I continued to match the script to the movie this week and I
had some more thoughts on the where I go next with the project.
Match the Script to
the Movie
The script I had was done before I finished the movie. I
knew it wouldn't match exactly, so before I could start to revise the script, I
needed to conform it to what was in the movie. I thought this would be a long
slow process. I'd watch the movie and note the changes against the script along
the way.
I wanted to find a quicker way.
I remembered that I had created a captions file for the
first version I posted. It didn't match the current movie exactly either, but
it was only a few lines at the start of the movie that were different.
I reformatted and imported both the captions and the script
into Excel. This allowed me to align each line of the script to the
corresponding line in the captions. There wasn't a perfect match because in the
script each dialogue line in the script was a paragraph, while in the captions
each dialogue was a sentence.
As I went through the file I had to split up the script
paragraphs into sentences so I could do the comparisons. I had a formula that
compared the line from the script with the line from the caption and flagged
them when they were different.
So far I haven't found many cases where the actual dialogue
was different. Most of the time I had modified the script to help the
artificial voices pronounce some words. For example in the name Campbell, you
don't hear the "p", so in the script I have it was cam-bell.
I am about half way through the script at the moment. It
shouldn't take too long to get that completed. I'm unsure how I'll convert the
Excel file back into a script format. I wonder if I really need to do that
though. Certainly for the rewrite I won't need it. When it comes time to hire
actors to record the voices, I likely will.
Notes on Changes to
the Script
As I go through the script to conform it, I have started to
add notes about the changes I want to make. I plan to go through the script
again, but I thought it would be easier to make a note when I happen to spot
something I want to change.
I noticed that I had many of the characters use the same
phrases. Real people usually have their own pet phrases for how the express
different feelings. I need to think about what kind of phrases each character
would use, and come up with ones that add some uniqueness to each character.
I've had comments from some people that they found the transportation
planning jargon confusing. I know I can likely come up with ways to replace the
jargon with more common words. What I am reluctant to do is eliminate the
jargon entirely because I think it adds realism to the story. I want to avoid
"As you know Bob ..." kind of dialogue to explain the jargon. What I
might do is have the character Vincent Campbell claim to misunderstand the
jargon and force other characters to explain. This could be played as humour so
it isn't so distracting.
An Intermediate Step
to the Final Movie
The plan I have now is to rewrite the script and then hire
some actors to redo the voices and then create a new version of the movie. This
week I started to consider a different approach.
I made the movie with Xtranormal Desktop, which has now been
replaced with NawmalMAKE. At some point I'll need to convert all the movie
files to the new system. What I've started to lean to, is to do the conversion
first and produce a revised movie with the same artificial voices from before.
Then later, I would get actors to replace the dialogue.
NawmalMAKE doesn't have the same artificial voices as
Xtranormal Desktop, so I'd either have to use the voices that are available, or
buy the rights to use the old voices. The voices are from Acapela and you can
create and buy clips of their voices on-line. https://acapela-box.com/AcaBox/index.php
I figure it could cost me close to $1,000 to do this. That is quite a lot.
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
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