Production Blog

Graphics for Delete Raiments

2010-11-12T23:51:00.000-08:00

This is a graphic intro I made for Delete Raiments, a clothing line based in Austria. Its a raw graphic, and will appear differently in their final videos, but I wanted to post a sneak peek! I made it a bit too long intentionally to give the client some room to trim what they wanted. It'll also be spruced up with some "hipster" music as well I'm sure. This graphic, or some form of it, will be attached to their web videos that will soon be released.

"Contemporary America" at the Guggenheim!

2010-10-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

So a few months ago, I edited a short piece called Contemporary America for frequent collaborator Dandy Noel of D14 Productions. Yesterday I got an excited email from her informing me that out of 23,000 submissions, it had made the shortlist of 100 for the Youtube Play Event. This event presented the top 100 submissions at the Guggenheim museum at New York and was also streamed live on youtube.com/play.

Angels & Airwaves - Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce

2010-06-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

This is a concert piece I cut for Dandy Noel. What I think is most amazing about this footage was that it was shot with a small point and shoot camera!

D14 Productions

2010-05-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

D14 Productions Demo Reel HD from D14 Productions on Vimeo.

I'm part of a creative collective called D14 Productions. We are just getting started, so not much has happened yet, but one thing that we needed to kick us off was a sizzle reel for the company. After watching the work I had done for Neil Payne's demo reel, D14 boss Dandy Noel asked me to cut the D14 reel. What I loved about doing this reel is that Dandy literally gave me complete control and freedom on the project. Even though its her company, she wanted to see what I would do with it. Noelene suggested I use RJD2's "The Horror" which really set the pace and tone for the reel. I love vintage, old-timey, photos and images, so I used a variety in designing and animating the titles. They strangely work with the music. It was fun designing and editing this reel, and I look forward to what's in store for D14.

Music Video Friday

2010-05-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

All day edit on a music video I'm currently working on for director Kevin Johnson. Fueled by only donuts and milk. Great looking 5D footage, the only problem was I was working with the full rez files so I had to deal with this the whole time:

LAME.

Neil Payne

2010-04-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

I've recently been in cohoots with director Neil Payne of RockChalk Pictures, an Orange County resident whose portfolio includes music videos, commercials and short films. Last weekend I put together his demo reel, editing and titles:

Demo Reel - Neil Payne from D14 Productions on Vimeo.

A couple weeks before that I helped with post on his latest Nike Spec, "Hold That Bus". I'm credited for editing, but that's a very generous nod, as the entire thing is one continuous shot. I simply mixed and aligned the music and added the graphics at the end:

Can anyone guess what this video is an homage to?

Intern Wrap Up

2010-04-16T11:32:00.001-07:00

Looking back, my internship experience at Goodspot was a mixed bag. I’m a little wiser for it, and I did gain some new friends, but it comes with some sour memories. After Goodspot, I took a short internship run at a post-production facility called Secret Headquarters. It was cool. The small staff was great. There was a marked (superior) difference in how this company managed itself. A good experience. Shortly after that in December I was lucky enough to get a job I found on Craigslist, working as a night editor for a company called Splash News. I’ve been working there ever since, now during the day with a bigger (still not big enough) paycheck.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 9

2010-04-15T21:04:00.001-07:00

Intern Report: Week 9 (Oct. 27-30)

“Did you hear?” Kyle asked me.
“Hear what?” I responded.
“We’re officially closing down on Friday.”
There wasn't any sense of surprise in either of our voices. It never was a matter of “if” but “when”. Let it be known, this internship did not faze me out of the child-like eagerness of the experience. I felt like I worked my hardest, and I got the most out of it that I could. However, It did open me to an awareness of the actual situation that the industry is in. Goodspot closed for several reasons, and those reasons were apparently present for years. But the economy is such that it is taking no survivors, and those who are surviving are those packs of teenagers from Red Dawn. I plan to be one of those survivors.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 8

2010-04-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

Intern Report: Week 8 (Oct. 20-Oct. 23)

Amidst the desperate search for salvation, Richard was able to get a gig from an old contact. We were set to do a trailer for a made for cable disaster movie for Showtime starring Casper Van Dien, entitled “Turbulent Skies”. Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. Kyle and I work in designing the titles for it, though with a tired sense of gloom. I make a run to Blockbuster to check out a list of different airplane disaster movies. I figure its just research until Mark sends me to dub bits of airplane footage from the movies onto the tape deck, so it can be used in the trailer. Apparently there were no good plane shots in the rough cut of the movie. Again, I question the integrity of it all.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 7

2010-04-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Intern Report: Week 7 (Oct. 13-Oct. 16)

California is one of the worst hit states in the national recession. I heard that a lot, but this was the week Goodspot really felt the effects of it. In just a few short weeks, the company went from successfully completing one of the biggest jobs in its history to facing the threat of going under. We weren’t going under just yet, but I did the lunch run for the company as Richard explained to them how bleak the horizon looked. The Hilary Food Security job paid more in prestige than in money, and there are absolutely no promising gigs in the future. Richard called for a big rally to find the clients who’ll save us out of the black, but there was already defeat in his voice. Still, I was sent to glean the World Wide Web for potential clients. I found several dozen Marketing VP contacts everywhere from independent production companies to video game companies.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 6

2010-04-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

Intern Report: Week 6 (Oct. 6-Oct. 9)

This week I got reports back that the “Stick Up” clients loved the titles and wanted to keep them. Sweet! Nothing else worth note really happened this week. I noticed that I was doing more and more personal assistant type duties for the boss, Richard. Such as making a run to buy frames and framing his personal photos. I did everything with a smile, but really questioned the integrity of it all. I’m happy to do just about anything, but I’m not one to be taken advantage of. The moral conflict of earning your stripes and being a lackey is something I will toil with while I continue to be in the trenches as an intern.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 5

2010-04-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

Intern Report: Week 5 (Sept. 29-Oct. 2)

With the company collectively recovering from the rush that was the Hilary Food Security job, business continued as usual, which seemed to be very little. We had a kick off meeting for a small independent film “The Stick Up Kids.” Don’t worry, no one else has heard of it either. They hired us to do a trailer for them. I watched the selects, and if those were the selects, it would be a challenge to make this film look good.

The design director, Kyle, had offered me an open desk in his office and some freedom to do some design work. This was a result of a conversation we had in which I let him know I had experience working in AfterEffects. He let me take the lead in designing the look and titles for this trailer. I was thrilled!

I had watched some of the footage, and there was some cheap gunplay in the opening scene, so I decided I would use a gun as an image. I made a stenciled desert eagle become the “I” in Stick Up, with the words springing up around the gun after it was cocked. It worked okay. David the editor, and Romina took a look at it and it wasn’t the direction they wanted to go. The film, in the long run, had little to do with guns, and they were only scene briefly.

After rethinking it, I had seen a lot of images of stacks of cash and talk of money in the dialogue. So I changed it to that route. I talked with Kyle and decided to create a background of a 100-dollar bill, and have the titles being printed on the bill where the serial numbers would go. We went with it. I created the images and animated the texts in AfterEffects, and it went pretty well with the tempo of the trailer.

And here it is! The titles I animated are the ones at the end starting with "Stick Up" through the title "The Stick Up Kids". Kyle did the rest.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 4

2010-04-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

Intern Report: Week 4 (Sept. 22-25)

Came in for a few hours over the weekend. Everybody camped out to try to meet the deadline on this Food Security Video. We’re getting Matt Damon to do the narration! Unfortunately he won’t be in the office, but recording from a studio in New York. I’m continuing to fritter away on istock, and just doing anything I can to help things run smoothly while everyone else is frenzied. The Clinton Global Initiative was premiering the video that upcoming Friday the 25th. Goodspot, after long and stressful hours, pumped the finished product out by Wednesday night. The whole company took a well deserved Thursday and Friday off.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of a LA Intern - Week 3

2010-04-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

Intern Report: Week 3 (Sept. 15-18)

Everything at Goodspot has cranked into overdrive as we are getting the final go ahead from the Department of State for the Food Security Presentation. My job this week consisted of two main duties – lunch and stock footage. Not an hour was wasted, and many more overtime hours spent in putting this project together. I got to know the clerk at the café next door on a first name basis, as I was making lunch runs daily. My other job was to find stock footage. The State Department wanted the emotional impact of powerful images with powerful music. There was no time or money to freelance photographers, so the only other option was to look for already existing footage. I was given long lists everyday throughout the day of different things I needed to find footage for—“impoverished children”, “farmers”, “close-ups of different ethnicities,” etc. The tough part was, I could only use footage found on istockphoto.com. You will not believe how many fat, happy, white kids are on istock. The website is found wanting in anything diverse. I became the master in indirect searching and tricking search engines. Needless to say, I was timely in response to any footage request, and gave the editor a variety of choices. Intern: 1, Istock: 0.

Retroactive Post: The Misadventures of an LA Intern - Week 2

2010-04-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Again!

I wrote all these months ago. But have been off the blog path for a time. So introducing the "Retroactive Posts" for my time as an intern for Goodspot. Foreshadow: tragic end is inevitable.

Intern Report: Week 2 (Sept. 8-11)

More clerical work, and me getting used to the phones. However, there are times that I find myself doing nothing at the front desk. So, after a few days, I brave one of the bays where Mark, the junior editor, is working and ask if I can just hang out and shadow him.

I watch him work, and ask him some bland questions. After awhile, I’m helping him lay down tapes and work the tape deck. These mechanical duties alone are so much more interesting than working the front desk. I came to LA to be an editor, not a receptionist.

Later on in the week, Mark asks me to reorganize their tapes by client. That takes me 2-3 days. Picture in your head a naïve, bewildered intern sitting in a room surrounded by stacks and stacks of tapes. They had a lot of tapes. Most of the tapes were just kept in cardboard banker’s boxes. Some others kept on shelves and in their vault. I begin secret plans in my head on how I could improve tape storage. I conquer the tapes. I make organized stacks by client. And give them to Mark bit by bit as he backs them up and makes master reels for them. Intern: 1, Tapes: 0.

The Misadventures of a LA Intern--Week 1

2009-09-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

As a student at UTLA, I keep a weekly journal of my experiences at my internship. I figured they could be up here as well.

Intern Report: Week 1 (Sept. 1-4)

Reported to my first day at Goodspot. I felt a bit overdressed. I was wearing what I thought was average work attire—button down shirt with slacks—only to find the employees in t-shirts and shorts. Goodspot is a marketing boutique that specializes in producing movie trailers, promos, etc., with only five employees. There was Richard the CEO, Dave the editor, Kyle the design director, Mark the junior editor, and Romina the writer/producer. Everyone except for Richard is around my age. I had interviewed with Romina a couple of weeks back. Goodspot was a company in the UTLA directories and I sent them a resume and cover letter and a link to my demo reel last summer. Romina contacted back saying, “Like your style. Call me when you get the chance.” While I was in the midst of interviewing with companies in LA, Goodspot was the only company that specifically asked about my abilities as an editor/filmmaker, and was the only one that mentioned about the film work I had done and my demo reel. Every other place I had interviewed seemed more concerned with my organization skills and ability of work in the office. So, Goodspot it was.

So, I report to Romina and see what I can do. She lets me in on a little secret; the company is on the verge getting a gig from Hillary Clinton. The State Department is looking to Goodspot to write/produce a video to introduce a policy implementing solutions to world hunger. Interesting. They want something catchy, fast, possibly animated, with a lot of design work. Nothing melodramatic. So my first day I spend at the computer looking up videos on the web that could inspire the staff in coming up a look and feel for our own video. Not how I was expecting to spend my first day as an intern, but I was thankful for all that time I “wasted” in college surfing YouTube. Due to that, I was able to find a list of videos that I forwarded to the staff.

Second day. Everyone, including some outside help, gathers around the conference table to brainstorm. They invite me to sit as well. We talk. A lot of back and forth, but it was very good atmosphere. No idea was dismissed. Everything was considered and expounded on. I was able to pitch my own idea for the video, in which Richard was rather impressed, and it was one of the final three scenarios considered. I was sent to get lunch. More talking. Ideas are finalized. It is about gardens, or countries represented by gardens to show the interconnectivity of the earth. Some gardens flourish, while others are desolate. What happens in one garden in turn effects those neighboring. We all break to write our own scripts. I have writer’s block. I cannot think of what to write. An hour passes, and I don’t have anything to show, but that’s okay, because neither did the design director. We look over three scripts that were written. More talking. I stay about an hour and a half over when I’m supposed to, not because I have to, but because I want to. It was a good day. I was treated like any other employee, and my ideas and voice was heard.

The next day Richard comes up to me and says how impressed he is just from the first two days I’ve been here. That out of all the interns he’s had, I’ve had the best start.
Then he says, “So don’t f@#* it up.”
Duly noted.

Delilah Screen Cap

2009-07-19T23:46:00.001-07:00

Working an all-nighter on Delilah, my new short film, and I came across this still. This is Copperfield (played by Tina) in action.

Flash Animation #6: Lip Sync

2009-07-14T09:54:00.002-07:00

In this clip, I animated two characters' mouths and made them sing! Using an excerpt from my roommate's band, I created this little scene. I had drawn the lip shapes for each character beforehand; then scrubbed through the audio, matching each sound with each lip shape. Lip sync is a staple animation.

Flash Animation Exercise #5: Parallax Motion

2009-07-14T09:54:00.001-07:00

This quick clip was an exercise in tweening multiple layers to create the illusion of a 3D parallax. The central character is simply a walk cycle symbol, the lamp posts, brick wall, city scape, and bus are all different layers that are tweened at different speeds. The lamp posts, being the most upfront, are tweened to move faster than the city scape, which is the farthest back. Through this method the illusion of parallax is created.

Flash Animation Exercise #4.5: Walk Cycle (Character)

2009-07-14T09:53:00.001-07:00

A character is layered over the skeleton. In this case, its a corporate drone with a bad case of the Mondays!Once the character's body is drawn over the skeleton frame-by-frame, I made the character into a symbol and used motion tweening to move the character across the screen, so it appears as if he's traveling across instead of walking in place. His head is a single drawing that I attached to the body.

Flash Animation Exercise #4: Walk Cycle (Skeleton)

2009-07-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

In this animation I established a skeleton for a walk cycle. The arms and legs are blue and red in order to distinguish them from front and back when layering over a character's arms and legs. Like the head turn, the walk cycle is a staple animation.

