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