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A change in medium

2011-07-09T00:21:00.000-07:00

Hello to those few desperate souls still clinging to the hope that That Darn Smoker will ever come to fruition. Well, perhaps you're in luck. I have decided for the time being to produce a live-action version of That Darn Smoker in lieu of continuing the Attack of the Aliens series as my annual Christmas film installment. I think AOTA has reached its maximum cinematic potential and should be left as such. This new Smoker will certainly not be the epic stop-motion animation all of you were surely still anticipating, but at least for those interested in the plot aspects you will be able to see what it was going to be about. Stay ye tuned for færðer updates!

Long time no see

2010-02-03T21:14:00.001-08:00

Well, it has been quite some time since I last updated this blog. As of now, the project is essentially dead, but if I ever have time I may pick it up again if I don't do another film first. Or build an airplane. Sorry all the links are broken, I'll try to get those fixed and maybe move this whole thing to my Schlockading.com website, which also has never been updated. That would make an interesting film – a world where everything remains unchanged forever!

An opportunity!

2008-10-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough, I have absolutely no homework and a three-day weekend, so what better to do than film something? I got the four-second scene where Minono first appears done, so I will continue with that tonight perhaps. I'm slowly learning how to work After Effects, which is good. Hopefully I will be able to pull off some pretty good stuff with that once I learn how to do it whenever I get to post-production. Ha! "Officially" I now have 21% of the filming completed (20.75% to be exact,) so I'm making some kind of progress. I will definitely be taking the little opportunities like this throughout the school year to get what I can done on this; maybe by the time next summer rolls around (the last of high school!) I will have finished quite a bit more than I had previously planned. I shalt keep thou updated.

Plans and other things

2008-09-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can tell, I haven't updated the blog in a while. School has started again in full force, so filming is out for a while. I may start scripting some other stuff and whatnot; who knows. I got roughly another two minutes of footage done this summer all together, which is really lame compared to what I technically could have done with all the free time I had. Oh well. I'll probably move on to a smaller project for the time being, but do keep in mind that I am not officially "giving up" or canning TDS in any way. I will finish, although the time of release is rather uncertain at this point. Don't hold your breath by any means. Don't even get close to the pool!

As for future filming endeavors, I don't know what kind of contests are going to come up in the near future, but I will most likely carry out one of my long-planned-but-never-filmed projects, like that one about the three guys that crash land in the desert. Or I also might start doing some things with a Harry Potter type film that I've been playing around with for a while that I never really did anything with. There seems to be a strange lack of Harry Potter films as compared to the other syndicated LEGO products like Batman and Star Wars that are in their "natural environments." That is to say that films like "Harry Potter and the Muggle Commando" don't really count since they're not taking place at Hogwarts or anything. And I've had a long-time obsession with Harry Potter, so maybe I'll do something with that in the future. As I'm sure I've said many times before, only time will tell!

BRAWLing, no smoking allowed

2008-08-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on my entry for the first annual BRAWL (Brickfilm Rapidly All Week Long) contest. My entry, "Point of No Return" will be premiering Saturday along with all the other entries, so it should be pretty exciting.

As for That Darn Smoker, he is on hold for this week. I may get some slight filming done before school, but I still have to read a biography for summer English assignments. Nevertheless, I will push on, although I may never finish. Just to let you know! But I may be moving on to other projects for the time being, such as this film, but not necessarily a contest entry. So that's what goes on hither. Hopefully I'll get some good ratings in the contest judging since all the big wigs aren't entering.

Back and not sick as well

2008-07-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

Unlike last year, I am not sick this time. Yay! My roommate wasn't sick this time (it wasn't the same person anyway), so that means I'm perfectly well. Also unlike last year, the THAC is not looming, but instead the BRAWL (Brickfilming Rapidly All Week Long) Contest. I will probably be entering that one; I'll have to see what the theme is and if I can come up with any good ideas.

I got another 5-second shot done of That Darn Smoker approaching the forest. I think the pan I did was a little too fast; I might need to redo it. Otherwise, I will continue today with shooting the scene where Minono first appears. I have the lines from Smeagol for that scene, so that should work out nicely. Hopefully I will get this whole forest scene done soon enough so that I can move on to the next part.

Reporting from Colorado

2008-07-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am at my orchestra camp. Obviously I can't film here, but at least there's free internet access. Anyway, I'll probably be participating in the BRAWL Contest, so that will halt filming for a short time after I get back. Obviously the filming will not be done by the end of the summer unless some sort of miracle happens, so maybe I should just call it quits for this year. Who knows. Sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it, but it's not going to come out any time soon. But it will come out eventually. We hope. Until then (next Sunday) I shan't be updating.

Year 2, Day 36: Four minutes filmed!

2008-07-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

Woot. I've officially reached the four-minute mark on filming, which means that I'm 20% through with filming if the footage is actually going to end up being 20 minutes long, but I'm thinking it will probably be a little shorter than that but closer to 20 minutes total with credits and whatnot. I got a second or so done last night with another 3 seconds done tonight, all of which were fairly hard to film since I had to film Darn ducking behind a trash can, which is not easy! So the animation suffered a little bit, but at the same time I was able to get some cool headlight effects with my LED booklight.

I finally got my forest set up with some model trees (made for model trains) I bought at Hobby Lobby (for $30! Rrrr.) So that problem is now taken care of and I can start filming that whole sequence, which probably accounts for the next three or four minutes of the film. A lot is dialogue, so I should be able to film that quicker than the rest of the stuff I've been doing. Hopefully. The next scene up is where Darn meets Minono (graciously played by Sméagol) and then goes into the tree, hopefully not to be shot by the Anti-Smoker Society agents! We'll see. And I still need to take those pictures of the various vehicles and post those.

Also, I'm heading off to my orchestra camp Sunday and will be gone the following two weeks, so don't be expecting any updates during that time, at least not ones about filming. Although I do have telekinetic powers. I just don't like to use them.

PROJECTED LENGTH: 20:00
LENGTH FILMED: 4:01
PERCENTAGE OF PROJECTED LENGTH FILMED: 20%
PERCENTAGE OF SCRIPT FILMED: 24%

Year 2, Day 30

2008-07-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've continued to build the forest set. It's turning out very nicely, especially since I have an overabundance of green 1x6 bricks from my structurally insecure model of the Bank of America Plaza, which subsequently fell down. Anyway, that's coming nicely; I'll post some pictures of that when it's done and the high-profile ambulance soon. Once this set is done I should be able to film at least the next 2-3 minutes of footage, since the following two scenes all take place there. The first is where Darn meets Minono, then the following one is the next morning when he is nearly shot by the A.S.S. patrol guys. Hopefully I can get some of the filming on this next scene done before I head off for my orchestra camp again on July 13. That gives me about 8 days I guess. No promises! Except the pictures. Those will be forthcoming.

