Hello all, this is what I have been up to recently
On Tuesday I mailed off submissions of the first feature film I've worked on to Austin, Dallas and New York film festivals. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
For those of you who don't remember, the movie is called "Between Heaven and Hell"
Right now it's about 80% finished. Its Picture locked but we are still working on the sound and music. It has been a beast of a chore.
In other good news one of the actors from our film has recently played parts next to Diane Keaton, Jim Carry and Ewan McGregor. His name is Andy Sensenig and he was a lot of fun to work with.
Almost 50% of the film has had to be ADR'd because of shooting outside without a good recording setup. It's crazy how many planes and trains there are out there. In one of our takes an old lady wondered onto our set and started hacking and coughing. We thought she was going to die she sounded so bad. To make it worse, our actor had managed to work himself up emotionally for the scene and so we continued rolling because of his great performance. The end result though was almost unwachable (comical really) because of the audio. We had to scrap most of it and redo it in ADR which I am happy to say fixed it 100%.
Wish me luck. We are planning on being done in September.
-Johnnhud
Submissions Away!
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Re: Submissions Away!
Great news! Good luck with everything.
Yes, location sound is really great if you have the resources to pull it off effectively. Unfortunately, many people think that all you need is a boom mic and a digital recorder and you're set. What many don't realize is that a large chunk of the production budget that supports sound in large scale movies is to block traffic, close off blocks of streets, re-route airplanes, pay local businesses that produce noise to shut down for the day, etc. Ironically, the emphasis on having a really sensitive mic can work against you in a noisy location. I have often found that cheap, dynamic mics work better in noisy environments. Your actors really have to speak up to be heard but background noise is much easier to control. Even on big movies, so much dialog is replaced in ADR and no one ever knows. If it's done right, it can be a very powerful artistic tool. If working with inexperienced talent, it can be a godsend because it gives them a second shot at delivery and they can play the scene as it's cut together, which is a different dynamic than shooting out of order in bits and pieces where they lose their emotional bearing.
Anyway, hope things work well for you!
Roger
Yes, location sound is really great if you have the resources to pull it off effectively. Unfortunately, many people think that all you need is a boom mic and a digital recorder and you're set. What many don't realize is that a large chunk of the production budget that supports sound in large scale movies is to block traffic, close off blocks of streets, re-route airplanes, pay local businesses that produce noise to shut down for the day, etc. Ironically, the emphasis on having a really sensitive mic can work against you in a noisy location. I have often found that cheap, dynamic mics work better in noisy environments. Your actors really have to speak up to be heard but background noise is much easier to control. Even on big movies, so much dialog is replaced in ADR and no one ever knows. If it's done right, it can be a very powerful artistic tool. If working with inexperienced talent, it can be a godsend because it gives them a second shot at delivery and they can play the scene as it's cut together, which is a different dynamic than shooting out of order in bits and pieces where they lose their emotional bearing.
Anyway, hope things work well for you!
Roger
Re: Submissions Away!
Good luck John! I respect your guts to make a feature and hope it will be succesfull. It will always be succesfull as a great learning experience.
What format are you using for recording. Dit you shoot on film or on video?
Paul
What format are you using for recording. Dit you shoot on film or on video?
Paul
Re: Submissions Away!
We shot it on DV tape. Film was simply going to be too expensive to even consider plus given the experience of the crew, or lack thereof, shooting digital gave us more room to experiment. My god, what a shooting ratio too, I think that we ended up with something like 50+ hours of tape that had to be captured, logged and edited by yours truly.
The learning experience was 2nd to none. In a way I feel like I have been to film school. The name of the school was "Between Heaven and Hell" and there seemed to be a lot more hell than heaven.
We used XL2's and shot handheld, glidecam, crane, track and dolly shots. I am very impressed with the cameras, especially considering their low cost. Keep in mind that the budget was ~$60,000 and most of that went to purchase equipment, cameras, computers and towards rental of locations.
Still, working with a fun crew, good actors and enthusiastic extras kept the project alive. So far it has been a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
I'll be glad when it's over.
-Johnnhud
The learning experience was 2nd to none. In a way I feel like I have been to film school. The name of the school was "Between Heaven and Hell" and there seemed to be a lot more hell than heaven.
We used XL2's and shot handheld, glidecam, crane, track and dolly shots. I am very impressed with the cameras, especially considering their low cost. Keep in mind that the budget was ~$60,000 and most of that went to purchase equipment, cameras, computers and towards rental of locations.
Still, working with a fun crew, good actors and enthusiastic extras kept the project alive. So far it has been a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
I'll be glad when it's over.
-Johnnhud