Lewis Pictures

Preordained Film Again

2008-08-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

Preordained is the film I entered in the 2008 Student Film Festival at Sequim High School.

Preordained Trailer from Lewis Pictures on Vimeo

Volition

2008-07-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

I finally was able to put last years film online, and here it is. Little side note: I goofed while uploading the video and ended up adding 43 seconds of nothing to the beginning, so don't think that the film isn't there. I'm working on getting a better version online now, and I should post it here when I get home from college.

UPDATE: The Video you see below is the updated version, not only did I trim off the extra black screen at the beginning, but I uploaded a higher definition version as well.

Ending Explanation: Many people don't quite understand the ending. The reason for that was: to enter it into the student film festival, it had to be no longer than five minutes in length. Thus we didn't have any time to explain the ending. Anyway, When the voice says, "It didn't have to end here" it's to say that James (the main character; the one that got up from the table at the end) could have said no, and not ended up in jail. So in the end, we go back to the beginning of the film, where he does say no.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Saying Goodbye

2008-05-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well Folks, it has been a long and fruitful journey, but now the time for me to say goodbye has come. I have enjoyed the world of film a great deal, and wish that I could continue to follow in the foots steps of Peter Jackson, George Lucas and let us not forget Steven Spielberg. There is comes a time in everyone's life where they must decide whether or not to continue down a road that has the potential to lead them unto their demise. How is it that film could leave to ones demise you say? The reason that I am putting all film behind me is because of it's ability to consume my every thought and action. For two years in a row I have made films during the school year, and every time my GPA plummets. High School is one thing, but college is completely different, I must put everything I have into my studies. Many people say I should learn how to manage my time. The problem is, as director, I tend to think about my film project all day, during all of my classless, and give the teacher only twenty five percent of my attention. So, even though I may budget my time accordingly, I still end up focusing on my film more than school. Several of you will be disappointed to hear that I will not be shooting the Star Wars Internet TV series. Why not, you have the summer to film stuff don't you? I wish I did, but in the summer I will actually be going to college and continue to learn ActionScript. If you are interested in following my life as a college student, writier, and ActionScript developer, then by all means please view my new blog jlewissimmons.wordpress.com. As for this blog, it shall never again receive another post. It shall remain as a web-journal for all those who wish to see my journey from pre to post production of my completed film Preordained.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

The Beginning of a Journey

2008-05-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

I got to say folks, at the beginning of a production, the story changes drastically right up to the point you start filming. The "I am Jedi" internet TV show has changed so much since the project began. For starters it's no longer called "I am Jedi" due to the fact that it is too close to other names (until further notice, it will be called "Untitled Lewis Pictures SW Project"). The story has changed from a Jedi trying to revenge his parent's death to a Grey Jedi (a Jedi who does not follow the strict code of the Jedi council, and skirts the line between Jedi and Sith) trying to discover how a cataclysmic event transpired. By now I should now that when I start a project, the storyline is not going to be what I think it is at the time.

This production is turning into a very ambitious broadband entertainment show. We are setting our goals high, but to ensure that we do enter the world of online tv, a back up storyline that isn't so "expensive" is also being written. Why do we think that this show is possible? We have finally reached the age in which we can all contribute financially to this production.

During the story, there is a ship that plays a major role, and thus we want to make this set look amazing. It's has to be the best and look better than any other star wars fan film, so we have searched around and found that it should reach this level of quality:

Some of you may remember this cockpit from the Knights of the Old Republic video games. We are considering including some of that content other than the ship. One thing I find very common among Star Wars fan films is that the cockpits are always squared off, nothing is ever curved. This is most likely because it is hard to make things curved. If you think about it, how do you make the curved panels? It's not as easy as using wood cut into squares. I don't blame them either. I have found a way though to make this work... it requires casting plastic/resin/silicone. This is going to be an extremely involved process, but I think it's worth a shot. I really want to recreate this concept exactly to the original design. A lot of work? yeah. Fun? you better bet your bottom dollar on it.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

ActionScript 3.0

2008-04-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,
It's high time that I post something on my blog. How long has it been, two weeks? Feels like that anyway. The Film Festival was awesome, everyone enjoyed, and preordained has finally come to a close. In between then and now I have filmed and edited a short film on biology, Directed by Niki Liu. This was a lots of fun to film because of the content. The eight minuet film turned out to be quite humorous, this always makes for an easy shoot. I plan on posting "the Immune System", as it is called, soon. Lewis Pictures' next project is currently underway and in a sense, being worked on every day. Part of what is required to make this film is a website. Niki Liu is an extremely proficient programmer, and he is basically making the entire website. I am currently studying Actionscript 3.0 everyday, so by the time we actually start uploading videos, I will be able to add flash elements to the website. Actionscript 3.0 (or AS3) is a great deal like JavaScript, and if you were to go from JavaScript to AS3, it probably wouldn't take you nearly as long to understand it, but if your like me and really don't know anything about JavaScript, or any other programming language for that matter, it's quite a bit more challenging. To help me learn ActionScript, I decided to write key things down, as well as all of my code.

Here are a few pictures of my work:

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Preordained

2008-04-20T03:59:00.000-07:00

Finally what I have been wanting to post on here for the last four months... Preordained.

Preordained Trailer from Lewis Pictures on Vimeo.

Preordained Online Trailer

2008-04-20T00:38:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,
As I am typing this, I am trying to format the Preordained trailer, so I can upload it to the internet. I'm sorry that I have not put it online sooner, but it will be by tomorrow morning.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

2008 Student Film Festival/Preordained Premiere

2008-04-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

The festival was amazing, and the most fun I have had in a long time. As I walked into the lobby, several people knew who I was. This was very surprising to me because strangers don't know who I am. The lobby was extensively decorated to the hilt with movie paraphernalia. Not only that, but when you walked in, there was a RED CARPET!!! It's crazy, but I didn't even think to take a picture of this. As I walked into the auditorium, I saw my filming buds all siting in the front row.

