening: KISS-KISS BANG BANG (Shane Black)

FRIDAY 5TH JUNE 2009

VENUE: The Shelbourne Hotel, 27 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2

9.30: Welcome Tea/Coffee

9.45: Conference begins with an Introduction from Simon Perry, IFB Chief Executive

10.00 – 11.30 DON’T GET WEIRD ON ME

The arthouse versus commercial cinema debate: in search of some middle ground, we discuss the respective limitations and realities. Sponsored by IADT, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology

Chair: Simon Perry
Panelists: Eran Kolirin, Mark O’Rowe, Shane Black, Damien O’Donnell

11.30 – 11.45 Tea Break

11.45 – 12.45 LIVE LONG & PROSPER

A hard-headed discussion on the realities of the screenwriting life: the practicalities of selling ideas

Chair: Ed Guiney
Panelists: Charlotte Kelly, Tanya Seghatchian, Kirsten Sheridan, Tony Marchant

12.45 – 13.00 Lunch Break

14:00 - NEW, NEW, NEW WRITING SHOWCASE

Rehearsed reading of scenes from MEMORABILIA by Kevin Barry to be introduced by Andrew Meehan

15.15- 16.00 - UNTITLED RODDY DOYLE, CONOR MCPHERSON & ROB WALPOLE CONVERSATION

A three-way discussion on how to get the best out of your creative collaborators.

16.00 – 16.15 Tea Break

16.15 – 17.30 - MONGRELS

The freedoms and restrictions of writing screenplays: with contributions from some well-known hyphenates.

Chair: Lance Daly
Panelists: Paul Fraser, Pat McCabe, Roddy Doyle, Jim Sheridan

18.30 – 20.15 THE ECLIPSE - Special preview screening

Introduced by Conor McPherson & Billy Roche
Venue – Light House Cinema

Merged

If I've to go through that again, I swear I'd rather stick hot pokers in my eyes, which, incidentally is exactly how my eyes feel.

Still though, I can actually start editing tomorrow.

Next investment is a proper portable mixer with a DECENT preamp that can send a proper XLR signal to camera.

Incidentally, this show was recorded using a Zoom H4 which is handy enough. Neil the sound guy was fully portable and tethered to no one but himself. One man and his boom pole, a shotgun mic in a blimp (not sure which type) all into the Zoom H4 mounted on his hip.

My only problem with it is that it has no pre amp so it seems. The signal is VERY low from the files. For coverage I had a sony shotgun mic mounted on the fig rig and few via XLR into my Beachtek mixer and into the HV30. Now the Beachtek DXA-2S has NO preamp and records quite weak, but in comparison to the Zoom, its way hotter. Sadly the Beachtek was only used a fraction of the time, so for sound continuity I'll have to stick with the Zoom, but man are they weak.

Another problem is that the files record in stereo, well mono, but only in one channel when they come off the Zoom. I had to convert all the files one by one using Quicktime Pro into mono files before bringing them into Final Cut. I tried to do it using Audialhub, but for some reason, even though I set the preferences not to, it compressed the files significantly. I know the file size will be smaller going from stereo to mono, but Audialhub was taking the royal piss. Its usually such a reliable program but sadly not made anymore so I wont bother with a link.

Now finally the real work can begin*

*No offense of course to anyone who contributed to the film! I'm just a HUGE fan of editing.

Is it mice or mouses?

Elegy for the assistant editor...

Oh my poor poor hands,

oh my poor poor eyes,

if only the drops would fall

the pain perhaps would subside.

The many hours re-naming files,

while the rest of the world,

gets on with their lives,

while inside I slowly die.

Was that slate 45 or 72?

Was that take 6 or merely 2?

and I just rhymed 2 with 2,

what's an assistant editor to do.

The progress bars grow ever longer

as the sun goes down and comes up again

if I have a budget next time

I'm definitely getting an assistant editor!

That syncing feelng

Thank the stars for the internet.

I haven't merged clips in so long I'd forgotten how to do it.

Found this link and of course I slapped my forehead and announced "Duh!"

I receive the sound files tomorrow and then its the best part of a day to sync all the shots. It will probably take longer due to the young fella, but I'll get it done before the weekend. (hopefully)

I captured all the rushes yesterday and spent a good few hours tweaking.

I've sadly found out (again thanks to the web) that there is an anomaly with the HV30's LCD screen. And of course I find this out AFTER we shot. The LCD screen displays the image a lot BRIGHTER than what is actually going to tape. So everything that looked well lit is now super dark after capture.