Year 2, Day 27

2008-07-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updates in a while, but alas, not much has happened. I was on vacation last week, so obviously I couldn't do anything then. However, a couple nights ago I got the shot done that I had been having trouble with before, the one where That Darn Smoker is about to get hit by a car. So I got that done, which means I can move on to the next part of Scene 6 where Darn first encounters the wizard Minono. Good news there - I've gotten in contact with Sméagol, and he's going to be able to do that part, which is what I had been hoping for a while. Also, Film Brain will most likely be doing the part of Ben's Assistant. The casting call is still open, so if you want to try out for any other roles, make sure to do so.

I also built a "high-profile" ambulance that ended up kind of looking like some ambulance in a set from the '80s, high-profile due to the fact that I had to use those old red wheels because none of the other axles would work. But it still looks pretty cool, especially since I was able to design it in Bricksmith (a Mac-based LDraw program) and then get the pieces and actually build it. And it looks extra-cool with the "A.S.S. Emergency Recovery Unit" signs on the sides. I may post some pictures of it later.

Next, I'll start building the set with the road ending that leads off into the forest where he meets Minono. That should be somewhat expansive; I will definitely have to pool all of my LEGO greenery and see what I can come up with. I may need to build some extra stuff to get the trees at the right height to look realistic, since an actual forest doesn't consist of all miniature pine trees and bushes. And, I have to build this big tree that Darn Smoker actually has to fit inside of, so that should be interesting to work with.

(Off-topic) The "Schlockading Accompanies Schlockading" Series

2008-06-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Going a little off topic (I haven't made much progress in filming because of relatives visiting...), I used my violin and piano skills and Audacity to my advantage today. I recorded "The Swan" from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns with the violin on my digital handheld recorder thing, then recorded the piano part separately while listening to the violin track on my iPod. The result is the first entry into the Schlockading Accompanies Schlockading series:

Le Cygne (The Swan) – Camille Saint-Saëns

Enjoy, and please note that this is really an experiment and not a serious endeavor.

Year 2, Day 5

2008-06-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I've decided to leave off the titles for these daily updates, since I've run out of original ideas for basically the same thing happening each day. But for today, I got another four-second shot done where Darn Smoker is pocketing his fake ID card. I also did some script revisions, mainly ones that I had in my mind for a while but had never written into the actual Celtx file. I also came up with some additional plot twist stuff that will make the climax even more shocking than before!

PROJECTED LENGTH: 18:00-20:00
LENGTH FILMED: 3:47
PERCENTAGE OF PROJECTED LENGTH FILMED: 19%

Year 2, Day 4: Filming continues

2008-06-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Filming continues as usual. I wasn't able to film last night or the night before because last night I had to go to a ballet recital, and the night before that we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, so I couldn't film then either. So that's where I am now. I got another 7 seconds of footage done tonight towards the finishing of this scene, which includes the first flashback that I will be starting this week. That should be interesting to see with all of the flashbackish effects added to it - motion blur, soft focus, sepia, all that good stuff. I still have to get the set built for that one, which will basically include adding on to the set I'm currently working with, mainly getting a T-intersection road baseplate hooked in and all that. Coincidentally, the car I originally built for my Back to the Future montage clip (that I haven't filmed yet...) will work very well for this scene, so I'll use that instead of having to build a whole new car, which would be sort of dumb anyway.

I should be able to get the whole flashback and surrounding shots done within the week; some relatives will be visiting, however, so that may slow it down a little bit. Otherwise, all is well in Smokerland.

PROJECTED LENGTH: 18:00-20:00
LENGTH FILMED: 3:43
PERCENTAGE OF PROJECTED LENGTH FILMED: 19%

Year 2, Day 1: Back in Black (?)

2008-06-04T21:29:00.001-07:00

Um, well, I do have a spiffy new header image, as you can see. And it's primarily black. And I'm going "back" to filming. I had quite a time trying to make it look right, since when you click "place image instead of title" it didn't center it right, but obviously I couldn't do the other option, "place image behind title" since the title would be in front of it and look stupid. Since you have to have a title of the blog, I ended up changing its name to "_" and the font color to black to hide the title in the image. Then I had to go in and edit the actual HTML of the page and add title tags so the page wouldn't appear as "_" in the browser.

Anyway, I was able to purchase the full version of iStopMotion with the noise reduction that I need as an "end of school present" from my parents for $99. Eek. Oh well, I know it's the best option since basically every other frame capture program is either stupid or for Windows, which is kind of the same thing, if you know what I mean.

Tonight I started filming again! Yay! I got a 2.8-second shot done of That Darn Smoker reading his "false" ID card. Little does he know... So that was good, getting familiar with all of the camera settings and all that again. The new version of iStopMotion is really nice, except it captures frames a lot slower than the old one. Oh well; I guess it's the price to pay for expensive equipment – literally. So now I will continue along with my filming where I left off last summer, which means starting to film the first flashback scene, where things start to get interesting. I suppose I'll be updating the blogaroo pretty regularly this summer to update everyone on filming progress, and because I like making myself seem popular.

PROJECTED LENGTH: 18:00-20:00
LENGTH FILMED: 3:32
PERCENTAGE OF PROJECTED LENGTH FILMED: 18%

Gearing up for Round 2

2008-05-31T16:53:00.001-07:00

Today, I finally found a demo page for iStopMotion that actually works, after searching in vain for months. Still, if I go with the demo of the new 2.0 version, I would have to renew it every five days, compared to once a week for the old one, so that could get kind of tedious. Still, buying the version that has the noise reduction feature (something I really need) would cost $100, compared to the slightly lesser version which my parents said they'd buy for $50. On the other hand, I do have After Effects, which I'm sure has something similar to noise reduction that I could use, so maybe I don't really need all the fancy stuff on this other program anyway. I'll have to see.

As for everything else, Round 2 of filming should be beginning some time this week, probably Wednesday or Thursday. I don't have a nice little schedule like last time, because 1) I know I won't be able to keep up with it, and 2) why go to the trouble if I'm not really going to use it? Looking at the script as I go is quite easy enough, and that's really all I need. Anyway, if all goes (very) well, I hope to have the majority of the filming done by the end of the summer so I have the next school year to do all of the post-production stuff, releasing it by next summer. I highly doubt that's really going to happen; heck, that's what I was saying this time last year and I only have a little over three minutes of footage to show for it. It doesn't look like the summer English assignments are going to be nearly as difficult as last summer, seeing that my English teacher is retiring at the end of the year. No Bible-length novels about Michelangelo. I do have to read "The Scarlet Letter" and a biography of my choice, but hopefully those won't be too difficult. Yep, so right now I'm working on clearing off my filming area, which has collected various articles over the past several months. I've misplaced my paintbrush I use for dusting stuff off, so I'll have to find that as well. The next shot I have to do is the over-the-shoulder one of That Darn Smoker looking at the ID card, then the whole scene with the first flashback. This summer's all about filming, foo!

