Archive for October 2011

Basis Weekly Update 10/28/2011 – Poster Reveal

Need I say more?

Designed by Melissa Birch. Photo by Peter James. You’ll be able to buy a 16″x24″ copy sometime in the near future. Look out.

And look out for next week’s update, where we’ll finally get around to part 2 of our origin tale.

Basis Weekly Update 10/15/2011 – We’ll Always Have Castle Town

I bet you were expecting part the deuce of Spirit’s Origins, eh? Not this week, sister. This week is a special anniversary – one year ago today we filmed Castle Town. “Why not celebrate it’s release date?” you ask, because apparently I can somehow hear you. “Because,” I reply, “The filming of Castle Town was far more important than its release.”

Perhaps I should quickly point out that “I” refers to me, Peter, the founder and head guy here at Basis who has written and directed everything you see on this site. Everybody got that? Good. Moving on.

After dropping by Webster University to pick up a lighting kit, I pulled up to the curb of my aunt and uncle’s empty house (it was on the market to be sold) around 5:30pm. The first half hour was quiet, I was all alone unpacking the car and setting up of the equipment in the garage. That garage had some of the best must I’ve ever smelled. A nice full scent, invigorating to the mind and body. Our base of operations was inside the garage, while most of the filming would take place in the shed next door (a 7′x5′ room where we had to fit actors, lights, the camera, microphones, and me) and the alley just outside.

At 6pm our dear Sam showed up, and the party got going. Kevin, the sound guy, arrived in his cool convertible which he referred to as his “shag wagon.” Unless he was referring to the large selection of microphones he brought with him, I don’t believe I saw anything that made his vehicle deserving of such a title. By 7pm everyone was on set except for one of the actresses who wasn’t needed until later in the shoot. At least 13 people were there to help make this dream a reality. The exact tally eludes me, as we had a couple of people who were not cast/crew members, and being that I was a busy director I didn’t bother to remember their presence. Not a lot compared to a Hollywood production where the crew is padded out by everyone having an assistant, but for a student film it was a crowd.

Castle Town was the biggest film production that I, and most of the crew, had been a part of. It was go go go from the time shooting began at 7:30pm until we wrapped up around midnight. No time for breaks, we went from one set up to another. Unfortunately I’m unable to recall much of what happened during that time frame aside from what was caught on camera. Highlights included:

Ian Thomas Hardin as Kaepora Gaebora. We were unable to get very far when we ran through his scene for the first time, as everyone was cracking up at his terrifically funny performance. Originally he was going to be wearing an owl suit, but when we couldn’t find one we had to make do with “owlish” clothing. The result is a strange man who shows up out of nowhere spouting prophecies and hooting like an owl. The final shot of him running off (which was tainted by a car passing by) elicited far too much laughter from the crew.

My deleted scene. Yes, I was going to be in the movie when one of the actors playing a minor role didn’t show up. The character was based on the guy underneath the tree in Kakariko Village from Ocarina of Time who begs you for various items (his model was reused in Majora’s Mask as the bank teller). In Castle Town this character begged Link for various items, but Midna just tells him to “f— off.” Such polite language she uses. The character was cut when I had to trim down the running time to fit in the 5 minute limit the festival imposed.

Shooting the final scene in the basement. Visually it is my favorite scene in the short, with the strong contrast between the darkness and the light as Garo drags the Hylian girl to her judgment before the shadowed figure. I love the way this scene is lit, just watch it. Lydia, who played the unknown Hylian girl, gives an outstanding performance despite not having any dialogue. A cool bit of trivia – the shadowed figure is played by Wes (who plays Link) and voiced by me.

One of the last things we did that night was record some off screen/voice over dialogue. Originally the short was going to end with a slam to black and the Hylian girl screaming, so we had Lydia record a scream. All I remember is Kevin, who was wearing the monitoring headphones, wincing in pain, and me worrying that someone was going to call the cops. That shriek pierced the heavens, she screamed like it was one of those Universal horror movies. In the end I decided not to go with ending on the scream, and instead chose the gunshot.

Castle Town was an important lesson in learning how to manage a film set. I won’t elaborate on the lessons learned, as that would be far too boring. We don’t want to be boring now, do we? Let’s just say that I’m awfully happy with the way it turned out, and while I wish we had won the fact is that we made a pretty cool short film.

