Lewis Pictures

I wanted to make a few maps for a story that I began working on a few days ago. I found a tutorial on the internet about how to do that and this is what I came up with.



Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Here it is everyone, the long expected President of Mogulville Promo. I really didn't think I was going to get it done this morning, but these things do happen.



Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Tonight I finished compositing all of the green screen shots. The "President of Mogulville" promo should be complete by tomorrow night. All that is left if matching up the video with the audio. Sadly for the contest, we can only have a thirty second video. We could have done several other things if we were allowed to make the film longer. I will be posting the video on this blog as well as www.treemo.com and youtube tomorrow night, or sometime on Wednesday.

As for the Preordained trailer, I really don't have anything to report. I'm waiting on our club to be approved before we continue with preproduction. Even then, we will have to post fliers up everywhere and put an ad in the daily bulletin for probably a week before we get anyone to sign up for the club.

The Preordained book, sadly still remains unedited. But, it will be by the time the trailer for the film is released. Several copies of the book will be printed off at a self-publishing company called Lulu (www.lulu.com). There is a chance that these will be sold at the film festival to support the Association of New Media Developers. But whether or not we will sell them there is still speculation.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

        Indy Mogul, a website that does DIY Film stuff. Great website, though a lot of it I wouldn't use in any of my films, its still extremely entertaining. Anyway, they are having this contest where you could be the president of "Mogulville". On Monday the 18th (president's day), we filmed our little President Promo for indymogul.com We got our green screen up to par and shot the thirty second video in about an hour. Andrew Nelson (The person running for president)came up with all of the dialog, right there on the spot-I'd vote for him. Joe also came over and helped out a lot. I'm not sure yet if he makes it into the final version of the promo, the reason being is because I have not yet finished editing it. This was really fun, because we didn't have to be serious about what we were doing. I haven't had this kind of fun in filmmaking for a long time. Lately most of my films have been so serious that we haven't really had a chance to fool around.

These are pictures from when we were filming the promo.






Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hey Everyone,
         Sorry I haven't been posting on my blog at all for the last several days. Not too much has happened in relation to this film, Preordained. The only thing is that we were able to begin the film club which is known as the Association of New Media Developers or ANMD. There will be a school meeting in which they will decide whether or not the club will be approved. Its more likely than not that it will be. That meeting will be held on the 5th of March.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hey Everyone, I decided to Vlog again today:



Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hey Everyone,
From some resent research it seems that we are not going to be shooting in High Definition. I know I know, I said in my last blog that we were, but shooting in standard definition is really much better for us for the following two reasons.

1. We can save money
2. We can use the M2 Redrock
   

Wait, the M2 what? The M2 Redrock is a DOF (Depth Of Field) adapter that is attached to the lens of the camera. Why would you want that? The video below is test footage from the camera that we will be getting with the M2 Redrock adapter. Note:The AG-DVX100a which is the model right below the AG-HVX200. Also, I do not like the music they chose for the background.



IN OTHER NEWS: I have been thinking about this "Film Club" that we have to make, and have come to the conclusion that its a great idea. I'm thinking that it should not be called a Film Club, but instead a Media Club. We would incorporate every aspect of the audio visual experience into the club. What kind of media would that be? Here is a list:

• Flash Animation (Computer generated two dimensional animation)
• Stop Motion Animation
• Hand Drawn Sketches (Scanned into the computer and then made into video)
• Short films or sketches (little videos with tiny plots)
• Writing the small script
• Storyboards
• Filming
• Special FX (done on the computer)
• Editing
• Scoring (adding music)
• Interviews (Asking people on campus questions)
  
• Website management (We plan on putting all of this stuff on our clubs website)
  

So what days of the week would the videos and photos be put online?
Monday-Friday: Production Photos
Monday: Interviews
Thursday: Animation
Saturday: Film Sketch

How many people would you like to have, and what would they work on?
Twenty would be great, of course everyone would have a chance to do everything.
Film Sketch: 10, between the writing, storyboards, acting, lighting, directing and camera work.
Interviews: 2, one person to hold the camera, the other to ask the questions.
Animation: 4, all working on separate parts of the animation.
Production Photos: 2, that is enough to cover all of the action.
Website: 2 people could run the website easily enough.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hey, I decided to do a vlog (video blog) today.



Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

         Thats right folks, we are go for shooting the entire film, Preordained. The final paperwork has to go through first, but for the most part, it is no longer speculation, it is reality. All we need now is the commitment from the actors, and then we can do anything. I believe that by the time everything gets sorted out, we will begin fund raising in 1.5 to 2 weeks. This leaves us with just enough time to gather funds, and shoot the film. We will only have three weeks of filming time though, but the advantage of this, is that we will have time to rehearse. Last year, we were not able to spend anytime making sure the dialog was correct. This turned out to be ok though, because there was hardly any dialog in the last film anyway. With this extra time we will also be able to work on acting, something that needs as much time as dialog. Interaction between characters is usually poor with high school actors so we can work on this as well. So really this whole thing is a blessing in disguise. Now I am going to try and do my geometry homework and go to bed.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

        There is some great film equipment out there folks that falls under the price range of independent films. Yeah, I know, 5 grand is a lot, but its nothing in comparison to the of hundreds of thousands of dollars professional films spend on renting their equipment. The keyword here is renting, it's so expensive that they don't even bother to buy it. Anyway, getting back to the main reason of this post, the long term plan for film equipment, partially pertaining to this film, but mostly to the future film class at the school. Something that really makes your film look like a real film and have that "film-look" is the M2 Redrock. Its a lens adapter rig, a really big one. It's amazing what it does. I am hoping to in the long run to be able to purchase this for the school. This would provide a great opportunity for the students to learn what kind of lenses you use for what kind of situations and effects your trying to get. This really would be the icing on the cake for a film class, but first we have to get the cake and that means that this is iffy.

Link to the M2 Redrock adapter: http://www.redrockmicro.com/

Here are two images of the lenses attached to the HVX200 (the camera we want to get for this film)




Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hey Everyone,
         Today Andrew and I met with Elna Kawal about working with the school to get their help to raise funds for film equipment. The meeting actually went quite well. It closed a few doors, but at the same time opened up some better ones that could increase the ability to make Preordained. In order for us to get the money, we have to first start a film club on campus. This is really a great idea. It has crossed my mind before but I never really considered it because I thought that not to many people would show up, but this year I am finding out more and more that there are lots of people who are interested in film making. What we have to do now is get more people involved in the filming process. This could potentially turn into several classes such as: writing (the script), filming (you would learn about different camera angles, when to use certain angles, lighting, etc.), Editing (editing the film) and Computer Graphics. I'm hoping that after we get this group together and see that there are enough people who would love to get into film creation, the school would start of these classes. Sadly they probably wont start these classes until I'm gone, because next year's classes are already written up. But, if we get enough people together, it sounds like we could get a film class next year, we'll see. So All in all, the meeting went quite well.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmon

Here is the potential budget in case you didn't see it below
Budget Plan A

Equipment:

The Camera:
AG-HVX200 link $5200
Dolly link $50
Crane link $70

The Lighting:
2 Lightboxes link $70
Light Stands link $40
Lights $50-150

The Audio:
ATR55 Microphone link $40
Ikey Plus Audio recorder link $140
Boom Pole link $20

Other:
Costumes, Props, Sets, Music, Etc: $1500-2000
Total Budget: $7300-8000

-----------------------------------------------

Can we do it for less? Sure we can.
Budget Plan B

Equipment:
The Camera:
AG-HVX200 link $5200
Dolly link $50
Crane link $70

The Audio:
ATR55 Microphone link $40
Ikey Plus Audio recorder link $140
Boom Pole link $20

Other:
Costumes, Props, Sets, Music, Etc: $1000
Total Budget: $6600

-----------------------------------------------
What about less? Can it be done for less? Yes it can.
Budget Plan C

Equipment:

The Camera:
HV20 link $700
Dolly link $50
Crane link $70

The Audio:
ATR55 Microphone link $40
Ikey Plus Audio recorder link $140
Boom Pole link $20

Other:
Costumes, Props, Sets, Music, Etc: $500
Total Budget: $1600-2000
Note: This is getting down really low and will drastically change the film.