As the audience was being seated, I saw Andrew Nelson (The Assistant Director) come walking in. I was really glad that he was able to make it, but was disappointed that he had leave half way through for work.

Andrew Nelson

The lights dimmed and the movies began. The quality of films were much better than last year, which is really great to see. I would have to say that my favorite film was "Fairy Tales: A True Story". There was an extreme amount of potential in that film and was cut together very well. I was disappointed though, to find out that the director was a going to be leaving for college next year. He would have made a great addition to the film club.

My brother had his iPhone with him, and took about 100 pictures throughout the eventful evening. As he did, he was uploading them to treemo, thus anyone in the world could have scene live updates from the festival. This picture below of my film Preordained, is great because it looks as if it truly in a theater.

Screen Shot of Preordained

After all of the films were screened, it was time for the Elkie award which is based on audience response. The read off the names people would whoop and haller for the movie they liked the best. Once they reached the end of the list, they decided that there was a tie between our film and one of the other films. So they did a recount. Again, it was too close for them to truly decide so they decided to give the Elkie award to both of us. I love the picture below, because it shows almost our entire film group. Remember folks Andrew Nelson and Joe Gish also put a great deal of effort into this film as well, so in reality our group consisted of nine people.

From left to right: Niki, Luke, Trey, Jack, Cameron, Erik, and Kalan

So after this, they had a small acution and handed out prizes for the raffle tickets people bought before the show. During this time Lucas came over, and talked to me. It's always fun to see people from previous films that you have worked on. I mentioned to him that I am starting a internet TV series titled "I am Jedi". He seemed very interested and was willing to financially help out as well as act. This is most definitely a double plus.
Lucas Lahmeyer from Volition

So, after the prizes were handed out, it was time to announce the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place winners. I was extremely nervous and it seemed as if it took for ever until they reached first place. And when they did, all of that went away. We along with the other two winning teams, walked up on stage and we were handed our scholarship and cash prize.

The Preordained team

Left to Right: Erik, Luke, Niki, Jack, Trey, and Kalan

In the end, it was quite the evening, but the strangest thing is, last year I feel in some way was more fun-not to say that this night wasn't, but I think last year everything was so completely new to me that it added to the excitement. Still this year had its bonus of being the second time around, and thus I knew what I should improve on. What was that? Next year did you say? Yes, I am most certainly looking forward to next year, believe it or not, but in the car on the way to apple bees, I was actually thinking of what I might do next year, and how I need to improve on this years film.

Joe was able to make it to the second half which was great. To me he's like a filmmaking brother. It was actually he and his brother Chris that really gave me my start in film. Joe has had part in ever film I have ever made.

Niki and Joe Note: the camera you see there is the camera used for Preordained.

As everyone began to pack up and leave the auditorium the press wished to speak to me. This was a great deal of fun. They asked me about what getting first place meant to me. They also asked where the inspiration for the book (of which the film is based on) came from, and about a dozen more questions. My interview with them was much longer than the Peninsula daily News.

Being interviewed in person is definitely more easy than over the phone. You have the ability to use facial expression and body movement to really convey what you are talking about.

Well folks, it was a splended evening, and now I must go to bed, but before I do It is importent that I thank two more people for their support and help with this years film. Mrs. Kawal who has done so much for me this year and last. Also I want to thank Ms. Corly, of whom would listen to me talk about the trials and errors of the film making process as well as continue to encourage me to march forward with my film. Its very important to have that kind of support from your teachers. When we were on stage accepting our awards, I saw her standing close to the stage. It really meant a lot to me that she was there and that she really cared about my project.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Film Club Sign

2008-04-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last night I spent a few hours making this small 8x10 sign that will sit next to the Film Club sign up sheet. It was interesting to try and come up with a decent looking design. I knew that I wanted a film strip in the shot, but I wasn't too sure what to do after that. I tried making a background layer a red gradient that got lighter towards the top, but the problem was it was so boring and so red, I was worried people would think it was a "Boring Communist Club (BCC)". So this my friends is my final design.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Peninsula Daily News Interview

2008-04-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

Today I was interviewed by the Peninsula Daily News about Preordained, and about the film club that I'm starting soon. This is the second time I talked to the press (the last time was when I talked to them about Volition) and I found myself so nervous, that I had a hard time remembering what Preordained was about.

When I was in the library at school today, I snatched up a copy of the film festival program. I was rather surprised to find that there were only 8 films this year. The 2007 student film fest had nine films, thus I thought that there would be closer to 12 this year. I'm trying to downplay my excitement inwardly if you know what I mean. Last year I was so anxious, my legs were shaking. So right now I'm telling myself, "Hey this is my second time around the block, I've done this, I know what to expect, and if we don't win first place, its no big deal, because the point is to have fun".

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

New Blog Design

2008-04-13T02:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not quite as happy with this design as I would like, but it does look better than the last one. I thought a computer would be great considering all of the computer work that goes into making films these days. Also, notice my Treemo channel to the right. It shows my latest uploads. A little FYI: my brother designed and programed Treemo's flash player.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Actionscript Update

2008-04-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,
This is my first piece of code that I actually understand! Since my brother is fluent in this language, he has been teaching my a lot. He gave me a book last week titled, "Actionscript 3.0 with flash CS3 and Flex" By Steve Webster, Todd Yard and Sean McSharry. I'm thinking about video taping his lectures and posting them on by blog. Actionscript is an amazing programming language, that enables you to do just about anything when it comes to website development.

package
{
import flash.display.*
public class MyApplication extends MovieClip
{
function MyApplication() //Constructor Function
{
var fullName:String = "John " + "Doe's " + "data: ";
var number:int = 10;
var nuMber:int = 2;
trace(fullName);
trace(number);
trace(number - nuMber);
trace(number - nuMber * 10.3);

}
}
}

More updates to come and perhaps explanation of what this means...

