Music

Today I went to our composer's studio to listen to some sample tracks, and played them alongside some parts of the film and it's really sounding good... 

Rough Cut - Completed!

I just completed the rough cut a couple of minutes ago - inbetween watching The Wire, packing to go back home and shamelessly playing video games (Hey, I've finished university, I can be lazy now).

But of course, the edit is only one such task in the Post Production process. For those who are not too familar, here's a quick checklist of stuff we've still got to do on the film

- Render out cut to give to composer - so they can start composing the soundtrack to the film

- Record Foley - Foley is an sound process where a whole track in the edit is dedicated to making the real life sounds of the film - clothes, footsteps, gun handling, moving boxes, so on. It's a dark, unnoticed art - in that when a sound is missing, you notice it straight away, but when it's there, you don't conciously register it.

- Record Atmosphere - Another dark art of the Sound Edit - layering atmos, or a "wildtrack", over an entire scene to plug any gaps in dialogue, and also works very well to set the scene - Cutting the visual also means cutting the audio, but the atmos will be laid across all the clips to hide those cuts and create a desired mood.

- Render out footage to give to the visual effects artist - here, we add some effects that we couldn't do on the day - enhancing blood, bullet holes, so on and so forth. This will work with the real effects in order to create the best possible image

- Colour correction / Grading - This is a process where we smooth out the visual a lot more - and also create the desired look of the film, warmer tones for outside, darken the image to create a murky feel, so on.

Crikey! Still a lot to do. And when that's all done, we can start thinking about sending it to festivals, editing the "Behind the Scene's" stuff and more! 

And probably signing on!

Lots of love,

David!

Reshoot day!

Hello one and all - Today is going to be a very brief reshoot day - Just Nico and myself doing a couple of pick up shots that will help the story come together - at the moment there's some pieces that don't quite make sense, and this will help it become a lot more structured. 

So editing is well underway-  need to do some filler shots but nothing too taxing...

So, as a teaser... here's a line from the film...

"One week there's fifty mexicans dying of swine flu... a month later there's a thousand living dead roaming across the East Midlands"

Poster...

A mock up poster. Probably won't be the final one, but just an idea.

Frame stills

I was pretty tired last night after day two of shooting, so a mega quick update before I leave to shoot the action sequence.

Shoot was ok, lighting troubles were a major factor as we couldn't hide the lights as easily as yesterday - including one part of the evening when John, our lighting expert, ever so slightly moved a lamp and the bulb blew. Goodo.

But overall, the scene played out fine! Today is our big action sequence... good times.

Here are some frames taken from the film of our lead actor, David Nicolson. 

Production Photos

First day of shooting!

Hello readers!

First day of shooting went well! I had two fantastic people helping me out on costume and make up, so many thanks to Jenni and Emma!

The shoot went fine, The only real trouble was cleaning the blood off the wall...

Just putting together the rushes now!

David

Production begins...

First day of shooting tonight... Will update afterwards when uploading footage!

Dave

Updatey Update

Script is done, here's an excerpt:

INT. BEDROOM – DAY

Black bin bags cover the windows in the bedroom, just like in the kitchen. However, in one of the windows there is a small hole cut into the base of a bag. Alex peers out of the window. There are cars parked at each side of the road. This could be any street in England. Except that there is no human movement.

 

Alex turns and looks down the opposite end of the street. He looks annoyed as he spies a FIGURE is shuffling away from the camera, heading up the street and out of sight. The figures clothes are torn and dirty. The figure shambles further away from sight and eventually it disappears around the corner.

Shooting starts on Monday, picking up the hire gear today. I haven't updated recently, I've been loaded up with a bit of flu! But I've had some amazing support from Associate Producers and the film promises to be one of the better things I've worked on.

What I've been up to

Things are getting rather busy. So here are some photos.

That last one is just an example of what stuff I've been up to recently on my other production, which is pretty much complete now.

Swine Flu...

