cashflowvisualfilms-blog

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Motion Graphics for a short story titled: Albedo

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Teaser Promo video for a Visually Wired Film titled: Color Theory

Directed by: Conner Borom

Producer: Kurt Ryan Castro

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Part of a potential Artist Profile series titled: The Journey. 

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Promo for Humanoid Magazine’s Spring Collection.

Come visit us on humanoidmagazine.net

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Go back in time to discover 80′s fashion, and 80′s trends

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Editing, editing, and more editing.

Over the last few days (9/11-9/20) I had been working on my director’s cut, and piecing it to be perfect. I had been unable to present the final work in class due to technical difficulties. The preliminary edit was done yesterday (9/19). The graphics aren’t composited just yet. I do want to put them in over post production, however, with the time constraints, i find it rather difficult to achieve all the editing, and compositing in one sitting, considering that I had been doing that by myself. I wanted to step down originally from the editor role. 

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Rough cut/Post production

I edited a rough cut of my own because I had not been able to sit in the same room with my editor due to distance, as well as time constraints. I pieced together my rough cut. The story wasn’t taking the direction I had intended, however, the advice of jumbling up the order was intriguing. I had extended the first scene after, and had been scrambling to get further along in editing. With finals due in one more set of 2 day classes, i knew I had to assemble scenes rather quickly .

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Last shoot/Wrap

For the final shoot, I was aiming to get scenes 10 & 12 with Fatima and Cromwell out of the way. They should have been knocked out a while back had I not transferred the role soon enough. I was also aiming to get the other half of scene 13′s confrontation between Lilith and Cromwell, 

Scene 10 was fairly easy to shoot. Scene 12 was challenging because it was the wordiest out of all the scenes. Sunday improvised a few lines, but she conveyed the intended message. 

The confrontation having only one side was again challenging on Cromwell’s side. It was hard to match up the lighting situation because we had used different cameras. It was also challenging because both actors Emmi and Rob had to be somewhere else at a certain time. We charged thru the scene, and officially wrapped the production. From Aug 12, 2017-Sep 10 2017, the production was intense, and I was proud of my cast and crew. My actors were talented, and gave each character personality. My crew came through for me, and even though I had a few challenges, and some bones to pick with them, they still managed to come through for me.  

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Final shoot days

Prior to the scheduled shoot taking place, I had scouted locations at Georgetown University. The location was very versatile, and definitely offered variety for the shoot. 

I actually had to replace one of my actors to play Fatima. The initial actress I approved to play her had not been in contact with me for about 10 days. I had to give up her role to another auditionee. Thankfully, Sunday, who stepped up for the role was able to get into character with a few days notice ahead of time. 

I had intended for 5 actors to be in one place altogether for the shoot, however, a few of them had scheduling conflicts. I had to film all of Lilith’s scenes during the duration of the shoot because she would have been unavailable the next proposed shoot day. This was a bit of a challenge which I’ll discuss in the next portion of the production diary. 

With the extra scenes having to be filmed, the shoot ran for 3 hours. George who plays Shaytan stood in for Rob as Cromwell to simulate action on separate eye lines. For Shaytan’s parts, some of the shots weren’t optimal, however, George’s presence actually helped me make the best out of the footage, which I will discuss in post production. Having two DP’s for the evening definitely helped out, I needed the extra hand. Everyone was patient during the shoot. We had gone an extra hour or so over time, but it was worth getting all the footage required. The battery life of the camera was also great. We had wrapped the shoot by the time it was down to its last breath. 

A few of the challenges faced, were once again, lighting conditions. There was a lack of light source, which Nite Angel, one of my DP’s overcame. She was resourceful enough when the light I intended to use went out . She, and the same cameraman from last week had indeed been half an hour late due to another set of metro delays. We charged on, 

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Labor Day Shoot

Over labor day weekend, I shot scenes 1 & 11. I was rather excited because for the longest time, scene 1 had not been a part of any cuts. I had one of my actors Gant Montgomery, who plays Matthew McCarthy come in from West Virginia. I hadn’t been able to get him in prior due to having been under budget. For the weekend, I had gotten him room and board for the shoot. This is also the first time I will have filmed with Aly Sayd, who plays Lilith. The wait was over, they were both talented actors! The shoot went well, the location was a great choice. 