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Film Festival

2008-04-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday, I spent the entire day running around town, trying to get papers signed so our film can be shown in the film festival. It was a close call, but I was able to run around town and collect the rest of the signatures in time. Now I have to work on what I am going to say about the Association of New Media Developers. As far as today goes, I will be focusing on actionscript, and take my second "step into a larger world".

The Film Festival is at 7PM Friday 18th of April (sorry, not the 13th).

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Preordained Complete

2008-04-09T22:38:00.001-07:00

Guess what?
PREORDAINED IS FINISHED, the trailer that is, the actual movie will most likely not be made, but it was still great to make this trailer. But the good news is, we learned a great deal from making this fictitious promo, and now have a firm grasp in the world of after effects.

After Effects can redeem even the most trashed footage. There were things that I put in the trailer that I didn't even know were possible without years of practice in this program. Really what it comes down to is, how much time do you want to spend learning this skill. Preordained was a great chance for us to test our skills at effects. I think we are prepared to make the I am Jedi original internet TV series, of which the pilot episode will be airing within five weeks. I say this because I can't ensure that it will be done before then. As for Preordained, I will not post that until it shows at the Sequim High School Auditorium on the 18th of April 7pm. It would be great if as many of you can come as possible.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Blog Revamp

2008-04-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
The Lewis Pictures blog is potentially going to be revamped over this weekend. For the last couple of months it has been very bland and really doesn't reflect film/special effects at all, so hopefully it will be completed by Monday.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Filming at Salt Creek - Preordained Update

2008-04-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I thought I would give you a status update on Preordained in between editing and rendering the trailer. Last night, I was up until six in the morning editing the footage. Why? It's due in three days, thats why. Today we drove an hour to get to a location called Salt Creek. There are great military bunkers there. Sadly, I didn't have my photo camera with me, so I don't have any production photos. For the last three hours I have been rotoscoping that shot to make it look like it is an active base. This year all the filming we have been doing seems extremely spontaneous as well as the feeling that we are just throwing something together really quickly for the film festival. Anyway, I have to get back to the grueling yet fun process of cutting this video together.

Screen shots:

Andrew

Jack

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Advertisement/Preordained Update

2008-04-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
I have decided to start advertising my blog on forums. Hopefully I will start to get more hits than I currently am.

This is my ad:

Concerning Preordained:
Originally, we were going to be able to do portray Preordained very well though the trailer, but it seems in light of recent events, that we are forced to downsize the proportions of this film in order to complete it in time for the film festival. With out this change, we would have decided to drop out of the race. So what is your new "plan"? All of us here at Lewis Pictures agree that the galactic sense that you get when watching the trailer should remain intact, but in order to complete the film in the allotted time, we had to justify why there are "clones". We decided that the Syndicate race all looked alike, this works because they, like the humans, were biologically engineered. Humans were hybrids of the Syndicate and thus have the ability to "look different". This most likely does not make any sense to you, but that's ok. In the book, Preordained, the Humans and the Syndicate were created by an Alien race called the Architects or more formally known as the Primitorians. So what we did for the trailer was changed the Syndicate race to look all alike.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Preordained Snow Shoot

2008-04-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, my dream for shooting the speech scene in the snow came true, though it did come at a price-wet equipment, and freezing to death. I would say the picture titled "Solemn Andrew" says it all about how warm it was out there. We actually got some good stuff. The problem is, it's taking hours to edit the footage. Ya see the idea was that 10-15 airsoft players in full gear were going to come up the mountain with us and help. Sadly, these people did not show up, but I didn't expect that they would due to the fact that the person who contacted them seems to extremely unreliable. What did you do then? Well, thankfully, Niki (our web designer for I am Jedi) and Luke were there. So, Andrew and them went running up a hill several times, and we ended up duplicating them. This is why the editing process is taking sooo long. I have to rotoscope each frame witch takes about 10-30seconds. Here's the catch, there are 30 frames in one second, so if the shot is 6 seconds long thats about 30-90min. Now that would be an extremely easy shot, I was working on that one yesterday. Today I was working on a shot that takes about 60 seconds to rotoscope per frame, and is about 5 seconds long. THATS 2.5HRS!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR FIVE SECONDS!!!! THATS NUTS!!!! But the final shot does look good, the point is, it really would have been a lot easer to have the airsoft team there.

Pictures from the shoot:

Solemn Andrew

Erik, Luke and Niki

Panorama of Shoot

Other Photo's Courtesy of Niki Liu
(Niki Liu' Blog SimplyCore)

Not much of a camera, but it gets the job done.

It was so bright, you couldn't keep your eyes open.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

I Am Jedi Website

2008-03-26T21:57:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,
I'm working on getting the I am Jedi website up and running. This is made possible by one of the students in my programing class of whom is extremely good at website development. It's awesome, we have a professional making our website. Hopefully he will make a cameo appearance in the pilot episode of I am Jedi. The web address will be www.iamjedi.net because ".com" is already taken. The final trailer should be out sometime by the end of next week, and the website will hopefully be up not too long after that. There has been a major change in the nature of this first internet Star Wars TV series, and that is, it will no longer be a comedy. We shall do our best to make it as serious and star wars esque as possible. Here is a picture of what our website should look like - if not exactly like.

