On set experience for Stopover City, pt. 1.

As you know, we did our first shoot for Stopover City this past weekend, and it was an absolute blast. It was incredible to get to see the script I co-wrote come to life with all the components--pretty amazing to think that it all started out as just a random idea between us writers one night. As for on-set experience, it was stressful at times, but I think that overall the work I did was a success so far.

Here's the breakdown of what I thought about how things went in my department:

Positives:

-set decoration, costumes, and props looked AWESOME :-)

-my art squad was so on point and they are all wonderful humans. There were a lot of things to bake and one of them did all of that for me which was a huge time savor. (I am learning to delegate, it's a process.)

-there were many costumes but I kept it all organized by putting small stickers on them that numbered which scenes they were worn in!!!

-positive relationship with my lovely director, director of photography, and AD. We all understood that each other had a job to do and tried to help the best we could.

Negatives:

-only had ~20 minutes to set up EVERYTHING in the bakery. (holy heck that's not a lot of time)

-was also pressed for time setting up for the bedroom scene...everyone started arriving at my house at 9 AM and the room we were shooting in was rather small so we all had to take turns setting up stuff ha.

-I'm worried about some continuity errors with placement of ash on Hazel's face in one scene, but we have pictures so we can hopefully re-create something similar this Sunday

-someone threw up all in my car saturday after the shoot which wasn't fun at all and kind of threw a wrench in my ability to remain stress-free for sunday's shoot ha ha ha

I am so excited for the last day of filming, and can't wait to see the scenes that our editor has already cut together. Will check in next week with updates on this Sunday's outcome!!

Until then, I'd like to share this precious photo taken on set of the other 2 writers & myself that I love a lot.

Money, money, money...

...must be funny in a rich man's (not art department's) world. I quote this ABBA tune & say a little prayer that a money tree grows in my backyard tonight.

As production designer for our film, I am in charge of all the props, costumes, and set design for each frame, which entails 7 (kind of deadly) stages:
1. picking a color palatte
2. sketches of room designs
3. asking friends/other art people for common prop items
4. buying things online & praying they look like their picture
5. multiple trips to Salvation Army/Walmart
6. improvising....a lot (the prop weed is cotton balls rolled in glue, then rolled around in various spices, but hey it looks pretty realistic so thats ok)
7. crying because you have no money left

Depending on the project, an art department's budget can either be very minimal, or rather large. Because this is part of my independent study I went in with a "i'm going to plan for a lot of stuff and then get paid back later because I want this to look good and be worth it!!!" But right now I'm in that scary place of having spent money on art department and not getting paid back for it yet. Which means my bank account looks like this:

So I'm hoping that by some happy miracle more money is donated to our indiegogo so that I can afford to be paid back :) :) :)

Then again, if the film looks awesome, it's all worth the temporary debt, right???

HIMYIM...in the 1960's

This summer I finally watched How I Met Your Mother (and in a span of 3 weeks). And let me tell you, it was one hell of an emotional roller coaster. It is set in Manhattan in both present day, and many years in the future when Ted Moseby is talking to his kids about how he met their mother. The show has everything from comedy to drama, and keeps you entertained every second of the episode. HIMYM has six main characters: Ted Moseby, a single architect looking for his soulmate; Marshall Erikson, an aspiring lawyer from Minnesota; Lily Aldrin, a kindergarten teacher and aspiring artist; Robin Scherbatsky, a career oriented journalist who Ted is in love with, and Barney Stinson, an extreme playboy who has a mysterious position at a bank. All of them always hang out at this bar named McClaren's, a sort of similar situation to Friends' Central Perk cafe.

So when it came to choosing a show to set in a different time period for my Production Design Independent Study project, my first thought was OH LORDY I NEED TO DO THIS ON HOW I MET YOU MOTHER. The professor running my study also thought it was a good idea, and told me to run with it. After much deliberation between different time periods (including the 1970's, 1990's, and even the ~future~) I decided to go with the 1960's, because it was a very prominent decade in terms of social issues, pop culture, in addition to the very distinct design style.

Part of the project is to take two characters and design their houses/costumes in that time period. To do so, I'll have to print out a script from an episode and do a character breakdown based on that. This will take the form of a COW sheet (what the characters say, what others say, what the writers say). My plan is to redesign Robin & Barney as characters from 60's, including their costumes and rooms. This will be especially cool since Robin is a reporter, so I can base a lot of her style off of reporters from the 60's (i.e. Jessica Savitch). Then Barney will be one of those high up business moguls (I am particularly excited to design his room because he always has the latest gadgets).

