Join us on Myspace
My cousin and I created a new Myspace profile to help showcase the short films we’ll be creating. If you have a Myspace account and are interested in following our exploits, feel free to add us!
We did some more filming last night and actually began working on the final episode of our Serial shorts. I’m not telling how it ends, so you’ll just have to wait a little bit to find out. I will say that I was pretty pleased with the footage I shot last night. Some of it looks rather creepy.
Our goal with these shorts is to combine them all into one once they’re all finished and depending on the outcome possibly even look for some smaller film festivals to submit it all to. Festivals are a certainly a great way to showcase your work and possibly even grab the attention of someone looking for new filmmaking talent.
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Playing with the new camera - our first short film
Well it’s been just over three days now since my cousin Jonathan and I finally received our new high def camcorder. After charging the battery on Monday, we immediately jumped into creating some test footage which we liked enough to turn into a (very) short film. We both really enjoy horror and generally creepy visuals, so that’s what we aimed for with this. Jonathan is a whiz at creating fake blood, so he whipped a little up and we were all set to go. We ended up liking the results so much that we’ve decided to create a series based on this first little film. We’ve already recruited a couple friends to play the part of victims in upcoming episodes, so that should be fun!
Some notes about the film
- The person you see in the film is Jonathan. Sorry ladies, he’s married.
- Downstairs footage was filmed by me. Jonathan filmed the upstairs footage.
- This is obviously not what the raw footage looks like. Editing was done by yours truly with plenty of input from Jonathan.
- The music you hear was done by me several years ago. I lowered the pitch to make it sound a little more creepy.
- You’ll notice a different last name in there for me. There are a TON of people on this planet with the exact same name as me, including an entertainer or two, so for film work I’m choosing to use an alternate last name. As an homage to my grandmother and the siblings she has lost this past year I’ll be using Lyon, her maiden name. Jonathan simply uses his middle name.
- Sick Jack Films comes from the name of the first script my cousin and I wrote together. The script is now titled Evergreen but the original title was Sick Jack, so it’s sort of a sentimental thing for us.
Serial - Part One from lovesickalien on Vimeo.
If you’d like to see the high def version of the film, click on the link below the image. Fortunately the neighbors weren’t home upstairs or that would have been really awkward had they opened their door!
UPDATE: If you’re experiencing choppy playback on Vimeo, I’ve uploaded an alternate Quicktime version of the film. Please right click and save to download it.
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The camera is so close, I can smell it
So tomorrow our Canon HV20 high def video camera that we ordered will be here! I’m so freakin’ giddy. I can’t wait to get my hands on the thing. I’m like a little kid the day before Christmas waiting impatiently to tear open presents. Tomorrow can’t get here soon enough. The best part is it’s supposed to be unseasonably warm this week so we’ll be able to get out and make some test footage and not worry about freezing our nipples off.
Here’s another short clip of footage created with the HV20. Pretty impressive stuff for a sub $1,000 camera.
If I disappear for a while, don’t panic ;P
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Free Adobe After Effects training
Jan 2, 2008 Graphics, Tutorials
There’s a great site I visit often called VideoCopilot which provides not only some really useful products for video post-production, but also some great free tutorials, posted to the blog. The tutorials are hosted by Andrew Kramer, a guy who as far I’m concerned seems to be quite the genius when it comes to After Effects.
Recently Andrew launched a new site called After Effects Basic Training. I spent some time a few nights ago, going through a few of the lesson chapters and I must say Andrew makes it all very easy to understand. If you have a copy of After Effects laying around and find yourself saying “I’ll learn how to use it one of these days”, now is your chance to finally do it! Obviously the basic training was created as a way to entice users to eventually buy VideoCopilot products, but hey, it’s still free training any way you look at it!
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Happy sickly New Year!
Jan 2, 2008 Blogging
Okay, so I know everyone else has already made their “Happy New Year” post and it’s now probably old news to you that is indeed a new year, but I’ve been sick (and still freaking am), so I have an excuse. I’ve been coughing up lungs left and right and I fear I may run out of them soon.
I did manage to at least catch a very lame fireworks show on New Year’s Eve. I think it lasted for about five minutes. It was awfully cold outside though, so I don’t blame the fireworks guys for making it short. Anywho, may you all have a safe, happy and productive New Year!
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