Preordained News: Yesterday we shot a some really good stuff. The actors are great, and I wish we would be shooting the whole movie, but as far as I can tell right now, thats not going to happen. On Saturday and Monday, we will be shooting with a local professional airsoft team (meaning that they don't settle for plastic weapons and running around out of formation. These guys are serious - Which by the way is the only kind of airsoft I like. Years ago I was really really into this tactical sport.) We should be getting several epic scenes. Here are some photo's from the shoot and screen shots.

Right to left: Luke, Andrew and Cameron

Kalen

Cameron holding a Boom Pole (a device used to position the microphone above an actor)

Erik

Luke

Trey

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

I Am Jedi mock trailer

2008-03-24T12:31:00.001-07:00

Before/After (After Effects?)

2008-03-20T12:34:00.001-07:00

Hey, your back! Great! It's high time that I show you the mighty power of After Effects CS3. These screen shots below are a comparison of filters with and without. These images are about half the size, and because of this you can't see how big of a difference there is between these pictures. So, make sure you click on them to get the full image.

When you watch behind the scenes of movies and see the original film quality, its not that far off from the "pre-filtered" pictures you see here. So, thanks to George Lucas, we have editing software that can redeem even the most botched camera work. So, how would you make your film look better than the original DV footage? For the most part, ever piece of editing software has a brightness and contrast setting. Turn the brightness up, and the contrast. That alone will make your film look 10x better. As for getting the look that you see in these screen shots, your going to need semi-higher quality software. I would recommend Vision Lab studio (http://fxhome.com/) for low budget film makers, but this really can't get nearly the same quality as Adobe After Effects. In comparison, Vision is to paint, as After Effects is to Photoshop. In short, Vision Lab Studio is very limited. AE can do everything and anything the programs they use for movies can do. The Stargate TV series still uses After Effects.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Untitled Lewis Pictures Internet TV Series

2008-03-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to post a few screen shots from the Pilot to our new Internet TV Show. The story centers around Andrew Nelson, our main character, who in the process of just trying to gain protection from a gang who would like to see him thrown off a cliff. In the process he accidentally acquires the power of the Force. With his new given gift, he takes it upon himself to rid the city of Domaz of crime. Our Pilot episode will be released within two weeks. We are currently filming the trailer for Preordained, so it's going to be difficult to shoot both at the same time, thus the late release. If Preordained wasn't in line, it would have been on the internet by this Sunday.

**NOTE: These are all in anamorphic format, in the pilot may or may not be this way.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Lighsaber Clash

2008-03-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Joe and I made a short lightsaber test film. The ending product came out alright. It took me about four to five hours to rotoscope the blades, but this is good news. Because the last video took me the same time, but for only one blade. This video also was another breakthrough for me, I was able to do this all in one night. Usually, you end up spreading it over the course of a few days, but not this one. There are several mistakes in this test that are completely possible to get rid of, but it all depends on if I wanted to devote another hour to this project. The thing is, special effects isn't hard at all, it's just extremely tedious and time consuming.

Lightsaber Clash I from Jack Simmons on Vimeo.

Tomorrow night, we will be filming the pilot episode for an internet TV show. All I can say right now, is that it will have content such has lightsabers and other star wars related material.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Lightsaber Test Film I

2008-03-16T03:47:00.000-07:00

Its done! After four hours of trying to figure out how to do this, I finished.

Lightsaber Test I from Jack Simmons on Vimeo.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Laser gun Test I

2008-03-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to make a movie with lasers and lightsabers. In this small video, my dream came true:

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

The Trench

2008-03-15T17:40:00.001-07:00

I was looking at several videos at Vimeo and I came across this one. What's so great about it is the quality of the footage. One of the things they used to get the great film look, was a lens called the Letus check it out at www.letusdirect.com it's the same idea as the M2 Redrock 35mm DOF adapter.

The Trench from Philip Bloom on Vimeo

The HV20 is a small full High Definition camera for $700, and it is amazing. I have had my eye set on it for quite some time. If you go to this link you can watch some test footage of this camera with the Letus Micro attached, the footage is unbelievable.

http://www.philipbloom.co.uk/Philip_Bloom/HV20__Letus_Mini_test.html

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Filming Preordained and our new TV chanel

2008-03-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Good news all around the table

On Monday I was able to order the ATR-55 Microphone as well as a 3.5mm 100' extension cable so the microphone can be further away from the camera. The movie is due on the 8th of April so we only have about three weeks to shoot, thus we will begin filming next week and continue for the next three weeks. Last year when we were making Volition, we were getting really close to finishing, we haven't even started organizing people for this film. So the next few weeks are going to be slightly stressful, but fun at the same time. One could almost say that there is a thrill to filming and getting it done by the deadline.

There is a great new website out there on the net called blip.tv. It's a lot like youtube, but looks more professional, and is more "channel" oriented. You can check out our blip.tv spot at lewispictures.blip.tv. We have not, as of yet, uploaded any content, but check back often, because we plan on having several production updates starting next week. These could include: The Pre-production process, Interviews with the actors, Behind the scenes, Post-Production: In the editing room, etc.

President of Mogulville: It is sad to say but, we lost the President of Mogulville election. Hopefully Bridger (The President to be) will due his duties to the country of Mogulville, and maybe make us all laugh. Towards the end of the election, I was beginning to believe that it might be too much of a bite to chew, doing a biweekly video. So I think it all ended for the greater good.

Weekly Video: I have been mulling around an idea of a weekly video about three gentlemen in a club a lot like the Ganymede Club, which is a recurring location in P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. The Ganymede club is for "gentlemen's gentlemen" such as butlers and valets. Our weekly episode would have similary aspects as the Ganymede Club. The focus would be comedy of course, whether the main characters will be gentlemen's gentlemen, is undecided.

