https://vimeo.com/47635655
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Trailer complete (mostly), rough cut begins.
Well, my title pretty much explained what has happened so far. I have assembled a teaser trailer for the film which needs some minor audio tweaks to be ready. This proves to be kind of difficult because I have little knowledge of audio mixing, but again am learning new things every day. It also helps that I am taking a class called Audio Post-Production this quarter. By the end of the class, I expect to have mastered Pro Tools. I'm trying to keep my expectations reasonable.
In the next few days, I should be posting the trailer onto my Vimeo page, this blog, and my Facebook page dedicated to the film (by the way, the address is facebook.com/Bravurafilm )
Right now, I am about 40% finished with the rough cut of the film. So far, it's been pretty painless. Although, most of the film is dialogue which I am not worried about. What is truly worrying me is the end of the film. Without giving anything away, this is where the physical action is. With the many constraints (financial, time, etc.) I am concerned that I don't have an appropriate amount of footage. This concern might be baseless, but I also realize that if the ending isn't effective, the first 95% of the film will not save it.
It reminds me of a quote from Steven Spielberg regarding his film adaptation of the book "Jaws". He had changed the ending of the book to something more spectacular. When Peter Benchley voiced his concerns, Spielberg told him "If I have the audience for two hours, they will accept anything I do in the last five minutes." It was true. Many critics love the film, and didn't have a problem with the shark being killed at the end by Chief Brody shooting a scuba tank that's chillin' in the side of it's mouth like a cigar.
My situation is sort of like that, but the opposite.
Tony
In the next few days, I should be posting the trailer onto my Vimeo page, this blog, and my Facebook page dedicated to the film (by the way, the address is facebook.com/Bravurafilm )
Right now, I am about 40% finished with the rough cut of the film. So far, it's been pretty painless. Although, most of the film is dialogue which I am not worried about. What is truly worrying me is the end of the film. Without giving anything away, this is where the physical action is. With the many constraints (financial, time, etc.) I am concerned that I don't have an appropriate amount of footage. This concern might be baseless, but I also realize that if the ending isn't effective, the first 95% of the film will not save it.
It reminds me of a quote from Steven Spielberg regarding his film adaptation of the book "Jaws". He had changed the ending of the book to something more spectacular. When Peter Benchley voiced his concerns, Spielberg told him "If I have the audience for two hours, they will accept anything I do in the last five minutes." It was true. Many critics love the film, and didn't have a problem with the shark being killed at the end by Chief Brody shooting a scuba tank that's chillin' in the side of it's mouth like a cigar.
My situation is sort of like that, but the opposite.
Tony
Sunday, August 5, 2012
We are off!
So much has happened since I last posted. Let me start off with a warning: Don't shoot on a RED camera unless you have the post equipment to handle it. The footage is large and your typical iMac is probably not up to the task.
Realizing this problem, I took out a student loan (the first major one since I started film school.) Now I have a 12-core Mac Pro that is having no trouble handling the footage. After all the setbacks, I have found myself reserving excitement even now. So far, so good though.
On another positive note, the day I received the computer, I decided to run my own data recovery software. The IT guy at my school couldn't pull anything off the computer but garbage. I guess in an act of desperation, I figured I'd give it a go. Lo and behold, I managed to recover 100% of the footage! For anyone who finds themselves in a similar predicament, I suggest running software called Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery.
I just finished the teaser trailer for the film. I found it quite difficult to cut together something that would entice an audience without giving away the plot. Especially since most of the film is dialogue. Of course, perhaps if I were a better editor this wouldn't have been as challenging. Even so, I find every film that I make presents new challenges. So even if I am not as strong in certain areas of filmmaking, I do feel I am only getting better after each problem that gets solved.
Just like any art, it is a constantly evolving process. I suppose if someone completely mastered an art (which is likely impossible), it seems like some of the drive to persevere would be gone.
Anyway, next up is the rough cut of the film. I have enlisted the help of one of my lifelong friends, Jed Beck, to help with the score. I don't foresee the film needed a heavy score, just sparse musical elements to accentuate specific emotions at certain times. (After just reading the last sentence, I realized how vague it sounds. Trust me, this isn't intentional. I'm just not sure yet where the score is needed. I'm sure I'll have a better idea once the rough cut is complete.)
