I wanna make a movie

Yadda, yadda, yadda

2008-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

Here I sit again, filled with optimism and hope and still without a story. I spend so little time actually thinking about a story I want that it's no surprise that a story is not forthcoming. I have done some experiments and have created a nice video project for my wife. I have not done much to further my goal of making a movie outside of studying the subject.

In any case, I have been making time to read again which is nice. I haven't been reading much for a while. Reading is great for getting me thinking about stories. It may happen yet.

I have no delusions of getting a movie made this year. Last year my third child was born and the home live has pretty much adjusted to that change finally. We are back into a routine and that is something. At least things are a little more predictable. Free time is pretty nil. That's ok. My family comes first.

We are slowly getting things more organized around the house and that will help things in the long term. We are getting rid of a lot of stuff we no longer need, or never needed and just had hanging around. I feel good about where things are and I believe that I will in time make a movie. I'm in no hurry. I want to do it right, not fast. I need a good story first.

Posting time

2007-05-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

I tend to post to this blog from work during the day. That leads to these short, poorly thought posts that say basically nothing. I don't plan the posts. I don't work on them long because I need to get back to work. I guess I need to post at a different time.

Cicadas

2007-05-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

Once every 17 years, this rather large and annoying insect makes it's appearance around these parts. The cicadas are out in force, though at this point I don't feel inundated. My memory of the last emergence is mostly of the annoyance of these things flying right into me as I walked to driver's ed. Not a fun thing.

There is a story here though. I'm sure of that and I'm sure others are doing some. This is not a common behavior for an animal, to live dormant for 17 years. There is certainly a story to tell. Is it my story? I don't know yet because I haven't tried to write one yet.

Storyless

2007-05-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

I have little doubt the reason I have no story for this film is because I have not been writing. I need to practice and that is simply not happening. Even now, I don't have a story to tell as much, but I want to post regularly so here I go. No time like the present and such.

Since I now have access to Flash CS3 at work, I am experimenting with putting video online in an easy to digest fashion. I like the way the video is embedded at videocopilot.net and will probably mirror that style for clips without sound. It is simple and elegant. As long as there is no sound, I don't see much need for player controls. I need to figure that side out too. I have some clips with sound that will need controls.

On a completely different front, I am considering purchasing a Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player. I know you can put high def material on standard DVDs and play them back on this player. This would be a very attractive solution for playing with HD. Since my camcorder is HD, this seems a good option for me.

Pretty dead

2007-05-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

No, the project and the idea is not dead, just the site. I tend to write a post like this on each of my sites fairly regularly. Oh well. I've completed my lightsaber test and my shooting finger test. I need to get those online. I still read and study quite a bit, but so far no solid idea for the short film. It's May now, almost halfway through the year so I need to get cracking. I want to start writing regularly so we'll see.

Practice

2007-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

After watching some video tutorials about various effects, specially the ones at VideoCopilot, I really wanted to try something. I came up with the idea of making someone shooting with their finger look like they are actually shooting. I talked a co-worker into acting for me. I used the stock elements I got from VideoCopilot (their Action Movie Essentials product). I'm fairly pleased with the results. I have to resize it and compress it for the web. Once I do, I'll put it up somewhere and link to it from here.

So far I have gotten some good reactions from it. It has convinced my guinea pig to model for me again. Next up, lightsabers...

Watching movies

2007-01-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

It had been a while since I'd watched a movie that I hadn't seen recently. Mostly this is because the movies I tend to watch lately are whatever my 3 year old is quoting at the moment. This past weekend I was able to break that trend and watch not one, but three and a half movies.

Three and a half? Yeah, well I tried taking said 3 year old to see Happily 'Never After and he decided to was time to leave before the movie was over. I don't think that is because he didn't like the movie. He watched it most of the time and was very quiet. I think he just got restless and wanted to run around a bit.

The ohter movies were all DVD rentals. They were The Hunting of the President, The Day After Tomorrow, and Art School Confidential.

The Hunting of the President is a documentary about the investigations into Bill Clinton during his terms as President. From a filmmaking perspective it was a nice documentary. They cut in some old film footage here and there to spice up the video. The footage was varions, but had some connection to what was being said at the time.

I felt compelled to watch The Day After Tomorrow because of all the acclaim I'd heard about the effects in the film. Personally, I think effects are the main reason to see the film. The story is only so-so and some parts are laughable. The whole think with the wolves was really hard to swallow, even if you allowed all the pseudo-science of the climate change. The effects were convincing on the whole. They worked well given the far-out nature of the events.

I really enjoyed Art School Confidential and feel it could garner the exact pseudo-intellectual dissection as the pieces in the film recieve from the students. It mocks itself by being what it mocks in the film. I think it works well. It's a fun film that can't be taken seriously. And it knows it.

