Reflexivity = Sensitivity

I'm writing my semester recap and it's going well. It's a bit sappy remembering everything we went through this semester but good sappy; I had a great time! Gonna be a little late to the showing tonight because I have an unreschedulable (<-- just made up a word) phone interview at 7pm but I'll try to get there at least for OUR movie. Peace out!

- Pete

Burn baby, burn!

So I'm back at Walson and Tony and I figured out the problem, soooo it's burnin right now. Gonna take hours to burn them all but I gotta study anyway so WOOT!

- Pete

DVD

Just spent hours putting together a sweet DVD only to run into massive amounts of problems; I was able to fix a lot of them save for a couple videos popping up without sound and the fact that once everything was ready to burn, it tells me I can't. I hate technology.

- Pete

what to write?

So i'm trying to write this two page 'what i learned' thing, and i'm having trouble. not because i didnt learn anything, but because i learned so much i guess, i dont know where to start. rrrrr

_Kathleen

Children of the Janitor Beast

Best track of the year?

_Kathleen

Soundtrack

1. Paper/Girl's Theme
2. Boy's Theme
3. Lovers Theme
4. Children of the Janitor Beast
5. One Note Left
6. Paper Thin Soundtrack (complete)



just thought I'd post this.
-Jordan

swine flu

niceeee pete. so i showed the film to a few friends yesterday who can't make it to the screening on monday, and they really liked it. i'm pretty excited for monday though! and i want to see how all the other films turned out, i feel like we all had so much invested interest in each other's projects. i keep thinking in here that i'll write 'we still have to' or 'tonight we're going to' but theres nothing more to do, i actually can't cope with it being done!!!

_Kathleen

POW!

Without further ado, the trailer!

Trailer

Took the time to make a trailer last night. It looks pretty baller.

- Pete

Behind The Scenes: Soundtrack Recording

Here is some behind the scenes footage of recording Sam Swan's original soundtrack to our film.

-Jordan

oh lord

i feel like death. been awake for more than 30 hours but it seems like days. but its may! last night was another marathon, like the wall. went to jordans and recorded the score for about 5 or 6 hours or something. sam and the musicians were AMAZING they were still playing just as perfectly at 5 am as they were at 11pm. so recording took ages, because anne was playing all the violin parts. but she did an incredible job. then after jordan and i went and put it into the movie, made dvds and thats itttttt DONE! at 9am. i'm really happy with it, and proud of our group. yessssss. alright i'm going to nap now.

_Kathleen

Mission Accomplished.

Its 9:09am and I have yet to go to bed.

However, we recorded the soundtrack until 5am and after that Kathleen and I finished editing the sound and completed the movie.

Yes, It's done. Complete.

PREMIER: Monday 5/4/09 at 7pm

Yours truely,
Jordan Miller

its time for sleep

so finished filming! the stop motion took eons, but it turned out looking reallygood. after class today we sat around the computer and edited things, fixed things that were confusing, cropped etc. i just made a facebook event for the screening on monday, a bunch of people are going and hopefully some more, but not so many that there arent enough seats. anyways its 6 13 am and i just finished a paper, i'm going to go get like 2.5 hours of sleep. saw sam today and he said he's working on the score and might need until friday to get it really good. i can't believe the film is almost done, it took over our lives pretty much, but i'm pretty excited about it.
goodnight
_Kathleen

Almost there...

So I just set up Sam Swan in Walson with everything he needs (including food and energy drinks) and told him to call me if he needs anything at all. Hopefully by tomorrow he will have created magic for us. We missed a couple people in our credits like Sam and Jamie but I'll fix it tomorrow.

- Pete

Just Sound...

The whole movie is edited and basically done.

All that is left to do now is record and add the soundtrack. I know Sam has been working very hard on the soundtrack already and he is going to complete it tonight.

Then we will record it and I'll add it into the movie.

Though I have yet to hear samples of the soundtrack, i know it is composed for cello and three violins.

beautiful.

-jordan

SHOOTING DONE.

all stop motion: done.

all intertitles: done.

I'll add them into to the rough cut tomorrow.

yeahhhhh

-Jordan

Today...

We are finishing up stop motion sequences today, and yesterday i did a bit of editing.

Not really anything else to add to that.

I'll update how today's shoot goes after its over.

In addition...

I won't repeat what Pete and Kathleen said, so i will just say that I have put the .mov rough cut we did on my external hard drive and then gave it to Sam Swan.

So he will be finishing his score directly to the movie. We discussed what needs to be done together, and im excited to hear the final product.

das it.

-jordan

near the end

yesssssss going to finish filming this friday! I think the extra stop motion sequences will really add a lot. we're going to all watch the film together too, to see what works/doesn't and if there are any issues. nice.

Friday

So we reserved studio time and a camera for Friday to finish up our stop-motion. Should be fun!

- Pete

More editing...

Okay, just got out of the lab after about 3 hours of editing or so. Can't say I really did much though. Jordan and Kathleen really put all of it together; I just cleaned up some continuity issues and added in some extra shots and transitions. We now have a working rough cut (very rough) though. We're gonna need to an extra shoot in addition to stop-motion methinks but that's a problem for tomorrow.

- Pete

Editing...