Flash Animation Exercise #3.5: Head Turn (Character)

2009-07-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

And voila! A character is layered over the skeleton.In this case its a girl rockin' out. The green headphones make another appearance. The hair caused me a little trouble, as you can see its going everywhere. This character was still animated frame-by-frame, so it was just as tedious, however, the skeleton is vital as a guide so the facial features and shape don't morph out of place and/or proportion.

Flash Animation Exercise #3: Head Turn (Skeleton)

2009-07-14T09:50:00.001-07:00

In this clip I built a skeleton head turn. This can be used as a template to layer a character over these guidelines.

Flash Animation Exercise #2: Ball Bounce

2009-07-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

This clip is practice at animating a bouncing object. I scrapped the idea of using a ball, and went for some fancy headphones!

Flash Animation Exercise #1: Animated Loop

2009-07-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

This animation is a practice on the three basic types of animation in Flash: motion tween, shape tween, and frame-by-frame.

Motion Tween: The bouncy ball

Shape Tween: The morphing star

Frame-by-frame: The dancing kid.

The dancing kid looks oddly like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. I guess that's my subconcious chiming in from all those hours I spent reading that comic. Also my first stab at a head turn, not too shabby for the first time.

Where Have We Been?

2008-09-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

That has been the question that has risen to the stratosphere over these many long months. The answer is that we went on an expedition with the Argonauts, assembled a robot army, learned how to divide by zero, and worked hard on several new projects, which are on the brink of surfacing. A grand new vision from oogaFilms is treading on the horizon. Are you ready?

Epic Battles on Fold-up Tables

2008-06-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Shooting day. I didn't feel like blogging last night, too tired. I met up with Jake and Mark, my crew, and we came in with three Sony HD cameras. That's how oogaFilms rolls baby. Yes, there were issues with finances, that I think has a place for another blog, needless to say I'm meeting with Bert on Monday to work everything out. But the day wasn't about money, it was about HeroClix. Bert was hosting the King of Texas tournament, which was held in a small retail space underneath the University Towers parking garage. It wasn't grand, but it was pretty great. We showed up around 9 o'clock, people filtered in around 11. Between then we set the cameras and helped another camera man, Josh, who was brought on by Ryan Joseph (again, another story for another blog), set up a room for interviews and such. I met, with my camera, Aaron, who was organizing some figures and cards that belonged to Bert and was one of the prizes for the tournament. I talked with him, he was a friend of Bert, and was playing in the tournament. He had a real friendly nature about him, he didn't have any expectations for himself for the tournament, but was just there to have a good time.

The heros came in, Jake and I caught them with our cameras. The farthest people that came in were from Beaumont, everyone else were locals. For those who didn't really know one each other, they got to know each other, there was just a casual laid back atmosphere to room. Instead of doing a play by play of the events that happened at the tournament, I would like to explore more of the people that I met there. For the sake of the documentary, I was hoping that I would meet some nerdy or crazy characters there, but I didn't, but that wasn't a disappointment either. I came to know, albeit briefly, everyone there, and overall, they were good, genuine, fun people. In fact, they were people I would find myself hanging out with. They had this hobby, but most just identified it as such, nothing more. Now, it could be that the camera heightened their self-awareness dial by a few degrees, preventing them to really relish in there obsession, but all of them seemed to be level headed people, they all had jobs, families, lives outside of this, but they all had this, and despite there various backgrounds, this game brought them together. They were all very different people, and they wouldn't be friends under any other circumstances, but they were able to talk, joke, have fun because they were part of the same world, the same world where comic book characters rest on plastic dials determining there attack and defense values on fold-out terrains lined with grid squares the size of wheat thins. And that was enough. It came as a quiet surprise that these people, they were just a bunch of guys having a good time, and after the tournament was done, they all went for a beer afterward.

But, the people that were there did fill certain roles that you could only find in a movie.

Aaron-the underdog

Arly-the underdog

Eric(from Beaumont)-the rookie

Kevin-the vet

Eric-the vet

Eddie-the vet

Bert-the mouth

Aaron, as mentioned earlier, had no expectations, but, through the four rounds of games, he won his way up to the final round with a 3-1 record. Every time I would talk to him after a win, he had no other explanation than luck, it was just the luck of the dice, and he was just happy to be a part of the ride. Arly was a young guy who, when he came in, just said that he was looking for a good time, but ended up being the talk of the tournament, with a nearly unbeatable team of characters, he made it to the championship round, against the veteran Eric, it was a long, quiet game, and Eric ended up winning. The game ended, like most of the games there, with a laugh and a handshake.

Into the Dragon's Lair

2008-06-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I entered the Dragon's Lair. No, seriously, there's a comic book store off of Burnett Rd called the Dragon's Lair, where Bert Lopez asked me to meet him. I brought my camera. After reading some Hellboy, I got to meet Bert in person, he was wearing a pretty awesome Magneto t-shirt with a sideways cap. We talked briefly about finances, which didn't interest me too much, and after we were done, I asked him if I could film them playing, which he had no problem with. I was a quiet observer with my camera, I saw these two men play, Bert was off to the side. I felt like an outsider that was privileged to witness an epic battle, while at the same time, they kept an air of lightness about them, its just a game after all. I didn't know what was going on, I heard jargon, they would react to seemingly invisible things to me, but I tried to get as much as I could on camera. These two men would laugh and joke, banter with one another, they seemed like good buds, they were speaking their own language, in their own world. The game lasted about 45 minutes, and the winner was decided and they ended with a friendly handshake. The winner, Mark, took out what I guessed was a score card, or record, and asked his opponent, "So, what was your name again?" They didn't even know each other! But it was the game, they both understood it, and it was the bonding factor between them, they didn't need anything else to get to know each other, because they knew the game. I was fascinated. This game brings people together. I was able to interview Mark afterwards, just for a few minutes, and he said the appeal to the game was that he was able to create his own superhero team, combinations that he always wanted to see in comic books but never have. I asked him how long he'd been reading comic books, his reply was "Well, ya know how kids learn how to read by reading Dr. Seuss? I learned how to read through comic books."

It Fell From the Sky . . . and Other Complications

2008-06-18T03:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a filmmaker, self-proclaimed. I have no badge or certificate that says so, I just have my short videos posted on YouTube that offer any credentials to this claim, and nowadays, who doesn't have a short video posted on YouTube?

But I love it. I breathe it. If I'm not filming a project, I'm either editing one or in pre-production for another. If I'm doing none of those things I feel uncomfortable, antsy, unnatural, something just doesn't seem right with the world if I'm not working on some kind of film project. As a result sometimes I feel like "butter scraped over too much bread" (Bilbo . . . anybody?), because I involve myself in too many projects, and can hardly find the time to get them all done. Such was the case three days ago on a bright Sunday afternoon. Currently at that time, I was behind in production for a short film I was directing, Delilah, the schedule had nearly gone to pot, and me trying to arrange things so breath would bring this project back to life. I am also editing a stop-motion music video that my girlfriend and I shot a few weeks before. All this along with work and my church responsibilities (which can be heavy). Yes, I was busy, but I was handling it, I made it work, and the gears of time management seemed to be clicking away just fine.

