Film Makers at Home

There's a segment where a dude flashes his travels in a super high speed travelog, much like yours. It's a bitchin little movie, if you haven't seen it yet.

Never saw it.

By the way, WELCOME to MOFO!

OMG, I laughed my ass off! I love physical comedy, and that was a clever 4 minutes! I don't know what his competition was at that festival, but I would've given him a prize.

Dude, I wrote a super long winded response to your film, but I decided to take it down because it didn't sit well with me and I can imagine it wouldn't sit well with you. I had compliments and criticisms because it was set up like a genre picture and I love genre pictures. I'm still not sure if there's a PM function on this site. I'd feel less like a deek if I could communicate in a less public way because technical stuff from me might come off a bit annoying.

Hover over the person's avatar and you can choose 'message' to give them a private message.

As for the Adventures of Owen. The editing process was pretty easy because the director storyboarded it perfectly and shot everything as needed. There was an extended sequence where the kids are making fun of him which makes him forget to pick up his sister, but the transitions were not smooth enough for me, so I told him we should drop it.

The animation was given to me in segments, which I then had to piece together. As you could tell, as Owen gets better at drawing, so does the animation in the film. So I would receive the early stuff first, then the polished stuff later. Since the director did the animation as well (that was his background) he pretty much only animated what he needed. I would then take out frames if they went on too long. I didn't supervise the foley and music business, the Post Production Supervisor handled that. Once my cut was finished, I handed her off.

As for your video, I liked it. The black and white aesthetic helped and for some strange reason it gave me a David Lynch vibe. I love David Lynch. The editing seemed like something a Hollywood Tony Scott film would have going on, only in a more abstract way.


Here is another one. I acted as script editor in preproduction and 3rd AD (we totally didn't need 3) while filming.

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LOL. He and his mates won people's choice award. Tropfest is the 'biggest short film festival in the world'.



I think it was that year he ran into Salma Hayek. I mean...he literally ran into her. Met with her again last year and she still remembered how much he blushed. LOL. Enter your stuff in short film fests, guys. You never know what can happen.

eta I've got tears. The 'man in black' at the end is another brother of mine. We had a family screening and fell apart laughing.

My daughter made several films when she attended University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. A few are posted around here. She also worked a long time on this one.

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I saw your comment before I left work yesterday, but I just didn't have time to read it all before I left. By the time I got home, I think you already took it down. Definitely PM it to me; if you took the time to write it, I would love to take the time to read it.

I'm a huge fan of the gangster/noir genre, so I really dug "Fedoras". Considering you were just using local people with a minimal budget; I think it came out really well (especially liked the actors who played Jimmy Jewels and Nino) and I would like to see more!

Trivia, the Jimmy Jewels guy is played by James Landi who was the pawn shop guy in Michael Corrente's "Federal Hill" from 1994. Super nice guy, too. He's really that menacing, same with Nino, played by Billy V. Vigeant, another late blooming actor.

I will definitely PM you my thoughts cuz they are bloated. I'm gonna trim them down so you're not up all night reading them.

Here's another video I did with a local drummer. We recorded his set direct into console and got an improvised take that I was able to cut together. I had 2 cameras, one tripod locked and one in my hand. The other hand held a utility light that I would brush over him. Talk about double fisting it. I was able to perform some bass guitar and synth stuff when I got it put together. It allowed me to edit freely because the synth stuff left an open field of sound that the edits would not cut hard. It's Long. He has better chops, but we took what we got.

That's really cool. Boy, the acting is pretty well done. The hairstyles and make-up, too, wow! Spot on! Kind of a Spielbergian vibe once the technology pops its head in. Interesting. The dark haired girl's got good chops! I'm guessing she acts a lot. They're all good.

Nice framing and shots, good use of lighting, tight gore fx, that was some dark stuff.
Local bands for the music?

I think the video took just as long as the song to make...

Matt Selou - Mixed Combinations

Jazzy AF. Sounds like a baritone guitar in there at some point.

So jazzy I don't even remember the chords precisely.. I'd have a Cmaj7 also with a few notes on the left hand, to create the mood I was looking for. For hours I would move my fingers around on both hands until I found something cool. In other songs, I've made mistakes, and went that route

It's not a baritone guitar, I'm actually playing chords on the bass. Good observation!


