Community Project

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]

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.

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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I like the new UFO. It does seem a bit small as it approaches the camera, the scale goes a bit wonky. I love the degrading and radio interference.

Im getting casts for my scenes, I may have some small script changes, nothing that should impact anything else, but brings in some of my real world experiences with bizarre religious groups. Also, I may have the kid kill the old man with a pillow, but that's just for fun. :)
 
Jooble, you rock! It looks really good, and I think your work is working as a terrific fire under our butts. Personally, it allows my locale to move into preproduction, and that simple fact has got my brain churning.

Sooo, I was thinking it'd be really cool to start with something a little more meta. We don't start with the viral footage, but a montage of people watching, and reacting to, the viral footage. Which, of course eventually leads into the viral footage.

This opening montage would be entirely shot on smartphones, all natural lighting. Quick, dirty, authentic. I'm confident I can pull this together, and it would only benefit from other people adding to it.

And then, as far as the scene written for me is concerned, how do we feel about dialog rewrites? I mentioned this before, but the only thing we've specifically addressed is that something as major as change in character gender needs to be made public, because it's referenced in other scenes. But what of the dialog in my scene? In my head, it's already been rewritten to make both characters more likeable. But is that killing the intent of the film? Are they supposed to be unlikeable?

Also, yes, I've watched all of the footage that's been sent my way. It all is very nice, and I think the general tone I have in mind for my scene will fit in. :)
 
I think working on the dialogue will be an important element for each production. The only reservation I'd have is if it changed the 'tone' of the film. But as long as it's not fart jokes and slapstick humour, I can't see a problem.

I like the idea of an opening montage, if it can be properly realised. I had the original idea of having radio footage from around the world playing in a montage (kind of like the start of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) which could be quite cool and solves an exposition problem. But the video montage would do the same thing. In fact, it would allow lots of other Indietalk members to get involved really quickly and easily.
 
Nick, you wrote some cool radiovoices, I made some change suggestions.
I was thinking about using skylines of Tokyo, London, Moskow, Rio de Janeiro, Rotterdam, Paris, San Fransisco, Something in New Zealand or Australia. Actually I asked C&C whether he would have time to shoot 1 extra shot of Laura not paying attention to the TV until the UFO is mentioned and shown: she looks up very surprised and mesmerized.
I have a french voice standing by to record (need to translate first). Dutch and Russian voice are almost cast. Japanese and Portugese are about to be arranged. I just need some people arranging down under, UK, east coast and west coast recordings and skylines.

Let me search my suggestion.
 
Ah, here it is:

Code:
INT NEW ZEALAND
Laura sits on the couch doing stuff on her phone while the ambient 
light of the TV flickers

                MALE VOICE FROM TV
                What remarkable video do have to share with us today, Lindsay?

                LINSAY FROM TV
                I found this one this morning.
                It's a UFO video.

                MALE
                UFO?

Laura looks up with sudden interest

                LINDSAY
                Yeah, and it look quite convincing.
                Look how it appears...
                And now it's gone.
               
                MALE
                Wow!

                LINDSAY
                The amount of views in going through the roof.

Laura stares with an astonished look on her face

                 MALE
                 Let's watch that again, while you keep quiet for a while

ALIEN VIDEO

BLACK & SILENCE

TITLE

EXT TOKYO SKYLINE & STREETS
                          JAPANESE RADIO/TV
                          Recent footage of a possible alien
                          spacecraft has gone viral
                          overnight.

EXT MOSKOW SKYLINE
                         (in Russian)
                         A more plausible option is that this is a new experimental 
                         aircraft of the Americans

EXT ROTTERDAM SKYLINE
                         (In Dutch)
                         Twitter exploded. Millions of people are discussing it.
                         "Twitter ontplofte gewoon. 
                         Miljoenen mensen hebben het erover."

EXT PARIS SKYLINE
                         (In French)
                          This footage is either a really
                           well-executed hoax, or the real
                           deal...

EXT LONDON SKYLINE
                         (in Brittish BBC English)
                         It's pretty ridiculous people believe it's anything 
                         else than a marketing gimmick.
                         Within a week we'll know who behind this 
                         and that will probably be ridiculous as well...
 
EXT RIO DE JANEIRO SKYLINE
                        (in Spanish. Or Portugese if we can get it together 
                         with Rio de Janeiro Skyline)
                        Finally we can say we're not alone in the universe

EXT NEW YORK DAWN
                      PHONECALL ON RADIO
                      I believe in extra-terrestrials,
                      and this is the evidence that I’ve
                      spent fifty years waiting for!

EXT GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (SF, CA)
Morning traffic jam

                      RADIO
                      Next: a Visual FX Specialist from Hollywood will 
                      explain how he would make such a video but first 
                      we'll listen to the new hitsingle from... (fade out)

EXT SAN FRANCISCO BEACH
(Someone can shut a radio off in the first shot?)

