Community Project

NickClapper

NickClapper

My greatest regret, during my time on IndieTalk, has been my failure to get a community project off the ground. We came pretty close with the organ lottery project, but it never quite worked out. The past few days has seen a new member trying to get another community project off the ground, but is, I suspect, going to fall into a number of inevitable traps.

I am currently studying for the final exams of my academic career (*sob*) so am just sitting in libraries all day, every day. I'd like something to break it up a little bit (in addition to the couple of projects I am, slowly, working on). So I've come up with a new way to do a community project.

If you would like to participate in this project as a director (or in a shooting capacity), I need the following information out of you:

What actors are at your disposal? [i.e. two men and a woman]
What locations are at your disposal? [i.e. a house, a bar, an abandoned quarry]
Can you record decent quality sound? [i.e. yes]
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Please be conservative with your responses. In order for this project to be realistic and work, I need to be sure that people can (and will) shoot their scenes in the allocated manner.

Once I have a bunch of participants, I will go away and write a short script that incorporates these various shooting units into a single coherent story. I will ensure that no member has more than a maximum of two days shooting (though generally will try and keep it to what can be done in a single day). If you cannot record decent quality sound, I will give you no dialogue to shoot. Everything will be kept as simple as possible (within the constraints of a very tricky project!) so that we have the maximum chance of success.

Additionally, if you are not willing to direct (or arrange the production of) a shooting unit, there are loads of other roles that are required:

Composer
Editor - individual units should edit their scenes but a central editor will put it all together and try and ensure that the editing matches throughout.
Post-sound
VFX - will not be VFX heavy, but we can incorporate some if there's someone who can supply the talent.
Marketing - with so many cooks, would be great to have someone responsible for pushing the film.
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In order to make this attempt as successful as possible, I will only accept forum regulars into the scheme. New members (and I'm talking people who've only been around a few weeks) are welcome to input and help out, but it is of paramount importance that I know people will stick around and see their unit through to completion.

The deadline for signing up is 18th April 2014, giving people two weeks, after which we will allocate two months (and a bit) to complete production of your scenes, meaning a shooting deadline of 30th June 2014. As I have said, should be no more than a day of filming over the course of two months, so if you can't commit to that then please don't!

I really hope this works, and I think it can. Let me know if you have any thoughts and get signing up!

Current units:
David.rhsc (San Francisco, USA)
cheeseandachallenge (Wellington, New Zealand)
Cracker Funk (Richmond, USA)
wheatgrinder
Flicker Pictures (Boston, USA)
mad_hatter (Birmingham, England)
Dreadylocks (Omaha, USA)
Lucky Hardwood (New Orleans, USA)
ChimpPhobiaFilms (Ohio, USA)

Fence-sitting-maybe-merchants:
WalterB
Dreadylocks
sfoster
mad_hatter
ChimpPhobiaFilms
ItDonnedOnMe
jax_rox
Flicker Pictures

Music team
JoshL
mike mcguill

Sound team
mike mcguill

Sound maybes
AudioPostExpert
Alcove Audio

Marketing maybes
RayW

And remember to fill in this form if you want to have a shooting unit in the film!

(Of course, if you're local to an existing unit, why not team up?)
 
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H!F!S!

I thought everyone was lumping this heap of terabytes on your hard drive!
I thought YOU were the editor!
Gah! :bang:


Who edited 'Flight of the Flamingo'?
 
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Seriously?!

OMG, you just pulled this project right out of the cr@pper, CF!

for-the-win-thumb.jpg
 
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C&C,
Just went digging through your local film festivals (FF).
Looks like next year is your big year.
I'm seeing a lot of 20min cutoffs for shorts.
Trop has <7min.

I'm about to go hunting for whatchugot next door in AUS...
 
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And for all our unit directors, on the blog schedule (Coulumn "I ") the "Unit Director Spotlights" are now changed to "Unit Director Roundtables" allowing ALL of you to contribute EVERY week it's on to engage the audience.

Additionally, this allows you to have maximum control over what you want your social media peeps to know about what it is you're doing when you post "Hey, lookit what I'm doing over here!"

