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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I've got Walter and C&C (principal photog, anyway; still gotta download a couple other smaller things he sent me). All of the footage looks really nice; I'm stoked to be part of this team.

By the way, having done this a few time now, I gotta say that I think ftp, or whatever you call it, is best for transfering large files. I think that's probably the best way for me to get footage from Wheat and Dave.

You may or may not recall that I originally intended to cast my artist as the artist. That didn't pan out, but it's probably for the better. So now I've got an actual actress, classically-trained and all. I've worked with her before, and she's wonderful, but also very busy. The day that she and my schedules intersect is this Thursday. Mine is one of the easier scenes to shoot; can't imagine I'll have any trouble wrapping after a few hours.

So, I guess it's crunch-time. I believe Walter has a film-fest submission deadline in a few weeks. We're obviously not going to be finished by then, needing to allow proper time for audio post. But I think it's very reasonable to say that we need to have a locked edit by then, and Walter seems to think that's sufficient for film-fest submission.

What the heck happened to Ray? I ask more because I'm concerned about him on a personal level. I hope his absence isn't a reflection of hard times in his life, and I also hope he didn't feel unappreciated. The dude is one heck of an organizer.

We need a check-list, all of the footage, audio, etc., that needs to be gathered in the coming days, in order to make the deadline. I've got a rough idea of a check-list in my head; anyone wanna try and fill Ray's shoes and get all organized with it?

We're not quite nearing the finish-line, but it's at least in site. We're running a relay-race, and our first couple runners have passed the baton. Haha, sports-analogies! Let's make this movie awesome!
 
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I'll contact IFFR about the unfinished film submission.
It would be great if we can make it. Otherwise I'll have to be patient for over a year to get it screened in Rotterdam.

I'm worried as well: Ray seems to be dissapeared.

Besides that:
I sent a few messages to a few people, but I just can't tell whether they arrived or not.
 
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David, I think it might be a good idea for me to get in direct contact with your director. I'm certainly not on a power-trip here, but I do think it's a good idea for the project to have just one editor. It's not that I'm the only person capable of editing it; I'm confident that numerous people here would do just as well as I. It's more that for the entire short film to make sense, each unit needs to be edited within the context of the whole. The pacing of one scene would greatly effect the pacing of the next, so you can't really edit any of the scenes as if they exist in a vacuum.

Long story short, I think it best if I get the raw footage. I'd like to edit it from scratch. The reason I think it best for me to be in contact with your director is simply for sake of allowing every creative partner to have as much input as they want. I'm no dictator as an editor, quite the opposite; if your director has particular shots that they prefer, or whatever scenario may arise, I relish the opportunity for our creative minds to mesh. :)
 
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Did I miss that memo? I'll admit I've been too busy to keep up with every post in this thread.

Are you re-cutting all the other scenes as well? Just curious as since I saw roughs of everything thus far and handed this off before traveling for work and then moving. Obviously I missed something.
 
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This thread has an abundance of posts, so it's indeed easy to miss something.

I made the cut to help CF through all the Dutch takes.
It needs at least a finishing touch + proper sound edit + colorgrade.

David: I have seen it without sound: looks good.
Will look with sound on as soon as I can.

Did you see my message last week?
 
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Yeah, the roughs are just to give me, and anyone else, an idea of how the director of each scene would like it done. And I'm more than happy to keep in communication with each director to make sure that I keep in line with their vision. But yeah, I'm editing the whole thing, from raw footage.

Basically, the way I see it is that we're not making an anthology. We're making one short film, so each scene needs to fit with the others, and that can only be done if one person is making the final cut.
 
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That all makes sense, just missed the memo/process. :)

Also hadn't posted in a while so thought I'd share what we had thus far.

Walter - saw there was a message, meant to look after my flight lands (leaving shortly). Ignore sound on those clips anyway - it's all scratch from camera at this point.
 
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The rough edits are a really useful tool for a number of reasons – firstly, they've given the other unit directors an idea of what the scenes are looking like, and, secondly, they give CF an easy guide to the intended feel of the scene. But I 100% agree with what CF says about the project requiring a single editor, and the same goes for sound-post and colour correction/grading.

David, the scene looks ace. I love the last shot on the second video with that wheel spinning in the wind... Part of me things it was a shame that the weather wasn't nicer, but if we colour grade to darken the skies a bit, then it could have a wonderfully ominous feel. I like it!