Absolutely gutted. But I've been playing with settings and plug ins and adjusting the curves and creating composite layers to try and artificially brighten the footage. Some look acceptable, some look downright ugly. Its another case of limitations dictating the style. Who knows, it may end up looking great, the style complimented when its all down to an accident.

As you know trying to lighten a dark image is very troublesome, it adds a lot of noise and grain. The stuff is starting to look like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which would be fine if the film were a horror, but its a balls out comedy with merely a nod to horror.

Then again, Clerks looked like shit but it didn't detract from the humor.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll delete this post if the short gets complimented for its visual style in the future.

aaaaaaaaand, thats a wrap!

That was a loooong long three days.

Broken up with a night shoot made it drag, but today we had it wrapped in a few hours.

Seventy eight slates in pretty much two and a half long days.

Not bad for a zero budget indie film production.

I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank each and every person involved in the realization of this script into a film for their commitment, expertise and above all, hard graft!

I am humbled and blown away simultaneously buy your generosity and team spirit and belief in the project.

From the actors for making my creations a reality to the tenants of the house we were shooting in, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Here are some Polaroid's from the shoot, its all I have right now till I get the productions stills.

Man, we had fun!

There's Tom O'Leary who plays Marty, if you watch Fair City you probably know him as the doctor, but I think its about time the world saw his comic acting abilities. I've seen him on stage a few times and I think he's a great comic actor. Tom is also co-producer on this short. (We also made Shut The Fuck Up Together). Thanks dude, best of luck in New York!

Steve Wilson who plays Marty's brother Lou also came on as co-producer at the last minute and really rattled our cages. We only had a short window of opportunity between Tom finishing up in Fair City and him emigration to the U.S. and A. Inviting Steve on board was the shot in the arm we needed to get this baby shot. And it just so happens that Steve is an excellent comic actor to boot. Talk about striking gold. Thanks Steve!

I saw Ross co-star with Steve in Mike Poblete's New York Monologues the week before last. He is a very talented young actor and was invited on board to play essentially a cameo role. The part was so small that I didn't think it was even worth casting, it was a nothing role, I was even thinking of doing it myself for the craic. I am so glad we went with Ross, even though it was such a small part, he owned it and he was absolutely brilliant. I'll never think a small part is not worth investing in ever again! Thanks Ross!

Sorry for (no) photo of Fiona, line-producer for our shoot. A consummate professional and somehow managed to make sense of my rambling notes and extensive and unrealistic shot list and drew up an achievable shooting schedule and made sure we got the job done in the three days allowed and was never afraid to run around getting stuff done. Thank you very much Fiona!

Sarah who did make up and hair did a fantastic job keeping everything consistent and looking good and even traveled all the way from Kerry to do the gig. Now thats pretty awesome. Also big thanks to Gwen for designing the make-up! Thanks Gwen and Sarah!

Neil. Quiet, methodical, always scribbling notes. Total pro. Thats the look of fear in my face knowing how much notes I will have at my disposal. Brilliant stuff. Cheers duder!

I couldn't have done this without such an amazing crew, but my hats off to Eva for having an eye for the tiniest details in the script and on set, I would have been lost had she not been there. She had my back and thats exactly what a director needs. A true superwoman! Thanks Eva!

Arthur was always my first choice to shoot this picture, even back in the days when the original version of this script was almost funded and to be shot on film. How lucky I was when he not only was available to shoot at such short notice that he was willing to do it to without even seeing the new script. He's a patient, patient man with a great eye for lighting, a good listener and a great collaborative filmmaker. Arthur, you rule. Thanks man!

Me... Me, I'm just a prick with a penchant for toilet humor who misses his wife and kid.

Now to sleep, perchance to dream.

Day two, done!

We finished up last night at I think around three in the morning, maybe four, can't really remember...

It was a slower day.

A lot less slates, a lot less dialogue, but seemed like more set ups.

Our only exterior shots too were done and man did they look sweet.

Moral rose higher after we shot them as they looked so impressive. We did of course have to wait for the sun to go way down before we could shoot, but it was worth it.

Things ground to a halt soon after that though, as sadly there were people asleep upstairs at the location causing the actors to be very restrained in there delivery.

We've only a couple of shots to pick up today. Its a half day really, so if we get right into it, even though we're all very tired we could be wrapped in a few hours.

I forgot to turn off my alarm that was set for seven am when I hit the hay at four am. I didn't get back to sleep properly after that, constantly replaying scenes in my head, seeing Tom's face for the last couple of days while awake and in my dreams and again this morning while fixing breakfast and texting Tom at the same time switching on the telly only to see Tom's face yet again on Fair City looking back at me! Aaaaargh!

But.... We're nearly finished!

Day one, done!

