Ryan Murphy’s Fontanelle

Back in November, I was one of the incredibly lucky people Ryan Murphy (Vicious516) chose to film one of his scripts.  Overjoyed, I attempted to get straight to work on my Rojhelio Studios/ Echoreyn Midnight Studios collaboration masterpiece.

Unfortunately, I ran into a few problems.  Locations proved to be difficult to find, the friends I had mentally cast for the scenes had terribly busy and conflicting schedules, and I struggled to find music that would work for the project that I also had the rights to use.  For a few months, it looked like I would be unable to film the video which was a tragic blow to my general happiness.  Then, when it seemed that there was no hope, things began to look up.  Within just a couple of weeks in April, my friend Diana and I found locations for the scenes we needed, and we were able to schedule times during which all three actors and our cinematographer Olivia were free.  Finally, the pieces were coming together!

See, Diana and I have worked together in the past on projects like This Story is Not About Sarcasm At All and Nerd Appreciation: The Three Directors.  I was incredibly excited to have her help for this project, particularly since she graduated in May so this was one of the last times we’ll likely get to work together like this.   I also knew from the beginning that I needed my friend J.D. in the project as well.  His quirky sense of humor was absolutely essential to the part that he was to play, especially since we had to do a few slightly questionable things in the video.  Olivia was the perfect choice for cinematographer too.  She’s already filmed footage for several different kinds of videos, and I must say, she does an excellent job.  This was the team I needed!

Once we got the shots, I had to put editing on hold for a while as exam time came and as life became overwhelmingly crazy.  Finally, though, I was able to fit all of the scenes together.  During this time, I also had the great fortune to get official permission to use my favorite band Crumbling Arches’ songs in my movies.  I was wonderfully excited to discover that one of their songs fit incredibly well with the overall tone of the video.

And, well, there you go!  You can see the result at the top of the post.  I’m pleased with how it turned out, and I’m proud of the fact that I kept persevering even when things seemed hopeless.  I truly hope you enjoy it, and I thank Ryan Murphy profusely for giving me this opportunity!

The Leprechaun in Me: The Sequel

This is a little late, I suppose, but I wanted to tell you about my latest video, The Leprechaun in Me: The Sequel.  This is part two in my annual St. Patrick’s Day series detailing what happens when a curious little leprechaun visits my room, unannounced.  I fully intend to continue this series as long as I can, so look out for part three in March of 2010!

Several people have asked me who helps me film these.  I actually film these without help, just my trusty little tripod by my side.   I tend to film and edit the entire video in just one day, a task that is quite exhausting but totally worth the effort.  Also, viewers may notice that my leprechaun outfit has changed a bit.  This time, I chose to go for a bit more of an in-your-face, over-the-top Irish look.

Well, that’s about it for this video.  To see the prequel to this video, look below.  I am currently in the process of filming the short film Fontanelle based on Ryan Murphy’s (Vicious516)  script.  Keep watch for it!  It will be up in a few months.

Haunted Pants

A few days ago, I uploaded my favorite video so far onto YouTube.   My brother Brandon and I worked very hard to create this one.  I thought of the idea a while ago when he and I were thinking about the old Arthur episode where the young aardvark imagines that his pants have come alive and are trying to eat him.  That has always been one of our favorites.  I began to think it would be cool to see a pair of pants come alive and chase someone who hadn’t put fabric softener into the wash.

After we came up with several story ideas, we began the difficult part of the process – the building stage.  Because we don’t have any advanced editing materials, we had to come up with ways to make the pants and the fabric softener bottle move in real time with the actor.  Luckily, with my brother’s incredible talent in building rigs with common household items, we were able to make the pants in our movie appear to walk, fly, and growl on their own.  He also made the spinning fabric softener bottle a reality with a clever fishing line apparatus.  As the actor in the movie, he not only had to run around throwing things and using his bow and arrow, but he also had to operate the pants mechanisms and instruct me in the art of pants puppetry.  He definitely had the hardest job on this set which is why he completely deserves the director’s credit for it.

Once we finished the filming, I began editing our masterpiece.  This took several days to finish because Windows Movie Maker does not allow the video maker to layer sounds.  We had to layer the sound of this video three times which was made even more difficult by the fact that I had to get my hard drive replaced halfway through the process.  The music in the video also gave me a whole lot of trouble because the original intro music did not work as well with the rest of the video and the original song played during the credits didn’t sound complete.  After several nights of staying up until 6 AM, I finally succeeded in putting this video together in a way that pleased even my perfectionist self.

I hope you enjoy it!  Please comment to tell us how you feel about it, and please rate it as well.