As far as the portion of Happily 'Never After that I saw goes, it was a decent flic. It didn't have quite the same charm that I thought Hoodwinked had. It was cute enough and I wanted to know how it ended, but the characters just weren't as full as they needed to be. Maybe I would feel different after seeing the whole thing.

On my own movies, I have recorded a small bit of video for an exercise I'm doing. It's an attempt to create a simple effect. The footage has been captured to my computer, but I had to use Premiere Pro 1.5 to do it. For some reason, my camcorder did not work within Premiere Pro 2.0. I was able to control the camera there, but no video showed and I couldn't capture.

If I'm successful with this exercise, I'll post the result here. That's it for now.

Latest developments

2006-12-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

No traction yet on story. It's still wide open. I have been able to work a little on video in general though.

A good friend of mine performed at an open mic night recently and I was there to film it. The place was dark so the image is very grainy. I shot in HDV and was planning a quick transfer to DVD so my buddy could watch it. It turned out to not be very simple.

I have the Adobe suite of tools. In reading some forums and such, I learned that the best scaling to be done is in After Effects. After Effects has trouble with my HDV files though. As of yet, I have been unable to get the video into After Effects at all. I have been able to down res the footage in Premiere Pro, but the image ends up real soft.

Through all this, I have found that my computers may be inadequate for HDV work. This is good to know at this stage for the short I'd like to create as it tells me to work instead in DV.

What have I been up to

2006-12-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I haven't been writing much. I had planned this site to help me focus on writing, but so far it hasn't happened. Oh well.

So, what have I been doing? I've been working on many other fronts. First, I upgraded my video software tools. I use the Adobe video tool and have upgraded to the latest professional collection. Pretty cool.

I have been working on learning Adobe After Effects. I've been doing this with tutorials from Video Copilot and from the book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. I haven't gotten too far on either of these things, but it has started me playing with motion graphics and thinking of possibilities.

I've also been working through a couple of other books. The first one is 3ds max 6 Animation: CG Filmmaking from Concept to Completion. I had been reading that book in bed, but have stopped as I've gotten to 3ds Max tutorial part. I don't have my computer in bed to work on the tutorials, so I've switched to instead. This is probably for the best as the first book assumes that you have an idea. The second book is more about finding and refining your idea. There are writing exercises in that book, so I might actually get some writing done soon. Who knows?

I'm still very interested in makeing a film of some sort. I will probably make a goal to complete a short film in 2007, but life might get in the way. The dream lives on!

Where's the story

2006-09-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Life happens. That's all I can say. Stories wait and build while life continues. I can only hope to actually write a story at some point. Obviously, I missed my goal. What's the hold up?

Well, anything I say will be nothing more than an excuse. So be it. My excuse is that I don't have a place to write. Should that matter? Probably not. Oh well. In time I will make the space to write. When that space is available, I only hope that I will be able to write.

What am I doing?

2006-08-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

As of yet, I have not started writing regularly. So what's the point of this blog?

Instead of writing, I have been spending a lot of time thinking and have been reading. I am also listening to a few writing podcasts. I did write a small bit when a line came to my head. It's not a story yet, so I don't want it here. In fact, I think I should stop posting things that are not stories. The little bits might be interesting, but they are certainly incomplete and a disappointment if you wanted a story. If all I write are small excerpts, I won't be as motivated to write stories.

Within the next two weeks, I will attempt to complete a short story to post here. I hope someone is reading to make it worthwhile.

Mysterious beginning

2006-08-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

The shadow on the wall was enough to make a mortal shiver in anticipation. There she was. And there she moved. Her hands moving across her body as though applying lotion more than removing clothing. I hear her breath. I hear the whisper of the clothing as it falls to the floor. I cannot see her, only the shadow of her form from the other room. The shadow, cast by the light of candles, dances as she dances.

Her footsteps come softly to my ears. I can hear her, I can feel her warmth in the room. I close my eyes and wait. I feel her breath on my neck as she leans in close to me. She is there. I could touch her, hold her, kiss her.

I feel a cool breeze from the window and smell the sweet fragrance of a moist cool spring evening. Then the wind blows harder and I hear the whistle. The candles blow out, I open my eyes, and she is gone.

Gone.

No noise, no word, no anything, just gone.

Was she real? Is it happening again? I try to stay calm and enjoy the last remaining moments of sweet remembrance before panic sets it. Then I smell a soft bit of fragrance. She was real. I smell the candles from the other room. It was all real. Then what happened?

