Memoirs of the Blue: Vancouver Shoot

"Marc-Anthony Massiah prepping on set of MotB"

I may or may not have blogged about this before, but there have been some pretty big developments in the way our mini-feature, Memoirs of the Blue, which we shot the majority of last year in Antigua.

We ended up doing some rather drastic script revisions and altered the storyline quite a bit through the editing in order to work out the kinks and altogether make the movie flow a lot better dramatically have a much more powerful dramatic arc to it. In doing these storyline changes we had some interior pickup scenes that we had to shoot. So we flew a few members of the cast and crew out to Vancouver in order to get these final revisions in the can so that we can push this thing out in editing as soon as possible.

I took this last Monday and Friday off work and we shot through the weekend at our buddy, Alijan's apartment, which we set-decked to look like a hospital. We're pretty well don't all the shooting that needs to be done here in Vancouver and the only thing that remains is a few insert shots that will be done today and some voiceover recording and ADR that will be done tomorrow.

After that, we'll be hitting the post production stage like a freight train and some really exciting things are going to be happening as this project finally comes closer to completion. Stay tuned and I'll keep everyone up-to-date on how Memoirs of the Blue is coming along.

Peace!

One Script Isn't Enough

A few fun updates:

Marc-Anthony and I just started fleshing out yet another script. A vendetta-inspired action flick. We've got the story line pretty well hammered out over the weekend and what was originally planned to be an episodic web series of 3-5 minute segments morphed into a full feature story. We really like the storyline and the twists we came up with for the script and are putting pen to paper now.

In other news, we have an independent producer looking at our script Patches in Perfection -- a highschool based dramatic comedy sort of in the vein of Superbad meets Breakfast Club -- and she seems to really like the script and story so far.

On the front of our Antigua film Memoirs of the Blue, director Luke Hansen-MacDonald started meeting with our editor today to start some mentoring and editing to clean our rough cut up to a fine cut for special FX and sound to look at.

All in all it's some pretty exciting stuff and time will tell where things go from here.

Until next time, stay safe! ;)

'Memoirs of the Blue' Moving Back Out of the Red

As many of you know, the film project that we shot in Antigua last November (Memoirs of the Blue) has since lost some steam for a myriad of reasons, most of which stem from being under prepared for taking on such a monumental task as filming a feature film with a crew of 4-8 in one months time, and from having the four main group members spread across 3 different corners of the globe -- Vancouver, Halifax, Germany.

But the project looks like it will be pulled out of the danger zone now after a meeting with one of our producers/financiers who is understandably unimpressed at the apparent state of limbo the project seems to be in. Thus, we've started to develop and implement a plan of action in order to progress this thing forward in the most timely and efficient way possible.

Things that we need to work around now include a plethora of technical issues in the way on editing, re-shoots and pickup shooting, editing, special effects, sound editing/design/scoring, and some legal issues to name a few.

Good news though is that our one female counterpart, Natalie, has talked with some of the people at the postproduction house that she works for and has been able to get us a deal for sound and some contacts and information in the realm of distribution for the project once it reaches its final stages.

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In other news, I've finally started banking some money with the job I'm working at now, putting it almost as much OT as I possibly can in the past month, so of course that means that now I have some money to put towards some other short film projects that I've been been hoping to do in order to get some more experience and to have something more to show for.

As well, my roommate Marc-Anthony and I have being polishing up minor details of our script, showing to a few people in the know, and getting some pretty good responses so far. That is one of the most interesting things we have going right now a think because it's a project that both of us believe really strongly in.

Aside from that, I'm currently looking into getting into doing some behind-the-camera, Production Assistant work, and am going to be meeting up with Lauro some time in this coming week to talk about that sort of thing and maybe iron a few of my own plans out for what I really want to make out of my career, etc.

Anyways, its a road I still seem to be starting on down, only time will tell where it leads or what the speed limit is! ;)

Until next time,
Joki

Update on Life

It's been a long time, I know, and I feel really bad for leaving all of my avid blog readers hanging for so long, so here is a quick update on what is happening.

