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The Samurai- A Very Short Screenplay

NickClapper

NickClapper

This is a screenplay that I cooked up. It's pretty short, but I think it could, potentially, be something I might film.

I'd be interested to know what people think. Does it make sense? Is it funny or are you just left thinking 'WTF?'?

Some of the 'comedy' is kind of visual, so please try and picture it whilst reading. I appreciate all feedback, even if it's simply to tell me that it was terrible. But if it is terrible, do let me know why! :D

Anywho, here it is:

http://www.theclapperbored.com/TheSamurai.pdf
 
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To be honest, I'm just using it to scoop money off friends and relatives to cover some of the production costs. I'm not going to be hawking it as a crowd funding investment, but it seemed an easier way of raising a couple of hundred pounds than going around with a begging tin. It doesn't much matter to me if I don't raise any money, but if people I know can contribute a little bit and lesson some of the production costs then that would be swell...
 
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NickClapper said:
To be honest, I'm just using it to scoop money off friends and relatives to cover some of the production costs. I'm not going to be hawking it as a crowd funding investment, but it seemed an easier way of raising a couple of hundred pounds than going around with a begging tin. It doesn't much matter to me if I don't raise any money, but if people I know can contribute a little bit and lesson some of the production costs then that would be swell...
Click to expand...

I guess that makes sense, an online piggy-bank of sorts.

Where are you in Cambridge and when is it you're planning to shoot? If you give me a there-abouts date, i could get a few of the guys/equipment to help you out. Although i know for a fact we do NOT have a Samurai suit.
 
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Okay, i've just noticed you're planning to shoot in the next two weeks. There's no way we'll be free.

You need a Location recordist...I know of a few in and around Cambridge/London, another not so far away, would you like me to PM you their emails?

Are you looking for Foley work?

Let me know.
 
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Papertwinproductions said:
Okay, i've just noticed you're planning to shoot in the next two weeks. There's no way we'll be free.

You need a Location recordist...I know of a few in and around Cambridge/London, another not so far away, would you like me to PM you their emails?

Are you looking for Foley work?

Let me know.
Click to expand...

That would be amazing, please do! :D Thanks!

I think of raising money for this in the same way that I think of raising money when you're doing a sponsored run or something. It's become really difficult to go around with forms collecting little bits of money off people you know, so everyone uses online systems. To me this seems like the most practical application for crowd funding sites...
 
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Brilliant concept, good script.

Probably a bit late for this, but I'm thinking that shooting the phone conversation completely one-sided could suck a lot of life out of your final product. It would probably add to your budget needs considerably, but I can imagine that shooting the Police Operator's side of the conversation with the contrast of ringing phones in the background and the comedy of his/her confused facial expressions would add a great deal of comedy and fun into this short.

Just an idea.
 
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@LastChancey: I wrote a reply to you yesterday but it somehow managed to delete itself (story of my life). Anyhow I agree with what you're saying but for practical reasons I'm going to shoot the film with the expectation of using the single location. If I see that cut and think it's really lacking then I'll consider finding another actor/location and shooting the police scenes. Thanks for reading!

@jrsmithson: Glad you enjoyed the new draft, I'm much happier with it.

I plan on shooting this Saturday but I'm getting apprehensive because this is my first shoot using professionals and not friends and acquaintances. Anyhow I had to make the step up eventually...

I'm worried about a number of things:

1.) People flaking. I have a couple of actors and a sound recordist coming. If one of them doesn't show up on the day then that throws the whole thing into turmoil. I need to think of a plan B but having actors on reserve isn't terribly convenient either for them or me. Hypothetically if one of the actors doesn't show up I can switch the parts and play one myself, but I don't want to do this at all. The sound recordist would be more tricky and would probably require me to call up a friend with zero experience to get there and help.

2.) Lens rental. I assumed this would be easier than it has been. The first company I rang doesn't have one in stock. The second, third, fourth, fith all require a deposit in excess of £500 for a first time rental. Tricking decision now: do I pay forward the huge deposit or do I try and do the effect in post?

3.) Samurai costume. Today is decision day for the costume. I was planning on going to a local costume house to take a look at one, but I called up and found that they only had that costume in their other branch. I won't be able to get to that branch until tomorrow at the earliest (even then it's a bit out of the way) and by then it would be too late to order the one online for delivery. So I think I'm going to have to go ahead and order the online one, just because I can't be sure that the other one is a.) Any good or b.) Available.

These are just my general worries for the moment. Any advice would be massively appreciated! Or if you're in London and have a fisheye lens you could lend me, that'd be great! :D
 
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I always say, pursue to get the very best out of your material, and nothing less. If this means you postpone your shoot to a later date, then i'd suggest that is what you do.


P.S Did you get in touch with any of the reccomendations?
 
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To be honest, everything that's a problem now will be a problem later. The longer I put stuff off, the less chance I have of doing it. So it's better for me that I set myself a deadline and stick to it.

I did email your recommendations (thank you again) but because the shoot is so soon and because they're a little bit more expensive than I'd budgeted for a sound recordist I don't think I'm going to be able to use them on this shoot. I'd love to have someone who really knows what they're doing on the sound, but, like everything in life, it's an expensive luxury. I've found a sound recordist who is apparently familiar with the equipment that I have, so that should be fine. But thank you for the emails, and if/when I have a second production with a bit more financial muscle, it's great to have some names to turn to.

