The Hitman

The Hitman

Video is up! Check it out!

Most of it is just of Jared walking, I know, but that’s how I wanted it. Building off of what I started kinda in The Red Scare, I experimented with tracking shots, Steadicamming, and dolly shots. I figure I’d rather experiment with a short video like this than completely blowing it on a bigger project y’know?

Please, give me feedback! It helps a lot more than you know!

Color Correction Rocks

I like editing because you can change the way a video looks. Everyone has their own opinions on how a video should look. I personally think color correction is especially crucial because it can make your video look very pretty or very amateurish. That's why for this video I spent extra time color correcting.

Here's what a raw piece of footage looked like:


It looks okay I suppose, but the contrast between the dark colors and the bright colors is definitely not distinct enough. Let's increase the brightness and contrast:


Not bad, not bad, but the colors are a tad bright, don't you think? Let's desaturate it a bit:


This looks much better, but it's still missing something... Let's add a blue tint and see what happens:


Okay, so this is something that I think looks great. The darks and lights are nicely contrasted, the colors aren't too bright, and the slight blue tint is like the cherry on top to bring it all together. This is how much color correction can do, and it's astounding.

This is not at all the right way to color correct because you could really do anything. You could increase the contrast even more or tint it green or something. You can do anything. And this is an introduction to the magic of video editing.

New Video Screenshots

Like I said in my last post, my new video won’t be anything fancy or anything. It’s just my attempt at making something aesthetically unique and pleasing.

Here are some photos of what it looks like right now.






As you can see, I was experimenting a lot with different angles and camera techniques. I spent extra time with the color correction to make sure the colors look bolder and more contrasted. Note to self: if you want to make a photo or a video look pretty, add contrast and brightness.

I’m using an original song made by my friend Richard as the main theme for this video. He made the song just for this video and it makes the video look great. It’s like the cherry on top of the cake of awesomeness.

On a more negative note, HD has become a bit of an annoyance for me, as it took multiple days just to get my footage ready for editing. When rendering the footage into a file, the audio de-synced with the video and I had to redo a lot of things. Rendering HD also takes a while, if you haven’t guessed. Also, I haven’t been editing much lately either because my computer has been having problems and I’ve been playing games. It hasn’t been a strenuous editing job though.

It’s basically done, so I’ll post it soon.

Stylish

My next video will be what The Blood Exchange wasn’t.

1. In The Blood Exchange, almost every scene was shot from a tripod. This time, the tripod was never deployed.
2. Because of this, most of the scenes from The Blood Exchange were static. This next video has almost all dolly/Steadicam shots, so motion will be a motif.
3. The Blood Exchange was completely scripted and thought out. This one was shot without any planning, scripting, or writing, so really, I didn’t know what I was going to do.

The raw footage looks great, so that puts a lot of potential into the final product. Expect to see something kinda new here!

Moar Filming Tomorrow

Tomorrow I’ll be filming a short video. It’s gonna be pretty experimental and avant-garde, but it’ll have a simple storyline to accompany it. My goal with this one is to make it look PRETTY.

Well, once again, the most difficult part of the whole film process is the pre-production. Originally we were going to film at Roger’s house with Roger as one of the main characters. Not anymore.

It’s not that I have a problem with people who can’t make my dates. It’s how they tell me. The people who can’t make it wait until the night before or the day of to give me the news. They tell me they can make it, and then tell me otherwise within 24 hours of the actual filming. One time, one of my actors bailed 5 minutes before our planned start time. Literally, every single time I film, someone bails at the last minute.

It happened a number of times with The Blood Exchange. In fact, it happens almost every single time I try to film something. It pisses me off beyond belief and it makes getting a replacement ridiculously difficult.

The least they could do is have the decency to tell me ahead of time that they’re busy. Then, I’ll be okay, and I’ll have time to seek out a replacement and to make final plans. Don’t tell me you can make it and then bail out the last minute. Who does that anyway? And don’t expect a callback any time soon.

