Assignment 1: The Final Script.

Well... having shown the rough cut to a number of different people.... quite a few questions came up that are addressed, again people want to know "what the hell is going on before we see the character." And a lot of people wnated dialogue.... what the heck is that about?

No worries. It took some doing but I've managed to get dialogue in there that actually adds to the concept/theme of power, that also provides a very brief explanation of just what is going on in a very generally and undefined context. So the final setup/script/plot/document/thingamajiggie is here:

On screen event	Camera angles	Sound Effects	Dialogue	Props/misc notes
Blank screen	N/A	Gunfire Tank attacks, somebody gets pulped. Horde Call Hail of bullets Screams Running feet.	“Contact Left!” “Holy Shi…” “Fire! Fire! Fire!” “help me! Arrggh!” “Fall back! Fall back!”	N/A
Rounds the corner Takes aim backwards Fires one shot Reloads Turn, crabwalk retreat, leaning against the wall. Stumble against the door Tries door handle It opens Throws himself inside	Fixed shot1. Tracking shot Camera turns and follows	Hunter growl	“Control-Eristarisis: Situation Overrun! Squad's Dead! Need Immediate reinforcement! Position..." hear static "Control? Control? Fuck!"	Vest, c/back, gloves, core retaliator 1 x 6 dart mag on vest
Slams door, Leans against it to rest. Pushes off door. Barricades the door Backs away, aiming at the door, slams hip first in to the table Turns and aims at the table.	Fixed Shot2. Tracking shot Camera turns and follows	Something slams against the door Claws raking the door. Door shakes		The stuff to barricade the door.
Picks up a recon Idiot grin on his face.  Aims at the door	Long panning shot over the table. Close up on face. Fixed shot2	Claws raking the door. Door shakes. Creature gives up and leaves		Loaded with stuff on table basic Recon, stock and barrel
Stands at the table Lowers his weapon.  Loads a magazine Slings the last magazine on his vest.	Fixed shot2 Close up on hands fixed shot3, quick cut Close up on torso, fixed shot3, quick cut			Mags, darts – lots of em. 18 dart drum mag loaded 18 dart mags x2 twelve dart mag x1 vest etc...
Takes the recon.  upgrade Retaliator	Tracking shot, moves around the table. Re-establish on birds eye view shot		need something... bigger
Assembles the retaliator with raider stock, laser sight and assault bipod.  idiot grin  Pick up PPS	Static shot from birds eye view		...crap...
Drops the PPS. Bends down to pick up See his eyes widen, idiot smile	Fixed shot under the table. See the PPS land Close up on face
Comes up with a stampede. Ditches the shield and 18 mag. Mounts a drum mag and tactical	Back to Birds eye shot.		grin like an idiot	Stampede under table
Something slams in to the door Door begins to disintegrate. Checks position based on map in iPad/pc/something	From bird’s eye Snaps to the door, then back to him. Birds eye		“Any receiving unit, this is Eristarisis…position Hallway junction 31-10. Have contact with main enemy force. Will hold them here as long as I can.”	The iPad/pc/something.
Slings the retaliator Grabs the stampede	Panning shot, circles round returning to fixed shot2		“This is K-Dog. Position Hallway Junction 30-06. Moving to support.”
Moves towards the door	Tracking shot from over the shoulder
Clears the barricade away from the door	Fixed angle shot4		“Solid copy K-Dog. Huntress, coming up behind you”
Something roars in the distance	Fixed shot 4	faint gunfire Hits, scream, something dies. More gunfire, close by.	“Good to hear friendly voices. This is Wolf: Joining the fight. Eris, any orders?”
Open the door	Tracking shot over one shoulder	Gunfire gets louder	“Eristarisis to all units: Just one: Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out!”
Charges out	Tracking shot over one shoulder	Gunfire
Fades to black, gunfire, screams of enemy dying			“Come on you mindless mother fuckers!”

So that literally detailing just about everything that needs to be done. the good news is that with a bit more background research and prep work, shooting should go a lot smoother this time... Now to track down my assorted crew of misfits and miscreants and minions.

The same venue will be used with a few minor changes - just to add a little more atmosphere/mood and background. The lightning won't be altered either. One of the last things that will be outstanding will be the audio aspect... I've got to track down sound effects and of course find a few voice actors - but that should beas y enough, considering my minions are willing to help. Now if only I could get Samuel L. Jackson to do the major audio... sigh...