Here's something a little different - same method.. I'm using nothing more than a very cheap condenser, and a few times I used a $1 microphone I found at a garage sale, and turned it down, but pointed it at the wall for a different affect.. The electric guitar though is hooked up directly -- I also have never used an amplifier, would have loved to have that option.

D.E.A

Speaking of drums, I did a one-take of a drum solo at home



And then in Thailand, I played buckets... 45 minutes of work earned me 3 nights of accommodation at a hostel.

I enjoyed the Bonhamesque solo. Digging your swing style. The buckets were bad ass. Inspiring. Street performing must be a rush, especially when it affords you food and board. Looked like some fine looking chicks were digging you, too.

Thank you very much, you are very kind! I loved listening to Led Zeppelin, but jazz is what I love to play the most -- it's totally free. Rock is 4/4 and gets boring like blues, but great on guitar; every instrument have their best.

I've busked in 4 continents, and in Australia, you have to get a license, take a class, etc., it's taken very seriously, and it's one of the best things about Melbourne.. You rehearse, but then after a year, you can get a spot in a reserved area just for that, the most active part of the city. The only problem is that I never had MY drum set, so I would use a guitar, floor toms, djembes, and I can sing half-way ok (though I've never put vocals on records, I write instrumentals)...

I tried watching your video earlier, but I gotta be 100% sober.. I came so close to filming a screenplay I wrote (from stage32) and the guy with the equipment stopped responding to e-mail two days before the first day of shooting, so I told everyone to stay home, as I didn't want people coming as far as New York and Indiana for my digital camera (that's been stolen since)... How did you get reliable people?? I was also wondering what equipment you use.

Wow, I had no idea about that.

Jazz is a trip. I play multi instruments, as well. I'm not schooled, though. I just do what I can. I primarily play bass. I'll post some stuff. Maybe I will start a music thread, if I can on this forum, where we post our home made music. That might be a goof.

4 continents? Wow. That sounds pretty exciting! So Melbourne makes you practice to be able to perform in a sectioned off area of town to street perform? That sounds so cool! You should consider a loop station so you can keep overdubbing and freak ppl out. I've considered doing that but Northampton, MA isn't really my scene and I'm not sure they even allow street jamming right now (?)

Good to hear you took a responsible route by telling people to stay home. That's a good habit lol. I can't stand flaky ppl, esp when time and effort are on the line.

My experience was from a local girl. She had the seedling of the Fedoras idea. She dropped the seed after she wrote a loose concept treatment. From there, she had a guy from Boston flesh it all out in script form. It got from Point A to point B, but it was missing some elements I later injected, for better or worse. She asked me to edit it, and after a while I kind of tried to take over because she wasn't very well endowed with technical skills. Everybody directed themselves, basically, aside from the camera dudes (myself and two others) and the producer (creator - the girl) who would give basic blocking directions. No real blocking to speak of. Very seat of your pants experience, and I was totally learning as I went along.

As for getting reliable ppl, that was all her. She had contacts, she wrangled everybody. I think most of the cast was attracted to her. Good to have a pretty girl around to motivate the production. People showed up lol.

There was a lot of goofing off, food, cigars..kind of like an old gangster tupperware party...that hurt production, and hurt me badly because the takes were ragged. If I had more courage, I would have taken a more aggressive approach and bullied people to shut the F up. I even designed my own t shirt with a picture of Columbo that reads "QUIET ON THE FALK'N SET!"

Oh well. Reliability needs a motivator. Either the script is dynamite and undeniable by many people who all believe in it, or you need a sexual force to entice the cast. That's my experience, anyway. Cuz there sure as hell wasn't any money lol!

As for equipment, I used a Sony NEX5N with a 1.7 cctv lens, and a nikon D5200. The other guys used a Canon 5DMKIII and a Nikon D600, I believe. Full framers. Way better than my crop framed cheapo, though, I used mostly my footage because I knew my way of filming I could cut better than what they had shot prior to me coming onboard. Edited on Adobe Premiere on a PC with 8gb ram and a hybrid video card. Lots of lag. These days I'm on a solid state drive with 32gb ram and a dedicated 6 gb video card. Beast machine!