internet video manifesto

Auditions wrapped up yesterday. This first micro-film project rumbles on to rehearsal so now seems to be the right time to describe in more detail what I’m up to.

From here forward all movies I make will be internet exclusive. In deciding on that path, I’ve given some thought to how films can or should change to fully take advantage of this new media.

The Death of the Aspect Ratio
1.85:1 and 16×9 only matter if your film will be screened in a theater or on a television. Video on a computer does not need to retain those same screen shapes. Why not turn the camera on it’s side, then rotate the image in post to give yourself a frame that’s more vertical than it is wide? If you’re looking to tell a story about someone with claustrophobia, the significantly more narrow framing would seem to be a perfect fit.

Keep It Short, Stupid
Veering off course into the realm of comics (or sequential narrative if you prefer), it’s become quite clear that those which enjoy the most popularity online are, by and large, either strips or single pages. Similarly, the shorter a video the more popular it seems to be. The term short film though encompasses works running as long as forty minutes. So why not take back the term microfilm, classifying it as a work no longer than 5 minutes? In my own case, I’m using it to describe works that are only one or two minutes long yet still contain a beginning, middle, and end.

What The Hell Am I Looking At?
I strongly dislike YouTube. Not for what they have done, but for how they have done it. Compare the video compression on that site to many other similar sites, such as Veoh, and you’ll see what I mean. YouTube is the eight hundred pound gorilla though, so how can one work with the bad compression (not to mention the small image size)? Create simple uncluttered, one might even say iconic, images. Rely more than ever on close-ups, Gestalt, and montage.

Barely a beginning, leaving out, for example, all talk of content and monetization, but a beginning nonetheless.

casting for a micro-film

Playing off some of what I talked about before regarding online video I’ve written up a one page script for what I’m calling a micro-film. Being around a lot of comics this past weekend I realized that while a comic book may be popular on paper, on the internet the dominant form is really the comic strip. Certainly the idea of shorter films playing better online is not new, but something I need to codify better for myself hence the term micro-film.

All of that to say, I have a completed script so I need to do some casting. The film is a dramatic piece with three roles. One male and one female (who are also leads in the serial I’m writing so hopefully whoever I cast will be available for that when I finish it) and one role that could be either gender. If you’re interested in auditioning, being crew, or know someone who is, let me know right away.

i need your brains and bodies

I have thoughts on new things that can be done with video on the internet and I need to put something on tape soon. Just something short, 3 to 5 minutes. Prior to that I need brains to help me hash out the thoughts and then bodies to help me shoot. If you want to assist in either capacity, email, comment, or call.

I also need to do this because my soul is being ground down by the sound edit on the Best Laid Plans sequel. If anyone wants to take over on that, I’m now open to the idea, even to the point of paying for it (though I can’t afford anything near a professional rate).

speed racer is far from revolutionary

Every time I hear someone talk about the Wachowskis’ “revolutionary” idea of shooting Speed Racer with everything in focus I want to smash them in the face with Gregg Toland’s skull. When people wonder why Citizen Kane still gets hailed as one of the greatest films of all time, there’s one reason why. That crazy idea of Toland and Orson Welles to shoot in deep focus 66 years ago is apparently still revolutionary. (Ignoring the fact too of course that a deep depth of field on film is so much harder to achieve than it is on digital.)

Oh and shooting on sets that are mainly greenscreen? I seem to remember someone else pioneering that about nine years ago. Someone who said that process would be the future and most people thinking he was crazy (of course if the script had been better or apparently had included a chimp instead of Jar Jar people might have paid more attention). Heck, even the idea of using cgi to blur the region between live action and source authentic animation has been done several times over (Sin City and 300 being the two most prominent examples). Granted neither was bright and colorful, but Dick Tracy certainly was.

None of which is to say they’re hacks, just that none of their ideas on this project are truly revolutionary.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -George Santayana

there are no new ideas

Yesterday watched a movie rather incorrectly titled He Ran All The Way in which John Garfield takes a family (father, mother, older daughter, and young son) hostage while hiding from a manhunt (and does very little running). The son wants to fight and is disappointed with his father giving in. Garfield lets the father and daughter leave the house to go to work, warning them that if he sees any police he’ll kill their mother. As he’s there he falls for the daughter and clearly wishes he’d had a family and a life like they have. It was quite good and ended with a beautiful shot of Garfield stumbling towards camera in a rain filled gutter.

Today watching a movie called The Desperate Hours where Humphrey Bogart, along with two accomplices, takes a family (father, mother, older daughter, and young son) hostage while hiding from a manhunt. The son wants to fight and is disappointed with his father for not fighting back. Bogart lets the father leave to run an errand and the daughter go on a date, warning him that if he sees any cops the rest of the family will get shot. Not sure how this one’ll end, but so far it could almost be a remake. One of Bogart’s accomplices has even started to show some of the longing Garfield’s character felt.

All of this is to say, Tivo and TCM make a great resource when writing a noir.