The Big Damn Movie: So it looks like I didn't finish the Intro or the title cards last month. I made progress with the intro and have most of the new audio ready to be recorded. The title cards were suppose to get done yesterday and saturday, but that didn't happen for several reasons. I was too exhausted yesterday to be useful to anyone/thing. A combination of a late night working, beer and insomnia meant I spent most of the day in a haze of discomfort and malaise. Got distracted on Saturday and was working on anoter part of the movie, that often beloved credits sequence! Credit is always deserved where credit is due. Made some substantial progress there, so nothing was wasted.
I've also decided on the three nonscav projects to focus on next. One is called "Political Science" and will be in the vein of "Steve Martin's Christmas Wish". A second project is just being called "Iraq #1" as I have several Iraq projects in my head. Finally a non-political project called "Believe" that is more like "2001: The End" except shorter and a bit lighter in tone. My first priority is still the "The Big Damn Movie" and then the second scav music video, so those things will come slowly. Hopefully I'll have something to report next week. I'll be out of town this weekend so hopefully the travel time will give me an opportunity to finish something.
In other news, the PBS series Frontline starts next week on October the 9th. This is one of the best programs on the air so I highly recommend people watch it. Times vary based on region, so folks so check out pbs.org for info. The new episode is entitled "Cheney's Law".
And as I haven't done this in a while here's some of what I've been listening too:
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: What's Going On
Aesop Rock: None Shall Pass
Deadboy & The Elephantmen: We Are the Night Sky
Liars: Liars
Queens of the Stone Age: Era Vulgris
Brother Ali: Shadows on the Sun
Otis Redding
(currently listening to Edith Piaf)
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Symphony of Tourrette
The Big Damn Movie: Is actually coming along well for the first time. I've finished the Judgment/Outro sections. There is always things that will need looking at later once I've moved away from it and of course pacing once the whole thing is done. There is one vid that I might change, but just for something of higher quality. As always, there is the question of whether its actually funny or I'm just nuts. I've also nearly finished the Intro section. I have a bunch of audio work to do and then looking over a couple of sections, but its come along nicely.
Beyond that, made some major move forwards on a lot of the nitty gritty details. The titles are almost all finished and the ones that are have been added in and the proper fades and lengths have been done. I've also had some good luck in finding material to borrow for the film which has moved things along greatly. I hope to have the intro and all the title cards finished by the end of the month.
Work has progressed on the bulk of the movie too, the items and such. Worked on several key items last night to great satisfaction. Its finally starting to come together and look like a proper video and thats good to see as I've been worried about that aspect due to the lack of footage and such. Hopefully things we'll keep going at this rate for a while.
Now onto the movies I posted.
My Hero: This project has actually been in my head for over 7 years. It was one of the first ideas I had when I took a video class in high school, but never got around to making it then. I'm kind of glad I didn't cause I wouldn't have had the skill or technology then to do a good job. The video comes from the Cal Ripken DVD box set, mainly from a good documentary on his career, which is also narrated by Edward Norton, a lifetime Orioles fan (as seen by his hat in the movie The Score). Much like the Christmas video, this came out almost exactly as I imagined it. The opening quotes, the highlights with announcers, the crowd yelling "thank you" (from his last game) were all major parts of how this started. The hard part for this video was actually getting all the footage together and from other sources. Once it was all there, it was pretty easy. The one change that happened when making it was that the last half became more about the Streak night and his family than I had first thought. I knew I wanted lots of footage with his family as that's been a major part of his legacy and what made him important to me and my family as well. I'm glad it got done and posted in time for his hall of fame ceremony. My own way of saying, Thank You Cal. The video has a 5 star rating on youtube as rated by 13 people.