Production resumes June 2008!

2008-04-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

As many of you may have seen on my ILB signature, production of That Darn Smoker will be starting a second round come June. I'm really hoping to make a dent in the filming process so maybe I can do all of the post-production stuff throughout next school year and have it done by spring or summer of 2009. If not, then I have a whole other summer to finish things up. But I hope I don't have to go those lengths at this point, because I really want to have it done, not only for my own sake but for everyone else's who is waiting for it to come out. So thanks for waiting! I really do hope this doesn't end up like Coffee and Carnage. Trust me, it won't be an hour long! Or even as long as America: Outlawed or Worst Case Scenario 3, I wouldn't think.

The problem with those films, to be honest, is that they have stories that could have easily been compressed into 10 or 15 minutes. That's what I'm trying to avoid with TDS, so hopefully the viewers won't be bored during any part of the film. Anyway, filming shall resume when Dunsidane do march upon thee. Good ol' Macbeth.

Update, downdate, allarounddate version 2.0

2008-03-31T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have anything to add. I got nothing done over spring break mostly due to almost the entire thing being taken up by a trip that ran an extra three days because our flight was canceled. Also, the iStopMotion demo page doesn't work anymore, so I'm going to have to buy it for $50. This summer should be better for filming and all-around production. Maybe I can start some post-production on the first scene.

Progress update

2008-02-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

That Darn Smoker was listed by various people as a "most anticipated film" on the Brickfilms forums, so I guess that's pretty good. But I feel bad for not making any progress on it if people are really "anticipating" it that much. I guess I'll try to do something on it some time here soon. I should get a lot more done this summer, so until then, just keep anticipating! Don't run out of patience, I implore you!

Actually, I did get another small scene filmed quite a while back that I didn't post about. It's the beginning of That Darn Smoker's flashback - and the beginning of the mystery! [cue Twilight Zone theme]

PROJECTED LENGTH: 18:00-20:00
LENGTH FILMED: 3:30
PERCENTAGE OF PROJECTED LENGTH FILMED: 18%

Zolly shot experiment

2008-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

I did a zolly experiment today, and it turned out fairly well:

Zolly Test

In case you don't already know, a zolly shot, also known as a Vertigo shot (from Hitchcock's film Vertigo), is a shot where the camera moves backwards while zooming forwards at the same time, achieving an interesting effect where the background changes perspective but the subject stays relatively the same. Since I can't get a good zoom with the Quickcam alone, I did the dolly and then added the zoom in using After Effects. The result is shown above. The only big problem is the degradation of quality as the camera gets farther away from the subject. Nevertheless, watch the clip and see what you think.

Update, downdate, allarounddate

2008-01-18T20:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah. Another three-second shot filmed today because I had the day off from school because of "curricular planning." Minimal progress as usual, but it's getting there. Sort of.

PROJECTED LENGTH: 18:00-20:00
LENGTH FILMED: 3:28
PERCENTAGE OF PROJECTED LENGTH FILMED: 17%

Cool little status thing I came up with that maybe I can stick on each post to track my progress.

DAY ???: Filming continues

2007-12-28T22:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right. Continues. I actually did something. Amazing. Anyway, I got a quick shot with That Darn Smoker leaning down to pick up an ID card done today, adding another three seconds to the total filming length, which now stands at 3:24. Still a long way to go, but it's good that I'm making progress. I experimented with some different lighting techniques using a new booklight I got for Christmas, and it worked well. Booklights are good.

And just in case you haven't already figured it out, I'm obviously not entering the MoB contest. Maybe there will be another contest later, maybe not. Who knows. I'll just be happy when I finish it and am named the greatest brickfilmer of all time.

Finally getting to animate again!

2007-12-21T20:38:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's that time of year again - Christmas Break! Hallelujah! For the next 2 1/2 weeks, I have NOTHING to do for school. This semester has been absolutely insane - nonstop homework and multiple occasions where I was about to get to bed at midnight and remembered a forgotten assignment. So I'll be getting a little bit of animation done towards my "some time before 2010" goal over the coming weeks, so watch for more updates.

Strangely, it's been exactly a year ago today since I posted the entry "Making some progress" on the MoBlog. Things sure have changed in a year. At that point I thought I would actually have it finished by now. Probably by this time next year I will have abandoned the project altogether, although that is unlikely. I will never abandon the Smoker!

TDS trailer/montage

2007-11-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

I compiled a quick montage of the filming I've gotten done this year, available on YouTube.

Brickfilms.com member NickM is apparently dying to see it, so I thought I would put something together to satisfy everyone's cravings for a look at the film (hype!). Anyway, nothing else new.

Ho hum...

2007-10-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't updated in a while. Maybe that's a good thing. I haven't gotten anything done on filming or otherwise since the last update, and I really don't know when I'm going to have a considerable amount of time to do anything else for a while. Ugh. Sometimes I wish I was homeschooled.

DAY 119: Back to filming

2007-09-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, today I finally took the initiative to start filming again after a long hiatus because of school starting. I got a three-second shot done of That Darn Smoker walking down a deserted city street. I actually bumped the set four times, but all of them were correctable enough so that you wouldn't see them if you're just watching the film. I'm not completely satisfied with the way everything turned out on this one, but again it's probably just me trying to be overly perfect, so I'm not going to worry too much about it.

In case you haven't read my post on Brickfilms, I am officially withdrawing from the MoB contest. So technically this is not longer a "MoBlog," but I will keep the title the same because it sounds cool. However, I will still be involved in the contest because I'm playing the voice of King Harold Godwinson II in Night Owl's film "Hastings," and more notably I recently volunteered to write the score for TwickABros' MoB entry "Kensington." From what he's told me it sounds like it's going to be an excellent subject for some good music. This is my first "commission" as a score writer, so hopefully with this I can prove myself to be among the ranks of The Duke and others.

Rescheduling

2007-09-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

After reexamining my current "position" in the order of things with this project, I think I should still be able to do a good amount of slow but steady filming throughout the school year. You'll notice on my signature on Brickfilms that I revamped the little promotional poster and put summer 2008 as the tentative release date. Hopefully I can meet this deadline of a little less than a year from now, filming a few shots per weekend and fitting in other things whenever there's free time, or I can make time specifically for it.

