Sadly, this blog must come to an end.
It's been a fairly brief blog, lasting just two months, but since the completion of my dad's website, my girlfriend's website, the purchase of the stuff for Florida, and the incredible filming of Wallace Intrubé, pretty much all of the 'projects'/ 'goals' discussed on this blog are finished. Now, as I move into the final exam period (eek) there's only one main project - Wallace Intrubé Part 2.
As a quick overview, since my last post, the whole of part 1 has been finished and is on Youtube. Willis' birthday passed, a DVD was made and now we've begun part 2, because filming has just been such good fun.
So now, all of the activities by me and the group that's making these documentaries (called Forest Friends Productions), will be recorded across three blogs - one for Wallace Intrubé, one for Balafalafa, and one for Sabden. Currently only the Wallace Intrubé blog is up, and this is where I'm mainly situated, since I'm the director/writer/composer/editor.
Follow us here: whoiswallaceintrube.blogspot.com
Thanks to everyone!
Monday, 21 March 2011
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Epic thursday - Episode 4
This is actually LAST week's 'Epic thursday', since last week my business prevented me from posting anything. Next week it's half term - thank God - so while I'll be able to chill and do some serious editing and music composition, I won't be having an 'Epic Thursday', in the sense that I do anything worth filming. Then again, you never know....
Apart from the fact we're not at college for the week, the main reason we probably won't film is that Tim's going to Austria for the half term! While brilliant, it's a pity he doesn't have something that records HD Video or we'd have some fantastic shots for the next episodes. So I expect I will use what footage we have, which is most of what we need anyway, and put together as much of the documentary I can. Like I said, there is another indoor interviews day planned, so none of the scenes we will be filming then can be added yet.
So onto last Thursday - I've briefly mentioned how great the weather was. I can reaffirm that. Also, this Thursday proved sunny, again, making that yet another sunny Epic Thursday! Here are some photos from the day:
And the video:
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
More Outtakes from the interviews...
IMO, they get better as they go along. This is batch two of four, and I think four is definitely the best. In this video you'll see one of my friends randomly banging a gong (with a hammer, not the other thing....), so we've wondering where to add this in!
This whole filming process has been brilliant so far. Practising it day in, day out has made us learn so much about getting a good shot, 'focal points' and good lighting. It's also made me conscious of what I need to wear for scenes for a bit of continuity because I've sometimes filmed a sequence over several days! Certainly, we've been lucky in the weather we've had; it's just happened to be sunny on nearly every Thursday that we've filmed (which is pretty much all Thursdays since mid-january). Also, with the hitting of 16th of February, we've hit a milestone - 27 days until the release!
We also have a bit of a marketing strategy - we'll make a DVD which can be bought in physical form from the Lulu.com website, and it will include outtakes, 'artwork' and probably a 'making of video'. It might not have much of a selling point, given most things, including the outtakes, will be on here or Youtube, but certainly it is good for someone who wants to watch it as it should be watched - on a nice big TV! Of course, the novel will also be sold once it's finished....
Without further ado, here's the second batch of interview outtakes:
This whole filming process has been brilliant so far. Practising it day in, day out has made us learn so much about getting a good shot, 'focal points' and good lighting. It's also made me conscious of what I need to wear for scenes for a bit of continuity because I've sometimes filmed a sequence over several days! Certainly, we've been lucky in the weather we've had; it's just happened to be sunny on nearly every Thursday that we've filmed (which is pretty much all Thursdays since mid-january). Also, with the hitting of 16th of February, we've hit a milestone - 27 days until the release!
We also have a bit of a marketing strategy - we'll make a DVD which can be bought in physical form from the Lulu.com website, and it will include outtakes, 'artwork' and probably a 'making of video'. It might not have much of a selling point, given most things, including the outtakes, will be on here or Youtube, but certainly it is good for someone who wants to watch it as it should be watched - on a nice big TV! Of course, the novel will also be sold once it's finished....
Without further ado, here's the second batch of interview outtakes:
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Isn't buying presents difficult?