Its now almost 2 in the am, and I'm about to hit the hay after a long 13 or so hour day on set.

We managed to assemble the best crew possible at the last minute. Man they were great!

The planets were aligned when this small group of people assembled early this morning at our location in Dartry. Many meeting for the first time on set. Myself included.

After a looong start, such is par for the course on any first day, we finally hit our stride just before lunch, eating up page after page of script before eating copious amounts of el cheapo Lidl food (hey, this is a zero budget production!)

Pretty soon after the shoot began, I threw away my copious shot list notes and we started mixing thing up and changing things on the fly and thats the point we really hit our stride. Shot list, shmot list, who needs them, we're making a fucking movie here!

I of course couldn't have behaved like this if I didn't have such a brilliant script / continuity girl on my back. It was marvelously liberating. Coming from a background in animation and in turn commercials, I've always rigorously adhered to the storyboard, but today I was finally freed from those shackles and it felt like we we're in the zone, so to speak. Highly creative and hugely enjoyable.

My fingers, toes, arms, legs are all crossed that the footage cuts together and we have made a pretty funny comedy.

I was almost kicked off my own set today due to my suppressed snort laughing provoked by the excellent performances of my cast, Tom and Steve, both great comic actors on stage and now finally on film. (Well HDV anyway, but it will look like film when Im finished with it).

I'm going to sign off now, we've a nice late start tomorrow, but its a night shoot, so probably this time tomorrow night I'll be on set.

The glamorous life, I think not.

Night all.

Eve of shoot 2.0

I am knackered.

My head is in a spin.

Shot list, scheduling, food runs, crew bookings, set dressing, rehearsals, meetings, meetings. meetings...

I want to sleep for a million years, but tomorrow is the first day of shooting and no doubt I'll be awake all night like christmas bloody eve...

Unbelievable turn of events today. After having so much trouble finding crew, particularly a sound person, we ended up, today, on the eve of the shoot, not one but two sound people willing to do the shoot.

Horrible having to turn someone away that you begged to do the job in the first place! Particularly an industry professional who was prepared to work for free.

I'm glad the script is getting such positive attention and feedback, here's hoping I can do my best over the next three days translating what I have written and putting it on the screen.

Nervous? Yes. Excited? Yes. Tired? Unbelievably so.

I've one more meeting tonight, meeting my cinematographer at nine to have a quick chat and then I'm going to bed bed bed.

I'll leave you with one final thought; if you are ever in a position where you have written and intend to direct a film, let someone else produce, spend time with your actors and rehearse.

My biggest fear on this is that I have spent too much time as a producer and not enough time as director preparing for this shoot.

Script

Just emailed the final draft of the re-written script to my actors and production team.

Fingers crossed!

This post is so short it should be considered a Tweet.

More Props

Props for the props go to Anthony Mackey for designing the Video Box sleeve.

They look awesome.

The free membership always cracks me up.

Pre-Production continues at a fevered pace

"Took a meeting" with our new Line Producer / AD for the shoot, Ms Fiona Conlon-McKenna.

Fiona has done production for features like P.S. I Love You and TV work on the likes of The Tudors, lord knows what she's letting herself in for with my juvenile toilet humor and slasher movie nods!

The costumes for my two main leads also arrived today. Being a zero-budget production I went for the cheapest option available to me. The surface area where the print is on the t-shirt is a little shiny. It IS a matt transfer, but its still a little shiny. Couuuld be problematic under lights. I'm just going to have to keep my fingers crossed. Watch this space.

Front

Back

As for the script, its shaping up but the ending is a little controversial among my cast/crew... I knew I shouldn't have revealed it until the final polish, but we are in a hurry, so I had no choice. I really need to put this script "to bed" by tomorrow. The guys are going to have very very little time to get "off book" and really requiring the need for a script supervisor on set. I'm game to that. I'm up for a bit of improvisation on set, but not too much. I think the written word is the blueprint that should be adhered to and only when its visibly not working than we can tear it to shreds and have fun with it. But as Steve Martin once said back when he was funny: Comedy is not pretty.

Its a good feeling seeing something being realized so quickly.

Also, I've been asked to keep a detailed production diary on the making of this short for the Wanaka Film Trust to hand out to their members. I am flattered to do so. These blog posts will be the genesis of that project.

Graphic design

Nothing screams "production value" more than an excellently executed piece of graphic design.

I sent my good buddy Anthony Mackey a quick sketch of a logo I need for the next project and the next day I get an amazing logo in my inbox.

I'm so impressed I had to share it with my NOAF readers.

A little extra effort on the "small" things on a project can add so much.

As the old saying goes: "If you put shit in front of a camera, you get shit on the screen"

Wise words.