-----------------------------------------------

Alright, this sounds crazy, but can it go lower?
The answer sadly is yes.
Budget Plan Z

Audio:
ATR55 Microphone link $40
Ikey Plus Audio recorder link $140
Boom Pole link $20

Other:
Costumes, Props, Sets, Music, Etc: $0-200
Total Budget: $260-460

Major Note: If the budget gets down this low, we will not
be filming the full length film.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

I really should be working on my math homework right now, but I feel in to mood to blog. Tomorrow, Andrew and I may be meeting with Elna Kawal about our film and getting Sequim High School's cooperation with getting the money from sponsors. She was a big help last year by bending over backwards to make sure our film Volition was shown. I really hope that she will help with this film. I think she will because she is the person who began the film festival (I think). We will discuss with her how we will get the money, how we will advertise we are with the school, where the money goes when we get it, How everything will be donated to Sequim high, Our long term plan for the film, How we only plan on shooting a trailer for the film festival, the music we found, posters, etc.

This is how the money would cross hands

1. We get money from our sponsors
2. We would buy equipment for our film, make our film
3. We would then donate everything that we bought with the money to the high school

This really leaves everyone very happy.

IN OTHER NEWS: We might be showing this film in the Port Angeles Auditorium which would be great considering that there are 1,150 seats. Sequim High School only has 450 chairs. It would be wonderful if we could show the movie here not only because of the size, but several professional things happen at the Port Angeles Auditorium. This might bring in a larger crowed. Also, if we advertise the film like this:

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Note: The list of equipment to buy will continue to grow, I didn't want to spend time finding links to all of the website where where the equipment is.

I think it is about time that I discuss the budget again. Since the last time, several things have changed. We are now going to be working with the school. "How so?" you ask?

Warning - Everything below is only speculation nothing has been set into motion yet.

We plan on setting up a bank account in the name of Lewis Pictures and Sequim High School LLP. Our plan then is to go to all of the businesses in Sequim and ask them to sponsor us so we may get film equipment that we can use for preordained and then (under contract) donate the film equipment to Sequim High School (after we finish the film). Thus Sequim High will have great film gear (which they do not have now). I am not sure if I have told you this or not, but we plan on shooting the entire film (potentially 2hrs long). So we would probably finish sometime next school year and then show it at the school auditorium in December 2008. At the showings, which will hopefully be several weekends, people would donate a few dollars to the school to complete the film gear.
The whole idea of this, is that we are happy, and can make our film, as well as the school, who in turn will then have high quality film gear to be capable of having a complete film class. The students must have access to this film gear. For the remainder of the time that I would be at Sequim High, I must also have say on how the equipment is used. The main thing is that the school students will have access to it for a film class or the film festival.

What gear would we be working towards getting? How much money is needed?
Note: The links are just to show you what it looks like, most of the stuff we would acquire elsewhere for cheaper

Equipment:

The Camera:
AG-HVX200 link $5200
Dolly link $50
Crane link $70

The Lighting:
2 Lightboxes link $70
Light Stands link $40
Lights $50-150

The Audio:
ATR55 Microphone link $40
Ikey Plus Audio recorder link $140
Boom Pole link $20

Other:
Costumes, Props, Sets, Music, Etc: $1500-2000
-----------------------------------------------
Total Budget: $7300-8000

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

I am committing this entire post to my Assistant Director, Andrew Nelson. This guy is extremely committed, far more than any other person I have ever worked with. I don't think professional directors have assistant directors as good as Andrew. Yesterday we went location scouting, and he was definitely not feeling very good, but as sick as he was he still drove Joe (my Key Grip [the main guy that is in charge of making sure stuff gets moved to the right location, etc.]) and I back up to the snow place we were a few days ago. He ended up sleeping in his truck the whole time, but man! What a great guy! Even today, he was still under the weather and he came to help out with the auditions and the "reviewing" meeting afterwards to help choose which actors we will use.

This kind of commitment is what is needed to push a movie into the production phase. If you don't have the people who are willing to devote their time and energy into getting the film started, nothing ever happens. Even though there are several situations that arise during the filming of a movie, those can be overcome a lot easer than the beginning.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Note: I'm not trying to flatter him, nor "suck up", this is just what happened.

Hey everyone, I glad to announce the end of casting. We were able to get quite a few people for the auditions. Would you believe that we were able to get twenty people to sign up! Of those twenty, fifteen of them actually showed up. Of the fifteen, we only interviewed nine. I'm not sure what happened, maybe there were more people interested, but didn't show up.

Anyway, this is still a great victory for us. Last year, only seven people actually came to the auditions. Its amazing how much publicity we got from last years film, Volition. This year was a lot easer. The second time around is always easer. There are still things I wish I would have remembered to ask them, as well as have had more time to actually interview the potential actors.

Now the part you probably have been wanting to find out, what parts have been filled.