For period piece research, I will be using old Life magazines (on file on googlebooks) in addition to other periodicals that are at the Ithaca College Library! The library also has various large books telling of the cultural events of the 60's, which I will definitely be delving into.

I am super amped to get started on this project because I think it will be very enriching experience, in addition to building a hella cool portfolio of my own designs.

Directing for Dummies

Welcome to the newest edition of "[insert random film crew position] for Dummies!" I'm you're host, Mike, and today we shall be delving into the world of the director. *Oooo ahhh* Now, I know what you're all thinking: "Duh! A director is the guy/girl that directs people!" You know what? You'd be correct in saying that. Go figure!

I'm sure you all know the basics of a director's job. I'm here today, though, to try to teach you a little something that you may not have already known. Let's start from the beginning. Now, after a director is hired by producers for a project, the director must then work side-by-side with the producers to cast actors for the film. This can be an extremely long and tedious process, but it's one that simply must be done. Clearly. Without quality actors, you can't possibly dream to have a quality film. Well, I guess you could, but that's all it would be: a dream.

Next up on the list of things to do, the director has to organize and select shooting locations. Of course, the director has location scouts working for him to truly find the best locations for shooting, but he has creative control and authority as to which locations will appear in the film. At the same time, the director interprets--and sometimes even writes or selects--the script for the film. The director rarely ever writes the script himself, but if he's not hired by a production house to direct the film, the director will often go out and find a script he'd like to work with. The location selections are hugely dependent on the script and the way the director interprets it, so the two steps are pretty much synonymous.

The director's next job is the last step before filming can begin. He must approve the sets, costumes, choreography (not present in most films), and music. These aspects of film are usually completely invisible to the untrained eye, or ear, because the only time most people will find them noticeable is when they are done incorrectly. If a film is set on a 1950s Japanese farm, and the actors are wearing tuxedos and sneakers with Kanye vaguely playing in the background, something went wrong...very, very wrong. It's the director's job to make sure mistakes like this never happen.

What else does the director do? Well I'm glad you asked! The rest of the director's work is pretty straight forward and most of you already know all of these things. But guess what! I'm going to tell you about it anyway! The director has a whole lot to do during production. The most obvious task is directing the actors. Whether it's explaining to actors how he wants them to portray their character in a given moment or if it's simply helping actors get into character, the director is the guy doing it. While doing this, the director also keeps the crew on track and makes sure everyone's doing what they need to be doing. Film shoots are generally tightly scheduled, so there's no time for excessive screw-ups and messing around. While doing this, the director also works with the cinematographers on shot composition and makes sure he likes what's in the frame.

Production is quite a daunting time for directors. They're basically the ringleaders for the wildest circuses on the planet. If they crack, the film is doomed to fail. The director must keep his cool so that everyone else does.

So now the film is shot. Yay! The only thing that's left for the director to do is work with the editors on creating first a rough cut and then a final cut of the film. The director gives his input throughout the process on what he thinks looks and feels better. Sometimes, this leads to reshoots of scenes or even cutting entire scenes from the film. But hey, who ever said directing was easy?

"Trick r Treat"

TRICK R TREAT

In light of the Halloween season, since I have been home for break I took the opportunity to choose from my wide selection of  horror films. My mom recently bought “Trick r Treat” a scary movie from 2007 that I had never heard of. So, we popped it in and began watching it.

This film features three to four different stories, all intertwined during on Halloween night in Ohio. There is this scary little “kid” with a cloth bag over his head that is always present in each individual story.  It is hard to follow the stories at first, as the viewer is constantly switched from on to another. The movie establishes them quickly, and soon it is easy to differentiate.

The composition of shots is average, nothing too special or intriguing. Lighting in the film is mostly dark, with shadows and “moon” light.  The character development was poor, since there were so many stories intertwined I never got a chance to really know them. The idea of this movie is interesting, but it could have been composed better.

One of the scenes I thought was well done is a scene of a group of girls in the woods. (this is not going where you think/hoping it was!) We find out the girls are all werewolves and the each brought a “date” to the “party”.  The metamorphosis of the girls is done well, as they each begin turning into their true and scary selves. The scene has awesome lighting and special effects that are very believable.

