Multiple Project Update 2022 January 23

I posted a new writing exercise on SoundCloud, worked on my Random Title Generator, and had another look at “The Time Zone”.

“The Metamorphosis of the Sixth Space Traveler.”

At our writing group meeting we each did a piece based on the title “The Metamorphosis of the Sixth Space Traveler.” My story’s description was: On the country's sixth mission to space, the space traveller makes an important discovery.

You can listen to my recording at: https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-metamorphosis-of-the-sixth-space-traveler

Random Title Generator

I got a little more done on my random title generator upgrade. My goal is to have the page list all of the titles generated in a session. I'm still not able to get it to do that, but I've discovered a bunch of ways that don't work.

Vocal Work for My Animated Videos

I have been wanting to find someone to do the female voices for my videos. A woman has offered to try. She lives in a different city, so she asked if we could do it over the internet. I think that we could do that. The only concern for me would be the sound quality. The microphone on most computers is not as good at the one I'm using to record, and the difference in quality may be too noticeable. I will try it out though.

“The Time Zone”

This is a treatment I did back around the time when we switched to standard time last fall. It is a story about a person who travels to a different time zone. I felt discouraged about it and hadn’t worked on it any further. This week the same woman who offered to do the voices for me made some comments about it. She liked the idea. Her comments got me interested in having another go at it. I offered to revise it and share the revised version with the group in two weeks time. I haven't done anything on it yet. I don't have that much time now.

Older Filmmakers Club

We had the first session of the Older Filmmakers Club. We had a good turn out and the feedback I got was positive. I feel good about the progress of the group.

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

"Red Star Fly-by" Slowdown

Well, after a productive week, I kind of let things slide. I did make some progress though.

Aiming the Camera

I worked on the aiming problem in the animation. I experimented with some of the Blender animation features to see if I could get Blender to handle the aiming issue. From what I can tell, it should be possible, but I wasn’t able to get it to work for me, so went back to the way I had done it so far.

Sometimes the problem was the interpolation Blender did, but a few times it turned out I had mistyped some information. I don't think I got everything, but I think it looks OK. I think I’m done with this step now.

A More Interesting Star

I tried to do something with the star to make it more interesting to look at. Right now, it is featureless and rather boring to look at. I had cut down the length of time the camera aims at it, but it still seems to go by very slowly. I tried to add texture to the star surface. I tried to add an atmosphere layer to give some distortion. Nothing I tried got me anything I thought looked better. In fact, I couldn’t see any difference at all.

Captions and Audio

My original plan was to add captions to the video to describe what is on the screen. Then would add some "spacy" sounds in the background. NASA has produced some audio files for various planets in the solar system based on the radio waves they produce. Some of the sounds are very eerie. I used some for my “旅行火星 (My Trip to Mars)” video.

I discussed my plans with someone at the script group I joined. He suggested that I have some voice overs. For example, a "mission control" voice, a news anchor and "color commentator". I have thought about the suggestion at length. I find the idea attractive, but it would also mean it will take me longer to finish the movie.

I would need to write dialogue for the character, find voice actors to play the parts, and then arrange for the sound recording. I’m not all that keen to take that route. On the other hand, I wanted to take a similar approach with the revised version of “The Barrier” I want to finish. It would be an opportunity to practice the method on a small project before I tackle the big project.

Links:

“旅行火星 (My Trip to Mars)” https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/my-trip-to-mars/

“The Barrier” https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/the-barrier/

Vocal Recording for “The Barrier”

One of the issues I have with recording a lot of voice work for “The Barrier” is the cost of renting a studio and recording engineer. I wonder if I can do that on my own.

I did my own voice over recording for “Who Shot the President”, “My Next Film”, and the original version of “My Most Difficult Case”. I was happy with what I got, but I know that I am not really a professional sound person. I don't have professional quality equipment either. Nevertheless, I think I might be able to put together something that will give me what I want.

I have a small room in the basement, that I think I could modify to use as a sound booth. A previous owner built it as a cold storage room, but I never used it as such. It has insulated walls to keep the heat out. While mainly intended as heat insulation, it also does work as sound insulation.

Now, I think it would need to be modified. Two of the walls are concrete. I would need to add some kind of sound absorbing material to reduce echos. My current thought is to get some old drapes and hang them along the walls. I use the room to store some of my film gear and files. I don't think I would need to remove them, especially if I do use drapes to control the sound.