That Sunday afternoon, June 15, I'm over at my friends' house, when one of them, Dan Jones, tells me that he met a guy who is looking to hire someone to shoot a documentary about a comic book convention. That was alot in one breath. Let me tell you what I heard. Documentary. Comic Books. What? Are you kidding me? That's incredible! How can I get a hold of this guy? It didn't matter how full I was at the time, the moment I heard it, it struck a chord within me. This was something that just felt right, and something I couldn't pass up. I would make it work. I get the contact information of Ryan Joseph, and email him as soon as I get home. Here it is, can you hear the excitement in my voice?:

"Ryan Joseph,

Hi, my name is Geoff Yano, and I'm a local filmmaker here in Austin. My friend Dan Jones was looking at a house that you're renting out and he referred you to me about a Comic Book Documentary that you are looking for someone to film. First off, when he mentioned that I was immediately excited, I collected Spider-Man when I was a kid (until my mom threw them all away) and I recently have started to collect again. I am very interested in making such a documentary if you are still looking for someone. I have done several short films here in Austin and have access to the resources and talent to make this documentary into a quality production. I have a website where you can preview some of my past work--www.oogafilms.net. Besides what's on my website, I've also helped film several interviews used for educational purposes for UT, have made promotional videos for local businesses, and was the co-editor for Chaos, a locally-produced feature length film. I am very interested in working with you, if you've already found someone else, or if I'm not what you're looking for, that's fine as well, but either way, please let me know. Thanks!

Geoff Yano
www.oogafilms.net"

I crossed my fingers that this would be convincing enough.

Jump to yesterday, June 17. I'm at work, and I get a voice message from Bert Lopez, who turns out is the main guy that is putting this doc together. And we talk. He was polite, amiable, at least over the phone. He was addressing a 23-year-old punk kid as "sir". And we talked about what this all contained, basically saying that he wanted me to do it. YES! He was even paying me for it, which was great, but this goes beyond money, this is something I want to make, I want to make a compelling story from this scene. Bert goes into more detail of what this actually is. It's a game, not a comic book. It's a game about comic book characters. And its apparently a big deal. Especially to Bert, who was putting together a tournament where people will fly in from across the country to play this game and win valuable playing peices from him. This game is Bert's life and told me that he's "left work behind, vehicles behind, people behind, and even homes behind, but never the game, he's always packed that with him." He said people called it "plastic crack", because the little gaming pieces, the whole idea of collecting them was that addictive to some people, including Bert. Well, all seems well, when he tells me that the tournament is this Saturday. What? I had just made the finishing arrangements to film this Sat. at the Capital building for my short film? This Saturday? Kind of late notice. Was I going to make this work? I thought I was, but there were still some more bumps in the road, and its just Wednesday. More details on the bumps later . . .

Kicking butt

2008-04-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday some of us met to work on some fight choreography. Geoff (director), Tina (lead actress), Noelene (photographer), and I headed over to Mike (producer)'s house. We started off the night by watching fight and chase scenes that Mike selected from various action films to help inspire us. We saw scenes from the entire Bourne trilogy, Hitman, and a few others. We got some good ideas, especially from the Bourne movies. We also enjoyed seeing some insanely absurd fighting scenes.

We were there to specifically work on a fight scene that involves Tina and I. Geoff had a very specific idea of how he wanted the fight to go. He walked us through it step by step, practicing each one, bit by bit. We borrowed one of Mike's guns at first (completely unloaded), but we were worried about dropping it on Tina's sandaled feet. It'd be a shame to cripple your star a few weeks before filming.

As we went through the fight, Noelene photographed. Once we had learned all the steps, we went over it, again, and again, and again (ad nauseum). Geoff filmed our practice so that we could watch it later, and find places to improve, and such.

It was definitely shaky at first. But we caught on pretty quickly, and while it's still not perfect, Tina's gotten pretty good at disarming me, and slamming into the wall.

I think our practice last night really exemplified much of the production process. We haven't really been getting everything quite right, right away. But as we work more, and get closer to our deadline, everything's starting to really materialize well, and take a very good shape.

Chugging Along

2008-04-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I figured it's time for me to talk about the production. My job in Delilah is … um … I do the … uhh … well, it's all very important.

The production is doing very well. We've had a few auditions, and casted all but one of our roles (yours truly is playing one of the goons). In my role as …, I sent out casting calls, organized audition times, and notified those who were cast, and generally was sort of the director's emissary to the cast, like an assistant director (or at least, assistant to the director).

For the past few weeks, I've been heading up the effort to get the squibs working. This involved playing with chocolate syrup, tubes, air pumps, balloons, condoms, fishing line, super glue, and duct tape. As Geoff mentioned in a previous post, we finally got them working as we combined several ideas and resources.

On Sunday, our location scouting went fairly well. My group scouted several public places for crowd scenes, and public meeting scenes. We looked at a local hospital (and played on the helipad), the Capital building (and had to pass through a "Save Darfur" concert to get there), a few buildings downtown, and the Business School on campus. At the Business School, Tina (our star) and I somehow got ourselves locked in a stairwell, and had to leave through an emergency exit. Luckily it wasn't one armed with an alarm.

We found a few good spots, some really great windows and hallways in the Capital, and a stained-glass window in the hospital. We tried to get into the Convention Center, which we think may work perfect for one of our crowd scenes, but it was closed.

On the Hunt

2008-04-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was location scouting. Seven of the crew came, so we split up into two groups and explored what Austin had to offer us. Both parties were on a mission to find the right locations for certain scenes. This film requires a specific look and feel, and if the locations don't fit right, it will ruin the film. I need the backdrop of this film to match, to compliment, to supplement, to make the picture whole. One very important location is the abandoned building where Copperfield is interrogated by Saul and his men. Arthur, Russ, and I searched and found some very suitable places. Our first was an abandoned building that we saw on our way to another place. It took us forever to get there because it was in the corner of several loops and turnarounds. It was an abandoned building alright. We found a way in through a side door, and tentatively walked around. It brought me back to my high school days when my friends and I would go urban exploring at night through creepy buildings. This one was rather decrepit and ripped up, it had a very "I am Legend" feel to it. But it still wasn't quite right. The next destination was provided by Arthur, where an old abandoned elementary school was, this place was eerily amazing. It was several buildings/classrooms in an open green field, (very akin to "The Others" village in LOST), and it was dead quiet, no activity anywhere. We would went through some of the buildings, these provided a better look than the last one. But still not quite what I wanted. It had a heavy post-apocolyptic look, school supplies, children's drawings, and the like were scattered in the rooms, like everybody just got up and left. I was so impressed with the whole place that just from the location, it inspired me with a feature length movie idea--"Zombie High". Yes, I indulge myself sometimes. it was a great place, a good back up, but still not good enough. Our last stop was a building that I just found a couple of days ago, near campus. It was an old abandoned shoe shop, we found an open door, and it was perfect! The naked floor boards, dusty windows, and stained walls just oozed Ezekial's "cloudy and dark day"(34:12). We're in the works of contacting the property owners, wish us luck in getting it locked!

location scouting

2008-04-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Well the good news is we found a zombie infested high school. It was a school for the deaf... they never heard it coming. We had to break into a few places to get to the locations we wanted but in turn we found a couple of great spots, (including a few that we see every day but never really thought about) Somehow through a wierd twist of fate both the groups ran into each other unplanned on south congress, I guess south congress really is that cool.

