DONES!

What the heck?! It's been 14 days since my last blog post?! What, do these things run on time-warps or something?

Anyways, pleased to report that, despite all the drama, my movie is wrapped and in the can. Not a film-print can or anything, I just threw my flash drive in the trash by accident and it landed in my roommate's bean can and now I don't want to touch it because there are beans all over it. :S I would have it up for you to see, but Vimeo crapped out on me at the end of my last upload attempt. Here's hoping it will be up before the end of the week. Keep checking http://vimeo.com/user1410113/videos periodically to see if and when it hits.
~Weem

Reports on My Demise have been Greatly Exaggerated...

Perhaps I was over-reacting a bit with my last blog post. It is known to happen from me. I have a mild depression problem that tends to take over from time to time. That is not to say nothing in it is factual or informative; the attention it has been paid is proof of its importance. I am just saying not everything in it was necessarily true in hindsight or even needed to be said, which I'm sure many of you who have read it already know.
The short of it is that my film is not dead just yet. After a good solid week of editing I have finally managed to mold my raw material into the heavily saturated, digital world I wanted it to initially be. I am actually proud of the results I have on my hands at the moment, and have received a couple notes of encouragement from students outside of the class that actually enjoyed the project I have at this moment. It still may not be the best film of the class, but this is not a competition. Sometimes it is easy to forget that when there is a Film Festival in town. It may never be my best work, but it has turned out to be something reminiscent of what I originally set out to make, and that is enough for me.
It will be test-screened at Natura in about an hour or so, and it may still be a part of our Screener. If we have time I would like to screen the new cut in class on Wednesday, considering my fellow classmates are brave enough to dive into my work again.
So what went wrong with my post about everything going wrong? Overreactions mostly. The feedback was so jarringly negative that I promptly forgot my rough cut was just that: A rough cut. You guys can not see through my eyes the way the footage IS GOING to look or where cuts are going to be made. Obviously I know that is the case, but it is a fact that is more easily forgotten than one may think or hope. What I showed you was a sketch on a painter's canvas, of sorts. I have since filled in the colors and details, while at the same time covering up some of the rougher edges. I am not sure if any of you will be able to appreciate it in full now knowing what it came out of (I'm not sure I can either), but am confident that others removed from what was shown prior can, at least to some degree, appreciate what is shown now.
Good luck over the next two weeks you guys! We will all need it...
~Weem

How and Why I Destroyed my Own Film

First off, before you all ask, yes I am going to be 'that guy' this semester. Just letting you all know in advanced.

So it's time to announce the end of my film. Not because it is finished, but because it is dead. Kaput. There is no salvaging what I have left. The only thing left to do is to sift through the remains. Some of you may be proud to hear that after sitting through the rough cut earlier today, I don't know. Luckily for you guys I will be making a public spectacle out of it, so that my pain may be your gain. However, judging by the quality of some of the films already screened I don't believe some of you have anything left to learn from me.

So what went wrong with BlooDemise? It may be better to ask what went right with it. Sarah Doerr gave a great performance and came prepared with the part analyzed in depth. She was a tremendous asset, an actress already in tune with the project's theme, and a Director's dream. I highly suggest she be at the top of your casting list for your next project. And... that's it. That's really all that went right here. Oh, the projector worked. So that's something.

So who's to blame? First and foremost I find myself in error. This project was entirely on my shoulders after I decided to pick up the vacated Producer role, so everything must come back around to me. We were ill-prepared to shoot. It wasn't that pre-production went awry, though there certainly could have been more planning, but more that the project's execution was changed a mere week before shooting. This, again, is my fault: One for not sticking with the production I had prepared, and two for not managing to gather my crew together for a meeting before that time. This I will get into later, however. There was also a lack of communication between myself and my DP, to which the cause will also be addressed later. Actually, no, I'll go ahead and address it now:

The main problem with this production, and inevitably its (bloo)demise, is that my cast and crew were far too busy with other priorities. My film never became a priority for anybody other than myself, even on the days of filming. And they can hardly be blamed for that. Every one of my main components, excluding Sarah, were preoccupied with their own productions. There in lies the issue, and it is one that unfortunately does not just affect me. It seems to affect at least one production every D3 Semester. There are just far too many productions happening at once during this time, and the school's limited resources can not support them all. My interior shots did not work. Why? Because I did not have the use of the school's equipment on those days. Why? Because I had to turn my equipment in two days early in order for the other four productions beginning that Wednesday to have the available necessities. I thought I could make things work without. I was wrong. Next time I will have to be more cut-throat, but that will simply mean the same will happen to the people behind me.

This film is my responsibility, and I will have to suffer with it for the rest of my career. It may well mark the end of my career, at least as a director. If that is so than so be it. But why did it occur? We must look to the institution this film was made under: UCF. Somewhere along the lines my education has failed, or I have failed it. I feel I know a good deal more than I did when I came to this university, and I am pleased with the time and money I have spent here. But the bottom line is that this semester I was doing something that I was not prepared to be doing. I may well never be prepared to direct a film, but if that is the case than the curriculum should reflect that. And I am not the only one. Looking over the projects of my classmates and seeing what has come out of their respective talents, I believe the same can be said for more of us. Despite what we have learned and suffered through our respective talents remain near the levels they were at when we were accepted into the program. Styles remain the same, as do errors. The students whose films are well received are the ones that were making impressive films beforehand. I am not saying we have not learned anything, I am simply saying we have not learned everything. A school can not work miracles. All of us have improved in select areas, and I believe the true purpose of this school is to show us where we excel and put us in that area. Some of us realized this before I did, and they are the Editors, Directors of Photography, and Producers of the class. The others... well there are many good directors, but I believe it is fair to say there are those of us who had no business directing a film this year, myself included. I believe we all secretly know who these people are. They are not failures and by no means untalented, they are just working hard in the wrong place.