Now, if you guys are still interested in doing "Unit Director Spotlights" I'm certainly game for that.

In the meanwhile there are four of these "Roundtables" to pimp our wares.
What subjects should we discuss/share?
  • Pre-production
  • Location scouting
  • Casting
  • Tech/gadgets: Camera, audio, lighting
  • Shooting
  • Directing
  • Other
 
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rayw said:
C&C,
Just went digging through your local film festivals (FF).
Looks like next year is your big year.
UniSFF DL was MAR 28. Maybe 2015.
http://www.unitec.ac.nz/creative-in...ng-screen-arts/uni-shorts/uni-shorts_home.cfm
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Good one, I'd forgotten about unitec.
TropfestNZ is a bust. Maybe 2015, and your edit for time.
http://www.tropfest.co.nz/submit.html
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Tropfest would be the most realistic and *good* in terms of being a festival with some reputation that we could realistically get into. The time limit is a pretty big issue, would have to create a different version of the story from the edit (cut out some units).
SMSFF XDL is JUL1, but 2015 is good
http://www.showmeshorts.co.nz/enter-your-film/
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Would be good, but as far as I recall,
they're quite big on pushing local content.
NZIFF DL was APR17
http://www.nziff.co.nz/submit-a-film/submission-guidelines/
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Realistically, the NZIFF is going to be tough to get into. It's not really a film festival. They essentially screen as many of films that performed well at other festivals, or that have name auteurs attached. The shorts section is tiny (went last year). They have about 5-10 international shorts, and then 5-10 New Zealand shorts (and about 5-10 animated shorts). The quality is super high, given the few that they screen. Not that we can't make a super high quality short - I'm just saying it would be very tough. I think they're also pretty big on pushing local content.
Is there a queer angle to our short? Lezzy LAURA, perhaps? Can you get two chicks in bed? :)
http://www.outtakes.org.nz/
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I'd like to have something like this actually. Maybe Laura can get up, and her partner can tell her to come back to bed? but it potentially feels very wedged in. Also, you kind of undermine the point of Laura being female in subverting gender roles if you make her gay as well.
[*]BanffMtnFF DL is AUG 6, but it's a "mountain" oriented FF.
http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/competitions/film/
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There are a lot of nature themed competitions here :P
WUFF seems to be too interested in being coy to get any info from.
http://wuff.org.nz/
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I was actually planning on going to this next week! I didn't really get the impression that it runs much like a festival either, but they seem to favour the weird and expiremental. Can certainly keep it in mind for next year, though.
I'm seeing a lot of 20min cutoffs for shorts.
Trop has <7min.

I'm about to go hunting for whatchugot next door in AUS...
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The biggest issue I can think of is that, given our country is so isolated, all of these festivals* are designed to support local filmmakers. Obviously my involvement gives it a local flavour, but I wonder if it would be too marginal. I can do some research in the weekend and report back.

*Most of these festivals don't really run like your average festival. There aren't really opportunities to network and whatnot, lots of them aren't really competitions, they're often just a cinema that will play 10 shorts back to back one night and hten everyone goes home.
 
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cheeseandachallenge said:
I'd like to have something like this actually. Maybe Laura can get up, and her partner can tell her to come back to bed? but it potentially feels very wedged in. Also, you kind of undermine the point of Laura being female in subverting gender roles if you make her gay as well.
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EXACTLY!
Well, what I had in mind, assuming you can get two (semi-attractive :rolleyes:) actresses that can be mature and act like a genuine couple, is they just have a normal late-night conversation that borders on an ongoing argument - just as if they were a standard hetero couple.

Code: 
LAURA bolts out of bed, rushes to computer delighted, fingers pound out 
code for some math problem she obviously was working on in her sleep.

JANEY bolts up but remains in bed somewhere between understanding and irked.

			JANEY
		Figure something out, 
		Einstein?

			LAURA
		Sorry, sorry, sorry.
		Ah HA!

She pounds the ENTER button, a plot line along a map image curves to a new 
location, Laura grabs her phone, calls. Sings a rumba tune.