Archie’s Secret

This afternoon, I uploaded my submission for the MuggleNet “Fanfiction to YouTube” Video contest.  When I first saw the contest on my favorite Harry Potter fansite (http://www.mugglenet.com), I was ecstatic.  I’ve been dying to enter another contest since I made the (admittedly trippy) video for the Rojhelio Studios contest.  This time, I got my whole family involved which I had never actually done for one of my own videos before.

According to the contest rules, we were instructed to choose a scene from one of the Harry Potter books and modify it.  I chose to rewrite the part of ch.17 “Bathilda’s Secret” from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where Harry and Hermione are approached by mysterious, cloaked stranger.  However, in my version of the story, the figure reveals himself to be Archie, the lovable old man who first shows up wearing a flowered nightdress in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. To jog your memory, here’s a cute animation made by Neil and Emmy Cicierega about him:  http://www.creativefamily.net/emmy/mugglepants/ .

Anyway, we started filming late one evening just a few nights ago and ended up getting about fifteen minutes of footage over a four or five hour period.  We had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get enough light on our faces so that we would show up on film even in the pitch black darkness.  Luckily, though, my brother found an old utility light that we use when we go camping, and we had my mother hold it in one hand while she held my camera in the other.  Because I collect and make costumes for fun, I was able to scrounge up a few costume pieces for the film.  I also convinced my reluctant mother to let my father wear her pink, flowered nightgown for his part.  (Ironically, when I originally asked him to be in this video, his response was “as long as I don’t have to wear a dress, I’ll do it.”  Fortunately, I was able to convince him that wearing a dress on film wasn’t that embarrassing.  I also had to reassure him that it was very unlikely that anyone he knew would see the film either.)

Considering the amount of time it took to film and the amount of footage I had for “This Story is Not About Sarcasm At All,” this video was much easier to edit.  Luckily, having fewer scenes to choose from did not severely affect the continuity.  I was a bit disappointed that I had to cut out some excellent shots of the moon behind the trees and of a small spider, but I feel that it all worked out for the best.  I’m rather pleased with ending scene because I love the expression my brother has on his face when he makes his final “Harry Potter” stance.  Once again, I have to say, I can’t wait for the next challenge!  I love learning more and more about the video-making process each time I choose to embrace a new project.

My Foray into the World of YouTube

I don’t think that anyone will actually read this.  If, however, you happen to stumble upon my humble little blog, welcome! 

Today, I finished all of the editing needed to complete my video entitled “This Story is Not About Sarcasm At All”.  I have to admit, it’s a strange story.  It has a sort of dream/nightmare feeling to it, and ultimately, I leave it up to the viewer to decide what has truly happened in the film.  I wrote the screenplay over spring break, and then filmed all of the acting bits with my friends Diana and Meghan over the course of three days.  It was only supposed to take one day, but my perfectionism revealed itself during the editing process, so I kept asking them to film more filler shots.  All in all, I have filmed about an hour’s worth of footage for a video that should be less than five minutes long (and ended up being just over six and a half minutes in length).  It’s crazy stuff!  I should have known it would take this long, though.  After all, my brother’s five minute version of Lord of the Rings: Two Towers took an entire weekend to film, and that was with no conflicting schedules. 

I’m pretty proud of my official directing debut, though.  Seeing as that this is the first project with multiple actors and a script that I have completed without the aid of any of my family members, I feel like this is quite good.  I never realized how hard it would be to juggle schoolwork, filming, and life, but somehow I managed it (thanks to my tolerable schedule, amazing friends, and many sleepless nights).

This is also the first time I’ve ever attempted to create true songs with lyrics for my videos.  One of my videos has a jingle I made for it, but this was much more difficult to create.  It doesn’t help that I’m competely lacking in sound equipment, musical knowledge, and musical instruments that are compatible with my computer.  All I have is my 19-year-old keyboard (which has a few broken keys and tends to buzz), my voice recorder (intended for recording voices, not music), and my own voice (which I still need to train).  Oh, and I can’t forget Audacity, the lovely music editing software I used!   What I really need, though, is Garage Band or a digital keyboard or something else that I probably can’t afford right now.

So…  after all of this work, was it worth it?  YES!  I’m very excited about entering the film in the Rojhelio Studios contest.  Beyond that, though, I can honestly say that this has been a valuable learning experience for me.  I discovered my directing style, taught myself how to edit music, learned that stop motion animation is much harder than it looks, and filmed something I truly enjoy.  I also discovered that continuity errors are the easiest to make, that puppets sometimes have minds of their own, and that you shouldn’t leave your friends alone with your camera unless you want to find that they have filmed something completely unexpected while you were gone.  =D

Well, that’s about it.  I can’t wait to get started on my next project!

There’s not much to say… yet.

But there will be soon.