I love... I love lamp...
I think from now on I'm going to write these entries as if they'll be included on the DVD's of either Electric Moo- er, I mean, Project "Creepy Twins", or The All-Nighters. You know, like production notes, or a production diary or something, seeing as how that's all I'm really willing to write about in here anymore.
So, how 'bout an update?
1. Camera - I found another camera on Ebay and it's on its way. $200 LESS than the one I would've gotten from Crooks-R-Us, aka, CameraForLess.com. Should be here within the next couple weeks. HOWEVER, there's a funny little side-note to add here. Remember how I mentioned that Chris' camera MELTED IN A BUS FIRE. Well, it sure did. Only, it wasn't the camera I thought it was. It was his NEW camera. NewER than the one I thought we'd lost. The other day at work, we were talking about god-knows-what and he suddenly goes, "Man, we should just pay for the old one to be repaired." And I was like, "What old one?" And he was all, "The one we used for Something Like Mozart." And I was like, "I thought that MELTED IN THE BUS FIRE!" And he was like, "No, no, no. That was my NEW one. We still have the OLD one. It's just not working, yadda yadda yadda." So I had him give me the old one and, lo and behold, it works perfectly. He says there was something wrong with it, that the battery was screwed up or something, but holy shit. I brought it to the screen test this past Sunday and it worked BEAUTIFULLY. I don't know what the hell he was talking about. If I'd known we had that camera all along, it could've saved me a lot of grief. But anyway...
2. FIRST SCREEN TEST WITH JOE - It went pretty well. I got to watch him get metaphorically SLAPPED in the face with just how hard it's gonna be to pull this movie off. Ah yes, it reminded me of the days toward the end of my Senior Year, head full of delusions, completely unrealistic and waaayyy over my head. And then WHAM! You realize shit's a helluva lot more complicated than you'd imagined. I know that all sounds cryptic and vague, but if you've known me at all, you more or less get what I'm rambling about.
We focused on one scene in particular. The scene Joe calls, The Seduction Scene. We don't have the leads yet, so he stood in for the main character and Woody's girlfriend, Laura, stood in for one of the "Creepy Twins" who seduces him. I could go into great detail here about how it went, but I'm just... I'd rather get to the part about lighting and post some pictures. So... I will.
3. LIGHTING!! LAMP! I Love LAmp...
I've been buying and constructing lamps like a madman. Big, Halogen, 500 watt lamps, 200, 150. I've made/found my own gels and diffusers and reflectors and everything. It's been... it's been awesome. I've really stepped my game up, and by "game" I mean CINEMATOGRAPHY. This past Sunday's screen test gave me a much better idea of what I need to be doing if this movie's going to look HALF as good as we're dreaming it will. The other night I stayed up 'til 6 in the morning just experimenting with variations on the basic 3-Point Lighting Technique...
It's like the Josh Eckert University of Guerilla Moviemaking in my house now. I bought SO much lighting equipment. And it all added up to only $127. ONE professional Tungsten lamp costs around $200. Eat that, pros. Below are just a few samples of what I came up with. Just seeing what this little camera can do. Looks pretty damn good. The exposure needs to be brought up a bit on some, but damn. I'm getting HYPED.
Oh, Jeff. To think how amazing My Wife Is A Gangster could’ve looked if I knew HALF of what I know now… dammit, not worth thinking about. We must look forward! Not backward. Upward! Not forward. And always twirling, twirling, TWIRLING towards freedom!!
Below are some more lighting experiments. A few of them look much darker than they really are. I can't tell if that's just MY screen or... whatever. Happy peeking.
Looking at the basement stairway at night. Flourescent light on.
Same stairway, in the morning sunlight. NOT!! Actually that light's coming from my 500 watt lamps placed just outside the back door. Simulated daylight!!! It may not seem like a big deal, but trust me it is. On my kind of budget, I SHOULD not be able to simulate daylight. BUT! I can. Fuckin' aye.
This looked amazing in motion. I held the lamps outside the window and moved them up past the window and the way the shadows moved through the room was beautiful and just way too fucking cool looking. I added some contrast in Premiere to make the shadows as dark as possible. In motion you could barely tell that it isn't grainy 16mm film. (That's my little brother, by the way, posing for the camera)
So that's that for now. More money to spend. Got some lenses and filters to buy, then I can start shooting The All-Nighters. Oh yeah, baby. It's ON.
