Way to go Meryem!
 

Yes- I love your determination and certainly know the feeling. At least you are out schlepping :)

I ordered a very essential item off eBay today so now I'm just hoping it will arrive in time. My movie's pretty much ruined if it doesn't. I also sent payment for an Audio-Technica wireless mic I bought on eBay which I'll also be needing.

Hopefully Canada Post comes through for me!

thanks, robert. what a comfort to know there is such stiff competition for the category of Most Idiotic.

thanks for the encouragement, you guys, and to mark for starting the thread we needed to share our scraped knees (or, as my now-5-year-old sez, our "ow-ies"....)

Yeah Mark...
 

I'm in the exact same boat! Waiting for several ebay items to arrive...lol. A couple came in, but that won't work until the rest show up. Hope your make it in time for you.

Well the third time was as charming as it's gonna get. The shorter scene is much more natural, I feel, and will make for better storytelling (yeah, that's the ticket). Those interested in lighting, I'm sorry I don't have any photos or diagrams of my actual setup, but you can see a brief example of what I had, and what I ended up with:

http://www.gyroshot.com/images/MartensBefore.jpg
http://www.gyroshot.com/images/MartensAfter.jpg

The first shot's from the first day of shooting, the second is from tonight; you'll note that, thanks to the revised script, I've changed the camera angle significantly, so I'm afraid there's no direct comparison. I never captured the footage from the second shoot, and now that I have what I want--or a reasonable facsimile thereof--I don't plan to. No deck, camera that already needs repair, you know the drill: I'm not taking any chances wearing the thing out further. Don't worry, though, it wasn't anything to write home about. Just a brighter, but still wholly inadequate version of the first night's footage. Even the "good" shot shown above is suspect, in my opinion. I got two takes tonight, each with a different brightness, thanks primarily to the fact that I turned the lights off between takes and forgot what settings I used when I went back. Might use the one I show here, might not. You'll just have to wait and see, suckers!

And this is the ONLY glimpse of me you're gonna get 'til the thing's finished, so savor the moment. If you'd like to download the shots, go right ahead, and use one as a desktop background if you like. Or maybe stare at one and listen to "Baby Elephant Walk". Dee de-dee dee DEE dee dee dee dee dee.

Ba dah Ba dum....what a wonderfully annoying song. Thanks! I won't be able to get THAT outta my head for at LEAST a day!

Hey, nice lighting in that second shot. I need to be taking notes. One of my scenes is (supposed to be) inside of a bar. The "challenging" part will be to light it so that it doesn't look like it's lighted. I may try some of those $30 'Grafflight' solutions....

Ba dah dah dah ba dum ba dah bum ba ba da ba da bum.....oh @#$%!!!

ever just shoot something, love the footage, and think the story is half decent. . .then come up with a much sweeter path to take your story thus teasing you to change the last half of the script 100 different ways? Yeah, that's where I'm at. Lucky for me, no re-shooting will have to occur in order to change the ending. I'm also having trouble scoring. . .searching endlessly for the royalty free that will do my story justice. haha

the immortal dave barry advises that the best way to get an annoying tune out of your own head is to go infect someone else with it.....

Don't you just hate that! The only way I have found to cure it is to turn the radio on and start singing along. If you sing like me, do it in private. The new song will stop the old one most all of the time, then turn off the radio and see what happens. Sometimes the last song you heard will be the next one going through your head, so pick one you like, but a lot of the time the new one won't "stick."

Concentrate, Concentrate!

Mike

Ha ha! Now that you're all preoccupied with that goofy song, my victory is assured! Can't win if you can't concentrate, right? Thirty gig iPod, here I come!

Seriously, though, I just finished shooting a few more scenes (it's like I actually care this time, or something), this time with my parents. They went much better than expected, and we've successfully cleaned up a large part of our kitchen as a result. My mom's quite happy about that. And while we're on the subject, she's the reason I even have half the shots I do; at every turn, for every setup I was unsure of, she had an idea that worked wonderfully. And she's a hell of a set dresser, too. I haven't the slightest idea what credit to give her now.

I'm sure some of you are getting sick of my suddenly happy-go-lucky attitude, but please understand that I've never managed to get this much done, let alone so smoothly, before. If I can keep it up, you'll be annoyed ALL the time.

I'm glad to see some people not only have ideas, but footage as well. Man, this reflections theme is kicking my ass. I got nothing (good) so far... But hey, I still have two whole weeks, which is plenty of time. Oy.