Wanaka Film Trust

An old friend of mine and fellow filmmaker has started the Wanaka Film Trust in his new home of New Zealand.

He's the grandson of the great Seth Holt, something he is obviously very proud of as he is featured on the poster. Seth made some amazing films in his day, most notably The Nanny and Blood From The Mummies Tomb, both for Hammer Films.

Looks like they've been busy over there on the other side of the world.

Show them your support by dropping by.

Archive Photos from Holiday Blues shoot

Back in november last year I shot footage for a music video for my friend Edwin Cummins, otherwise known as Edwin james aka Corrugated Tunnel. I've designed album covers and single covers and one of the very first music video's I made was for one of his tunes.

The post production of this project was interrupted by the birth of my son only a week or two after this shoot. He came early and I thought I had plenty of time to finish the video before his arrival.

It was the first shoot for some new gear of mine and to be honest the shoot really revealed the limitations of the gear. I was disappointed with a lot of the footage we shot, which is probably a contributing factor to the video remaining unfinished.

I'm sure I'll get back to this eventually.

Thats Liam Dunne in the photo's with me who ended up contributing to the score of Shut The Fuck Up. Eddie is not featured in any of the pics as he took them.

It was a really nice morning on sandymount strand, and I might add, used well before U2 decided to shot on the same strip for their latest album. No Line On The Horizon.

Pre-Production goes ahead

Shut The Fuck Up is barely put to bed and pre production on the next short is already underway.

A small window of opportunity before one of my leads emigrates for good, so we've really got to hit the ground running.

The short is called: The Other Marty and has been a pet project of mine for a long time. Its done the rounds when it comes to attempts at financing, production companies expressed interest etc... but no-one signed on the dotted line. We thought it was going ahead when Film Base and RTE shortlisted it for funding, but we loused up the meeting. RTE objected outright that the writer/director could not in turn also be the editor. Obviously they have never heard of The Coen Brothers or Robert Rodriguez and that was the end of that.

Long story short, I went and got married, started a new job, had a kid, lived life a bit and this project was put on the back burner, but it never went away.

The project originally called for a boy girl team but now I'm re-writing it as a buddy two guy team. BIG difference. I've only just start the re-write and we are scheduled to shoot the week after next!!!!!

What am I doing blogging? Gotta go write!

Mixing mixing mixing mmmmmmmmmixing

My good friends at Intermission Studio donated a days mixing in their Pro Tools HD studio today. It was great spending the day in there working on this project, and on one of the final steps of the process to boot.

Due to my time spent in the pre-mix stage things started to go swimmingly from the get go. One of the first things on the agenda was to remove some of my temp sound effects and replace them with something more worthwhile. Mine were nice to give the idea, but just weren't cutting it.

My original intention was to go in by myself and feel the whole thing out, but then I though, I need a pro's ears if I want this to work, so I gave my old buddy and former colleague Jonah Shinbach a call, and to my great relief he agreed to do it!

With Jonah to bounce ideas off and his unending pool of talent I think we have achieved a very cinematic mix for this short.

I was also quite relieved when Jonah didn't poo poo any of my home recorded elements. To be honest, I was quite trepadacious as to what Jonah was going to say about them and how they were recorded, particularly the location stuff, but no.

Having the advantage of a HD studio and an emmy award winning sound mixer at my disposal, we took care of a lot of nuanced, subtle elements of sound that would only be heard if you were listening out for them, but keep geeks like Jonah and myself very happy.

In my opinion, I think a lot of independent short films fall a little flat due to poor sound quality whereas I feel the audio is probably more important than what's going on onscreen in some respects. So I'm relieved that this one does not and I am extremely grateful for Intermission's and Jonah's support on this.

An excellent day.

Thats two thumbs up from Jonah!

Give Me Direction

I've just signed up for the Give Me Direction screenwriting conference that will be held as part of the Jameson Dublin Film Festival next month.

The mail-out from IPSG states:

Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) in partnership with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (JDIFF) have announced a new screenwriting conference entitled Give Me Direction.

Attended by a mix of Irish and international guests, Give Me Direction will be an opportunity to champion great and original writing for the screen and to deepen the IFB's engagement in addressing industry concerns. The conference will follow an informal, mixed format of sessions and interviews: plus a rehearsed read-through and a preview screening.

Confirmed Guests:

• Shane Black (Lethal Weapon)
• Shane Meadows and Paul Fraser (A Room for Romeo Brass, SomersTown)
• Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit)
• Conor McPherson (The Eclipse)

More guests and further details on the sessions will be announced shortly

Its on 4th and 5th of June at the Lighthouse Cinema and the Chester Beatty Library.