Kaden (Main Protagonist): Not filled
William (supporting character): Filled
Christine (supporting character): Filled
Ace (sub-character): Filled
Demon (sub-antagonist): Filled
Military General (Sub-Character) [name yet to be determined]: Filled
Architect Archon (Main Antagonist): Not Filled
Agent Turner (sub-character): Pending
Kellerman (sub-antagonist): Pending

So as you can see, for the most part we have our actors. Lets hope that they all will be committed to this film. A big problem that we now face, is the need for an actor for the main character. I'm really happy with the actor we were able to get for Christine, she was the only one that was able to pull off this one line, out of the three people that tried. My Assistant Director, Andrew Nelson, might be able to get someone who has the looks of a leading character. I'm hoping that he will be willing to work on this film.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

       The pre-casting meeting did not go as planned today. I'm not too sure what is going on here but it seems two people that I was going to be leaning on the most (relying on them to help me complete this film) seem not to be able to make it to any of these meetings. I'm hoping that I wont have to, but I might need to find some other people to help lead (notice here I say lead, not direct. People often get mistaken and think that leading in filming is the same thing as directing.) this film to post production. It takes a lot to organize people and get them to do what they need to do. Last year there wasn't enough people leading the actors and crew. Things got messy really fast, and it was much harder to shoot what would normal not take as long. Hopefully they will come around and see that there is a great deal of commitment that goes along with film making.

       On a lighter note, Andrew (my production manager) and I, drove close to the top of a huge hill that over looks Sequim (sorry folks, it's not Bell Hill). We were scouting out a location that we have previously used for the film The Betrayal. about three quarters of the way up we started to run into a great deal of snow. This was something that I hadn't though about, because there isn't any snow in Sequim. Anyway, we were about a quarter mile away from the location when we decided that it would be better to just walk. I had my leather jacket on and didn't really feel like it was all that cold outside. Five minutes later I finally realized how cold it really was. I was starting to freeze. We were almost there when we saw that it was down a small hill and then up a big hill before we would get to the location. Not only that, it was snowing really hard. So we decided to come back some other time. It was quite beautiful actually, the snow covered everything so nicely, much better then in town (I guess that was because we were up so high). What really made the location look so cool was the lack of sound, and the feeling that you are in Narnia. We both concurred that the look of the snow was perfect for this film, the only issue is actually getting up there. Matter what, we will be filming something up there while the snow lasts. I think it will last for at least a month, so we aren't in that much of a hurry. While we were driving to the location, we saw nearby hills that were across a massive field. They looked amazing with the snow lightly dusted over the trees. Good thing we decided to comeback some other time, because when we were driving back to town, the visibility was close to zero. We could only see a small amount of the field, most certainly not the hills. I'm really glad we didn't stay up there any longer.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hey everyone,
       I was not going to post today, but I know I should because this is the casting week for the movie. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are casting days. So, anyone out there that is from Sequim and somehow stumbled upon this blog, and you want to be in a film, come on down to the Sequim High School Library at 2:55 on the days mentioned above.

       There will be a pre-casting meeting tomorrow, in which we will discus how we are supposed to audition these potential actors. Friday afternoon, or Sunday, we will have a "closing meeting" in where we will decide which actors we will use and which ones we will not. That meeting will most likely be held in the public library meeting room. It has tables and a TV or two, etc. So, after that filming shall begin. I haven't talked to anyone else yet, but I think we are going to have to start filming with bad quality audio and then do ADR (Additional Dialog Recording. This is where you re-record the actors dialog in a controlled room, where there aren't any abstract sounds.) later once we get money from our sponsors.

       On a side note, I plan on getting my license during the first week of march or so. I believe that it is very important for me to be capable of getting to the location under my own transportation. Also hauling gear and stuff makes it all the more crucial for to take my own vehicle. Another side note would be that the lewis pictures website is still under construction by both me and my brother. It should be up and running by next week.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Well, I guess I am on a roll tonight with all of these posts. I would like to talk about what currently is being focused on the most, in relation to the creation of Preordained.

Money
As I said before, budget seems to be a necessity for this film. At the meeting today, we thought of a good way to get sponsorship for our film. There are several small businesses in Sequim. We would do four things for them if they donated money to our film.

1. Along with advertising our film in the Peninsula Daily News and Sequim gazette we would also advertise their business.
   
