Well the Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival has come and gone. I can say after all the films I have done this was one of the most challenging. 24 hours to write, shoot, edit, and score a 4 minute short is no simple task. But after much hard work from all the crew and the aid of a lot of caffein I managed to hand the short film in with just 4 minutes to spare. I was tired for a day and a half after but the best part was showing the film in the “haunted” Bijou Theatre during the festival. The comments from the crowd and cheers let me know it was a success. We didn’t manage to nab a trophy but we did get the Favorite Film choice from Knoxville Horror Film Festival which is all I could ever ask for. After all I wasn’t in it for the prizes but for the thrill and challenge. The announcement from the Knoxville Horror Film Festival was just an added bonus. So it will be showing there. We will also be doing another horrific short for the festival as well. More information about that will be posted soon. After the Horror Film Festival is finished I should be posting the film here shortly after.
After all this is over then it will be on to the ultimate undertaking of Burning Crow Pictures first feature. This is going to be the movement into the next dimension. What lurks there nobody knows until we get there but I’m thrilled to cross into the unknown.
The short film I am working on for the Universal Studios Halloween Nights short film contest hosted by Rob Zombie has been shot. I just completed a rough edit and working on some pick-up shots. Then it is on to a final edit, color correction, titling, sound design, and scoring. It’s a real busy week but this will be done and in the mail by Saturday. Well maybe more like Monday.
With this project I used a two system method. Capturing the image with an HDSLR and the audio with a Zoom H4n. I used a slate and everything worked like a charm. This production value just raised ten fold using this system. It was written in a couple of days, shot in two nights, and will have a post production of a week, all on a zero budget.
I will be posting some screen grabs in the next couple of days. After this is finished it is on to the next project.
The prizes for the first annual Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival (previously the 10 Hour Film Festival) has announced prizes located on http://www.knoxvillefilms.com It’s a pretty impressive prize list if you ask me. There is something for everybody involved it seems. I would love to see more things like Best Cinematographer and Best Editor in more festivals. Great job on those selection guys. I can’t wait to do this one. I have missed the previous years as there was always something happening on that day but this time I am marking my calendar way in advance.
Some of the prizes include Best Film with a two day HD camera rental, a light kit, and audio kit from Jupiter Entertainment. There is Best Director which also has a two day RED camera rental from the Think Tank company. Best Cinematographer gets noticed and awarded with a two day Jib or Dolly rental from Macville Productions. Best Editor gets noticed by an appearance on 11 O’Clock Rock which has a little studio nestled in Market Square downtown Knoxville run by Knoxivi.com. I’m familiar with them because I also had an interview there for a short I entered into Peter Jackson’s film contest. Knoxivi has a sweet little studio that allows the public to come in, have coffee, and watch the live event through the glass. Other prizes include Best Actor and Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Disposable Film, Audience Favorite, Judges Award, and five awards for student films. Looks pretty good to me.
The Knoxville 24 Hour Film Festival kicks off on August 20th at 7pm until the 21st at 7pm. It is my understanding that they will announce what 3 elements must be in your film to show it had been done during the 24 hour time limit. I’m also hearing rumors of two parties for the event so I’ll have to ask around and see if I can attend. I don’t want to miss a party like that. It’s going to be a real fun time. See you at the 24 Hour Film Fest!
After a week of hashing out several different versions of my script for the Halloween Nights short film festival I think I am finally happy with it. One of the hardest things for me to do is stick to an idea because I have so many coming to me at any moment. I get started on one then it opens up another and I think I should just do that. But now I have gotten to the point of just writing them all down into a moleskin notebook that I keep with me at all times. If I can join them together then great but a lot of times they are just completely different from each other. During the week I did come up with at least three short stories that I would love to do so if I have time I just might consider doing all of them. They are all simple and require no budget which is good for things like this.
The hardest part of all of this is juggling the time between undisturbed writing time and eventful Daughter time. She is at the age of getting into everything at any second so sitting down for a 10 minute block is impossible unless she is asleep. This is proving to be one of the more challenging points but that just means I gotta work harder. The harder you work the luckier you get.