And it starts . . . in the middle

2008-04-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Much like this film, I start this production blog in the middle, in the midst of everything. I’ve been meaning to start this blog ever since pre-production started, which has been underway for about three months. Tina, the co-writer, and just finished the fifth draft fo the script, which is under the scrutiny of revision from outside parties. This is really the first time we’ve let the draft out amongst other writers. Right now I am writing on my lab top out at the “shop” which is Mike’s, our exec producer, garage. Tonight has been one of our best pre-production workshop nights yet. I say that because everyone is heavily engaged with different aspects of the film. Right now, I have Jake, a crew member, reading over the script, critiquing it. Arthur, the AD, and Russ, gaffer, are drying the spackle that they just applied to the “bullet-hole wall”, a practical effect that we have puzzled over for months, and as of last week, finally mastered the concept, thanks to the hard work of Arthur. We now are trying to figure out the squibs, we’ve already done several tests tonight, but to no avail. This squib is made of tubing, with a valve, connected to an air compressor. We’re filling the tubing with chocolate syrup, and then releasing the valve. The problem is that the “blood” is spraying out, instead of bursting out like a gunshot wound. So we’re fiddling with different settings.

I’m the luckiest director right now, cause I got a crew that is dedicated to get this film, and making it the best it can be.
A recap on the end of the night--
It was nearing the end of the night, and we had done several tests with the squib, still to no avail, it was a mixture of the wrong pressure, the wrong size hole, the wrong amount of syrup, etc. It was getting late, and we were going to do our last test for the night, not really expecting it to work, but giving it one last shot before we try again next week. We made some final adjustments, and it worked BEAUTIFULLY! TRIUMPH!! We all celebrated, it was awesome. Then we went to Dan’s to watch the return of the office!!!

New Film--"Reflection"

2007-12-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

Our new film--"Reflection" is up! Check out the trailer, film, and production photos in the FILMS section! This film marks a darker turn for oogaFilms, just in time for the holidays! The moral of the story: Don't buy magic pills from strange men (pictured left).

COUNTDOWN in Miami

2007-11-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Nov. 29th, is the premiere of "Countdown" at the Tower Theater in the Miami Short Film Festival! All of us here at oogaFilms are excited that the talent of an amazing cast and crew can be put on display. Click here for more info about the festival.
Can't make it to Florida? (Neither can we) Don't worry, you can watch the film, behind-the-scenes, and bloopers in the FILMS section.

Victory at OurStage.com!

2007-11-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

With all the hubbub that was the Apple Insomnia Film Festival, on the other side of the internet, we quietly won another contest at OurStage.com! oogaFilms' thriller short, "Countdown", won 1st place in the short films category! With that comes some prize money, exposure, and the Premiere of "Countdown" at the Miami Short Film Festival!!!!! Sweet deal? We think so . . . .
You can see "Countdown" in our FILMS section. It is also featured at OurStage.com and Crackle.com.

A Big Thank You for the Support!

2007-11-13T16:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the Apple Insomnia Film Festival has come to an end, now our fates are in the hands of the tally machines . . . but it was a fun ride, and we couldn't ask for more devoted fans and friends! We appreciate all the support you guys gave for our little video! This was a big contest, with about 2000 entries from across the nation, so it is hard to say what the outcome would be, but the real prize in all of this was to see the overwhelming support from all y'all, something we don't deserve, but we're grateful for nonetheless, and that's something a contest can't give you . . . unless its a popularity contest.

Dan at the "Crosswalk"

2007-10-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, oogaFilms created a three minute film for the 2007 Apple Insomnia Film Contest. This is a contest wherein college and high school students create a three minute film in 24 hours. oogaFilms' entry is titled "Crosswalk," and can currently be seen on YouTube, but on the 19th October will be available for viewing and voting on Apple's website. I encourage all to go and vote this Friday.

The film centers around a young man (played by Gavin Gee), and his romantic endeavors to capture the interest of a young woman (played by Rachel Lawson), whom he met at a crosswalk. Like all of oogaFilms' romantic comedies, this one is sure to amuse and entertain. (Really, this thing is great! I promise you you'll like it.)

The film was written and directed by oogaFilms founder Geoff Yano. The music was done by Ryan Gee. Other behind-the-scenes tech stuff was done by Arthur Kendrick, Rodd Simonsen (of Ironrodd Productions), myself, and Mark Sanderson. Supporting roles were performed by myself, and Noelene Clark.

Again, come Friday, I encourage everyone to go to Apple's website and vote for "Crosswalk" by Team oogaFilms, and tell all of your friends and family to do the same.

--Dan Jones

Voting Has Started!

2007-10-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

Voting has started for the Apple Insomnia Film Festival! Click on the link above and cast your vote for "Crosswalk"! Voting ends November 9th.

Spread the word! Embed the banner (above) on your site/blog/myspace:

<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://edcommunity.apple.com/insomnia_fall07/item.php?itemID=1839" title="Vote for Crosswalk"><img style="margin:0px;" src="http://www.zanecochran.com/hosted_sites/oogafilms/uploaded_images/crosswalk_banner3-753832.png"></a></div>

2007 Insomnia Film Festival

2007-10-16T05:45:00.000-07:00

There was a challenge, and we took it. Last weekend, from 8am Saturday morning to 8am Sunday morning my iron crew and I shot, cut, and scored a 3-minute film as part of the Insomnia 24-hour Film Festival. We started out fresh and geared up, and as 7:30am rolled around Sunday morning, all five of us were strewn across my room nearly lifeless (including our composer curled up in a ball in the middle of the floor), and out of the depths arose the film "Crosswalk". Was it worth it? Of course it was! We made a movie! And that's an itch that my crew and I just can't get rid of.

Now comes your part! This contest is vote-based, and we need your votes! Starting Oct. 19th voting will be held at the Apple site, so mark your calendars, and get ready to vote for "Crosswalk"!
To get a sneak peek of the film before voting, go over to the FILMS section!

Picking Up Where We Left Off

2007-09-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

This morning we had the great privilege of interviewing Brother and Sister Turley. We met up at Geoff's house early in the morning where Ashley fed us a tasty breakfast. Then, we packed up my car and took off to Boerne, Texas. We had a nice morning drive through the Hill Country -- the air was a little misty and the sun shone through like a golden orb hanging in the sky.

Eventually, we found our way to the Turley's house and, after setting up, enjoyed a great interview. Brother Turley moved from the Mexican Colonies to Texas as a baby in the late 1920s and has memories of meeting for church at the Bremer's house and at the Woodmen of the World Hall, before the Branch got a building of their own on Buena Vista Street. His dad, Henry Eyring Turley, served as the Branch President and District President -- among many other callings -- and later as the first Patriarch of the San Antonio Texas Stake. Brother Turley (who we interviewed) was the first Bishop of the San Antonio 2nd Ward, which was formed in 1958 at the same time the San Antonio Texas Stake was formed.

Sister Turley told us about feeding the LDS servicemen stationed in San Antonio during WWII, of marching in the Pioneer Day Parade at the Hemisfair in 1968, and of helping with relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

The Turley's are great examples of what it means to give your life to the Lord and we were very privileged to be in their home and spend the morning with them.

On the way home, we stopped at Cartwright's BBQ because Ashley was craving steak. It was pretty good food. Chris said he had eaten there 5 years earlier. We pulled into Austin at around 2pm.

