Project Updates 2025 March 30

I made progress on “The Urgent Phone Call, and “Speed Date” over the last few weeks. I was also involved with the CSIF Older Filmmaker’s Club.

“The Urgent Phone Call”

I have been submitting the film to some film festivals through https://filmfreeway.com/. This week I added a new synopsis and a trailer.

Synopsis: Jessie, a retired widow, is peacefully immersed in a beloved book on a quiet afternoon when she gets a phone call from "someone she loves dearly." The caller needs help with an urgent problem. Though she wants to do the right thing, Jessie remains cautious.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdNeC4KqCU0

I found writing the synopsis. The director, Sherri Dahl wrote one. That prompted me to write one based on hers. I wasn’t happy with what I wrote, so I asked ChatGPT to rewrite it. I wasn’t happy with what it came up with, but it did spur me to write an updated version that I felt better about. I did one more minor revision later.

The trailer had some challenges too. The copy of the film I have was in 4K, and the older video editor I use, Premiere Pro CS4, can’t handle that. I had to convert the file before I could do the trailer. I’ve been stalling about getting a newer video editor because I felt comfortable with the old one.

“Speed Date”

“Speed Date” is a short video I did a few years ago using Nawmal. The initial feedback I got on it was negative. I put it off to the side for a long time. I used text to speech voices for the dialogue and I felt that was why people didn’t like it.

Recently I redid the voices myself, using Voice.ai to modify my voice to give the characters distinct voices. The feedback I got was much more positive. I still wasn’t happy with the voices. My acting skills are not much better than the text to speech voices.

I asked Mona Dallmann, who acted in “My Most Difficult Case” to rerecord some of the dialogue. (https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/my-most-difficult-case)  I was happy with her performance. I haven’t completed incorporating her dialogue into the video yet.

When we discussed the video, she made a comment that surprised me. She pointed out the repeated use of the phase “from time to time.” One character uses it twice and another uses it once. All characters use the word “time” multiple times, and one character looks repeatedly at a wall clock.

I hadn’t noticed that myself. My initial thought was that the phrase “from time to time” is just a favorite expression of mine, so I tend to overuse it. However, I see the phase as suggestive of a kind of drifting through life attitude. That fits the story, which is about two people who have drifted through life.

I have noticed before that in much of the work I’ve done, other people see things that I didn’t consciously put in, but which makes sense or reflects my own attitudes.

The CSIF Older Filmmaker’s Club

I continue to be involved with this club. We had a couple of meetings. One was a session where people talked about project ideas. The other was the Saturday Afternoon Film Night, where we screened films that members made.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Project Updates 2025 February 16

It may not seem like it, but I’ve been up to a few things lately. I did a little work on “The Barrier,” and a new video I call “Speed Date.” I have started to submit “The Urgent Phone Call” to some Film Festivals.

“The Barrier”

It has been my intention to redo the film. My main objective was to replace the computer-generated voices with real actors. I started a rewrite but got stalled on the project after my wife died. I still want to go back to it. Someday.

Over the years some people have called my film “The Barrier” too slow paced. As an experiment, I sped it up by 20%. I decided to post that experiment on YouTube. We’ll see if I get a good response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgNWbc2N1Ks

The film was inspired by some of my experiences as a transportation engineer.

“The Urgent Phone Call”

The film is done now, so I am starting to look at distribution. I’ve submitted it to a couple of film festivals. No response yet.

Beyond that I haven’t decided on other ways to get it seen. I got some distribution for one of my earlier films through Ouat Media https://ouatmedia.com/, so I may try them again. The last few years I’ve been posting to YouTube and may go that way too.

“Speed Date”

I got aa script writing challenge to write a Chick Flick. I am not really sure what a chick flick is. So I was stuck for ideas.

I worked on a short video a few years back called “The Minions of Eros.” The feed back was rather negative, so I never finished it. I felt that the main problem was the computer-generated voices. I planned to redo it some day.

It struck me that it might be considered a chick flick, so I decided to go ahead and finish it. I changed the title to “Speed date.” I’ve been recording and altering my voice for the writing exercises I’ve been doing, so I decided to do the same for “Speed Date.” I’ve recorded the voices but haven’t added them to the video yet.

The CSIF Older Filmmaker’s Club

I’ve been running the CSIF’s Older Filmmaker’s Club for a few years now. I find the meetings well worthwhile, but I find that setting them up is a drain on my energy. I may need to cut back on the number of meetings. That would give me more time for my other projects.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Update on “The Audience for AI Films” 2024 December 1

I have been working on “The Audience for AI Films” off and on since May 2023. I have now made it a higher priority and might even get it finished this time.

I created the video with NAWMAL. Although it does not claim to be an AI system, the voices are computer-generated. It did strike me as ironic that I was using it to comment on AI filmmaking.

I had a version that I shared with a couple of people early on. They were positive about it, but I had some doubts about it myself. First off, it felt too short, at less than two minutes. Then, I was having trouble choreographing the characters and camera. So I procrastinated about finishing it.

When I went back to it later I was not happy with the voices. I used computer-generated voices. NAWMAL allows you to record or import actor’s voices, but since the two main characters are robots, I went with the computer-generated voices. The problem was that the voices did not sound robotic enough for me. That stalled me again.

In this go-around, I first concentrated on adding and revising the dialogue. I felt much better with how that turned out. The run length is closer to four minutes now, which is about the length I wanted. I got the choreography of the characters done to my satisfaction.

The next step that I’m stalled on now is the camera placement and choreography. NAWMAL allows you to set up multiple cameras and switch between them in the program. It can be a little finicky at times, especially when the characters move around, which happens in this video. In my previous NAWMAL videos this was not a big problem. This video is a little more complicated and I felt it would take me a long time to get the nuances right. I was stalled again.

I have come up with a different approach. Although NAWMAL allows you to do an entire video with it, I have on occasion gone back and manipulated the video in a video editing program. Usually this is to combine short videos on different sets into a single video, or to speed up action.

What I am thinking is to “shoot” the video the same way I would do a one camera live shoot. This would allow me to set up shots more precisely. It would also allow me to cheat angles to get the images I want. Then I could pull it all together in the editing program.

I am still waffling on the voices though.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog