Sunday 10/24 - More than Hope.

Last night, I shot the control room scenes in my house, that I've been meaning to do forever. They'll take some time to edit, but once it's all done, it should be another 1 minute completed. 2 out of 7 minutes, guys, that's like almost 1/3rd done!

And I think I found a new replacement filming location. Of course nothing will ever beat the almighty abandoned mine, I will instead film at some old sheds behind the place my mom boards (keeps her horse) at. The old lady who lives there knows me, and I know I can certainly get permission. I spent many summer mornings raking up weeds at this place (still haven't gotten paid, though). This is also where I filmed the split screen/car explosion scene that I keep re-editing and re-posting here.

Aside from that place, there is also a neat little location under a bridge where I will film some of the scenes towards the end of the movie.

Now for content!

How's my green-screening and texture-making look? Good? Good, 'cuz my acting and writing sucks :P

Saturday 10/23 -

I spent most of mid-day trying to get inside the abandoned mine. There were a ton of recreationalists driving around in the desert on their quads, atvs, mopeds, whatevs. I didn't want to look suspicious just wandering around, so I hid in a large crevice in the wash. I filmed a little scene in there, to be used much later in the movie than where I currently am trying to film.

Everyone left after like 3-4 hours. It sounds like a long time, but I would've stayed there all day if I had to. If I went home, I'd just wish I could go back. I've been wanting to get in here all week.

So I go just barely into the site from the desert end. I observed the site in front of me for few minutes, and I notice some things. I hear what sounds like metal dragging on the ground, and I see smoke/dust rising up near the front entrance. I go just a little further in and stand behind a bush. Then a white truck that I never noticed before starts driving towards my end! Oh shit! I zip the fuck out of there. (<-- worst sentence in the English language). I jumped over a barbed wire fence, jumped off the cliff-like edge of the wash, and ran across the wash into the desert. All of what would be like a quarter mile of running, happened in a blur. Either I was really fast, adrenaline, or a combination of the two. Then my head cramped like crazy and I knew I was dehyrdrated. I rationed what little water I had left.

Somehow I managed to make it back to the car, and back home in one piece.

I wasted my day (actually no, it's only 3:15 in the afternoon as I type this), and my "super-cool filming location" has been compromised, but at least I don't have to worry about it anymore. I will find another place, and in the meantime, I can work on other parts of the movie.

Bye for now. I'm gonna go edit that little scene I filmed in the crevice.

I'll respond to comments/read your blogs/etc. later, I swear!

Friday 10/22 - Too Confusing

Today was great. I talked to one of the kids who made the video where I learned about that place. Awesome! They go there all the time and park in front and everything! Great :D

and I have almost no homework.

But noooo, I got paranoid about this trespassing business. I looked up trespassing online and it's really illegal anyway, despite how "abandoned" it is, because apparently even "abandoned" property is owned. Apparently people still own their property even when they don't pay taxes on it. And then these people don't care care of it, which just encourages trespassing because people think it's abandoned, and blah...

So I go there anyway, because being a depressed miserable blob for the rest of my life feels about equal to the prospect of getting arrested, at this point, so I might as well take the risk of checking it out.

But I got there and there was an SUV parked outside. The vehicle had an NRA (National Rifle Association) bumper sticker and some other silly stickers like that. I bet the guy would shoot me if I went in there. Especially if I had my fake guns with me. Ugh.

so depressing

I'm going tomorrow morning. Early. I'm parking a mile away and walking there. I'm gonna film, too, after I explore. I will do it all in the same trip and improvise.

doing things alone is so hard.

Thursday 10/21 - Nearing Freedom

Finally, I don't have a huge homework assignment to worry about.

But I can't jinx it, and that goes for everything. Last time I had a ton of free time and was in a good mood, I dislocated my shoulder in bed. I'm not religious, but I'm praying that nothing bad is going to delay progress any more.

I drove by "the site" today. Good news. There are two front entrance gates, and one of them is completely torn up. All of the signs are vandalized, and there is a gaping hole (large enough for people, and probably used for just that) in the gate. The other gate looks okay, but was further away from the road. There is an intact "No Trespassing" sign on the clean gate. But hey, if the place wasn't abandoned, then why haven't the owners bothered to fix up that first gate? It's a safe bet that this place is abandoned, but I want to be sneaky until I can explore the whole place.