Yesterday I spent around 4 hours editing our movie. I definitely think it is looking really good. There were a couple things we didn't shoot that we could use, but I figured out how to edit around them.

The only scenes not shot are the intertitles and the last few stop motion sequences.

So I just inserted slugs where the missing sequences are.

I'm probably going back in to edit more today.

and thats that.

-Jordan

Avant-Garde Survey

Hey, So this is hardly a real update on the movie...but it is sorta relevant.

I am conducting a study on avant-garde film audiences with a group, and since our film is avant-garde-esque i thought some people may want to help me out and take the survey.

Its very short and quick, and it would help me alot!

Click Here to take survey

Also, so this is a real film update I will mention I am going into the lab today to edit footage. woo!

-JORDAN

Planning to Record...

Well i haven't had much time to actually go in and edit besides the scene I've already put together and all the footage I've logged and captured. But I've been making plans with Sam to get the music together and recorded in my room.

I have an 8 input Firepod preamp running through Cubase LE recording software, along with an arsenal of compressor mics (large and small diaphragm) and several dynamic mics (Shure 57's, 58's and a 52). And with the score being focused around violin and other stringed acoustic instruments, I will be making great use of my small diaphragm condensers.

Along with the score, we will be recording sound effects for the stop motion paper and pencils using the violins.

So I'll have a bunch of sound editing to do in order to produce the score, and then even more when i bring it to Walson and combine it with the movie.

So, that was just an update on how the score will be recorded.

I still have to upload some pictures from the last filming session. I'll get to it later.

-Jordan

Mother@%$#ers act like they forgot about, Pete!

So yeah, I'm in Walson now and I'm sorting stuff, renaming stuff, putting other stuffs in sequences, etc. and it's all good. This is the SECOND time I'm actually doing this McEwan, I just forgot to blog about it the first time. Let it be known that I am not a sloth... much. I think we're going to realize that we might need one or two reshoots during this process but other than that we pretty much have everything. I'm not going to be in class on Thursday unfortunately because of Passover, but when I get back after break I'm going to be sitting down nonstop with this baby. Until then, this is Kleinberger signing off! <-- (was that too lame?)

- Pete

editingggg

so i'm in walson now, its late and pretty creepy. no one is here,the blinds are open. yeah i think i'll leave soon. anyways, i've been editing for over three hours, i got really excited.i edited from when the boy gets the hate note to the end. i want you guys to see it to make sure you like it, i was pretty obsessive about the cuts and everything. some of the continuity of the shots was hard to line up, but i think it looks good now. we still have to shoot intertitles, like what the break up note says at the end and all the other ones. but yeah, we should be good for our rough cut if we keep coming in to edit over the next couple weeks!

_Kathleen

Uploaded.

I'm sitting in the mac lab right now uploading the last of Natalie and Neil's footage. As soon as this is finished I have to run to the Red Door to work sound for some WMUH show.

it's really nice outside, i can see it through the window.

Here's a haiku while I wait for this footage to capture.


Nice weather outside.
While I am stuck in this room.
Work starts in an hour.


....sigh

-Jordan

Recap:

finished with natalie
finished with neil

need to do some more stop motion. jordan and i did another sequence, with a paper and pencil crawling up to the girl at the same time. it took more work to do two, but it came out looking pretty good. with neil we got some cool shots, involving india ink, that's all i'll say. i'm going to go in tonight after work and edit some stuff, excited for that. till later,

_Kathleen

I think....

we finished shooting Natalie completely last night.

glory!

Today from 3-6 we are finishing Neil's scenes...

and then more glory!!

Then we can edit almost the whole thing except for a couple stop motion scenes we need to do.

thats that.
-Jordan

Awesome Show!

So yeah, I always come on here and feel no need to really ever say anything because either Kathy or Jordan probably has already said it already and I've used "already" a few more times than I probably needed as well, buuuuut I guess that's my fault for not being as much of an "eager beaver" (or an "eagver" as Jordan would say, however that sounds more like a cross between an eagle and a beaver... I can picture it now... oh it's majesty... Jordan draw one and I'll give you extra credit towards the course). Anyway yeah, we did good last night. We're definitely getting more efficient at running this show. Looking forward to wrapping up, post-production, destroying that @&$!ing wall, and stealing Prof. McEwan's newborn child. To all a good evening.

- Pete

Great Job!

Last night we worked from about 9:00 until midnight and finished almost all of Neil's scenes

We still have two final scenes to do with him, which are more complicated than the other. So we are going to finish up his scenes this Friday and be done with that.

Neil has been very cooperative and eager to work with us on this project as best as he can, and its really turning out well.

Anyway, thats about it for now.

We're shooting again tonight and I'll update again soon

-Jordan

Oh Yeah

So as Kathleen mentioned we shot yesturday starting at 10am, and we finished the vast majority of Natalie's scenes. We may only need her to do some tiny additional shots and possibly a reshoot or two. Nothing major.

We are shooting again tomorrow, tuesday, thursday, and friday.

