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
