About Exodus, our silent film project

Hello readers!

In the past posts I've mentioned that I've been working on silent film as a part of our studies.
Actually, a few weeks ago I wrote this:
"Our silent film project, which our crew started months ago, has been finished and publicly viewed. It was great and it got great feedback. Among the best, hands down."
I promised to you that I shall write more about making of this film. And here I go.

Our first practical assignment (after some theoretical studies) had indeed been to make a short silent film, to give us understanding on how things work in practice. Our first approach towards making visual productions. Our camera and lighting teacher insisted that those films should be completely understandable without sound (which presented challenges to some groups), and they shouldn't be more than 2-3 minutes long. Otherwise there were no restrictions or supervision. Group members were selected in random.

After a short brainstorming within my group, we settled on an idea of mine about a man who's trapped in a room. But it was my co-workers, A and L, who came up with the idea of this worst-case-of-morning-after-scenario. I was a bit conservative, as I'd harbored my idea for some time, and I always saw it as a sort of tragedy. But their idea had more potential, and I bent. Style of the result is something of a tragicomic.

We finished the script in a few days and soon started filming, and were first group to do so. Our work distribution went so that I directed and edited, A acted and L shot the film.
Our silent film took place almost entirely in a bathroom and we used L's bathroom for it. The place presented some challenges with its tightness. Bathroom was about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long. And into that space we had to fit a camera and its stand, two to three lights with their respective stands, props, actor and camerawoman, and only the actor could be seen in the shot.
What that meant in practice was, that every time I wanted L to shoot from a different angle, we had to move everything to create sufficient room for the camera in its new location.
Every effin' time.
Good thing we decided early on to shoot every scene first from one side, and then the next day from the other, to reduce the unnecessary work to its minimum. Third day of shooting was for supplemental shots.

The highlight of the movie was to be a montage (not the soviet one). First I imagined it to be from a single angle, but in the end we did it from three different ones. The montage was a great success.

In the end, the shootings came together quite nicely. Sure there we some troubles. We had to shoot many scenes again and again until I was satisfied, and the bathroom setting was a bit challenging with the ceramic tiles and reflecting glare. We broke one lamp, and had to wait for some time for a correct weather for the only outdoors shot. Of course the camera's memory card run out in the middle of the shooting. And as said, we had to move all the equipment every time we moved the camera.
But those were minor complaints. Things could have gone much worse. Our team worked together better than I could have hoped for. We finished sooner than other groups had started.

Then came the editing. The part of the movie making I had waited the most. I had done some editing earlier during high school, and fell in love with it. But the editing part was also the hardest. Part of the fault goes to our schedules. We finished shooting so early, that many parts of the editing process was still to be taught. And I was too impatient to wait for others.
For example, we had a ton of material to work with, which is ideal. But I didn't know how to tag or color code material. So, when I wanted to find a specific shot, I either had to rely on my memory, or to scroll through everything we had filmed.
The editing process took longer than the filming. We filmed Exodus within three days, all together about 7-8 hours of work (a lot for a 2-3 minute film). I edited it for more than 10 hours. Partly because I didn't know "the fast way", partly because I am a perfectionist.
A large chunk of time went to color correction. Another thing that was still to be taught, but our Exodus desperately needed color correction, as some shots were very yellowish, others more greenish. So I self-learned how to correct colors, and did it. Yet again, my way wasn't the most efficient or the most accurate, but it eventually got the job done.

I had to slow down, speed up, mix, match and create mirror images of some of the shots, but finally the work was done and I was satisfied. The running time vastly exceeded the instructed 2-3 minutes: Exodus still is 5.5 minutes long.
I thought the title to be "Exit", but A came up with "Exodus", which was so pompous and grand and biblical that we had to choose it. When naming our characters for the credits, A and me came up with another Bible reference, which basically made to whole film into a Bible adaption. Which is funny because earlier when someone asked me what the film was about, I said that we were making a movie version of the Bible.
(Like this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060164/)

Anyway, Exodus was successful. Our teacher liked it very much, and it was among the better silent films our class made.

I think we are supposed to make audio to the flick in the future, but that's yet to pass. I let you know about that process as well.

J.

And here's the silent film itself. I give you... our first silent film... Exodus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0_rhIgUhfw

About our short film project (and other stuff too)

Heyo!

It's been busy times for me for the last month or two, but finally I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel. In a good way ;). Soon winter holidays and total relaxation will be upon me. Except for the Protu's 2nd Winter Camp, to which I'm attending. But we're almost finished with that as well.

Our silent film project, which our crew started months ago, has been finished and publicly viewed. It was great and it got great feedback. Among the best, hands down.
We still have to do a report about making of the film and I'm looking into possibility of getting the flick on YouTube if my crew members don't mind. Its likely I also make a blog post about it. Soon.

Now we have another video project. This time it's significantly larger, more official and with an audio.
Those scripts we wrote that I mentioned a long time ago? We worked on them a lot and three indeed got chosen. Unfortunately mine wasn't among the chosen ones. In hindsight, probably because it would have been quite challenging to produce as a first proper film: it required the most extras (about twenty) and it had a church as the setting and there ain't too many of those around here (about one). But the drama would have suffered and it would have been one hell of a rewrite to make it work without them, as the core idea was about a priest holding a sermon. Nevertheless, I think it was a good story.
But every cloud has a silver lining: scriptwriters whose script got chosen have to work also as producers, as it is the most unwanted, but crucially important job around our education (nothing too artistic, mostly just organizing and stuff).