I'm getting a raise/"promotion" at my job at the Dueck Downtown car dealership, which means that I'm going to be able to start banking some money and not just scrape by as I have been doing for the past few months now. And on top of my pay raise and more hours, I'm going to be getting monthly bonus incentives, which will be nice, and will help me prepare for India.

"India? What did he just say? What's going on in India!?"
Well it's funny you should ask, because I've been given an opportunity to work on an action film that is set to be filmed in India, working under the 1st Assistant Director, Shawn Griffith. Basically, the project is on hold right now for various reasons, and they are in the midst of script rewrites and hiring a new director, but it sounds like I'm in as soon as things start to come together! And I'm psyched! =D I have to thank Lauro Chartrand, whom I worked with on the Chemical Evil promo that he directed, as he is working on this film, entitled "Hands of the Devil," as a Stunt Coordinator and Co-producer for lining me up with this insanely awesome opportunity though!

In order to get properly prepared for the film in India, I've decided to take some weekend workshops at Vancouver's own Cineworks (a society for local filmmakers). Luckily enough, they've got some courses coming up that are right up my alley! And I'm pretty stoked about that as well!

In other news, I've been writing a couple short films that I hope to get into production for sometime not too far away, and I've been helping my roommate, Marc, edit the script for a feature film high school movie he's been writing. So with that in mind, if the India gig doesn't start up soon than June 8th, there is this Screenwriter's Summit being held that weekend that I would LOVE to attend! This feature that Marc has written honestly has a lot (and I mean LOT) of potential, and we're pretty gung-ho about getting it producer (with me attached as director, hopefully) one way or another!

As for Memoirs of the Blue, we're slowly conquering some technical difficulties and starting to get some rough cuts rolling along, as well as collaborating with some musicians and such for the score, so all-in-all it's a pretty exciting time right now! We've also got a temp website up, and should hopefully be getting a teaser trailer on there some time in the near future, so check it frequently!

I'll try to keep more up-to-date from now on with my blog, and I hope you all the best!
Peace!

Scoring a Big One for the Team!

Big things are starting to happen with our post production for Memoirs of the Blue, especially since we recently got an offer from a man named Torsten Stenzel to give us a hand with a wide range post production sound, ranging from music scoring to foley to mixing and mastering!

Ever heard of a musician by the name of Moby? How about ATB? York? All Saints? DJ Taucher? Faithless? DJ Tatana? What about Tina Turner? Stenzel has working with all them!

With 16 years of experience in producing and composing, coupled with a lifetime of classical music training, and a culmination of over 3 million records sold worldwide, I don't think that our post production sound needs could be in much safer hands than his! Check out his website for some samples of what he has done.

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In other news, we've finally got all the footage captured and everything organized and ready to edit. Right now we're just waiting for our counterpart, Luke to send the harddrive with all the footage to Vancouver so that editing can get under way and I can begin cutting together a mind-numbingly extraordinary teaser trailer for you all to drool over!

We're currently in the process of setting up a website for film; a launching point for us to market the movie, hype it up, and get people interested and excited for it! Things are finally starting to really fall into place in post production, so we're going to try our best to keep momentum up and let it snowball from here.

Stay tuned! Big things are sure to be happening now!

Quick Update

Not a lot's been happening lately, sorry to say. We're currently getting pretty close to the point where we can final get the footage for Memoirs of the Blue out to the entire group so that post production can finally get under way.

Luke, Shab, and Natalie are going to be editing the movie in thirds, and I'm going to be cutting together a few trailers for promotional purposes in the mean time. It's going to be pretty interesting to see how this all works out with the editing happening on 3 opposites ends of the continent, but hopefully our planning and organizing will make that go a little more smoothly.

Stay tuned and look for a teaser trailer that should hopefully be coming out soon!

Peace!

Life, Post, Fests, and Links

LIFE:
Well, I'm fully moved in with Mr. Marky-Marc, got my room all decked you with some super cool IKEA furniture, etc. I'm most likely getting a job doing some weekend valet work with Marc, so that's cool. Still waiting on people to get back to me and let me know what's what, still looking into schools.... I don't know, it's a bit shady at the moment. But livin' with Marc is cool though! *thumbs up!*

POST-PRODUCTION:
As for post-production of Memoirs of the Blue... basically nothing's happening... Sorry if I disappointed you, but we still don't have the footage captured, communication and collaboration within the group is not really happening (for reasons that I won't discuss), we're having some issues with the budget, and we're still in legal limbo with an airline company which is a deciding factor as to whether or not we're going to be able to use a scene in the movie...

