Camera Tests

Scully and I went out with the camera that we'd like to use for Ghost Tours and ran some tests. In the daylight part of the video we had a 24mm lens on. I was wanting to see what it would look like if we attempted to stay on the building's path and off the public sidewalk. If we're not blocking the sidewalk the city won't care about us.

Then in the night time shots we switched to a 50mm lens. We had to jack the ISO to 3200 (which is tons, we're wanting to really shoot at about 800) and open up to f/2.0. One would expect that to be tough to keep in focus, and also grainy as hell. Actually, I'm quite happy with how it looks. If this is what we can get with just the existing light then once we bring in some lights of our own, and also find out what the color temperature is with that weird mix of light, it's going to look very cool.

Take Out and Ghost Tours both at SENE

Last year Killer played at the South East New England (SENE) Music Film and Art Festival. That's where it won the jury prize for best short short. When they were doing their call for submissions for this year I entered Take Out. Seemed like the best odds for getting Take Out a screening. And that worked. I think I've said it here already that we got in and are screening on Sunday April 27.

But I noticed when I was putting together the paperwork for it that they were also running a screen play competition this year, so I entered Ghost Tours in that. Got an email last night that there are 5 finalists in the short screenplay competition and Ghost Tours is one of them. They'll announce the winner at the awards ceremony on Saturday the 26th. So I guess I should go to the awards thing this time as I've got two things in competition and last time I didn't go at all and Killer actually won something.

Sarah's University

Ok, I need a fake name for Sarah's University. Help me brainstorm a list and then I'll pick my favorites and make a poll. If your fake school wins you get the satisfaction of seeing a bunch of extras in Sarah's classes wearing your school's gear, and after the shoot you can have one of the shirts that we make.

The location at night

I went back to the location from the last post because I wanted to do some sound tests checking for noise from the nearby highway. While I was there I shot a couple of night photos just to see what the existing light is.

More location scouting

I went out today to a road on campus that is lined with residences halls. If it's campus I won't need to get the city involved. There are nice wide sidewalks. Pretty brick buildings that could be from the right era (Karen???). We can cover the BU red building identifier squares with some fake historical markers, which we were frankly going to make anyway. Just need to figure out who to talk to about it.

Here's a few possibilities.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

I just watched a really interesting movie. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Some of you would find it fascinating and others wouldn't like it at all. It was recommended, though I don't remember where. Maybe someone in my cinematography class. It was certainly very very interesting in terms of how they tackled it visually. It's a true story about a guy who was entirely paralyzed except for the ability to blink his left eye. We spend the first third to half of the movie really in his head and for a while I was thinking, "This is just weird." Eventually they break out a bit, pretty much timed to when he starts being able to communicate. I would recommend it to anyone who likes films on the quieter and slower end of the spectrum.

Location Scouting

I'll put something more formal on the official film blog, but I have a bunch of photos and thoughts and figured this audience would want the raw materials.

I almost got a job this week

The job ended up falling through, but it is still a good lesson learned. My cinematography professor, who I love, always says to the class, "Shy don't cut it."And he's right, and I know he's right. Part of why I am where I am is because of how hard it is for me to talk to strangers.

I don't know about this whole social media thing

I just realized I haven't updated the blog in a while. Then I realized it's because I updated the other blog, and facebook, and now twitter, and a new facebook page just for the film, and and and. I feel like I'm constantly shouting out to the world. Aaron is coaching me on the whole social media thing. He's very patient and didn't laugh at me when I had questions like what's the difference between # @ and RT in twitter. Frankly I don't understand the point of twitter. But generating buzz is how projects get done and distributed these days. Not just getting money to make a film, but getting people to want to see it after it's made.

There are kids these days who will graduate from COM whose first jobs will have titles like "Social Media Manager". It's all a bit cyclical, isn't it? Because that generation is on all the time they're catering to themselves. Hey, if they can get people to pay them for it, more power to them. But I just think there's so much noise in the system these days. I'm shouting into the world from every platform I can find. Everyone else is similarly shouting and it all just becomes meaningless. Or rather, the work it takes to find meaningful communication is more than I want to put into it.

But I did make my fundraising video for Ghost Tours, so that was a big deal for the week.