Messages

Live 8 was THIS weekend..  it seems that I can't actually go.

Aw..
I'm definitely going to miss you, as I'm sure everyone else is.

If I ever meet Bob Geldof,  I'll shun him.  Viciously.

I could probly host it for you, depending on the size.  My server's limit is 50 gigs a month, and I have succeeding in hitting 400 meg yet.  Most of that was temporary files anyway, which were uploaded, downloaded and deleted.

Let me know if you do, and I'll set you up an ftp doo-dah.

I was going to say what ildu and Alun_Crewe have said, only I'd have done it less eloquently.

Also, ildu.  I think you mean Flora.  Flora = plants, Fauna = animals.

Speaking of naming movies..

There's one I saw years ago, so it's pre-1995 for starters.  All I can remember is one scene, and that's a film trailer.  It starts with a plain swamp, then a black guy dressed as Rambo pops out holding an M60 Machine Gun, with a couple of bullet belts strapped round him.
He had an Afro, that was pushed out of shape my the red head band.
After he pops up, there's a voice over and then the title "Rambro" comes up..  and that's all I can remember.

If anyone can remember what film this is, I'd love to know, since all my googling has brought me naught but frustration.

You're going to have to be a bit more specific on how you want things to look before folks can help you.
For instance, Day Of The Tentacle is colored much differently from Kings Quest 6.  We're not going to be able to guide you in coloring when we don't know how you want things to look,

Also, I have a feeling that this get be moved to the Critics Lounge.

And also again.  Gah.  Hello Mr. Width.

I'll pass for now.  If I do some solo stuff anytime soon, I'll add that.

1. Yes, I shall be bringing at least one tent.  If there's a shortage, I'll see about swiping a second.  Also, Asda are selling them for £20 for 2/3 berths.  I'm happy to contribute to that if necessary.
2. It's either a two or a three man tent.  Assume it's a two man to be prudent.
3. Yes, I shall be seated.
4. At least one, since I'm not vehicular, I'm not going to promise anymore.  I'll see how heavy everything is, first.  Yes, I'm lazy.  The chairs that I could swipe are £5 each, and are odd.  You slouch like a worn armchair, and your ass is as low as your ankles.  It's also useless at neck support.
5. I haven't a clue when I'll be there.  Probly once either the beer has kicked in, or the hangover has worn off.  Depending on my mood it could be first thing Friday morning, it could be late Thursday night, it could be when the rest of the London to Staines trainees arrive.  Who knows?
6. I'm an alcoholic vegetarian.  I'm also allergic to seafood, aspirin and penicillin.  The allergies shouldn't be an issue, tho, since they're not things I would eat in the first place.  I don't care much for mushrooms, and I have a phobia of breakfast cereals.  Nuts taste like ass.
7. I'm in for the whole nine yards.  Or seven days.  Or one week.  Or whatever.

And Scotch.  Yes, you're there for 7.

Fluke.  I could host your Simpsons Trivia Game for you.  I could even let you have some space for a site.  If you did, it'd be something along the lines of http://www.lumpcity.co.uk/~flukeblake or ../~whatever.  Let me know if you do and how much space you'll be wanting, and I'll set you up an ftp account.

Good lord, I hope I'm in the twelve.

Neat idea, by the way.  I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of pull out centrefolds with staple holes in the worst possible places, tho.

Scotch is right.  If it won't work with VLC player (www.videolan.org) then there's either something wrong with the file, or something wrong with the time-space continuum.

..Altho it's probly the file.

Small, tight, little project..Ã,  I gave you the deaf idea a year ago.Ã,  If you're going to take it seriously, you need to put more effort in, regardless of time constraints.Ã,  You should have several scripts or scene structures ready to go at any time.