Yeah... it's kinda scary, you're right! How does somebody deal with the looming cloud of misfortune over head? Well I'm sure you've all heard of that saying, "Ignorance is bliss..."

FESTIVALS:
I submitted my VFS Foundation final project to the Babelgum Online Film Festival yesterday. Submissions close February 15, and after that they should be viewable to the public. I'll keep everyone updated as per the developments in that field.

LINKS:
There's a couple links that I should have added to my site a LONG time ago.

Zeros2Heroes
The first is a Vancouver based online comic book networking group that allows aspiring comic writers to pitch, polish and perfect their abilities with the help of online opinions and comments. One of the people spear-heading this project, Jessica Clark, is a former instructor of mine and a veteran voice on the comment boards of this blog.

Video Copilot
The second has been an absolutely indispensable source for tutorials and reference when it comes to working with Adobe After Effects. With After Effects, I can say that I taught myself how to walk, but this site is really responsible for teaching me how to run.

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The above mentioned links will herein be located in the side-panel "Links" section for all of your enjoyment and easy access.

Peas and Karats,
Joki

The New Year, A New Gear

Well, happy belated New Years and Holiday wishes to you all! Sorry that I haven't posted lately, I got all caught up in doing pretty much nothing at all! :S

News for the Memoirs of the Blue: the tapes still haven't be able to be captured, so that's a little annoying... :(

News from Life: back in Lloydminster I got to see some friends, go back to training at Tae Kwon Do and help out with a belt testing, had a quaint little xmas with the family, visited the grandma, then boxing day I was off with the family on the way to Saskatoon, visited relatives along the way, visited my great grandma/pa, then flew down to Mexico the next day, where we met up with JaeHee. Some how she managed not to crazy, having to deal with the shenanigans and tomfoolery of my family ( :P ) so that was fortunate.

Now I'm back in Vancouver again. At the moment I'm staying at JaeHee's place, but I'm going to be moving in with Marc-Anthony (actor from our movie) by next week, so that will no doubt be a gong show. :P At the moment, I'm just trying to sort out what I'm doing in life, trying to decide where to go to school, how much school I think that I need, and what I'm going to do for money. I guess I'll keep you all posted on those endeavors and for now, here are some pictures, yaaayy!!!

Mexico:


-My brother, Dylan, burying my cousin, Madison, in the sand


-Me, Madison and JaeHee


-Mid-day siesta with my girl


-Sandcastle

Antigua/Dominica:
(on set and on location for Memoirs of the Blue)


-Shab being a badass


-Down's Syndrome isn't funny


-Marc being a badass


-Marc being super cool, Bert wrestling the camera, Natalie being a princess, Shab also being a princess


-On the way to our location, Titou Gorge

Back Van

Yep, I'm back. Had a hell of a flight home. Delayed leaving Antigua, missed second flight, re-routed through NY, delayed, 4 hours layover in NY, delay, arrived at 2 am (was supposed to be 7pm).

Fortunately though, we got everything shot. It was a pretty close call though! On our last day in Dominica we were attempting for a 3rd time to shoot the last scene that we needed; a scene that had eluded us twice before in Antigua. Well, needless to say, 3rd time was NOT a charm, and what was a quite botanical garden with no one in sight on the day we scouted it became a haven for horn-friendly motorist, 2-stroke wielding gardeners, and major migratory path for a swarm of hundreds of elementary students. So we scrapped that location and we were literally on our way to the airport, with an hour left before our flight departed, when we came across a seemingly abandoned Botanical Gardens which we were able to bust the scene off in, relatively uninterrupted, and we were still able to make it to the airport in time to catch our flight!

