Oh, All That Blocking

For those of you who do not know already, blocking is the movement of characters and cameras in any given scene. So when I say I'm "Blocking", I'm figuring out where everything goes.

I have my own little system that I've developed from the hollywood camerawork series, if you're interested in filmmaking and haven't checked them out, I really would encourage it. www.hollywoodcamerawork.us

Now with that out of the way, let me just give you a little legend for the rest of this.

The little V's with the dots behind them represent cameras.

If the two of them are connected by a line that means it's a dolly shot and each of those are stops.

If there is an L next to it, that means I'm getting a locked down version of it as well.

I'm not actually shooting with 18 cameras at once, lighting setups will change and the 1 camera will be moved to all these locations.

The little O's represent people. The line in front is where they are facing.

1 line in front represents a boy, 2 lines represent a girl.

That is all. The rest you should be able to understand or else...well, I don't know what else. I'd be very dissapointed. I still have 2 more scenes to block out, but here's what I've got so far.

My lovely pre-production notebook.





I Can't draw, but that's why I make movies and not cartoons, right?












And there you have it. If you understand what each diagram means, you've already gotten a sense of what the film will be like! Congratulations! Some of these scenes are storyboarded, rather than blocked out because they're either montages or more of an action sequence than a scene in which people are conversing or going after a calculator bandit.

Anyways, as you can see a lot of work goes into any film before we even think about shooting and contrary to popular belief, things are getting done. Tommorow I'll post up possibly the rest of the blocking diagrams as well as pictures of all of our locations. The next step after that will be redoing each of these blocking diagrams in illustrator to make it much neater and readable by more people than just myself. Hopefully when that's done that will go up as well.

Things are getting exciting though, looks like we may even begin shooting next week or the weekend after that. Fun fun!

Lego Time!

I only call this post lego time because I'm really getting far ahead on the blocking! Today I went through and got done with the 10 of 13 scenes that need to be done. The last few are a doozy so I'm holding off until tommorow to complete them.

As of now they're just chicken scratch in my mind, but I figure maybe you all would like to see the transformation of chicken scratch into something beautiful so I'll try and post them up when I get a chance.

I have to say though, so far it's actually looking like it will be really cool if everything goes to plan. I've got some awesome shots planned out and I think on monday I'll be meeting with my gaffers to go over our plan of attack as far as lighting goes. I really think we'll get off easy with this film though just because the vast majority of it will be shot outside, so not much real lighting will have to be done. Just a few reflectors here and there and just hoping for those overcast days.

Anyways, check back soon and I'll have those blocking diagrams up. It'll be everyones first chance to sort of "see" the movie before we even really begin.

-Ryan

Our Luck Just Keeps Growing and Growing!

We have just acquired the motherload of acting talent in the form of one young woman.


Kristin, frickin, McReddie. She doesn't mess around. She knows whats up, and she may be well taking the lead in this fine little film. So get excited, because she's going to bring a whole lot to the table.

That's all for today, I'll try and keep everyone updated as best as possible.

-Ryan

Ah...The Taste of A Finished Screenplay

It's a fun filled saturday night and I've just finished up with the last of the major changes on TI-83 Bandit. It was originally written without any regard to how it was going to be shot, so I had to fix that...Sorry guys, no large crowd scene with multiple car chases and explosions for this film. Maybe next time though.

My good friend Conor has gotten closer to confirming the last of our talent. Not much more news other than that. We're still waiting for some more funds to flow in before beginning to acquire our props.

So, yeah. Things are happening...slowly. But they're happening, yes, and that's the important thing.

The Beginning of Something....Great?

Well, I've had the idea sloshing around that I should probably start up a production diary online that people are able to check out to see what's going on in our latest production. If you're not already aware, our next film is The TI-83 Bandit. A touching story of betrayl, calculators, and above all, Mathletes.

Our story begins in a small town where Mathletes are, as usual, doing math. They all are enjoying themselves one day, when suddenly a wave of calculator dissapearances hits their school. The mathletes must find out who could have orchestrated such a plot. Could it be the school bully? Trying to pawn the calculators off for some extra cash? Or maybe it's the schools Kleptomaniac on his recent binge? Only the smartest of the smart could figure out this problem, and no they won't do it using the quadratic formula. But now, the evidence will have to speak for itself in....

THE TI-83 BANDIT!

Some Background(Just for fun!):
The story was originally created when a friend of mine, DJ Fried, had his calculator stolen from him sometime last year. He saw a similar looking calculator on E-Bay sometime thereafter and thought it would be quite humourous if there was a film depicting someone who stole calculators just to sell them off on ebay. Some sort of TI-83 Bandit, he suggested.

I thought it had potential and drew up an outline, I then gave this off to another friend of mine, Sasha Rosen. She had written something for me before and although I didn't end up shooting it, I felt like she had this distinct writing style that would just fit this film so well. She gave me a version back a few weeks later and I was really happy with how it turned out. One problem, it was way too big of a project than we had expected. We had done an occasional 5 page screenplay, with a few characters, but nothing like this 9 page project with 5-7 characters. It was pushed aside and other projects began to take priority. Months later I re-read it and saw the potential in it again, I began rewriting it, trying to refine her original intent as well as mine. It's gone through a lot of drafts and a lot of rewritings, but hey! What script doesn't?

Currently we're in pre-production. The script is almost in a locked version and almost all the actors are set. In the coming weeks, props will be acquired, the script will be finished, and blocking diagrams/storyboards will be drawn.

We're also working on getting some interesting title sequences done by a friend of mine. I've just got to post this so I'll feel obligated to follow through.

I'll try and post up as much as I can in the coming weeks as far as our pre-production materials so you all can get an insight as to what actually goes on behind the scenes. The only thing I'm going to hold out from you is the actual script, because what fun is in that!

The last thing I have to say is keep looking up here! I'll try and post things up frequently.

-Ryan