Older Filmmakers, “Time Zone” and “Who Shot the President”

I made progress on a few projects. Getting them done about the same times make me look more productive that I actually was.

I made progress on the Older Filmmakers Club, wrote a story treatment, and posted "Who Shot the President" on YouTube. No Death threats yet.

The Older Filmmaker’s Club

As I age, it has become harder for me to make films. The aches, pains and reduced energy that come with getting old limit what I can do. I still want to make films and I have been looking for ways around my limitations. This is not a problem unique to myself, so I thought I’d reach out to other filmmakers who face similar challenges. I propose to create a club here with the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (https://www.csif.org/), where older filmmakers like myself can discuss ways to work around our limitations."

I haven’t put any restriction on age, the group would be open to anyone who faces similar challenges and others who want to support older filmmakers.

My first goal is to compile a list of people who want to participate. Then I plan to set up a meeting some time in the new year.

If you are interested, you can contact me through e-mail at theolderfilmmakersclub@gmail.com

or

through the CSIF slack channel the-older-filmmakers-club

“Time Zone”

At my last writer's group session, we were all grumbling about the time change from daylight to standard. The guy running the group suggested that we each try to write a treatment based on the concept of a time change. I wrote one this week that I titled "Time Zone".

I posted it on-line and got some comments. Mostly typos, but the others were generally positive. The big issue is that the set up makes the main character seem clueless. I think I can fix it. I think the idea has potential.

If you are interested in giving feedback, let me know and I’ll send you a link to it.

"Who Shot the President"

I posted "Who Shot the President" on YouTube. I posted it on there before; way back when I first joined YouTube. I got some very negative comments, including one physical threat. That gave me a scare. I removed the video from YouTube because of that.

Recently I was reviewing what movies I had posted on-line. "Who Shot the President" was the only one that wasn’t on YouTube, so I decided that it was probably safe to do so now. So far, no death threats.

·         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lSTEhH0d4E

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

“A Clandestine Meeting with a Selfish Patsy” and Support for Older Filmmakers

I have a few projects that I made some progress on lately. A new audio recording based on a writing exercise and a group to support older filmmakers.

 

 

“A Clandestine Meeting with a Selfish Patsy”

My latest writing exercise was based on the title "A Clandestine Meeting with a Selfish Patsy". I wasn't that happy with it when I finished, but I hope it will grow on me. My description for it was “George didn't want to go back to jail. He thought Cecil would do it for him. https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/a-clandestine-meeting-with-a-selfish-patsy

Support for Older Filmmakers

As I’ve grown older, I’ve found it has become more difficult for me to make movies. I’ve been looking for ways to work around these limitations. It occurred to me that I’m likely not the only one who faces these challenges. I approached the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (https://www.csif.org/)with the idea. They liked the idea, so I will be working with them to set a club for older filmmakers. Our next big step is to start recruiting older filmmakers to join. I see it as being primarily a place to talk about how to work around the limitations of aging to make movies.

 

 

 

 

 

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

"The Fortitude of the Adventurous Husband"

I posted my writing exercise "The Fortitude of the Adventurous Husband" this week.

An adventuresome Husband leads his wife on what is supposed to be a short walk in the evening.

·         https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-fortitude-of-the-adventuresome-husband

I wasn't totally happy with the result after I finished writing it. Mostly because I hadn’t felt very inspired by the idea. However, when I was recording the audio, I changed my mind about it. Certainly not the best thing I ever wrote, but still a worthy effort.

Video Versions

I still intend to turn these writing exercises into videos, but I haven't gotten very far with any of them.

I did start on them though. My first step was to split each line of dialogue into a separate file. When I put the audio files into NAWMAL, I need to have each line as a separate line. I have this done for the last three writing exercises.

I am still not happy with the Audacity plugin that I use to make my voice sound like a woman for the female characters. They don’t sound female to me. At least the voices sound different enough so that it character sound like different people.

I tried a different program to modify my voice, but I don't think it works any better. I read some posts about mimicking voices that said women's voices sound "breathier" than men's voices. I read descriptions of what this means, but I don't understand how to do that.

I talked to an actor about doing voices for me but haven’t followed up with her on that yet.

I have an account at one of those websites where you can create audio files using computer generated voices. The female character in “The Hysteria of the Uppity Guru” used a voice from that site. I'm reluctant to use that approach too often though. I think it would be OK for minor characters, but not for the main ones. Also, when I start to make longer videos, I will want to use actors for the voices, and I need to start building up experience working with actors to record voices.

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