So now begins the post-production process. Luke and I are going to share the editing workload, Natalie's boyfriend is going to help us with some of the special FX, and we're still in need of a sound designer/folly artist. I still haven't had time to get those pictures up, but I'm working on it, so stay calm! ;)

Until later,
M

On the Road Home

Okay, we're officially finished production, and it's been the most nerve-racking experience of my life! Tonight's the last night and I fly back to Vancouver with Natalie tomorrow morning at 9:45am. It's a 13 hour trip, but at the end of it, I'll finally be able to hold my dearest love, JaeHee in my arms once again! :D

Anyways, enough of the sentimental talk, I'm going to leave you all with a little piece of advice...

A wise man once told me, "Where ever you go, there you are!" ;)

Peace!
M

(PS. More photos and video to be posted upon arrival on the home front!)

Dominica Days

Once again, yesterday was off the meter!
We went to the Trafalgar Falls (above) yesterday to scout out the location for a short scene. At the foot of the falls are converging rivers, streams and rapids, both of which are accentuated by a dangerous and treacherous obstacle course of boulders, rocks and mini-falls. We made it our mission to hike our way up to both of the falls. To get to the first fall (right) was difficult in its own right, but every single one of us persevered. Making it to the base of that first fall was extraordinary. What a real sense of genuine accomplishment it was to swim in the water pool below, and rest on the rocks near the falls as the water pelted us like a sand blaster.

And of course, how could we come all this way and not even try to finish our journey? The second fall (left) was harder get to: the rapids wider, the rocks more slippery and loose, edges more steep, with less finger and foot holes. At one point we found ourselves in a dead-end, cut off by a wall of boulders and a mini-fall making the rocks too slippery to even attempt to climb. The group was just about to give up and turn back, but between two huge boulders I say an opportunity. After scaling up in between the two massive rocks, towards what seemed to be dead end, I found an opening at the end of a short tunnel of lodged boulders and rocks. Shortly after, we arrive at the foot of the second fall. Right now, we're on top of the world. It's a feeling like nothing can take you down.

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures form it though since we had to utilize every single limb at any given moment in order to traverse said terrain. Hopefully I can get a picture of the rocks and rapids that we had to navigate up here soon, but for the time being, they are on Natalie's camera, and I haven't a speedy means of commandeering them.

Until later,
M

Jungle Man

We’re here in Dominica, and it is INSANE!!!!
I need to spend a good deal more time here some time in the future. Only next time I need to bring along my love, JaeHee! :D

When we were on our way to our accommodations (Cocoa Cottages) we stopped the taxi along the road and went for a trek into the forest, leading up to magnificent waterfall in a clearly. A sight that words can’t describe! We played around there for a little while, drank from the pools of water, climbed over the hill to another waterfall, explored a cave, and just lost ourselves in awe of the spectacle that nature was presenting before us.

Once at our hotel we were introduced to our living accommodations. Rustic, natural, pristine. Simply beautiful, in every aspect of the word! The girls got themselves shacked up in the Honeymoon suite, the boys in “The TV Room” – an open foyer with chairs facing out towards an large floor-to-ceiling window that faces into the jungle (this window being “the TV”) – and myself, I managed to set myself up outside on a small bed hanging from chains underneath the terrace of an upstairs suite; completely open to the elements of nature. I’ve got no walls enclosing me out here, only the fresh scent of rain, chirp of the tree frogs, and rustling of the wind through the jungle fronds. If that isn’t the exact definition of heaven, then I don’t know what is!

After we dropped our bags off at the cottages we went and had a late lunch at a restaurant with a view to die for. Then it was chilling in the hot springs, jumping into brisk pools of waterfall runoff, and a “shower” under the waterfall adjacent. I defy anyone to tell me how life could get any better, aside from having your number one girl beside you. ;)

Tomorrow morning we’re going to shoot a scene near one of Dominica’s 365 waterfalls and then go scout for a location to shoot one other scene that we never had time to shoot while we were in Antigua. The scene that we’re scouting for has been alluding us for this entire time, so we’ve got this one last chance in Dominica to actually get it done, once and for all! The first day that we attempted to shoot it at Nelson’s Dockyard, we had to throw in the towel due to the relentless onslaught of tourists and cruise shippers who wouldn’t stop waling through our shot. The second day we attempted to shoot in the few hours after the tourists have left the Dockyard, but we ended up in an impossible battle with the shifting sun, with its irregular shadows and rapidly changing light quality. So this time, it’s all or nothing, baby!