Sincerely,

Jack Simmons

Campaign Ad II

2008-03-07T07:16:00.000-08:00

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Campaign Ad

2008-03-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

Campaign ad for Andrew Nelson

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Vote for Andrew!

2008-03-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Please vote for Andrew at

Indy Mogul

Its sooo simple, please vote it only takes three seconds:

Step 1: Register (2 seconds)

Step 2: Vote (1 second)

THE POLLS CLOSE SATURDAY AT 12 EST
VOTE TODAY

Thank you for voting,
Jack Simmons

TOP FIVE-PRESIDENT OF MOGULVILlE!

2008-03-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it! Our president of Mogulville promo video made it into the top five! Here it is everyone:

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Old Map in Photoshop

2008-02-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

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

President of Mogulville Promo

2008-02-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

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

Post-Production Compositing Complete

2008-02-25T21:46:00.000-08:00

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

President of Mogulville

2008-02-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

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

Association of New Media Developers (ANMD)

2008-02-22T22:42:00.000-08:00

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

The Vlog: Episode 2

2008-02-16T23:54:00.001-08:00

Hey Everyone, I decided to Vlog again today:

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

A Change in Equipment and a Media Club

2008-02-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

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.

We can save money
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

Thursday's Post

2008-02-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

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

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

WE ARE GO!

2008-02-13T01:07:00.000-08:00

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

Long Term Film Equipment

2008-02-13T00:51:00.000-08:00

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

The Budget Meeting

2008-02-12T23:17:00.000-08:00

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

Budget Plans Overview

2008-02-10T23:14:00.001-08:00

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

Meeting with Film Festival Advisor tomorrow

2008-02-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

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:

17 year old student makes a science fiction epic film with,
40 extras,
25 locations,
100 digital effects,
original musical score,
All under $8,000 and completed in 8 months.

Some of that might be far-fetched, but you get the idea. The point is to advertise it so they see what a feat it was to make. This could bring in a lot more people. Of course it is still pending whether or not we will be filming the entire film. Within one month we will know for sure if we are going to film the entire movie, so mark it on your calender to check back in a month to see if we will be filming the whole movie, but if you want to find out sooner, check back almost every day and read the blogs.

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.

Budget

2008-02-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

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

Assistant Director

2008-02-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

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.

And that's a wrap!

2008-02-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

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

Pre-Cast meeting

2008-02-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

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

Casting Call

2008-02-04T19:30:00.001-08:00

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

Current Focal Point of Preordained

2008-02-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Along with advertising our film in the Peninsula Daily News and Sequim gazette we would also advertise their business.
Large Posters placed around Sequim advertising the film will include ads for their business.
At the end of the film their adds will be seen.
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

LewisPictures.com

2008-02-01T22:09:00.000-08:00

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

Production Meeting III

2008-02-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

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

Cloning Test

2008-02-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

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

Cloning and a change in tactics

2008-02-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

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...

The creators of the movie Volition are making another film for this years film festival.
They are looking for actors. Please sign up in the library. Auditions will be
held in the library at 2:55 after school on February 6th, 7th and 8th.

I hope by mentioning that the same people who did Volition are doing Preordained, will entice those who saw Volition to sign up.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Shoulder Cam Test/Anamorphic Test/Focal Point Test

2008-01-31T10:54:00.000-08:00

      So this is one big test all slammed into one video. One thing that I plan on using for this film is what I call a "shoulder cam". I put the tripod on my shoulder, add a counter weight to the end and make some adjustments to the head of the tripod, and thus we have a shoulder cam. It actual works really well.

      The Anamorphic test is the black bars on the top and bottom. This, in my opinion, gives the look of a professional film. Not only that, it is really easy to do in after effects. For this particular video, I used the normal 4:3 aspect ratio, but for the finished film, I will be exporting the video in exactly anamorphic format. This means that I won't really be applying anamorphic bars, I will crop the video to be this way.

      The Focal Point test is to digitally make it look like the camera if focusing. When the camera moves around the corner, the room becomes more clear as it focuses. This is another element that creates that "film look" that so many of us independent film makers strive for. There are several ways to achieve this. The first is get a 35mm camera, spend thousands on lenses and you will get that look. The second is get the M2 Redrock lens which is 2 thousand. Or last but not least, do it digitally for free.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Animorphic Vs. 16:9 and 4:3

2008-01-31T09:09:00.000-08:00

Ratios are big things in the mathematics world. In fact, my math class as just begun to start on Ratios, and similar triangles, but this blog post is not about Similar Triangles, nor the mathematics of ratios. This post is about aspect ratio. For years we have viewed movies as square a.k.a. 4:3 (unless we went to the theater, the screen there is always anamorphic). You know those black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when you are watching a film in widescreen? That is known as 16:9 (16 units across and 9 units high)

That can add a prestiges feel to a film, giving it this sense of "high quality" last year our film was in 16:9, and I believe that did add a great look to Volition. This year I plan to move beyond 16:9 into the cinematic world of Anamorphic. Now there can be a misunderstanding when I say "anamorphic". Lots of people call 16:9, anamorphic, which it is not. The aspect ratio for Anamorphic is 2.39:1, that is a big difference in comparison to 16:9.

The pictures below are examples of the three most common film aspect ratios.

4:3

16:9

2.39:1

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Auditions Flier

2008-01-30T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hello my intent audience. I have completed the flier that I will get approved tomorrow. I'm officially ready to hit the sack, but I wanted to post the flier on here first. So here is the finished product. My dad helped me a great deal about what it should say. The original was horrible, and it didn't make any sense. So if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have this great flier to unleash upon the campus.

P.S. I hope I have made up for those days I didn't blog.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Going Public!