As for the MoB Contest, it looks like I'm not going to enter. I was chatting with LOTL a few days ago and we agreed that probably none of the major contenders who originally said they might participate actually will. Although there was a really long deadline for this, such epic projects just can't be made in that short amount of time, especially for people who have other stuff to do like myself. I just hope some other contest comes along at a later date that I can enter.

So, as for the actual scheduling, I am sort of going to fill out a rough outline of what I want to film and when on Celtx, and then hopefully follow it pretty closely. I said that with my original summer schedule as well and failed miserably. But this is different, mind you! TDS will be finished.

Deciding the fate of TDS

2007-08-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, school starts on Monday, which means that any production will be going a much slower rate than it has this summer. And this summer has gone way slower than I anticipated. So I really don't know what to do. I probably need at least two months for scoring, which leaves just about two months for filming. At the rate I'm going, the chances of finishing the whole thing by the December deadline seem pretty scant. I think what I might do - or probably will do - is not try to rush to finish by the deadline, like what ultimately happened with my THAC 3 entry (on a much smaller scale). My only hope for the whole thing is that another contest will come up in the coming years that is similar to or better than the MoB contest that I can still enter That Darn Smoker into. There has been mention of such a contest a few times, maybe one without such overly strict guidelines regarding copyrighted material. That has really been an issue with me and other people intending to enter the contest. I still can't figure how 27 people are planning on entering the contest, some of which haven't even started filming or anything. They just must not have as big ambitions as me. That always seems to be the problem - I come with these ideas that would be really cool if I ever finished them, but it gets to be too hefty of a task and I don't finish.

As far as filming, I haven't gotten anything done since the last update. It's mostly due to my dejection over school starting and unwillingness to film stuff because of that. I haven't given up completely, mind you, and I will finish this project, even if it isn't for the MoB Contest. Again, I'm hoping that another contest comes up that I can still enter it in.

DAY 77: "I'm freeeeee...!!!"

2007-08-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

Of course, when most of you brickfilmers hear the above statement, Nosniborus' "Frankenstein" comes to mind. However, I did a little takeoff on that in the scene I shot last night. It got another 7 seconds or so of footage added to the overall total, which is now approaching about 3:20. That's a big leap from the 2 1/2 minutes I had done at the end of June. Still, that's only about a minute a month, which is not good.

Also, I'm freeeeee from various barriers that have been preventing regular filming over the last several weeks. I've finally recovered from my sickness thanks to some fast-working azithromycin, and I have a couple of free days before I go off yet again to visit relatives until next Saturday. I'm going to try to get one more shot in later today.

In other news, as I went into detail in a post that I never quite got finished, I was losing hope that I was going to finish by December. This is compared to about a month earlier when I said it would "definitely be finished by December." At the moment, I'm saying there's about a 50/50 chance that it will be done in time for the MoB contest. I will finish it at some point, but I may or may not be able to make the deadline. My main worry isn't finishing the animation itself, but also scoring it. So I'm kind of doing double duty with this film, animating it and scoring it. Scoring this will probably take at least 2 or 3 months of fairly constant work, which means I would need to have the filming done by October. I'll have to see how it goes over the next few weeks. I'll have a solid week before school starts to get in some last-minute filming, for example. Then I'll have weekends and holidays, and maybe even nights during school here at the beginning since I probably won't have much homework. Time waits for no man!

Also, don't forget to watch my new film, Flight 901.

THAC disaster

2007-08-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

So, THAC 3 was a 4-o'clock-in-the-morning disaster. I will now be resuming work on That Darn Smoker.

Back and sick as well

2007-07-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from my vacation, but I'm also sick due to my stupid roommate who was sick the whole time. Anyway, I might do some filming here and there later this week, but I will attempt to enter THAC3 this Saturday. THAC3 is the third annual Twenty-Four Hour Animation Contest where animators must complete a film within a 24-hour time span. I tried it last year but gave up mid-way. I will try it again this year, however, and hopefully finish something. If I do, I might actually have more than one film in the Brickfilms directory.

Going on 'oliday!

2007-07-14T23:15:00.000-07:00

I will be gone from July 15-29, so don't expect any blog updatage until then. I am headed off to a two-week orchestra deal where they expect me to practice 3 hours a day! That's a lot compared to my regular one hour. Anyway, bon voyage to myself and I'll see you limited readers in two weeks.

DAY 52: More WRECKAGE AND DEBRIS

2007-07-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Last night I would've gotten another scene done, but when dealing with wreckage there comes the inherent danger of hitting the loose pieces. Which I did. Multiple times. So that shot was essentially ruined, although I saved it as a iStopMotion file just in case I messed up even worse tonight. Thankfully I didn't, so I used tonight's take. This is where the Jail Guard is shown in probably the goriest shot in the entire film, where he is covered in blood* and his hand has been blown off. I guess that would warrant a PG-13 rating! Anyway, I got that shot done and now I'm just about a shot away from finishing up the Scene 3 and starting set building on Scene 6. Also with this shot I passed the three-minute mark of footage that I've done, which is about 1/7 of the projected total length. I'll get it done somehow.

*The blood is made from a mix of honey and red food coloring, and it makes a very realistic and gooey (so it doesn't run during filming) bloodish mixture.

DAY 50: WRECKAGE AND DEBRIS!!!

2007-07-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

Heehee! I filmed one of two shots involving the wreckage and debris of the blown up smoker jail (the cause of the explosion will not be revealed until the film is released). I had to start over a few times because I accidentally moved some of the loose pieces, but I got it done pretty fast. The next shot will involve some bloodiness, so I concocted some blood from honey and food coloring, so it looks pretty globby and realistic. The jail guard's hand gets blown off, so that's the reason for all of the gore. Unfortunately, there is no lieberman (bad pun for those who remember the 2000 presidential elections). I'm going to try to get the rest of Scene 3 done by the time I head off on vacation for two weeks. My original schedule said I would be halfway done with filming by this point (approximately 10 minutes worth), but I am just now on the brink of having filmed three minutes. That's a difference of 7 minutes. Hopefully I can make it up somehow.

These last few nights I've gotten a lot done, although last night I didn't film because I was busy working on a digital model for one of the sets in my new project I've come up with. I thought it up as an IDEA entry a few days ago, but since there's really no time to enter the contest now, I'm thinking about making the same concept into a regular film. Be warned, it involves a church! Basically it's about a guy who lives in this extremist theocracy and is the only one in the society that doubts its principles. So he flees and discovers (hence the IDEA tie-in) the reasoning behind the cause that he is so against. Ooh, scary! The working title at the moment is "The New World." It may be my next project after this.