I want to film some scenes in my garage, but I'm waiting for a time when both my parents will be out of the house. These scenes should complete another 30 seconds to 1 minute of the movie, nearing me 20%.

This weekend, I will begin massive filming on "the site" as long as ^all of the above gets finished. I can't wait.

peace.

Wednesday 10/20 - More Real-Life Delays

Sorry, I've had lots of homework lately so I'm once again behind schedule and am neglecting the blog and my followers. Actually, I don't have lots of homework, I've just had to memorize a 31-line-long monologue from a Shakespeare play for English. Hopefully I'll be free tomorrow, but my other classes have had a suspicious lack of homework this last few days, so it's likely I'll be ambushed by other assignments. Not stupid ones like this one though.

I AM done memorizing the assignment, but I have to retain the knowledge for another 15 hours, so I can't really read other things (your blogs) for now.

peace.

Monday 10/18 - Maybe it IS abandoned!

I finally found out the address of the location. What was especially confusing is that the internet says there are 3 different businesses there. A landfill, a business that produces sand or gravel, and a place that specializes in "stone-crushed" and "broken stone mining."

I took the advice of fellow blogspot-er, Crunky (thanks Crunky) and checked the county website to see if the property taxes at this address have been paid. If I'm reading this correctly, they haven't paid property taxes since the first half of 2007! Hurray. With all this proof of it being abandoned, I decided to talk about it with my parents. They're cool with it. I think my dad's actually gonna drive me down there sometime. I'm so sheltered :3

abandoned = good

I don't think the other side of the wash, where that old car was, is abandoned. I haven't actually checked that address' tax records, but I forgot to mention yesterday that I saw a horse being kept in a stall there, so there's definitely a human living there or checking by regularly.

Hopefully I can start filming there by Friday. Before then, I will try and film some indoor scenes that I've been putting off/unsure of exactly how to pull off. I just need to wait for both my parents to leave so they don't have to hear my shitty acting.

peace

Rough draft of explosion.

Sunday 10/17 - I found it, but is it really abandoned?

I went down to the "possible filming location" today. I thought it would be a breeze getting there, but there were problems. First, I drive down there, but I realize there's no obvious place to park. At the same time when I'm passing this place, a police car drove by, so I got a little paranoid. When I was driving away, I noticed through my rear-view mirror that the police car pulled over to the side of the road. Weird.

So I drive around to find a place to park. I find a parking lot about a mile away, at some park, and then I walk through the wash for a mile. That probably took an hour. But I finally get there.





On a first glance, things are awesomer than I even expected. There's all these crane things with little catwalks on them.

 

I pretty much only have pictures of this thing, because soon after this, I saw another person. There was a guy standing near what appeared to be a cement mixer at the "front" of the site. I saw him from the back, so he may have not seen me, but I decided to not stick around much longer.

Across from the wash, there was some other cool, but less significant, junk. Here's a really old car.

Then I walked back to the park. On the way, I noticed someone had parked their sedan on the edge of the wash. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there when I arrived. It creeped me out a bit.

When I leave the parking lot at the park, a police car pulls in. Also creepy.

I guess I'm just really paranoid, but I keep thinking people suspect me for doing "bad things" whenever I'm outside. That's pretty much how I always feel when I go out to do movie stuff. Ugh.

When I got home, I decided to look it up on Google maps again. Then I checked Bing's maps, with the "birds-eye view" function. The pics on birds-eye view are definitely outdated. The landfill was definitely a lot more active than it is now. That could be a good thing. I'll continue doing research. Next time I should just read what the sign says at the front of the site. [/facepalm]

peace.

Saturday 10/16 - I think I've found it!

In the last post, I tried to find a filming location, one that was used in a YouTube video by a kid from school. I had no luck with getting the information. I asked a friend who lived around the area where I believed the location was, and he had no idea. But just a while ago, I logged onto Google Earth to look for it again, and I'm positive I found it!

What's great is that it's a little closer to where I live than expected, and it's just off a road that goes right by my neighborhood, so I can pretty much drive straight there. Tomorrow I'm gonna drive down there and check it out. The problem is that, well according to Google Earth, it appears to be part of a landfill or like some of mine or garbage processing plant... or something. There's some huge landfill-like holes and a ton of cranes and conveyor belt things. My biggest concern is that this place is still being used and that they'll kick me out/call the cops. My other concern WOULD be safety, but I'm always safe and I'm not gonna be walking where I can get hurt.