I'm definitely feeling less stressed about finishing all the shots.

bravo us
-Jordan

saturday

Today we all got up and to the studio at 10, a great feat for us all. we were kind of half-dead to begin with, but woke up as the day went on. we got some good shots, and we're pretty sure we're either completely done or very close to done with Natalie. Since she is of no use to us anymore, we're not sure how to get rid of her...we got some shots with the wall set up vertically, so it looked taller. we did a slow tilt down the wall and some from the ladder. This was also our screaming scene, and so Natalie wouldn't feel too weird just screaming at the top of her lungs, we all joined in. A few hours later we wondered why we suddenly got sore throats, and then remembered. this week we have some more shooting, but we're getting there. After we shot we captured the footage, then jordan and i edited a little just to experiment with how the stop motion would look with natalie. it looked pretty cool, I'm pretty excited to incorporate all the other shots too


_Kathleen

stoppa tha motion

sooooo we did some stop motion wednesday night. it went really well. once we took the wire out of the paper, the movements were a lot smoother. it took about 6 hours to get three shots, which only will add up to like 30 seconds. it was cool, it was my first time really doing it. I did the pencil, which had to be slithery. Pete did a paper and Jordan did the other. We all switched off with the camera so we wouldnt go too crazy.


success.

_Kathleen

I beat Kathleen

Seriously, I do. Anyway, I need more blog posts... I feel like a negligent parent (don't worry, I don't mean you McEwan). So yeah, the other day we started stop-motion at 7:30 and ended around midnight. It went relatively smoothly, except for that one time when Kathleen made a mistake and I had to give her a black eye... again.

- Pete

Photos from Stop Motion

Here are some photos of us doing stop motion last night

-Jordan

Stop Motion Last Night

We worked for six hours last night and completed 3 stop motion scenes.

Today I'll try to log and capture them.

And I'll upload pictures in another blog post later tonight.

thats it for now!

-Jordan

Logged and Captured.

Not much to update on right now.

shooting tomorrow and saturday and several days next week. Hopefully that will be all for shooting.

I spent some time in the studio today and finished logging and capturing everything we have filmed so far.

That's all for now.

-Jordan

Chuggin Along

We had another shooting night with Natalie the other day and got some really good shots I think. We got a very interesting shot for the end of the movie, and Natalie's half of the tracking shot I came up with in my last post.

So overall things are looking good, we have maybe saturday to shoot and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as well. Once the acting is done we just have stop motion, and then post production.

We also started logging and capturing our footage into Final Cut, so now we really feeling like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

epic

-Jordan

peter hits me

soooooooo just had more filming, and more mishaps. we ran to the studio because we realized no one had gotten the equipment. sue was gone, but luckily tony was JUST leaving and I caught him. so we set up everything, getting ready to shoot. open the camera. tape too small. freak out, throw hands up in disgust. dr. mcewan drives over after his interrupted dinner to bring right tapes. we get some good shots, and accidentally got our final shot which we all agreed looked really good. then we fiddled a million times with the lights to try and get our tracking shot that goes from one side of the wall to the other. by manipulating the lights and closing off the iris on the camera, we got the background off to the side of the wall pretty black. however, there was this strip of white wall showing where the curtain didn't reach the ground. so we got everything black in the room, the garbage can, a backpack, the lighting bag, and covered it up. but the lighting bag kept slouching over, so i went behind the curtain and held it up. so technically i'm actually in the movie, i think i did a good acting job, but i hope i didn't steal the spotlight too much off natalie. we worked crazy hard for that shot, but in the end it looked good, and i think we pulled off the illusion pretty well. after working on the shot a million times we got one we were happy with, then wrapped it up. now we're tired.

_Kathleen

filming again

I'm writing another post now. so filming with neil the other day was really good, it went super smoothly and quickly and we got a lot done. tonight we're going to work with natalie, and probably finish up her stuff or at at least most of it. we actually never need neil and natalie at the same time though, because of the way jordan suggested we do the tracking shot. sweet! we got the studio booked for earlier tonight, so thats great, we'll get to have some sleep

_Kathleen

stop in the name of stop motionnnn

soooo yes the other day pete and i continued with stop-motion. it was horribly frustrating, because the paper kept popping off the tape, or ripping newspaper, or whatever, so we'd have to keep starting over. but there is definitely usable footage, we should edit it and see how it looks. we'll need to crop the frame a little because *ahem* my knee somehow got into some of the shots...yeah, we were pretty stressed about the filming thing i think haa but its alright, we did get some done and now that we've had practice it will probably go more smoothly next time.

_Kathleen

First Day with Neil

Today was our first day shooting with Neil for the film. His costume looks good and he was easy to work with.

He did great and we got some interesting shots with him. Didn't finish but we worked faster and did very well i think.

I have also just now (literally) had a possibly good idea that would look cool in the movie.

we have had one problem shot that we have been dreading and that is the tracking shot from one side of the wall to the other. This would be hard to do with our flimsy wall. But here's my fresh idea.


---------idea time---------------------------------------------------------

imagine that the boy and girl are leaning back to back against the wall directly at the center of your 180 rule line (yeah you know what i mean). The trick is we only have one usable side of a wall.
So we imagine the other side exists and begin the shot from directly in front of the girl, eye level. She is writing her second note. She finishes writing and looks at it.