DAY 48: Filming jumpstart

2007-07-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated el blogo in such a long time, but alas I have been on vacation this week. Anyway, last night I would have updated it but I ran into various problems such as the batteries in my "lamp" (aka reading light) running out as I was filming. Talk about frustrating! You could actually see the light go from bright to dim in the frames I was taking. But I bought some new batteries tonight and got a whopping ten seconds of footage done in one night. That's why it's a filming jumpstart, because I hadn't filmed for days and now I got ten seconds done. I guess that kind of makes up for it. Now with this ten seconds done, I've filmed almost all of Scene 3 except for the part where the smoker jail explodes. I can't do that for a while though, since I still have to film the last scene that also uses the same set.

Also, I've been working on even more script revisions, this time dealing with the climax. I'm still fixing some things, but basically I've just freed myself from having to make a sequel. Basically I added in some stuff in this one that will allow it to function properly as a stand-alone film, but I can still make a sequel to sort of fill out the storyline a bit more. That takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders, knowing that after this I might be able to focus on some easier projects. I'm thinking about doing a series of films based off of some ideas I came up with a long time ago, entitled "The Ben and Dorothy Adventures." Most of the stuff was really lame and unrealistic, but it might come across as a good comedy series in brickfilm form. Plus, each "episode" would only have to be 5 minutes or so apiece. So that's that, and tomorrow I'll start filming on Scene 21, the aforementioned other scene that is using the same smoker jail set. Hopefully I can get that done by the time I go on vacation again on July 15.

DAY 43: There's a light at the end of the tunnel...

2007-07-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

Like I said, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, or at least for the scene I'm currently filming. About three or four more shots and I'll be done with it. However, after that I still have to film another scene using the same set before I move on, so I'm not completely out of the woods yet. That reminds me of a really stupid joke with the "once you're halfway into the woods you're coming out of the woods." I'm sure you've all heard it. Anyway, after I film the scene after this one I can finally turn the set into a pile of rubble for one of the shots at the end of Scene 3. I think I might have the minifigs mounted on hidden columns underneath the rubble so that they will be resting on that and not the actual loose debris. That way, the stuff won't move around each frame and look like some sort of possessed wreckage. A similar problem is presented when using sand, but Jay Silver did an excellent job of not touching it at the end of his legendary film, "The Gauntlet."

That stupid forest joke also reminds me of this "logical thinking puzzle" that is equally stupid that I must share with you. Okay, so here's the riddle you have to answer: A customer destroys public property and then disappears. Even if he had been caught, he could not have been charged. Why? So that sounds like a fairly normal riddle. The answer is what gets me. The customer was a very overweight man who was being cremated. As he was being cremated, there was so much fat that it caught the crematorium on fire and burned it to the ground. I mean, come on! If they'll take that as an answer, I could think up a million other equally outrageous explanations.

DAY 42: Haste makes waste?

2007-07-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't really call it haste, but I got a lot done tonight. I got two different shots done and added some temporary filler sound effects to get the feel of how the explosion of the smoker jail is going to be like. Last night was out because I had to record my weekly hurricane podcast that I host. I got two shots done as I mentioned, one of That Darn Smoker replying to the jail guard, and the other one a bit later in the scene, right before the smoker jail blows up.

At this rate I'm making good progress, so maybe I can get the whole scene done by later this week. I'm going on vacation to San Antonio Wednesday through Friday, so those three days will be off unless I can do some on the night we get back on Friday. Saturday is my violin lesson, but that shouldn't impede on the filming for that day. I can probably get a few more shots done tomorrow before we leave and then do some more this weekend. I can probably get the set built for the first half of Scene 6 and maybe start doing the first couple of scenes before I head off to Colorado for two weeks. After that it will pretty much be August, and I'll have a week between coming back from Colorado and going off to visit my aunt and uncle in Massachusetts to finish up Scene 6. After that I'll have another week or so before school starts, so I can maybe get the next scene in there. The first couple weeks of school will probably be light on homework, so I might still be able to film some at nights then. So I'll probably have about half of the filming done by the time school starts. I'll have to see how it plays out to be able to schedule the rest of the time before the deadline in December. I'll probably need at least two months at the end to score the film and do post-production stuff, so that still gives me another two months to finish filming. The bottom line is that I have discarded my original schedule and am just winging it according to what scene is next in the script. Great.

DAY 40: "w00t" as they say

2007-06-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

That's right, I've now gotten 2.5 minutes of footage under my belt! w00t! And how many months has it been? Hmm. Well, let's just say two and a half minutes in a month. That means five per two, ten in four, 20 in eight. That's not good. I'm definitely going to have to speed things up. Oh well, I bet I can do it. I am about halfway through shooting Scene 3, after which I'll start Scene 6 (Scene 4 I've already filmed, Scene 5 was cut from the script). Scene 6 is where That Darn Smoker is out on the street and starts having his flashbacks about his past life as a smoker. Tonight I got two more shots done that were fairly quick, one of the jail guard saying, "1029!" and the other of a skeleton lying in a jail cell. That was probably the easiest shot out of the whole thing, since all I had to do was take the frames and not actually animate anything. My one trouble is that the three shots of the jail guard at the front of the jail cells all have slightly different lighting because I had to film them at different times, so hopefully it won't be too noticeable since there are different shots in between them to distract the viewer from paying too much attention to the lighting.

Last night on chat, Lord_Of_The_LEGO jokingly was listing out who was going to win the BAMPAs next year, and he listed That Darn Smoker as the winner of Best Screenplay. So ha ha. Although my ultimate goal is to at least get nominated for best film. Yeah right. I thought I might actually get nominated for voice acting this year with Thaddeus and the Elevator, but obviously that didn't happen. Although I wasn't much more pleased with Back 2 Skool winning it in the end. "You can't steal my gold if I'm dead!"

DAY 39: I'm mad, REAL mad

2007-06-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

Well, not too mad, but still, I got annoyed today when I was trying to re-set up the lighting for the shot I did last night when I realized that that wasn't the only shot I needed from that angle. I got one shot done, but the second I got so fed up with I just gave up. But at least I got one done.

Lord_Of_The_LEGO and I were chatting in the Brickfilms chat room and he brought up the prospect that with prof1515's disappearance that the MoB contest may be called off anyway, with old prof off developing his Victorian-era immersion game. I sure hope not, but at the same time it would be nice not to have to worry about attaining copyright permissions and all of that for the sound effects. Either way, That Darn Smoker will definitely be coming out by the end of the year.

DAY 38: [Insert standard progress phrase here]

2007-06-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a few days, but here is a roundup of the last few days' activity:

I continued on Scene 3 on Tuesday with another small shot where That Darn Smoker breaks the gas line in his jail cell. I filmed it out of sequence because it's the same set as the one I did on Monday. I was having a little bit of trouble with the noise that seems to show up in black areas with the Quickcam. I've tried experimenting as much as possible with the various brightness and contrast settings, but the blue noise still shows up slightly. But when I export it into my actual That Darn Smoker iMovie project, the noise seems to lessen.

