Archive for August 2011

Basis Weekly Update 8/26/2011

We had a complete viewing of the rough cut earlier this week, and it looks mighty fine. It’s 47 minutes (about 3-5 minutes longer than an episode of Lost), but it doesn’t feel as long as it is. The pace is nice and brisk, like an autumn’s walk, except without the walking or the scent of fallen leaves. We are working on a smell-o-vision version of the movie, to be released once we perfect the technology for transmitting scents through Quicktime files.

Not much more editing work needs doing. There’s one brief shot from one brief scene that we’re having trouble working around (thank you tape-eating camera), though I’m sure we’ll figure out something. Certainly there will be a few more bits to trim up, but everything is pretty much set. All we’re waiting on now is the audio.

We’re getting ready to enter the movie into a couple of film festivals as a work-in-progress with a temp soundtrack. We’re aiming high and heading straight for Sundance and Slamdance. You’ve probably heard of the former, though maybe not the latter. Suffice to say they’re both pretty big festivals. Will we make it? The odds are definitely stacked against us, it’s best not to get excited. But the first tenet of the Basis Creed is “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” and if we break the Creed then we get stabbed in the stomach, lose our equipment, and have to start over as a novice. Or maybe that was the Assassin’s Creed…

There isn’t any new media I can offer after last week’s trailer, so I’ll just go ahead and post it again. Good, ain’t it?

Basis Weekly Update 8/19/2011

You’re all here for the trailer, right? Well, without further ado, I present you with a word from our sponsor (but I guess you could always just scroll to the bottom of the page).

Spirit’s Requiem has been a long time in the making. Too long, in fact. It’s nice to finally sit down and watch the movie, start to finish, no missing scenes. For those who do not regularly check the website – may God have mercy on your soul – the rough cut is complete. I won’t repeat myself, you can find all the info here. Much work remains, primarily on the audio side of things. I know nothing about sound, except that you use your ears to hear it. At least I think that’s how things work.

The estimated completion date of the film is early October, and we hope to have a premiere followed by a limited internet release later that month. Both of these events will be restricted to the cast and crew, and their families, plus our Kickstarter donors. If you aren’t any of these you’re either going to have to start dating one of the cast/crew or wait a little while longer. Don’t ask me how much longer, if you do all you’ll get is a visit to your house by our applications processor. It won’t end well for either of you.

Much has been learned in the process of making this film. I won’t bore you with these lessons, though you might see them in our upcoming Film-Schoolhouse Rock! series. Songs such as “An Actor is Not a Person, Place, or Thing” and “I’m Just a Script” will teach aspiring directors about the film making process. Hint: it ain’t easy.

Many thanks go to our two leading ladies, Aster and Elyse, for being awesome. Aster put up with boots that were too small, and Elyse put up with…well, I’m sure she can think of something. They ran around the forest for hours on end, rarely complaining, giving up their evenings to be a part of this project. Dedication. Without it you couldn’t make a movie.

While I’m on the topic of shout outs let me give one to the latest addition to the crew, Melissa Birch, who is doing some terrific graphic design work for us. Some of you (read: Kickstarter donors and the main cast/crew) will be on the receiving end of her poster and t-shirt designs. Bam.

You haven’t skipped to the bottom of the page yet, have you? Good. Now you’ll know that the website has been updated. Revamped project page? Check. Production photos? Check. Video gallery? Check. Pictures of pouty girls? Check. Take a look around before you leave.

Would you kindly follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook? We like having people follow us. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Preaching to an empty church ain’t much fun.

Now, without further ado, the teaser trailer for Spirit’s Requiem. Give my regards to Saint-Saëns.

Rough Cut Complete

That’s right folks, the rough cut is complete. It clocks in at just over 48 minutes. Altogether we filmed 385 minutes of footage, meaning 12.5% of what we shot made it into the cut. For Castle Town that ratio was 18% – we shot 36 minutes and put together a 6.5 minute rough cut, which was later trimmed down to 5 minutes because of time requirements for the festival we entered. The rough cut will face further cuts, primarily because many film festivals have set the maximum length for short films at 40 minutes. How we will ever shorten it by almost ten minutes (did I forget to mention that credits will be an additional 2 minutes?) is still unknown.

The plan right now is to tighten the rough cut into a director’s cut, which will be the version shown at the premiere and on DVD. After that we’ll do some additional cuts to make it in under 40 minutes. While I hate having to cut a movie short simply for the sake of getting it into a festival, most festivals show less than two dozen features (US narrative features, to be precise), while showing upwards of a hundred or more shorts. The odds of getting in as a short are much larger. Plus our story doesn’t quite have the grand arc required of a feature film. It was written and filmed with the intention of being a short film, now it simply must be edited as such.

The coming week will see the reveal of the teaser trailer. It’s looking good, there’s just a couple more things that must be tweaked before it can be released.

Basis Weekly Update 8/12/2011

Second unit photography continued with some of our last shots on Tuesday. We ran around in the forest (quite literally) filming stuff for the montage of traveling. Yes, we have a montage, just like Rocky. Ours features significantly less Sylvester Stallone, 100% less to be precise. Dolph Lundgren makes a brief appearance, however.

There is but one more day of filming left, which will double as a photo shoot for some promotional images, including our poster. We’re looking forward to the action and final wrap of all filming for the movie.

The rough cut is 95% complete, with a run time of about 46 minutes. That’s almost a third longer than my most liberal estimate. Longer isn’t necessarily better, and when the rough cut is complete the editor and myself will be sitting down and seeing if we need to make any cuts in order to speed the plot along. No cuts will be made simply for the sake of making it shorter, but we have to figure out why our 26 page script is now going to end up being almost 50 minutes long. Normally one page of script equals one minute of the movie. It’s a curious situation, and I’m interested to get to the bottom of it.

Stayed tuned for the premiere of the teaser trailer next week. Pop yourself some Jiffy Pop and gather the family round the computer, it’s the movie event of the summer.