2008-01-29T23:12:00.000-08:00

Starting today, an advertisement has been put into the daily bulletin, which is read over the loudspeaker at school every morning. It reads:

The winners of the 2007 Student Film Festival are at it again with another exciting film. Come sign up in the library to be an actor in the upcoming movie, preordained. Auditions will be held in the library at 2:55 after school on February 6th, 7th and 8th.

This morning I put a sign up sheet in the library with a synopsis of the film. I hope that enough people will sign up. To increase the odds of this, I am going to create a flier that I will hang all over campus. Believe it or not, I need to make this thing tonight so I can get it approved tomorrow (fliers must be approved by Mrs. Van De Wege at my school). Last night I only got four hours sleep so I'm going to try and make this flier as quick as I can, then hit the hay.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Snow Day

2008-01-29T22:59:00.000-08:00

Your probably wondering why I haven't posted anything on my blog for a few days, well let me explain my self. There really hasn't been anything to report. The meeting that we were to have was canceled due to a fall of snow landing in our midst. Joe did show up though, he has a knack of always showing up when he says he will. A great thing for someone in showbiz. So because there wasn't a meeting, we went to get something to eat at our neighborhood Safeway. I purchased American Chinese, and Sir Joseph purchased the American Bagels. After this we decided that it would be a good idea to show how crazy things get when the production meetings are canceled. So, we drove to Rail Road Bridge Park and shot some footage, did some interviewing, and ate lunch aboard the ancient Bridge. These are two of the pictures taken during this crazy endeavor.

The first picture is Joe with his bagel, and the second is me with my American Chinese

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hologram Test IV

2008-01-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

This is my fourth hologram test. It needs more work, roughly three hours more work, but I don't like to put that much time into a test project. After my mom watched this she gave me an idea for "digital curtains" and that inspired me with the idea that you would press a button next to the window and the window would darken and blur. I may do this for my fifth hologram test. In case your wondering, my first hologram test I didn't post, and never even finished. Basicly the idea was that in your car you would press this button and then a HUD (heads-up display) would float above the dashboard.

As far as the meeting goes, it looks like it is go. Tomorrow I really hope that we will be able to accomplish a great deal in regards to the script. Another thing that will be related to the discussion of each scene is what locations should we use.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hologram Test III

2008-01-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, this is a video that I am very excited to show you because I was able to incorporate even another program into the "special effects" process. The line that you see coming out from the button I animated in flash, then I imported it into After Effects. It's really fun to see all of these programs work together. I think that I am going to be using great deal of adobe flash, and photoshop in sync with after effects, so I can achieve the level of effects I need to.

In other news: I am working on a original space ship. So far I am still trying to work with the program and have not yet reached that "symbiotic relationship" as I have with after effects. I may even use this model in the final film, but for now I am just trying to comprehend the program.

In other other news: There is a potential film meeting this coming Sunday. Right now I do not yet have all of the people coming, but tomorrow I will find out for sure if everyone will come. This meeting will be better than the last. We will be discussing scenes from the book Preordained and deciding what is possible and what is not.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hologram Test II

2008-01-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

So this is my second hologram test, and I think it as turned out quite well. I rendered it out a few times and found that it missed a certain element, so I then added the light on my face which brought the whole thing together. During the process of doing this small project, I found that I am going to be using photoshop a lot when it comes to holograms.

In other news, I checked out Backyard Productions today and checked to see if they had anything new. I'm not too sure when it was added, but there is a clip from the news featuring a few small clips from their latest film, The Emperor's New Clones. A great independent film (I don't say home movie because to me that sound too much like a dumb little video that someone shot of their family, this film on the other hand, had a budget of $3500). It is very quality, and extremely funny. Did I mention it is a spoof on Star Wars? Anyway, go to

Backyard Productions

check it out, and have fun. These people are my heroes of the independent film making world. Also, you can find the film a bit easer on

TheForce.Net

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Title Sequence II

2008-01-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have recently learned the extent of the 3d camera in After Effects. So in this one I made the camera go forward and extended the particle range. I'm hoping for the movie I will be able to a title sequence like this one, where the camera would fly around to the words.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Production Meeting

2008-01-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

       This is part of the meeting we had today. Sadly we didn't have enough film to record the whole thing, and what was recorded was just the beginning. During that part, other stories were being passed around, so there wasn't very much "film talk" that was recorded. I trimmed it down to the meat of the meating (pun intended).

       I am the person in the black leather jacket, and to left is Joe, and to the right is Andrew. I quickly color corrected this video in after effects, but when I exported the video, it's size was over a gig. So I had to compress it, and thus lost a great deal of the quality.

       As far as how the meeting went? I think it went well. I believe that there definitely was hope sown among the troops. This week the preordained story has to be completely stripped down to what we will be filming. In order to finish by the due date the script must be done by the end of this week. Though I say script I don't mean that as an actual script. Since this will be a trailer, it's pointless to have an actual script.

There will be updates on the script during the week.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

2008-01-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

So today I was able to further the spaceship cause. This still isn't nearly as good as it will be in the film. The difference is between three hours work and twelve hours or more. But the point is, I'm getting the hang of the programs. In order to get the 3d model in the shot I put "green screen" behind it, basically in 3Ds Max I made the background all green and then was able to key that out in after effects. When I rendered out the ship, it was originally HD. I did this so it would be easier to edit out the green from the ship.

