35MPH

I haven’t been able to read the second script. The link is not working for me.

The first and the last are working fine. I lean toward the third for this summer, though I need to read the second. I’m going to print it out this weekend and mark it up and send some of my ideas, so stay tuned.

I haven’t had the time or inspiration to work on the short I pitched you all earlier, but I’ve got several first draft shorts written that might suffice for production without requiring driving shots.

Music Short Film (approx. 3 min)
Relationship Drama Short Film (approx. 9 min)
Character Drama Short Film (approx. 11 min)

The first is a short I wrote for the Coca Cola Student Filmmakers scholarship, required to be shot in 50 seconds and deal with the movies. I thought it was very good, but the content might not be family appropriate.

The second is a short I developed last year, under the question “How can you love two people at the same time?” Not a whole lot of people I’ve shown it to have understood it as I want, but I think it would be interesting on film.

The last one is a recent project, based on a moment in Harold Pinter’s The Dumbwaiter. I finished the first draft tonight, in lieu of working on my thesis feature, due to inspiration and a recent harnekning to the opera Faust. There are a few character issues, and the turning point might not come off as strong as I hope.

Read ‘em. See if you like the general idea of the story. If one of these stands out, we can try to adopt it as a summer project…do a few rewriters, work out equipment and production. The first and last could be shot in one night, albeit a long night. The second one would require two or three days of shooting.

And be honest in your criticism. These are first drafts, so they aren’t meant to be perfect, but if something isn’t working, it won’t get better if you don’t bring it up.

My trip to Arizona was a success. Selected photos to be posted soon. Troy, sorry I didn’t make it down to Austin, but the road had worn away my patience enough for that week. I hope to make a trip down there soon.

Okay, TroyGilbert.com is now live. This blog will be tracking me through the games industry. In particular, it will be tracking a new independent game project I’m starting.

Some pics I’ve recovered from my harddrive. A bit show some corruption. Some of them were damaged permanently. I figure I need to get them up on the big archive in the sky before they’re lost forever (not that they’re necessarily worth keeping).

→ bloodbath
→ blue
→ coral-reef
→ crazy-texture
→ fall-wall
→ fungus-on-tree
→ glass-bead-abstract
→ green-red-virus
→ lined-splatches
→ microbia
→ pop-noise
→ prototype
→ rainbow-confusion
→ retro-future
→ rusted
→ tentacles
→ ufo

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll get a nice graduation bonus from some family members come May. If it happens, I’ll probably invest it into an XL-1 (selling for $2G on ebay these days, including XLR adaptor and other periphials), as my career plan is to write screenplays and shoot documentaries. Regardless, if we’ve got a camera body (whether it be one we own or one we rent), borrowing lenses shouldn’t be a problem…it might be the only thing that my UT film degree will come in handy for (getting free shit in Arkansas).

My thoughts on the car were either an old beast wagon, kind of like the one I used to drive…or something like the Suburban that Chris Cousins flipped in Alma. But it doesn’t matter…it’s basically what we can get our hands on. I’ll write it as a Volvo, if only because it’ll be more visual on the page.

And I won’t worry about car shots. Sounds like we’ve got it under control. I’ll just write it to write it and leave the logistics to the professionals.

I’ve shot a few films in my day, so I’ve got a pretty good heads up on sync sound and lighting technique. And I’ve got a pretty broad stage theatre background, as far as actors are concerned. That being said, as the writer, I will leave camera angles and cinematography and director’s intent and really everything past original story completely to the board of supervisors. Nothing worse than a writer/director auture.

Timetable (because it never hurts to think about it early) for me – in Arkansas June 1 to 8 for pre-production meetings. Then in Arkansas August 1 to ??? (probably Labor Day at the latest), for time to shoot everything. My presence is not imperative, but I wanted those who live out of Rogers to know what my schedule was in case we want to coordinate.

First: I may have access to the Canon GL-2 through the summer. Otherwise, I could borrow an XL-1s from work (if I leave my soul as a deposit.)

Second: My first ideas for shots called for camera vehicle driving next to subject vehicle. Though we couldn’t do this for the whole film, it could look nice. I believe my Cherokee would support a camera man and equipment on it’s roof if we make some sort of platform to stand on. This could provide for some neat and cheap driving shots.

Third: I just inherited $5,000. This is not a joke. Though a lot of it is spoken for, I will entertain ideas for 35MPH investments. I have purchased a nice tripod and a fluid head. I don’t know if we’re ready to invest in a camera, but I’ve already mentioned options for that.

I’m extremely excited about this.

how about this…
we find a car – preferably one of those old boats that our parents / grandparents drove back in the day – that has a massive dashboard clearance from the windshield. Enough to get the lens of the camera (another good question, what camera?) 1.5 to 2 feet away from the subjects and then use a fisheye lens to capture all of the in-car dialogue between both front seats. This might be a cool effect and would also allow us to show what’s going on in the periphery (passing cars, etc.) while going at real speeds – maybe not 70 mph but not 35 either.

What sort of vehicle did you have in mind, Rolin?

After watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind again, there might be a good way to incorporate the flashbacks into something like this.

I’m a writer, and I think specifically in the story…what steps do we take to evoke the wanted feeling, plotwise? How that is directed doesn’t matter to me, but looking at how you’d shoot a story like this, it would be best for us to spend as much time out of the car as possible, mainly because we don’t have the production mechanism to shoot many driving shots. We can shoot the driver very easy, but if they both sit in the front seat, that’s a bitch to shoot, and if one sits in the back, capturing both in the frame is a bitch as well. Hollywood rigs the camera up afront the car (or on a trailer behind), and we could do something like that (more back-window shooting rather than rigging, and knowing how bumpy that damn road is…), but it would involve going 35mph in the right lane. Passing cars would kill the idea that we’re going faster than we are.

So flashbacks might be the best way to go with this. I can write it two ways…idea would be that we film the best written one, but hopefully the easy one to film is as good as the more difficult one.

As far as actors, I have no clue. I don’t know any real actors in the area. I’m sure we could grab a few UA students to do it. I don’t mind working in-house, but the two main roles would be best done with professionals. Putting ourselves in such a project is best reserved for cameos, so we can focus on production measures.

I’ll start drawing things out over the next few weeks, starting with a character sketch, then outline, and finally draft.