Sticktoitiveness, Robert, that's what I think it's about. For the first week or so, though I had my idea, it felt horrible, and I wanted to give up. At some point I realized just how much time I had left and decided to go ahead with the idea I wasn't too fond of, and it seems to be working out so far. Slow and steady wins the race, mind over matter, that kind of thing; I never knew mere persistence could be so effective, but here I am. Also--can't remember where I read this, sorry--"Don't get it right, get it written" is good advice. You say you have no good ideas, well, get them on paper. That way you actually have something to work with. If it's no good, you can edit it, but we never get to the editing stage if we never write anything in the first place.

Even if you think your ideas aren't good, I say do one of them anyway. If we never get our bad movies out of our heads, we'll never make room for the good ones. And they're probably not that bad, after all. We are our own worst critics, they say.

Might I suggest plugging "reflect" or "reflection" into the search field at http://www.thesaurus.com/? Look through the results, there may be some synonyms that spark an idea or two.

I'm stagnant. 1 week to go nothing shot. I suck.

On the song, try this link. This will replace that song with another. It least this one has visuals...

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

badger, badger, badger, mushroom, mushroom....

Sean McHenry

One week to go? I thought we had until midnight on the 8th?

let's take a poll...what is worse, posting something incoherent that only makes sense to you, in your own pea brain, or hanging by your thumbs from the wall of shame?

opinions?

LOL, Meryem! By far, hanging by your thumbs is worse. Your movies are always great. Finish it up so we can enjoy it!!! :)

Too late Meryem. I should have volunteered my thumbs like a man.

But there's always next time for the wall. Thank you sincerely for all the encouragement and guidance.

So far it looks like thumbs for me. I guess that would be thumbs down huh!

Mike

AAGGHHHHH!!! Curse you Sean McHenry!

I clicked on your link....silly me.

And to think that today is my birthday. I am spending it with that sweet little ditty stuck....stuck....STUCK in my head all day long.

lol.

-Jon

Tell me a story...any story
 

Far be it from me to criticize any of the contenders for writer's block. I'm not even competing this time around, but I can be a cheerleader on the sidelines (no pom pom jokes please)

Although I have learned that it is typically better to plan the production, and write, stage, shoot and edit with a clearly defined plan...sometimes it is okay to just run around with a camera and see what you can come up with in the edit......even if it is just telling a story, sometimes it is fun to watch (as evidenced by my 2 1/2 year old last night sharing what she learned at last week's library storytime session)

http://homepage.mac.com/lunarparcel/...heater131.html

This would never qualify as an entry, but shot in 2 minutes, edited in 3, online in 10 minutes - start to finish - I actually favor it considerably over my entry for DVC #1.....

..but think about what you could do with 2 more weeks to go.

Just grab a camera, drive around and do some pick up shooting for the next 4 days, even if it is just interviewing your neighbors about UFO sightings.....and that still gives you a week and a half to have fun with the edit.

In the end, it is true...the Wall of Shame is only made out of balsa wood, but it really is cool to be able to say you entered, competed and posted something for everyone to see and maybe even enjoy - no matter what it is.

YOU CAN DO IT....RAH RAH RAH.

Enough pep for today...I gotta go get some coffee.
-Jon

I panic prematurely... In that case, Wow, only 2 weeks left...

I feel better. I will repeat my earlier message in 1 week.

Badger, badger, badger. A snake! A snake!...

If you can't live with that one in your head, try this one...

http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song/

These scary creatures were used in some Quiznos spots some time back. There were stories on the net (Google Sponge Monkeys) about small children breaking into tears when these things came on. I thought the damn things were real roadkill.

Now you'll be seeing things as well as hearing them. Good luck with that. I'm already warped as previous contest entries will show so these no longer effect me.

Sean

I have ideas and a few things written down. I'm going to try to get a more detailed script finished tonight.

In reality, I have about 3 legal pages with notes for the final scene. The thing won't be chronological, a bit like Momento I suppose. I have a great finish, I just need the stuff in the middle and the stuff at the front. Sounds easy huh?

Anyone done yet?

I wonder if Dylan has access in Africa? That reminds me, why do elephants wear red sneakers? So they can hide in the the cherry trees. Ever seen an elephant in a cherry tree? See how good it works!