-Ocean/Mountains near airport

-That waterfall I mentioned.


-Luke and Shab climbing a jungle mountain


-Beastmaster!



-Our actress, Mikel Bauer, contemplating the ramifications of micro bacteria spreading in rain runoff as a result of global warming...


-Fitzroy!


-A video that Marc-Anthony took with his digital camera of us doing what we do at the falls.

More pictures, videos and other fun stuff to come. Stay tuned!

Just About Done

First off, I need to give shout out birthday wishes to Bert (today) and Marc (tomorrow)!

Second off, we're just about done! We did our pickup and re-shoot of the the airport footage today, and the pickup of the Helicopter yesterday, and the re-shoot of the taped-over footage the day before that.

Tomorrow we're off to Dominica to film our last couple scenes in the tropic jungles of Dominica. And yes, we finally got approval from the film board TODAY! It's a pretty sweet deal that we got, with all our expenses paid for and liaisons to escort us and our equipment to where we need to shoot -- down remote jungle trails!

It's sure to be interesting, I'll fill you in soon.

Peace!

Icing on the Cake

After I finished writing my post yesterday, the problems didn't cease...

-We blew the last bulb in our lighting kit after plugging it into 220V instead of 110V.
-Our actress declared that she is "putting her foot down" and is no longer willing to do kissing scenes, due to issues with her boyfriend...
- And the cherry: we found out that some how we managed to do the stupidest thing that we could do and tape over an entire hour of footage... So that means we wasted a full day and have to pick up the entire scene with no film lights. All we have to work with for lighting are 1200W construction lights, so it won't be easy, but at least it's a possibility.

Shitty Shitty Shit Shit!

So far, today has been a total heap of shit-tastic shittyness -- and it's not even noon!

Today was supposed to be the day that we rented a helicopter to get some shots with. Our morning started with an argument between us and Bert as to how much of a shattered catamaran should be placed on the rock island off the shore of the beach, that our protagonist is stranded on. Then another argument because there was miscommunication between us and Bert, which led to the helicopter being booked for a half hour instead of the full hour that we would have needed in order to get the shots off. Once we get out to the boat, there are huge black clouds that are starting to roll in. Natalie, Marc, Bert, Joel (sound), our driver and I head out to beach in order to set the shot up. We get there, and Bert says, "Okay Mathew, here's some flippers, you can swim with me and help me put the pieces of the boat up on the rocks." Then I had to explain to him that I'm not a good swimmer, so he has to go off and do it by himself; plant the mast, the sail and a pontoon up on a small island of jagged rocks, guarded by sea urchins and barracuda.

So then while Bert is doing all that, we get a phone call from Shab saying that the helicopter won't fly in the weather because it's raining to hard on that end of the island, etc., etc. Unfortunately, the helicopter is booked almost solid and we can't reschedule for later today, so we have to push it back until Friday! Obviously, Bert is less than thrilled that all of his setting up was for nothing. Now one problem that we're looking at is that Friday might now be calm like today was, and that might make it all but impossible to get the pontoons, etc. back onto the rocks without getting killed in the breaking waves. So we shot some B-roll of the rocks with all the stuff on it from the boat, just in case we can't get the shot on the helicopter day and then we have something else to cut to later on in post.

Now we're back at the house, waiting for our actress to come by so that we can shoot some pickups of other scenes that we weren't able to finish earlier, and guess what! The sun is out again! Murphy's Law prevails, once again.

We also tested the footage from the airport (the tape that went for a swim with me) on a bunch of other people's cameras, but no luck, so we have to re-shoot it again! And that means coordinating with the airport to come back for another day of shooting on Saturday, and ONLY Saturday, which we don't even know if we'll be aloud to do or not yet.

Also up in the air is what we had planned to shoot in Dominica. Basically put, acquiring film permits for Dominica was put off until just a few days ago, and now we're in bind, trying to get in touch with the film commissioner and hopefully get permits to film in Dominica by this Friday. If not, then we have to cancel the flights and shoot the 2 pages that we had reserved for Dominica here in Antigua.

Basically, a lot of shit has gone wrong, and if anything else goes wrong... we're f$*#ed!

So keep your finger's crossed...