When I was more committed to the band, I was playing bass for six hours everyday.Ã,  The first CD we did was a nightmare.Ã,  I had blisters on my fingers and spent a few hours doing drop ins and over dubs.Ã,  Every song took about ten-twenty original takes to get the drums right.Ã,  Second CD, we put effort in.Ã,  Every song was done within three takes, and for the whole of my bass playing, I made two mistakes.Ã,  One of those was because we heard it back and thought "That doesn't work quite right" and altered the bassline accordingly.

My point is, I don't even think the band is more than a hobby at the moment, but I'm still willing to put the effort in because it's something I really care about.Ã,  Nothing you care about should be a Silly, Little Thing.Ã,  If Sam Raimi considered Within The Woods to be a silly, little film do you really think he'd have gone onto make Spiderman?

That's why in one of my earlier posts I mentioned "Disappointment".Ã,  It's not based on my opinion of the film itself, it's directed at you.Ã,  I know that you're much better than that, but you just seem to be a director when it suits you.Ã,  If you want a career in film, you'll have to put much, much more effort in than you're currently doing.Ã,  All your spare time should be devoted to it.Ã,  It sounds hard, sure, but if you're too lazy then you might as well just give up now.Ã,  If you have a passion, take it as far as you can.Ã,  Don't sit back and let it fall in your lap.

Summer.Ã,  Working for this dude.Ã,  Good plan.Ã,  The guy who made Lock, Stock..Ã,  Snatch and some other stuff.Ã,  Mrs. Madonna, Guy Ritchie, whatever.Ã,  He started work as a runner for a studio, getting paid crap but he made friends and connections and he had a passion for film.Ã,  This work could be your big break, don't squander it like the last opportunity.

Crap sound and no mic input.Ã,  You're probly best of getting a seperate audio recorder.Ã,  Don't faff around researching on site devoted to video equipment tho, go for something that specialises in music.Ã,  They often have better quality stuff, for a cheaper price. Hell, that's all they have.

Sure, some of the camera work was pretty good.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not just slating you for no reason.Ã,  I'm telling you all this because I want you to improve.Ã,  If everyone came in and said "Great Work", "Awesome" or "I can't wait for a sequel", you'd never learn where you were going wrong.

As for the "silly little film" thing.Ã,  That's not the way you should think about movies if you seriously want a career in them.Ã,  Studios have hired people for their work on short films, and they've been given serious funding to make features.Ã,  Sure, I didn't think the deafness idea i gave you would do that, but you could have used it too convince local businessmen to give you some financial backing on your next short film project.Ã,  As it stands, you've used up an opportunity and are still at square one with zero budget.
(I'm guessing you were using some of the school's equipment, too?Ã,  Will you have the same access to it later?).

I've also noticed you're trying to do too much work on your own.Ã,  You wrote, directed, produced, edited and acting in this film, right?Ã,  Too much.Ã,  You're spreading your time and effort over way too many sections, and they'll all suffer because of it.

Directors are there to get the best performance from the actors.
Director of Photography is there to make it look as good as possible, following simple guidelines set by the director.
Writers are there to tell a story.
Editors are there to make something coherent out of reels and reels of film.
Producers are there to organise everything, with little or no creative input.

You need to sit down and think what role you want a career in, and concentrate on that section.Ã,  Get others to help you with the rest, but stick to the one thing.Ã,  Remember: Jack of all trades, master of none.

Also, on the technical side.Ã,  Lighting.Ã,  I'm not sure how much you know about it, but it's worth researching briefly.

Stuffed:Ã,  I can't say that this is leaps and bounds better.Ã,  Mainly due to the fact that I've not seen Stuffed.

EDIT:
Making it black and white is a very good plan for low budget films.  Making something in color look good with no cash is awfully hard and often not worth the effort.  Also, you saw that Simpson's episode, too?

Well, that's the same scene structure you sent me a while ago, which I'm sure I told you needed work.
Sure, it's supposed to be simple, but I expected something with a little more content. ie:

Scene 1.
Alarm clock goes off but Boy doesn't wake up.  After a short while, he wakes up naturally and notices the time.  He thinks that the alarm must be broken, but doesn't give it much thought as he is running.  He quickly gets up and proceeds to get dressed for school.