The last three months have been like a regular workout in terms of buying presents for people - Christmas, Valentine's day, my girlfriend's birthday, thanking people for helping me with my uni application, and lastly - all the 18ths that are happening! The costs are racking up which isn't great when you're saving up enough money to live on in Florida for two weeks.
And as I like to think of myself as a fairly generous person (though compared to my girlfriend this just isn't true), it falls on me to find a nice, sometimes meaningful present each time that I know the person will like. Obviously the difficulty in this depends on the person.
For example, it's relatively easy to buy for my girlfriend because you can buy girls perfume, jewellery, bags, purses, scarves, rings (not engagement ones of course, unless you're proposing), or even clothes if you're brave - and yes, I've so far bought all of these things.
It's also easy to buy for anybody who talks about artists all the time but still downloads music legally - a new CD works every time. You can buy avid readers a good novel. People who like comedy, a DVD of some sort.
There are some bad ideas though when buying for friends. A gift card for a clothes store simply says 'you need new clothes' and a Cinema voucher worth about £10 or £15 usually goes as far as just one or two cinema trips. Books on fitness or dieting never go down well. Problem is, the fact they make bad gifts just narrows down what you can buy for somebody.
Apparently, I'm particularly hard to buy for. I don't tend to buy music, I choose brilliant video games so that they last me about five years (still going with Medieval 2 Total War and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3), and nobody seems to know my clothes size (they all guess I'm a medium - I'm 6 foot three!). It's also not as though I have a particular obsession with a TV show, except Ugly Betty, but sadly that's finished for good. As a last resort, most go for books or puzzles, on the logic that because they think I'm clever, I'm going to enjoy nothing more than a brain exercise. A stereotype that's completely wrong! Except I did almost mess up my GCSEs playing word challenge....
My last resort is to buy someone expensive looking chocolate, a card, £10 in the card and an apologetic gift bag. But now, thanks to the amazing power of Apple and the Macbook, I discovered a brilliant new present idea - photobooks.
I saved up for a Macbook a while ago because I wanted the creative software (Imovie is literally all I need for the Wallace Intrubé documentary and Logic is the best music composition software I can possibly get), and the free Ipod Touch that came with it when bought around September time. But on it's photo organising application, Iphoto (such a creative name), you're able to create personalised Photobooks using all your photographs, and get them professionally printed and delivered. The photobooks are absolutely beautiful, and I made one as one of my Christmas presents.
Then I found that there are other programs out there that do the same thing but offer better prices and more flexibility - like Booksmart. Same concept, you get some software downloaded, you make your book on the computer, and you have it ordered. I used this to create a mini-book that contains all of the information from the Wallace Intrubé illogicopedia page - and gave it to the friend who Wallace Intrubé is based on. Risky, but he loved it.
Dad's birthday present will be a compendium of all the holidays we've been on as a family - because of course, now him and mum have split up, we won't be having any more. I think they make brilliant presents, because they come out looking fantastic and are entirely personal. Plus, it gave me a new idea - making a novel on Wallace Intrubé. Project number 57 or something - I have too many projects going on at the moment! However, once it's released I can even sell it through a website and make money, so there's another motive....
But none of these ideas will do for the present I have to buy this week - an 18th birthday gift (or gifts) for a pair of identical twins. Trouble is, I know them well, but not well enough to know what to get each of them. Surely I can't get them a shared present if they're 18? Or the same present twice, one for each? It's a conundrum. Personally I can't think of anything more difficult, expect buying for triplets, or Hitler. Though me and my girlfriend have decided to buy them presents 'from us', I still think this will be a bit difficult - any ideas?
And as I like to think of myself as a fairly generous person (though compared to my girlfriend this just isn't true), it falls on me to find a nice, sometimes meaningful present each time that I know the person will like. Obviously the difficulty in this depends on the person.
For example, it's relatively easy to buy for my girlfriend because you can buy girls perfume, jewellery, bags, purses, scarves, rings (not engagement ones of course, unless you're proposing), or even clothes if you're brave - and yes, I've so far bought all of these things.
It's also easy to buy for anybody who talks about artists all the time but still downloads music legally - a new CD works every time. You can buy avid readers a good novel. People who like comedy, a DVD of some sort.