So what can be done to fix this? Well the class is close to doing it already: Catering students to niche jobs. But it is not there just yet. We must be pushed, sometimes, into doing what is best for ourselves despite what we may think we want. It is of my opinion that the class should be divided into ordered slots pre-planned by the amount of students entering at the beginning of the semester. There will be a limited number of Director positions, forcing some students to take other roles. The Directors, conversely, will also have to work on a project that is not entirely theirs. There will be enough writers available now, obviously, and the Directors will have to work with them. Nobody will edit their own film either, as we will have enough roles for that as well. Obviously since there are two editing, writing, and DP jobs a student has to fulfill one person will be allowed to mix and match: You can write one film and edit another. It may seem unfair, but I believe in the end the class will be thankful for this structure. Not only does it force the students to work in a position they might not have been solely devoted to previously, but it also creates a collaborative effort that many of us never experience before we exit the school; an experience that is nevertheless one of the most important skills in filmmaking.

I myself would have been a writer in this system, and ideally would have been one going in to this class had more than one person desired the use of whatever talents I may have. We all seemed intent on directing our own grand ideas, though. Instead we should have come together to actually make a few of those grand ideas come to fruition.

There are just far too many productions under way in the Winter Semester. Between D1, which is currently experiencing an influx, and the large amount of massive D3 productions there is not enough talent and equipment to go around. This may work in Spring because D2 is a bit more of a collaborative class and the productions are, by nature of the curriculum, smaller, not to mention there are often less Capstones going out than there are D1s coming in. A summer course may offer another solution, but I don't think anybody really wants to go through that at the moment. I can sum up nearly every one of my problems to the fact that a person working with me had to duck out for their own production worries. Where were the Cinema Studies students during all of this? I have no idea. Certainly not at Colloquium and looking for positions for which I would have gladly offered.

I hope this helps somebody, or at least makes sense to somebody else. And, again, I apologize to all involved with my film that your names will have to be associated with it forevermore. At least the boring monologue at the beginning will put the audience to sleep before they manage to read your name in the credits.

~William

Set Report: First Day of Shooting

Well, everything went pretty well today on the soundstage, with the exception of aggravating brick cleaning going on in the back lot and clogging up my unloading bay! >:O
We still managed to get almost everything we scheduled shot. We decided to move a short bathroom scene to an on-location shoot because it didn't mesh well with the projector and we had to momentarily abandon one scene because of acting problems. A quick script re-write on Tuesday should clear everything up and we'll pick the scene up Tuesday.
But not everything is bad news and set-backs: We managed to shoot the 'extra' scene I was hoping we'd get to but not sure would actually come about. Not only did it turn out great, but we managed to re-work it in such a way that it might actually fit in the final project, especially given the up-coming re-writes. Footage and photos coming as soon as possible. On top of that, the projector looked great.
Until then, shooting resumes on Wednesday and we will wrap everything up with remaining shots and pick-ups on Saturday at my apartment.
One final note: I'm beginning to become comfortable amongst chaos. I am not sure if this is good or not. More news on this new development as it arises...

The Never-Ending Actor Search

I've lost my last gamble at a new actor for the lead in time for shooting Monday. With some cast shuffling Christopher Valori will now play the lead and Alex Sushil will take his part in the supporting role.
On the bright side actress Sarah Doerr has been locked for the lead actress and we will shoot all of her parts on Wednesday to get around her busy schedule. Yin and Yang always balances out, I suppose...

PICCIES!

I promised you some images.
So here they are, in all their out-of-context glory!
(you have to right click and select 'view image' to see the whole picture, without blog-site cropping)
The messy apartment


The destroyed carcass of Detroit, Rock City

OMG A POST

First off, an apology for not posting in... geez, has it really been almost two months? Man am I going to fail this grade...

Anyways, the production has undergone some rather large changes during this time, which is really to be expected with any student film. The core group of talent is still present though: Ross Goodman, DP. Jamie Hanson, Prod Design. Alex Sushil, editor. Pete Hoang, Script Sup. Jason Dyke, Key Grip. Some notable changes: Jonathan Hamilton could not AD on our shoot dates, so Jamie will fill the role of Assistant Director. Edgar Jorge will be Sound Mixer.
Casting has also changed a fair bit: Christopher Valori and Jonathan Hohensee will still be filling out the supporting cast, but the third roommate role has been dropped. Talks are currently in action with the lead female, who has run into some scheduling problems. A replacement is set to assume her role if she can not clear them up in time. The lead male has recently dropped out and a frantic search is currently underway for his replacement, but again things like this are expected with student films. An emergency plan involving flip-flop casting is in hand if no new lead can be found in time.

Other than all that everything is still going fine. The actual art direction on the project has shifted a tad: It will no longer be entirely projected in a sound stage, but instead only select scenes. The rest will be shot on location at an apartment only a few blocks away. Stills of the computer-altered projection sequences, and possibly a video or two, should be up here tomorrow. Until that time thanks for the wait.