Sunday, February 26, 2012

NOVEMBER GIRL START UP

We had some snow last week so I went to Iowa City on Saturday and checked out one of the HD cameras. One of the episodes of November Girl is a flashback episode that takes place in November and I needed as much stock footage as I could get of the city in winter. With a bit of editing and the proper narration it'll easily work as November footage. I just had to be careful about the kiosks I shot cause lots of them had notices for concerts dated in February or March. I'm planning on going back on Thursday of this week and get more footage with a few crowds. The city was pretty barren on Saturday. I'm going to whip up a few generic postings for November events and just put them up to get the shots in on one.
This one seems to be coming together a lot faster than the others. I put up a notice on craigslist and have gotten a few responses. Nothing concrete yet but still a promising start. I'm positive it helps having Secret Fortunes online and on PATV. It gives me some street cred when people see something done. Just hope to have a cast together so we could shoot some scenes during spring break when we get good light and temperatures but not a lot of people around.

SECRET FORTUNES WRAP UP

The video has been showing on and off for a week on PATV. Just by chance saw their schedule the other night about 30 minutes before it was being broadcast. It's really an odd feeling like when I see that someone bought one of my books. I always wonder if some strange person I've never heard of will finish it thinking it was good time or crap.
I've gotten some feedback from people and they have been very complimentary. No really intense reviews from people I don't know but very positive comments. I finally burned myself a DVD copy and watched it last night on my HD TV at home. It was really very exciting to see it. It's really turned out quite well if I do say so myself. Almost 200 hits on youTube as well.
I keep looking for ways to promote it. Checking around for film contests or other PATV stations that might want to air it. Even after all these years I'm still not used to promoting, in essence, myself. It feels kind of strange. I have to admit I'd prefer just to stay in the background.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

SECRET FORTUNES VIDEO PREMIERE

I was at PATV today and Jerrod called me into the lobby. As it turned out Secret Fortunes was being broadcast at that time. It was very unreal to see it as it was broadcast. Couldn't help but wonder if anyone was out there watching it. What did they think? Did they like it? There have also been 120 hits of Youtube and I get the same feeling. I just hope whoever caught it at least felt that it was a good 20 minutes. Sure, it'd would be great if they fell in love with it and tell everyone else about it but I'd be happy as well if they just enjoyed a brief encounter with it.
I had a small premier at the studio today. Al, Ally and Jessica got to see the completed version for the first time. One of my biggest goal was that all of the people who contributed time and effort to it walked away feeling good when it was done. I'm positive I accomplished that after seeing their reactions today. Just for fun I put together a selection of outtakes and it helped everyone release a lot of energy afterward. Since most of the cast are women I also put together some shots set to the tune of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. I really think that was an excellent way to say 'Thanks.'

Saturday, February 11, 2012

SECRET FORTUNES FINAL

It's done! It's up and running and found an online home on PATV's channel at youtube. I had originally planned to add it to me own channel but they won't let me upload anything that runs longer than 15 minutes. I just haven't been active enough on youtube. The only way I could have done it on my own channel was to cut it in two and I didn't want to do that. I'm glad it found a good home.
This version is slightly different from the first one loaded up last week.
One change is I added a few shots to the ambush sequence of Gallif reacting afterwards. Before it just ended after she strikes the attacker so it didn't have any personal touches to it. Now we see her looking at the body and can see that she did not enjoy the incident. It gives the impression that what she did meant something to her. She felt it.
The second change is putting another layer of footage over one of the whispers sequences. I was thinking that there should have been some shots of her grieving the deaths of her family and friends but going back and doing another shooting just wasn't practical. What I did was layer footage of her standing, looking shocked, and holding a blood dripping sword. It gets the message that she has been surrounded by lots of violence in her life and makes the question she asks much more meaningful.
I also decided that this is it. No changes. reedits or reworking scenes, etc. I really don't like when people do that to movies. It just makes things confusing and, sometimes, just takes away from the original. This is as done as it will ever be.
Hope you can enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKaSP02FMMs&feature=uploademail

Sunday, February 5, 2012

SECRET FORTUNES VIDEO

It's finally finished. I finished the video editing a week ago and then turned it over to Tim to do an audio edit. He settled some of the levels so it wasn't to loud and managed to get rid of a few odd sounds that came in from either the studio, mic placement, or the business upstairs. I officially signed off on it on Thursday February 2nd. The official PATV copy was burned off and took 18 hours to upload it to their server. It was officially listed on their site on February 4th.
So far the reactions from people have been really good. 11 people clicked that they liked it on the Facebook link. Someone has even left a comment on the PATV site that they liked it. Everybody has been really good at helping get the word around so people can hear about it.
I also did some shameless tweeting to promote it. I have to admit that. I thought about it for about 4 seconds and then realized there was no reason not to. So some of the people I follow like Tom Hanks, Rosario Dawson, Steven Moffatt and Lindsay Lohan got a tweet with a brief link to PATV yesterday. I also send tweets to some of the sci-fi websites I follow. Don't know if it's just coincidence but I picked up two followers within an hour afterwards.
What I need to do next is write a press release email for the actual broadcast on PATV. I haven't done one in a while and have been working on the actual wording. I'm starting to think that something straight and to the point will be best.
After that I'll put the final product on Youtube for even bigger distribution. The only thing I don't like about it is I will have to break it up in to 2 parts. It's 21:35 and that is to big for them. I don't like that it'll have to be broken up but there is really no other way to get it in to distribution there.