This is just an idea.
I like CF idea of (at least 1 person) watching in disbelief before showing the footage.
That adresses what has been discussed before about not starting with cellphone footage.
(Which is contrary to what CF suggests. CF: why cellphone footage?)

The way I ended the opening could have an influence on David's team. I've got no clue how they will start.
Actually it doesn't need to be connected. It's just an idea.
Just like it's just an idea to start with Laura. It could also be the young cult guy (I don't have the script here: it's in Wheat's part: in that case we could use an extra line to add Sydney to the worldwide feeling) or some random people.

BTW, I already found a great piece of stock footage for the Rio skyline during dawn with the Jesus statue :P

Rotterdam I'll shoot myself. Paris maybe as well (depending on another project that might take me there).
Tokyo can be shot by a friend of mine.
Moskow and Rio will probably be stock.
For Sidney, London, New York, San Fransisco I hope IT-members can jump in.

Oh, New York could be traded for Toronto, as I saw someone willing to join in.
Actually, if he can shoot a french scene..., but I guess it's to far away from Quebec :P

I'm thinking out loud here...

CF what are your thoughts?
 
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And then, as far as the scene written for me is concerned, how do we feel about dialog rewrites? I mentioned this before, but the only thing we've specifically addressed is that something as major as change in character gender needs to be made public, because it's referenced in other scenes.

Apologies guys, but my attention is being pulled 7 ways from Sunday these days. (Packing to Move, Prepping to be on the road for a show for 2.5 weeks, and shooting this tomorrow/sun, about to drive to 4 different parts of the Bay area to pick-up gear).

If there is something we need to know about referencing another character from another scene can someone explicitly let me know what to look for?


Ah, here it is:

Code:
EXT SAN FRANCISCO BEACH
(Someone can shut a radio off in the first shot?)

Hmm. Not sure on that one, but we are doing a move from the sky across that spinning bike wheel thing to find the group on the beach. Fading out the radio over that move could work to a similar effect?


This is just an idea.
I like CF idea of (at least 1 person) watching in disbelief before showing the footage.
That adresses what has been discussed before about not starting with cellphone footage.
(Which is contrary to what CF suggests. CF: why cellphone footage?)

The way I ended the opening could have an influence on David's team. I've got no clue how they will start.
Actually it doesn't need to be connected. It's just an idea.

For Sidney, London, New York, San Fransisco I hope IT-members can jump in.

I'll try to pop off a couple of shots that could be used for these. They can always be degraded into "cell-phone" quality shots if we go that route.
 
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............

Hmm. Not sure on that one, but we are doing a move from the sky across that spinning bike wheel thing to find the group on the beach. Fading out the radio over that move could work to a similar effect?
..........

I'll try to pop off a couple of shots that could be used for these. They can always be degraded into "cell-phone" quality shots if we go that route.

1) like I said, it was a thought. It would work like that as well.
2) That would be awsome!
 
FYI: videoblocks stock footage site has an ongoing "all you can eat free for seven days" if you sign up. Anybody wanting to get skyline footage and build a montage could do it from stock footage... if so interested..
 
Pond5 seems to have a free stock action as well: looking into it.
However, people who woud want to shoot a few shots in London, Sidney, New York, Paris are more than welcome. Great stockfootage is cool, great original footage is better :P

Although it is hard to beat this:
http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/...edeemer-statue-sunset-rio-de-janeiro-bra.html
Including antennas: very suitable in a situation where a video spreads around the world.

Correction:
Pond5 gives 50+ clips they selected.
Blockvideo is a subscription website. The offer looks good, but their searchengine isn't very good... :/
 
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If there is something we need to know about referencing another character from another scene can someone explicitly let me know what to look for?

Good thing you brought this up. Although Nick and I discussed this a few pages back in this thread, it would've been easy for the info to slip past you.

In the original script, the artist in my scene is male, and the love-interest female. I've reversed genders, simply because I'm casting an actual artist to play an artist (her main motivation is being able to showcase her painting).

As far as changing dialog, I'll definitely keep the same tone.

Walter, the reason I was thinking cell-phone footage for the opening montage is because I envision it being a montage of "regular" people recording the reactions of their friends, as they show them the incredible viral footage. Basically, it would be something like this, except the montage would be WAY more fast-paced, and nobody would be pooping in anybody's mouth -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQRoCcfNnVE
 
Ooh, I like the idea of the self filmed reaction videos. Personally not a huge fan of the radio intro. This ways seems to push the more 'human' side of it (as well as the 'theme', if thats what it'd be called, of viral videos). Since the focus of the film is on peoples reactions, then it seems a good way to lead into that? Maybe we go even more meta and have one of the (sceptical) characters watching the reaction videos and then watching the video themselves? Actually on second thought that may be pushing it a bit far and be a bit silly.
 
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Well, we had a discussion about starting with cellphone footage before.