She crumples the note into a ball and throws it over the wall. She sits back to her original position and lowers her head. Then the camera (on a dolly) moves in a quarter circle to the left end of the wall and moves into the blackness. The camera moves out of the blackness and continues the circular movement, but now beginning at the right end of the wall and moveing to the middle of the half circle arch, this time positioning the boy directly in the middle of the shot with his head down. He is wearing the clothes of a soldier.

The note falls directly in front of him, causing him to raise his head and look forward (mimic of how the girl put her head down). The boy gets on his knees, reaches, and picks up the note. He opens the note and reads it.

"Are we at war?"

THE END (of that tiny scene)

-------------over-------------------------------------------


that's my idea, and i'm going to sleep now

goodnight
-Jordan

Weekend Update (with fail williams)

Ok so as Peter mentioned, we failed at shooting this past weekend.

disappointment.

Oh well, i needed sleep anyway, and we rescheduled our two days to Monday and Wednesday of this week.

However, one thing at least was gained.

We figured out a very efficient method of stop motion that involves creating a track

here is my blueprint of the tactic



you just inch it along the double-sided-tape track and shoot each scene for less than a second. saves tape.

ta da!

-Jordan

Stop-Motion & Epic Failure

Yesterday was hellish. After only getting about 4 hours of sleep the night before, I went to class at 11:30am which ended at around 3:15pm, and then from there went pretty much straight into our stop-motion shoot but not before dealing with the fact that when I booked the studio for this weekend it was only for Friday due to the fact that Saturday and Sunday were completely filled... which I forgot about and neglected to tell my groupmates... because I suck. We've rescheduled since then for next week so that looks fine, but now on to stop-motion antics. After much set up and many problems (and a gracious visit from Dr. McEwan), we finally started shooting. Then Jordan had to leave. Kathleen and I ran into some issues which were probably my fault to be honest, but we did end up getting some usable footage so it's not ALL bust. Sorry guys, I'll try to get more sleep the night before a shoot.

Yours truly,
Peter "Slightly Sucks" Kleinberger

And now back to work

Spring break was fun, but now somehow school has started again.

I've started mentally mapping out some shot ideas for this weekend. I drew a still shot out, but my scanner is being none-too-helpful.

I'll try to scan it in soon if I can figure it all out.

Anyway, ready to go round II this weekend.

-Jordan

fall back, spring ahead!

Pete, I'm surprised you didn't notice we have a disciple. I know you've been drooling for some since we've started this blog. nice cast list too...mysterious huh...I can work with that.
So I emailed the cast and Rachel and we're good to go for this upcoming weekend, though there are some conflicts that we'll have to work around, but I think it will be fine. god, I realized how little time we really have to finish this film...like 7 weeks. that's scary. and then for post-production, really 6 weeks because we won't be done filming til this weekend. AH. I brought my parents to see the infamous wall when they brought me back from break. they were also mighty impressed with the tv studio, but they both agreed that the wall was the best they've ever seen in their lifetime, and also the best set for a film ever, rivaling that of the godfather parts I and II (k I made MOST of that up, actually everything after "mighty impressed with the tv studio.") i'm excited for the upcoming shoots, neil's WWII costume that makes no sense, stop motion and EDITING, the most fun thing ever!! no, I'm not being sarcastic, I actually love editing. alright, well I guess I'll see the other peachwedges this week, we should be recovered from "the weekend" as I refer to it now, and ready to spend lots of time with each other until we can't stand each other!

_Kathleen

PWP Spotlight

So I think I'm one of like two people on campus right now: my Spring Break Habitat for Humanity trip doesn't leave until Sunday morning so I'm left here, on a dead campus, thinking and reminiscing about life (as I often do). I really can't say anything that Jordan or Kathleen hasn't said already, but I'll try to keep it interesting.

I reserved equipment and shooting space for the weekend after Spring Break so that'll be good; a nice welcome back film shoot. The previous shooting weekend, though it certainly had its blunders, was still a lot of fun in my opinion. I think the experiences from it all only served to make our resolve stronger. The shots we saw in class I thought came out pretty gosh darn well too. I really don't think we could have a better group of people working on this movie to be honest. We're almost like Ocean's 11, or even the Justice League!... Wait, that gives me an idea...

Jordan - With his calm exterior, technical ingenuity, flowing golden locks, and freakish height, Jordan is surely the backbone of Peach Wedge Productions. Or ya know, maybe the hip... hips are important.

Kathleen - Always seen covered in a veil of wool (i.e. scarf, hat, gloves, etc.), Kathleen is the most mysterious member of Peach Wedge Productions. Her boots of fury can knock down any foam wall that dares to impede our progress! Her one weakness is paint. In her eyes.

Rachel - Make-up wiz extraordinaire, Rachel is actually responsible for Michael Jackson's current face.

Natalie - Raised by her military-trained, former-assassin parents (who are both wonderful individuals by the way), Natalie knows kung fu. Don't mess.

Neil - Neil's a professional hairdresser. As you may have guessed, this comes in immensely handy when we're robbing banks.

Jon - Great at getting me coffee.

Peter [ME!] - Well, what isn't there to say about me? I'm awesome, good-looking, and I can dance! Oh, I'm also okay with a camera (but JUST okay).

Yeah, so that's my update, Dr. McEwan. I hope we all have a great break and return with the vigor we need to finish our film (whose title is pending)!