35 minutes of footage were shot, which was edited down to 6.5 minutes, which was then edited down to 5 minutes. I leave you tonight with the fruit of our labor:

 

Basis Weekly Update 10/7/2011 – Spirit’s Origins I

It’s been a lonely two weeks without an update, and there would’ve been an additional week but I decided it would be cruel to leave you in the car by yourself with the windows rolled up for so long.

What’s there to talk about this week? Not much. Spirit’s Requiem is still pretty much in the same position it was three weeks ago. The audio work is proving quite difficult to complete. If anyone out there has experience with sound mixing then be sure to give me a call – basisproductions@gmail.com. Let’s talk shop.

I suppose I could digress into the origins of Spirit’s Requiem. Let’s delve into those memory banks and see what skeletons are hidden underneath the pile of sweatshirts and socks.

It all began way back in December of Aught Nine. I wanted to make a movie about a young girl who goes off on an adventure, something simple and clean, a fun and innocent adventure story set in the countryside. The first iteration wasn’t even a fantasy, but rather a simple tale of a five year old girl who spends some time out in the country. Here’s a sample from an outline I wrote (the file is dated December 18, 2009):

Scene 1 – The Girl is put to bed, being reprimanded by Mom for having done something bad, she is read a bedtime story, The Little Prince

Scene 2 – The Girl goes stargazing with Grandpa

Scene 3 – The Girl runs away from the Giants, checks on hiding spot, goes inside for lunch with Mom and Grandma

Scene 4 – Girl stares at the moos, goes to market with Grandpa (maybe buys something for raft?)

Scene 5 – Girl plays hide and seek with Giants, finds the sled in garage, drags it to hiding spot

 

The Giants were gusts of wind that the Girl imagined as being Giants. Don’t ask me to explain why she thought they might be giants. She’s 5, just go with it. There were 16 scenes in all, and it ended with the Girl floating down a river on a homemade raft. Nice and simple, right? Maybe it was too simple. For reasons I can’t exactly remember, the premise evolved into something just a bit different.

The next version was more fantastic. This draft was the only one where the Girl had a name – Frankie. Originally I called her the Girl because I couldn’t think of a fitting name, and over time I began to appreciate her lack of a name. It added to her charm and mystique in a similar manner to The Exile, another one of our nameless characters.

Frankie was alone in the countryside, wandering around by herself for reasons unknown. Some mysterious force takes care of her, providing her with food and shelter. She encounters a mischievous man in her travels, one Robin Goodfellow, a rather puckish person who serves as an antagonist of sorts, though he is by no means a villain.

As I go over my notes for this version (dated January 19, 2010) I realize that it bears a remarkable similarity to what could be Basis’ next project, and so I shall be sparing on the details. I haven’t looked at these notes in well over 18 months, I suppose the idea was just so good that I could never forget it. What follows is an excerpt from a brief outline of the movie.

Frankie walks down country roads. She looks in her bag and sees she’s running out of food. She awakens the next morning to find a fruit basket waiting for her. She continues on her journey. One day it rains, and she runs for cover and finds a tent waiting for her – sleeping bag and all. Food continually appears for her every morning, enough to last the whole day. One morning she awakens to a strange man, Robin Goodfellow, eating her food. She tells him off, but he says he can help her. He leads her into the forest, and he quickly disappears. Later, she finds a tent in a clearing, and goes to sleep, but is awoken by sounds of a party outside. She hears people dancing, music playing, a fire roaring, but when she gathers the courage to peek out the tent window, all she sees in the Fiddler, who tells Frankie to go back to sleep. She continues on until she reaches a creek where the Shepherd awaits with a raft. He cooks her a meal of fish, and then tells her that she must continue her journey by going downstream. She does so on the raft. Robin appears again and informs her that the water ahead gets rough, so she gets off and continues on foot. Fade to autumn…

 

Based on this outline I wrote a complete script about 22.5 pages long, but I decided that this draft lacked the excitement that I was looking for, and so I began coming up with more ideas. The story became a fantasy in the modern sense of the term, and it was with this new version that Spirits and a true villain came into play.

Stay tuned for next week’s update, where we’ll talk about Spirits, altars, and the evolution of the character who would become Shade.