In fact, I like everyone's work so far! You've all hit a really high standard which is going to make this a really exciting short, I think.
 
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same same ^^

David, that's some nice blocking, lots of characters and I never got confused who was where.

CF, Iv uploaded all my footage\sound to the adobe cloud.. but I can ftp it too.. Do we have a target server?

Thanks
 
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Cracker Funk said:
What the heck happened to Ray? I ask more because I'm concerned about him on a personal level. I hope his absence isn't a reflection of hard times in his life, and I also hope he didn't feel unappreciated. The dude is one heck of an organizer.
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Ray fell off the filmmaking bus for an indeterminate period of time.
I think I immersed myself too much into the business side of it.
Dunno.
Just need to walk away and circle back later I guess.

Glad you guys are progressing with the project.
I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Best wishes and sincere "Good luck!" with it.


Ray
 
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Ray, thanks for checking in! Your contributions have always been appreciated, and I understand there are an infinite number of reasons somebody might need to step away. I assume you're making wise choices, and if/when you choose to come back, we'll be glad to see you. Cheers!

Wheat, I believe Dready has made her server available to us. Can you FTP it through her server? Thanks. :)
 
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Good to see Ray is alive! Hope you get back into the game eventually, even if it is as a more amateur/less business orientated manner.

David, can I get a look at the footage as well? I have no purpose for it, other than to satisfy my curiosity :)
 
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cheeseandachallenge said:
David, can I get a look at the footage as well? I have no purpose for it, other than to satisfy my curiosity :)
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See David's post further up this page.

Ray: Glad to see you're alright. It must be quite gratifying that your absence was felt so profoundly! To quote MASH: 'Take my advice - pull down your pants and slide on the ice.'

Everyone involved in the project: Do you have any BTS photos or footage? I'd like to start putting together an EPK for the film, so can you transfer me all BTS pictures (my email is nick[at]theclapperbored.com)?

Also, if you have BTS footage and can record a quick talking head explaining your process and involvement, that'd be great. Sound quality doesn't have to be perfect, as I realise that's likely to be the most inhibiting factor. But something that is good enough quality for YouTube/Vimeo will be fine. I'm just looking for 5 minutes of talking from each of you, so I reckon DSLR on a tripod should be fine.

Just CF and 1/2 of a Wheat still to shoot.

Perhaps it's time to start thinking about sound design. APE/Alcove?
 
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Aww, ray I'm sorry to hear you're taking a break! Thanks for checking in with a 'not dead yet' post, though ;)

Update: Login info distributed. I apologize that I haven't made progress yet on the website. But I did just deliver my paid gig and finished up with dayjob stuff that was consuming all my time, energy, and sanity. So I will be making the website a priority this week, hopefully I'll have something soon for all the updates and BTS goodies.
 
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I'm very very busy at the moment.
And I caught a terrible cold shooting a navy demo, a burlesque-like sailor party at night and a timelapse of sunrise the next morning... oops...

But if I find the time, I can make a google earth animation with pins of the various shoot locations. This means I'll need either adresses or GPS.
(My license expires next month.)

But I still need to record voices for the opening as well.
 
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Dreadylocks said:
Aww, ray I'm sorry to hear you're taking a break! Thanks for checking in with a 'not dead yet' post, though ;)

Update: Login info distributed. I apologize that I haven't made progress yet on the website. But I did just deliver my paid gig and finished up with dayjob stuff that was consuming all my time, energy, and sanity. So I will be making the website a priority this week, hopefully I'll have something soon for all the updates and BTS goodies.
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Day job is the priority, and that goes for everyone!

That said, I'm excited to see what you come up with. If there's anything I can do to help/make things easier, just give me a shout.

WalterB said:
I'm very very busy at the moment.
And I caught a terrible cold shooting a navy demo, a burlesque-like sailor party at night and a timelapse of sunrise the next morning... oops...

But if I find the time, I can make a google earth animation with pins of the various shoot locations. This means I'll need either adresses or GPS.
(My license expires next month.)

But I still need to record voices for the opening as well.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, but take it easy. You deserve a break, especially whilst we wait for CF and Wheat to finish their filming.
 
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NickClapper said:
...................

Everyone involved in the project: Do you have any BTS photos or footage? I'd like to start putting together an EPK for the film, so can you transfer me all BTS pictures (my email is nick[at]theclapperbored.com)?

....
Click to expand...

I've got around 10GB of BTS footage (haven't really seen it yet) plus a few dozen great pictures.
 
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