Assignment 1: The Rough Cut Video

Greetings my army of loyal mutants and various other subjects of the... oh wait... wrong speech.... Ok. Joke's done: I finally managed to get the shots together, showing what I wanted for this particular project on the theme of power. What I can say is that it worked out fairly well... despite a laundry list of problems that need to be fixed for the final shooting of the video but more on that later. Right now: I present the rough cut of... I have no idea what I'm going to call this thing... anyways....here it is:

Now having seen the video in all its glory... the list of problems with this thing that I have at this moment I'll come back to in a moment. Because those who have been following the blog will have probably noticed that there were number of planned shots that did not materialize in the rough cut, and will also not appear in the final cut. The two shots in question:

The audio recording that explained the existence of the cache - this was dropped on account of it being completely irrelevant. It adds nothing to the plot and if anything confuses the heck out of things.
The bandaging of a wound - two reasons that this was dropped: The first was the cost factor: I don't have the money lying around. The second major reason was the venue I'm filming in has carpeted floor... so drips and drops would just get lost in the carpet, and then I would have to clean the carpet - complications compounded as I have NO idea what would get that stuff out - note to facility managers - Less carpet, easier for me to film and lower cleaning costs all round.

So looking at the laundry list of problems, well, most of them are related primarily to the audio and there are some camera angle and timing issues - based on the rough cut of course. So looking first at the audio:

1. Something is supposed to be banging on the door for a while, and the going away. thinking of making it growl as well, scratch and claw at the door.
2. The audio track in the background... not sure if there is going to be one because I think that might detract from the mood unless I can find something very suitable/appropriate for it. I'm not sure what to use but its probably going to be rock or metal.... maybe Drowning Pool, Trapt... maybe even Bon Jovi
3. Sound effects well given the ending I have in mind some serious gunfire needs to be found, as well as the voice screaming a challenge... I think I sound... kinda gay when you playback my voice... see if I can get Morgan Freeman or maybe Samual L. Jackson to scream out the line of dialogue I have in mind...

Now in terms of filming:

1. Camera angles need some work in this one to get things to flow smoother - especially the tracking shot across the table.
2. Shorter on the loading clip.
3. Shorter on the storing clip.
4. Shorter on the blaster assembly.

Having given this some serious thought, I'm thinking about revamping the script just to get a better scale of the scope and power of the weaponry involved... I know they are just Nerf blasters, but Nerf afficanados know that in terms of tacti-cool appearance it generally goes from the small or core blasters through the full blasters then the bigger blasters. So in terms of how things get picked up... I'm thinking of revamping the order, going from the reloading sequence to the blaster selection: from Core Recon with 6 dart mag, to Recon with Stock with 12 dart mag, then a Full Retaliator with a 12 dart, then adding the 18 dart mag and then adding the Laser sight, PPS, and assault grip, then the stampede, adding the assault bipod and laser sight with the 25 drum mag.

I figure this will give that escalation of POWER as the weapons get more and more impressive.

Now given that a fair number of people have seen the rough -- including a bunch of people I bullied/bribed/cajoled in to watching it, a strange question that came up: "WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE WE SEE THE CHARACTER?" Hmm... I'm not sure I actually want to answer that by adding filming or even if I want to answer that at all at this point. Whaddaya all think?

But for now... what I need to finalize are this laundry list of problems that need to be attended to, and also the revamped and final version of the script. There goes my weekend off...

Assignment 1: an update.

Well… moving right along. Having made a couple of simplistic movies and a couple of AMVs in my time using some very basic software, I figured that I should probably do a little background research in to film making and video editing before going any further. After all, I’m looking to get awesome grades for this project so I want to push the boundaries of what I can do. So research wise, I found myself going to all the dark corners of the internet, but it paid of quite handsomely as I found this  which is a pretty awesome place to go for beginners looking to make movies and film. The short version of all the advice, pointers and guidance looks like this:

Make sure you batteries are fully charged.

1. A large enough memory card with enough free space on it… you should be able to get away with a 4GB card, but I KNOW I’ve an 8GB floating around somewhere.
2. Make sure your lens is clean otherwise that’s going to ruin your shots.
3. A stable base also helps – a tripod is really useful here obviously, or if you can rest it on some flat surface at the right angle. On a side note: one thing I found was that a lot of the advice was that you don’t want to move the camera too much but get the subject(s) to move more.
4. Focus on the subject for at least five seconds.
5. Make sure you balance and compose the shots (composition, proportion and the rule of thirds… everyone who did games narrative or is doing games narrative will know what that means).
6. Lighting is a separate thing but in general: you don’t want lighting from BEHIND. This will cast A LOT of shadows on everything you do, which basically makes it really dark and gloomy… unless that’s the effect you’re trying to get.  Put lights in the front to properly illuminate and if necessary use a deflector (cardboard and aluminium foil, shiny side out for those who plan to DIY like this one here.

