So the shoot yesterday went very well. I couldn’t be more pleased. Working with a mostly female crew was great. We had a few dudes on the crew, as Gil Whitney was the D.P. and Mike McNeese was the gaffer. Rachel Hannah was awesome (as always), so the crew and the actors did a great job. Major shout out to Max Groah for helping us with getting the main location. Actually, everyone was great on the crew and cast.
Biggest lesson learned? I really really appreciate a solid art director. Leyna has a great eye and killer sensibilities, even though she’s a smoker. We built a set from scratch in the studio for this and for practically no money, Leyna pulled together something that worked well and beyond the cash value.
This was just a 3 page script and something very complex, yet simple in many ways. The idea of doing a drama and make sense with some level of depth, relating mostly to female sensibilities appealed to me. Helping put this together and doing this will give me some satisfaction.
We went 2 hours over my overestimation of the shoot day. It was worth it to get the best looking footage possible. I said 10:30AM till 7:00PM, but we went till a little after 9:00PM. Normally, a Sonnyboo Production wraps early, but I pushed for a better look and a more polished end product.
Today I’m converting all the footage shot on the P2 cards with the Panasonic HVX200A from their native *.MXF format to a Cineform *.AVI format for editing and color correction. I get the benefit of a free upres to 1920x1080P and a more robust color palette for post production, so the conversion is worth the 5-7 hours render time now, as opposed to later.
Now, I have about 3.5 hours of footage for what will be a 4 minute or less short. That means I have a lot of options. I will endeavor to work with the director, newcomer Joanne Fromes to cobble together a nice piece. She’s John’s sister and has some interesting ideas. We’ll see if they mesh together coherently. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ gets a little jealous of the time I’ve been spending with Joanne, but she’ll get over it.
Speaking of which, for Valentine’s Day, I made this video about the topic of SPOONS but alas it was to no avail. I am saddened. Many thanks to Andrew Kramer and Videocopilot.net for the cool graphics in my everlasting quest for the Spoons.
I have ANOTHER shoot on this week, so the busy time has begun for Sonnyboo Productions. We’ll see how well this whole thing keeps trucking along. There is a new standard and I feel like keeping the bar raised for myself. My standards were too low in the past, so it’s time to rise up and meet the challenge I have for my own productions.
COMING SOON TO AMAZON.COM and other TV and DVD outlets…
What up, my droogies?
– Ross
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