Deriva-what?

I have an entry up at John August's blog in his latest writing challenge: use a character to explain financial derivatives. I have no idea what the hell those are, but my trusty friend wikipedia does, and so with a little research I forced a nerdy banker to explain them to a horde of brain-thirsty white-collar zombies.

Why zombies? 

Why not zombies? I think that is the better question. 

You can find it, and all the other excellent entries, right here. Mine is #42. 

By the by, his website as a whole is quite awesome and chock full of great screenwriting advice. It's well worth the price of admission, which is free. Free is good.

The Almighty Backlog

Heyo everybody. It's been a very interesting time since Crazy 8s wrapped up. I went back to work on the Tuesday after the screening - the show I work on had been on hiatus for 4 months, so that gave me the time to do Crazy 8s, but also it was really hard going from having no schedule to instantly jumping back into a work schedule. 

The screening was a complete success as far as I'm concerned. I hear there were about 1000 people there, which is totally awesome. Most of the screenings I've been to have been for school or held in smaller venues, so I've never had anything screen in front of so many people. 

Allison Mack (from Smallville) hosted the whole thing. I didn't have a chance to speak with her, but she seemed to really enjoy all the shows, and has a smile about 8 feet wide. She also has her own nifty blog/website.

Speaking of the shows, it was quite the mix. I didn't know much about all the others except for "Under Pressure", which was made by some good friends of mine and was quite funny. They really ran the whole range of genre and content - some had great stories, some were very visually polished, some had great music, but they were all very entertaining. Each one had flaws (including my own) but for eight days worth of work they are all damned impressive.

Pi Day was received very, very well. We were the last show to screen, which I think is a good thing. People were laughing a lot, and it was very interesting to see what the audience found funny and what they didn't. Some things that I thought were neutral got big laughs, and some things that I always laughed at only got a few chuckles. In a way, though, that's a good thing. Comedy is so universal and subjective that it's impossible to make everything funny to someone. The best we can hope for is to make something funny for everyone, and that way each individual person, while not laughing at the same thing as everyone else, will still laugh at something and be entertained.

Does that make sense? It works in my head, at least. 

We putzed about the after-party for a while, then ran across the street where we could actually hear ourselves and got some dinner. Most of our cast was there, and we ate and drank and were merry until I realized it was late and almost missed the last train home.

So, what now? Well, we're prepping the movie for dvd and we'll be making tons of copies for everyone who was kind enough to help us out. I haven't heard from the Crazy 8s people in a while, but I imagine they're sleeping and getting caught up on life things, like groceries and laundry.

In retrospect, there are always things about the film or the process that I would like to change. Given more time and resources, I believe I could have achieved a higher visual quality - colour, lighting, etc... But like I mentioned before, given that we had a total of 8 days, I'm extremely proud of the final product and the people who helped me complete it. 

I have a few ideas kicking around in the back of my head for my next projects, but I'm making sure to shelve one for next year's Crazy 8s. I will definitely try to do this again. 

I will, of course, keep anyone who still reads this informed about any festivals that we get into or what happens with the television/airline distribution plans. The last of the podcasts are up too if you want to check them out here.

This whole adventure has been a very wild ride, and it's sort of sad to see it come to an end. But, like all good things, it must. 

*sigh*

Pi Day on the radio

I'm on the radio! Well, I was. I did an interview with the "North by Northwest" program on CBC Radio One on Friday morning, after delivery, and then it aired Saturday morning. For those who missed it (probably most people as it was on at around 7:30 in the morning), it can now be downloaded at the NXNW website, www.cbc.ca/nxnw, or you can just click here.

Just a note, it's a Real Player file, so you need Real Player or a suitable plugin to listen to it. You can find Real Player here.

I've been a bag blogger, I know. It's been a whirlwind few days with delivering the film, wrapping up the paperwork, fixing my car, the screening and getting ready to go back to work this week. But don't fret, I'll update about the screening and all that shortly.

In short, screening was AWESOME! I'll tell you more in a bit.

Chomping at the bit

Tonight's the big night, and I thought I would give you all a little preview. One of our delivery requirements was a 15 second trailer or clip for the Crazy 8s website, and I've got the okay to post it here first!

It's not much, but gives you an idea about the energy in the show (of which there's a lot).

