The second episode of The No Budget Show is up.
Science Fiction No Budget
Tagged movies, No Budget Show, TV
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Childhood Dreams
Interesting how “childhood dreams” sounds so wholesome, but “adolescent fantasies” does not. The words are almost synonymous, but have very different connotations.
Tagged adverts
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Foley
Someone on the Indy Mogul forum posted asking about foley, and I ended up pretty thorough, so I figured I’d post it here, too.
I crunched handfuls of dried spaghetti, tore open the insides of a watermelon, and whipped a pile of clothes with a thick rope for bone-breaking, gut-stabbing and punching, respectively. (I’ve read a thing about using celery for bone-breaking, but I ended up preferring the spaghetti, myself.) Oh, and I did an electrocution sound by running an electric clipper over an aluminum can, but the real trick is I took two different parts of that noise and in my audio software, I applied one as a modulation of the other.
I had to replace most of the audio from the second half of Jethro Atom because of too much wind noise.
Foot steps were me walking on dried rice. Eating noises were me eating a banana, skin and all. Various electronic devices were usually the same electric clipper I mentioned above, or an electric typewriter, combined and sped up or slowed down. Punches were me punching myself in the gut. (This was before I recorded my rope beating.) Sizzling noise was a sliced apple on a hot frying pan. (Turn the stove off before you record) Some of the lasers and beeps and stuff were computer generated.
Sometimes I’ve replaced noises I just didn’t like enough. I didn’t think the sound of my shower curtain opening was scary enough for a horror scene, so I put wire clothes hangers on the shower curtain rod and pushed them aside. I think I’ve replaced the sound of one door with another door or a cupboard or something if I find one with a noise I like.
The Monster Smokes!
I don’t know why nobody has remade The Bride of Frankenstein yet.
Tagged frankenstein
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Space Invaders
I think I never properly gave Space Invaders credit, but I’ve played it a bit lately, and I’ve got to give it props. That’s a game that worked very well within the hardware limitations.
For example, the fewer invaders there are on the screen, the faster they move. This means each level has a natural escalation in difficulty. But it also means the computer always moves one invader per frame, which maintains a consistent load on the processor.
Both you and the invaders can only have one bullet on screen at a time. Again, this keeps the needed memory and processing load consistent, but also means that: 1) The rate of fire from the invaders increases the closer they are to the ground, leading to escalation again. 2) Your rate of fire is higher when you are hitting invaders, and lower if you miss, giving you extra incentive to not waste shots.
There can be dozens of invaders on screen at any point, but because they move in a block, you would not need to store individual positions for each invader. Pretty clever.
I’ve been making games in Flash, and sometimes my frame rate drops low while playing. I need to think more like the creators of Space Invaders, and design game play that works hand in hand with the limitations.
Also, related to my post on one of Ferry Halim’s games, despite the simplicity of Space Invaders, everything you do has multiple consequences. Each killed invader increases their speed. Removing the bottom invaders will reduce their rate of fire, and removing rows from the sides will reduce their rate of descent.
Tagged games
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No Budget Show
So, one project I’ve been involved with is bearing fruit. It is called the “No Budget Show.”
The pilot episode is now available for your viewing pleasure through the internet. I primarily served as a camera operator for this episode.
Go to DanWalechuk.com to see it.
Nine more episodes have been shot, and three more are in the pipeline to be shot, so expect them to be squeezed out in good time.
Tagged movies, No Budget Show, TV
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Dancing Prisoners
I’m now very curious as to how something like this comes to exist:
Apparently, the CPDRC, (Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center) a prison in the Philippines, does this sort of thing a lot.
I found some articles online about the CPDRC, and the impression I get is this is part of the prison’s strategy to reduce the influence of gangs and drugs. Making them dance is supposed to keep them out of trouble, I guess.
I wonder how these things are organized. How much is left to the prisoners to plan and choreograph? Who decides who is going to play the Michael Jackson part? The administration? The other prisoners? Who picks the songs?
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A show only movie-makers could love
With On the Lot wrapping up, (and I grudgingly admit I watched that damn show almost every week) I think I’ll sum up what did and did not work for me on that show.
What bothered me most was lack of info on what sort of resources the competitors had at their disposal when making the movies. What kind of budget did they have? How do they pick their actors? Did they work with a script-writer? Did they get extra money when they threw blatant product placement into their movie? The very thin behind-the-scenes clips only showed them during shooting. After the first two episodes, the show never showed preproduction or post-production.
My ideal show would be geared more like Junkyard Wars or Iron Chef. You’d have two directors or teams of film-makers (Admit it, you’d be more comfortable bringing along your buddies than work with all new people) competing. At the start, the host (Lloyd Kaufman) would clearly define the terms. (“You have $2000 and one week to make a horror movie. “) The judges (Robert Rodriguez, Mike Figgis and one guest judge based on the week’s theme) would watch footage of the production and comment about what looks like a good idea or a bad idea, compare it to their own experiences, etc. At the end of the episode, the two movies are shown, the judges declare a winner. Over the course of a season, a winner is determined by elimination.
You hear me, television executives! Make it happen!
Tagged movies, the lot, TV
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Everything about story structure I learned from Ren and Stimpy
The first thing I ever saw that really got me thinking about story arcs and stuff, was, believe it or not, a Ren and Stimpy cartoon.
In it, Ren and Stimpy are flat broke. Ren dresses up as a mouse, so Stimpy can charge for his services as a mouse catcher. The plan goes well, until the marks ask Stimpy to eat the mouse. Rather than give up the game, Stimpy puts Ren in his mouth and slowly chews. Ren tries to bear this treatment as long as he can, but he finally snaps; he pops out and yells that he is not a mouse, he is a chihuahua. (And pulls out his pedigree to prove it.)
On seeing this, (I was probably 12 years old) I realized it was somehow important the way the deception is revealed. They are very close to getting away with it before problems arise, and rather than just getting caught, the cost of the lie is increased more and more until Ren can no longer keep up the charade.
There are some other lessons about story-writing I learned from Ren and Stimpy, many of which were caused by their blatant violations of accepted structure.
Learning
Three new videos, one about my bike-wheel figrig and the other about the chest-cam.
Plus, a nearly incomprehensible scene from Night of the Sharks.
I also started watching a bunch of videos from these guys who do tips about shooting video.
Tagged movies
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