Now lets see how this new app handles the upload to my site. I really just wanted to test that to see how it would work. Here it goes.
Burning Crow Pictures will be doing an entry for the following contest. The contest was just announced a couple of days ago so this will be a run-n-gun shoot. Casting calls will be posted shortly.
From official site.
Rob Zombie and Universal Studios Hollywood™ are partnering to recognize the nation’s top short-form filmaking horror genre talent.
Filmmakers have an opportunity to have their scariest short film rewarded with a TV broadcast of their work, a $1,000 cash prize and a trip for two to the opening night of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Submit your short film (90 seconds to 3 minutes) by sending 2 DVD copies to arrive by August 14, 2010 to:
Halloween Horror Nights Scary Film Competition
100 Universal City Plaza
Building 5511-5 (Publicity)
Universal City CA 91608
Selected films wil be judged by a panel of horror industry professionals. Criteria will be storytelling skill, originality and ability to provide a great scare. The judge’s top 10 shorts will be posted here in September for public voting. Please click the “Contest Rules” link below. Print out and sign the Contest Rules and return it with your entry.
It’s time to polish this place up because I will be starting some new projects soon. While I was out I went to Hong Kong for a month and here are some photos I took during the trip. Updates on upcoming projects will be posted shortly.
I volunteered to help on Michael Samstag’s music video for a local musician, Jaystorm, and it was a great time. Here are some behind the scenes photographs I took. It was interesting to see the RED camera setup using their specialized lens and I can’t wait to see the final cut. Michael runs knoxvillefilms.com and samstagproductions.com
Great job on the production Michael and the crew worked very well together.
It’s been a while since I updated here but I have been working on development for my latest project that is due 03/05/2010 so I don’t have a lot of time. I will post more details soon but for now here are a couple of concept posters I did yesterday. They are not official posters and I did them in a couple of hours but I like having a poster early on because it helps move things along. I will be working on the official poster sometime near the shoot which is in a couple of weeks. I will have behind the scenes info posted shortly. I can say that it is going to be an alternate history piece with some steampunk elements. This one is going to be fun and something I have wanted to explore for a long time.
STATE OF NATURE – State of nature is a term in political philosophy used in social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition of humanity before the state’s foundation. In a broader sense, the state of nature is the condition before the rule of positive law comes into being, thus being a synonym of anarchy.
Today I was interviewed by Lauren Lazarus on Eleven O’clock Rock for my super short Aotearoa. You can check it out at http://knoxivi.com/eleven/index.html on the Arcadian Overcast episode. Arcadian Overcast did an excellent performance. Knoxivi.com has a great little studio in Market Square downtown Knoxville. You can have lunch, drink some coffee, browse the internet on Wi-Fi and watch them perform in their studio. It was a fascinating experience and a place I will have to visit for lunch soon.
This is where the difference is very noticeable between color and B&W. Running through all of the film modes didn’t help too much. Almost looks as if Dynamic was best in the background but Smooth was better in the skin tones, least in my eyes. Today there was much less light coming through the window because of an overcast so I put up a light in front of the window and tried to get the same intensity. There isn’t any light bouncing off the walls or ceiling so it is quite different but it was just to get some noise anyway. B&W looks much more appealing to my eye at this high ISO setting than color. I wouldn’t come close to this ISO with color but you get much more range with the B&W. You will have to see the video in 720p to see the noise clearer.
So what is the point? Well it was to see just how far you could push the B&W modes and to me they look pretty good. I think you could be safe going 1600 ISO for web stuff. So if you are out with your GH1 and absolutely must capture something in low light but want the best image I think you can go B&W and it still look pretty good. Milage may vary of course.
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It's insane to try to develop, shoot, edit, score, mix, and finish a short film in 24 hours, but that is why I must do it. I like insanity.02:13:16 PM August 16, 2010from web
