“Contingency” Progress Report 2012 January 29

Both Contingency and Somedays were accepted to the $100 Film Festival this week. I felt good about that. I’m sure that they accepted the films on the merits and it had nothing to do with my starting the festival. I decided to withdraw Somedays because I was so unhappy with the image quality. I can redo it for next year’s festival.

I made good progress on Contingency this week. I finally got all my clips ready and taped them together. There are a few things to do before it is ready to show. There is one clip that I think I’ll trim down a bit. Otherwise, I think it is about ready. I’d still like to redo some shots, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to.

I want to make a few changes to the sound track too, which should be easier. I want to have short clips of people talking about randomness, uncertainty and so on. I have a few, such as one from Steven Jaye Gould, but I’m having trouble finding more. I plan to add Trudeau saying, “Just watch me”. I watched a bunch of stuff of Marshall McLuhan, but didn’t find anything that I felt fit. If you know of anything please let me know.

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

“Contingency” Update - 2012 January 22

I made some good progress on Contingency this week. It was slow going because of my back and arm pain. I’ve collected all the shots I need for the film. I still need to trim a couple shots, but the rest are ready.

I found some alternative clips that I think I may want to use. In particular I found some test footage I’d done to convert Weekend in Calgary from Super 8 to 16mm. I only have part of the film, but for the clip I want for Contingency it would be fine.

I am still concerned about the image quality of some of the shots. I don’t have anything that would be a direct replacement, and I’m not likely to get a chance to reshoot them in time for the festival. I have started to consider a recut of the film to eliminate those shots. I’ll need to redo the sound, or add some other images, which I’m reluctant to do. On the other hand, the theme of the film is how random events affect how something turns out, so changes at this stage would be appropriate.

I use an old 16mm movie viewer that I picked up years ago in my editing. Part way through the week the light stopped working. I don’t know if I can still get a replacement bulb. I tried to work around it, but then I noticed that the power cord looked like it might be broken. It was identical to a cord I have left over from an old computer, so I tried that. That fixed the problem.

Most of the equipment I use is getting quite old and nearly impossible to replace. Every time I use them, I worry that it may be the last time they’ll work. I had a similar experience when I did The Fence. Every time I went to take another shot, I worried if the fence would still be there. Someone removed it a few years after I finished the film. They built a condominium on the site. I had an unexpected reminder of that this week when the condominium was evacuated due to flooding.

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

“Contingency” Progress Report 2012 January 15

 

I slipped on some ice on January 5 and that really threw a spanner into the works as far as my film goes. Didn’t do much for my arm and back either. I cracked a bone in my arm and a rib. Recovery has been and will be slow. They say it could be six weeks or more.

I don’t have my film Contingency ready to show at the $100 Film Festival yet and with my injuries, it will be difficult for me to get it ready.

I have all the shots I need, but I want to redo some of them because of poor image quality. I’ve asked a couple of people for help, but haven’t lined up anyone yet.

While I wait, I’ll create an edited film version of the movie with the shots I have. At least I’ll have something I can show.

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

My Goals for 2012

Last week I went over what I did last year. Now it is time to look at what I’ll try to do in 2012.

Make Better Use of My Time

Time and again I find myself with too many projects on the go, and I can’t make headway on any of them. This year I will try to keep my focus on one major project at a time.

Last year I had a bunch of goals for the year, but that leads me to try to do them all at the same time. This year I will try to set deadlines for each of the major projects I want to do. That way, I can space them out over the year.

Another way to focus is to stick to longer projects. When I do short small projects, I tend to want to just get them done and work on the next one. With a longer project I don’t think there would be the same pressure and I will create something that will catch people’s fancy.

Somedays . . . and Contingency

I need to have final versions of these films ready in time for the $100 Film Festival. The festival starts the first week of March. That pretty much sets the deadline for me.

My Most Difficult Case

This film has been on my back for far too long. I don’t think I really have all that much more I need to do before I have it done. I want to leave it until after I’m done with Somedays … and Contingency. I think I can safely set a deadline of April 1 for this project.

The Crying Lady

I did three feature scripts in 2010, but right now, none of them really seems to get people excited. The idea I feel best about now is The Crying Lady. I did it as a short story in 2011, but didn’t get much feedback on it. I think that the idea has potential and I want to do more work on it.

One way to get more feedback is to do a video based on the story. The website Xtranormal allows you to easily create animated videos. I believe I can use it to make an animated storyboard from my story. That will give me, and others, a better idea how the story would translate into a film. I will shoot for completion my mid May.

The story is still too short for a feature film, so I want to expand it somewhat. To do that I plan to do some blog posts and maybe short articles about the themes and details of the story. I did something like that for my transportation planning stories. This would help build and audience in addition to help build up the story. I won’t set any specific deadline for these, just let them happen as I develop the ideas.

Transportation Planning Story

I would like to develop one of my transportation planning stories into a longer form. The two stories I did last year run about 6,000 words. I’d like to build that up to at least 20,000 words. I have some ideas about how to do that and have several pages of notes.

Given my other priorities, I don’t think I can get to it until May. I’d like to set a deadline of July 1, although, that leaves me about six weeks and it took me that long to write the 6,000-word version. I’ll revisit this goal in April.

Small Projects

I have a bunch of ideas for small projects, but as I noted before I don’t want them to be a big part of my goals this year.

I have several ideas for short stories and articles lying about. I would like to get some of the short stories done. Articles, except those related to my major projects, are not a priority for me. I do make some money from them on Triond, but it isn’t so much money that I would lose out if I didn’t do any. Half the money I get comes from one article I wrote three years ago.

I enjoyed making the two shorts for the $100 Film Festival, so I’d like to do some more along those lines.

I won’t set any deadlines for this kind of project.

The Unexpected

My experience has convinced me that ideas can just pop up at any time. I’ll keep that in mind and try to stay flexible in my plans. If something catches on fire, I will want to run with it

I plan to do a review of my progress several times throughout the year: April 1, July 1 and October 1. That will help keep me on track.

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