Tria Oris

2008-01-20T22:37:00.000-08:00

Yeah yeah I know, I wasn't going to post at all on the weekend, but I have been having so much fun using after effects I thought I might as well post some videos. Tria Oris is the title of a movie I was working on in 2006. After one shoot day I dropped the movie and moved onto something else. In case your wondering Tria Oris is Latin for "Three Saviors". Anyway, this clip is one of the things we shot that day, and I was looking for something to edit in after effects, so I chose this. Watch it more than once so you can see the color change.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Green Screen

2008-01-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

So, once again, I wasn't going to post on the weekend, but I had another breakthrough with the green screen I built in my garage over the summer. About five months ago I found out that the reason I couldn't get it to work was because of the really bad lighting, once I get that fixed, it will be perfect. I also learned how to do the green screen stuff in the program properly. This clip is using just after effects 7, and the footage I shot over the summer.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Adobe After Effects CS3

2008-01-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Well I wasn't going to be posting anything today, primarily because it's the week end. Saturday and Sunday are my days off, but I followed a really cool tutorial for after effects that I might be putting in my film Preordained. I was thinking that it could be apart of the title sequence or something. This of course is just a "sample" of what it could be. Oh and also, I talked to another person today and they will also be at the production meeting Monday.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Production Meeting Monday (Friday's Post)

2008-01-19T05:27:00.000-08:00

Good early morning everyone, It seems that I didn't post anything yesterday, and that is because I was so tired from not getting any sleep all week that I came home from school and went to bed around six. So today I am making up for yesterday.

Monday will be the meeting at 3pm, and the best way to describe how I am feeling about it would be "worried and looking forward to" (if anyone knows of a word for that please comment, its not anxious, I looked that one up).

So this meeting right now consists of eight people, and if you look down in the right of the screen (You might have to scroll down a bit) you can see a list of names (just the first two letters of their first name) and if they are coming or not. I'm really hoping that everyone will be interested and really try to get some stuff done. Why do I say this? Well almost every meeting that I have had happened just like that.

Topics that will be discussed

What our budget is
Locations
What scenes we will be filming for the trailer (maybe)
What people that would like to be actors in this film
Availability of the crew
Getting the actors at the school, posting notices
Film equipment
Dates for further discussion
The musical score

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Production Meeting Update

2008-01-17T14:23:00.001-08:00

Today I was able to find someone who said they were interested in my film. All week I was attempting to contact him, but with little result. Sadly he seems to potentially busy on the new meeting day, which is now Monday at 3pm.

Against my will, the day has continuously moved back and forth across the the three-day weekend. I am very worried that there will not be enough people to begin this film, but in light of this school day's events, I have been able to talk to and locate a few other people who will be involved. Yet for some reason, even with this slight glimpse of joy, I find my self slightly depressed. Not to say I do not wish to do the film, but I am not excited by the fact that the wheels have begun to move.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Hope & Fear

2008-01-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to discus this topic for some time now. Hopes and fears are things that go hand-in-hand with film creation. It is as a puzzle with the pieces all needing to be in place. In one hand you have hope that the budget will be available, the actors and crew will arrive, the editing programs will work, etc. In the other, you have the fears; what if there isn't any money? What if the actors and crew don't show? What if the program doesn't work? What if the camera breaks? What if we cannot use a location? When you start adding all of these up, one might appear eccentric, but they are not. I have experienced almost all of these in one form or another. My old friend that was the camera man for my last film Volition, said not to worry. This is something he lives by,m and the consequences for this type of thinking were every severe. The only way I am capable of making a film is not because I have hope that it will happen, but because I have the fear that it will not. It is the fear that drives our goals forward. The hope is only there to keep a goal grounded, a device to inspire enough want in us, that we fear to loose it.

Without that fear in film, the outcome would be horrible. For example: If I did not worry, I would not continually call the cast and crew members to remind them of the filming day. At the end of the week, the day would come to film, but only half of the people would be arive. In turn, this would nullify the filming day. This has happened to me in the past, one person did not show, and everyone was left hanging. It takes but one leg to break on a tripod to make it fall. The same goes for a filming team.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Upcoming Production Meeting

2008-01-16T13:52:00.000-08:00

It seems for the upcoming meeting that the times need to be changed in order to accommodate all of the potential production team members. Martin Luther King day is on Monday thankful. This will give enough leeway so everyone can be involved, and not miss the meeting. This will be the most crucial gathering of this film, thus it is crucial that everyone who is interested is present.

I originally had though that I would have a total of thirteen people arriving but in light of this week's events, there will not be more than nine people, maybe less. But this is ok, the way I see it is a realization of those who will be committed and those who will not.

For this film, I am calling on a few people that worked with me on the last film, Volition. Both of them are exceptionally committed to the production. Last year they gave up a great deal of their own time to work on the project. I am very glad that they will be working with me on Preordained.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Eureka!

2008-01-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

I have just completed my first animation film using SketchUp Pro and 3D Studio Max. To me this proves that I will be able to make a film with CG animation. Here is the first video

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

3Ds Max Vs. SoftImage

2008-01-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

It seems that between now and my last post, Softimage will not work for what I need to do. Though the program is capable of animation, I will not be able to acquire a full copy of it to use during my film (I am using a 30 day free trial at the moment). Luckily, during this whole time, I could have exported the model to 3D Studio Max. A program that I am more acquainted with. There is still a slight chance that I will still not be able to export to this program, and then be force to search to more extreme lengths to find a converter (to convert the file so it can go into 3Ds Max) or find a more animation oriented program (of which will most likely not be nearly as good as Max, or Softimage for that matter.)

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

SketchUp Update

2008-01-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I was up late working up on the SketchUp Program. After struggling along trying to get used to the interface, I started to question the plan of using this for animation in my film. I decided to wait before making my final assumption, and go on google to find some tutorials to help get the program working. To my dismay I found that I could not access google, or any domain related to it. I contacted my brother on IM and found that he could get to google just fine. So before making my final decision about this program, I would have to wait for several hours. Now I'm actually glad google wasn't working for me, it gave some time for me to think, even if it was only subconsciously.

