Archive for the ‘Hit and Run’ tag

Under the hot spring sun

I was taking my usual walk to my local Circle K (the most excellent Circle K in fact) for some mexican coca cola (which is further proof of a benevolent God) and decided to listen to something I hadn’t put on my ipod in a while.

Weezer

Undoubtedly my favorite band back high school their last couple albums hadn’t really been all that amazing and I just hadn’t felt like listening to them in a while. I threw on the green album and began to remember why I loved them. They are releasing another self titled album (a red album I gather) this year and you can hear the single here (via HTFAF)

I did a 72 hour film festival this last weekend and I can safely say this is the last weekend film fest I will do for a very long time. Beyond all the drama that happened in our group (which, in the end, turned out for the best) I just don’t really enjoy the format anymore. We ended up going with a very simple concept and had a lot of fun shooting it, but I still just can get over making a film and knowing that it’s not our best work. You are so limited by the time constraints, that no matter how much effort you put in you’ll never be fully happy with the results. So it looks like my sixth festival will be my last for a while. A friend of mine threw out the idea of doing claymation or some other wacky format and I’d be down with that, but that’s mostly hypothetical at the moment.

Here is our entry for the Fuse 72 hour film festival entitled Pursuit. It, as always, is also available in HD.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

My short is coming along nicely, I am currently story boarding what I have so far and at the same time trying to add a subplot. I’m using a neat little program to story board but it’s slow going. I have about 10 shots done, that gets me half way down the first of eighteen pages.

It’s going to hit 100 degrees for the first time this year any day now. I can’t say I’m ready for the summer heat but I am ready to spend my days at the bottom of my pool. :D

Late,
David

Let the seasons begin, it rolls right on

I’m on spring break.

That’s probably the first thing you should know, because I’ve decided that my state of mind is first and foremost guided by that fact this week.

:D

I’ve waited for a little while to post this but I finally got my stickers together so here is the 48 hour film fest entry I wrote about last month.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

You can also see it in HD here.
It’s called His Name Was… and while the plot is a little hard to catch the cinematography is something we were all very proud of. This entry made the top 20 showing and won an award for best story. We really do think we deserved recognition for the look of the video but beggars can’t be choosers.

As I mentioned I’m on holiday. I’m not really going anywhere or doing anything special but I am complaining more and working less… so that’s a start. There are some things I have to get done this break and I am working hard on them, but every second I’m not outside in the sun or at the bottom of a pool is sorta wasted.

Things are starting to roll a little bit on my next project. I wrote a short last year called Hit and Run and I’ve made it my goal to get it shot before July. A friend has a short that will probably be our little group’s next production but I am getting pre-production into full swing to make sure my vision can come to life. The script is short, pretty simple to shoot and I have yet to talk to someone who doesn’t like the twist at the end. Look for more on this in the coming months, I’m so excited about it that I’m sure you’ll all be sick of hearing about it.

Last week for my final in an editing class we were expected to shoot some footage on wednesday and have something decent by thursday. That doesn’t sound very exciting but it was an exercise to familiarize us with our two high end HD cameras, the Sony F-900 and the Panasonic VariCam. I chose to shoot with the 900, and I can not even begin tell you the size of the nerd chub I got by walking around with it on my shoulder. The following is a little fake movie trailer that we shot and I edited. It’s nothing amazing but do look at the quality of the footage… it’s incredible. I did some color correction but when you consider that we weren’t allowed to use any lights, the footage is remarkably colorful and sharp.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Also available in HD.
The Jade Monkey… that’s what you get when you lend a group of film students a $100,000 camera… and I sometimes wonder where all that tuition goes.
We were in a group of about 10 people so we all had the same footage but made separate cuts. Mine is serious and sleek, Marco’s is funny and has a nice soundtrack, while Randy went for a “straight to DVD” sort of approach.
Check em out. FYI the visuals are all safe but the audio is NSFW.

I’ll try and post from my phone this week… but then again I’ve lied about that before,
David

it’s 3am i must be emo

I can not stop listening to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s first album. Its just such a wonderfully odd sound.

I have a better idea of what i want to do for the modest mouse contest. I thank everyone for their input, it really did help me to form a concept. Basically the band will be in a white studio with cameras all around. Behind them is a large screen on which a grainy film plays. The shots of the band are either straight on with the screen behind them or a profile with the studio camera moving around them. The video on the screen is a first person view of a guy who walks into a party. He grabs a beer and talks to a few people before noticing a girl across the room. She heads out of the main room and out through a hall. He follows but when he gets to where she should be, she is no where to be found. He spins around and there she is walking by another group of people. He follows but is stopped by some friends who want to talk to him. He talks for a second but pulls him self away after a minute or so. He once again sees the girl and gives chase, this goes on for a while, the girl always walking at a slow pace and always eluding the guy. At the end he will probably catch up with her or something cliche like that.
Its a framework but i think it’l develop well. The big problem is the whole party thing, i could get extras pretty easily. but i do not want to deal with the logistics of that. I could do it with 10 people pretty easily, but 20 would look better. I also need a location, my apartment just isn’t big enough.
my sources for inspiration for the chase thing are an Elton John video and a prodigy’s smack my bitch up, which i wont link because its no where close to work safe.

i have been very unmotivated lately, i’ve been a big piece of crap for the last month to put it bluntly. my class schedule was mixed up a bit so that i have very long days on mondays and tuesday, about 15 hours of work/school. i just feel like i need a vacation, i mean i was doing so well there for a while. i was anxious to work on projects, my assignments were getting done and i was proud of them. but lately i cant even muster the motivation to edit a commercial i shot last week.

i did however have some fun playing around in ae today. i got this awesome idea for a little animation, im not real sure what im going to use it for but its turning out well. that i should be able to post this weekend. the aforementioned commercial hopefully in a few days, i’ll get the editing done tomorrow but it’l need music.

the modest mouse thing is a whole different animal though. the deadline is close, may 22. they didn’t leave very long for people to produce a video. i really doubt they will have many entries, not to mention the footage requires some hefty software just to view. i basically have another week to shoot the chase thing and my clean plates for the band.
i really want to do it, i really think my resume needs it but i just don’t think i can make it happen. i need a vacation, i am feeling so ragged and climbing the everest of this project is just too much at the moment.

all in all life is going well though, i am moving out of my apartment next week, the company i rent from is making me move… its a long story but they are breaking up the family and making me and my roommates move in with other people.
so i’ll be going to another unit in my complex. an easy move but i am not renewing my lease and will only be in the new unit a month.

i wrote a little script for my screenwriting class the other day, i like it a lot, here is a pdf. its sketchy, and probably has like 100 grammatical mistakes, it is just a rough draft

peace in the north east
david hildreth

ps my page is now the #1 return when you google my name