Tonight I filmed the shot before the aforementioned one where the Jail Guard (played by Lord_Of_The_LEGO) walks in and says, "Roll call!" So yeah. Now I have 2:20 of footage done for the entire thing, with another 20 minutes to go. Progress is slow but steady. The noise wasn't a problem on this one. I got some cool fluorescent/incandescent mixed lighting effects going on. I was also able to fashion a semi-realistic LEGO candle out of half of a standard white pole cut in half with an Exacto knife*. I'm going to have Lechnology do the special effects along with the big explosion that comes a little later in the scene. Tomorrow I'll probably get around to doing a couple more shots, hopefully having Scene 3 complete by the end of this weekend or some time next week at the latest.

(*I'm not one of those LEGO "purists" who doesn't do anything like cutting bricks in half and stuff. Sorry.)

DAY 35: Six months until Christmas!

2007-06-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

That's right - today is the farthest day from Christmas in the entire year! Anyway, I got another shot done for Scene 3, and I'm really pleased with it. I somehow got the animation got to work really well for this one, and my dialog for That Darn Smoker goes along with it perfectly. This is the shot where That Darn Smoker wakes up from being shot and realizes that he's in the smoker jail. How will he escape?

I also sort of read through the script and roughly timed it, and I think it's going to be about 20-25 minutes long, which is about what I had planned. I got through the first two minutes of footage in only 1:40, so maybe it will be longer than just 20 minutes. Hopefully. Because the longer it is, the more epic it becomes! Muahahahaha!!! Worst Case Scenario 3? Child's play! Faithless? Come on! Star Wars: The Great Disturbance? Well... maybe not.

DAY 34: Scene 1 post-prod

2007-06-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

I did some post-production work for the first scene and added in some helicopter effects for the two shots with the helicopter guy in it. I'm definitely going to have to do a lot of sound effects and foley for the first scene, since it involves multiple police cars, helicopters, and general nighttime ambience. Scene 3 will require a little less, but there is still a problem because of the MoB Contest rules stating that there can't be any copyrighted sound effects. I'm trying to find a good public domain sound effects site, but I've come up short so far. I still don't understand why we can't use copyrighted stuff, because it is SO HARD to find sound effects for these epic films that prof1515 expects us to make. Pshaw.

I would have filmed the next shot in Scene 3, but I had to record my weekly hurricane podcast tonight. I should be able to get that one done tomorrow where That Darn Smoker awakens in the smoker jail.

DAY 33: Opening pan for jail scene filmed

2007-06-23T23:01:00.000-07:00

I'm getting back to filming, and I've finished the opening camera pan for the smoker jail scene, which includes Lord_Of_The_LEGO's first appearance as the Jail Guard. I'm quite satisfied with it, and I'd been working on that specific set for a couple weeks getting the camera pan track made so that I could slide the camera mount along. I had to tediously move the camera 1/16 of an inch per frame to get the right speed. I also had to set up three different lights to get the right effect without getting too much graininess. I also just discovered the brightness and contrast settings on the Logitech Camera Control. Duh! And the stupid thing is that it's been there the whole time. Oh well; at least I'll know from now on. But it could definitely help with the graininess where I've been having to use the shutter and gain settings alone. Anyway, tomorrow I'll probably set up the next shot and film it where That Darn Smoker is waking up from being shot by the Anti-Smoker Society.

Of course, at this point I am extremely behind schedule, so my new goal is to have this scene and the next one done by the time I go to Durango on July 15. I'll have to take a two-week break after that, but then maybe I can get a few more scenes after that filmed in August, since I don't have to go back to school until August 27 this year (two weeks later than usual). That should leave me with about a third of the film left to do once school starts which will still be okay.

DAY 32: Schlockading has returned!

2007-06-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

After taking a nice five-day vacation to good ol' Branson, I have returned and will start filming Scene 3 - The Smoker Jail tomorrow. I got all of the parts in perfect condition last Saturday and also painted the white jail door gray to match the other two. So now that the set and matching camera pan tracks are complete, I can start on filming this week and hopefully have it done some time soon.

DAY 23: Still waiting...

2007-06-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still waiting for my Bricklink order to arrive so that I can complete the smoker jail set for Scene 3, which is next on my schedule. I mailed the payment yesterday, so hopefully the guy got it today and maybe will send out the shipment tomorrow, which means I'd get it on Friday. Ugh. I'm now over a week behind schedule, but I'm starting to think that I'll just use the schedule as a tool to see which scenes I need to do at the same time with the same sets, etc. I highly doubt I'll really be able to "catch up" on my schedule at a later date. In reality I'll probably end up just getting farther and farther behind until I'll probably only have half the film done by the end of the summer which means that I'll still have to film ten minutes worth of it during school which will be impossible because....

Anyway, I finally did something productive today instead of mope. I started building a set for a random scene that I thought would be easy to film while I wait for my shipment to get here. It's the scene where Minono (the wizard guy) and That Darn Smoker are in a hotel room. It's a quick scene, so I might get it done before Friday.

As the proverb goes at the beginning of the book Touching Spirit Bear, "Fall down seven times, stand up eight." or something like that. That's basically my philosophy for the moment. As long as I can recover somehow from my extreme holdup, everything will sort itself out. Touching Spirit Bear is a rather odd book about this kid who gives this other kid brain damage by beating his head on the ground and then gets exiled to some remote island as punishment. Then he meets this "spirit bear" and has to learn how to survive alone in the wild. He ends up eating live mice and stuff, with the graphic description of, "He could feel the skull crunching in his mouth." Pshaw. Just pshaw.

DAY 17: Taking a small break

2007-06-07T23:30:00.001-07:00

I didn't film today, but at least this time it was planned. I started building the set for Scene 3 - the smoker jail. It's turning out quite well and hopefully the lighting for the real thing won't be too dark. I saw Smeagol's new "An Ill-Made Weapon" and saw how ungrainy his camera was, which made me wonder if people are going to notice the graininess in the dark scenes with my Quickcam. Well, now that I've said it I'm sure everyone will. Great. Anyway, the MoB Contest isn't about the best picture quality or animation, so that's what I'm trying to keep in mind.

Anyway, the set is shaping up quite well, but I figured out that I need about 24 of those little black fence deals to make a realistic jail "front" where the door would be. Obviously with lack of pieces, I don't have 24 of those, so I found a place on Bricklink called Texas Brick House that had a large lot of fence pieces and the security guard torso that I need for the Jail Guard, so I ordered those for $11.17 today. I can't start filming until the set is done, obviously, so I'm going to have to find something to do over the next few days that won't get me behind on my schedule too much. If the guy's in Texas it hopefully won't take too long to ship.

