Frame 37 - The Making of

[Sean McHenry]

OK, most of this info will appear on the web site, which I really can't divulge at this time as Dylan wishes to dole them out 5 each day. Mine should be released officially on Wednesday.

So the story is an age old one of how certain cultures don't like to have their pictures taken as they feel you are stealing their soul. This is a simple concept but actually goes very deep. We won't reflect on the whole idea here but let's say it's deeper than you might think at first. Google around on the idea and you'll even find refrences to old movies like "Sunset Strip".

I came up with the plot pretty quickly, unlike DVC2 - "Secrets" which I wondered and worried about for almost 2 full days. I had to develop a twist on the idea by using self-portraits rather than one persons camera stealing another persons soul. It is an interesting thought that the loss of the soul would then be unknowingly self-induced.

I used the second of 3 daughters in this one. I used the oldest daughter in "Secrets", DVC2. She was quite unsure of herself when we began talking about it but actually jumped right into it as soon as the lights came on. No script for her really, just the idea and several shots of each scene. She did a good job making it up as we went along. I coached her in the concept but she came up with any dialog.

The day of the park scene where she is shooting the self portraits, we didn't realize it but the Nikon we were using had a blown shutter. I had planned to use her actuial photographs from that session in the end shots of the video but that wasn't to be. So, luckily she had the next afternoon off so we headed back to the park with my small digital still camera.

I cropped the photos in Photoshop and printed them on plain paper. Shot the final scenes Thursday evening and had it mostly done Thursday around midnight. Spent Friday evening, after dinner out with the wife, adding color correction and some minor effects. The rest of the time was figuring out the best rendering path. I settled on QT with a 384K preset modified for 16:9 in Sorenson Squeeze 4.0.

Editing was done on the HP Pavilion Laptop. 3.4GHz 64bit Athlon, 768Mb RAM, 100GB HD. External Sony PVM-8022 monitor and the camera made up the bulk of the gear. Also used the Century .65 WA adapter for some shots and the Cinetactics MatteBlox for lens shade. Circular polorizer, Bogen 3211 sticks with 501 head and Varizoom VZRock made up about everything else.

The rest will be on the web site which I will announce Wednesday.

Sean McHenry
Bring on DVC4 !

[Hugo Pinto]

Sean,

Just to let you know that I loved your film (somehow found it while looking around). I will post concrete details when it is officially released, but it is technically impecable, and very appealing to watch.

Hugo

[Bradley L Marlow]

Oh boy Sean!

Certainly looking forward to this one.

[Sean McHenry]

Glad you liked it. My acting sucks but when you choose to go it alone, you pays the price.

Yeah, I didn't really hide it or anything. I had to reuses some resources anyway.

Sean

[Sean McHenry]

By the way, as usual, to see the gear I normally use, you can see this web page:
http://home.columbus.rr.com/deepblue...al/Studio.html

To see a few production shots, you'll just have to wait until Wednesday. I have a few on the page for DVC3 and still have a link up to the DVC2 short there as well.

I am going to be building a server to host my video files soon. Then I can keep everything upfor as long as I want.

Sean

[Dylan Couper]

By the way, cameras with mystical soul stealing properties were a popular subject... :)

[Sean McHenry]

I figured they would be. I just didn't quite think there would be 27 entrys.

Man. And these guys are good, and getting better. I hope I am keeping up.

Sean

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Sean McHenry

Man. And these guys are good, and getting better.
Sean

I know. There are sure to be a couple of sleeper hits!

[Sean McHenry]

That's nice, depress me even more why don't ya. Maybe give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it. (Billy Crystal - Princess Bride)

Sean

[Sean McHenry]

Dylan released my video for public consumption. The web site is here:
http://www.surgetechservices.com/smchenry/

Go, see, report my mistakes, errors and omissions please. Make me better.

Thanks,

Sean McHenry

EDIT -----------------------

By the way, I have noticed if you have installed QT 7, as I have on my work PC, the video seems to look much better if you 2x the size of the player. For some reason, in 100% or 1x size, everything looks pixelated on my PC at work.

FYI.

Sean

[Fredrik-Larsson]

Two words... deep and spooky. "remove the light and we cease to exist, all of us" damn... not a good way to cheer you up... I will probably use that phrase a lot now... and that music created a very spooky mood. Very nice indeed. Well done!

[Sean McHenry]

Basic Chemistry sir. All photochemical reactions need, well, photons. Light. If the grass didn't grow, the cows would die. No milk, no meat, no leather. The chickens would go, and the hogs, and the wheat, and the apples and bugs and horses, and, eventually, us.

Here's another one to think on. If you could stop all motion, would time stop? All time measurements are a product of some motion. If all motion ceased, would there be time?

If the tree falls... You get the idea.

Glad you liked it. I hope the others do.

Sean

[Meryem Ersoz]

really great little bit o' music at the end. was that "ronny raygun?" i'm pretty impressed with the music, really set an appropriately spooky tone, in a very minimalist way.

i was a little confused as to the girl's motives for going out and shooting pictures of herself, by herself. did i miss something here? also, i'm not sure the voice of god omniscient narrator worked for a coupla minute film. seemed kinda didactic, although that kind of melted away in the last scene where you let sound and image carry the moment.

i can feel how you're working the david lynch-esque aesthetic. when he hits, he hits hard, and when he misses, the audience goes, "huh?? what whuzzat?"

pretty cool stuff here overall.

[Sean McHenry]

Yep, it's Ronnie Raygun. We have been chatting a bit and he let's me use his stuff from time to time. I sent him a link this weekend and he really liked it. I'm working on a DVD for him now.

In the beginning, when she is on the phone you hear her talking to someone about having to miss lunch as she has a self protrait assignment for school she has to finish.

That Ronnie piece makes the thing for me.

I'm no Lynch, I hope I'm a bit more understandable at this point.

Thanks,

Sean

[Lorinda Norton]

Hey Sean,

One of the things that impressed me (besides that cool X-Files-looking shot of the front door opening) were the photos at the end. Then I read what you told us about the blown shutter and re-enactment. Wow! You did a really good job of that.

In reading about it, I'm wondering if your concept overshot the time you had to pull it off as effectively as you would have liked. It looks like it was pretty darn complicated. Or maybe I'm just that simple-minded...

I agree with what Hugo said. Technically speaking, it looked flawless to me.

Well done, as usual!!!