Pi Day: The Movie!

Deriva-what?

2008-05-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-04-25T01:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-24T01:19:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-22T01:35:00.001-07:00

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!

Nerdy Nerds and Smokey Smoke - Day 4

2008-04-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

My eyes are burning, but before I hop into bed, I figured I would treat you all to a minor preview.

It's a good thing the smoke machine ruined the sound for these takes, cause I was laughing my ass off every single time.

We've officially wrapped production on Pi Day. Tomorrow is our picture edit, and then on to sound editing.

If any of my cast and/or crew are reading this, I owe you my endless thanks. Everyone really came to bat for this show, and it's going to turn out great. I've already watched most of the footage, and it looks very, very good.

Everyone else, if you're wondering why they're running through smoke, then you'd better come to the screening on the 26th to find out! *end shameless plug*

To quote my nerds from today, "Excelsior!"

Sun Dance

2008-04-20T00:35:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention - the snow stopped falling by this morning, and was almost completely melted by the time we had to shoot outside.

Whomever did a sun dance for me yesterday, thank you.

Excuse me if I fall asleep on my keyboard - Day 3

2008-04-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

Short and sweet, here, folks - I can barely keep my eyes open and the McDonald's gut-bomb sitting in my stomach demands that I lay down soon.

So, today was the 1st day of shooting, and all said and done, it went pretty well. We started off strong, got some great steadicam shots, and then moved locations after 2 hours. That took longer than we planned, and then we were missing a critical prop* which forced a rescheduling of the afternoon, and then setting up a hood mount for the camera on a van took much, much longer than I had anticipated.

By 4 o'clock, we were almost three hours behind schedule. But, also, we had just finished the most complicated scenes of the day.

A few pow-wows with my producers and dop later, we chugged down some jet fuel and rocketed along**. Like I said, almost three hours behind, and we wanted to wrap by 8:30 pm...

We popped off the last shot at 8:39, and had shot a total of 8 pages of script. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. We had to sacrifice a few wish-list shots, but I'd rather make my days than have a movie that makes no sense.

My crew deserves a good pat on the back, and our actors kept us laughing all day. Good times.

Crew call tomorrow is 8 am. We only have about 3 pages to shoot, but it's complicated smoke-machine and slow motion work that will eat up time. I think it'll go mighty fine. I hope.

* We forgot a pair of binoculars, so our props guy had to run to Canadian Tire and buy new ones, and found a cheap pair of Dora the Explorer ones that were bright yellow and freaking funny on camera. A good example of when things go bad, they can quickly turn around even better.

**No jet fuel was harmed in the making of this production. Pi Day: The Movie! does not recommend you actually drink jet fuel, and will not be held liable when your dumb ass goes blind if you do drink it.

Winter Wonderland and Chocolate C Stands - Day 2

2008-04-19T00:42:00.000-07:00

I'm hopping to bed right after this, but I thought I would share a few details about our day today, Day 2 of 8.

We had to go to the equipment house to pickup our lights and grip equipment. We (my producer and I) ran down to the address given to us, and promptly found ourselves sitting in front of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Right address, definitely wrong business.

Don't get me wrong, I love a chocolate C stand as much as you do, but once the lights warm up they start to melt.

After several frantic phone calls we found out where this place actually was, and that was on the far, far opposite side of town. So on the day we needed to be speedy quick, we were over an hour and a half late getting started.

Once that was settled we got moving and managed to get everything done on time. However, this brings us to the other issue that has popped up.

Have you looked outside today? Do you see puffy white flakes falling from the sky? I do.

And I hate them. So, so much.

While snow doesn't affect our story so much, just the fact that it's there makes our lives several gazillion times more difficult. If it melts once we've started, our continuity screws up. If it melts, it's gonna be muddy outside. If it stays, it's gonna be slippery and cold and generally miserable.

In short, lame. If you know a particularly effective sun dance, please perform it in worship to the weather deity of your choice, and we'll make sure to give you a credit in the film.

Shooting starts tomorrow, 8:30 am. Wish us luck.

P.S. Isn't is April right now?