There are some bad ideas though when buying for friends. A gift card for a clothes store simply says 'you need new clothes' and a Cinema voucher worth about £10 or £15 usually goes as far as just one or two cinema trips. Books on fitness or dieting never go down well. Problem is, the fact they make bad gifts just narrows down what you can buy for somebody.
Apparently, I'm particularly hard to buy for. I don't tend to buy music, I choose brilliant video games so that they last me about five years (still going with Medieval 2 Total War and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3), and nobody seems to know my clothes size (they all guess I'm a medium - I'm 6 foot three!). It's also not as though I have a particular obsession with a TV show, except Ugly Betty, but sadly that's finished for good. As a last resort, most go for books or puzzles, on the logic that because they think I'm clever, I'm going to enjoy nothing more than a brain exercise. A stereotype that's completely wrong! Except I did almost mess up my GCSEs playing word challenge....
My last resort is to buy someone expensive looking chocolate, a card, £10 in the card and an apologetic gift bag. But now, thanks to the amazing power of Apple and the Macbook, I discovered a brilliant new present idea - photobooks.
I saved up for a Macbook a while ago because I wanted the creative software (Imovie is literally all I need for the Wallace Intrubé documentary and Logic is the best music composition software I can possibly get), and the free Ipod Touch that came with it when bought around September time. But on it's photo organising application, Iphoto (such a creative name), you're able to create personalised Photobooks using all your photographs, and get them professionally printed and delivered. The photobooks are absolutely beautiful, and I made one as one of my Christmas presents.
Then I found that there are other programs out there that do the same thing but offer better prices and more flexibility - like Booksmart. Same concept, you get some software downloaded, you make your book on the computer, and you have it ordered. I used this to create a mini-book that contains all of the information from the Wallace Intrubé illogicopedia page - and gave it to the friend who Wallace Intrubé is based on. Risky, but he loved it.
Dad's birthday present will be a compendium of all the holidays we've been on as a family - because of course, now him and mum have split up, we won't be having any more. I think they make brilliant presents, because they come out looking fantastic and are entirely personal. Plus, it gave me a new idea - making a novel on Wallace Intrubé. Project number 57 or something - I have too many projects going on at the moment! However, once it's released I can even sell it through a website and make money, so there's another motive....
But none of these ideas will do for the present I have to buy this week - an 18th birthday gift (or gifts) for a pair of identical twins. Trouble is, I know them well, but not well enough to know what to get each of them. Surely I can't get them a shared present if they're 18? Or the same present twice, one for each? It's a conundrum. Personally I can't think of anything more difficult, expect buying for triplets, or Hitler. Though me and my girlfriend have decided to buy them presents 'from us', I still think this will be a bit difficult - any ideas?
Monday, 14 February 2011
And now it's Valentine's day
The fun just doesn't stop. (That's not supposed to sound sarcastic!) Today I spent a lovely Valentine's-evening with my girlfriend and watched this year's Jennifer Aniston rom-com (because I don't think there's a year where she doesn't make one) - 'Just go with it', featuring a very strange plot line, terrible attempts at the 'British Accent' (which I don't think even exists) and the added difficulty of remembering what's true and what isn't - because the idea of the film is that a guy pretends to have an entire family to get a woman and therefore it's hard to remember when he's lying when you forget the information at the beginning of the film!
But it was an excellent evening. Naturally, the entire cinema audience was made up of couples my age, because who dares to go to the cinema alone on Valentine's day? Unless you're making fun of it, like my friend did, who's spent an evening with her friend and acted like a couple all night! Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I promised I'd upload a video of last Sunday's interviews - so here's the first. The lines shouldn't make sense, because obviously we were just picking the easiest ones to do at first, and they're scattered about the script (yes, I made a full-on script - I'm serious about this shit). And, with the help of Tom, George and Jack from the other college, we incorporated extra ideas - including every one of us answering the question: 'Who is Wallace Intrubé?"