In related news I just bought Final Cut Studio for my iMac. It's a big investment, but I reckon it's worth it in the long run. I'm just excited to start playing now!
 
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Well for anyone interested...

I've just finished shooting 'The Samurai'.

This is the first thing that I've ever directed using cast and crew other than my friends, so it was a pretty nervy experience. All in all it went pretty well. Everything was friendly and easy and nobody seemed to mind that I was a bit younger than them (which I was concerned about).

The Samurai costume turned into a bit of a debacle that saw me hiking it across London on the underground, along with the sword. Then when I was shooting this morning I realised that you could see the Samurai's hands and that he was clearly white, so I had to change the Radebe line (which was my favourite line in the piece :cry: ). We shot the Samurai scenes all in one three minute thread, which gives me plenty of room to play in editing and then recorded the voiceover (it was the same actor playing the police operator as playing the Samurai) when the actor playing Winston had arrived. That meant that he could go and we could focus on Winston with just me (acting as director and, to my discomfort, DP) and the sound recordist.

But both of them, I'd never met either before, were great and really helpful and easy to work with. We had some difficulty with my NTG-2 (see the other thread for further details) but I'm hoping that we have some clean sound from that and the inbuilt condenser on the H4N. I shot a couple of takes of everything and each section from different angles because the lack of contrast in locations means that I want the editing to generate the interest and that was all good. It was my first time using the DSLR Slate on iPad and I ballsed up the beginning by not reading the scenes out loud, but I realised my mistake and the sound recordist was making notes of tracks and scenes, so it shouldn't be fatal. Also the A/V sync on that app isn't terribly loud... but hopefully it's loud enough.

Anyhow we shot it all in about 3 and a half hours which doesn't sound very long (I had expected it to take more like 6 or 7 hours) but by the end of it I felt we could either continue flogging a dead camel and getting 5 or 6 takes of each shot rather than 2 or 3 or just break up a little early. I've certainly shot a lot more footage that I need and might well end up trimming the conversation a little bit.

Anyhow I'm not going to start editing today. I'm taking this afternoon off to watch football and relax and will start editing tomorrow night hopefully. I start a film course in London on Monday which will take up a lot of my time, but I'm hoping to edit this in the evenings over the next one or two weeks. I'll be learning a lot about Final Cut as I go so it should be educational as well as fun and hugely tedious.

Anyhow, all in all a really good experience and I hope I have something good to show for it. I'm sure I've made bags of rookie errors, but that's part of the learning curve. I'm just pleased that I've created something from conception to birth with a solid script, well planned pre-production, properly executed shoot and (hopefully) a decent stab at post production.

Sorry for rambling! That's been my day, I hope yours have all been good :)
 
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Congrats on surviving! It does sound like a pretty smooth shoot considering only 1 or 2 minor things went wrong.

Can't wait to see it! But don't rush the edit, no matter how excited you are about how it looks, it's not done until you've finished the first cut and then taken a few days or a week to step back and see it with fresh eyes, THEN you might get it done on the second edit.

:D Yay for being officially a filmmaker!!
 
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Cheers Paper, I hope that it went well and not just camouflaged disaster... ;)

Cheers Dreadman- I'm avoiding rushing the editing, but I have to also avoid the temptation to avoid rushing for several months... and yes, it is official. I got the letter.

Cheers Jeff, or should I say JEFF, I am also excited to see how it comes together :)

Cheers FantasySciFi and you better be patient! ;)

I have a few questions, first for editors in general and secondly for Final Cut users:

1.) Would people recommend syncing the relevant audio and visual first, before beginning to cut any of the clips together in the project?

2.) Should I compress all the footage first? Should I do this before syncing?

For FCP users specifically:

3.) How do I use Compressor to convert the native DSLR footage into something manageable? I seem to need to convert to ProRes (whatever the deuce that is) but I can't work out how to do this...

4.) Do I just do the A/V syncing in Final Cut?

5.) To render clips: how do I do this? Just right click and render? What am I really doing here? What does it all mean?!?!

6.) To do subtitles, supertitles...etc do I have to use Motion or can I do fairly simple effects just using Final Cut?

Much obliged to anyone who can answer these questions. Please imagine you are addressing an idiot/alien from faraway planet. I always think it's better to ask when you don't understand and even when I watch/read tutorials often they move at a pace that I find difficult to follow. I'm not a particularly technical person but I want to establish competency with FCP, so any help given would be gratefully received!

Cheers! :D
 
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Quick update.

I balls up my attempt to shoot this movie and it was consigned to the dustbin of cinema.

However I reshot the film today with Phil (Phil_UK) as my Director of Photography and it looks to have gone very nicely. Fingers crossed that everything works out for him in the edit, or at least better than I fared.

So hopefully the community here will be able to see The Samurai in the not too distant future!
 
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LOL "I find it hard to believe to believe there's a samurai anywhere other than medieval Japan"

Really funny. I didn't know you couldn't right (beat)? Is that a new formatting thing?
 
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