Other than that, I’m pretty stoked for tomorrow. I’m breaking out my new dolly for her maiden flight. Since we’re gonna take our time with this video, I expect something that looks awesome. Anyway, I’ll post pictures when I get to editing.

McCarthyism -- The Red Scare

McCarthyism -- The Red Scare

I almost forgot to post about this. This was a school project, so nothing super duper interesting, but I figured I’d post it anyway. It’s supposedly set in the 1950s. I tried to encompass a lot of different things at once, like the roots of the Feminist Movement, the consumer culture, and of course, the anti-communist stance. I don’t think it’s a bad video. It got me an A :D

Enjoy!

Improving and Something Completely Different

So what do I have to improve? A lot. Really, any thing I do can improve or change in some way.

Regarding The Blood Exchange, I need to remember to focus on the focus. Half of my shots were out of focus. It honestly pissed me off to see Carlos’ face so out of focused so often. There’s something I can fix.

Another thing I can do? I have to work on my audiowork. I don’t think it was as high-quality as I wanted it to be. I have to work on the balance between voice and music, because, I agree, Roger’s voice was sometimes overtaken by the music.

So, looking forward. I’ll have you know that my next film will be completely opposite from the Blood Exchange when it comes to style. I have no set script, only a storyboard and generally what will happen. I don’t know how I’m going to film it. I don’t know who I want to be in it. I don’t even know how it’s going to end. But I’m gonna film it, and I’m just gonna let things happen the way it happens.

My philosophy is that bad ideas are better than no ideas. Whether or not my future film will be good is completely out of my control. It could be complete crap, and I may forever remember it as a failure. However, doing it is better than sitting here and thinking about what could go wrong. What I’ve learned is that failure is sometimes better than achievement. It tells you where to go next.

As quoted from Paul Arden’s Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite, “IT’S BETTER TO REGRET WHAT YOU HAVE DONE THAN WHAT YOU HAVEN’T.”

Words to live by.

The Blood Exchange Reflection

And now comes the time for the post-video reflection. Let’s get started.

So what was good about this video for me? I am proud of how professional it looked. Honestly, it had this sense of formality and structure that made it seem less of an amateur video and closer to a professional video. Combining the awesome camera quality, the tripod, the lighting, and the overall presentation, you have a pretty solidly put-together film. I think overall, professionality was what I was most satisfied with in the end.

My actors were great. Though I think all my actors did a great job, I think the person who stole the show was Anthony, honestly. He was great, I won’t lie. I remember being behind the camera and seeing him yell at Roger with such intensity. He just got so into it, and it really showed in the final product. I enjoyed seeing Carlos pulling out his suave Christian Bale persona during the whole video. He pulled off being a cool dude really well. +10 for the sunglasses. Roger did a pretty good job too, though next time I will have to ask him to speak a bit louder.

This video followed the trend of my last few videos where it evokes a Tarantino feel. I think I’ve gotten pretty good and kinda conveying his style. Therein lies the problem: it’s too much like Tarantino. I’ve been following his lead for a while now, and it’s about time that I stop. Sure, the video looks great and professional. But I need to start exploring some new styles.

Other than that, I think this was a pretty solid video. Expect something different next time :D

OFFICIAL -- The Blood Exchange

Here is the official release of The Blood Exchange!

After hours and hours of hard work, it’s finally here.

Please, comment and tell me what you think!

Watch Here

Editing

I love editing. It’s probably the most unique form of art ever created.

What’s so powerful about editing is that you can take an ordinary movie clip and make it look amazing. You can string together a bunch of ordinary movie clips, color correct, add music, and bam, you have a fantastic movie. It’s a powerful thing.

The thing is, movies are never made perfect. There are a ton of things that happen during filming that can only be fixed with editing. If the microphone picks up some irritating background noise, you can edit it out. If there’s a scene that is too dark, you can brighten it. If you really want to edit someone out because you don’t like them, then you can do it (but doing that takes way too long).

Editing takes a movie and gives it life. There are so many possibilities with editing. The artistic spectrum is ridiculously broad. There are a ton of different styles, defined simply by clip placement, timing, and use of music. It makes movies art.