Pi Day, Day 1

2008-04-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

We officially began going crazy today - picked up our start packs in downtown Vancouver and started whittling away at the paperwork.

About a hundred dozen or so phone calls later, we sorted out all our rentals, camera gear, equipment pickup, rental van, and so on. I'm a little terrified about how big our phone bills are going to be this month. I'd rather not think about it.

Our locations are locked, we've got the gear we need, and now the only thing we're missing are a few crew members and we'll be ready to roll. Eight days from now we'll have a shiny eight minute movie in our hands, and I couldn't be happier.

It's interesting to see that we (or anyone, really) can make a quality film in a very short amount of time if they really push for it. We did countless short films back at school, and granted the production values were arguably higher than what we're doing here, but we would spend months on these, not mere days.

It's the people, not the time or the gadgets that make something worth watching. And I have to say, without a doubt, that I'm working with the most talented crew I've ever come across. I can't wait to see what we can all do.

Tomorrow, final preparations, and a camera test with the smoke machine that can fog up a football field in 60 seconds.

Should be fun. *wink*

P.S. Shameless plug, but don't forget to get your tickets for the Crazy 8s screening on April 26th! 15 bucks at Biz Books, 20 online or 25 at the door. Come for the pi, stay for the pie!

P.P.S I have no idea if they actually will have pie there. I think they should, but that's just me.

Meet Pi(e)

2008-04-18T02:56:00.001-07:00

My mother is the best damn pie chef this side of everywhere. That's all I have to say.

T minus 1

2008-04-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, we're rolling in two days. Which means, we officially start Crazy 8s tomorrow.

Yikes.

It came faster than I thought! We've got a lot done already, but there's still a ton to think about. We're picking up our start packs tomorrow, including a forest's worth of paperwork, and we'll get our gear lists, which means we will finally know what cameras we'll have and the lighting equipment.

Speaking of lighting, we had a sit-down with our cinematographer (or DOP, for short) and went over some ideas and shot planning. He knows his stuff, big time, and it's going to be a hoot working with him.

Time to relish this last night of blissful sleep, because tomorrow, we go crazy!

Spell Check

2008-04-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

I just saw that the spell checker in Thunderbird read "pidaythemovie" and decided that, not only was it incorrect, but the only thing that it could possibly change to, was chemotherapy.

Just another reason not to blindly trust our computer overlords and their faux grammar.

A week went by? Already?

2008-04-15T00:04:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, I've realized that time has this funny way of going by really, really fast when you need it to go really, really slow. We go to picture in five days, folks.

Five days! Eeep!

But, it's all coming together. The pieces are starts to fall (not tumble, mind you) into place. I've been working on a few other projects too that have been eating up Pi time, but those are now almost complete.

Our director of photography is in place. Our composer is in place. Our cast is in place, and our locations are mostly locked. Whew!

Speaking of casting, I don't remember laughing so hard as I did this weekend, where we had several incredibly talented actors come in to read, and to my surprise, they all had a different, but always funny, take on the characters that I had never considered. We wound up adding a slew of lines to the script from material that they had just improvised on the spot.

I love watching a script come to life for the first time, and seeing how much fun the actors (and ourselves) were having with it felt really, really good. Actually choosing who to cast was a very difficult decision because, simply, everyone was too good.

I know, I know, people always say that. Well, it's true. These guys were all very, very good, and it's my hope that whomever did not get cast in a lead role will still come out to be one of the Fractals.

Because, let's be honest, you can never have too many nerds.

Crazy 8s podcasts

2008-04-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

The Crazy 8s website is hosting podcasts on the process, keeping tabs on the events and people as we go about all this. The latest one went live today, covering the story meeting and showing a few brief interview clips with all of us.

You can check it out here, or you can also subscribe to it through the iTunes store at Podcasts > Visual Arts > Crazy 8s 2008 Film Event in Vancouver.

I don't come across as a complete toolbox in the clip, which is nice.

Oh, and a small piece of advice: four cups of coffee for breakfast, without any actual breakfast, is not a terrific idea.

