Concluding January

   To think back on January, just January...well a lot happened and that is for sure! Earth Wars started up, the popularity or just the knowledge in general of our work is spreading. But not only did things start in January, many ended too. Not that there is anything negative about this, more positive if you ask me. Swim season concluded, that's a relief, more time is absolutely necessary for everything, especially school. The semester came to an end, which in itself is a completely new beginning.

The Following Picture is a Great Representation of This:

   I know that there probably won't be a post after this for awhile, maybe another month, but things are and will remain at a constant rate of nonstop action. As you may know the month of January will consist of; The Final Part of Earth Wars, The Start of Much Advertising. Not that it is really important to you, I just thought I'd keep you up to date.

My Thought:

   We all have goals in life, and I very much so respect that, but it is my job to look at the future as an open door of possibilities. The only problem that I have with this door is some of my "Co Workers" are looking through other doors, which isn't a problem. The problem here is that I need to prepare for, in a sense, a rebirth of the team. That's where it gets to be a bit of a problem.
   My plan is rather simple, but I can cope with this problem in few ways. In one way I can choose a whole separate career path, which may happen, I don't know the future (I'll get back to this thought)*. Secondly, I could simply join another team and go from there, growing amongst them and improving my skills. Honestly...all of the ideas, including the one you do not yet know, are spectacular in every way none are better nor worse, just  it would be and it is my choice to do the following.
   Let's look where I am now, and my future goal, along with the known future. Right now Filming Humor is a small acting company creating shorts to YouTube trying to attract the internet's attention to semi-crazy videos. My goal is to be a multi-million dollar acting company that produces media for the galaxy. Obviously I have just said something a bit odd, most people don't look at the future as what it will be but what they could make today look like without the outside influences; technology and other advances. But the way I look at it...by the time I'm nearing my goal we will most definitely have humans existing on the moon, as well as other planets.

*Easily skip-able side note:

So the future is unknown, as I said before, "I don't know the future." But let me tell you one thing that is for sure, you can't have a crowd of baboons follow you around unless you tell them you know where the food is. Same sort of concept, except these are intelligent people who can be a lot more helpful then they realize in finding this so called food. So in a sense, I don't know the future, but I sure like to pretend that I do. Even if it seems like you may disagree with this decision....sooner or later you will understand that it is a necessary step in growing beyond the confined restraints of the truth. In much the same way I over exaggerate the outcome to improve the work ethic and the strive to meet this higher standard rather than is custom to take the path of least resistance.*

   So what is the undisputable and impossibly unmistaken future? Well I will be going to TCC for my Junior & Senior year of high school (that's next year). And in 2014 I will graduate from college, whether or not it will be a 2 year specified college or a 4 year college is unknown at the current time. Then how can this vague future be written into a highly detailed and planned future? Well for starters, Filming Humor is going to the Gig Harbor film festival this October (going to film fest's are highly suggested to all). And over the summer leading up to October we plan to try and make some TV ads for local companies. The following four years until I'm out of college are nearly unknown; one thing we plan to do is try and get a sponsor for our YouTube videos and or become a Partner.
   The summer of 2014 I would assemble a team of people, any amount would work; I'm currently building a list of possibles. We would then start work on a big movie project for theaters, just the scripting for now. While all at the same time creating a big TV series idea. And of course if YouTube is still a money maker we would keep that going too. One thing I mentioned in my notes, that I still agree with highly, is to keep the online strategy, as we all know the internet is rapidly becoming the thing we as humans need to connect to. On the internet there would be everything from a website with merchandise to personal side notes from the team.

   The great thing about the TV series idea is that not only does it pay rent, it allows for skills and capabilities of every team member to increase, and the quality does not have to be high class. Honestly look at some of those top rated TV shows....there is a lot in there that would be considered crap in an actual movie! I don't want to list them all off but I mean really, you are not supposed to have such crazy transitions between scenes, although I do realize that this is the way of the TV, but I don't think I enjoy them.

That's all I have to say for now, thank you January and let February be just as great.

Thanks For Reading

The Director,

Earth Wars Anticipation

That's the Earth Wars poster, we plan to put it up around school after the final episode is released.

You might wonder, "What is Earth Wars?" Well for the most part it is a spoof of Star Wars. The story takes place on the planet Earth instead of space. "Well why are you so excited?" Because this is an amazing video....we have been working on it for many months now, finally filmed and the trailer for it just came out, with the first part scheduled for this Friday!
:D
But that really doesn't explain it fully....Not only is this an amazing video series, it is the first series we have done. It is not a long one but it is not a short series either. And from all the work we have all put into making it...we do expect some magnificent results.

Oh and here is the trailer.....


The nice thing about a series is that there is no real effort put into the creation of videos for the next couple of weeks, which in my case is nice as I have loads of homework.

Make It Good:
   So one thing I learned while and before the making of the Earth Wars Trailer was that to make a video good it took something special, a key component.
   One day my good friend Ethan, he plays Luke, pointed something out to me. "Did you ever notice that really good videos have lots of cuts in them." He pointed out something I had never really payed much attention to. We got to talking about it and discovered that even are first really nice video, Jeromy & the Cookies, was also filled with lots of cuts.
   We pondered this idea for awhile, and figured that if you want to make a video better you need to add more of a snappy action to the clips. So in the trailer we decided not to play any clip for more than a few seconds. One thing that would have been better, but would have detracted from the Star Wars theme, was if we had made the scrolling titles a bit faster.
   But why is it that a video must have lots of cutting? Well after some time I think we figured it out. It is a semi well known statistic that YouTubers have an attention span of less than 10 seconds. So you ask yourself, Self how does this show with the statistics of my videos? Well because of this a video with an intro longer than 10 seconds has little chance of being passed on to someone else, which is what you really, REALLY, want to happen. It also means less popularity & views for your video.
   For example, say I am your average youtuber I start watching a video, it take 10 seconds to get through the intro....I have already left. I can see where an interesting introduction, might keep their attention, but still.
   How do you get their attention? I don't know if you ever watch Fluffee Talks, but what he does is pretty basic, he has an introduction then a 3 second animation. He first says something about what he is going to talk about to get your attention, then shows the intro, which seems weird on paper but in the working of YouTube he has achieved greatly! Is there another way? Sure, You might have to make one up on your own but don't forget to grab their attention and do it well!

