Casting Begins...

Three weeks to go until the proposed shooting date in mid-march.

The revised draft of the script is ready and I've put out a casting call through PCR http://www.pcrnewsletter.com/pcr/

PCR offer a very professional service, and my adverts there usually result in a deluge of replies, although this time the requirement is for actors in their 50's so I don't expect to get as many replies as I have in the past.

The ad went live on monday and so far I've got around a dozen replies, including some that look very promising indeed.  There are still a couple of days to go until the deadline, but I don't expect to get many more applications, most actors seem to get their cv's in early.

Location hunting is still ongoing, there are two key locations to organise, including the aircraft cabin interior and the boardroom.  I expect to have both of these agreed soon.  Luckily there are at least two flight-crew training simulators in the South East area and a very large number of conference rooms!

For this project I want to previsualise the entire film before the shoot, so I've been working on the storyboards and the next stage will be to use Frameforge to create digital versions of the shots.

I will post an update on the process soon.

Focusing on this AND that...

I've always loved shots that do something a bit out of the ordinary, and this scene from Pulp Fiction features a great example of split focusing, with Bruce Willis in the foreground in focus at the same time as Ving Rhames in the background.

So i've been continuing to add to my collection of camera gear, and my latest ebay bargain is a used but as new split diopter filter, which is perfect for exactly this kind of shot.

I use a Cokin filter 'P' filter holder for my Canon DSLR, the Cokin range of plastic filters are easily the best value filters on the market and a great way to add value to your shots without breaking the bank.

The filter holder slides onto a ring mount (available for all lens sizes) and has a single filter slot which allows the filters to be rotated or raised/lowered.

The split diopter looks a little like a half magnifying glass, and slots into the Cokin holder easily, although it does exhibit some vignetting around the corners when using the lens at it's widest angle.

Here are a couple of shots that show the diopter in action, the first shot shows the scene with the naked lens.  The camera is looking through a mirror back into the room.  The bed is in focus but the frame of the mirror is soft.

This second shot shows the scene with the diopter in place, and the difference is immediately apparent.  The foreground mirror frame is much sharper while the bed in the background remains in focus. 

The downside to using one of these diopters is the visible edge of the diopter itself. There is always a clearly visible line of soft/sharp focus where the split needs to be hidden, in this case I've aligned it with the edge of the mirror frame, you can just see the blurred line above the starfish.  In the Pulp Fiction example the line is hidden by the edge of the wall.

I'm pretty excited about how well this diopter works, and it's another useful tool for the camera bag, I still need a few more grad ND filters, and a mattebox to control flare.

 



Adventures with BIOS batteries... fixing the Dell Dimension 8400

Since I upgraded to my new editing station, I've had less call to use my older machine, a Dell Dimension 8400 which is over seven years old.  However, the Dimension runs all my old 32bit XP software, including After Effects which won't transfer over to my new Windows Vista 64bit machine.

Recently the old Dell started playing up, displaying CMOS warning messages on startup and generally being a bit flaky.  It turned out that the Bios battery was nearly dead, unsurprising given the age of the machine.

Changing the Bios battery in one of these old Dells is a very straightforward job, so easy that even a computer illiterate like me can do it.  First I downloaded the user manual from the Dell support website http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/en/index.htm which helped to identify the parts needed.

The Dell uses a very common type of battery, a CR2032, and I already had some on hand, so all I had to do was open up the case and get to work.  These batteries are available from ebay or your local Radio Shack, and should only cost one or two pounds.

First of all disconnect the power and remove all the cables.  The case opens on a hinge at the front, so simply press the large button on the top rear of the case and push the case open.

Inside, the CMOS battery is hidden behind the graphics card and other boards on the lower left of the picture.

Here's a close up of the battery, the graphics card is blocking access and will need to be removed.

Once again, a very simple task on these new Dells, what would once have meant unscrewing the tiny connectors on each board is now simply a case of unclipping the green plastic bar at the outer end of the boards.

With the bar removed, the Graphics card and other cards slide out with only a little pressure.  They are fixed at the back by small connecting lugs, so tilt the out at an angle.  Be sure to avoid touching the metal ontacts on the boards and beware of static charges... be sure to ground yourself before touching the boards otherwise you could damage them.

Now the CMOS Bios battery is clearly revealed.  I used a wooden pick to spring the clip holding the battery in place and it popped out.

A quick press with the finger and the new battery is in place and the machine is ready to go.

After re-connecting all the cables, the machine boots up and a quick press of F2 enters the Bios menu.  I needed to disable the floppy drive as my machine doesn't have one, and then I set the date and time.

That's it, the machine is ready to go, and all set to give a few more years of After Effects and Photoshop work to my projects.

Herding words again...

It's four months since I finished my 'Bourne' style short, and I've found myself mired in devlopment on my next projects.  Partly because I have too many several different ideas on the go right now.

I'm keen to crack on and shoot something longer, with the goal being feature length, and I have two different ideas for genre films that would be suitable for the niche-channels like syfy or horror.  Provided they don't go out of business with the recession of course!  I have two different scripts I am developing towards that goal, but they still require a great deal of work to get beyond the first-draft stage.

Jumping straight into a feature length would be a big risk, especially as I also need to develop my interior lighting skills, so it makes sense to try a smaller project that uses lights.