*groan*

In which it all starts to come together

2008-04-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

Working on Crazy 8s is very different from any other shorts that I've done before, namely that we basically can't prep anything until Day 1 of 8. My initial belief was they we prepped what we could, started shooting on Day 1, then posted and delivered eight days later.

Not so, as I learned on Saturday. After the story meeting, we all (the Crazy 8s people and us lucky eight) held a production meeting where they gave us the do's and don'ts and details. The only things we're allowed to actually prep in a traditional sense is our locations, cast and crew. Everything else we can form ideas for, but we don't know our gear list and delivery requirements until the 1st day.

In that sense Day 1 is actually the first "official" day of prep. Day 1 we get our paperwork and prep, Day 2, we pick up gear and finalize everything we can, then shoot Days 3 and 4, then post Days 5, 6, 7, and deliver on Day 8. This cuts 2 days from my initial plan of shooting on Day 1, but in a way works much better since we now have to shoot on the weekend, which frees up a lot of people for cast and crew who would otherwise be working during the week.

The closer we get to the start the more excited I get. Our crew list is starting to come together, the script is getting closer to being locked, and it seems, as Fisher Price would say, the possibilities are endless. One of the things we talked about in the production meeting was the industry support we'll be getting. Not only are they (oh so kindly, I might add) giving us three grand worth of rentals from a local production supply company, we're also getting an online and colour correction session with a local post house and a mix at a sound studio.

Sweet!

As for the story meeting I mentioned, it went quite well and was a lot of fun. It's always very cool to get a fresh pair of eyes on the script, especially someone who's a story editor for a living. The hard part now is still slimming down the script.

It's a hard balance, because the majority (something like between 70 - 80%) of shorts that do really well are under 7 minutes, and many festivals prefer shorts under five minutes, and right now Pi Day clocks in at approximately 9 minutes. The script is about 9 and 7/8 pages, and normally one page of script is one minute of screen time, but comedies (like mine) tend to play faster, so I'm guessing it's 9 minutes. Trying to cut another two minutes out is going to be very difficult if I decide to go that route.

Crazy 8s requirements ask that the shorts be no longer than 10 mins, so I'm fine there, but if I want to make my distribution audience as wide as possible then they recommend it clock in at seven. Right now, I don't know if my story as it is can accommodate any more cuts without losing plot points, so I'll have to re-imagine a few scenes to make that work.

Story Editing

2008-04-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Today was the CBC-hosted story editing session at Vancouver Film School, where all us little writing folk got our stories torn apart, shredded, then reassembled much, much better. Think the 6 million dollar man, only paper.

I'll go into more detail later, but it was quite a good time, overall, and the fantastic story editor and I managed to shave over a page off my script without really losing anything, which is great. The shorter the better, especially since this is supposed to be a "short" film.

Oh, and my dryer works now, in case anyone was interested. Yay for real repairmen!

In which I tell you what Pi Day is all about

2008-04-02T16:34:00.000-07:00

I should probably tell you what Pi Day is all about, so I will! And yes, the film itself is called Pi Day, not Pi Day: The Movie. (Sidebar warning) I hate titles with ": The Movie" in them, as if the marketing team thinks that the audience doesn't know what they're watching. Same thing with books that have "A Novel" splashed across them.

It's a novel? Really? I thought it was a cleverly disguised lamp!

Anyways, Pi Day. The day itself is an actual (though unofficial) holiday, where math geeks the world over celebrate the great number Pi. Pi, as you may remember from grade 5 math, is 3.14159..... and so on until infinity or Dick Clark dies, whichever comes first. It represents the ratio of a circles circumference (the distance around the circle) to its diametre (the distance across the circle). It is also a trancendental number, which means it cannot be expressed through any combination of mathematical equations, and it is irrational, which means it never ends. So, long story short, Pi is relatively unique, widely used, and sounds like tasty food. Which is why, on the 3rd day of the 14th month at 1:59 pm (3.14159, remember?), math people sit down and celebrate by eating delicious pie.

