movie making on my own

Movie Maker is free and comes on most all PCs. I think this is why it gets overlooked. For all it’s drawbacks it still gets the job done for a simple movie. Movie Maker has the basic transitions you’ll need and the ability to extract the audio from a video clip. Also, if your computer has a fire wire port you can capture direct from your camera and then place the finished product back on the Mini-DV tape. This is useful because some film festivals still won’t take a DVD as a submission format, despite it being 2009.

The Good

It’s very simple to use. This is because it lacks bells and whistles and any really sophisticated functions. However for a beginner who just needs to cut their teeth on learning out to cut and dissolve things together in a fashion that isn’t crappy—this’ll do that.

Another good point is that it extracts audio from a video clip within the program. Click on the clip with the audio you want and drag it to the audio/music track and voila, only the audio remains on the storyboard.

Oh, and it’s free.

The Bad

If you are editing AVI, or any other larger file type, and making a movie longer than 5 minutes expect the program to crash a lot. I counteract this by editing together five minute segments, saving them, and then importing them later into one file to send back to the Mini-DV tape or to DVD. However, when doing this, beware. Movie Maker can only save a copy of a movie so many times before some really ugly pixilation occurs. For example, you save copies of those five minute segments, that’s copy 1. Then you import them all together onto the timeline to save as another file, that’s copy 2. Then you import the full version back into movie maker to add some extra effect or audio and save it again, that’s copy 3. Go beyond about 3 copies and you’ll see some parts begin to pixilated. The more copies, the worse it gets. It drives me crazy.

The other major drawback is there’s only one extra audio track. Meaning if you want sound effects and music playing together you’ll need to make a copy with the music added, save it, and then re import it to add the effects. See the above paragraph, for why being forced to make extra copies is bad.

Conclusion
If the end goal for your movie is youtube, Movie Maker is good for that. If you are making something short without a lot of effects, Movie Maker is good for that. For learning to edit and some first time experimenting, Movie Maker is good for this too. About anything else and you’ll want to search for something better. You’ll probably have to bite the bullet and buy something. However this does not mean you have to spend $600 dollars for Final Cut Pro. There are plenty of good alternatives out there for less, in the $50ish range like Sony Vegas. Also search the freeware websites and see what you come up with.

Before I end, a question for all you people out there in the webshere, what’s your favoirte video editing program?

Banner photo by Saine
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“The Legend of Milon Blocker” is a no-budget indie film made by yours truely. It’s a five minute short made for Memphis’s Li’l Film Fest and is currently in post-production. Anyway, on to what the title said this was about:

1. Never schedule a shoot for less than 3 hours

You don’t have to be shooting for 3 hours. Just plan at least 3 hours time free for set up, shooting, and take down. It took about 10-20mins to set up and we weren’t even using lighting equipment. Since I’m starting out I decided to take advantage of that big ball of fire in the sky. We did no more than 3 scenes a shoot but all of them took 3 hours, even the ones that were scheduled for 2 hours. Thus those scheduled for 2 got rushed at the end. The best thing about making a 3 hour rule: if you finish early, your actors will be happy. No one is happy when things go late.

2. Schedule a get together to look over costumes

This way you aren’t worrying to death about unknown factors. We should have set something up to meet at a home or a church and looked over what the costume possibilities were. The great thing about indie no-buget projects is the community. So use it. Ask for things from friends and have friends ask their friends. Have the actors and crew ask their friends and you have a whole network of friends.

“Milton” had several scenes that were set in the 1800s and we were able to get convincing costumes. Granted, the 1800s is good in the fact that the fashion of the time was very simple. When it came to guys you could tell them to wear Sunday church clothes and it’d pass for 1800’s garb. Even without the sepia cast over those scenes the costumes didn’t look too unconvincing for 1800s minus the brief moment you see a zipper. So ask around and get everyone together some place to see what your options are. Don’t leave things up to chance like a moron.

3. Bring an assistant

Specifically bring an assistant that can help set up and who is camera or sound learned. It helps to have another set of ears and eyes while shooting. Even if you are gung-ho about doing things Rodriguez style (meaning having a one-person crew). One of the few great things about doing something no-budget is that you get the privilege, as creator of the project, to be the one playing with the camera.