Thanks For Reading

The Director,

LO2 (The Legend of Two)

The Legend of Two:
    You remember Christmas morning, excited as could be, anticipation, desire to be in the midst of the action, as the presents just drool their possibilities all over you. Well that's how I feel. I'm over excited and the plot just keeps building, the script gets better, and my imagination goes wild. If you were in the excitement you would better understand....
Here is a little practice test I did in using CGI, turned out nicely =D

   So we are using this unreleased Google app. to produce the script and make all the plans. The app. is called Google Wave, basically it is a real time editor that allows for just about anything to happen. While in live action, Ethan, Chase, and I can all be on typing, changing, and commenting on the script. We are also using it to plan out each filming day, as well as every episode, but not only that, even choreography.  We are able to use the Google Maps Street View to take photos, choose locations, all from the comfort of our computers. You could say technology and the internet give major support to the imaginations that create Filming Humor.
    The plan is to make thirty 5min episodes, they would come out once a week, lasting half a year. We are going to start filming a month or two before school ends. We would probably film every week on Saturday, filming multiple episodes at a time. Unfortunately the two main characters have not been set, but should be sooner or later.
    It's so exciting to think we are only a few months from the start of filming. Once it is all filmed and edited and the first episode has been released, we plan to have the DVD for sale, so that you don't have to wait a half a year before you can see the end, or just so you could own it. Well come to think of it, we could distribute on iTunes, that would be awesome!
    As you may know, the idea for LO2 started a long time ago, the first project we ever embarked on. The whole process was going rather smoothly, it looked likely we would have the videos start their release in 2009. Unfortunately, due to multiple factors, LO2 was scrapped and we moved on. If you ever are ever to start on a large project here are a couple things I'd suggest.
1. Don't set yourself up for failure. By that I mean look for stupid mistakes before you start. Such as the fact that we had a bunch of things in LO2 that made it an inappropriate video to be shown to our parents.
2. It's good to get ideas from actors but look at the idea thoroughly, and make sure it can correctly work with the plot.
3. Write a script before you start filming! Get that plot and everything fully thought up before you start. For example the writer of Harry Potter had the whole idea planned out before she wrote out the books. If you don't have a finalized plot, then when you need to go back and change something you can't.
4. The actors, haha, well basically when you make a typical short actors come over once or twice, no problem, make a long video, it can spread to many days. What I have found is that actors are incapable of remembering that they are apart of this production. Basically you get stuck with this halfway filmed movie.
5. I'd like to emphasize on planning. When LO2 first started the only plans we were going from was this flimsy flip book that had a picture and a couple words on it. I called it a storyboard, but it was far from it. You need a plan, and a whole lot of organization....

Recently Learned:
   You ever learn something new and it makes a major impact on your perception? Well in the last few months of 2009 I watched some videos, read some things, and I came to a new realization. One that will be carried out from here on out, and emphasized in LO2.
My first awareness to the obvious fact happened while using my cameras focus. I was trying to get the perfect focus on this object off in the distance, soon enough I had gained the focus. I was overjoyed, having spent a couple minutes working on this pointless task...so I took a photo...

Wasn't the best but I took the photo from across the room, using almost the full zoom. Prior to this I let the camera use it's auto focus, and that is not the best, trust me.
   The whole reason I was sprung onto the concept of using the focus was because, a friend of mine took a photo and complained it was a tad bit out of focus. I didn't notice till she mentioned it. So I had to test out the changing of focus too....not that I hadn't prior to this, but it had never been something I really thought about. Which is funny because I worked with a professional camera man for awhile, and he did talk a lot about focusing on the subject, and getting it just right.
   But what I was about to discover, what makes a video professional, something that should have been obvious but I missed it, well it was a bit surprising.
   I was at the Youtube screening room, watching some of the videos there (if you haven't seen them, you need to check them out, spectacular works). There were many contributing factors that led to my final realization. For one there was an advertisement for a camera everywhere, sponsored by or something. And the other thing that grabbed my attention was what made these videos different. I have an HD camera, it shows professionalism, being in HD, but what was missing from being professional was how the focus was used correctly.
   If you ever watch a movie you will tend to notice that there are parts, and let me tell you I think this sort of focus change is over used. There are parts where you have focus on the forward actor, then it changes to the one behind... This shows how focus can be used, but I always discarded the the idea because I considered it over used.
   While watching these videos and analyzing how they were created, I discovered something unbelievable. The true dividing line between adequate and professional.When you focus on a character and the background is blurred, this points the viewers attention in a direction. Instead of watching everything, and getting distracted by the background, you have their focus on the place in which the camera has set it's focus. Of course you can always change the point of focus in the middle of a shot, but you need to keep it set at almost all times. I'm sure there are times when it is appropriate to let all be focused on, such as a zooming in on an area effect.
   But I have seen even a TV show scene where I was angry because I couldn't keep focused on the scene. It was the show Heroes, there was a scene with this one guy in the background who was moving his head all about, and I forgot to pay attention to what was happening. You don't want your viewers distracted. So keep their attention focused where you want it.
   This new technique will be used in LO2 for sure, I am going to try and make sure I use the best of this, along with everything else I am continuing to learn.


Thanks For Reading

The Director,