--Mark Sanderson

Welcome to oogaFilms!

2007-09-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the brand new site of oogaFilms! Make yourself at home and stay awhile, here. . . have a crumpet. We're excited to finally become part of this trendy new thing people call "internet". First and foremost, you need to check out our newest project, "A SERIES OF SONNETS", over in the FILMS section. Go, watch it, the power of Shakespeare compels you.

Don't know much about oogaFilms? Well, unfortunately, we're fresh out of tour guides, but you can go over to the ABOUT section to find out more!

Mark and Ashley--Ambassadors of the Cause

2007-09-11T00:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a word from Mark about his visit with Stake President Hassle!

On Sunday, September 9th, Ashley and I drove down to San Antonio after
church to meet with President Hassle of the San Antonio North Stake.
He had a meeting in the East Stake so we were scheduled to meet him
there. Due to some miscommunication, we ended up missing him, but we
ended up briefly meeting President Allen of the San Antonio East Stake
and Elder Olson, our Area Authority Seventy, to whom we mentioned the
documentary. They seemed interested also so we'll see how they come
into play as our production story unfolds (yes, that's the literary
technique of foreshadowing).
After dropping a copy of our demo off at the Normans, we went to
Ashley's parents house for dinner. We then headed up to President
Hassle's house, who Ashley had talked with on the phone and
rescheduled for that evening. President Hassle was very friendly and
we ended up staying there for 3 and a half hours and learned a bunch
about the construction of the San Antonio Temple (he's the stake
president who made the San Antonio Temple happen). In the end, we
scheduled a formal interview with him, where we would come with our
equipment and capture him and his wife on camera.
Our purpose in going there to see him was to ask him for funding to
support our project. We discussed this near the end of our 3 and a
half hours and he was positive, mentioning that he knew people who
would be more than willing to help. He also recommended that we talk
with President Otte, the temple president, who is a CPA and who is
rather gifted at raising money. We also need to compile a budget plan,
showing how much we've spent thus far and how much we expect to spend
for the remainder of the project.
So, our meeting with President Hassle was productive in more ways than
we had expected. I'm really glad we had our demo (displaying clips
from our interviews up to this point) ready to show him. He was really
impressed by it, stating how the color and audio were such good
quality, and was excited to be a part of the project. The feeling is
mutual as we're excited to have him as part of the project!

--Mark Sanderson

The Sweet End to the Marathon

2007-08-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

This morning was glorious . . . I slept in until 11:30. Since we already got temple footage Saturday morning, nothing was on the agenda this morning, so I was more than happy to turn my cell phone alarm off and drift back into sleep. We attended the Talbert’s family ward and afterward we ate lunch and rushed over to the Fykes’ household for an interview. President Fykes is part of the temple presidency for the San Antonio temple, and has a long history with San Antonio and Corpus Christi. After that we headed to Bro. Hernandez’s house for the last interview of the day. He was the first Hispanic bishop in San Antonio. That was a great interview because you could tell that he had great love for the area and the church, he shared his testimony in Spanish, and even though I couldn’t understand his words, I could understand the strong Spirit that was there. We ended the evening and weekend with a laid back late dinner of biscuits and gravy and watermelons at the Talbert’s, said our good bye’s and now we’re heading back on the road to Austin. (It’s about 10:45 right now and I’m writing this on my laptop on a word doc.) Overall, we filmed 6 interviews this weekend (which is twice the amount of interviews we had prior to this weekend). This was an incredible jump ahead in our production. Now I have the first day of school to look forward to this week . . . Ugh.

Conguering the Day of Doom

2007-08-25T22:08:00.000-07:00

I am so tired right now, we had a full action packed day, with one thing after another, it was hugely productive, let me tell you more about it . . . This morning we had a appointment with the Boyd's ut that fell through due to schedule conflicts, so we ended up going to the temple grounds instead, and I got some beautiful shots. That place just has such a serene feeling once you enter the grounds. But it was around 10 in the morning so the sun was just high enough to hide behind the angel moroni at the perfect angle. AFter that we had our first interview of the day at 12. We were interviewing the Sternekurts. Now, keep in mind we interviewed 4 homes today, when we usually interview just one, so this was quite a feat today, and I won't go into each one in detail because I'm really tired right now and don't want to. Sorry. One thing that really helped our setup is that we had C-stands to hold the lighting instead of mic stands, if you don't know what I'm talking about, C-stands are alot better, sturdier, and efficient-er. After the Sternekurts we went to the Lomas's, then the Golightly's then the Boyd's (we resceduled them for 8pm). It was basically one interview after the other: arrive, set-up, interview, take-down, drive, and repeat. Ashley's friend from San An, Bonnie, helped us with the interviews today and it made our set-up really fast and efficient. And through it all, we had a good time to, Mark observed this evening that a group of people can have a great time doing productive things, as opposed to having a great time and doing nothing productive. Uh . . . yeah, it makes sense, just think about it a little longer. We treated ourselves at the end of the day by eating at the famed HENRY'S PUFFY TACOS!!!!!! It was awesome, I mean, the food was fine, but the actual experience of being there? Incredible. We then returned to Ashley's house after a 14 hour day of filming. Mark further treated himself to a pedicure from Kerrie and Kayla Talbert. His toe-nails are red now . . . I do not sponsor this type of behavior

The Long Weekend: Day 1

2007-08-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

Alright, so right now its 1:00 in the morning and I am sitting in Kerri Talbert's room (Ashley's sister) in San Antonio, Ashley is asleep on the bed, and Mark and Rodd are dead on the floor . . . like they are actually dead . . . no I'm serious. Well, we drove in the depths of downtown San An at around 8, we were planning on taking some balcony shots from the high tower downtown, but that's been put on hold; we need to go through the proper channels. Things were a little frustrating at first because nothing seemed to go the way we planned (which is something you'd think we would get used to). However, we persisted and ended up getting some really cool shots of the downtown streets and along the riverwalk. The night stretched on and needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we were heading to Ashley's house. I am really tired, and we have a early morning and a full day ahead of us tomorrow. Man, tomorrow is something that we have never experienced before--4 interviews in one day! We'll see how it turns out!