DAY 16: Scene 1 complete for the most part

2007-06-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have completed all of the filming for the first scene. It feels good to have something actually "done." I got my iStopMotion demo renewed and got the overhead helicopter scenes filmed. I also went through iMovie and rearranged all the clips and audio that I sort of had just strewn around and now all of the clips are in order. I'm still waiting for Lechnology to get back with me on the one shot he was going to darken in After Effects for me, but besides that I think my filming for the first scene is complete.

However, there is one scene I have listed in the script that I haven't filmed yet for this scene, but I'm considering leaving it out. It entails having some sort of overhead tracking shot of the helicopter (which technically only has an inside) and the police car below on the road and the helicopter flying off to the side. Of course this would look really cool if I could pull it off, but I'm not sure I could with my current software capabilities. I'd most likely have to hook up the helicopter with some sort of wire and try to mask it out, but alas I don't have any programs that can do that. It would also require a rather large set, and I am pretty limited on pieces, so again it may prove difficult to accomplish. Plus, it's not a completely necessary shot to understand the film, so I might just leave it out.

Tomorrow I'll start working on the set for Scene 3 (I counted Scene 2 as the opening titles), which is the smoker jail. I'll finally get to animate someone's lines besides my own voice. Lord_Of_The_LEGO is playing the part of the Jail Guard, so I'll be able to animate his character. I still have to order some stuff off of Bricklink, such as the Jail Guard's security guard torso and a few other minifig-related items if I can find them.

Oh yeah, I'm way behind schedule because of all of my incidents with the iStopMotion demo stuff; I'm already supposed to be filming Scene 3. Oh well. I might be able to catch up.

DAY 15: Ugh!

2007-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

I was going to animate the helicopter scene tonight, but the stupid iStopMotion Demo Key page isn't working for whatever stupid reason. ARRRGHHH!!!! I hate it when I can't animate because it's something I can't control. Ah well. I'm going to take the "off time" to maybe start writing some of the script for TDS 2. Hopefully the website will be working tomorrow, when I'm going to buy the thing and get over having to depend on renewing the demo each week.

DAY 14: Back in business

2007-06-04T09:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I finally filmed something after a nearly three-day downtime. I filmed the scene where Anti-Smoker Society is putting That Darn Smoker on a stretcher and into the back of their police car. It was extremely difficult to animate, since the minifigs didn't line up right with the studs when standing normally and holding the stretcher at the same time. So that was kind of hard, but I did it along with them closing the police car door and walking off. I thought the walk cycles were really low-quality, so I am considering cutting out the last 1.5 seconds of footage and replacing it with another shot from inside the police car as the door is closing. This would then leave a black screen in which I could transition over into the main titles.

I finally got my dad to record the voices for his part yesterday, so I will probably be building the overhead helicopter set today. It will be similar to the police car one in terms of size, but overall I think it should be easier to animate since I'm only planning on having one camera angle and there's only one person in the helicopter. So that's what I'm going to do today, and after that I will generally be done with the filming for the entire first scene, which is a pretty big accomplishment and probably the hardest scene to film out of all twenty (except maybe the scene where That Darn Smoker is running up the stairs of a fiery building, but I'll get to that later).

DAY 11: Stumped!

2007-06-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

I didn't really do much today because my dad is gone on a business trip and I needed him to record the lines for the next scene I'm filming. So I'm sort of stumped. I tried to find something else productive to do today, so I started rebuilding one of the street sets for the scene where That Darn Smoker gets put on a stretcher and taken away in a police car.

I couldn't find an actual LEGO stretcher and I didn't want to take the time and money to buy one off of Bricklink, so I had to improvise and make one myself. Basically I took a white 2 by 6 plate and stuck those little handle things on each end, so it looks pretty realistic. The problem is the spacing with the minifigs. When they stand normally while holding the stretcher they don't line up the studs on the ground, so that's a problem. It will only be a short scene of the people putting the stretcher in the car, so it probably won't be that hard. My main problem at the moment is finding enough black police suits and heads with sunglasses to be holding on to all four handles. I'm not one of those people who has any extreme overabundance of LEGO, so sometimes finding enough minifigs can present an issue.

Tomorrow I'll probably film the aforementioned scene and maybe start putting together the set for Scene 3 - the smoker jail. I'm also trying to find a good-looking and accurate minifig for the jail guard. So that's all what's going on, and I'm sort of in a fog as to what to do next. Yep.

DAY 10: Police car scenes filmed

2007-05-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

I got the three police car scenes filmed with a bit of difficulty. First off, I had to find a light that could pass for a street lamp going by outside the window. I finally found a clamp-on book light of my sister's and clamped it onto my main lamp that I can twist around above the set. With this setup, I was able to somewhat successfully make it look like there were street lights going past the window. I noticed after I filmed, however, that the motion of the light sort of makes it look like the lights on top of the police car going around, but either way it's fine.

Another problem was the extremely small size of the set I was working with. For most of the scenes I had to use one of those little gray devices that pries the LEGOs off to get a brick off in front of the minifig I was moving. I had to do this for every single frame where there was movement, and it was a pain. Nevertheless, I got the scenes done and I can move on. My mom did well at saying, "Oh my gosh! We just ran over an innocent bystander!" So overall it looks good.

Tomorrow I'll build a similar set to this one for the "Overhead Helicopter" scenes (that's what it's referred to as in the script). I think there are only two of those and from the same angle, so they should take too long. I might have to rig up some sort of night sky backdrop, but I think it will be easier than the police car in general.

The sound editing and such all has to wait until later; right now I only have the voices in with the footage for the most part. I'm still having some trouble with getting the various sound effects since prof1515 (the facilitator of the MoB contest) still hasn't responded to my multiple requests about using online sound effects since they go against his copyright rule. Read the "MoB - Masterpieces of Brickfilming" thread in the Official Contests forum on Brickfilms to see my various complaints.

DAY 9: Police set still built...

2007-05-30T22:49:00.001-07:00

I got the police set all set up with the camera and lighting and everything and was going to film today, but I ran out of time and didn't. Those 20 pages a day of The Agony and the Ecstasy are really killing me. And those "personal responses" I have to do along with it - ugh!

Anyway, I got my lines done for the police scenes and my mom just has to do a few, so I should have those scenes done tomorrow for sure. I'm still running pretty well on schedule, although I'm almost sure I'll get behind. Here's a screenshot of what some of the police scenes are going to look like:

DAY 8: Police car set built, very small!