Fade In:

Interior, House, Evening

Wide

Some Nut
(smiling)
"Yeah, let them get that tune out of their heads"

He stands up and begins singing.

Some Nut
(like an insane chipmunk scampering to the fridge)
"We love the moon, cause it is good to us"

...

Sean

You're watching me?
-Jon

Johnathan,

Miranda is a lot more watchable and entertaining than my last entry in DVC4! I'm glad you are disqualifyng yourself so the rest of us have a chance!

As of 2:37am last night(well, today). . .I am completely finished! I'm so excited for the contest, the total run time is only 3 frames short of 5 minutes and I am very pleased with the outcome. I hope all is going well with everyone, keep at er! I'm looking forward to seeing everyones :)

yeah, I'm almost done now, just have 3 more scenes to shoot which I'll do next week. I've already pretty much edited what I've already shot, so not too much to do.

Tomorrow is the big day
 

I worked on the score a bit this week. I created a few sound effects that may or may not be used. I also did some test shooting.

Tomorrow I start shooting for real. The indoor shots will be done tomorrow. Outdoor shots will be done on Sunday.

Editing should be complete by Monday, April 3rd.

Lots of fun stuff going on here!

Shooting begins tomorrow at o'dark30. Supposed to be a cold morning which will work well....just hope the winds are down. Should be able to rap up all the exteriors then. Looking forward to seeing it in post. Actually, I'll be glad when it's all over! How did you guys all do it in a WEEK??? Next DVC will REALLY be a challenge.....

[QUOTE=Steve Shilson]total run time is only 3 frames short of 5 minutes and I am very pleased with the outcome. QUOTE]

Steve, did I miss something? I thought we were lilmited to four minutes. I can add the bag lady back into the script if I have an extra minute...

Quote Dylan Couper in the http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=62462 thread.
"Running time is extended to a full five minutes. Your film doesn't have to run that long, but it is there if you want it. I'd still prefer to see three minute films."

You made me really second guess myself there, I was really scared for a second :p

Great! Now I can credit all my extras!

Well, as it was, "Murphy" was along for the ride. We didn't get to the first site (that I needed fairly dark) until the sun was almost up. TOO much light already when I'm pulling out the equipment, only to discover I left the camera plate for the tripod AT HOME!!! Grrrrr! Bad start, folks. So, I had to rest the camera on the tripod head. Good thing I don't have to pan anything!

Then, in some of the shots, I forgot a key prop I'm supposed to wear, so I had to REshoot. One (touristy) area we were supposed to shoot was shut down for maintenance....ON A SATURDAY???? By about this time, I've had just about enough.

Did get some good footage though, so we're well underway. Far cry from two weeks ago when the theme was announced and I was jumping for joy because I had an idea, music and talent set up already. Never good to get cocky with these things......

tomorrow I wrap up shooting and begin post. I shot all my indoor stuff last weekend, and tomorrow is the outdoor stuff. I tried to schedule around the weather. After the first round of shooting, true to myself, I completely rewrote the script. One of those ahaa, my story sucks moments.

Figured I'd keep you guys updated; things are rolling right along by me. Shot at another location (the most distinctly Miller Place of the places I'm shooting, though you'd never know it from the sign...you'll understand what I mean once the movie's done) today, and picked up that voiceover I needed. Set to reshoot some things tomorrow morning, and after that I'll only have one scene left to shoot, then on with editing. Haven't even attempted editing yet, though I probably should. I'm just worried I'll end up wanting to reshoot everything, or simply give up 'cause I feel stupid. Eh, I'll just have to get over it, I guess.

Now if I could just decide what to do about music...

I am still not yet even started. I Just have been too busy (and lazy). Hopefully I'll get something together by the deadline.

Finally was able to cobble together a script, but tendon surgery is taking longer to recover from than I originally thought. Still basically one handed. But I so want to avoid the wall of shame this time...

Emailed my 3 minutes codology thoroughly pixellated on 22nd. Bad 'n all as it is I hope it can be uprezzed, to keep eye-injury to a minimum.

Thanks for all the guidance and encouragement, especially Meryem, without whom it would not have gone anywhere. Now off to the cliffs of Extremadura!

aka videoraptor

Oh god, one of my eBay items arrived today but I was asleep! Since they didn't leave it at the door, I'll either have to get it today at 5 (if it's in today) or more likely tomorrow at 1.

Writing script, got the idea, making it fit into theme and location requirements.