“The Jolly Doll”

Our writer’s group did a writing exercise called "The Jolly Doll". I went with a detective story. In the old film noir movies the detectives often called the women dolls.

I recorded it and posted it here: https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-jolly-doll

I couldn’t come up with an idea for an image to go with it.

After I recorded it, I worried that it would be difficult to tell which character was talking. I have 999 fewer voices than Mel Blanc. I did some research on-line about how to make a man's voice sound like a woman's voice. Some places suggested shifting the pitch, others said that the differences between the two was more complicated than pitch. Some actors can learn to do that.

I used Audacity to adjust the pitch of my voice. The stuff I read suggested that you increase the pitch by 19%. When I tried that, the voice sounded weird. Then I tried 9.5%, but it sounded too much like my voice. Finally, I tried 12% and, while I didn't think it sounded too much like a woman, I decided that it did differentiate the two voices, which was good enough for my purposes.

Later I did a search on-line and there are programs that allow you to do that kind of modification to voices. One claims to alter your voice to sound like some celebrities. That might be a better choice for some of my NAWMAL videos than the artificial voices that I use. Of course, the best solution would be to hire actors. If I wasn’t such a cheapskate, I’d do that.

I’m still interested in recording more of the stories and writing exercises I wrote. If I do, I’ll likely add a page on my website with the links to the recordings.

 

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

(Lack of) Progress Report 2021 June 13

I didn’t get any work done on my creative projects this week. But I did some thinking about them.

“The Minions of Eros”

I need to completely rethink what I want to do with the story. As it stands, it is really just a framework for a story and not a story in itself. It is an interesting concept, but I don’t have a purpose that will drive me forward to finish the project. I need to have a point that I want to make. This is a struggle I have had with most of the projects I’ve started over the years. It has gotten worse in the last few years.

As I thought it over, I remembered that my initial impetus was to redo “The Barrier” using real actors to do the voices. (https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-barrier/ ) I found that very intimidating, so that led me to procrastinate and not make progress. To get past that I decided to do a short video with Nawmal that would allow me to experiment with the technology for adding real actor’s voices. I want to get comfortable with what I’d need to do for a redo of “The Barrier”.

I have kind of lost sight of that in the minutiae of developing story ideas. With the end of quarantine coming soon, I can see that I should be able to bring in some actors to record the voices later this year. So, I believe my focus now should be on developing a practice story I can use. “The Minions of Eros” could be that story.

OBS Studio

I downloaded and loaded a program called OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) which people use for streaming video. It can also record video. I got it so I can capture video from a VCR. This was mainly to transfer some old home videos, but I can see it being useful for other purposes. The gizmo I got to capture VCR video came with software, but this OBS is supposed to be easier to use and better quality.

When I started to test it out, it looked different than the training videos I watched on YouTube. Eventually I found out that OBS was open source and there was more than one version available. What I had installed was Streamlabs OBS, which is actually the same basic program, but with a different interface. I got the original OBS Studio and installed it. I like its user interface better. I haven’t actually done anything with it yet.

Video Editing Software

I’ve been using Premiere Pro CS4 for over a decade now. It is an old system and I worry that it will stop working some day. Premiere Pro is now only available by subscription now, and I’m sure I’d use it enough to make it worth the cost. I’ve been looking for an alternative but haven’t found anything so far.

I tried out DaVinci Resolve and a program called ShotCut. I decided some time ago that I wasn’t interested in using those, but I didn’t get around to removing them from my computer this week. I started to experiment with a program called VideoPad Video Editor, but the free test period expired before I decided if I wanted to use it.

I’m interested in Vegas Pro Video Editor. Apparently, some of the versions can import Premiere Pro project files. Since I have a lot of Premiere Pro project files, this would make a switch much easier. Of course, this will require that I overcome some procrastination. I plan to do that tomorrow.

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

“The ZOOM Bomber”, “The Minions of Eros”, and “The Last Crow” Updates

I’ve been working on a few projects, but I’ve been lax in talking about them on my blog. I’ll try to catch up today.

 

“The ZOOM Bomber”

This began last year as a challenge from my writer’s group. I did several blog posts about it, but just recently I realized that I’d never posted the storyboard video publicly, so I did that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jePgb298O_k

I rather doubt that I will ever follow through on making the actual film.

I suspect that the process I went through might be more interesting than the storyboard. Here are the links to my earlier blog posts about it.

https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-zoom-bomber-update-1/

https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-zoom-bomber-update-2/

https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-zoom-bomber-update-3/

https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-zoom-bomber-update-4/

https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-zoom-bomber-update-5/

 

“The Minions of Eros”

I did some more work on my “Speed Date” movie idea, including choosing a new title. I made a video of the script using NAWMAL. I made quite a few changes to the dialogue in NAWMAL, then posted it for feedback.

I got a lot of push back over the artificial voices I used. I’d had that complaint before about the artificial voices I used in “The Barrier”, although not everyone had a problem with the artificial voices.

My plan had been to use the artificial voices only during development of the story, then have actors do the voices once I had the dialogue where I wanted it to be. One problem is that I'm too cheap to hire anyone else. I did a test of the story using my own voice. It turned out OK. Unfortunately, it seems I can only do one voice. I was sure I could do several when I was younger. Not anymore. Maybe I can practice. In any event I can’t do a woman’s voice.

The comments about the story itself have caused me to rethink the whole story. I felt that I didn’t have much of a point to make with the story. It was just two people talking. They had no motivation for anything they said.  The idea for the story is really just a framing device to have a conversation about something. I hadn’t really given enough thought about what they would talk about.

 

“The Last Crow”

I did a writing exercise for my writer’s group based on the writing prompt: “The Last Crow”. I wrote within the normal 30-minute time limit. I write in long hand and didn’t really want to retype it so I could share it. I decided to record my reading of the story. I posted it on my sound cloud account.

https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-last-crow

I got a like right away. Also, someone contacted me about promoting my “song”. I didn’t see any point in paying someone to promote it. I only posted a reading of one of my stories before. That was seven years ago. I’m inclined to do more of this.

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