Filmmaker's Diary (June 2017)

Hello my fellow Steemians! Welcome to another filmmaker’s diary entry.

It’s been a while since the last update on this films.

If this is your first time in “filmmakers diary” you can go here for more context.

https://steemit.com/filmmaker/@maxjoy/filmmaker-s-diary-the-editing-days

But in a nut shell: I’m making two music videos at the moment. One takes place in the forest and another has. A lot of animation and green screen.

So here we are … it’s the 21 of June 2017…

I can honestly I wish this two music videos where done by now. (It’s been a huge journey with Murphy’s law operating at a level I’ve never experienced)

24 hours ago I was landing at the airport. Was away for a few days, and while I tried to edit, I barely got anything done.

The animation video has been the most complex post production process, I’ve ever encountered. I was mentally prepared for it to be difficult, it has effects, animations, it’s all filmed in green screen…

However it got exponentially more complex than expected. For exemple: Most of the green screen was filmed with some issues, the camera I used it’s not the best for it… basically I had to go and rotoscope frame by frame in a lot of shoots.

And just to throw another example, the shots where the guy sings are out of sync. I don’t mean some frame rate issue with the project settings or anything, I mean I get the footage out of the camera, play it in VLC and it's out of sync… By miracle I was able to sync three shots. One for each verse… so I basically have one take to use…

The good news is the video has a ruff cut made by now, regarding the verses(only in need to be polished). The chorus still need to be done from scratch.

In exactly a week from now, I will go away for a few days again. I really must have the video locked, mastered and exported by then. I'm not rushing, but I do need it to be done by then.

So today I’ll dive deep into it and by the end of tomorrow, I hope to have the verses at 98% and the last chorus also made.

My original Idea was to film the chorus in a circus, but it didn’t happen. Then when I was filming I did not filmed anything specific for it… I was thinking I could do a stop motion scene later. (By the way, I filmed the video almost a year after the idea was created)

But here is the thing:

The video gave me 10 times more work/ 10 times more time then what I was expecting . That's why I'm here at this point and the choruses are till not made.

I can make a stop motion scene for one chorus… And I think it would be great… but I must have it finished by next week and I still haven’t made the stop motion, I don’t even have the action figure toys I need.

And the video has so many scenes already… so much stuff happening, maybe just a nice chorus of the guy singing would not be bad.

I don’t mind, if need it, to put more time and resources into it. But I’m well past the 20-80 point here. I think by now, I’m doing 80% of work that will give me 20% of results. Also I must admit, I'm starting to lose focus/ enthusiasm for this movie making journey.

On top of that, I have other projects going on… such as , launching my music video company, finishing the “Forest” video (more on that on the next diary), make a brand new music video for another artist …. few other exciting projects to start.

This video has been dragging for so long… it seems that no matter how much work I put into it, the finishing line is always far away.

Plus, It’s a really “crazy” video. It's very, very out of the norm. To be honest, I’m fearing that after all this time, all this effort, all this money… the guy will not like the video… The rapper is my friend and I'm doing it for free, because I want to use it to lunch my company and have total control of the film.

I would love to get some advice/ point of view in what to do?

Again I don’t mind putting more time into it if need it, but all this other points make wonder what to do.

This is what I’m thinking:

I will immerse myself these next days on the video. Have a version of the all thing, without the stop motion and instead just the guy singing on the chorus and send it to him. See what he says and explain I can make a really cool extra scene.

See what he says:

If he likes but says he won’t release it in a while. Then Ill take a break and do the stop motion.

If he wants it as soon as possible I will just send him that version and move on with the other stuff that’s pilling up.

If he doesn’t like it, I will just keep that version for myself and put it on my website heheh and maybe in a couple months do the stop motion and replace it.

Anyways, thank you for reading.

Let me know what you think, would you just finish the video, or would you go and do this extra scene?

Stay tuned for the rest of this odyssey.