In the hectic pace of the past couple of weeks, I completely neglected to mention that yes, Tohubohu Productions did in fact complete and submit a film in this year’s National Film Challenge, written by Julia Montgomery, directed by Nello DeBlasio and produced by yours truly.
Our randomly selected film genre? Superhero.
Yeah, try doing that on a nonexistent budget. Oh, sure, it can be done (and I have seen at least one successful effort), but it’s way too easy to fall into the crappy satire category — which may sound good on paper, but almost always comes off as little more than a glorified home movie, in which watching produces more embarrassment than amusement.
But what if...? Yeah, that might actually work... But we’d need... Okay... So let’s try...
Give the resulting film — “Homemade Hero” — a look over at the main site and see how our take on the superhero film came out.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Write This Down
Tohubohu has officially assigned a writer for our National Film Challenge entry, and we couldn’t be happier:
Julia from the award-winning Tequila Mockingbird.
I have been singularly impressed with her writing for the past couple of years (since Fray Day 7), and once we started considering bringing in an experienced outside writer for our team, I thought, “What the hell — doesn’t hurt to ask.” And — to my surprise — despite our providing practically no advance notice, she thought it sounded like fun (and a more thorough examination of both our site and the NFC site did nothing to dissuade her from this impression).
We just had lunch today to go over any last-minute explanations, make sure there weren’t any glaring omissions or deal-breaking issues, and we are a go. As with any creative enterprise, there are no guarantees, but I think we just dramatically increased the odds of putting together our best show to date.
Now I’m off to Indianapolis for a work video shoot, but I’ll be back on Friday. My plans to blog the 48 Hour Film Project last spring went absolutely nowhere (it seemed like I didn’t have a spare moment to sit down and write), and since I don’t think that’s likely to change this time around, I was toying with the idea of recording some real-time comments for a podcast of the event. No promises, but I’ll see what I can do.
Julia from the award-winning Tequila Mockingbird.
I have been singularly impressed with her writing for the past couple of years (since Fray Day 7), and once we started considering bringing in an experienced outside writer for our team, I thought, “What the hell — doesn’t hurt to ask.” And — to my surprise — despite our providing practically no advance notice, she thought it sounded like fun (and a more thorough examination of both our site and the NFC site did nothing to dissuade her from this impression).
We just had lunch today to go over any last-minute explanations, make sure there weren’t any glaring omissions or deal-breaking issues, and we are a go. As with any creative enterprise, there are no guarantees, but I think we just dramatically increased the odds of putting together our best show to date.
Now I’m off to Indianapolis for a work video shoot, but I’ll be back on Friday. My plans to blog the 48 Hour Film Project last spring went absolutely nowhere (it seemed like I didn’t have a spare moment to sit down and write), and since I don’t think that’s likely to change this time around, I was toying with the idea of recording some real-time comments for a podcast of the event. No promises, but I’ll see what I can do.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Go Time!
Following on our award-winning effort in last year’s National Film Challenge, Tohubohu Productions will once again be doing the whole madcap movie-making weekend. And this time, we’re absolutely determined to take it all.
Unlike last year, I won’t be directing this time; while directing is certainly my first love, I am absent an experienced producer for this go-around. So I’ll be stepping into that role, and handing the directorial reins over to Nello DeBlasio, who proved his abilities with the 48 Hour Film Project entry “Quite Contrary.” (In the end, probably the biggest thing this means is that I get to unapologetically play “bad cop.”) We haven’t locked down a writer yet (we’ve decided to get away from the “writers’ bullpen” model we’ve used in the past), but I sent out a letter to an experienced and wonderful local writer yesterday — sort of a last-minute, thinking-outside-the-box choice — and I’m cautiously optimistic that it’ll work out. No details yet (don’t want to jinx it) but if this comes together, I will be seriously psyched about our chances of producing an exceptional film.
We’re also going to be taking a step up on the technical side of things — I just reserved a Canon XL2 for the weekend; we got a fantastic rental rate that we just couldn’t pass up. I don’t know that we’ll be able to master all of the new features of the camera in the brief time we’ll have it, but at the minimum, we’ll be able to shoot in native 16x9 mode, take advantage of the camera’s built-in “cine look” options, and — here’s the real kicker — shoot at 24 frames per second. Not that we’re likely to have an opportunity to transfer to film, but for the first time, we’ll have the option of doing so. And since Final Cut Pro can edit and output in 24fps natively as well, it’ll be a seamless process.
Okay, so the XL2 is no XL H1, but it’s still a big step up for us (not to mention the fact that we’re not geared up to edit in high-def just yet, which is kind of a critical step in the production process).
Things are really starting to come together. Which is a good thing, since there’s just one week to go before production time. So if anyone out there wants in, speak now. Or find yourself waiting for a screening after the fact, saying to yourself, “Man, if only I’d spoken up sooner...”
Unlike last year, I won’t be directing this time; while directing is certainly my first love, I am absent an experienced producer for this go-around. So I’ll be stepping into that role, and handing the directorial reins over to Nello DeBlasio, who proved his abilities with the 48 Hour Film Project entry “Quite Contrary.” (In the end, probably the biggest thing this means is that I get to unapologetically play “bad cop.”) We haven’t locked down a writer yet (we’ve decided to get away from the “writers’ bullpen” model we’ve used in the past), but I sent out a letter to an experienced and wonderful local writer yesterday — sort of a last-minute, thinking-outside-the-box choice — and I’m cautiously optimistic that it’ll work out. No details yet (don’t want to jinx it) but if this comes together, I will be seriously psyched about our chances of producing an exceptional film.
We’re also going to be taking a step up on the technical side of things — I just reserved a Canon XL2 for the weekend; we got a fantastic rental rate that we just couldn’t pass up. I don’t know that we’ll be able to master all of the new features of the camera in the brief time we’ll have it, but at the minimum, we’ll be able to shoot in native 16x9 mode, take advantage of the camera’s built-in “cine look” options, and — here’s the real kicker — shoot at 24 frames per second. Not that we’re likely to have an opportunity to transfer to film, but for the first time, we’ll have the option of doing so. And since Final Cut Pro can edit and output in 24fps natively as well, it’ll be a seamless process.
Okay, so the XL2 is no XL H1, but it’s still a big step up for us (not to mention the fact that we’re not geared up to edit in high-def just yet, which is kind of a critical step in the production process).
Things are really starting to come together. Which is a good thing, since there’s just one week to go before production time. So if anyone out there wants in, speak now. Or find yourself waiting for a screening after the fact, saying to yourself, “Man, if only I’d spoken up sooner...”
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