I used to want to be an editor because I loved seeing movies unravel before me. Every time I make a video, I look forward to editing. Sure, the raw footage sometimes looks good. But editing gives it life—it turns that footage into a living, breathing entity that tells a story. Without editing, movies would not look like they way they do. Special effects could not be achieved. Bad scenes would be preserved. Simply put, editing makes movies what they are.

Some of my videos, like UNDERFIRE War, started off looking like pure crap—we looked like such idiots, running around with Nerf guns and pretending to shoot each other. That video is intense because of editing. The music, the sound effects, the pace of the action, the intensity, are all achieved through editing. It’s unlike anything else.

Some may not enjoy editing as much as I do. But everyone should appreciate how much video editing does for movies. It’s not easy, and it’s not a fast process, but damn, it sure does deliver.

The Sound of Silence

At the end of The Blood Exchange, there will be a period where no one speaks, no music plays, and it’s just things happening. I do this for a reason.

Sometimes, sound, dialogue, and music are detrimental to a scene. Silence is a powerful thing that says nothing, yet conveys so many emotions. Hollywood seriously underrates the sheer power of moments of silence in movies. It’s a shame.

Often in movies, a tense scene is accompanied with heated dialogue and intense music. This is okay sometimes—it depends on the situation. If you’re going for excitement, this is what you want. If you’re going for suspense, then you have to step back and consider how you’re going to achieve this. It really depends on the situation, but I think silence conveys this eerie feeling of realism and loneliness that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand stiff.

Imagine the scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch the boxer is going back to his apartment to retrieve his watch. He does this knowing that there may as well be a hitman waiting for him anywhere. During this scene, there is next to NO dialogue and absolutely NO music. All that this scene shows is Butch walking to his apartment, finding his watch, and finding a surprise in his bathroom. Why is this scene so good? Why is it so suspenseful? They say NOTHING. There is NO MUSIC.

It’s because of the silence.

What a soundtrack often does is build up to the intense part of the scene—it starts out calmer, then builds and builds to the action. That means that you will always know when it’s coming. In real life, there is no soundtrack playing for every suspenseful thing that happens in your life. There is no background music to tell you when something intense is going to happen. That’s life.

What silence does is create realism. This scene worked because it felt real. Butch was just walking through the neighborhood to his apartment. Tensions are high. You felt nervous for Butch because there was no soundtrack indicating anything. Someone could have come outta nowhere and killed him right then and there. Anything could have happened.

I’m not saying to abandon dialogue or music, because a movie is dead without them. But sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. Sometimes the best soundtrack for your life is just nothing. Silence is golden, so shut up and get rich.

TRAILER -- The Blood Exchange

Here is the trailer for The Blood Exchange!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAsUI-9uJA

The full video will be up within the next two weeks. Please be patient, I’m doing my best to make it the best video it can be!

Making Better Movies

Now I’m not condoning that I make great movies. My projects still have a lot of mistakes that I need to fix. But over the years I’ve gotten better because I’ve focused on the small things.

In order to make a movie, or anything in general, you should never leave out the small things. When you think about it, all the small things will eventually build up to become one big conglomeration. You may not think it’s such a big deal, but it can become a big deal.

For instance, in my last post, I talked about editing audio. Today, on a second viewing at a higher volume, I realized that my “editing job” left a pretty noticeable artifact in between dialogue. You can’t tell when the volume is low enough, but when boosted, you know it’s there. I opted to go back and re-edit all of the audio clips I did yesterday. I finished half of them yesterday.

To go back and re-edit these clips, PLUS edit the rest of the movie audio, took the entire day (excluding going out to the mall). Some may not have opted to take on such a task, but I did because I knew that I’d be sorely unhappy with the results in the future. This artifact, while not so imposing, would have been present throughout the entire video and would have ruined the parts where silence was key to the mood. Taking it out of all the audio fixed a small problem that encased the entire video.

What I’m trying to say here is that the smallest details are sometimes the most crucial. There should be no shortcuts to making a good movie.