- Pete

Reflections

So since we're not filming until after spring break I figured I would take some time to reflect on what we have done and where we're going with the film. The first shoot went really well. It's really exciting that what I had on paper to start with is turning visual, and its cool because it's really similar to how I pictured it in my head before we started. I think our group works really well together too, which is great. I wasn't sure at first how it would work making a film with three directors, but its been going really well. we all bounce ideas off of each other, and take turns framing shots and pitching ideas. I think it helps that we have the same goal and kind of idea of what we want the movie to be like, the general tone and style. I really liked doing lighting which was surprising, because I never thought I'd be interested in it. Directing was my favorite to do though, figuring out interesting compositions and shots was exciting, especially when one turned out really well. The first shoot went pretty smoothly, the shooting script definitely helped. I've never done a full out shoot like we did this last weekend or collaborated with other people on it, so it was a great experience and I'm looking forward to the next one. I also can't wait for the stop motion, I think it will go really well with what we have so far.
_Kathleen

The weekend of hell etc.

I think Jordan covered the hellishness of this past weekend pretty well. We thought we were clever using foam for the wall. "oh hey it's light and easy to move, and its cheaper!" yeah well, for a reason. and being light means it blows off the roof of your car pretty easily. I think the two scariest moments of the weekend were:

1. when I was sitting in the back of the car and looked up at the sunroof to see the writing on the foam disappear, then immediately looking out the window behind me terrified that I would see a 5 car pile up revolving around a 4x8 piece of foam.
2. spraying textured spray paint into my eyes and coming very close to blinding myself, or becoming 'grandma stone eyes' for the rest of my life.

other scary incidents happened, such as the wall falling apart oh, about ten times. But those weren't life-threatening.

Saturday definitely did go a lot smoother. We were all exhausted but the wall looked good on camera and the newspaper ground worked. Natalie was great and we got some nice shots. So off to a good start, after a weekend of horrible luck. But we did it! And hopefully we'll have something we can be proud of to show for it. 24 hours working on this film this weekend, yes...

So I emailed the script to Sam Swan today, and also attached a couple stills so that he'd also have a visual inspiration for writing his score. Really really excited to see what he comes up with.

_Kathleen

Some more photos, and a still

_Kathleen

Weekend Recap: Saturday! Shooting Starts!

Forget Friday, that was a bad dream that took all day.

Saturday was much smoother. We constructed our set first, with a newspaper collage as the floor and our wall in all its glory.

We set up lighting and camera and Rachel went to work on Natalie's make up.

We started actually shooting around 1:30pm and stopped at 6:15pm. We had bagels and cream cheese for everyone, and we really got some nice shots. We plan to film the rest of Natalie's scenes and all of Neil's scenes after spring break, along with the stop motion.

Here is a still frame from one of the scenes we shot over the break. It really gives a good idea of the feeling our whole film is beginning to take.

-Jordan

Weekend Recap: Friday. Judgement Day.

I don't even know how to start this post.

This weekend was the most insane experience for me in a long time.


Friday was a non-stop day building our set. By non-stop I mean we met and started working at 10/10:30am and didn't complete everything until close to 2am. Most of that time was spent trying to fix all the problems that arose perpetually throughout the day.

No real breaks.

It all started that morning. We took a trip to Office Depot and Home Depot to get materials for the movie. Office Depot was an easy stop, but Home Depot proved to be a tricky experience. Due to fund issues, we decided against building a frame and dry walling it to make the wall. Instead we decided on stiff foam insulation and textured spray paints.

Even though we had Pete's SUV, the 4x8 pieces of foam wouldn't fit in his trunk at all. So we were forced to tie it to the roof of the car. Unfortunately, this was also one of the windiest days in a long time. We didn't make it a block out of the Home Depot parking lot before the wind caught the foam strapped to the roof and snapped them both in half.

Needless to say, we pulled over and had to reassess the situation.

We couldn't leave them on the roof anymore, but the width of the foam still would not allow for them to be put in the back of the car. They were already beat to hell, so we decided the only way was to bend the already broken pieces in half once more and fit them in the trunk. We had no other choices because we had to get to the costume storage in Trexler Pavilion before it closed.

We just made it in time to pick out costumes before the place closed and we then brought all the materials to the TV studio. It was here where we started preparing our gear for the next day (mostly black bursting tapes). Kathleen ran over to the school store to buy two DV cam tapes. She called me soon after she left to tell me they were sold out until monday. Of course. So here we are with no tapes. Can we even film tomorrow??

Lucky for us, Kate Bolger exists.

She was amazing enough to give us both her DV cam tapes because her filming was canceled for this weekend. So basically she saved us.

We started black busting the tapes and next we had to deal with our wall.

Our two 4x8 foam pieces were now demolished into four bent pieces. Great.

With Rachel and Natalie's help we straightened out the pieces as best we can and tried to figure out where to paint them. Rachel offered us her basement, which was amazing of her. We forced the pieces BACK in Pete's car and brought them over to one of the most dank, dirty, and drippy basements imaginable. Very Tyler Durden.

