Messed up Sound

Here’s a tip for all you filmmakers out there:

When using a zoom recorder to record your sound, never EVER push the button that says “mic.” If you do, that means you aren’t getting sound through the boom mic or the wireless mics anymore, it’s being recorded through the zoom’s own internal speakers, like the mic on a laptop.  It sounds HORRIBLE.

Oh, and make sure your sound guy is listening to sound through the RECORDER not the sound mixer.  That way, if someone did accidentally hit the “mic” button, they’ll notice that the sound is bad  on the recorder and will be able to correct it, instead of going through a whole day of shooting thinking that the sound is good, but discovering after all the footage is shot that the sound files are worthless because zoom mics are totally useless for recording good sound.

Good sound guys are worth their weight in gold.  Remember that.

The Dark Void of Defeat

What do you do when everything collapses around you? When one little event destroys everything you’ve worked for?

To be more specific, my production 3 film, the project that’s been driving me nuts since February, is gone. Dead. Kaput. Not going to happen. We were plagued by sound problems, last minute schedule changes, recasting actors, paid gigs that took people away from our film, but I still believed that it would happen. We’d  pull it together, and like my prod 2 film, it would turn out awesome.

But our main actress got sick.  Horribly sick.   We lost a whole day of filming. And because of that, I lost the other main actor for good.  So I’ll have to start all over again.

I think I’d rather give up.

What Producers Think About…

Here’s an example of how ridiculous filmmaking can get:

When an actor grabs and eats a spider, one of the students in my production management class asked if you need to hire an animal wrangler for insects–which sparked a lively discussion about all the different ways to do the spider scene–would you want a computer generated spider for when it’s walking on the window sill?  Or an animatronics spider?  Or a real live spider with somebody in charge of making it walk exactly where the director wants it to walk?  And when the actor grabs it, does he grab the robotic spider and risk breaking it? Or do you use a rubber spider that doesn’t move?  And then when he eats it, it’s most likely to be a spider made out of chocolate, but with a special kind of chocolate that won’t melt in his hand–or should it be a pretzel and chocolate spider to add some crunch when he chews on it?

But…if the actor is really serious about his craft and is into method acting, he should just eat a real live spider.  So make sure you’ve got plenty of identical looking spiders for multiple takes.

Sound Exile

Apparently, refrigerators and air conditioners are champions at ruining sound while filming a take, but when it’s 90 degrees outside, what do you do?  I had this sudden vision of a lonely PA in a big office building standing next to the air conditioner controls with a walkie talkie.  All day, he stands there by himself, waiting for the AD or PA to call him, “Turn it on!” a half hour later.  ”Turn if off!” While everyone else is filming three doors down and he waits in exile for his walkie talkie to give him a link with the outside world.

Torture, torture, torture

How I love talking about torture.  Namely, SEVENTEEN drafts of my stupid script.  I thought the Production 3 class would be so much easier than the sorrowful black hole of my production 2 class.  But…my prod 2 film actually turned out to be pretty good.  In fact, here’s the link to watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7afN1jQ95-A

But the script is finally done.  Yikes.  Seventeen drafts.  I didn’t know I could do that many.  

Aaah, relax.

Wow.  I had such a relaxing weekend.  I outright refused to do any editing, opting instead to pour all my time into my production 3 script.  It never fails.  Every time I talk to Chadwick about my scripts, I go home and write an entirely new story, or I try.  But he was absolutely right.  There was no real humanity in my story.  No reason to sympathize with the main characters.  Nothing to draw in the audience except action and suspense.  Action and suspense are great, but by themselves, they don’t mean much.

I went to Barnes & Noble to write on Friday–it was SO wonderful to be surrounded by books!  I’ve missed them so much.  I have to always remember that I’m a novelist first, and a screenwriter second.  In fact, this weekend I brainstormed by writing my script as a novel first.  when I write in regular prose, I can really get inside the characters head.  That’s hard to do with a script, especially if you don’t know your character very well.  It was awesome!

The Sweet Taste of Success

I did it!  We reshot a major scene for my Lord of the Engagement Ring film, and it actually went smoothly.  I rewrote the scene to make it shorter and sleeker, and after the actors had it memorized, the filming went like clockwork.  Smooth scenes performed over and over again, it was great.  None of my actors snapped, even though one of them got REALLY tired by the end, and we did it.  I finally was able to shoot a scene they way it should have been shot–quickly, smoothly, and checking off shots from a list.  (gotta love to-do lists)   

But next time, I won’t bounce an HMI light off the ceiling.  The color temperature was too blue and it looked ugly.  I needed a warmer light for this scene.

Whew!  Got home at 2:00 a.m. last night, just finished a full day of classes and now I finally get to crash.  Yay!

P.S.  Watch the show Hikaru no go on netflix.  It’s AMAZING.  A slow paced anime series about an ancient Asian board game that has incredible tension.  I LOVE it.  Every day I look forward to watching my next episode of Hikaru.  It’s been a great experience.