A person to supervise sound comes in real handy. It’s not as easy as you would think to screen for possible visual clutter and audio clutter at the same time. Especially when you aren’t very experienced. I was happy to have Leslie, our co-producer, around most of the time we were shooting because she would warn me of inferring noise. Noise I was oblivious to because I was busy focusing on getting the shot to look right.

4. You cannot pay enough attention to what’s happening in the background

This is something I knew and was stupid about. However, since there are cars going by in the background of Lord of the Rings I won’t beat myself up too terribly. There were about two or three shots in “Milton” where you can see these nice suburb houses in the background of what should be an 1800s setting. Thankfully I was able to use other shots, trash the ones with the houses, and still have the scene make sense.

Paying attention to the background is something you have to be anal about with yourself. Ask yourself with every shot, “What’s in the background? What all can I see in the entirety of the frame I’ve just set up?” It becomes instinct after awhile. I don’t make as many errors as I used to. Also, remember if your actor is moving in the shot, what they covered up at the beginning of the take they aren’t covering up once they start moving. I know, that’s so obvious. I still forgot.

Apparently, sometimes flyers do work.

I went to an interview once for a freelance design job. Didn’t get the job. However, in the interview the guy mentioned to me that when mailing out advertisements the return rate is about 1%. Basically, this means that for every 100 advertisements mailed, they get about one customer.

I’ve been handing out today.com flyers. Really, not “handing out”, I’m anti-social, so I’ve been putting them on people’s cars. This way I don’t have to bug them at their door. I’ve handed out about 100 flyers so far and I’ve gotten one e-mail from someone. Hence, 100 flyers given out, 1 person returning with some interest.

This is his blog btw, reviewthefacts.net. I don’t know if he’ll be joining today.com or not. However, it still counts as interest and he had to view my blog to be able to get my e-mail.

This 1% rule is why flyers for auditions don’t work. It doesn’t make much sense going around neighborhoods and putting flyers on cars. There aren’t 100 bulletin boards to post the flyers too. So when it comes to auditions, flyers are a no. Unless you know of a bulletin board that actors check frequently. Then yes, defiantly put up a flyer.

Also blogging is the best thing ever. It’s a way to make a little money on ventures you would otherwise see nothing on. This ties in well for the indie filmmaker who is still experimenting. Or the artist who hasn’t made a reputation yet, or the musician or the novelist… The list goes on and on. The idea is simple. You write a blog about whatever your art fix is. Set a blog up with a website that pays money for writing (like today.com). Or make your own blog with whoever you like and use an ad program. You won’t see a lot of money. However, you might make back some of the money spent on props or art supplies. With four posts on here about my Milton project, at a dollar a post, I’ve made back the money I spend on coffee while holding auditions at starbucks. Hoo-ha.

Okay, so I’m switching it up today and making a post not about the Milton project. Information on that project can be found here

this post has a link to the script in it.

Anyway onto my non-related post.

Warning: Rant time.

Why do the makers of television shows think that all fat people are desperate? Especially fat people in high school? I know that most high schoolers, being teenagers, tend towards angst and issues. The fat ones aren’t immune to this. However, they really aren’t any more angst or issue ridden than any other teenagers. Speaking from experience here.

It just really pisses me off the number of jokes that that seem to insinuate that a fat person will fall all over a guy just because he says ‘hi’ to her. That does not happen in real life…unless the girl has other issues. Or the guy is Mathieu Almaric, but that’s something else all together.

Just because someone is fat doesn’t mean they lack self esteem. It doesn’t mean they don’t have standards. And, no, they aren’t going to be “easy to get”, at least no more than any other girl. Sorry guys.

I’ve seen several episodes on various TV shows where the plot goes like this: Jock plays trick on fat girl by pretending to like her and then ridicules her.

First thing, not everyone likes you jocks. No, all girls don’t want to be with you. Some girls are turned on by goths, some by nerds, some by smart dudes, some by artsy guys, some by hippies, some by just-about-any-type-of-person-you-can-think-of. I really find it hard to believe a fat person would be interested in a jock to begin with. Jocks are obsessed with sports, hence why they are jocks. How many fat people do you know that like sports? Think about it.

