No Respite Productions

So desperate am I to produce something that I've referred once again to my back catalogue of previous works (as small as it is).

The next production that you'll see unleashed on the web was a previous film, done back in 2007 before Chavular. It is a whimsical comedy based around two friends going on a day out together. When their car is stranded, their only hope of rescue lies with their two less than reliable friends.

So all in all, very light hearted with just a touch of blue humour and some language. It's going to be fun!

Current plans are to host said film in the same manner as Chavular... i.e. from this very site. My YouTube account will be given a fairly huge overhaul in a few weeks as a lot of my videos have been disabled thanks to my infringements on copyright laws with regards to the music. But my aim is to re-work what I have and try and have the most recent films available from YouTube in the not too distant future.

I currently have my fingers in a lot of different pies at the moment so lord knows when this will eventually be released. But it shouldn't take too long.

Cheers,

Adam

Hello!

Again another recommendation for some software that I found recommended online, and this is specifically for when you've finished your production, and you want to create something special out of it. Whether it's a keepsake, or something that you can sell to friends and family... even hand out to the cast and crew as a thank you for all their hard work.



So tonight it's a small gathering of friends and as well as showing off our new movie Chavular, I wanted to add a little extra something to the evening. So I decided to create some DVDs of the film itself, plus our past work, which I could then present to them at the end of the evening.

In order to create the DVD cases, I bought some cheap slimline 9mm thick cases from PCWorld, then went about designing the label. The problem here is you need to make sure the print out will be sized accurately. Thanks to this software I found, that step was a doddle.



I simply created two A4 cover graphics in GIMP, one for the front cover and one for the back. I then layered these onto one A3 sized graphic, and once that was saved I then installed and loaded up UnderCoverXP.

This free piece of software will automatically re-size your image to fit a whole variety of different cases... whether it's proper DVDs, Playstation 3 or even VHS cases! You can also burn CD sized labels as well.

You can also include cut/fold lines in your print out which makes cropping the prints for your cases a doddle. You can see the finished results in the pictures provided. You need to make sure you have a half decent photo printer and the right kind of paper (which I didn't at the time) but I think it delivers a very smart product that you can be proud of.

More soon!

Adam

Hello!

So probably the 2nd to last post on Chavular before the actual film release online (13th April) and then after that I will be focusing 100% on Ring of Death - our new production.

The Chavular launch party takes place on Monday at the same time as the film is released online. This in reality is just a small gathering with some friends where we'll be providing food and of course, entertainment in the form of the Chavular film.

I figured it would be quite nice to build a presentation around the film, so I got cracking on making a DVD using Sony DVD Architect (which I received in addition to Sony Vegas). The DVD creation was fairly easy, although I had to once again re-render Chavular into the MPEG-II format which allowed for true 16:9 widescreen on the DVD.

I built the menu options and added in bonus content (my previous work) without much drama. But I figured I wanted something quite dark and menacing to play over the main menu screen. So I knocked up the following in Vegas and I think it works quite well.

Check out the YouTube video below ;)

It never occured me to use Vegas in tandem with my DVD authoring software to create a more polished and professional DVD. But well worth considering if you ever wanted to compile your movies to show your friends. You never know... they may even ask for a copy.

And I'll have a few ready, especially for the cast, on the offchance that they want one!

Progress on the Chavular film is going quite well at the moment. I'm really looking forward to showing the whole thing on the 13th April, even more so now that we've made a house party out of it!

In the meantime I've been adding incidental music throughout the film. These are just short brief musical interludes, often a few synthesised notes that have been created by me to add tension to the overall scene.

I blogged about this a while ago, but ZynAddSubFX is what I've been using... and what a fantastic piece of kit.

All too often it's very easy to take someone elses copyrighted work and just paste it over your footage. Now whilst there are a few occasions on Chavular when you will hear of such things, where possible I've tried very hard to make sure that incidental music is my own work.

It's a nice feeling to be creating something from scratch, adding it in to the film and not having to worry about any legal ramifications, or having the videos blocked when uploading them to YouTube. It's worth exploring this software as... not only is it completely free, but it's very easy to create just a very simple music score that can serve as background music for your feature.

Because I've made extensive use of free to use downloads in the past, the one thing I have decided is that in a couple of weeks time, I'll upload these clips on my website for anyone to use under the creative commons licence.

So hopefully I'll be able to give something to the vast number of film makers, rather than just taking all the time ;)

I'll blog again when those clips are online and available!

Adam

Hello there,

Quick update, the financial situation is looking better thank god, so it's now looking as though the Ring of Death film will be back in production soon enough (pending a revised and streamlined script).

In the meantime, a rough re-cut of PX 3 (now retitled Chavular) has been completed and some small visual effects and grading has been added to the overall production. A trailer should be online by Monday, and the actual film itself will no doubt be released next month once I've done whatever I can do with the sound (and my guess is... not a lot).

All looking good

Adam

As mentioned previously on the blog, the filming for the feature length film "Ring of Death" has undergone a slight hiatus whilst financial issues are resolved. However work has not stopped completely. Whilst Adam S has been doing some slight sound edting for the film Ikari (only a couple of scenes) there will be additional tweaks to the Ring of Death script.

The tweaks will hopefully allow for a smoother narrative flow, an overall shorter and easier to shoot production whilst injecting a little more humour into the overall film. The script itself underwent so many initial tweaks with new ideas and plot points being thrown in that a lot of the events feel slightly overengineered and out of place. Although that may just be me being a perfectionist.

In other more exciting news - there will be a re-edit of Project X III - The Tormentor. Our last film was done with Windows Movie Maker and that was it. Now that we have the awesome Sony Vegas and Effectslab products, it feels as though a retreatment would do the film justice. Technical issues surround this feat however, the original movie file and source footage was lost during my hard drive wipe.

I managed to recover about 80% from a friends website who was hosting the film - but sadly the last 20% had become corrupted. The remaining 20% was recovered from YouTube and using the Super software I was able to not only recover the final 20% from YouTube - but even upgrade the overall quality of the footage to a startling degree. More on that soon in a future blog post.

Cheers,

Adam

I should probably just add that at the moment I am doing some sound effects work for another low budget production, a movie called Ikari. This is only a handful of scenes though but it's nice to be dipping my hand into other areas of work outside of my own.

And the song that is currently sustaining my through my stress is this lovely little remix from Alec Empire http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1FyUI2uOlyk

Enjoy!

Adam