Mediated worlds

Our 48 Hour Film

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:18:23 -0700

Here's the Monmouth Film Collective's entry in the 2009 Portland, Oregon 48 Hour Film Project (read more). You can also view it on blip.tv.

past-present

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #10

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:32:00 -0700

Finished up the last of the creator interviews today. Now, I need to step back, look at my downloaded footage, and my notes, and start to construct a structure for the film. Once I have a broad outline, I will go to the interviews I conducted with faculty and grad students from PSU's Urban Studies program to find relevant pieces of context to pull into the film. I also have about an hour's worth of tape from the 2008 Stumptown Comics Fest to review and download.

While I have noted places where the sound was not quite perfect due to static or mic bobbles, or where there were issues with settings for the image, on balance, principal photography went surprisingly well. No huge disasters on tape.

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A 48 Hour Film break

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:33:41 -0700

This past weekend I participated in my third 48 Hour Film Project. Got the film done and in on time. Every year there's something that goes haywire. The previous two it was making copies for submission that proved to be inexplicably difficult. This year it was chasing down release forms from cast and crew. We normally head to Portland on Saturday night for editing, but this time we stayed in Monmouth to take advantage of the MacPro and full FCP. I think that was right the choice, but am glad we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the drop-off location.

We drew "drama" as our genre this year. Leaving aside that this seems more like a meta-category than a discrete "genre", it was still more fun and satisfactory to work with in this framework than last year's "historical fiction/period piece", which is, I imagine, very difficult for anyone but people with unique resources. Our creative process involved a lot of improvisation, which was fun, and produced a lot of naturalistic dialogue. I don't think this kind of approach is appropriate for all forms of film, but it's a cool way to work.

More to come, including the film.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #9

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:25:37 -0700

Another interview and supplemental footage reviewed; clips downloading now. First mic in the frame, but I should be able to crop it out pretty easily. A few bobbles, too. Realizing that I lost some momentum when I hit the gap a few weeks ago. This is important mostly because I am still in this phase of tedious work before getting to the creative side (again).

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #8

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:33:34 -0700

All of the tapes have now been logged and I have resumed reviewing and downloading. So far I am doing these tasks in quick succession instead of reviewing the remaining tape and then going back through to download clips. More mic bobbles; also looking at footage in a location where sound recording was a challenge due to environmental noise. I hope to be editing before the end of this month.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #7

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:30:30 -0700

I am currently downloading the last set of clips from the tapes/interviews I have reviewed so far. The freedom of truly independent filmmaking is wonderful, but it does come with downsides in terms of resources, including time and labor. The good news is that once I do have all of the tapes logged and reviewed, and clips downloaded, I can work as an individual and make real progress on the film. When the final tapes are ready, it should not take much more than a week to finish this stage of the process.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #6

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:51:31 -0700

No tapes to review the past few days, so I began to download clips from tapes I have already reviewed. In the past, I have tried to break clips up at a fine level, but here I find myself choosing longer excerpts. I think this is in part because I have become more adept at creating and using subclips in Final Cut. I have also had some experiences where I wish I had maintained the integrity of a particular interview, shot, or scene even though my intent was to use just a few seconds.

I am thinking about backups, too. I have a Time Machine drive formatted on-site, but want an off-site backup as well. Initially I thought that Jungle Disk would be one response, but the wireless connection on the Mac Pro is so wonky, I'm not sure I would ever be able to complete a transfer, or download the software. So, until I get that solved, I am thinking about a drive that I keep at the office most of the time.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #5

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:04:31 -0700

Yesterday, I reached the breaking point mentioned in the previous diary. Hopefully, I will have more tape by the end of this week.

The interviews I watched in this last round included one from a highly practiced subject. A subject who is used to being interviewed can be helpful because they are easy to get talking and are often quite articulate. On the other hand, they may also have a standard set of answers they give to questions which may or may not be quite what you're looking for, and it may take some extra work to move them off of those responses. This isn't necessarily different from less practiced interviewees, who often need other kinds of prompting, but it does present an unique challenge.

Mic bobbling was at a minimum on these most recent tapes.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #4

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:25:20 -0700

Only one interview today, another example of a conversation that comes across better on tape and after reflection than it did in person. However, it is also another interview with probably limited utility for the final film. Much less mic bobbling on this tape than the last two.

I am approaching a possible breaking point in my review. My remaining interviews are largely, in whole or in part, on tapes I don't have in hand, but on ones in the queue for logging. Hopefully, some or all will be ready to go by the end of this week.

I also have two "big picture" type interviews that I am planning on viewing after looking at the rest, but may change that order if the last of the logging takes too long.

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Comics Doc Tape Diary #3

nobody@vox.com(Shaun Huston) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:59:13 -0700

Watched the first really good interview that I probably won't be using much of in the final film. There are a few subjects I spoke with who will end up not quite fitting into the big picture as well as others. I am considering ultimately releasing all, or at least a substantial chunk, of my raw footage online for others to view and play with. That's one way to ensure that the stuff on "the cutting room floor" doesn't end up simply forgotten and unused.

Noticed more mic bobbling, and seemingly more intrusive this time.

Having to defer some tapes as I wait for companion cassettes to be logged. I will likely be taking the next few days off from tape review. Generally, I am torn between wanting to power through the material and taking a more measured approach to ensure that my judgment stays clear. So far I have taken a measured approach looking at two to three interviews a day. With pauses for note taking, a thirty to forty minute interview has been taking about an hour to review.

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