Due to scheduling conflicts, some of my actors were unable to come for the shoot that weekend. Instead of 5 actors, I worked with 2 on the Sunday before Labor Day, and another one the day of. 

Of course, no great shoot comes without challenges. There were a few. My DP and cameraman had both come in late due to metro delays. When they finally got there, we had to head to location right away, about 5 minutes from the rally point. 

Lighting was certainly an issue. I had gotten one lantern for the shoot, because it was the first night shoot we will have done. The environment was darker than expected, But our DP and cameraman worked hand in hand to deliver quality shots. For the shoot’s audio, I decided to use wireless lavs. They worked to our advantage, however, the volume still clipped even though we adjusted the levels. Aly, did forget to say one particular line, but she was able to deliver the character well. She’s a beautiful actress, very exotic. 

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Shoot day 4

This shoot day was for scenes 10 & 12. This was the worst shoot day out of the bunch. It was a Sunday at Meridian Hill Park in NW DC. There is always something going on, but the worst part is the drum circle up the hill. The drum beating could be heard into the edirol mic. I was shorthanded that day, having just myself and my DP acting cameraman. I operated the edirol too, but not very effectively. Once again the crappy batteries went out. Scene 12 is wordy in my script, and it was hard for my actress to recite the lines. I was certainly annoyed by her. the following 10 days, she hadn’t contacted me, so I replaced her with another actress who auditioned for me. It was rather a waste of time considering the scenes could have been procured within that time frame. These are just lessons learned in producing a short, or even a feature. 

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Shoot day 3

Scenes

Scene 8 details Cromwell McCarthy’s encounter with Ross Weisz, a relative of Matthew McCarthy’s late friend Andrew Skinner. He reveals to Cromwell some things that Matthew had left him to run into clues regarding Lilith.

Shoot:

During the shoot, I had trouble contacting one of the actors for the day. I nearly canceled panicking that one of them wasn’t interested. Luckily a few hours before, they had contacted me and the show was back on. At location in Georgetown University, there was an event going on in the grounds of where I desired to film. Due to the University’s versatility, another location was found. The shoot went smoothly, we ran out of daylight by the last take, which wasn’t such a terrible thing, considering we had a number of great shots.

Post shoot:

The footage turned out great. The camera audio once again is horrendous compared to the audio from the edirol. There were a few angles that I hadn’t captured, but apart from that everything came out well.

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Shoot Day 2

Scenes:

Scene 3 goes over lead female Omnia’s birthday, hanging out with her friends taking selfies, and eventually she gets a phone call from Cromwell. Her friends tease her.

Scene 4 goes over an intimate moment between Omnia and Cromwell. Omnia becomes concerned as there is a foreboding presence in Cromwell’s home. 

The shoot:

The shoot went fairly well, I’d say. It went a lot better than shoot day one. We managed to wrap up on time. There was a bit of delay in regards to the actual shoot. One camera person hadn’t communicated an emergency with me. My cameraman/DP from last week, Marquis stepped up. We were about 30 mins behind schedule, but we made the best out of it. Paul Verner was my sound person, and he caught some pretty good audio. The cast had lots of fun playing their characters. We actually rehearsed the scene the Wednesday prior. I was glad that the shoot went well, and that the location was easily attainable. The owner was willing to let us shoot there. My DP and I went through the formalities with him, signing location permission forms, and detailing the shoot plan. 

Challenges: 

The shoot was fairly easy. Setting up lighting for one scene became rather tedious. Before my DP arrived, I set one light up in one corner. The other lights were not cooperating. We ran out of battery for the edirol as well, which took 10 minutes of our time away from shooting. There was a lot of waiting around just getting technical difficulties out of the way.

Post shoot:

The footage for the shoot came turned out nicely. there were some overexposed shots, which I think looked rather interesting. The setup for the lighting in scene 4 was very interesting. We filmed scene 3 at the bar last, we took about 9 or 10 takes. We didn’t notice the tripod lounging in the back behind out actors. Some of the shots weren’t usable due to the fact. but 7 out of 9 shots wasn’t a terrible loss. We worked around the shots in editing after. 

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Script adjustment

After not being able to get the locations I requested, I made an executive decision to adjust the script. I adjusted it by turning interior scenes into exterior scenes. Exterior scenes became an economical option, considering the lack of money I required to support the film to its full potential. Nonetheless, a majority of them worked to our favor. We had sound equipment available through the edirol.