And don't forget! 777 Homer street, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts! Doors at 6:30, show starts around 7. You can still buy tickets online at www.crazy8s.cc for 20 bucks, or 25 at the door. All the proceeds go towards paying for the whole Crazy 8s contest for this year and for next.

Be ready for Pi! And pie!

All the days are starting to blend together - Day Last?

As my weary fingers type, Final Cut Pro renders away in the background, prepping to write our beloved Pi Day to DVCAM tape for delivery tomorrow morning. 

We did it. We actually did it. Not that I ever doubted out team, but we've accomplished a lot in the last eight days.

I should take this moment to tell you the story of James, our composer. He was in Winnipeg this week, and flew back early to compose for our show. He showed up at work, 9am Wednesday morning, and we had a spotting session where we went through the edit and picked out good points for music. We threw around some ideas, had a few laughs, and I sent him on his way.

Cut to this (Thursday) morning. I woke up at quarter to eight, and about five minutes later my phone rang.

"I'm done!" James exclaimed. I blinked and double-checked my watch.

"James, have you gone to sleep yet?" I asked.

"Nope!" He cheerfully replied. 

He told me the music was already at Western Post (our sound facility), and bade me farewell as he was off to a rehearsal for a concert later that night. He worked almost a day straight for us, wrote 12 original tracks, and got his team (Andrew and Natasha) to license two songs from a local band. 

He really is our hero. When we sat down at the playback and got to see the finished picture combined with the music and the sound design, we were almost crying from laughing so hard. I don't remember the last time I had a show that so benefited from great sound and music. And what music! Incredible stuff, really. Trust me when I say that it makes this show run on an entirely different level now.

Brody, Luke, Chris and everyone at Western Post has done an amazing job for us for the sound design, and I hope they realize that we truly do appreciate their help and support. Having a good sound design helps elevate a film from a cute little attempt at an indie to a legitimate short film.

Now, we cross our fingers and hope that the computers don't crash (knock on wood) while we export, which is a long, and boring process. We will see you all tomorrow, bright and early at 9am, handing off Pi Day. After that, I'm doing an interview with CBC Radio at 11 about Crazy 8s and the whole process, and then barring nothing else, we're done until the screening.

On behalf of myself, my super awesome producers Malcolm and Scott, and everyone who helped with Pi Day and Crazy 8s, thank you for keeping up with us during the mayhem, the good and the bad. For anyone who's thinking about pitching for Crazy 8s next year, I definitely recommend it. It has been the most hellish week in recent memory, but incredibly fun.

And I think I lost a few pounds too - stress and coffee are great weight loss tools!*

P.S. Don't forget about the screening! www.crazy8s.cc for info. This Saturday, we'll see you there!

*No, they're not. Not at all*

You need all the pieces to make a puzzle - Day 6

Yes! Ha ha! We have a picture lock, and what a picture lock! We are all very, very happy with how it's looking, and since we keep laughing each time we watch it, I think we're on the right track.

The last few items are falling into place - the animation fx are coming tomorrow (and temp ones are already cut in), the sound guys are rocking away, fixing our audio and creating ambiance and effects, and our composer and his guys are pulling stuff out of his library and stuffing our show full of music. 

Like, for example, a song called, "The Math Song." It's a a song, about math, and reciting a formula.

Officially, the coolest song I have ever heard.

Tomorrow is the sound mix, where we put it all together and hope it works, then we can start our output, and then this ridiculous movie-making-marathon will be over! It has definitely had its problems, and a little disorganized to start, but damn if it isn't looking great now.

I'd write more now, but it's almost 1:30, and I told myself that I had to be in bed by 12. Oops. So much for that plan. Oh well, sleep is for beginners anyways.

And don't forget about the screening! Saturday, The Centre For Performing Arts. Tix are 15 bucks at Biz Books, 20 bucks online, or 25 at the door. 

And we thought the hard part was over... Day 5 of 8

We're into post production now, and it's proving to have it's own unique set of challenges. We throught a 2 day shoot would be the hard part, but it's going to be the 4 days of post that really test our mettle.

This is the 1st time we've shot 1080i before with the HVX-200, and we knew it would take up a lot of hard drive space, but not this much. We're spread across two drives right now, and more may be coming. 

I'm a little behind in the cut right now - We've got a good assembly but I was hoping to be closer to a fine cut. It'll work out okay for now though, since our sound guys and animators can use the current cut to get started, and we'll go from there.

We'll keep on trucking tomorrow!