So, enjoy:
But it was an excellent evening. Naturally, the entire cinema audience was made up of couples my age, because who dares to go to the cinema alone on Valentine's day? Unless you're making fun of it, like my friend did, who's spent an evening with her friend and acted like a couple all night! Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.
Meanwhile, I promised I'd upload a video of last Sunday's interviews - so here's the first. The lines shouldn't make sense, because obviously we were just picking the easiest ones to do at first, and they're scattered about the script (yes, I made a full-on script - I'm serious about this shit). And, with the help of Tom, George and Jack from the other college, we incorporated extra ideas - including every one of us answering the question: 'Who is Wallace Intrubé?"
So, enjoy:
Sunday, 13 February 2011
What a week
Russel Howard - Filming interviews - Trip to Howarth - Filming some more - Party last night (and a free bar) - it has been a good week.
I think it's needless to say that Russel Howard was brilliant, or else I wouldn't have paid the money to see him live! Ironically, the best joke came from an audience member during the 'asking questions' section, but the details are far too horrible (but good) to relate here. But no doubt the bar has been raised on good questions to ask the comedian.
On Sunday we did an enormous bout (is that the right word) of filming in Tim's house, who just so happens to be very wealthy and has an enormous old house, complete with roaring fires and sophisticated armchairs. He even has a gong, so we just had to get that in the documentary! Of four hours filming, approximately 20 minutes of it made the outtakes, and 4 minutes will be in the actual thing. I can understand then why feature films take so long to shoot! However, what we have is brilliant. In any documentary you need indoor 'interview' scenes where the 'experts' give comments and look as though they are bring interviewed. Usually there are cushy armchairs and nice fires in the background - and so there are in this documentary now. Plus, the whole day was a great opportunity to catch up with friends who go to another college.
I'll upload the outtakes over the coming week because they're to funny to absorbe all at once :P Be warned - these won't be the last outtake videos either, because we need to do another interview session to finish off the last few scenes.
Onto the trip to Howarth for English - brilliant day. Mainly because it was sunny, and sunny yorkshire is very nice, but ironically exactly the opposite of the scenes we were trying to imagine in the book we're studying for - Wuthering Heights. Well, it still turned out to be an insightful trip, and the place was fantastic:
Thursday involved a brilliant afternoon of filming, where we added the beginning of an action scene (recently devised) and scouted out yet MORE locations for the future. Both Thursday and Tuesday happened to be the only two days this week that it was sunny, so we were fortunate.
And yesterday's party had a free bar. Enough said.
I think it's needless to say that Russel Howard was brilliant, or else I wouldn't have paid the money to see him live! Ironically, the best joke came from an audience member during the 'asking questions' section, but the details are far too horrible (but good) to relate here. But no doubt the bar has been raised on good questions to ask the comedian.
On Sunday we did an enormous bout (is that the right word) of filming in Tim's house, who just so happens to be very wealthy and has an enormous old house, complete with roaring fires and sophisticated armchairs. He even has a gong, so we just had to get that in the documentary! Of four hours filming, approximately 20 minutes of it made the outtakes, and 4 minutes will be in the actual thing. I can understand then why feature films take so long to shoot! However, what we have is brilliant. In any documentary you need indoor 'interview' scenes where the 'experts' give comments and look as though they are bring interviewed. Usually there are cushy armchairs and nice fires in the background - and so there are in this documentary now. Plus, the whole day was a great opportunity to catch up with friends who go to another college.
I'll upload the outtakes over the coming week because they're to funny to absorbe all at once :P Be warned - these won't be the last outtake videos either, because we need to do another interview session to finish off the last few scenes.
Onto the trip to Howarth for English - brilliant day. Mainly because it was sunny, and sunny yorkshire is very nice, but ironically exactly the opposite of the scenes we were trying to imagine in the book we're studying for - Wuthering Heights. Well, it still turned out to be an insightful trip, and the place was fantastic:
Thursday involved a brilliant afternoon of filming, where we added the beginning of an action scene (recently devised) and scouted out yet MORE locations for the future. Both Thursday and Tuesday happened to be the only two days this week that it was sunny, so we were fortunate.
And yesterday's party had a free bar. Enough said.
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