I also need to prove my pipeline for audio recording.  I wasn't happy with the results from my DAT walkman on the 'bourne' short, and I have upgraded to a digital recorder which I need to test properly.

So, I intend to make at least another two short films this year, and I have been working on the script and planning for the first of these, for which I will be concentrating on interior lighting and shooting multi-camera dialogue.


Project Tacoma

This will be a slightly longer film than my last one, the script for Tacoma is running to ten pages, with a lot of talking, and at least one simple vfx sequence to add a bit of intertest.

The goal is to shoot within the next two months, so I need to get my skates on, otherwise spring will arrive and I will lose the dark and overcast weather that I want.


Project Lotide

The second short film for this year will have a different purpose.

If I were to set one goal for myself with a short film, it would certainly be to try and win best short in at least one competition.

I feel like I can achieve the visual quality I need, but the missing piece is the content.  Festival winners seem to fall into a very different catagory from the kind of films I usually make, winning festival films generally get by with less ninjas, hitmen and zombies that my projects.

So I've also been putting some thought into what kind of short would be best suited to festivals, I tend towards the more commercial end of things when I come up with an idea, but clearly a more arthouse sensibility would be better for the film festival market.

I think I have a good idea for this project and Lotide will be quite different from the kind of films I have made before, not least of all because it will feature only a single line of dialogue.



I will update on both of these projects as they develop.

Car Mounts and Audio Dubbing

So it's been a while since I last updated, christmas and new years have passed and I thought i'd better put finger to keyboard once again.


I've just recieved my latest piece of kit, a Manfrotto 150mm suction mount and ball head for use as a car mount. It's a great piece of kit, but I must admit I'm a little worried about trusting my camera with it! I'll be heading out to do some car mount tests sometime soon, once the weather improves.

Editing on the short film is proceeding, albeit at a much slower pace than i'd like, working a full time job and spending time with the family at weekends mean I've just not been putting in the hours on the edit.

So, I've decided to make a strong push to the finish and get this one out of the way. The picture edit is done, and very close to final, some grading remains to be tweaked, and there are two 'video phone' screen vfx shots to be created and comped.

The audio post production has been my main focus since January, shooting on the 550d results in terrible audio quality as the in-built microphone is atrocious and there is little point in plugging a decent microphone as there are no manual audio levels controls.

This led to dialogue being recorded on DAT on location and the rest of the sound is being completely fabricated in post. I've been adding everything from footsteps, ambient sounds and gunshots. It's a labourious task, but the end result is definitely hitting the high-end 'hollywood' feel that I am looking for.

November in the edit

November is drawing to a close and I've been busy editing my 'Bourne' style short film. This is the first time I have spent so long on editing, usually I tend to fine-tune the edit as I go and finish with what is basically a first-draft edit. This time I am trying a different approach, i've been putting together a rough assembly edit, and then I will work on reducing and fine-tuning it over a period of several days.

Right now I have an almost complete edit which is already running five and a half minutes, although I expect the final film to be closer to three minutes. It's been very liberating to try this rough-edit approach instead of labouring over every edit as I go.

I've also taken delivery of my new toy, a Lilliput 7" 669GL-70NPCH monitor, which should prove to be a real help with my 550D rig as it will give both a bigger image to focus with, and having a positionable monitor should really help with framing when the camera is in awkward positions.

Approaching winter...

So it's been a while since I last posted an update. I was in Sweden for a month in August, and then finishing the game has taken most of my time until now.

I've still been plugging away at the filming, taking my 550D with me most places and shooting footage wherever I can. I also shot yet another short for an online forum competition and managed to take first place, which was pretty good considering I only had a daya and a half to edit it. Much shorter than I would have liked, and the finished product was definitely in need of some grading and sound balancing.

I've also finished shooting my big short project, an epic sniper thriller with a twist, that is the first time in years that I have been shooting on locations and dealing with permissions and all the phone calls and organising that goe along with that. We even had use of a brand new luxury car, direct from the manufacturer, which was very cool.

I was going for a Bourne style of shooting, and I spent a fair amount of time trying to get the sniper rifle that would match the type they use in those movies, of course it's easier said than done to obtain a prop gun these days, and unless you are a registered film/TV company, or a registered sirsoft skirmisher, it's not possible to buy or rent one.

So I ended up changing tack and using an old M16 rifle replica I already had, kitting it out with a scope and huuuuge silencer to complete the effect. It certainly looked the part, and although it's nonsense to use that type of gun as a sniper rifle, hopefully in the finished edit I'll be able to hide the specific type of weapon and keep it as just 'the gun'.

I've also been experimenting with lenses, and last night I was out in town doing some tests with a handful of Canon 'L' lenses rented from the Flash Centre in London. They do a great deal where you can rent glass for as little as £20 for a weekend! My favourite lens of the night was definitely the 70-200 IS, but at £1500 it's a little pricey, so I intend to go with the cheaper, plastic, 70-300 IS USM instead. I badly need a longer lens as my 18-135 IS kit lens it just not long enough, and my secondhand M42 70-200 is too unstable for hand-held!

Right now I'm finishing up my next short project, an extended test shoot that I turned into a short narrative in the woods, next I will be diving into the big edit for the sniper short.