Scene by scene details

The script general overview is finished, (at least for the most part, we will probably continue making minor, or major tweaks until we start the actual filming) and now I've started the long and intensive (but still interesting) part of detailing each and every camera and actor movement for each scene, plus what they say. We're thinking that the script will be mostly open, people will memorize their lines, but all they have to do is get the idea across that was intended. If they want to say exactly what's written they can, but I'm willing to have the flexibility for people to just say their own version, as long as it comes across well. The other advantage is that it will probably add some good bloopers! We intend to have a full complement of bloopers! (hopefully not in the movie itself though!) The other day I was filming some short presentations with our soon to be cameraman, and we got almost five minutes of outtakes from four 30 second presentations!. (Mostly because people forgot their lines and had to start over, but not entirely)
By the way, did you know that when you're about to film it's not a good idea to suddenly throw in an extra kilowatt of lighting? It's very impressive, and you'd better hope that your computer isn't on the same circuit breaker. It was quite exciting, "ka-chunk" The switch for the lighting is thrown, there is a brilliant flash of light and heat, and the whole room (downstairs with only one window too!) goes black! We already had about 1 KW of lighting on, and that much load at once was just a little too much for the circuit breaker.

Until next time,

Bigger Better Camera Crane

The camera crane is now 20 feet long, (15 effective) 60lbs counterweight, and still working nicely. If I can figure out how to mount this thing it will be great. Here's another video, and this time it's longer too (still no HD, sorry)

It's looking good, but finding a good mount for it is going to be tough, not to mention trying to transport it! (If we decide to use it for the movie that is) Here are some photos to show the size of this thing.

Above: It's not small!

The counterbalance system above.

Above: The temporary camera mount (This is part of why I'm not putting a 5D up there!)

My impromptu method of joining. (It's actually much better than it looks)

And along the side.

Try not to cringe too much, watch the video first, it really works very well so far.

Audio and Music Score

As with any film, sound is essential. At this point we're planning on using a Zoom H4N for onsite audio recording, and a Zoom HD16CD for mixing, and score. Mics are a weak spot currently. I'm not sure what mics we're going to use right now, other than the H4N internal stereo mics, which are very good, but there are only two of them. I've been working with a MIDI keyboard to see what sorts of sounds I can get out of it that we can use. It's sounding very good right now on dramatics, building up suspense and such with the built in effects. Now I have to find some cheerful melodies... (I'm playing improv, and slow, dramatic parts are easier...)

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this exclusively in Blender or not, the video, CG, and final mixdown will all be done in Blender, but I have Reaper, and for intensive audio work, that would really be the tool to use.

Once I get some good sound clips, I'll try to look into posting them here, but I've had a lot of trouble embedding audio clips, because I don't have a good place to store them on the web. I used to be able to use Google Docs, but that stopped working, and I still haven't figured out a good way to embed audio yet. I could post links so people could download MP3s, but I try to keep away from making people download something to see/hear it, and uploading only audio to YouTube is just clumsy. (But I may resort to that)

Ending on this note, the audio is just sounding beautiful right now, lows, highs, and mids, with melody, rhythm, and bass all coming together nicely in my test tracks. I want it to be almost perfect before I post it here though.

Workstation

Right now, here's how I've got things set up:

I'm pretty happy with my setup right now. Things are nicely integrated.
Unfortunately, the piano can't stay. I can use it, but its place is in the family room. Oh well, if I need to bring it up now and then I can.
...
And a front view:

By the way, the software shown is Magix Movie Edit Pro MX Premium. (I know, I know, it should have been Blender...)

Camera Crane Test

I've wanted to make / use a camera crane for a while, but they're expensive, and I would also need a pan/tilt head. A pan/tilt head shouldn't be too hard to build, now that I've figured out how to get my Arduino to read a potentiometer and control a stepper motor. I was thinking about using a servo motor for a while, and then I discovered stepper motors :) Anyway, I may or may not go that direction yet, but I was testing out a section of antenna tower I have as a camera crane with the camera mounted directly on it. Here's the test video below:

Start at 0:15. The jerk at 30 seconds in is from the counterweight (30lbs) on the back sliding around.

Yes, I know, it's not HD, and I find that annoying too, but I'm not putting one of our HD cameras up there until I have some sort of fail-safe. Below are photos of it:

And close up of the ends:

All for now! Please comment, and next up, production workstation photos!

Muzzle Flash Test

Like I said earlier, I'll post tests here, so people can get an idea of how things are happening. Here's a short muzzle flash test I did a while back. I plan on doing a (much) better version soon.