Well, the last major interview for the Piracy Documentary is taking place a little more than a week away. After that, there’s just one more interview, and its one that’s easy to set up. If you visited the main site for the project (piracydocumentary.com), you might have noticed that I took down the links. The more I was thinking of the changes that I wanted to implement, the more I felt uncomfortable leaving that film behind. There’s one bit I especially didn’t like in the movie whereby I posted statistics right after a certain sequence. So I took it all down.
Editing for version 1.0 is set to begin in December. I might be going to the UK come Christmas time to visit some family, so I remain unsure about the release date, as it’s around the same time. We’ll see what comes. I’m not rushing the product out the door like I did in May.
H4CK3R5 is coming along well too. I’ve continuously worked at the script, and will keep doing so until I’m satisfied. Point of inspiration for this is Jason Scott, who once claimed (though I forget where) that he kept working at editing his documentary, and just kept and kept at it until it turned into a product he was truly satisfied with. I’m sure I’m screwing up what he said, but it was something along those lines.
In any case, the script has evolved. It went from a cheesy hacker-action movie to more of a Canadian-style action/thriller. The difference? Well, I’m aiming for realism. Realism of the hacks involved, realism of the fear. I’ve received great input from members at BinRev as to how to pull off certain stunts. It’s great.
I start filming that in May. I have four main concerns at this stage. One is the lighting. There are going to be a few outdoor night scenes in this, and I’m just thinking “how the fook will I get enough lighting.” The other is the microphone work. I have 4 mics at this stage, but none can really handle picking anything up at a distance. For instance, people talking inside a car, or close together at a cafe. There’s the actual camera work. How am I going to film people in a car while it’s driving, from the outside? Finally, I need to get the protagonists down to Virginia for real to do a shoot with some other hackers. With $0 budget, I wonder how I’ll pull it off.
Ultimately, I’ll find a way. This film is an exercise in hacking the film media. I want to prove that a film that looks like it was made on a $150,000 can be done with $3,000. I’ve already got ideas for the lighting, to build my own on the cheap (Yay Canadian Tire!) Camera shots: I’ll find a way. Microphone: a bit of research should solve that. I’ll build my own boom mic.
Back to the real world, I have two major reports due tomorrow. One is already late by a day. I suppose I should stop typing here and go at it, eh?
Have a wonderful day!
Comments
One response to “H4CK3R5, Piracy Film, Life”
I definitely said that the best way to edit was to constantly refine the work in question, step away, and then refine more, especially if the subject matter was not timely.
I think your beta stuff was a little silly, I’ll say that out loud, and this revision (which makes total sense, by the way) then looks twice as silly. I say it makes sense because you’re looking at your work and you want it to be good. I had a number of spotters who watched my beta works and a “test showing” that gave me tons of notes to work with. People complaining who have no investment in the project when it’s still a test is probably not functionally helpful, in my opinion.
Let me know if you want help with this flick.