2001: The End: This project had been in my head for over 2 years by the time it was finished. I had first thought of it in the summer of 2005. I had just started working on videos at that point as well as rediscovering one my inspirations and favorite directors Stanley Kubrick. The documentary Kubrick: A Life in Pictures inspired me to start working on video stuff again. I remember exactly where I was when I came up with this idea. I was working at a boring data-entry job and by the grace of god, they allowed us to bring music into work. I was sitting working and listening to The Doors song "The End" and during the freak out section when Morrison says "kill" at that moment a flash of Hal came into my brain. From there I thought wouldn't that whole section match up with the stargate sequence in 2001. From there other images, such as the opening and closing of the film, came easily. At that point however, I didn't have the ability or hard drive to make such a project and it was put in the drawer after some very rudimentary attempts. Flash forward to the end of 2006 and I get myself an external hard drive and more know how. I began working in earnest in December of 2006 and was half way through the beast until that same hard drive crashed in January and all data was lost, including the then half finished movie.. (Que Vaderesque screaming No). It took several months to be able to approach the project again as what I had finished was totally done and ready to go. I worked on and off on the project till the summer when I finally sat down and finished it. While not the best thing I've done. I'm happy with it and glad its finally out of my head and on the screen. The only thing I wish was different was the quality. Lost a lot of resolution in the process of making it.
T.A.C.O.S. The Music Video: The song in the video is "Underdogs" by Manic Street Preachers. Its off their seventh and latest album "Send Away the Tigers". I first heard the song in March through the BBC and as soon as I heard it I thought of Scavhunt. The lyrics describe many of us scavies so well and I knew that I was going to use the song for a scav music video. Plus, I love promoting the Manic in the US. The images are obviously from this past year's scavhunt, so no real need to go into that. Though I will say that the final image in the film, the lifting of the scaver, was the first thing I figured out. After the hunt on that tired Sunday afternoon, looking at pictures with my 4 day out of the year finance, we came across that photo. As soon as I saw it I knew it was going to be the final image in the music video. It couldn't go anywhere else. There will be a second music video coming later. Both will be on the Scavhunt 2007 DVD.
Beyond that, made some major move forwards on a lot of the nitty gritty details. The titles are almost all finished and the ones that are have been added in and the proper fades and lengths have been done. I've also had some good luck in finding material to borrow for the film which has moved things along greatly. I hope to have the intro and all the title cards finished by the end of the month.
Work has progressed on the bulk of the movie too, the items and such. Worked on several key items last night to great satisfaction. Its finally starting to come together and look like a proper video and thats good to see as I've been worried about that aspect due to the lack of footage and such. Hopefully things we'll keep going at this rate for a while.
Now onto the movies I posted.
My Hero: This project has actually been in my head for over 7 years. It was one of the first ideas I had when I took a video class in high school, but never got around to making it then. I'm kind of glad I didn't cause I wouldn't have had the skill or technology then to do a good job. The video comes from the Cal Ripken DVD box set, mainly from a good documentary on his career, which is also narrated by Edward Norton, a lifetime Orioles fan (as seen by his hat in the movie The Score). Much like the Christmas video, this came out almost exactly as I imagined it. The opening quotes, the highlights with announcers, the crowd yelling "thank you" (from his last game) were all major parts of how this started. The hard part for this video was actually getting all the footage together and from other sources. Once it was all there, it was pretty easy. The one change that happened when making it was that the last half became more about the Streak night and his family than I had first thought. I knew I wanted lots of footage with his family as that's been a major part of his legacy and what made him important to me and my family as well. I'm glad it got done and posted in time for his hall of fame ceremony. My own way of saying, Thank You Cal. The video has a 5 star rating on youtube as rated by 13 people.
