The film is now 100% digitised. Horray! I think either technology doesn't like me or tape decks are just awkward. As soon as they reach the end of the tape and lose the timecode they don't know what to do.
So I started editing and considering it's been almost a year since I edited something using Final cut, it went quite well. I got a whole 40 seconds done!! Woo!!
I've booked some time for friday and I'll soon book some more time over Easter.

Weekend round up

Last weekend was...uh....eventful....
Saturday was definatly not fun. First it was freezing, then it kept hailing on us then it was cold, wet and windy all at once. This is what turned me off a career in science.
Thankfully sunday was much better. The sun was out and we were shooting indoors. It may be painfully unfair but there wasn't much we could do about it. In fact, sunday had to complet opposite effect on me, when we were shooting in Sydney office I felt really hot. Luckily we finished a little early.
Aside from the weather and the parts when we were working, the weekend was fun. We all got on great together and Harry and Chloe brought us lots of snacks and food.
One thing I have learnt from this weekend- Never give your crew Doritos. They are far too addictive...

I can't think of a title

I successfully digitised all the footage from the first tape onto the computer. It was much easier this time since I'd gotten into a routine. I did have a few panic attacks with using the tape deck but managed to solve them after a little fiddling around. Film making is bad for the heart sometimes...
I ran out of time to do the second tape but there's only about 5 minuits of stuff on there so it shouldn't take too long. Other than that, we're all set to go with the editing.
Another busy weekend. *sigh* At least the weather forecast seems to have improved. Although it was pretty grim today.
I'm off to do a weather dance for the sun gods.

Post production begins

I've just spent several hours logging clips from the tape onto final cut. I think it hypnotised me...I got really into the routine after a while. But eventually It got so I was depressed after every clip because I had so much more to do. I've got about two thirds of it so I'll get the rest some time this week. I'd do it all now but I'm afraid of being kicked out.
Also I did an evaluation of what I've done and what I've achieved. I think I've gained something very important- not only experience but confidence. Now I've seen how it's done I think 'hey, I could do that.' If Khyan can do it then I should have no problem! (Just kidding, Khyan's awesome).
Plus I did evaluations on the other two and they were both very good. They were both fantastic, in my opinion. I feel they did way more than I did but that is apparently not true.

Feet hurt = sucess

As expected, I am completely exhausted. But despite everything, I think the shooting went very well. It did take waaaay longer than we expected. Khyan's idea of getting everything in one day seems laughable now.
As the day went on, I got more and more settled into the routine of of setting up and shooting the shot. All of us got on really well together so there were no disagreements or bust ups. There were a few shots that took several takes and some that took a long time to set up or we had to work around to make them work.
But still, just a few weeks ago it was a pipe dream. Now it's all done and it's all there on those little tapes. Everyone I talked to said 'so it's all done now then?' But that's not how film making works. There's still the long, hard process of getting it onto a machine and editing it over and over again until it's perfect. Plus we need to get some music. Oh how endlessly hard life is....
I'm still happy though. It could've gone a lot worse.

The Eve of War

Ok so the equipment is all here and the living room is all set up. My housemates got mad at me for leaving litter everywhere so now I'm hiding in shame.
How do I feel? Well a mix of nerves and excitment. I have no idea what's going to happen. The weekend could be lots of fun or it could be a total disaster. The thing I'm most worried about is that I run out of energy easily and the room is going to get very hot. But I've stocked up on cereal bars and energy drinks. We were advised to film on both days until about 3 or 4 to put less pressure on us. I'm glad about that, my body tends to give up completely at around 4pm.
As is usual for me, I'm worried about not doing a good job. But everyone there will have trained with the Z1 camera so someone will know what to do.
Nothing left to do now but wait and see what happens.
Me, Genie and Khyan all have the feeling that once the shooting weekend is over, we'll be free. But we have no music and there's the editing and we're crewing next weekend. It never ends....

The Final Countdown!!

Sooo, next weekend is the shoot! I like to think we're all ready and well prepared but it rarely works out like that completely so right now I'm living on hope.
I feel bad for Genie and Khyan, they have tonnes of stuff to do and I have next to nothing. I really would share the workload if I could but it's all stuff that really needs to be done by the producer and director. I just need to make sure I'm prepared.
What I have done is make a fake gas bill by scanning in one of our British Gas letters (we don't have any unpaid bills cos we're nerds) and editing it in paint, which was a little difficult. The logo doesn't look that good but it does have 'Outstanding Payment' in big red letters which the eye is drawn to. Just as long as no one actually sees the rest of the letter...I hope it doesn't show up too much on the big screen. Also I put the words 'Number one in customer service' on it, even if not many people notice it, I think it's a nice touch.
Also I got a french dictionary from the library. The only one they had was huge.
Khyan was supposed to come over today and take pictures of the living room for the storyboard and pick up the landlord's letter for the production folder but he never showed up.
On friday we're picking up the equipment, bringing it over here and setting up the living room. It's going to be weird seeing it completely transformed.

Week 4- What, already?!

Only a few short weeks until shooting! It feels like there's so much to do and we'll never get it done in time but we have a good team so I have confidence that we will make it.
I spent about half of today's meeting trying to get my university e-mail fixed so Genie could send me the script. It got through in the end and I've just now used the script to write the step outline and sent it to Khyan for storyboarding. I've also just bought the giant dominoes off e-bay. Now we have to pray that they'll be delievered in time. E-bay isn't exactly the most reliable method of getting props but we can't afford it otherwise.
Genie wrote out a permission letter to send to my landlord as we've decided to use my house for filming. Now I just need to speak to my flat mates and double check that they really are ok with their house being taken over for a whole weekend.
As for casting, today was auditions for the part of Lucy and we have the perfect person. Her performance really was phenomenal and I even laughed when she was yelling and swearing at Khyan (who was reading Tom's part). She captures the small angry woman image perfectly.
But on the down side, I have to break it to my boyfriend that he can't voice act in the film. I should have known better than to tell him about it before.
Memo to self- Learn how to spell dominoes.