Lifes a Bitch When Shooting on the Beach

Well it's been a little while since my post, but that's all because we've been killing ourselves out here trying to finish shooting everything that we need to shoot -- oh and I have pics this time! We still have a lot to shoot, and it's going to be tight, but hopefully we can pull this all off in time.

We've been shooting on the beach for the last few days, and trust me that is a much bigger ordeal than you would think! We had one pretty major mishap on our first day of shooting that brought the crisis-stress level to a whole new high.

The day before the beach we just finished shooting a scene at the airport (more about that later) and being the AD (Assistant Director) and the most responsible one to keep track of all the tapes, etc. I have the footage from that day -- a full hour of tape -- in my pockets. Now on any normal day I where a pair of heavy cargo shorts with lots of pockets so I can hold all the necessary materials in them: notes, pens, markers, tapes, other papers, keys, cellphones, wallet, etc. Come the beach day, I toss on my favorite film making shorts for maximum efficiency throughout the shooting day. What I expected from the boat ride there was that we would beach the boat, then be able to hop off the bow onto the beach and never have to touch the water. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case...

We reach the beach. Waves are crashing violently against the shore. Then boat turns into the waves and people start yelling, "Go Go Go!!" like we're the gawdamn NAVY SEALS or something. The driver of the boat is saying that we have to get off the boat now or else it might flip and shit, so what do I do? I jump the F#$@ off the boat, chest deep into water...

That's when I realize, "Hey, don't I have something in my pockets that REALLY important?"... so that was a shitty start to the day... Well what else can you do now right? So we rinsed it in fresh water and tried to dry it out as best as we could to try and get all the salt out of it. Once that is done, we head out to the other end of the beach to shoot what we need to shoot for the day. And when we come back for lunch, Bert is talking with a couple from Holland who are here on vacation, the only other people on the beach that day, and guess what the guy does for a living! He works a post-production house in Amsterdam, and specializes in restoring damaged video media, just like our water-logged tape!!!

Now this is the point in the day where I'm pissed as hell that I didn't buy a lottery ticket that day because god knows that my chances of winning that would have been infinitely high than that! So apparently, there's a good chance that our footage is going to be alright, we are just waiting on a different HD Camera that we can play the footage back on. If it doesn't work on that, then we're going to send it away to this guy to fix it up for us.

Now for an interlude of pictures:


- I sliced my toe on the cupboard...


- Us (Shab, Me, Luke) planning a shot at the Copper & Lumber hotel/Restaurant


- Mr. Smooth


- Marc-Anthony (our lead actor) and I having a heated debate regarding Icecream Vs. Smoothies


- Thumbs up? Thumbs down?


- Our film shoots could be compared to a well choreographed circus act...


- It doesn't matter how busy you are; EVERYONE has to go out for Halloween!


- Natalie and I, thrilled with the anticipation of having another person audition for Memoirs of the Blue, who may, or may not be literate.

And now for the story about the airport! Yaaaayy!!! :D

Ok, so basically, we got to shoot inside the airport, with a 40-foot cherrypicker, to get a bunch of sweet shots of the planes landing and taxiing on the runway, etc. We even got clearance to film a scene where Marc is working as a baggage handler, so that was pretty cool.

That's all I really have to say about the airport though... sorry if I built it up too much and made you all disappointed, but you know how things go... :D
I'll have some pictures from that day up here some time soon though, I promise! ;)

Anyways, that's all for today.
Peace and karats!

Descention, Deceit, Deprecation, and Water Under Bridges

Well the past two days have been a bit rough. I'm not going to lie, there's been some internal conflicts the past few days on set. There's been lots of problems in our shooting schedules and with power going down during our shoot, and creative differences between the crew, tensions have been high.

But after a confrontation that brought these problems to the surface, we managed to pop team moral up a notch today and do the impossible.