As far as recording equipment goes, I have a laptop computer that is very quiet. I think that might work out OK. I have some old microphones, but none of them work very well. I will need to get a good microphone. I am not sure what kind of microphone I should get. I tend to go for a cheap one, but that may not be of adequate quality.

Up until now I've assumed that I would work with one person at a time. The more I think of it though, it may be better for the voice actors if I have several record at the same time. The interaction with other characters would bring out better performances. At the least, it would help to have some one read the other character's lines to help with timing. I've tried to do that myself in the past, and I was terrible at it. Besides not being an actor, I am not good at multitasking.

If I do work with more than one actor at a time, would I need to have a separate microphone for each. I might need to have a microphone mixer as well. The room could get very crowded if I have more than a couple of actors.

I need to investigate more before I commit myself to this route. Maybe I need to try some tests.

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

A Final Version for "The Barrier" ?

A few weeks ago I wrote about my plans for my next project. I had decided my next project would be my Agatha Christie in Egypt video. Since then I got some encouragement to do a final version of "The Barrier". That got me to have another look at it.

Two Barriers

There were two barriers I have to over come to make a final version of "The Barrier".

The first was that Xtranormal, the program that used to make it, had been shut down and was no longer legally available. I did look at what other similar programs were available that I could use, but didn't find anything I felt would work for me. Fortunately, the  rights for the Xtranormal software was sold to Nawmal, which has made it available again as NawmalMAKE. That solves my first problem.

The second was that I want to replace the artificial voices with voice over actors. Several people said they found the synthetic voices annoying. I didn't mind them, but I they do lack emotion. Voice over actors would bring more depth to the characters, and would be more pleasant to listen to.

Unfortunately, I can't commit to any kind of schedule to work with the actors or attend recording sessions. I've started to think about ways I might be able to work around that.

Option 1: Co-director

The first option I came up with is to recruit a co-director, who could work with the actors and attend the recording sessions. The big advantage of this approach is that the actors would have a better opportunity to collaborate with the director. In my experience I know that when actors are given some flexibility, they can often come up with something much better than what I wrote.

The issue for me is that it may be difficult to find an appropriate collaborator. The movie is very personal to me. With its focus on transportation planning, people with out that back ground may not be attracted to work on it.

It might also leave me out of the loop.

Option 2: Independent Recording

A second option I thought about earlier was to arrange for the actors to record their parts on their own. This would make it easier for me, and give me the flexibility to use actors from out of town. The downside is that the actors will not have the same experience and direct feed back.

A short time ago I read some where that when Douglas Rains recorded the voice of HAL for 2001, the recording session was in Toronto. I had expected that Kubrick would have attended the session, but if it was in Canada, he would not. While I can't be sure if this is a true story, it does make me wonder if I need to attend the recording sessions for "The Barrier". I am no Kubrick though.

Supporting Actors

Another issue that would come up for either of these options, is do I have the actors work on their own, or do I try to have them record scenes as a group? When I did the voice recording for "Who Shot the President", I wasn't able to get both actors together at the same time, so I recorded them separately. I had the first recording available when I did the second, which made it a little easier for the second person.

On the other hand, I know that some actors prefer to have the other actor there to help them. I suppose the best approach is let the various circumstances dictate the approach. If it is easy for the actors to meet, and prefer that, then that is what I should try to do.

Script Revisions and Notations

I want to work on the script some more. There are a few places where I want to make changes. So far, nothing too major. If I try to make too many changes it could delay completion of the project for a long time. I would prefer to get it done sooner and then move on to new projects.

Since I wouldn't be able to work with the actors directly, I would want to add notations to the script to indicate to the actor what I had in mind for the character. That could be a lot of work. For that matter, I don't really have a script anyway. I did the writing inside of Xtranormal. I did, at one point, export the dialogue into text files and reformat them into a script, but that wasn't from the most recent version of the movie. I did set up a converting program, but it didn't work the last time I used it.

Money

There is a final problem: money. With the uncertainty with my wife's health, I worry about how much I can afford to spend.

I know some actors would be open to working for the credit. However, I really would prefer to pay them, even if it is only a token payment. I would need to work out how much I would need to spend.

At any rate, I do have a lot to think about.

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