2. Large Posters placed around Sequim advertising the film will include ads for their business.
   
3. At the end of the film their adds will be seen.
   
4. All of these things will include the Lewis Pictures Website. High Quality ads will be placed on the website for two months.
   

I am hoping this is enough to entice people to donate funds to our film. First we have to make sure that we are capable of doing these four things. Then we can start talking to different businesses. Another thing we might do is car washes. Its possible to rake in several hundred dollars in one day this way. I am hoping that we end with a $1000 budget. This is just what we hope for, but it is what we are going to shoot for. Why do we need so much? I will answer that with another question. Why do movies spend Hundreds of millions of dollars? Filming is expensive. The film gear alone costs plenty, when you start adding in other expenses such as costumes, props and sets, your budget goes though the roof quicker than you can imagine.

Cast & Crew
Actors is something that we are currently in short supply of. I am hoping that we will be able to get a good crew together and cast. How many people for the crew you say? 20-30 would be wonderful. Why? Well, the opening scene in this movie requires 15,000lbs of sandbags. Physically moving that to location is near impossible with a crew of 6 people, yet we are more likely to have 6 people than 30. We take what we can get, and we are extremely grateful for it. Going back to the budget again - we have to buy those sand bags. A good crew is a blessing upon a film. Volition had the problem of have absolutely no crew! Everyone had to do everything, I wasn't able to direct as well as I could have because I would be doing something else so the shot would work, such as hold the bounce board, or the boom microphone. As far as cast goes, we really need some people. There is a scene in the movie which requires at least 30 people, another scene requires less, but still the need is there. Not only that, we really need the main characters. So far, we think that we have the actors for Christine, and William. So hopefully several people will show up to the auditions.

So that is where the production of Preordained currently stands. In need of Money and People. Anyone in Sequim want to help out? If so, head to the Sequim High School Library and sign up.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

The Lewis Pictures website that I have been wanting to get online for so long, is finally starting to lift off, I wanted to post this image on my blog to show you how far along it is. You'll notice a lot of gibberish instead of intelligible words on the new website. This is because I am using a free CSS web page that is pre-made. They do this to show you where text would go. I am planning on having all of the cast and crew at the top of the page. For now I only have the core group (almost all of it anyway). Click on the Image to make it bigger.



Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

    Today we had another production meeting. Brett, Andrew, Nick, Josh and I were all present and were able to accomplish a great deal. One thing that we figured out was the necessity of a budget. The last meeting we came to the conclusion that we were not going to have access to one, but as we went over several scenes today, it became apparent that a budget will be required. Our plan is to ask several small businesses around Sequim to sponsor our film and in return we would put an ad for them at the end of our film. There are several small business around Sequim that would probably like publicity. Our next film meeting will have the Core Group. In the professional world of film, they have a core group which is made up of, the director, the producers and the writers. It is where "film" originates. When I say this, it means that this small group of people is where all of the ideas come from for everything.

    Now for my film, this core group is essentially the same, but shuffled up just a bit. Even though we all do everything, it's nice to have it organized. Andrew and Nick are the writers. I wouldn't call them full fledged writers, because they didn't write the script, but they think up exceptional ideas and are very capable when it comes to fleshing out a scene. Our Producer is Brett, we call him the executive producer, because he is really good with props and set dressings. He also is the storyboard artist, which is very important. The storyboard artist helps everyone understand what and where they are supposed to be, it also gives the camera operator an idea of how to shoot the scene. The director of course is me. Though we have these titles, to a certain extent it is just a formality. When stuff needs to get done, we all get our hands dirty (quite literately sometimes).

These are pictures of the production meeting today:

Brett


Nick


Andrew


Brett and Andrew


Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hello Everyone,
I have here the web version of the cloning test video. It was a great deal of fun to put short video together. It always is exhilarating to see what how far you can push the digital effects. This movie is practically perfect. You cannot tell that they aren't both really there.



Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Last night I made a short cloning video. My good friend Andrew was kind enough to lend me his DNA so we could make a clone of him, through certain scientific methods we were able to increase the "growing process" so that it took but a few seconds- nah, just joking. I have been meaning to try copying myself in after effects but I never seem to get around to it. Last night I was able to copy Andrew with after effects, and make it look like he is talking over himself. I will post the video on here later this day.

Concerning the "change in tactics", so far no one has signed up for Preordained and filming has to begin one week from Monday. I changed the message to be put in the daily bulletin to hopefully attract more people. It now will read...