Anyway, gonna check it out tommorow. I'll post pics... just for kicks :D

Saturday 10/16 - Just checking in

Not much going on lately, except homework and other things keeping me from updating the blog.

I may have found a location for filming. Some kids who apparently go to my school did some stupid-ass video for like a government class or something, which I saw on facebook. The location used in the video, though, is literally perfect for movie projects. It's basically a desert lot, but with an abandoned wooden ramada/building/shed thing and some industrial structures laying about. I asked on youtube about it, and all I was able to get was "it's filmed in southern arizona" blah blah. I replied back explaining that I live there and I actually go to his school, but I haven't gotten a reply back yet. I decided to take things into my own hands, and look for this place myself. By looking at the juxtaposition of the mountains in the background of the video, I've located where it must be within 2-3 miles, and there's probably 2 possible roads it could be on. I drove down to that area (first time driving since shit happened), with no luck, but I think I must've missed it. I've found the closest thing to what it could be on Google Earth, but it's not a perfect match. I'll try again soon.

A little undecided about adding in that explosion discussed in an earlier post.

Considering buying a shoulder brace.

My first physical therapy session begins Tuesday.

kbye

Tuesday 10/12 - Arm improves slightly

Sorry for the lack of posts these last couple of days. School's been a little... hectic this week. Because of people at school being asses, my recent injury, and the fact that colder weather is starting to set in, I've been a tad bit depressed.

Anyway, I finally have time to work on the movie, but I'm still far from being in any condition to film. I'm actually thinking of spending most of whatever plastic money I still have on a shoulder brace, so I can go out and film without worrying about re-dislocating my shoulder. That's what the sling is for, but the sling is... well, worn on the outside of clothing.

I've found new things to edit, however. For that last edit, I'm actually taking most of what you guys said in the comments into consideration. Most significantly, I'm going to make the van explode when the guy is walking away from it. I've had an urge to do that since I first watched the footage, but it didn't match up with what I had planned out. The character was originally going to escape in that van at the end of the movie, but now I'm going to come up with another way for him to escape, for the sake of fancy smanchy special effects.

Thanks for continued support :]

Saturday 10/9 - Split Screen Revised

Last night I watched Hot Fuzz. Awesome movie. I love how Edgar Wright's movies have all those crazy quick cuts. I liked it enough that I revised the split screen clip so it's faster and awesome-er. Check it out.

Do you like it more than the original?

Also, I CAN type with two hands, if I lean over the keyboard. Yay.

peace.

Friday 10/8 - Vlog

I can't type much with 1 hand, so I made a vlog explaining what's going down. I apologize in advance for my monotone, whiny voice. But hey, all I can do is complain...

edit: feeling a little more confident now fyi

dislocated shoulder

got one last night during a break from following your blogs. was in hospital for a few hours. taking time off. thx

Wednesday 10/6 - New Motivation

Since I started filming, I've been eating lunch at school in the art room, to stay away from the stupid kids and the sunlight (glare) outside, while I edit on my laptop. Thankfully, my buttshit crazy art teacher from last year (who thinks I'm buttshit crazy in an insecure puppy-like way, though I'm really just regular crazy) only allows students she trusts inside during lunch, so I've gotten a lot of time to edit the movie while I'm at school.

This one nice chick that I know from random hallway encounters last year, has been hanging in the art room too. We finally exchanged names today. Her and her friends are pretty cool, and they're juniors, which is a rare combination. (Many juniors are worse than my fellow seniors, and have been since they were freshmen).

Anyway, we talked about the movie a bit, and I showed them some of my special effects demonstrations (not unlike the first post on this blog when I upgraded it). They sound kinda interested, and it made me happy. The one I've known for a while actually seems interested in doing movies with me. Maybe she'll end up being the second member of FoodstuffsFilms once I finish One Man Movie... I hope so, I'd love to have a team for future projects. I hate making all the decisions.

It felt great talking to them, and they're my new motivation. After school, I came straight home and re-shot and re-edited some clips. All that I've shot today has been flawlessly integrated into the movie. yessss.