Pi Day (we're talking about the film now) is about two high-school math geeks who are celebrating Pi Day when their pie is stolen by the rival math team from across town, who believe in Pi day on a different day! Pi as a fraction used to be represented as 22/7 (which is now known to be incorrect) and as such this other math team, known as The Fractals, celebrate Pi Day on the 22nd day of the 7th month, and they hate anyone who thinks otherwise.

Our math-geek heroes have less than 15 minutes to dash across town, rescue their pie from the evil Fractals, and get home by 1:59 to celebrate Pi Day in peace. Will our heroes succeed, or will their pie be mocked and destroyed by those treacherous heathens?

You'll find out soon enough. Especially if you come to the screening on April 26th! *cough* Sorry, had a shameless plug stuck in my through *cough cough*.

It's a simple story, but I like them better that way - keep it simple, stupid!

For more about Pi, including lots of 2 dollar words that need a degree to pronounce, check out the link to Pi at Wikipedia on the sidebar to the right.

Taking laundry machines for granted

2008-04-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

As we speak, my landlord is banging on the top of my (inoperable) dryer going, "It no work?! I don't know why it no work!" So far, he completely disassembled it, vacuumed out the lint and gunk out of the motor, and cried out, "Now it should work!"

It didn't work.

My large, wet pile of clothes are politely asking that we call a real repairman, and not a vacuum-wielding, disassembling-man.

Just thought you'd like to know.

You guys are awesome

2008-03-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

*Cue sappy music*

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's sent along their congratulations and encouragement for me and this project. It really means a lot to know that I have your support.

So, yeah, thank you. Very much.

*End sappy music*

What's a Crazy 8s?

2008-03-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

Pi Day is being made as part of the Crazy 8s short film competition.

"What's a Crazy 8s short film competition?" You say. Well, I'm glad you asked! *ahem*

Crazy 8s is a short film competition that runs with 8 as a theme. 8 filmmakers get 8 days to make a short film (under 10 minutes) with 800 bucks. They used to also give the filmmakers 800 feet of film stock, which works about to about 20 minutes worth of stock, but in this modern age of miniDV and HD, they give you 30 minutes of tape stock.

To be selected, you have to pitch, and they had 60 people come in over two days and pitch their story ideas to a judging panel of 7 local film industry pros. You can see a short clip of my pitch on the winner's announcement podcast on the Crazy 8s website (www.crazy8s.cc).

Now that we've all been selected, we get a story meeting with some professional story editors (and hosted by the CBC here in Vancouver), a camera package, several thousand dollars in grip/lighting gear, and a sweet-ass venue to screen our finished shows.

We have from April 17th to the 24th to complete the films, and the screening is on the 26th. This is an amazing opportunity for me (and the others, of course), and I'm quite honored to be a part of it.

I'm also terrified. There's a whole lot to do and two weeks to do it. Right now, I'm the one-man show. Hopefully I'll get my crew together sooner than later and then things should start to fall into place.

Wish me luck.

P.S. Check out the Crazy 8s website for more deets (as the kids say these days). They also do their own podcasts, which are worth a look.

In which Pi Day: The Movie begins!

2008-03-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, look what you've found. My little corner of the interwebs. It's a little bare so far, I know, but I only made it an hour ago, so give me a little slack, yeah?

Me and this blog are here because Pi Day is here! The movie, my script, not the actual day which was over two weeks ago. I pitched for, and was accepted into the 2008 Crazy 8s film festival, in which 8 filmmakers get 8 days and 800 bucks to make a short film no longer than 10 minutes long, and only 30 minutes of tape stock to use.

This is going to be my little production diary, if you will, of the show. We start shooting April 17th, so for the next 17 days, I will probably not eat, sleep, or be merry, and instead will fret, worry, and panic as I try to create a calling-card film that I can be proud of.

I'll try to post at least once a day and keep you all updated as my little adventure continues. Please, leave comments, ask questions, or just yell at me about anything you want. I'll hear you, and if I like you I'll probably respond too. Hell, I'll fire back even if I don't like you - I'm not picky.

Best of luck to the other competitors, if they're reading this. And so, Pi Day: The Movie begins!