			LAURA
		I'mma gonna get some mo-ney!
		Gettin' kiwis for my ki-ki!

			JANEY
		Don't call me that. I hate 
		it when you--

			LAURA (to phone)
		Vern! What's shakin'
		bacon?!... Yep... Yep...

			JANEY
		Oh, my God. I don't know 
		what's worse. Flirting
		with the beard, or...

			LAURA (to phone)
		Yes, I believe I’ve worked 
		out where the UFO landed.

Laura clicks through several maps on her monitor, stops at a forested area 
annotated with red lines.
		
			JANEY
		... this UFO bullshit.

Laura looks back over to Janey, smiles, taps another tab on the computer behind her, 
a bank account page pops up.

			LAURA (to phone)
		If you got the money, honey,  
		I got the location, unless--

The computer tones, her account updates to an increased amount, Laura 
smiles again, Janey smiles.

			LAURA (to phone)
		Thank youuu, Verrrrn. Yes, by 
		these calculations your alien 
		spacecraft passed North-West  
		over the Mount Hood National  
		Forest landing in the sticks  
		about a kilometer South-East  
		of Vernonia La--

Laura looks at her phone. Call disconnected. Janey's smile shrinks away.

			LAURA
		Asshole.

			JANEY
		Come back to bed, Earthling.
		I have a alien probe 
		experiment for you.

I didn't really get the impression that it runs much like a festival either, but they seem to favour the weird and expiremental.
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Groannnn...
I don't think this'll qualify as quite that experimental - unless you want to invert the colors and play it backwards.
Pfft.

The biggest issue I can think of is that, given our country is so isolated, all of these festivals* are designed to support local filmmakers. Obviously my involvement gives it a local flavour, but I wonder if it would be too marginal. I can do some research in the weekend and report back.
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Hail, no.
Please do.

*Most of these festivals don't really run like your average festival. There aren't really opportunities to network and whatnot, lots of them aren't really competitions, they're often just a cinema that will play 10 shorts back to back one night and hten everyone goes home.
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Shame.
 
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rayw said:
EXACTLY!
Well, what I had in mind, assuming you can get two (semi-attractive :rolleyes:) actresses that can be mature and act like a genuine couple, is they just have a normal late-night conversation that borders on an ongoing argument - just as if they were a standard hetero couple.
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Yah, that's how I'd do it too. But again, my concern is that given we've already gone for the "look, females can be geeky UFO enthused physicists too" I worry making her gay would be playing up LOOK HOW SUBVERSE AND PROGRESSIVELY THINKING we are a bit much. But, there's no reason other characters can't be gay!


Groannnn...
I don't think this'll qualify as quite that experimental - unless you want to invert the colors and play it backwards.
Pfft.
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Yup. It's also not a festival that'll mean much - but there's no harm in giving it a shot, the more people who see it the better. It does have a pretty unique production side to it which I think will be our selling point to a lot of festivals in general.


Shame.
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Yup. Being a New Zealander is a pain sometimes! Well, I've only been to a handful of festival events, and the two I actually had films screening in I didn't attend (one was a university one, and I simply forgot - but it was only a bunch of classmates and tutors really, the other was in a tiny city I couldn't travel to). I think tropfest and show me shorts provide the most for filmmakers in terms of opportunity - but I've never heard of anyone getting a big break from them. Sundance, Cannes, etc are where you go if you want to make waves.
 
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cheeseandachallenge said:
... I worry making her gay would be playing up LOOK HOW SUBVERSE AND PROGRESSIVELY THINKING we are a bit much. But, there's no reason other characters can't be gay!
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F#ck. Let's BEEEEEE subversive and progressive thinking!
Nah, it's not a bit much. Well... at least not here in the States.
We've got gays and lezes and trangendered whatnots everywhere. I think a gaggle of 'em just ran down the street outside.
I don't care.

Let 'em be gay.
Gay physicist girls.
Go for it.