2001: The End: This project had been in my head for over 2 years by the time it was finished. I had first thought of it in the summer of 2005. I had just started working on videos at that point as well as rediscovering one my inspirations and favorite directors Stanley Kubrick. The documentary Kubrick: A Life in Pictures inspired me to start working on video stuff again. I remember exactly where I was when I came up with this idea. I was working at a boring data-entry job and by the grace of god, they allowed us to bring music into work. I was sitting working and listening to The Doors song "The End" and during the freak out section when Morrison says "kill" at that moment a flash of Hal came into my brain. From there I thought wouldn't that whole section match up with the stargate sequence in 2001. From there other images, such as the opening and closing of the film, came easily. At that point however, I didn't have the ability or hard drive to make such a project and it was put in the drawer after some very rudimentary attempts. Flash forward to the end of 2006 and I get myself an external hard drive and more know how. I began working in earnest in December of 2006 and was half way through the beast until that same hard drive crashed in January and all data was lost, including the then half finished movie.. (Que Vaderesque screaming No). It took several months to be able to approach the project again as what I had finished was totally done and ready to go. I worked on and off on the project till the summer when I finally sat down and finished it. While not the best thing I've done. I'm happy with it and glad its finally out of my head and on the screen. The only thing I wish was different was the quality. Lost a lot of resolution in the process of making it.
T.A.C.O.S. The Music Video: The song in the video is "Underdogs" by Manic Street Preachers. Its off their seventh and latest album "Send Away the Tigers". I first heard the song in March through the BBC and as soon as I heard it I thought of Scavhunt. The lyrics describe many of us scavies so well and I knew that I was going to use the song for a scav music video. Plus, I love promoting the Manic in the US. The images are obviously from this past year's scavhunt, so no real need to go into that. Though I will say that the final image in the film, the lifting of the scaver, was the first thing I figured out. After the hunt on that tired Sunday afternoon, looking at pictures with my 4 day out of the year finance, we came across that photo. As soon as I saw it I knew it was going to be the final image in the music video. It couldn't go anywhere else. There will be a second music video coming later. Both will be on the Scavhunt 2007 DVD.
Last Christmas
This was the first nonscav/non-personal video I made since this whole thing started. I was made last December and it was really the first time a video project was a) completed in a decent amount of time, less than a week and b) the first project that turned out something like the pictures I had in my head. I've always been a fan of this Steve Martin bit ever since I first saw it on the SNL Christmas special when I was in high school. So when I dusted off the mp3 last December it just clicked in my head that I could make into a video. Obviously it shows a lot of my technical limitations, but it does the job nicely enough. Its currently got a 4.5 star ratting on youtube after 45 reviews.
Friday, September 14, 2007
New Art Riot
Wow, I'm bad at this. Anyway, since my last post a lot has happened, thankfully. As you can see below, several movies have finished and are here for your viewing pleasure. They all know have their real titles and everything. Enjoy.
Also, in the heart of working on the Big Damn ScavHunt Movie. I've had some really good ideas hit me and some sequences are really coming together. The Introduction and Judgment sections are nearly complete. I have some photoshop work to do before they're really done, but they've come along nicely.
One thing I've realized is that I might not be able to top last year. I don't have as much footage to look at and its not of the same quality. Plus, I think my own creative juices in this area are slowing down. Trying to do something new and original in the space I have Having accepted that some of the pressure is off and ideas have come more organically. Of course as a lot has yet to be done and no one seen anything so all of this is just speculation and my usual self doubt. More on that later, hopefully. Well it should. Either way, here's a bunch of new shit to look at.
My Hero: A Tribute to Cal Ripken Jr.
2001: The End
T.A.C.O.S. The Music Video
Also, in the heart of working on the Big Damn ScavHunt Movie. I've had some really good ideas hit me and some sequences are really coming together. The Introduction and Judgment sections are nearly complete. I have some photoshop work to do before they're really done, but they've come along nicely.
One thing I've realized is that I might not be able to top last year. I don't have as much footage to look at and its not of the same quality. Plus, I think my own creative juices in this area are slowing down. Trying to do something new and original in the space I have Having accepted that some of the pressure is off and ideas have come more organically. Of course as a lot has yet to be done and no one seen anything so all of this is just speculation and my usual self doubt. More on that later, hopefully. Well it should. Either way, here's a bunch of new shit to look at.
My Hero: A Tribute to Cal Ripken Jr.
2001: The End
T.A.C.O.S. The Music Video
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