Monday, October 31, 2011

NOVEMBER GIRL WEEK 17

Sadly, not much to report for this week and I may have to take a few weeks off from this book. There have been some changes at work and I don't have near as much time to work on this book. Hopefully, after I get used to the new job, it will get better and I can pick it up again.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

NOVEMBER GIRL WEEK 15-16

It's really been an off couple of weeks. Getting lots of headaches every day. Finally got my eyes checked and ordered new glasses this week. Hoping they won't take to long to get delivered. I've been writing what I can so it's been irregular. Some days go really well and others it's hard to get much out. It's to bad cause I like what's happening and the way this is shaping up. I'm getting to the point where I feel confident enough to add some of the off kilter characters and start to deal with some real life discussions.
I did find one really big change that has to be made. In the prologue the United States is crippled by 13 nuclear bombs. I had lots of really cool reasons for that number that would be revealed later in the story. Problem is, after 16 weeks, I just realized that that probably wouldn't be enough to leave the U.S. in the state it's in. I need more bombs. I had to start over and come up with a new number of bombs and an equally nifty revelation for it later on. It's kind of a pain , but, at the same time, it's what makes writing exciting.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

NOVEMBER GIRL WEEK 14

I'm afraid I didn't accomplish much this week. Real life and headaches have been taking lots of my creative energy away.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

STARPOINT VIDEOS DAY 2

We shot a lot of footage but didn't get as much done this time. Susy had found a park near where she lives and took a bunch of pictures and suggested we go there to shoot some of the exterior scenes. It was great. There were some perfect locations there.

This tree was huge. It was on it's side and was still to tall for me to see over. Susy got up on it in costume and with the swords for shots. I was worried cause she took off her glasses for the footage and climbed a good 15 feet off the ground to get a good position for the camera. She's really great.






These roots give off a real spiderish feel to them. Susy laid down between them in costume as if she were resting and sleeping and it was a real attention getting image.






We shot the footage for the skeleton battle here. It was great because it was a flat, clear area with trees and hills almost 360 degrees around it so there was a lot of angles we could use. We were getting ready and cleaning it up when a man came in and asked us what was going on. As it turned out this wasn't in the actual park but his back yard. He was really cool about everything and let us stay. He brought his sons, one looked 4 and the other looked 8, out to watch us shoot.
We had two other locations planned to shot but they didn't work out as well. I wanted to shoot a few quick images at the Riverside Theater in the park but there was a wedding there so we had to skip it.
We also went to Al's friends farm to shoot a scene in the barn. Originally his friend was going to be a wounded man in a scene but he was sick and couldn't do it so we shot it with Al. They way he's laying you can't see his face so I have the choice of either shooting somebody else's face and inserting it or going back and reshooting it all together. Will have to see how it looks when I get in to editing. Jessica was coming over great in these shots so I'm hoping I can make it work.
I had to make a tough decision this time. I either had to stay and try to get the footage at the locations and lose studio time or give up the the locations and keep the studio time. I really wanted to finish the tent scenes but I went with the location footage.

My camera man didn't show up so Al and myself did the camera work. He has a steadier hand than I do so he could so the longer shots and I did the closer ones. I also did all of the studio shots. There is a crane in the studio and we could balance that for closeups and steady shooting. I was concerned about one shot because it is so important. There is a speech Susy gives that, ideally, the camera is slowly moving in on her. I was originally shooting Ally's reaction to it and was going to do Susy next time but she was hitting it on the mark so well I changed the position of the camera so I could get Susy's delivery. The first time went okay, the second time I blew it with the zoom, but the third time was a charm. I'm really excited about how that one turned out.
Ally really came through with that, too. She ended up spending a lot of time just waiting for us to get back to PATV to shoot. I feel kind of bad about that. Luckily both Ally and Susy agreed to come back so we can finish it. The next few weekends are full for all of us so it will have to be a week night. They are both going to let me know their schedules and I'll see which day they both are available and I'll take a day off of work.
This is turning out better than I ever could have hoped.

NOVEMBER GIRL WEEK 13

When I'm working on a books I always give it a rating to keep it on an even keel. In the Starpoint Mountain books I decided it would be PG-13 rated and I kept it that way. I remember doing one torture scene that I got carried away on, must have been a bad day, and I went way overboard. I looked back at it and immediately knew I couldn't use it. It went way to far for PG-13 so I rewrote the whole scene and toned it down. I kept it that rating in Welcome to Nowhere as well.
This book is R rated. Definitely. In the other books the characters were sexually active but I never gave them much details. You knew where they'd been and what they did but didn't get details. This one is much more graphic and there is no doubt what they did. The language is also more adult. Not necessarily cursing and swearing, I never like that in books or movies, just more open on blunt.