There we used duct tape to piece the halves back into two 4x8 pieces. Then we started spray painting. Soon into this, however, we realized we had no where near enough paint. We decided on making another trip to home depot to get home, and right then Kathleen accidentally snapped the tip of the spray can off, rendering the can unusable. To top this off she accidentally sprayed it into her eye. Poetic. We helped her upstairs where she cleaned her eye and face. Then Pete and I made our second trip to Home Depot.

When we returned Rachel and Kathleen had finished taping the other 4x8 piece back together. We started spray painting again when the residents above Rachel's apartment came down to kick us out. The spray paint was contaminating their air.

By this point it is dark outside and still very windy and cold. No where to paint.

After alot of phone calls, we managed to get access to the scene shop in Trexler. Adam Bishop let us in and made sure it was okay for us to work there. Kathleen and I struggled with the two 4x8 pieces, walking them from the corner of Liberty and 23rd Street to the Scene Shop. Keep in mind the foam wall pieces essentially created a sail which we had to maneuver across campus in the wind.

Pete couldn't leave his car at Rachels overnight, so he decided he would drive and meet us at the scene shop. The scene shop is right next to South (were Pete lives), so we assumed he would drive back to his parking lot and meet us there. We didn't count of the events affecting his judgment. Instead, Pete drove halfway, parked, then got out and walked to the scene shop, forcing him to walk back to get his car the next day. I still can not fully explain why he did that. Its a mystery.

Anyway, in the scene shop we talked for a while to decide how best to work with our destroyed foam pieces. We ended up covering the wall pieces with huge sheets of brown paper and painting it giving it color, shadows and texture.

This actually worked quite well, and around 2am when they were done drying, we walked our wall sail (now covered in paper) through the windy night back to the TV Studio. Full circle.

Then we got a few hours of sleep before meeting the next day at 10am.

The day was one huge learning experience.
"Welcome to the world of video" I was told.

So, in conclusion...


That was hard.

-Jordan

It begins!

So today Jordan and I went to the costume shop in Trexler. We confidently strode in and asked if we could please rent out some costumes. We were met with a reply from an angry seamstress that the costume storage hours were over for today. Sooo before home depot tomorrow we're going to go back and go costume rummaging. I'm so excited for that, because Muhlenberg has some absolutely amazing costumes we could use. Our costumes are pretty crucial, and we were talking about how we could make the girl and the boy from two different time periods, or whatever we wanted really. We have a lot of options, our challenge is to choose one to create the effect we want for the film. Shooting starts tomorrow and continues throughout the weekend! I'm going to bring my camera so we can post photos up here. We also have to build the wall tomorrow. We have a lot of choices to make tomorrow, but since we're all on the same page (ha page...it kind of goes with the theme of the film..you know...) don't read what I put in the parentheses actually. But I think we all know the tone of the film well enough to make some good choices about what the wall and costumes should be like. So here we go!

_Kathleen

Emails and such

So i've been in close correspondence with our cast, sending them updates in the shooting schedule and everything. I also sent them both a copy of the script and gave them a little overview of the tone and overall feel that the film is going to have. As for character work, I feel like kind of just being themselves will work because their auditions were really good, and they didn't have any character development for that. Soooo Thursday we're going to get some costumes from the shop, and Friday we're going to take a magical trip to the wonderful Home Depot and make our wall. Then going to shoot!

_Kathleen

Shooting This Weekend

Shooting begins this coming weekend. We have the TV Studio booked from Friday until Monday at 8am. I am picking up the camera/lighting rig Friday at 3pm.

Now the biggest hurdle in our way is the wall itself. We obviously need it for shooting this weekend so time is running out.

We are going to talk about it and decided what to do, we may decide to go to home depot and get some stuff to build ourselves a wall.

It will probably have to be in sections so we can move it into the TV Studio.

-Jordan

Flipped Script

So I sit here eating some falafel and editing the script so that it is in the correct format to include the description of the setting, and exclude the unnecessary "the next shot"s. I'm excited for this film, especially now that we know our cast. Neil and Natalie are going to be really perfect I think, and I'm really glad we took the extra time to have callbacks. I think they had fun in the second round too, I know I'd rather jump around and play games rather than recite a monologue. So everything is on track and going well, I'm not sure when we're going to start filming the animation sequences, maybe this week or next.

_Kathleen

Casting complete

So we began our scheduled auditions yesterday and finished them up earlier today. It went really well: a lot more people auditioned than I thought would and everyone was really great. The tough part was narrowing down our choices.

Jordan brought his camera and we recorded all the entrees on film, which we reviewed later. The initial auditions had actors performing a series of silent behaviors (i.e. escape from a room with no doors or windows) which they had time to review beforehand. After careful consideration, we decided we would have callbacks for a select four.

For the callbacks we had them all come in (there were 2 girls and 2 guys) and perform together, switching up partners halfway through. We came up with the idea to play a fun improv game with them: we prepared two slips of paper, one for each actor, and each slip had a certain objective written on it that the actor must perform regardless of the other actor's behavior; for example, one slip might say "You are trying to get the person next to you to dance" while the other slip would say "You are trying to sleep". Once we felt the scene had played out, we would simultaneously throw new slips out to them which they then adopted. We had them also do all of this silently; we are aware of the intense irony of this game, by the way. We ended up choosing Neal and Natalie, two Juniors.

- Pete

STOP MOTION - test video

Well, I got my computer fixed and finished editing the stop motion animation test run. It turned out pretty well I think!