You, me and Evenwolf have discussed scene structures and treatments before, so I won't go too far into that.

Next, we look at the reason behind the film.  Most short films have an under lying theme to them, sure some are just made to be funny, but most have a basic "pitch".   If someone asked you to give them a one line pitch of the movie, what would your response be?  This happens in the big movie industry, too.  Alien was pitched as "Jaws in Space".  The original concept I gave you was based on my fear of deafness.  You have turned it into something, that's, er..  well, I'm not too sure what message or emotion it's trying to convey.  It's also certainly not humorous enough to be labelled a comedy.

Star Wipes..  Sure, you didn't get this hokey, but you pulled off every other standard transition choice in your editing program's arsenal.  George Lucas uses wipes and stuff like that, sure, but that was Star Wars, and it's one of it's trade marks.  I wouldn't suggest you uses things like that, unless it's absolutely necessary.

I'm not even going to go into the music, since that was something I wasn't expecting.  As for the voice-over, it was kind of iffy.  Firstly, the "What the heck?" line seemed really out of place, and the rest of it didn't seem to have much emotion in.  Also, you'll need to practice on getting things in sync.  I'll let this slide, tho, since you did say the end was rushed.  One tip, buy or make a clapper board.  They're there to help get the video and audio in time when it comes to editing and dubbing.

Right, now that that's out of the way, on to the bitchiness.
I gave you a concept that could've made a decent short film, one you could have kept in your portfolio.  It was s'posed to be about a guy that wakes up with one of his worst fears becoming reality, but spending the whole film realising his situation.  He wasn't s'posed to realise immediately.  He wasn't s'posed to get talked to, he was s'posed to feel more and more alone and isolated as the film proceeded.  The wasn't s'posed to be gay music over the top, there was s'posed to be overly muffled sound effects, there was s'posed to be his voice, but with a completely lack of reverb (try talking with your fingers in your ears), there was s'posed to be a odd sound and feel to the film.  It was s'posed to make people feel something.  Something other than disappointment.

Lilly, could you do me a favor and upload the scene structure/treatment for the film, and a copy of the script?

Hey, I'm making a game based on everyone's favourite hedgehog.

A game about Mrs Tiggywinkle? Awesome.


Oh, wait..

My original post stands.

EDIT:

V wipe? Effing V wipe?

You've butchered the original concept, you talentless philistine..

Er, I'll post more when I can be bothered to watch it.

EDIT:

The movie's 8.7 meg, by the way.

Scotch:
You're in, even if I have to pay for you.

I doubt I'll get any saix from CJ, so I need a back up plan..

(Yuffie says I'm a SOMEBODY.  I can finally die happy. In you face teachers/parents/friends/random by-standers).

I need to get a battery for my Boss ODB-3 bass overdrive pedal which is connected to the microphone port on my soundcard before I even considering entering this.

When I have the battery, I'll connect up the crappy and rusted fender squire strat cheapo knock off that I borrowed from my band's singer to it, tune it badly, crank up the volume, get wasted and pull off some poor imitation of Sonic Youth having a bad day.

Count me as a probable.  I'd love to manage it, but I need to first:

1. Get money. I'm owed some due to a tax rebate, it's just a matter of claiming it.
2. See how much of that tax rebate will be going on paying bills.
3. Some of said money may go on getting a laptop/external multi-input soundcard, so my band can use it for recording stuff during practice, so I'll need to find out what's left.
4. Get a second job to pay for it.

Probable at best, but I hope I can make it more definite.  I warn you now, it might be a very short notice confirmation, tho.  Also, danke to helm for the organisation.  With or without the PC issues, you seem to have done an awesome job.  Hopefully, I can thank you in person.