Another Lonely Night I Gotta Race The Clock

The movie's finally complete, in a 'rough cut' form. Basically, I don't have time to complete the paperwork related to the project, and add the extra layer of spit and polish to the movie that I'd like. So rather than hand it in incomplete, I'm rendering it now and I'll go back and 'really finish' it over the next couple of days.

In this version, some sound effects and voices are either temporary or missing entirely (offhand, I know Mike's voice isn't in the hallway scene; this is because I have run out of audio channels in the current project, and need to mix the sounds down to make room... something I don't have time for just now). The music is also temporary, I need more time to go through my Justin R. Durban library and pick music with similar themes. The editing is mostly final up to the office scene, where I really began running out of time. Everything after that (about 8 minutes in) is bare-bones editing with no fancy sound tricks etc.; again, I just wanted to get the movie finished.

Right now I'm finishing up the folder work whilst it renders; I've currently got sections for the original 'Discovery' story, the various scripts, movie and director research, storyboards, permissions I got during filming, this blog, the trailer, the poster, the upcoming website, and evaluations. The barest at the moment is movie and director research; I havn't had as much time as I would like to get everything together and write down my thoughts. That's why I'm praying I'll have a chance to go back and add to that at a later date. I have research of trailers, posters and websites though, so hopefully that'll count for something.

I guess this'll be the last thing I write, so if somehow you've been checking this out whilst I write it, thanks for sticking with it and check out the movie on June 1st at the official site, www.twelvepointproductions.com/painkillers .

Dave out.

Today's Tasks and Trailer Update

Today I'm continuing to edit the movie; at this point, I have got up to the second murder scene. Some footage problems are hampering that at the moment, but I think I'll find a way around it. It's around 4 minutes long so far.

I'm also starting to put together my folder for my presentation on Wednesday; categorising everything and making sure it's easy to locate each thing needed to pass the criteria.

The trailer has been downloaded approximately 100 times already, which considering I only know 4 people personally who've seen it, is pretty good to hear. It means it's not just the usual group of friends who are watching it. It's also attracted some more traffic to my other movies, which is always a plus. Comments so far have been positive with many people looking forward to the final movie; one person saying "It looks amazingly professional! Sounds like it'd be a movie worth watching." So I guess the trailer can be considered a success.

Trailer Online

I just finished the trailer for the movie, and before I head out to see Revenge Of The Sith, I'm putting it online on my Twelve Point Productions website. You can view the trailer in three formats here.

I'm really happy with it, I think it does a good job of a) telling the audience the basics of the plot (Ryan's wife was killed, and he thinks the same guy is killing other women), and b) making the film look exciting and appealing.

Filming Completed

I just got back from another all-night shoot at Bounremouth University, which marks the end of filming for "Painkillers". Now I can complete the trailer (I needed shots of Ryan running, which we did tonight) and then I can begin finally editing the complete film.

"... Where's My Footage?"

That's what I was asking myself last night as I watched back the footage from filming on Thursday. Certain shots, key shots... weren't there. In short, a camera malfunction caused the tape to play on instead of recording. I don't know how much stuff I don't have, I havn't watched the tape all the way through yet. But the first murder will probably have to be reshot all over again. That requires another day of getting people to Verwood and another day I can't edit this thing together. This is not what I need, this close to deadline.

At the moment, I'm putting together a trailer from what I do have, in case I end up having to hand that in as my Final Major Project instead. Although if I spend two years of my life on a course and only produce a trailer for my final piece, I may just cry.

Frustration

Today we've been filming the last of my scenes for Greg's project, "Hope Springs", including a 'torture' sequence which I have a feeling will look really good. This morning I went to PC World and learnt that the only way to get rid of the virus which has basically slowed my PC to a crawl, will be to do a complete system restore. Which is never fun, because it means I have to copy all the data and a few programs onto a seperate hard drive, then reformat the PC and put them back exactly where they were before so they'll work. It's taking a while because I have a few big files, mostly movies and 'source' files from stuff like the Narrative Image Making project which are just too big. So, I figure I can keep all my movies, but some of the footage might have to be recaptured.

Once this is all done, say, tomorrow night, I'll be able to upload the 50 minutes of footage I shot last week and begin editing it. It also should mean I can edit a bit quicker, so I think I can catch up. On Thursday I'm hoping to get almost everything left to do, done. A whole day of shooting and swapping locations, which will hopefully run smoothly. It'll be experience in a proper shooting schedule, as most of the time I do a scene a day, not 10 hours of filming like real directors.

Catching Up

Wednesday night we shot the 'confrontation' scene with Rob and David, which went really well... except that it took over two and a half hours. I didn't get home until 1am, hence the lack of update at the time. Thursday we shot the 'car scene', the 'waking up' shot, and the 'Amy Murder' scene. Then we went out and did some filming for Rob's project, which took three hours before we called it a night. I didn't get home until 1:30am.

Friday I stayed home from college and worked on the poster for "Painkillers", a task which made me realise how badly I need a new PC or an upgrade. The poster is on sale in the Twelve Point Productions Store. Today I've been working on getting my PC in a fit state to continue working; it's currently got a virus which may mean a complete system restore, so I'm holding off on editing until I know what's going to happen with that. I also put together what the official site front page will look like, which you can see here.

Tomorrow we're filming more of Rob's movie in the morning, then in the evening I'm shooting the scenes of Tom in the jeep from the end of the film. I also hope to decide what to do about the PC.

I'm sure the film will be finished by the 20th, but the current release date online is June 1st. This will give me time to create a suitable website once the film has been handed in.