Double Header of Doom

2007-08-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

Oh wow there is so much to tell, and not enough blog to tell it . . . even though blogs can go forever . . . right? Well, yesterday I filmed the last two sonnets of my "Series of Sonnets". I was looking forward to this day because I would meet some new talent, I would have fun making a couple of movies, and I would be wrapping up this project. It has been so fun coming up with different ideas, and discovering new tricks to help illustrate Shakespeare's poetry, but it has also been stressful and sometimes frustrating. I wasn't looking forward to this day because I didn't feel as prepared as I wanted to. And when a director isn't prepared, well, chaos ensues or nothing ensues.
Let's flashback to earlier last week, I had an actress lined up for "Sonnet 116", she was excited to be in it, but it turned out that our schedules never lined up and she would be leaving Austin the day before I would be filming, so I contacted a friend who would be the replacement, but her schedule was packed full all that day and week. It was just a few days from shooting and I was without a cast, I was pretty panicky and I mentioned my dilemna over g-chat with my friend/web designer Zane. He said, well, there's an intern that works in my office that has done some acting, do you want me to contact her? YES!!! I met Lene over g-chat and she was more than willing to step in for the role. Great blessing. Well, Saturday came quickly, and that day was scheduled full of Sonnet filming euphoria. I got up at like 6:45 that morning and started getting my mind set for the day. The crew (Arthur Kendrick and Dan Jones) showed up at 9 am, and we started to set up, Mark Sanderson was playing the love interest and Lene Lay was to play Shakespeare. Lene showed up with a smile and energy that helped the shoot. As a director, one of my worries is the morale of the cast and crew, and it always helps me when they outwardly show that they are having a good time. She was fun and easy to work with and its awesome that she showed up at the last minute to save our butts. As the morning drew towards noon our last section of filming 116 took us to downtown Austin, 6th and Congress. And, I've gotta admit, I always feel cool when I'm operating expensive equipment, and people stop and look to see what you're doing. "Yeah, we're shooting a film, excuse us". There was this funny shot where Mark and Lene had to stay in an embrace on the street corner for like 2 min. straight (was Mark looking forward to it? You'll have to ask him, but yes). I was rather amused, cause people would walk by and not know what was going on. I don't know if that makes me a bad director by being amused when I put my actors in weird situations, but if that's the case, then I'm a bad director.
We finished shooting 116 by lunch, Lene left, Mark stayed on to help with crew and we grabbed some Jamba Juice and Conan's pizza to gear up for the afternoon shoot of "Sonnet 60". This was the one that I felt unprepared for. So the crew and I looked at the sonnet over lunch and discussed some ideas that we could do. One idea Mark had was to shoot on a spinning carousel at a playground. The sonnet's them is about time, and circles come to mind, so that would make sense. We picked up William Jackson, who would be playing Shakespeare, and shot at my house, on a carousel at a local playground (which turned out awesome) and then at another park where I was hoping to shoot at a brook, but when we got to it, the brook was dry! I was greatly disappointed because that really eliminated alot of shots that I had planned. The shoot ended with just William and I taking different shots of him around town, and I'll have to see if I need additional footage when I cut it together, is that okay William?
But overall, a long day yet a successful day, we got a lot done, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel, now we'll see how editing goes!

Getting back in the swing of things

2007-08-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple weeks since our last interview so we were excited to get back into action with the documentary. The core group was there (Rodd, Mark, Ashley, and myself), and we had some Stauffer's lasagna at Ashley's apt. before heading out. (I love that stuff!) Instead of driving down to San An, we went local this time, and interviewed an Austin resident named Ted Limb. He was friendly, cool, and laid back as we set up lighting and sound in his front room. Good thing too, because the set up took a little longer than I wanted, I had to get back in the swing of things, it's amazing what two weeks can do to you! But the lighting looked good, and things were ready to go. Brother Limb offered an interesting perspective on Texas LDS history because instead of being a native of San Antonio, he is a native to Corpus Christi. Why interview him, you may ask? Well, Corpus was once a part of the San Antonio Stake, so we were able to get a view from one of the outskirts of the early Texas church. Corpus Christi became its own stake eventually, and Bro. Limb was the first Eagle Scout and first missionary to come from the Corpus Christi stake. Near the end of the interview I really appreciated a remark he made when he noted that the San Antonio Temple is often referred to the "SA" Temple, and instead of thinking that "SA" stands for San An, he likes to refer to it as the "South Austin" temple. He then became rather emotional as he shared his deep gratitude for the temple and it being so close to him. Overall--a good day. Now we're gearing up for the ultimate San An long weekend marathon of power coming up this Friday!

" . . . Where all the lights are bright!"

2007-07-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ashley Talbert, Chris Bucheit, and I braved the streets of San Antonio as we were shooting some B roll footage for the documentary. As we entered downtown San An, we sang "Downtown, where all the lights are bright . . ." but those were the only words we knew of the song, so needless to say the singing fizzled out quickly. We took some beautiful shots of the riverwalk, the Alamo, Hemisfair Park, and the Alamodome, each which plays a role in the story we're trying to tell. Not too much else to tell except there was alot of walking around involved and carrying around a camera and/or tripod around San An can get pretty tiring. We finished the night with a dinner with Ashley's family which consisted of some amazing brisket . . . . . . mmmmm.

. . . a summer's day?

2007-07-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we filmed Sonnet #18 starring Lindsey Rendon. Lindsey starred as the dead wife in my last film "Countdown" and she was so fun to work with that I asked her to come back for a sonnet, we had discussed it briefly awhile ago and she had picked out Sonnet #18, which I later found out is one of the more famous ones . . . so no pressure on us. On Wednesday we had scouted out a really cool park right next to Lindsey's house, and it provided everything we needed for the shoot, like a tree swing, flowers, big open fields, and little coves where teenagers smoke pot . . . uhh, we didn't need that, this is a drug-free film . . . just say no and take a bite out of crime. Anyway, I was really excited to film until that morning when I was driving to work the heavens dumped all its rage onto Austin, and I was depressed because its summer and its raining and we would have to delay the filming. However, a blessing came and when it was time to shoot at 12:30, it was blue skies . . . that was mostly cloudy. I think Shakespeare probably imagined a very different day than that one when comparing his muse to "a summer's day", one that had less mosquitoes and more . . . summery. The important thing though, was that it had stopped raining. We went out on the field and I had Lindsey walk around not having the slightest clue what she was doing taking directions from me who was just pretending to know what he was doing. We also had Chris Bucheit star as the guy. He had come the day before for a photo shoot which was necessary for this film, and he was there for a short time during the filming, but when he was there I was cracking up the whole time, just cause I can't direct any kind of romantic scenes (why then am I making films of sonnets? . . . . I ask myself that a lot, and I still don't have an answer) what was supposed to be romantic first turned out to be awkward (sums up my dating life, except, its always awkward). But we eventually got it down. Kyle Dorwart, who is always and ever-ready crew member manned the boom mic and Dan Jones returned again as the behind the scenes documenter. After about an hour and a half Lindsey had to go to work so Dan and Kyle and I took some more shots and came up with a stellar idea for a pilot webisode called "Joe Striker" I can't reveal too much, but think Dan Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . with a mullet. Need I say more?
We continued filming later that evening when Lindsey was done with work. William Jackson (who is one of my heroes by the way) was the crew and we shot the dark room scenes and finished up with Lindsey in the field walking around for 20 minutes taking fake pictures of nothing while I filmed, but it will look cool in the end. Peace out for now