Arranging and Audio

I haven’t been able to edit all week because of school, but guess what I started doing just as I got home?

That’s right. EDITING.

So, this is what I’ve done so far after importing everything:

1. Arrange the timeline: The first thing I always do is put all the clips in order as I want them to be. Considering the length of this video, this can take a long time. My first arrangement is rough at best, but it gives me a good understanding of the flow of the video. As editing progresses or during the final touch-ups, I’ll make the finer adjustments to clip length and placement.



2. Edit the audio: This is one of the most time-consuming aspects of my process. How do I edit the audio? Well I extract it to Adobe Soundbooth, boost the voices, and lower the background noise. How do I do that? It sounds very advanced but a single clip can take less than a minute. All I do is take an audio sample of the background noise and tell Soundbooth to eliminate all areas that match that sample. Soundbooth is AWESOME. Then, I just look for those glaring sound errors, like me speaking or screwing up the tripod work.




While it is easy to simply sample the whole clip at once, it keeps me from hearing the errors that I need to fix. This is why I arrange the clips first and then edit them—I can look at each individual area of sound and make sure they’re perfect. Also, it gives me a better understanding of how the clip should sound like in context.

How did I figure out how to do the audio thing? Well a long time ago, I was messing with Adobe Premiere, and I found an option that let me extract the audio to Soundbooth. Then the rest was more experimentation.

Anyway, I’ve only edited the sounds of the first scene. I think I have about seven more scenes to go? It’ll take a while, but the resulting sound quality is too good to pass up.

New Video!

Announcing my new upcoming feature, The Blood Exchange!

No details on what it’s about yet, but I will say that it will star Carlos Cortes, Roger Lau, and Anthony Lucido. Filming went incredibly smooth, and we took our times to make it as awesome as possible. And I must say, even before editing, this video looks promising.

Here are some screenshots :D












They look pretty good in suits doncha think? Anyway, I’ll be releasing more information and development photos as editing comes along. It shouldn’t be very long before it’s done. Stay tuned!

Upcoming Project

This weekend I’ll be filming my next video. Here’s the lowdown on why this is a big deal for me:

Filming was originally slated for Thanksgiving weekend (yeah, in November). The first day, my main actor (Kevin Dewey) woke up feeling woozy. My other actors (except Carlos Cortes) also woke up feeling sick. Also, Kevin’s house was supposed to be the setting of the video. It was unavailable. No filming that day.

We rescheduled a few days later. Then, Carlos got sick. No filming that day.

We rescheduled ANOTHER day. Kevin had to be at his brother’s football game that evening, so he wasn’t available. No filming that day.

And now, I have recast my actors (except for Carlos) and scheduled a new location and a new date. I seriously hope this date comes through, because I seriously want to film this damn video!

Update when I update :D

Why Filmmaking?

Filmmaking is, in my opinion, the best kind of storytelling out there. I don’t know about you, but the reason why I don’t like to read is because imagining things happening simply isn’t enough for me. I enjoy seeing a story in an entertaining way. I like to be immersed in the story, with sound, visuals, atmospheric music, etc. Movies are like my escape. It’s like entering a completely different world and viewing the story firsthand.

Movies can take many shapes and forms. However, the differences between movies and other kinds of media are simple:

1. They provide motion, and
2. They provide visuals mixed with music and sound effects.

Photography is interesting to look at, and some may argue that the whole story can be captured in a single picture (which is true). However, film is MOTION picture. It’s a bunch of pictures linked together to create the illusion of motion. I don’t know about you, but the motion makes everything seem more real. I like real.

Also, have you ever had those moments where you think “Damn, I just did something awesome. I wish awesome music could play to celebrate it.” That might just be me, but honestly, music creates atmosphere. Combine music with motion picture, and you have one entertaining movie.

I love filmmaking because it’s entertaining and it feels more real than just pictures or books or other kinds of storytelling. It’s a medium unlike anything else out there.

Action Jackson

Because filming plans on different movie ideas failed more times than I would have liked (five times), I decided to take the initiative and film something on my own. Introducing, Action Jackson!