When I finally got on google, to my surprise I found several models of starships, each very cool and professional. So after this with the help of a few tutorials my final decision is that Google SketchUp Pro is an amazing program. I can't wait to begin to construct animations for my film.

I have to export these models to SoftImage (an Avid program, of which I don't care much for) though. This way I could animate the model flying away from the camera, or other things.

I plan on showing you updates of my ships and animations online, this way you can see my progress towards my goal of a really cool sci-film, with animation.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Metal Texture Links
I don't know the first thing about textures, but I found these to give
me an idea of what to put on my ship, but from looking at other ships
from other films and movies, these wouldn't work at all.

http://resurgere.deviantart.com/art/Package-Metal-5-50451055
http://resurgere.deviantart.com/art/Package-Metal-7-61597938
http://resurgere.deviantart.com/art/Package-Metal-4-22094621
http://resurgere.deviantart.com/art/Package-Metal-2-9616681
http://causticstock.deviantart.com/art/Metal-Stock-1-54237700

3D Animation for Film

2008-01-14T14:18:00.001-08:00

For several years now I have wanted to make a film with a great deal of 3D elements, but was unable to because of the complexity of the programs. It seems that months of study would have to be completed in order to be capable of modeling the slightest thing, but I have recently discovered a program called SketchUp Pro by Google, it is simple to use and can export to programs such as 3D Studio Max, and potentially Autodesk Maya. Thus one would be able to animate the models crated in SketchUp. I plan on using this not so recent program by google in my upcoming film Preordained.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

SketchUp Link:
http://sketchup.google.com

Last nights Pre-Production meeting minutes

2008-01-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

There weren't really any minutes from last night but I will give you a quick summary of what was conversed. Last night my colleague and I met and discussed the over all plot, and discussed the extent of involvement he wished to have in the film. Thankfully it seems he will be available most often for the shooting of "Preordained".Right now I only know of two or three people that will be helping, and not even a single actor, so its great to find out that you have someone that will be on location more often than not. Other than this, a tray of chicken wings kept us distracted from filming a little too much.

Next Week: I will be planning another film meeting which will include hopefully several people, twelve at max. If the majority of the people at next Sunday's meeting decide to help with the production of this film, than I will have to go-ahead to begin gathering actors.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

First Pre-Production meeting

2008-01-13T08:20:00.000-08:00

Today will be the first day I will meet with one of my filming colleagues about this years film. I'm not going to give a full description of the film right now but I will tell you that it is titled "Preordained" and is science fiction.

I have had several meetings over the last few months about film ideas. Even back before last years school year ended I was writing a script that I was planning on entering into this years festival, but as usual when I plan a movie that far in advance, nothing happens, not only that it was also too advanced for us to make at this level of filming knowledge.

In future meetings, which will be transpiring over the next few weeks, I plan on discussing the following topics:

Budget
Locations
What we will be filming
Actors
Times

In order to complete the film by April 8th 2008, production must start by mid February.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

Volition

2008-01-12T11:06:00.000-08:00

Concerning my last film "Volition"

I began writing a screenplay by the end of winter break 2006, right before school began. It started out from an urban legend about a group of guys who went up into the woods to take LSD and say a small child hiding behind a few trees. Because of their "condition" they perceived the boy as a goblin. They grabbed the child and threw him into the trunk of their car. The next day after they had passed out at one of their houses, they awoke to the sound of a child crying. When they opened one of their closets they found the small child. The police were already on their way due to a concerned citizen.

Volition follows only the bare bones of this legend:

Guys go get high on LSD
They see a child and think its a goblin

The Pre-Production Stage (everything that happens before filming actually begins. For me this is primarily writing the script.) lasted almost a month. As I wrote the screenplay, I would continuously bring it into my high school's librarian, of whom used to be an English teacher. She helped me make sure the plot structure was there, and that everything made sense.

The Production State (The filming of the movie), began at the very end of January, leaving only a few months for us to complete it by the due date in April. My long lasting friend, who was more a brother than a friend, had recently bought an HD camera that added a really great film look to Volition. Almost by pure luck we were able to get the perfect actors for this movie, I'm sure that there aren't any other actors at my school that would have played these parts as good as they. After about nine weeks of shooting and re-shoots, we were able to head into the editing stage of the film.

The Post-Production Stage (The editing and scoring of a film) We almost did not finish this movie. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, we lost footage, microphones didn't work, etc. We ended up wasting about 33% of our time filming and recording things that were never going to be used, but even with all of the errors we still came out with a fantastic movie.

The Film Festival: The festival at the end was great and really topped the whole experience off. Sadly because we were using such high level of equipment, the judges were not able to get the sound working on the computer they were reviewing it on, so we were not able to receive first place, but they did tell us that we would have, but the best thing about it was the "Elkie" award. This is the audience trophy, given to the film that was most enjoyed by the people.

All in all, it was a great experience and hope to do even better this year.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons

My First Post

2008-01-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

Hello, my name is Jack, and I am a independent film director. The purpose of this blog is to "blog" my quest towards this years Student Film Festival, sponsored by the Sequim Education Foundation. Last year I entered a film titled "Volition" and was an anti-drug movie about a guy in high school that ends up in the wrong crowed.
This year I am quite confident that I will be entering a first place Film, but only with the help of several people. As those of you who have directed films before know, it can be nearly imposable to get the right crew and actors for you film.
It's absolutely crucial that I begin filming in February in order to complete it by the due date of April 8th 2008. This site will have a daily update Monday-Friday of the events leading up to the date, and hopefully I will also be able to get my own website up and running in just a few weeks. I know I have said this in the past but this time I am certain I will get it working.

Sincerely,
Jack Simmons