-Jordan

So, here it is:

auditionssssssss

so tonight was the second night of auditions. It went so well, we narrowed our cast down to two guys and two girls. We're having callbacks tomorrow because we really can't decide. It's great that we had too many people who were good rather than the other way around. I'm pretty excited to see who our final cast is.

_Kathleen

Great. Grand. Wonderful.

Ok, so last night Pete and I did some stop motion testing/experimenting.

Then at about 2am I was about three quarters done editing the footage when my computer shut off completely.  I did save my work....but now my computer just will not come back on.

The outlet works, its plugged in, but the computer just refuses to turn on.

I am going to try and make a trip to the geek squad at best buy to ask for help.

If things don't go completely wrong, I should have a computer up and running again soon, and I will finish editing the stop motion test and put it on youtube (with a link on here for you to see)

sigh...

-Jordan

Shooting script, auditions

So I just typed up the shooting script because it was just written in my notebook and Pete and I don't have the best handwriting. Tonight begins the auditioning process! By Friday night we will have our actors, which is pretty exciting. I'm really hoping we find the perfect people for it, We lost a couple actors, one to a family emergency and the other to a job interview. Who needs a job when you can be in a film and get free bagels?!! Priorities, priorities. So anyways, it should be pretty exciting tonight. And I realized we are filming so soon, which is kind of scary but really exciting at the same time. WE STILL NEED A WALL. But we have options at least, the band room, or the basement of my building which is pretty much a blank canvas waiting to be painted with the glorious colors of our black and white film. (...) That's all for now, we'll blog after the first round of auditions.

_Kathleen

Shooting Script

Also tonight we all met and finished our shooting script. We're pretty sure we did it right. Either way, it makes sense to us!

So we have alot of shots planned out, and we have a lighting person who wants to work on the film with us. He is very enthusiastic about it, and has alot of experience in stage shop and lighting for theater productions.

make up person, check.
lighting person, check.
actors, almost check.
wall, no check.

almost there...
-Jordan

Test Shooting

Today Kate and I went to Home Depot. It was very domestic and nice. I picked up a roll of thin wire and a roll of white duct tape. And in about an hour Pete and Kathleen are coming to my place to do some stop motion animation paper test shooting.

So....lets hope it turns out well!

The paper will have two pieces of wire (the length of the paper) taped to the bottom, then we can bend the paper into the shapes we want. The final product should make the paper look like it is crawling inch worm style.

here we go.
-Jordan

I Suck

Okay, I know I missed class today; in other words, I suck. I'm sorry to everyone this has affected, but in other news Colleen Shemeley from the Registrar's Office got back to me today. Unfortunately the room we originally wanted (CA 264) was all booked up, but we got CA 155 instead which is just as good if not better due to the fact that 155 is a cooler number anyway. On Friday there's going to be an acapella group that has rehearsal in the room until 6pm, so if they go any longer than that we reserve the right to kick their singing fannys outta there (<-- please tell me this is true).

- Pete

Peaches & Cream

I filled out the form for reserving an audition room today. We also met up and scouted around a bit to find places that could potentially be used for on-location shooting. We pretty much looked through the entire CA and found some nice places: band room (Jordan's idea), walls that jut out in main hall, and the back of Empie Theater among others.

- Pete

Searching far and wide for a wall

Sooo today we all met up and revised our script a bit. We added more shots of notes so that the end note worked better, but it will be good to have some input from the class on how they feel about it, and about the ending. At first we thought the two people had a past history, but Jordan suggested that maybe making them uncertain of how they are related might be interesting, and I think it would make it more compelling. I think our premise is leaning more towards them being thrown into this situation with no idea what is happening or who is on the other side, and forming a relationship strictly through the notes. I also sent out an email about auditions, so everyone auditioning has a time. I'm pretty excited to see how people handle the audition. It will be pretty kamikaze, I'd probably be intimidated auditioning, but if they can have a good audition then we know they will work for the film. I think if we can see that they handle what we give them in an independent way it would be good. We also scouted out places to shoot today, and got a little frustrated because the black box would have been really perfect but is booked up through February because of shows. But the band room is a possibility. Well that's all for now

_Kathleen

Music Update

For our silent film we are planning on having an original score recorded.

I have discussed this with Sam "Samadeus" Swan several times, and he is very interested in doing the score for the film. He is going to write to the script and some storyboard scenes, and then will either record the music himself or I will record it in my makeshift studio in my apartment.

He has given me original music for films before, and he does amazing work.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what he comes up with

-Jordan

Additional Audition Info

In addition to what Kathleen wrote about the auditions, we will be filming the auditions as well, so we can see how the actors work with a camera (since most of them have done only theater before) and we can see how cool they look in black and white.

Most likely they will be auditioning by running a couple short scenes selected from the script.

So we will see how it goes
-Jordan

Auditions and fun for all

So I emailed all the auditioners, 10 in all, which is a good turnout. I told them a bit about the audition process, attached the information sheet so we don't have to waste time on them filling it out, and asked them to bring headshots if possible. Our shooting schedule is tentative because we may need to work around actors if we really want them in the film, however the good thing about the film is that the girl and the boy can mostly be filmed separately. Pretty exciting stuff, they all seem into it so hopefully auditions go well.