Those three that got chosen are now being made into film. I'm the cameraman in our black comedy project and it's the role that I most wanted. I tried my wings both as a director and as a editor in our silent film, and I liked it and succeeded in it, but the camera and cinematography were still a bit of a uncharted territory for me. But not for long. Of course I can't learn everything about cinematography during a shooting of a single film, but you gotta start somewhere.
Right now I'm working on a simple storyboard, that's likely to change a few times along the road, but is still vital for my success as a cameraman. Script is under some changes for the request of the director. Casting likely starts during or immediately after our winter holidays. Soon we will be doing location scouting (which I will be a part of, thankfully. I found out it's hard to design your camera angles when you don't know the layout of the environment). And so on. I'll probably tell you more about it soon.
Things are slowly starting. Then they stop. Then they start again, next year.

J.

I like folksy songs. I like Ray LaMontagne. Songs have too few animal protagonists these days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3sUpbmBYyM

About days of hurry

Hey!

Like you might realize from the title, I've been in a kind of hurry. I touched the subject in my last post, but this time... it's personal. Our school started slow (like they usually do), but suddenly all the deadlines have gathered at the end of the year. My room mate said, that's the way it goes in the biz: plenty of time, and then suddenly, deadly hurry.

We're finishing our scripts. My partner and I have spent so much time with ours. Never have I spent about 10 hours of work into one A4-sized piece of paper. But it has been worth it. Deadline for the "first final" version is real soon. The deadline for the "final final" version is a week from that. Out of 11 different scripts, 3 will be filmed. The winners will be decided by voting. Democracy isn't the best way to determine the best script, but it's the most fair, I think. I hope our script is good and appealing enough.

Also I have an essay to write, about alternative screenwriting. According to feedback I received from my unfinished essay, I still have a lot of work to do. Too complicated sentences, and so forth. And I have only written 5 of 10 pages required. It's a slow work indeed. A week for writing and perfecting. Great...

Deadline for our silent film is also approaching. Not sure when it exactly is, though. But I sure am satisfied that I started editing it weeks ago. It's almost ready. It pays to be pro-active, or something.
Lots of tests also. Math and economics...! Oh boy. And our 30-40 minute presentation about the visual composition of Fisher King is not going anywhere.

I'm itching to start with our own projects, but it has to wait. And I'd like to have a life outside of school. To start fitness boxing. To upkeep my relationships. To improve my guitar techniques. To civilize myself by watching classic movies. To play video games (and I have a lot of 'em to play...).

Also outside of school, I have a camp to plan. I'm a part of group that has to plan and make seven day camp for about twenty people. It's kind of "camp 2.0" as all the attendees have already been in one or two. So... We have to make a better and fresher experience than those they've witnessed before. I volunteered for the job and I'm excited and intrigued by it and the challenges it poses, but still. I have a fine line to walk between focusing on my studies and focusing on the camp. I want to neglect neither.

Nevertheless, the stress is killing me.

J.

Catchy song from one of the best movies I've seen in the last few years. A whole hearted recommendation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVDcw6iW8

About school

Hello there! 

Well. School truly started this week. Finally! Now we're getting our hands dirty! 

First, we have a deadline for our first scripts. It's two weeks from now! Thankfully, that's the deadline for a synopsis of the script and not for the finished product. My partner and I already have a basic idea to work with and to craft into a solid piece of script. Hard work ahead. 

The script will be rewritten several times and thoroughly criticized and only the best will be filmed. A not-so-slight pressure (for a first script in the school), but our careers afterwards are likely to mimic that. (Ok, yeah, sure, we did kind write script for our silent film, but it's a project for our "camera and lighting" -classes, not for our "dramaturgy and screenwriting" -classes, like this one. )

But that's fine.  

Teacher also laid out certain restrictions. Plenty of my ideas are outside of those rules. Rules like: 

* Only basic drama

* Characters of your age

* No weapons, blood, horror etc. 

* More than just dialog

* Doable with our resources (naturally!)

* Running time around five minutes

Basic drama sounds boresome, doesn't it? With minimal ambition and experimenting...! 

Rational rules nevertheless. Perhaps it's best like this. To write as basic story as possible, but still make it work. 

My pals and I are planning sort of film noir -film, and I would've liked to screenwrite that idea, but it won't unfortunately do. We're still doing it, but now it's during our free time.  

Earlier, we also planned of making this "poetry video" and enter into a competition with it, but it seems now that we won't meet the deadline. A shame. We had good ideas for it. 

More news! Yesterday we finished shooting our silent film, "Exodus"! Shooting took place over three days and lasted overall about seven hours. A lot, when considered that the finished work will last no more than 5 minutes. Things take time, and it's even more true when you do those things for the first time. Sure we messed up a bit, but there could've been a lot more confusion and chaos than there was. So, in the end, we did well. 

We were the first ones to finish filming, or to start it. Other groups have barely a script yet. I sure hope that doesn't mean that we were somehow too hasty and not careful and thorough enough. 

There's still editing left to do. My favorite part :). Other members of the group agreed to let me do the most part of it, and I shall start next week. 

As the length of this post grew and grew, I decided to split my text in half and release the other part about other stuff soon. 

So that's for now. Expect more in a few days. 

J

Have you heard? R.E.M. split up. I wasn't their #1 fan, but it's unfortunate nevertheless. But it's better to stop while you're still on the top. 

I listened this track a lot when I studied to my matriculation examinations and had the phrase

"Every day is new again, every day is yours to win. And that's how heroes are made" as my wallpaper at that time. It's kinda comforting. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKJoX5YXs98&ob=av3e