So, how 'bout an update?
1. Camera - I found another camera on Ebay and it's on its way. $200 LESS than the one I would've gotten from Crooks-R-Us, aka, CameraForLess.com. Should be here within the next couple weeks. HOWEVER, there's a funny little side-note to add here. Remember how I mentioned that Chris' camera MELTED IN A BUS FIRE. Well, it sure did. Only, it wasn't the camera I thought it was. It was his NEW camera. NewER than the one I thought we'd lost. The other day at work, we were talking about god-knows-what and he suddenly goes, "Man, we should just pay for the old one to be repaired." And I was like, "What old one?" And he was all, "The one we used for Something Like Mozart." And I was like, "I thought that MELTED IN THE BUS FIRE!" And he was like, "No, no, no. That was my NEW one. We still have the OLD one. It's just not working, yadda yadda yadda." So I had him give me the old one and, lo and behold, it works perfectly. He says there was something wrong with it, that the battery was screwed up or something, but holy shit. I brought it to the screen test this past Sunday and it worked BEAUTIFULLY. I don't know what the hell he was talking about. If I'd known we had that camera all along, it could've saved me a lot of grief. But anyway...
2. FIRST SCREEN TEST WITH JOE - It went pretty well. I got to watch him get metaphorically SLAPPED in the face with just how hard it's gonna be to pull this movie off. Ah yes, it reminded me of the days toward the end of my Senior Year, head full of delusions, completely unrealistic and waaayyy over my head. And then WHAM! You realize shit's a helluva lot more complicated than you'd imagined. I know that all sounds cryptic and vague, but if you've known me at all, you more or less get what I'm rambling about.
We focused on one scene in particular. The scene Joe calls, The Seduction Scene. We don't have the leads yet, so he stood in for the main character and Woody's girlfriend, Laura, stood in for one of the "Creepy Twins" who seduces him. I could go into great detail here about how it went, but I'm just... I'd rather get to the part about lighting and post some pictures. So... I will.
3. LIGHTING!! LAMP! I Love LAmp...
I've been buying and constructing lamps like a madman. Big, Halogen, 500 watt lamps, 200, 150. I've made/found my own gels and diffusers and reflectors and everything. It's been... it's been awesome. I've really stepped my game up, and by "game" I mean CINEMATOGRAPHY. This past Sunday's screen test gave me a much better idea of what I need to be doing if this movie's going to look HALF as good as we're dreaming it will. The other night I stayed up 'til 6 in the morning just experimenting with variations on the basic 3-Point Lighting Technique...
It's like the Josh Eckert University of Guerilla Moviemaking in my house now. I bought SO much lighting equipment. And it all added up to only $127. ONE professional Tungsten lamp costs around $200. Eat that, pros. Below are just a few samples of what I came up with. Just seeing what this little camera can do. Looks pretty damn good. The exposure needs to be brought up a bit on some, but damn. I'm getting HYPED.
Oh, Jeff. To think how amazing My Wife Is A Gangster could’ve looked if I knew HALF of what I know now… dammit, not worth thinking about. We must look forward! Not backward. Upward! Not forward. And always twirling, twirling, TWIRLING towards freedom!!
Below are some more lighting experiments. A few of them look much darker than they really are. I can't tell if that's just MY screen or... whatever. Happy peeking.
Looking at the basement stairway at night. Flourescent light on.
Same stairway, in the morning sunlight. NOT!! Actually that light's coming from my 500 watt lamps placed just outside the back door. Simulated daylight!!! It may not seem like a big deal, but trust me it is. On my kind of budget, I SHOULD not be able to simulate daylight. BUT! I can. Fuckin' aye.
This looked amazing in motion. I held the lamps outside the window and moved them up past the window and the way the shadows moved through the room was beautiful and just way too fucking cool looking. I added some contrast in Premiere to make the shadows as dark as possible. In motion you could barely tell that it isn't grainy 16mm film. (That's my little brother, by the way, posing for the camera)
So that's that for now. More money to spend. Got some lenses and filters to buy, then I can start shooting The All-Nighters. Oh yeah, baby. It's ON.