It was my short, special effects, handicam, and HD test video of winter. I decided to try a ton of new stuff because it was such a small project. It's short, yes, but I think it's pretty exciting :D

Action Jackson

Enjoy!

Film Attempt

Last week was Thanksgiving break. We had the full week off. I wanted to film. Things didn't work out.

I wanted to film Sunday, and everyone was set. Until the night before. At about 10 pm, after Carlos went to sleep, Kevin informs me that his house is no longer available.

Well that sucks. I found a replacement location however! So, crisis averted.

The next day I woke up early so I could pack and prepare. I was able to contact Carlos and discuss the situation. However, my other three actors were no where to be found. Filming was planned for 12 noon, and it was 11:30, and I hadn't heard a peep from any of them. Shit.

Finally, after many stressful (and anger-ful) calls, I got an answer. Apparently, all three of these actors went out last night for the midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. That's fine and all, but they were out until about 4 am. So they didn't wake up till about 12. Great.

Carlos and I headed to Kevin's house to get the lowdown. Upon ringing the doorbell, a red-eyed, loopy Kevin struggles out of the door in front of us. He looks as if he's been hit with pink-eye or something. He could barely stand straight, and he was slurring his words, and his hands were shaking. There was no way he could act in this condition. As much as I hated to say it, I had to reschedule the filming.

Later that day, about 3 pm, Julien texts me, saying that he can't make it to filming because he just woke up. Derp.

So we rescheduled to Tuesday. But then, Carlos got sick. I pardoned him immediately because you can't avoid illness. Plus, he's my main actor, and I wanted to make sure he was 100% before he acted. So we postponed again. But by that time, I just wanted to enjoy my vacation. So I did.

In two days, filming will happen (I hope). I continue to have high expectations for this film. I have a ton of great actors who are ready to be in the film. I are excited.

Anyway, that's my story. Don't tl;dr me or I'll find you and kill you while you're asleep or in the bathroom. :D

A Tale of Unspoken Revenge Reflection

I was going to do a video reflection but I'm being lazy so I'll just stick to this for now.

A Tale of Unspoken Revenge was technically a very neat film. Other that some less-than-stellar Steadicam shots (by me), every angle benefited the film and showed exactly what needed to be shown. I dedicated a lot of our film time getting the tripod down and getting exactly the angle I wanted. Even if they were a teensie bit off from where I wanted them, I asked to start the take over again because I wanted to be picky.

I realize it starts out slow, but that's what I like about it. The story begins with two guys walking to someone's house, and then they break in and beat the crap out of him. Then it settles, talk talk talk, babble babble babble, whoa what the hell, Ryan escaped and beat up Julien! That's when it got good for me. It starts out slow, and I'm not sure how many people can sit through it, but if you watch till the end, it turns out great. I loved the scene where Ryan untied himself. I couldn't have asked for a better turnout than that.

The fight scenes were awesome. We made up those fight scenes on set and on the spot between each consecutive take. I think it ended up very smooth-like and was a good ending to the video.

The tackle scene was accomplished by placing a ton of pillows in front of Julien. Once again, taking time in between takes for scenes like this was crucial.

I loved how Jared was able to pull off his talk scene with Ryan. Albeit, it took a few tries, it was extremely funny in the end. I would have never been able to pull such a scene off. Special thanks to Jared for being awesome there.

We took our time because we had a lot of time. For longer videos, I can see filming spanning multiple days, but for now, I won't go over two days for a video. The filming for World War Z was ridiculously tiring because we were so short on time, and frankly, it just was not fun at that point. When you're in a small group, taking your time, and focusing on quality, I find it a much more enjoyable experience. Lesson from World War Z and Blood Exchange, do not rush your videos, and do not sacrifice quality.

Overall, I'm mucho proud of this video. It sets another standard for me in quality. Taking the scenes slowly with care pays off massively in the end. It showed me the power of the tripod and that I need to practice more with the Steadicam. Until next time, with my next big feature!