_Kathleen

More More Updates

Ok, so it looks like the black box theater (our first choice for shooting location) is booked up solid during the time we would like to shoot...

This is a minor setback, as we are considering new locations now. We have some very interested actors/actresses who are auditioning in a little more than a week, and we are excited about that process.

The auditions are going to consist primarily of physical acting challenges (because ours is a silent film) which will be filmed and reviewed.

The script is practically done, though we have many ending ideas...and we have to decide on one.

decisions, decisions...

-Jordan

Update on auditions

So make that 5 interested girls, 1 guy

_Kathleen

Update on auditions

So make that 5 interested girls, 1 guy

Interested Actors

This blogging is kind of addicting, and if you are reading this Dr. McEwan, the online blogging is the best idea ever. I would have such a hard time keeping track and writing about all this in a journal. Anyways, sending out the MTA notice has already gotten us some success, three female actors are interested in auditioning. Just like I thought, it is going to be harder to find our lead male but it's definitely possible. So, off to a good start.

Synopsis Ideas/AUDITIONS

So we met again tonight to start creating our final plot synopsis for this little project of ours.

We have all been working independently on plot ideas and are now combining them into one boss synopsis. Everyone has very interesting ideas and our synopsis is turning out very well.

The film is looking to incorporate some interesting stop-motion animation sequences which are looking to be pretty tedious, but hopefully completely worth our while.

i'm not going to give it all away quite yet, but we will post a synopsis before long.

We have sent out an email to theater students interested in auditioning for the film, as well as some individuals we have met who are interested in auditioning.

AUDITIONS:
Thursday Feb 5th - 6pm
Friday Feb 6th - 6pm

location TBA


-Jordan

UPDATE: IMPOSSIBLE

So I got tired of waiting and called some people up and it looks like that MFA/MTA list won't be posted on BlackBoard until Tuesday or Thursday. It's unfortunate but we can work around it. In other news, I'm about a third of the way done writing my version of the script. Can't wait to see what you guys have done!

- Pete

Silent Film Script Writing is Hard

I am about halfway done writing the script. It's really difficult but I came up with some ideas and I'm excited to see what you guys think of them. Hope your scriptwriting is going ok, will be cool to combine them and create a beautiful film child!

_Kathleen

Auditions

sounds good pete. when we find out who is on that list we can get their emails and let them know about auditions. I guess we can figure out the audition time tomorrow or monday

_Kathleen

MFA List

In addition to holding auditions for our film, the MFA has a list of about 10 names of MTA actors/actresses that would like to be notified of any film projects. Being in the MFA, I'm privy to this list, however I'm still waiting for it to be posted on BlackBoard. If it doesn't get posted over the weekend, I'll make some phone calls.

- Pete

Thursday's Post

So this weekend we have to really plan everything out, and get our narrative set. Although a silent movie seems easier because there isn't a script, it's actually much more daunting than I thought. Essentially the visuals provide the narrative, so our script is going to be comprised of just a shot-by-shot breakdown.
Things we still need to do:

Figure out when auditions will be, and write up a email that can be sent out by the MTA
Decide when to start shooting
Maybe ask Holly Cate to make an announcement in her classes about auditions

We also have to decide how we are going to audition. Since it's a silent film, the actors will have to be very physical and comfortable with working with their bodies. We can figure out the auditions when we meet on Sunday. I have some ideas from acting classes I've taken here, exercises that would definitely help us see physical acting in the people auditioning. We also may have more of a problem finding guys to act in this, as there always seems to be a shortage, so we'll have to figure that out if it comes up.

I made an audition sheet so we'd have it, and copied it below:



Audition Sheet for Silent Film
Peter Kleinberger
Jordan Miller
Kathleen Telesco


Name:______________________ Email:________________________

Phone:______________________


Please list ALL conflicts including work schedules/rehearsals/trips for the term, late January through April. Please note that there will be times when shooting will take place on weekends:






Please list past experiences in acting, movement or film:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________



Training/classes:_____________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

Any additional special talents:____________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________


If you have any further questions, please email us at kathordaneter@gmail.com


_Kathleen

First post

So today we got together and talked about this blog. We're not sure what our shooting schedule is yet, because we have to figure out what the actor's will be able to do. Finding flexible actors is important because we don't want to have to worry about the two characters having a lot of conflicts.

We also found that we can't use the wall that is part of the theatre set, so we will have to figure something else out, either building another wall or using an existing one.

We possibly tentatively have a master carpenter woodmaster person who could possibly tentatively build us a wall.

_Kathleen

Casting Plans....

We are still in pre-production stages for our masterpiece.

Here at PWP (Peach Wedge Productions) we take our work very very seriously.

We are mapping out our ideas for casting our characters. The film is only going to involve two characters, a college age girl and boy. Auditions are going to be necessary, but finding the right actors will be difficult. We have decided to reach out to actors and actresses in the Muhlenberg Theater Association through a compiled list of theater students interested in film acting.

So....hope it goes not sucky.

-Jordan

First post, baby!

Welcome everyone to Peach Wedge Productions! We're very happy to be here and hope you'll follow us on our glorious journey to make an awesome movie!

- Pete