I know, the rational for the plot line is that jocks are hot. People are attracted to each other on looks. However, they are also attracted to each other on personality. So, I’m sorry Mr. Jock, there are plenty of girls out there that don’t care you exist, no matter how hot you are.

Second thing, fat girls are no more obsessed with sex than anyone else. Do they get less attention than most girls? Maybe. But that doesn’t mean they are going to go to bed with some guy they don’t know just because he asked. It’s like the writers of these shows think it’s perfectly normal for a fat person to have no standards when it comes to males.

It seems every time I see a fat character on TV (with the exception of Meme) they are doing something stupid to get someone to sleep with them. Granted, it might be because you never see fat characters on TV. So, when you do see one, they are only fat to serve the plot. They can’t be just some normal character like most real fat people are.

Whatever the reason, this is the stupidest stereotype ever made. Anyone who believes it needs to be hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

I’ve really gotten into blogging lately. Every time something exciting happens I just want to find the nearest computer and blog about it. I know, I’ve become such a nerd.

Tonight was the second set of auditions. We’ve had a total of ten people audition now. That’s counting both nights. I’m also seeing a few people monday at 4pm. So, at the very least, I know I won’t have to run around begging people to act in my movie. This is a good feeling.

I remember doing the auditions for “Logic”, a previous project of mine. Out of two days and a total of four hours, only one person auditioned. Needless to say she got the lead. Good for her, bad for me.

I think the difference is that instead of just flyers and putting an ad on craigslist, I also put up an ad on the Memphis ecallboard yahoo group. It could also be the change in location. However I find it hard to believe Olive Branch (where we are auditioning now) is a more lucrative area to find actors than Midtown Memphis (where we did the auditions for “Logic”). Midtown is filled with artists, actors, filmmakers. There’s hardly a normal person in the whole area.

Also this time, ETA, an acting agency, got wind of the auditions and have sent probably five out of the ten people my way. Go ETA. I didn’t know you existed until a few days ago but you are awesome.

There was also a person that contacted me that called themselves Memphismom. She is the one bringing a few teenagers to audition Monday. In later e-mails I learned she’s friends with the head of ETA. So I don’t know if it’s ETA that tiped her off, or she who tipped ETA off. Either way, it works out good for me. The only downside is I’ve gotten several auditions from children. They’re all cute and they’re all awesome but we only have one child part. Possibly two.

Advice
Some advice, if you are ever holding your own auditions in Memphis, TN for an indie project and you have no name.

One, put up something on craigslist. That does help.

Two, put something up on the Memphis theatre callboard

Three, get ahold of the ETA

The memphis film scene is still small. This means that its actors are starved for parts, which is good for the indie film maker trying to get their start.

Also, in Memphis you have the ability to be a nobody and wander straight into the middle of the film scene. No one cares that you don’t have a name. No one gives you funny looks. Most are even happy to see you.

—Jessie

I did the first set of auditions tonight. Five people showed. If this is an indication of what tomorrow night will bring than the future of this film bodes very well.

I was about as nervous as the actors I was auditioning. Perhaps even more so. It’s really kind of funny. Also interesting because I’ve been in the actor’s shoes before. Now I know the audition process from both sides of the table.

Anyway, on another note, from now until Sunday is the Oxford film festival. Doesn’t look like I’ll have the funds to go. But for those of you that do, here’s a link to the list of films they are screening: Oxford Film Fest Link

Make Out with Violence is an awesome movie. I saw it at the indie fest in Memphis last November.

Oh and random. I got a call from savedarfur.org. They’re trying to get funds to do some lobbying. I don’t know why lobbying is so expensive. However, I would urge people to pester the hell out of their congressman to do something about the Darfur crisis. Seriously people, it’s been how many years now? Five? WTF is going on?

This is a personal thing but I thought I’d share my frustration. I was talking with my mother the other day. I’m looking to get a new job and her suggestions of things to look for are completely off the wall. She suggests trying to advance to something else hotel related and can’t understand my frustration with that. When I was talking to her it was just so odd because she couldn’t see to understand why I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life in the hotel industry. Um, hello? Artist. Admittedly, I’m more a bum than an artist because my production output of art related material is very low and sparse with big lags of empty space in-between. However, that’s something I’m working on.