I slowly allow myself to return to the now. I try to store every last detail to savor as a memory for the times I am alone and need to know what life can be like. I move to the next room to find her clothing on the floor. Not a hallucination. Not a fantasy. Not this time.

There will be questions. There were always questions. So many and so fast. Someone knows the truth and wants it hidden. That's why they use me. Who would believe me? Who would trust me?

She would have. She did. I can't for the life of me figure out why, but it won't be for nothing. Not this time.

Stagnation already

2006-08-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I created a specific blog to make myself write, and yet it has failed to compel me to write. How terrible.

I must move on and forge ahead. In leiu of writing, I have been practicing other skills that will help when making a movie, including editing and compression. So, sometime in the future this may still end up being something interesting to read. I guess I can post the mood piece I have in here. It's not a story, but it was an exercise I did to create a mood. I was pleased with the results, but would like to put it into a story at some point.

Reflections on story 0.52 alpha

2006-07-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

I wrote Story 0.52 Alpha in three parts. The first two parts I really like. It does what I want it to do and I think it flows well. When I put it up, I had to write an ending. I don't like the ending I wrote. It went too geek for what I was aiming at. I decided to go on the ubergeek track and it doesn't mesh with the rest of the work at all.

I will have to give that a second look. I might also extend the story a bit. The piece didn't end up like I wanted, so I will have to fix it.

Story 0.52 alpha

2006-07-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

It was a dark and stormy afternoon; or so they say. I didn't believe them and I wasn't paying attention. They never identified themselves, so really, what credibility do they have? For that matter, what credibility do I have? You already know I made a statement based on unreliable witnesses and a confessed lack of attention on my part. But perhaps that's the reason. I admitted my fault. There is a little credibility to be had from that.

Well, it was afternoon and the weather doesn't really play into our story so I'll continue, if I may. I sat at the comput to type. I was going to type. Yup, that's what I was going to do. I was going to type. I was going to write a story. Yup, type a story up on the computer. That was the goal. The goal... Well, not quite a goal, as I didn't have a deadline, but that was my purpose. It's good to have a purpose. It's better to have a story.

Searching for a story in my head I had to ask myself why I was writing. Good question. Should I write about that? No, no... I was going to write a story, not a diary. Story... story, story... I guess I was writing to exercise my creativity. I wanted to write a story to prove to myself I still could. I hadn't written a piece of fiction like this since my resume... uhh... since college.

My eventual goal is to write a screenplay. Actually, I have a few story ideas but nothing too solid. I have three story lines in my head. One is more a piece of fan fiction. The other two are a bit more original. At this moment, I don't want to write those. It's not their time.

I actually write all the time, but usually I'm writing code. I'm a programmer, and that's what they do so I like to fit in. Problem is code doesn't tell a good story. It's mostly a lot of repetition and choices and repetition and is quite hard on the reader. There is only so much emotion you can get out of { } ( ) ; . And what would a code story look like?

There once was a variable named instance. instance was a very lonely variable as it was utilized to implement the singleton pattern.
   @see getInstance
   @ref Design Patterns

See? You need to be a programmer to even understand that, and the humor is lost on most programmers because it isn't written in binary. I want this to be human readable (as opposed to programmer readable?) and since the true geek programmer of today would insist on using a unicode representation of the characters, the binary version would certainly cause bandwith issues.

So here I am, still desireing to write a story. I'm not there yet. I'll have to try again soon or else the appeal of writing jokes in binary might overcome me, even using unicode...

I should write something

2006-07-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

I really should sit down and write something. With my 3 year old asking for chocloate as a compromise since I refused him the coffee he was demanding a moment aago, it is a little hard to concentrate. Oh, and on top of this all my wife is attempting to engage me in conversation about possible vacation plans for the fall. So, what was I thinking again?

Writing. Yes. That is the essential problem of the moment. I don't have a script and I need to write one.

To get my creative juices flowing, I will try to write some short topics first. I want to focus on story instead of form. I know I'll have to write differently when I am writing a script, but I think in terms of story more than form. For this reason, I will write short form fiction first.

But not tonight.

I wanna make a movie!

2006-07-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have long been interested in makeing movies and animation and have come to a point in my life where I think it should be possible. So now, what's the problem?

I don't know what to make a movie about.

No kidding! Truely, I have no idea what to make. I have some ideas, but they are too much for a first movie. I've done some things in my video class and such, but I really need a nice short subject to work on.

So, I'm blogging now. With luck, I'll be a little consistent and at least write once a week here to work on it. Maybe I'll get the idea I need, or maybe I'll just have some fun writing. Hopefully, someone will read this at some point. Who knows.

Anyway, I hope any who do read enjoy. For me, at least I'll have a record of my attempt.