I've been checking out the papers recently... Bizarrely the headlines and the sort of pictures slapped on the front covers are perfect for my film. Oddly, one such headline is "It's like we're in some sort of zombie movie"... I very much guess that's going to be make an apperance. 

much love,

dave

Newssss

So I finished up the dissertation and now I'm finishing up my documentary as well as planning this film. I'm also thinking about applying for a masters in Cinematography so hopefully my showreel is good after this. 

Also might have a lead actor lined up now. Make Up should be arriving at some point and we've started to amass props - Gun, newspaper clippings, etc

Camera Test

HD SGPro Test from DavoMartin on Vimeo.

Business Cards are here

Make up is on the way

Dissertation is getting done

s'all go.

Because I haven't said anything in ages...

A small update for you all.

Basically, due to commitments on university work, I haven't done much on this project. My dissertation has become an all consuming beast, but doing it is all very useful stuff (as it's about your friend and mine, George A. Romero).

I've found pretty much all the make up and props I'll need from various websites. I've got in contact with someone who I think would be a good lead actor. I've had quite a few people express an interest in being zombies, who are most important! And, very helpfully, I've had a couple more offers from people expressing an interest in helping out with the film, so I'm happy I've had interest from very talented people, and am very glad to have them aboard. 

Can't wait to dive into production now!

Love,

Dave

Poster and update

Hello one and all,

An update for you all. I've just knocked up some posters, scouting for cast and crew, will get these up on campus tomorrow, an example of which is on the left here.

I've met up with a scriptwriter, whom with have created a basic storyline and he's working on a treatment at the moment. 

I've also got some make up artists lined up - I'll have to get some contracts sorted out. And a company title name. And some business cards. And....

David

Pre-Production Photos

Blood Tests

So after my blood shooter test today, I was fairly pleased with the results, but still felt the whole thing could be better.

I retried the method that I used for the shooter test (Liquid Glucose, Red and Green colouring, and water), but when I tried this against some white paper it was far too watery and pink.

Second Test - I added a bit more green, it started to look really dark, almost close to black, and mixed in a little more glucose. Again, it was too watery and too pink.

Third Test - I dug out The Guerilla Film Makers Blueprint and emulated some of the method they recommended in there. As this was only a quick test, what I did was put a couple of spoonfuls of Golden Syrup into a pan and heated it for a few seconds over a medium heat. I then added the same food colouring until I reached the desired colour, then tried again.

This looked FAR better but it was too thick - Only a small amount came out. But the colour was spot on. I'd need to mix up a tad more water or some sort of other thing in to get the right effect.

Enjoy,

David

Blood Shooter

Blood Shooter

Blood shooter has been delivered, along with 35mm lenses and a homemade stabliser. 

And the most important thing, a cuddly pig. 

Till next time,

David

Selected items from props / budget...

- Latex sheeting 

- Bandages

- Liquid Latex 

- Cochineal Food Colouring

- Petroleum Jelly

...just some selected items picked from the prop list...

Cameras!

Just a quick update - Got permission for the HD Cameras. 

Also, had a phone call from the Exec. Producer / Prop Manager / Father - Blood shooter being delivered on saturday

First Post

Hello there,

My name is David Martin, and this is the first post of hopefully many in which I update you (and in turn, the world), on the production of a short film I am planning, Between Two Worlds (working title). 

The premise is a low budget zombie film, based in Lincoln. I'm currently in early pre-production, writing the script and getting a crew together. Currently, I will be Camera man and Director on production, and editor and sound mixer in Post. I've also had interest in the positions of lighting, screenplay, visual effects and some other production elements. 

I am planning to shoot this over a week, on HD, using a 35mm adapter, and eventually mixing it in 5.1 and entering it into some festivals. In short, this is going to be a fancy showreel piece which will look good for everyone involved.

I've already been in contact with the FSU in regards to any restrictions to purchasing real-looking prop weapons (there isn't any, providing we can prove we are a production), and held a meeting with collegues expressing their interest.

More news when I get it, kids.

David