SR Articles

Spirit’s Requiem Internet Premiere

It’s been a long time coming, but now you can view Spirit’s Requiem from the comfort of your home (or office space if your boss isn’t paying attention).

For those of you who are a little out of the loop, Spirit’s Requiem is about a young Girl who goes on an adventure to save the world. There are Spirits, sacred swords, magical flutes, strong female characters, and an Evil Man. You’ve gotta have a villain, especially one that is evil. Sounds like a bit much, right? Where are the Girl’s parents in all of this? Don’t think about it too much, just remember the MST3K mantra.

You can find more info on the movie here, including interviews with the crew and our archived production updates. For now, sit back and enjoy the film. I recommend going directly to the YouTube page and watching it in full screen. If you like what you see be sure to let us know and spread the word. We at Basis Productions make movies for people to watch – the more, the merrier. If you like what you hear you can buy the soundtrack directly from the composer here. Now let’s get it on like [trademarked video game character]!

 

 

Basis Weekly Update 11/4/2011 – Spirit’s Origins II

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the first ideas for the movie that would become Spirit’s Requiem, ideas that bore only a passing resemblance to the story as it is now. And then, in March of 2010 there was a breakthrough, an idea that had enough adventure, excitement, and mystery to make it compelling for the average person (previous drafts were a little too “art house”), but was possible to pull it off on a budget comprised of Monopoly money.

The beginning of an outline dated March 7th, 2010:

Girl awakens to the Great Spirit calling her. She grabs her shield and lantern, and runs off. She follows music (the GS singing) to where the Great Spirit is. The GS tells her that a bad man has taken away her power, and to get it back she must reawaken the four Spirits. But first she must remove the Sword from the Sacred Grove. She travels there and takes the sword. There is a baby nearby. He laughs, and her Companion joins her. Her Companion tells her where the Fire Spirit is.

 

The Companion, an invisible fairy born from the baby’s laugh, was developed from an invisible friend that briefly accompanied the Girl in the second draft, which in turn was developed from the “giants” in the first draft. He was a kind and helpful fairy who guided the Girl to each of the four altars.

The altars were introduced in this draft, a concept that stayed with the script until shortly before filming began. There were four altars each representing one element. Can you guess what they were? Fire, wind, earth, and water. Thanks to Final Fantasy (and pretty much every JRPG I’ve ever played) for that idea. The Girl needed to activate these altars by solving some sort of puzzle, and the Spirit would be awakened and we would be “treated” to a lengthy expository speech regarding the villain, initially known as the Man in Black, and the nature of the Spirits.

Overall the outline for this draft looks remarkably similar to the movie as it is now. I cannot go into any more detail lest I spoil you, and I certainly wouldn’t want to do that.

The problems with version numero tres were twofold – the pace wasn’t quick enough, and there was very little conflict before the climax. The first problem continued to be a problem until the final draft, but the latter issue was homed in on like a predator drone going after a terrorist hideout (though I should clarify that no civilians were killed in the process of writing this script).

And so, the Companion became Shade in the draft dating from late April 2010. Upon writing this I realize that Shade could take up an entire article on her own, and so I believe I’ll do that at a later date. In short, while the Companion was kind and helpful, Shade was sardonic and far less obliging. It brought it much more conflict to the story, as Shade has far less optimism about their chances against the Evil Man, and on several occasions expresses her love for the shadows. It’s cooler in the shade than in the sun, after all.

Between April 2010 and April 2011 the script essentially stayed the same. There were minor changes here and there, mainly the removal of things that were deemed to be too difficult to pull off with our resources. Originally there were two encounters with the Evil Man’s minions, but due to the complexity of filming fight scenes and outfitting the minions in appropriately evil costumes they were scrapped. A bonfire party was also thrown away partially due to logistical difficulties but also because it felt somewhat out of place.

The biggest change came in April of 2011 when, as we were casting for several of our roles, I figured out how to pick up the pacing of the plot by getting rid of the altars and replacing them with one all encompassing “Spirits’ Altar.” The pace was greatly quickened and the movie slightly shortened. It also meant we didn’t have to figure out how to haul a stone altar around to four different locations, though in the finished movie the altar isn’t actually a stone altar and is rather a waterfall type thing. Securing stone altars is surprisingly difficult, though we do have a kickass stone pedestal for the sacred sword.

The only major script change during filming was to the ending, which – please do not be alarmed – was completely rewritten less than an hour before it was shot. If you have time or money invested in this movie and have just had a heart attack then I advise you to take some Advil. Or call 911. Or just get over it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: fight scenes are horribly difficult to film. I decided it would be better to rewrite the scene than have a god awful battle that leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that you forget all the goodness that was the previous 40 minutes of the movie. So how did the hastily rewritten ending work out? You’ll have to be the judge for yourself.

The script saw its last draft on July 10th, 2011, where some minor adjustments were made to a scene about to be filmed to correct for production related changes to a previous scene. Though the script is finalized and will see no more edits, the story is still being changed in the editing bay. As of right now I’m seriously contemplating cutting a portion from one of the scenes that is an artifact from earlier drafts and is no longer necessary to understand the story or the characters, despite the fact that I’ve already locked the cut. As a wise man once said, it’s not over until the fat lady sings.

On a related note, Basis Productions is looking for a plus sized female to perform a selection of Mozart’s opera works at the premiere of our latest movie. Mezzo-sopranos are preferred.

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.