Overall I probably would not see this movie again. In the end the viewer is taken back in time to see the events again, but from different perspectives and that is pretty cool how they tied that in.  All the stories are meshed together, but it didn’t entice me to the point that I would want to watch it again.

Here’s the trailer, take a look 

Halloween=The Walking Dead

About this time last year, I started watching a new television series on AMC called The Walking Dead. With Halloween around the corner, this new show is packed with guns, violence, and you guessed it, zombies. The second season just started up this past Sunday, and left the audience in shock with a surprise ending. Compared to the other zombie movies and shows, this one definitely has the most realistic looking zombies and a practical plot that every other zombie movie is missing. After a virus breaks out, a group of survivors are forced to leave their home in attempt to find a secure location that hasn't been infected yet. There is no vaccine and they are getting by day to day with what they can find. The streets are blocked due to all the traffic that tried to escape, so the use of vehicles is almost imposs
ible. This is what a zombie apocalypse would be if one

were to happen in the US.

The presentation of the zombies is awesome. Each one is unique and acts differently to the one standing next to him/her. The makeup artist and costume designers both won awards for last years season at the Saturn Awards Ceremony for TV shows. Below you can see a before an after picture with the makeup and effects. Picture

Last, I wanted to comment on the music and sfx in the show. Almost every dramatic scene is silent on this show. At first, I didn't like how they were setting the tone, but later I realized that with no music, you could never tell when something was gonna happen or pop up. You can't guess, which sometimes pisses me off, but makes for great TV. The Walking Dead is a mini series and I seriously suggest you catch up on the episodes if you want a good scare and plot. You can find all the episodes at amctv.com or 1channel.tv. Any questions or comments, please ask. I love discussing this show.

The Wedding Of River Song

That's it. That's the end. This is the end of the series. You can all stop groaning at me now. ...Nah, just kidding! I could throw 26 seasons of the classic Doctor episodes at you! Muwahahaha!

I'll skip the story for this blog post. If you want to know what happened, you'll have to watch. Of course, the acting on everyone's part was impeccable. I'd expect nothing less from a BBC show that's now entering it's 49th year.

What really stood out about this episode was how bizarre it was. Something is wrong with time, meaning that all of history is happening at once. The effects team needed to therefore find out how to put pterodactyls in a park in London. The set designers had to build a secret evil lair inside of the pyramids. Make up designers had to create a horde of the Silence using only prosthetics and body glue. So many intricate parts went into making this episode look as good as it was supposed to; but together they helped deliver a visually beautiful ending to this season.

Things to look out for as far as this episode goes: Dorium, who's all blue. The fight scene between the Ponds, Kovarian, and the Silence. Any scene where they aren't on Earth. The cinematography helps the effects as the effects help the final product. The best thing about high-profile big-budget sci-fi shows is that when they're done well, they're done really well, and everything clicks together in harmony.

Get psyched for Autumn 2012. I already am.

The God Complex

After a big, emotional episode like last week's "The Girl Who Waited," it seems like "The God Complex" was in a bit of a lower key. The story was okay, but it seems like Toby Whithouse and Steven Moffat cobbled it together in order to lead up to the end, which is a major plot point in the story arc. This series has had its fair share of standalone episodes, where the story has nothing to do with the overarching plot; and that's fine. That's what Doctor Who is famous for, little science fiction diatribes that all link together.

But this story seems forgettable, if not for the ending and the look deeper into the Doctor's and Amy's characters. The technical work was, of course, beautiful; camera shots looking straight down a spiral staircase, a giant minotaur roaring down a hotel hallway, special effects giving the illusion of a creepy 80s hotel. But that's obvious from the show at this point. Technical brilliance has become a staple, much unlike the show's classic years as a low budget production.

Where the show really shines is in the subtleties of its writing. The ending and the way this episode ties into the arc is pretty brilliant, if heartbreaking. There's also a scene where the Doctor finds what scares him most; and although we don't see it, we know that it's someone whom the Doctor fears. "Of course it's you," he says, as the TARDIS cloister bell rings. This small detail blew the door open for fan speculation, and provide a piece of great writing and camera work in an otherwise average episode.

Not much else to say this week. Next time, the Cybermen make a return as well as an old friend. From the preview, it looks like it'll be a good one. See you then.