Fingers crossed there will be more guests of note announced, but looking forward to this.

Oh, and it 40 bats...

For the record

A couple of weeks back I was working on the titles for the short.

I had decided to grade the film as Black and White as I felt it added to the tone of the film nicely. Because there is a but of a thriller/horror/slasher element to the short I decided to add a splash of colour to the end titles by punctuating each credit with a splash of blood coupled with a gory sound effect for extra impact.

It works great and has a nice tongue in cheek humor to it.

Today I saw the new trailer for Quentin Tarantino's new war epic Inglorious Basterds.

The trailer is riddled with the same title/splash of blood effect.

I know its nothing new having blood splashes in credits sequences. Hell, there are B movies a-plenty that share this technique.

But I just want to put the record straight, as both films will be going public roughly around the same time, that I did not rip off the Tarantino trailer, although thats what I'll be accused of.

End of rant.

PS I'm really looking forward to seeing the new film. I, ahem, "found" a copy of the shooting script online but have refrained from reading it as I don't want to ruin the film for myself, it looks long (its a PDF). I want to see what takes 10 years to write.

Score!

A few hours was spent this bank holiday monday with the very talented electronic whizz kid Liam Dunne.

I had last week put together a minimal electronic score for the film, its only 45 seconds to spot, but its a very long 45 seconds if you know what I mean.

In other words by the time my 45 seconds had elapsed it had became boring and ceased to have the effect a good score should.

Liam was about on saturday, we were just hangin' (man) and he had a go of my Casio CZ-5000 after about 10mins of him messin about on the synth I invited him to come work on the score as I had some ideas but not the technical prowess in order to achieve them.

Liam jumped at the oppertunity to score a film.

A lot of time was spent adding the specific elements that I wanted included and Liam was very patient and delivered what I needed brilliantly. I wanted to keep things as "old school" as possible and insisted that Liam perform everything Live as opposed to doing everything via midi as I wanted it to have a very natural human sound to the performance.

We did a few takes of each track and nailed it. Some happy accidents happened along the way that would never have happened it we took the midi route. I love when shit like that happens.

When it came to the last track of the day Liam came up with some amazing chords using a french horn sample. I took great pleasure in "conducting the orchestra" for this part and we recorded directly to the playback on screen. In three takes we had it.

A lot of work goes into those 45 seconds of screen time for a score that hopefully no one will hear but certainly feel.

ReelClever.com

I've just joined up with ReelClever.com

Its an online filmmakers showreel network.

My profile is here

There's nothing up at the moment as I've just joined.

The site is also in its Beta testing phase so its a little slow right now.

We'll see how this pans out, but it looks like it could be quite a cool thing.

Tom O'Leary

My leading man & co-producer Tom O'Leary, affectionately known as Tom Waits, due to his unending patience with this project has finally seen a cut of the film in its current state just moments ago.

I am chuffed to see him leave having seen the short in good spirits and keen to move onto the next project.

Long story short; he loved it.

Excellent.

Also in other news, my friend Liam Dunne, musician and electronic whizz kid has agreed to help me out with the score for this picture. Its a bank holiday here in Ireland so we have earmarked Monday as a day to finish the score.

I'm happy to say that due to this collaboration I have decided that we should record it live as they did back in the day with this type of all synthetic score straight to tape (well, disc). Therefore my Casio CZ-5000 will be dusted off as will Liam's own Micro-Korg.

Really looking forward to the final mix stage in the studio on Friday.

Final Draft 8 finally here

Well they kept us waiting long enough and kept what was going to be new a closely guarded secret over there at Final Draft HQ.

I just had a quick scan through the new features and frankly I'm a little underwhelmed. Why boast about a new improved courier font when full screen mode is STILL unavailable.

You can upgrade now for 63euro (from Movie Soft*) till the end of June other wise its close to 80 or buy new for a whopping 200 quid.

For those of you new to Final Draft, I can't recommend it enough, its intuitive, easy to navigate and frankly works at the speed of thought. And is the industry standard.

I love this program and I will more than likely upgrade in due course, but after waiting so long for this new version I'm pretty disappointed from what I've read in the new features.

I so had my fingers crossed for full screen mode, but alas no.

Final Draft people if you're reading this, how 'bout this simple little extra for version 8.1 huh?

* quick note about moviesoft. Small company in Dun Laoghaire. When I first bought Final Draft a few years ago, it was from them. I ordered off their site, they called me up and said they would be heading into town later. They drove to where I work, I handed over the cash, they gave me my software with a free tutorial DVD thrown in for good measure. Now thats personal service!

I'll be ordering my upgrade from them.