High Definition

Igori came to the office today so we could upload our footage so I can begin editing. Easier said than done...

He brought along the three high definition tapes which we used during filming and two edited footage in standard definition. Because neither one of us had never used Adobe Premiere before, we tried to figure out if it was possible to upload in high definition. It seemed to work, but we had to render the files which ultimately ending up looking like standard definition. We watched both tapes separately on a TV and the high definition footage was absolutely beautiful. I was greatly disappointed because I didn't want to settle for standard.

I didn't give up. After some research, I figured out my version of Adobe Premiere was supposed to support HD uploads. Igori messed around with the settings and we finally figured it out! It was going to take another three hours to upload the footage so we rescheduled. We did upload a short script as a sample so I could preview it at home. Although the footage does get downgraded, the final version will still be high definition. We also came across a huge problem. For some reason, our boom and equipment is visible because the camera screen displayed wrong images. Hopefully, we'll be able to work around this problem during editing. Something new to worry about...

The Hard Part is Over

We finished up our film on Friday, almost a week ago, so why didn't I rush in here full of excitement? I have an excuse.

Thursday, we met in Glendale to reshoot a certain scene. The weather was very gloomy but luckily the sun came out in time for the park and beach shoots. Friday, everyone was stuck in traffic for an hour, so we started a little late. We didn't wrap up until 11pm. Everything went pretty good.

From that night until last night, I couldn't sleep. I kept telling myself some scenes could have looked nicer, etc. Now, I'm completely unhappy with the film -- although I haven't even seen any footage yet! We may upload the footage this weekend but we have several small shoots to do without the actors. We'll see how everything turns out.

School started on Tuesday and I had my second Cinema class today. We'll be making three short films this semester. It's being taught by the Department Chairman but we're also holding the class with my previous professor's class.

I'm so eager to screen one of my films. That's my goal for the end of this year!

Still Waiting

I began reading "So You Want to Be a Producer" by Lawrence Turman, which was given to me on my birthday from my sister. Usually, I don't like books like these but from the get-go, Turman states this is not a "How to" book. It's mainly interesting to read about his personal experience in film and sheds some light on areas of production I was not familiar with.

Interestingly enough, I registered for my USC application today and completed Part 1 which consists of basic background information. Part 2 is much more detailed and I'm pretty sure there's an essay that follows along with it. It felt scary, finally sitting there, filling in the fields. I guess the time has to come eventually, right? Deadlines are at the end of this year and Chapman hasn't even released their Fall 2009 application yet.

I spoke very briefly with Igori this afternoon to see how he felt about our schedule for this week. I think we're going to end up working both Thursday and Friday, just so we don't rush anything.

21

Last Tuesday was fairly hectic; I ran across buying miniDV tapes, beverages, rented a boom microphone and even manged to go to Public Storage to pick up my old headphones. As usual, everything went wrong shortly thereafter because the DP was missing his camera. Of course, I called the production off and hired Igori Kamoevi as my DP and scheduled a shoot for Wednesday.

I arrived at Petit Decor around 8:30am with a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. I began setting up our first shot and waited impatiently for everyone to arrive. As Igori and I set up the scene, we realized our camera does not support the boom mic I had rented. This horrified me because I thought we had wasted an entire day but we scrambled back to the store and exchanged it.

We filmed the entire Petit Decor scene and wrapped up around 4pm. Friday, I went back and looked at our dailies at Igori's house and they looked rather nice. Igori suggested we shoot the outdoor scene again in Malibu, just to have a better look with the shadows. Thursday and Friday we will resume with shooting and hopefully wrap the entire film up by the end of this week.

In other news, it was my birthday on Saturday and I finally became 21. Friday, I went out to dinner with my family in Pasadena. On Saturday, Mary, Armineh and Vahe, took me to Malibu were we also had dinner. We celebrated with family at the park on Sunday and everything went great.

Pre-Production

I met with the last actress yesterday and she has officially been casted for Amorosa. I spoke with James today to go over the shooting schedule and it looks like we're going to begin on Monday. Everything is pretty much ready, I'll have to go meet with rental business to discuss renting a dolly and a boom microphone. I just hope everything goes smooth, and since this is my first film, I'm concerned about the overall script.

I just hope this film turns out to be a good interpretation of my idea.

Amorosa

I would officially like to announce the title for the short film; Amorosa.

I am choosing to withhold all information pertaining to the film and will only discuss certain elements as we begin filming. I met with two actors today to discuss the film and they have both signed on to the project. I have already picked out our locations for filming and reviewed them with the director of photography. As of now, the locations are in Hollywood, Burbank, Reseda and Malibu. I will be meeting with a final actor on Thursday and if all goes well, we will be ready to start filming this weekend. We are probably going to have to wrap it up by the end of next week because of scheduling conflicts, but I don't think that should be a problem.

It has been getting pretty difficult to organize the shoot and cast each actor. I think the main reason I am having some difficulty is because this is the first time I am directing a film. I was in charge of writing the story, casting the actors and crew, scouting locations, and such more in so little time. Hopefully, I can overcome the obstacles I will eventually face but I am pretty confident this film will be complete by the end of this month.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona: World Premiere

Mary and I had the pleasure of being invited to Woody Allen's latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona which held its world premiere in Los Angeles yesterday, August 4. Many celebrities joined, including the cast and crew which included Scarlett Johannson, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Rebecca Hall and even Woody Allen himself. I am sad to say we didn't get the chance to see Woody Allen, however. We did get the chance to see the rest of the cast during the film and even ran into them in the lobby after it had ended.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am very glad we both attended.