I just couldn’t seem to get it through her head that, no, I had no interest whatsoever in finding a way to get to office level work for a hotel cooperation somewhere (I’m currently a front desk grunt). She couldn’t seem to understand that what I’m striving for isn’t so much an upgrade in pay as an upgrade in the emotional quality of the job. I’ve got this drive inside and I have to find someway to please it or I’ll go crazy. I’m more worried about my sanity than my pocket book, sorry if that’s not rational enough for everyone else. Owning all the hotels in the world has the emotional upping effect on me of zero. I’ve got to do something with meaning to myself. What meaning does art really have? I’m not sure. Shouldn’t I be out helping to save the world or something? Perhaps. I guess when you really look at it art is inherently a selfish sort of career path. If you make it in a creative endeavor it’s all about communication. It’s all just one big word game, or picture game, or perhaps sound game depending on whatever your fix is. And that’s the thing about artistic endeavors, it’s all about the fix. It’s a passion but a passion for what? Something that makes you happy. Anything else feels like a hamster wheel.

It might just be the passion itself that is the drawing effect. People want to feel passionate. It’s an instinct. It’s something primal deep down inside.

All this is not to say I don’t see reality for what it is. I know, it’s not all fame, riches, and glory and the truth of the matter is if you can qualify for a cubicle job and eleven dollars an hour then you are doing marvelous. Or at least better than me. What distresses me is being able to see the likely reality that my life will follow and then to be able to see what I’d like life to be and then to realize the huge gapping void in-between and that even all the hard work in the world might not fly me over that gap. This disillusionment drives me crazy and has for the last three years. Frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever fully cope with the disparity between the world we were promised as children and the world as humans have made it. However, that’s why artists do what they do, I think. It’s the fact that they can’t cope with the mundane reality we’ve built for ourselves. We need our crazy ideas and odd projects or we’ll go insane. That’s why it’s logical to be what we are and to prusue what we prusue.

Mississippi Rose Lee

This is a short documentary style piece I did several months ago on my friend and former teacher Roz Wilcox a.k.a. Mississippi Rose Lee. She’s a Clarksdale, MS artist and blues singer.

So it’s been awhile since I posted last. Here’s something completely random for you, in case you might ever need to know. If you happen to have an analog video camera and it has AV ports (to hook up to the TV with the cord with the yellow and red ends) you are able to capture it’s footage into the computer. You will need a converter device that will take the AV information and turn in into the 1’s and 0’s the computer likes to read. There is a device called a dazzle that will do this that is sold by Pinnacle software. I’m sure there are other such devices by other companies, that just happens to be the one that I have and how I was able to capture the video from my old Super8 camera. The camera I have now has a firewire port (it calls itself an iLink but it’s the same thing) but my computer does not. The dazzle hooks up to the computer through a USB port and the camera hooks to the dazzle with the AV cord. There is some loss in quality going through the USB port but it’s better than having to sit around with two VCRs and edit linearly. Something I’ve never done but something I don’t feel particularly inclined to ever experiencing.

Now I was taught it in the classes I took but I completely ignored this tip while filming a short film with friends a few days ago. It’s very helpful to leave a couple seconds on a shot before starting the action. I ran into the problem that the dialog, which was being said off screen, sounded incredibly weird because it started right on the cut between two clips. So leaving a second of stillness or at least waiting a moment before saying the line would have helped a lot.

In class, the teacher had us wait ten seconds after pushing the record button before having the take begin. She said it had something to do with letting the video get up to speed. I think ten seconds is pretty severe and I never saw a need for that long a pause. I’m assuming the ten second rule she devised was just to cover you’re a$s in a rare event where something weird happens with the tape. However, all that aside, I’ll remember to leave a couple seconds on either end because it actually does help the clips cut together better. It would also make the cuts easier to distinguish between and find when editing later, especially if you are unlucky and don’t have a program that batch captures. Granted all this can be avoided (the waiting and the unable to edit something so that isn’t cra*) if you just plan adequately from before the get-go. So my other two cents for the day is to say that you can never plan enough when it comes to shooting a movie. If you are like me, you’ll never actually stick to your plan but it’s good to have it nonetheless.