A few comments/opinions/suggestions:

1. Opening: I'm going to suggest a revision to the opening, this suggestion is essentially that we don't open the film with the cellphone footage. My reasoning for this is due to first impressions, interpretation and expectation. When we go to the cinema to watch a substantial budget commercial film we have an expectation of a professional level of production quality. If the opening shot is way below that level, we'll assume we're seeing some sort of amateur footage which is part of the story. But, if we submit to amateur film festivals, the production quality expectations are far lower, the impression from the first scene could therefore be; "Oh no, a newbie submitting another crappy UFO/horror short". Maybe whoever is initially viewing the submissions will dump the film before ever getting past the cell footage? Maybe even if it gets to be exhibited, the audience will jump to the same conclusion, first impressions are extremely important! Therefore, maybe the opening shot should be something like: A wide shot of man and Steve, distant but approaching light (+ approaching UFO sound FX) ... man taking cell out of his pocket and Steve unzipping his bag ... maybe a slight zoom into the man's cell and then the cut to the current opening. This introductory shot should obviously be a stable and beautifully cinematic shot so the contrast with the cell footage (+ the cut to mono futz'ed sound) is blatantly obvious. This is all just a suggestion of course!

...................

G

Agreed on point 1, that all makes sense.
..............................

I thought it made sense...

The self filmed video is fun for 2cups, because it's a notorious video. (It's so notorious I feel no desire to watch it :P )
But for the project it might be a wrong start.
People watching and reacting is something I like.
I'm not so sure about the cellphone footage: it needs too much context.
 
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......Personally not a huge fan of the radio intro. This ways seems to push the more 'human' side of it (as well as the 'theme', if thats what it'd be called, of viral videos). Since the focus of the film is on peoples reactions, then it seems a good way to lead into that? ............

With images it'll be far less radio.
Why not add reactions to the skylines/landmarks? And add human reaction to the sense of the viral spreading around the world :)
 
Good thing you brought this up. Although Nick and I discussed this a few pages back in this thread, it would've been easy for the info to slip past you.

In the original script, the artist in my scene is male, and the love-interest female. I've reversed genders, simply because I'm casting an actual artist to play an artist (her main motivation is being able to showcase her painting).

Yeah, very easy. I remember the conversation being referenced, but never found the actual details. So, for our pages this affects Louise's lines about being at art school "with a guy who was obsessed with ..." and that should now read "with a girl who was obsessed ..."


Correct?

Also, added a BTS folder to my public dropbox ..

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uardqb9vx0advdj/AAByw2sTIiC1XOQ2tIZ5vkhla

Not much in there yet, but you can see a pre-build of Gh2zilla and just how much of a cluster-#@$% my apartment is at the moment. :lol:
 
Thanks Nick! That was useful to confirm what we were up to this morning. Classic Bay Area weather - sunny and beautiful all week, but come the weekend gray and overcast. Tomorrow looks to be the same. :lol:
 
Nick, can I make this change? (Ill need to make a corresponding change to the last scene with Ruth and Samuel)

Code:
INT. SMALLHOLDING BEDROOM, DAY

CHARLES (an old man, cold eyed and authoritative) lies in a bed.
Head propped up by several pillows. He breaths through an 
oxygen mask and is attached to a IV. 
RUTH (young woman) sits physically nearby but emotionally remote.  
Samuel enters his bedroom, panting slightly.

						SAMUEL

			Brother Charles, I saw a man in the forest.

Charles does not show any sign of listening.

						SAMUEL

			He's tracking it, surely he will find it soon! 
                         We must move now!

Charles still does not respond.  
Samuel steps closer, right to the side of Charles' bed.

						SAMUEL 

			Brother Charles, it is time-

Charles moves the mask from his face, his hand shaking 
and his eyes wincing with pain. When he speaks, his voice is hard as steel.

						CHARLES

			It is time when I say it is time.

						SAMUEL

			if the unordained discover the craft then we will not-

						CHARLES

                               {gathers patience and softens} 
                         Brother Samuel, my sweet boy..
                         trust The Prophecy. We shall be delivered... 
                         "even as the  first fruits of the harvest are reserved.. 

Samuel joins him in completing the verse.. 

						SAMUEL

			.. are reserved for the day of our coming.  
                           Unblemished they shall rise with us to the stars."

Samuel looks down to his hand, surprised to see it fiercely clenching
the edge of the blanket.  He forces it to relax and reaches to remove 
one of the pillows from behind Charles's head, he brigs the pillow to his chest. 

					SAMUEL 

				Brother Charles, are we ???   

Samuel looks to Ruth, they lock eyes and hold.  

 					SAMUEL 
			...are we unblemished ? 

Samuel begins to sob..

					SAMUEL
			How can the star gods accept us now?      
                        after what ...

Ruth's eyes widen as she looks to Charles. Samuel follows Ruth's gaze
and sees he is pushing the pillow down, smothering Charles.  

				SAMUEL 

             	... after what you made us do.

Charles struggles weakly, thrashes a bit and is still.  
Samuel gently replaces the pillow behind Charles head. 
He places and adjusts the oxygen mask on the un-breathing body.
He moves to the window.

An interesting option might be to make Samuel a "Samantha" without any corresponding male role.
 
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