Realizing this problem, I took out a student loan (the first major one since I started film school.) Now I have a 12-core Mac Pro that is having no trouble handling the footage. After all the setbacks, I have found myself reserving excitement even now. So far, so good though.
On another positive note, the day I received the computer, I decided to run my own data recovery software. The IT guy at my school couldn't pull anything off the computer but garbage. I guess in an act of desperation, I figured I'd give it a go. Lo and behold, I managed to recover 100% of the footage! For anyone who finds themselves in a similar predicament, I suggest running software called Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery.
I just finished the teaser trailer for the film. I found it quite difficult to cut together something that would entice an audience without giving away the plot. Especially since most of the film is dialogue. Of course, perhaps if I were a better editor this wouldn't have been as challenging. Even so, I find every film that I make presents new challenges. So even if I am not as strong in certain areas of filmmaking, I do feel I am only getting better after each problem that gets solved.
Just like any art, it is a constantly evolving process. I suppose if someone completely mastered an art (which is likely impossible), it seems like some of the drive to persevere would be gone.
Anyway, next up is the rough cut of the film. I have enlisted the help of one of my lifelong friends, Jed Beck, to help with the score. I don't foresee the film needed a heavy score, just sparse musical elements to accentuate specific emotions at certain times. (After just reading the last sentence, I realized how vague it sounds. Trust me, this isn't intentional. I'm just not sure yet where the score is needed. I'm sure I'll have a better idea once the rough cut is complete.)
Monday, July 16, 2012
Post begins!
Good morning,
This is the first post for my short film "Bravura" so I probably should bring everyone up to speed on what has transpired so far (believe me, there is quite a bit.)
My name is Tony Query, I am the writer and director of this film. The story is about a successful chef/restauranteur who has received a prestigious culinary award. Since receiving the award, the popularity of his restaurant has grown immensely. The film takes place on one special night that Chef Conti has arranged for some of the wealthiest patrons in the town. He has also invited a respected food columnist to this event. For her, this is a chance to interview one of the best chefs in the country. To him, she is there to document what will transpire by the end of the night.
This is the biggest film I have made so far on many levels. I was able to raise $2,200 for the budget on Kickstarter, although the film ended up costing about $1,500 more up to this point. I also raised about $400 selling my homemade beef jerky (which I take a lot of pride in.)
It is also big because it is the first film I've shot on the Red Epic, which is the grand daddy of digital cinematography. It is currently the best digital alternative to 35mm, although I truly hope that medium doesn't become obscure. There have been pros and cons to shooting on the Epic. On the plus side, the footage looks phenomenal. This due not only to the fact that it was shot at 4k (which is 4x the resolution of blu-ray), but also because I had a very talented cinematographer, Christian Simpson, shoot the film. This camera is quickly being adopted in large Hollywood films, including the recent film "Prometheus".
The downside to shooting on this camera (I am learning) is that working with footage of this quality is proving to be difficult or impossible with many computers. The file sizes are simply gargantuan. To give you an example, we shot about an hour and a half worth of footage over the three days of the shoot and have about 700 gigs of information on the hard drives.
To be accurate, I should say that we HAD 700 gigs of information after the shoot. This brings me to where I am right now. I did pre-production on the film for about three months (the script I had been tweaking for about a year). Production of the film ended the morning of June 29th. I am at the beginning of the post-production part of this film. This is where I begin to assemble the footage, start editing, doing sound design, creating a score, etc. I will also be creating posters and production packets for festivals.
I am technically two-thirds of the way done with the film, and have had a ridiculous amount of hiccups along the way (which I won't trouble you with right now.) I have learned that this is no time to get comfortable. I said that I HAD 700 gigs of footage. This is because I lost 10% of it over the course of a few days. I won't bore you with the details, but will simply say that I had two hard drives, one with 75% and one with 100% of the footage. On the first day of my post-production class, I literally saw the slow death of the hard drive that had 100% of the footage on it. I can already hear you asking, "Are you stupid?! If I had all that time and money tied up in a film, I would damn-sure make sure I had a backup!" It's a valid argument. Everyone should have backups of important, irreplaceable information. My response is, "I tried." You see, a day after we filmed I turned on my computer to make a backup and it crashed. I've now learned this was a failure of some component on the logic board. The computer is about four years old and has never had a problem. The timing couldn't have been worse.