(I've progressed so far ahead that to me anyone claiming they're progressive seems far behind.
I'm ready for some serious transhuman progress.
But I tend to think along geologic and cosmic time frames where a million years is a burp in time.
Do you think in a hundred million years "humanity" will still be quibbling over petty things such as the plausibility of gay physicist girls?
I suspect the aliens could care less. ;))
 
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rayw said:
F#ck. Let's BEEEEEE subversive and progressive thinking!
Nah, it's not a bit much. Well... at least not here in the States.
We've got gays and lezes and trangendered whatnots everywhere. I think a gaggle of 'em just ran down the street outside.
I don't care.

Let 'em be gay.
Gay physicist girls.
Go for it.


(I've progressed so far ahead that to me anyone claiming they're progressive seems far behind.
I'm ready for some serious transhuman progress.
But I tend to think along geologic and cosmic time frames where a million years is a burp in time.
Do you think in a hundred million years "humanity" will still be quibbling over petty things such as the plausibility of gay physicist girls?
I suspect the aliens could care less. ;))
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But if we let the gays be physicists, we're only one step from legalising bestiality! Where does the madness stop?

But seriously, I agree with you. There's nothing implausible about it for my mind. The issue is, in the pretty gendered and slightly homophobic art form that is film, (though it is improving), simply by putting a female physicist on screen, you make some form of statement. You're subverting the expectation of a physicist in cinema, and hence drawing attention to it. Making her gay does this to a further extent. Whilst it shouldn't be a problem, the more you subvert something, the more you risk making a (perceived) heavy handed social comment. It'd be cool to get some sexualities that aren't just hetero in there, but maybe we do it with a character that isn't already slightly subversive. I would like these things to be incidental to the story, not the point of the story.

Anyway, Nick's call. Just one more thing for him to think abou ;) Personally all for female, gay physicist, I just fear the audience response to that becomes "pft, a bit heavy handed" or potentially focussing on her gender/sexuality. Or the other side is, you maybe get someone reacting "ugh, of course a female can't be a physicist if she's straight." Again, I wish it wouldn't an issue worth discussing, but that's a result of the time we live in.
 
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Agreed. You're right.

cheeseandachallenge said:
Again, I wish it wouldn't an issue worth discussing, but that's a result of the time we live in.
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Yeah, it's pretty sad that it's even an issue, which for some - it is. :rolleyes:

Well, lettuce see...

  1. There's the opening scene with MAN and Steve. I really don't think we want a Brokeback Mountain thing going on there. That would distract from the (infinitely more important) UFO shot. ;)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j-F7_qFDbU
  2. Next scene is two hetero couples on a San Francisco beach, which itself is pretty ironic.
  3. Then we got Carl & Sophie, an arrangement I think is perfect as is: She's a monied professional bitch with a long-term investment in her "pet" artist who'd better start delivering ASAP. (I'd like to think she'd kill him at some point, make it look like a tragic cliche artist suicide, then sell his paintings for a tidy sum.)
  4. There's the cluster of TV field crew & talent which is already complicated enough.
  5. Then lonely Laura, currently the hapless victim of Verns insensitivity. I dunno. Maybe she's just a masochist? :huh:
  6. Then there's Vern out in the woods of Vernonia (LOL!) doing his thaaaaang. Maybe we could pair-up Laura and Vern rather than have their relationship be dysfunctional as is?
  7. Finally there's Samuel & Charles - and I really don't wanna "gay them up." I think they're gay enough already. :lol:
 
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I don't think it's especially 'progressive' to turn a non-sexual character homosexual in order to qualify for a wider variety of film festivals!

Obviously, if it's something that could have an impact on the plot, the tone and the characterisation then I'd not be against it (though I certainly wouldn't do it for cynical reasons). I think we want to be diverse and representative, but bear in mind that none of the relationships in the film are overtly sexual, and the supposition that people are heterosexual is just that - a supposition.

Still, I'll leave this one up to C&C – If it's something you think would enhance your work, then I'm happy to try and write something in (delicately!).
 
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NickClapper said:
I don't think it's especially 'progressive' to turn a non-sexual character homosexual in order to qualify for a wider variety of film festivals!
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Good point.