So here's that split-screen clip I promised two days ago. The music isn't integrated yet, and there's some sound things I need to work on.




And the sun's still up (albeit setting). Time to look for filming locations for the next segment. Peace.

Tuesday 10/5 - Sorry, Nothing Today

I was gonna have that video for you guys, but I had to reshoot part of it, and the weather sucks today (actually it's great, it's raining and stuff... just not good for filming in). I'll try and reshoot it tomorrow morning or after school.

Aside from that, I'll do some more editing on what I have. I think I'm near 100% on everything from last week, though it's hard to tell when my computer is unable to render a decent quality video of all of it. I'll also look into the problem/buying RAM.

Also, I have reason to believe there is a project for my Government class coming up, where groups of students have to create a political party and a VIDEO about it. That'll be a nice little mini-project for me, which I'll probably put up here when it's done.

But for now, there appears to be a new Left 4 Dead DLC out, I think I'mma play that.

Monday 10/4 - Split Screen scene?

Weird day. There was an assembly at school.

Apparently, everyone was misbehaving at the assembly. Some seniors ripped a sign that the juniors made that apparently said something bad about the seniors. Both seniors and juniors were throwing balls all over the place, and one of them hit the principal on the head. So the principal has cancelled all future assemblies, dances, and other such gatherings. I don't give a fuck, because all these school events, "senior hype", and other such things are stupid and pointless. But it IS interesting that an inter-class war appears to be brewing.

Meanwhile, the movie progresses slightly. The very last scene for last weeks "first 50 seconds" has been properly filmed and edited! Now just various tweaks and that portion of the movie is done.

But my computer/Sony Vegas is going through hell just trying to render low-quality versions of what I've filmed. I think I'm gonna need more RAM.

Also, I filmed a new 10-second scene today. I decided to do something different by having a split-screen, kinda 24-esque, except instead of being in real-time, it conveys the story more like a comic book would. Dunno if it works or not. You can help decide... tomorrow. I'm too tired to... finish this post.

Sunday 10/3 - Green Screens

I went to Office Depot today to buy neon green posterboards to use as green screens for the car scenes (ugh, unwanted rhyme). They were supposed to be 5 posterboards for 5 bucks, but they didn't even sell what they had on their website. And I had to wait an hour for them to open. So... I went to OfficeMax and bought 8 of them for 11-ish. Fair enough.

I did a little bit of filming today, re-shooting scenes that needed to be re-shot. There's still one more scene left from the first 50 seconds, but I have a group of small cuts on my face from shaving, and I'd really rather wait for them to heal. They'll be gone by tommorow or the next day.

So... time to relax. I'mma go catch up on my blog-reading.

Saturday 10/2 ...

Progress is going too slow. "Work harder" my ass. I'm spending all my time on this. I'm still not at Friday's goal. I'll break Ebert's Law here and say YOU try using the Sony Vegas' Event Pan/Crop tool for nearly every individual frame on most clips. One more re-shoot for this 30 second segment, and I should be mostly done with this part. I'm buying some neon poster boards to do better green screens for these car scenes, even though I've nearly spent all week doing it the hard way and now there's very few car scenes left in the whole movie.

Don't expect me to follow for a while. Just don't comment if you don't feel like it. I'll "call you back" (aka start commenting on everyones blogs again) when I'm ready to return.

Anger's my motivation, bitch. It has been the whole time. I will persist.

Edit: You may have noticed I've been saying "20 second scene" or "30 second scene" a lot in these posts. I just checked, and this week's edited/to-be-edited footage is actually around 50 seconds. Good. That's like 1/7th of the movie.

Friday 10/1 - Things are getting better

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. I had 4 tests to study for. I'll be sure to catch up on everyone later this evening.

So Thursday morning went great. I pessimistically drove down to the northeast corner of town at 6 in the morning and shot the missing sub-scene from the first part. My morale raised greatly after that. These last couple-a-days have just felt really good, though editing hasn't sped up significantly.

Thankfully, I have no homework this weekend. Tonight, I hope to complete all the editing for what I have shot this week (like 30 edit-heavy seconds for those who are new to the blog, or don't read it often), so I can begin shooting new stuff tomorrow. The pace may pick up from there, but unforeseen challenges might lay in my path.

peace.