Today we had 6 pages of script to shoot. Originally scheduled over 2 days, with a full crew. Then because of our actors we were forced to make it a one-day shoot that we wanted to do with 2 cameras. Then came the technical problem of the 2 cameras being in different formats. Then our sound guy said he wasn't going to be able to make it. And just when the schedule couldn't get any tighter or more stressful, one of our actresses decided not to show up, and not to answer her phone, so we had to use Natalie, one of our own crew to sit in for her. Which left everyone with 1 or 2 more jobs than we should have had. (i.e. I was at any one moment, a combination of 3 or 4 of: Boom Op, Assistant Director, Camera Assistant, Script Supervisor, Set Dresser, Lighting Tech/Gaffer)

Quote of the day has to go to Shab for the message he left on our no-show actresses cell phone:
"Hey Zahra, it's Shab from Memoirs of the Blue. We're still waiting on set for you and I just wanted to let you know that we're all really mad at you for flaking out on us, and after this you're never going to work in film in Antigua ever again... Bye..."

That's it for today ;)
Peace!

Antigua Udpate #3

Well yesterday was fun. We didn't have to start shooting until 6pm, so I had some time to go out with my parents and hang out for a bit. We went to this place called Stingray City, which is a penned-in sandbar about a mile off the shore, where you can go and swim/snorkel with the stingrays. It was actually really cool. We got to feed them dead squid, and while I was getting swarmed one decided that it wanted to climb over my back for a shortcut to the squid. Let me tell you, wearing a stingray as a cape is a pretty damn creepy experience! ;) Unfortunately, I was too stupid to bring Shab's underwater camera housing with me to videotape it, and the only thing we have from the experience is a picture that looks like I have Down's Syndrome, and alittle bit of footage that my dad took from the dock of me and mom.

The shooting last night went off without a hitch though, and today, we're looking forward to own lead actor arriving here from Montreal, and a lasagna dinner that my folks are graciously preparing for the lot of us.

That's it for now,
Peace!
Joki

Shooting Day One: Report

We made it through, and nobody got killed! By my standards, that's a pretty good day at the office! Even though the odds were stacked against us, we still prevailed. Even though one of our actresses was 20 minutes late, a few of our extras decided not to show up, and our first batch of shots took us a full hour behind schedule with the lighting setup, we managed to get all 16 shots off for the 2 1/2 page scene that we had to shoot. A short scene that required a LOT of coverage and shot variation. It took us a while, but it will be worth it once we bring it in to be edited.

We ended up using my parents as extras, sitting at a table in the background, so it was a good chance for them to see how everything works on set and what kind of business I'm trying to get into.

I'm lazy right now, but I'll have some pictures up as soon as I can find time, and hopefully I can edit together some of the behind-the-scenes footage and post that up on YouTube.

I'm sorry to keep promising and not delivering, but life is hectic... and plus Natalie still hasn't given me those photos, so blame her! If you're really in dire need, then you can check out the Halivantigua site, with PICTURES posted up on there from both Antigua and from each of our final project sets for VFS.

I'll get back at ya' soon!
Peace!
Joki

Problem in Paradise

Well we've just become the innocent victims of the digital video Format Wars!

If trying to wrap our heads around 24F vs. 24p vs. 60i with Pulldown (be it 2:3:2:3 or 2:3:3:2) wasn't difficult enough; as if trying to grasp 4:2:0 colour sampling, and HDV recorded with a 15-frame GOP compression, with pixel shifting from 1440 horizontal pixels (at aspect of 1.33) to 1920 pixels (st aspect of 1.0) wasn't enough to ask already; we just came to notice that one of our HD cameras doesn't shoot in the same resolution as our other does!

Originally, HD footage was set at a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels (aka 1080i/p -- 'i' meaning 'interlaced', 'p' meaning 'progressive', which relates to framerate; don't worry about that though!), but somewhere along the line, some asshole decided that he was going to create a lesser format with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels (aka 720i/p) and call it HD as well. As you can see, there is a sizable resolution discrepancy between the two formats:
The problem now is that we had scheduled previously for us to use both cameras to shoot shoot some of the scenes and save time on setting up new camera positions for each shot. Now, we have to work twice a hard, and overhaul our daily schedules if we hope to get everything shot in time.

It's going to be an interesting production, that's for sure.... :D

(And yes, I realize that there are maybe 3 people who possibly have the slightest clue about what I'm talking about.)

Other than that, check out our website at http://www.freewebs.com/halivantigua/!
It's just brand spankin' new, and it's got some pictures and stuff on it too!