At this point, shout out and thanks to my lecturer – most of you know who he is – who gave me a well-deserved metaphorical slap to the back of the head a-la Gibbs from NCIS. I needed it because my problem has always been the same thing: Perfection… when I don’t have the budget, and I don’t have any experience going LOW BUDGET…. It’s probably why my modded NERF Blasters cost me a small fortune…

 Anyways.... I figured I’d do up a detailed – really detailed – outline of how the whole project is going to shape up before I start doing any rough filming… I managed to track down one decent enough camera that has an audio pick up, but I can always record the audio at a later time. Given the current plan, ain’t that much audio anyways so that works for me…. It will be a few lines of dialogue at the moment. The problem will be trying to find the right music for a soundtrack…. Not sure if I want to go moody creepy violin or just hard rock and metal…. But with over 60gbs of music I got to be able to find SOMETHING. More on that later… now to the whole plan thing: Looks like this:

Event	Camera angle	Sound effects.	Props/misc stuff
Running along a corridor. Fires two shots wild over his shoulder. Stumbles. Gets up. Keeps running	Fixed camera angle, tripod. Running up the corridor. Will run past the camera	Gunshots A growl from a monster
One person staggers in. Slams door.	Fixed camera angle, tripod, other side of the door.	Door slam sound effect
Close up face Sweat, blood Semi healed scratches on the face Looks down Checks his weapon. Out of ammo. “fuck.” Checks second: Out of ammo “Well… fuck… “	Close up on the face,     Zoom out/ cut away shot	Heavy breathing       dialogue	2 low grade nerf blasters: core recon CS-6 jolt pistol.
Door shakes and he jumps off it. Barricades up the door Silence. Whatever is out there goes away. Breathes a sigh of relief	Second fixed camera angle. To show the door, and the stuff used to barricade it.	Banging on the door	Junk to barricade the door with.
Turns around to face the room close up on face over the table camera angle eyes widen in surprise blink walk towards the table. …”interesting”	Close up on face Pan shot towards the table
Food, water, med kit Lots of guns, lots of ammo A tape recorder with a message taped to it “play me”	Pan shot over the table, stops on the tape recorder. Pressing play	Audio recording. “day 74…. Only three of us remain. Whoever finds this cache, I … we hope that… it helps… that you survive. For us, there is no more running. We draw the line here. We fight, and if we die…. We die in a pile of brass! Legion 31-10, signing off.”	Nerf Blasters: 2x stampedes 1x recon 1x retaliator 1x longshot – custom build 1x jolt pistol Multiple mags (6,12,18) Ammo bags x2-3 Scattered darts. Bottles of water Snacks A medkit prop
Close up on the face, idiot grin. Wipes away sweat. “Heh…Power up”	Close up on the face
Water Drinks, spills, soaks the shirt Rises out his hair	Mid range shot		Full water bottle
Patches up a couple of wounds, focus on face close up expression	Mid range shot		That medkit
Turns to the table. Starts loading magazines, Loads a few blasters Gun harness/rigs Camel back. Fill a backpack	Pan over the table Background sounds of weapons being loaded etc The stop on him still loading a clip Mid range, adjusting harnesses, slings etc. Donning the backpack		Table top with all the accessories.
Hip 2 Shoulders 2 SMG on a sling Main battle rifle in hand. Something smashes against the barricaded door Barricades begin to collapse the cocking/priming of weapons. Kicks open the door. Charges out, starts to fade. Fades to black, Moster/creature roar “come on you mindless mother fucker!” gun fire	Close up on adjusting armor etc… lord of the rings – aragon scene.   Second fixed camera angle,   Shoulder/over the shoulder camera/gun camera     See a pair of glowing eyes.	Whatever sound effects fit for such a scene       Crash sound     Weapon priming       Dialogue

VENUE: Need a corridor with a room at the end of it.  I know a corridor that fits.. that’s half the fight. The other half will be finding the right room: Decent sized, not too large, few windows, curtained/blinded. I want the half shadows sorta feel for this one.

LIGHTING CONSIDERATIONS
Lighting will be relatively low, but fixed in the corridor
Room lighting will be brighter 2/3rds half shadows. Edge lighting primarily, some limited use of reflectors to get the light on the characters face as appropriate

SOUNDTRACK: Two possible three different songs cut together, fade in and fade out. I might dust off my outdated copy of virtual DJ and see if I can mix something up, otherwise I’ll just use basic cut, fades, intros and outros. Time is the critical consideration here.

 

Now to source the venue, and camera person