Anyway, all but 10% of the footage was recovered and this is where I currently am. I am not sure if the film will work without that footage, but the only way to know is to move forward with what I have and see what we got. (Note: I do have backups of all the footage I have now.)
This blog will serve as a forum for me to explain the steps I am going through to get this film finished. I will probably be griping and complaining at times, but hopefully this will be entertaining, if not informative to you.
Today, I will be converting my footage to Pro Res 444 so that it will be easier to edit in Premiere. This will be a long process I imagine, but I am simply happy that I have the footage to convert.
Tony
This is the first post for my short film "Bravura" so I probably should bring everyone up to speed on what has transpired so far (believe me, there is quite a bit.)
My name is Tony Query, I am the writer and director of this film. The story is about a successful chef/restauranteur who has received a prestigious culinary award. Since receiving the award, the popularity of his restaurant has grown immensely. The film takes place on one special night that Chef Conti has arranged for some of the wealthiest patrons in the town. He has also invited a respected food columnist to this event. For her, this is a chance to interview one of the best chefs in the country. To him, she is there to document what will transpire by the end of the night.
This is the biggest film I have made so far on many levels. I was able to raise $2,200 for the budget on Kickstarter, although the film ended up costing about $1,500 more up to this point. I also raised about $400 selling my homemade beef jerky (which I take a lot of pride in.)
It is also big because it is the first film I've shot on the Red Epic, which is the grand daddy of digital cinematography. It is currently the best digital alternative to 35mm, although I truly hope that medium doesn't become obscure. There have been pros and cons to shooting on the Epic. On the plus side, the footage looks phenomenal. This due not only to the fact that it was shot at 4k (which is 4x the resolution of blu-ray), but also because I had a very talented cinematographer, Christian Simpson, shoot the film. This camera is quickly being adopted in large Hollywood films, including the recent film "Prometheus".
The downside to shooting on this camera (I am learning) is that working with footage of this quality is proving to be difficult or impossible with many computers. The file sizes are simply gargantuan. To give you an example, we shot about an hour and a half worth of footage over the three days of the shoot and have about 700 gigs of information on the hard drives.
To be accurate, I should say that we HAD 700 gigs of information after the shoot. This brings me to where I am right now. I did pre-production on the film for about three months (the script I had been tweaking for about a year). Production of the film ended the morning of June 29th. I am at the beginning of the post-production part of this film. This is where I begin to assemble the footage, start editing, doing sound design, creating a score, etc. I will also be creating posters and production packets for festivals.
I am technically two-thirds of the way done with the film, and have had a ridiculous amount of hiccups along the way (which I won't trouble you with right now.) I have learned that this is no time to get comfortable. I said that I HAD 700 gigs of footage. This is because I lost 10% of it over the course of a few days. I won't bore you with the details, but will simply say that I had two hard drives, one with 75% and one with 100% of the footage. On the first day of my post-production class, I literally saw the slow death of the hard drive that had 100% of the footage on it. I can already hear you asking, "Are you stupid?! If I had all that time and money tied up in a film, I would damn-sure make sure I had a backup!" It's a valid argument. Everyone should have backups of important, irreplaceable information. My response is, "I tried." You see, a day after we filmed I turned on my computer to make a backup and it crashed. I've now learned this was a failure of some component on the logic board. The computer is about four years old and has never had a problem. The timing couldn't have been worse.
Anyway, all but 10% of the footage was recovered and this is where I currently am. I am not sure if the film will work without that footage, but the only way to know is to move forward with what I have and see what we got. (Note: I do have backups of all the footage I have now.)
This blog will serve as a forum for me to explain the steps I am going through to get this film finished. I will probably be griping and complaining at times, but hopefully this will be entertaining, if not informative to you.
Today, I will be converting my footage to Pro Res 444 so that it will be easier to edit in Premiere. This will be a long process I imagine, but I am simply happy that I have the footage to convert.
Tony
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