Obviously, if it's something that could have an impact on the plot, the tone and the characterisation then I'd not be against it (though I certainly wouldn't do it for cynical reasons). I think we want to be diverse and representative, but bear in mind that none of the relationships in the film are overtly sexual, and the supposition that people are heterosexual is just that - a supposition.

Still, I'll leave this one up to C&C – If it's something you think would enhance your work, then I'm happy to try and write something in (delicately!).
Click to expand...

Personally, whilst I would like to have a gay character - for the sake of it being incidental to the story (so their being gay isn't the story kind of making hte point that it shouldn't have to be a story in itself) - and it would give us wider festival options, I personally don't think it works here.

I am pro having a diverse range of representations, so if there was space for a few *marginalised* characters (whether they be gay, overweight, ethnic minority, identifying as something other than male/female, etc) I would be happy for that. But I don't think it works particularly well in the Laura scene, and as Ray pointed out, maybe not in the others.
 
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rayw said:
What can the unit directors deliver to you and Nick, and what can Nick deliver to you that will make the process go fastest or most efficiently.
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I've laid out the importance of providing sound design opportunities in the Sound Design thread. Those suggestions don't make the process faster or more efficient, if anything the opposite, but they do provide the opportunity for good sound design and therefore a better film. To increase the potential for good sound quality (rather than just artistic opportunity) and to maximise efficiency I have a few suggestions:

1. The standard advice for recording clean production dialogue. General stuff like; switch off fridges, air-con, etc., before recording. Try to get the mic in as close as the framing will allow, good but not too hot levels, etc.

2. More takes is better! At a minimum, two takes per shot; 1 take plus a safety take. The more alt takes (within reason), the greater the opportunity for dialogue editing and the higher the chance of achieving decent dialogue without having to resort to ADR. For this same reason, sticking to the script for each take provides more dialogue editing opportunities.

3. The recording of wild tracks (time premitting); EXT locations/ambiances and sounds FX would be helpful at least as a guide if not actually usable in the final mix. Dialogue wilds could also prove very useful in avoiding ADR.

4. The recording of 30 secs or so of clean, matching room tone (even for EXT shots) and the use of a slate will help both efficiency and final mix quality.

5. Good file management! A common/consistent file naming strategy would help efficiency in post, as would a sound log from each unit.

6. Obviously all the raw (unprocessed) audio recorded by every unit should be made available to the audio post team, not just the audio used in the picture edit.

It's likely I'll have other suggestions about what/how to supply the audio materials once I see the initial rough edit.

rayw said:
I think you have a good handle on the caliber of work required for this.
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To be honest I don't and to an extent, it's irrelevant! I'm going to be doing exactly what I normally do; good, professional, commercial quality audio post. My ability to achieve that level maybe limited by what I'm given to work with (both in terms of the visual edit and therefore the sound design opportunities and in terms of the raw production audio materials) and the time available but I'll still be aiming and working towards commercial standards regardless.

G
 
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ellen-pages-cannes-cover-creative-702195
tumblr_mb0of3qy5H1rhxmheo2_500.gif
:lol:

Allllriiiiight, movin' on...


AudioPostExpert said:
2. ...For this same reason, sticking to the script for each take provides more dialogue editing opportunities.
Makes sense. Pretty limiting, though. However...

4. The recording of 30 secs or so of clean, matching room tone (even for EXT shots) and the use of a slate will help both efficiency and final mix quality.
IDK why this seems to be such an afterthought or no-thought to so many indies, but yeah, it sure is great to have.
Room tone audio-paints over a lot of cracks and seams. :D

5. Good file management! A common/consistent file naming strategy would help efficiency in post, as would a sound log from each unit.
Do you have a preferred system?
Name-date-number?
What? How?

6. Obviously all the raw (unprocessed) audio recorded by every unit should be made available to the audio post team, not just the audio used in the picture edit.
In another conversation you stated WAV files had compression (or was it MP3?).
What input settings make the process most time/effort efficient?
48k or 96k sample rate?

To be honest I don't and to an extent, it's irrelevant!
There's little or no grey area to exploit, eh?
Very little Lo-Med-Hi time & effort input?
Click to expand...
Thank you.
 
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