. . . Nothing like the Sun

2007-07-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I started filming my "Series of Sonnets", a project that I actually came up with in high school and am just now picking up where I left off. I had talked with Jesse Ormsby about it weeks ago, and he came back to me with Sonnet #130. Jesse was the first one I thought of when starting this project, he's helped me with scripts in the past, and well, c'mon, if anyone would portray Shakespeare, it would be Jesse. I have since read #130 over and over again, and love it, I'm not Shakespeare scholar myself, but to me its a celebration of the quirks in people, its the imperfections that you love the most, its what makes you you. Now if any young lady were to celebrate my imperfections, I have plenty . . . I'll celebrate all your imperfections too . . . any takers? . . . nobody? But for the purpose of the film, I decided to change the tone to a "make-up" story--the guy and girl get in a huge fight but then make-up, what did you think I was talking about, Loreal? no I don't wear that stuff, only occasionally . . . every other weekend . . . okay every weekend--yes it does throw in more drama, and well, I'm not a fan of drama, I enjoy laughing much more . . . or explosions . . . caused by giant robot aliens . . . that disguise themselves as 18 wheelers. But I took this direction because it gave the sonnet the power of telling a story.
It was pretty cloudy through the whole day, but thankfully it never rained on us and we still got plenty of light. The "muse" or "beloved" of this sonnet turned out to be Tara Barborka, and she was awesome. I approached like 3 girls before I got to Tara, and, Tara, does that mean you're the 4th round draft pick? Absolutely not, it means that you were meant to be in it. I thought I had settled on one girl, but the day before filming she tells me that she can't make it, so I panic and scramble, and call up Tara, and she says "of course". Tara to the rescue? Absolutely. I think Tara's biggest challenge were the scenes of her fighting with Jesse, she had trouble getting mad . . . and she started to feel awkward around the improvised discussion between the two which veered toward the topic of making-out . . . I think the phrase "lightsaber in my mouth" was actually uttered . . . just don't ask. However, Tara's high-point came at a scene where she had to look like she had been sobbing in front of the bathroom mirror. We had to come up with a way to evoke that emotion, and thinking "my dog is dead" just wouldn't cut it. So super crew member Kyle Dorwart suggested to play some emo Death Cab songs (they are the best by the way), Tara said that country music makes her cry, country music makes me cry too, not cause its emotional, just cause its bad, and I was kidding about crying. Well, to pull off the look Tara stuck handsoap in her eyes to give them the swelled up, teary look, now that's what I call dedication! She looked great, well the "I look like a wreck" sort of great. A sonnet isn't that long of a poem so the shoot only lasted about 3 1/2 hours, which is nothing, and everything went pretty smoothly overall, we'll see if editing will be as agreeable. Props to Kyle Dorwart on crew and car and Dan Jones on behind-the-scenes documenter.

Trip #2 down to San An--checking out some sites

2007-07-23T17:25:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, July 15 was our second time down to San Antonio on the San Antonio Project, one week after our successful interview with the Norman's. We were just doing location shooting so it was just Rodd, Mark, and myself. It was a little more laid back because we weren't interviewing anyone, we didn't need to be anywhere at a certain time or look presentable in front of anybody, we just went to some buildings and checked them out. The first stop we went to was the Bailey Street chapel. I learned from Mark that Harold B. Lee dedicated it and that Sis. Norman was the first baby blessed in it. It is found in the middle of a suburb, surrounded by a chain-link fence and all boarded up. It was a very dilapidated building. There was a walkway through the fence so we were able to walk around and get a closer look, it was almost kind of sad, this building plays a prominent part of the story we are trying to tell, it was a very significant mark in the history of the church in that area, but now it just sits there lost and forgotten. As we were taking some panning exterior shots there was a neighbor who just had a look of a gangster, was he? Probably not, but we decided to humor ourselves and think it was, anyway he was lookin tough and spewed out a signal whistle to his homies letting them know that some guys with cameras were invading their turf. That's my theory anyway, to make it more exciting. Our next stop was the Thomas Jefferson High School, which the early church met for stake conference in that area. It was a really cool high school, it had a very old, archaic, almost colonial (Thomas Jefferson?) structure to it. It also had a firescape in the form of a metal slide. Awesome? Yes. Our last stop was the St. Cloud Chapel which was the first stake center built in the area and is still in use today. I got some marvelous shots with the evening sun glistening behind the trees and steeple. Anyway, the accompanying video diary to this blog is Video Diary #2, so check it out!

Car Trouble

2007-07-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we left today at about 4 o’clock heading toward San Antonio for the Ann Roberts interview. We were pretty relaxed and just expected another day of shooting much like the Norman interview which went smoothly overall, so we were enjoying a Sunday afternoon trip in Rodd’s car. A new member of the crew today was Chris Bucheit, who has a bachelor’s from UT in film, so he was a welcome addition. Things started to get stressful when we got within the San An city limits, we were already running late and we ended up getting extremely lost. We have now determined that Mark Sanderson will not be charge of directions. We went around in circles and when we finally got our bearings straight we found out that we were only a few blocks away from the Norman’s house where we were two weeks ago! We also decided that we want Ashley to come down with us as often as she can. She didn’t come down with us today, and we ended up missing her; we get lost in so many ways without our production manager! We eventually arrived at the Roberts’ home and met Ann Roberts, who was the first person baptized in the bailey st chapel, and her son Larry Roberts, who tricked a general authority in eating a jalapeno. Bro. Roberts wasn’t feeling up to an interview, so we interviewed Ann Roberts, who is an incredibly charming woman in her 70’s with a bright personality and a good memory. It took awhile for us to get the lighting right, our original set up had to be changed several times with us moving the lights and switching the gels, and after about 45 minutes we finally settled on a good lighting set up. The interview went well, it was very informative and the spirit was there. We packed up and were heading home, and I was wrapping up on the video diary, but I ended up speaking to soon, as Rodd noticed some warning signs on his car and had to pull over. It ended up that his radiator was completely dry! We stopped at a service station and got two big bottles of fluid, but that still wasn’t enough, so we went over to HEB and got some cheap gallons of water, and finished filling it up. So, what we expected just to be another interview ended up being something very different, when life throws curve balls, you still gotta hit it.

San Antonio Project-A Look at the first day

2007-07-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

July 8, 2007 This is the first production blog for what I call "The San Antonio Project". This project is headed by my friend Mark Sanderson, and we are making a documentary about the history of the LDS Church in the San Antonio area. So after church ended in Austin, Mark, Tony Lewis, and myself met at Rodd Simonsens house. After eating Rodd's homemade tator-tot casserole (the tots were still cold, and the hamburger wasn't cooked all the way, but we still ate it cause we were hungry). We were running a little late because Rodd had to make one last minute trip to RadioShack to pick up another lavalier mic. The ride down to San An was fairly uneventful except for the part where this guy preceded to flip us off multiple times, always driving up to the side of us, flipped the bird, fell back, speed up to the side of us, repeat . . . oh wait, again . . . I found it rather humorous, I tried to get it on my camcorder put it turned out to be in vain. We got to San An, and one restaurant that we have already made plans to eat at was "Henry's Puffy Taco" Why, you may ask, because its a restaurant called "Henry's Puffy Taco"!!!
The people we were interviewing were Sis. Norman, and her sister Sis. Thompson, who were daughters of the first stake president of San Antonio. Set up took about 45 minutes, we had worked the setup and experimented with lighting the day before, having to make trips to Wal-Mart and Home Depot. We came up with a good set up but we didn't know how it would look in the Norman's home. Lighting consisted of a few reading lamps from Wal-Mart clipped on mic stands with gels and diffusion paper taped onto them. The miracle about it was that I checked the monitor after we set it up and the lighting looked beautiful! I was pleasantly surprised . . .
The interview went really well, I manned the camera, Rodd monitored the audio, Tony took photographs when he could, Ashley supervised as production manager, and Mark interviewed. The interview went really well, and at the end the two sisters bore their testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. The Spirit was very strong in the home, and we stayed after we took everything down and hung out with the family for a little bit. We ate sandwiches at Rodd's brother's house and then we headed back for Austin after a triumphant day of filming . . .