2007-05-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

I got the police car set built today, and man is it small! (small enough to hold with one hand) I have no clue how I'm going to be able to get it to take up the entire shot with the Quickcam, but it's pretty close up, so it will probably work. I'll get to filming those scenes with the police car tomorrow and record the lines for it since I'm playing the part of the policeman.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get the outside passing by to look realistic without actually moving the car and the camera along with it, which would be very impractical. Maybe just flashing red and blue lights alternately will make it real enough without anything else going past outside except street lights. Either way, I've got to make it look like it's dark enough outside that you can't see anything so I can avoid having to "scroll" various buildings past the window.

I also continued adding on to my schedule through the end of July, and looks like I should be a little over halfway done with filming by then. I'm estimating I won't get done with all of the filming by the end of the summer, but it will be pretty close. Three scenes at the most will be left out of the 20 or so overall. That's good.

DAY 7: Not much progress

2007-05-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

I didn't really do anything today. I started to tear down my current set in way of my next one, which is the interior of the police car. I found a good female character for the scenes that my mom will be voicing as well as some good-looking control panel deals for the inside of the car. Tomorrow I'll probably get the set done and record the voices. Maybe I'll do some filming. My schedule allows two days for it.

I'm having a time with my summer reading assignment, having to read 20 pages a day with extremely small print and then "respond personally" to various passages. Ugh! And I'm required to hand-write it.

DAY 6: Innocent bystander scene reshot, considering different walk cycles

2007-05-27T16:04:00.001-07:00

I wasn't happy with my first attempt at the innocent bystander scene. After getting really mad and throwing my camera across the room after I bumped it and then trying to reconstruct the base since it flew apart, I got the scene refilmed with better physics on the bike crash. It still looks slightly weird, but I don't think I can get it any better. Oh well. I'll probably be building the interior police car set tomorrow and start filming by at least Tuesday. After that will be a few more shots for Scene 1 and then I'll finally be done with it and probably the most difficult animation will be finished. Hopefully that will be by the end of this week.

I'm also testing out some different walk cycles to see how they look onscreen. Ever since Crazyanimator posted his 8-step walk cycle and it looked like some guy creeping around on his tip-toes (no offense to Crazyanimator), I've been thinking that perhaps even Nos's 6-step walk cycle is slightly unrealistic. The main problem with minifig walk cycles is the movement between these two steps:

No matter what you do, there is no way to have an intermediate movement between these two steps. In Nos's 6-step walk cycle it is not very obvious, but in Crazyanimator's 8-step walk cycle it is apparent that the other steps that the minifig takes need to equal the size of the aforementioned. When the movements become smaller and smaller in comparison to this one, it looks more and more like the minifig is popping his heels back like he's about to kick a ball. Also, the more frames it takes to take one step, the slower the walking becomes and also adds to the unrealisticality (if that's a word). So, I've figured that a four-step walk cycle is more accurate in terms of equalness of movement in the legs. It may not be the smoothest animation-wise, but at least it's more realistic overall. I may post a test clip tomorrow to show what I mean.

DAY 5: Innocent bystander scene filmed

2007-05-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

I have officially started on the filming process, and I have filmed one short three-second scene where a guy on a bike gets hit by a police car. Here's a picture of the set:

So that's basically what it is. I had built the set on Thursday, and I filmed last night. Next on the agenda is a scene inside the police car, so I'll have to build a pretty tight set for that one.

The countdown begins

2007-05-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's just a few more days until go time. I have the next month and a half ready to go on my schedule and I should get about half of the filming done by mid-July, which is perfect since that's halfway through the summer. Unfortunately, I'm not completely free this summer - I still have to read the 760-page "The Agony and the Ecstasy" for my summer English assignment, practice for All-State orchestra tryouts, and get enough exercise to counteract my hours of sitting at the computer filming. Oh well. I still think I'll get enough time to do something. I'm building the set for the next scene right now as I prepare to start production in earnest.

Also, it's become "official" that there will be a TDS 2, since with the recent script revisions there is going to be a whole other film required to explain all the ends and outs of the first one. I've considered a trilogy-style thing, with That Darn Smoker being released in 2007, TDS 2 in 2008, and TDS 3 in 2009. But by the time 2009 rolls around I might be tired of all the smoking. I'll have to see what the reaction from my fellow brickfilmers is on the first and second one to judge it. But with the revisions, I've sort of committed myself to making a sequel, although it wouldn't necessarily have to be filmed in a single summer or even a single year for that matter. I'll have to see. I think might start trying to construct a script for the second movie some time this week as I get started with filming.

The next post will start my daily updates of "What I've done today" with the respective day number attached in the post title. Yea! ...

Script revisions complete

2007-05-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

I've finalized the script now and it's ready to go for filming. I even added in a few more twists than I had previously planned. Now the hard part is just filming it!

Script revisions and other matters

2007-05-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Here's some proof as to how unprepared this project really is: I'm still editing my script with the start of production looming just a few weeks away. I guess that's okay, but I'm not talking about editing as in typos. But it's all for the better. Originally, I had copied the script pretty much word-for-word from the recording I made. My original intention before the announcement of the MoB Contest was to basically recreate what I had done in the original movie a few years ago. Even after the contest was announced, the script seemed fine. But as I started to read through it and heard about how everyone else's films were going to sort of be, a few parts of the plot started to bug me. So I changed a few things, and then I changed a lot of things. Now the plot is a lot more "meaningful," I guess, along with basically fixing the original plot holes. While making these revisions, the idea for a sequel popped into my head. I had had in mind that I might just do a sequel for the fun of it that wouldn't really relate too much to the first one (in fact, I was originally intending to rewrite the script for my failed FIG entry, "That Darn Smokin' Spotter"), but now a sequel is going to be required to tie up the loose ends I've added into the current film. So watch for TDS 2 coming out some time next year perhaps. Of course, to see what I've revised, you'll have to watch the film. No spoilers here!

As for my filming schedule, it seems like most of the summer is going to be free. Besides having to do some summer English assignments, I'll be pretty much free from Memorial Day through July 15, when I'm going to Colorado for a few weeks. After that, I'll basically have the entire month of August to get through with filming. I've basically planned out a day-by-day schedule up through the July 15 break, but I'm almost certain I'll get behind at some point. Thankfully the deadline isn't until just after Christmas, so I'll have a four months of backup if needed.

Film suite coming soon!

2007-04-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

I have just finished putting together a list of songs that I'm going to have to compose for That Darn Smoker at some point for the score. There are going to be 16 pieces in all, so it's going to be quite a daunting task to complete. But the good thing about scores is that you can start on them before you actually film, so that's what I'm going to start working on before I start filming in the summer. I've got the general them melody in my head, and now that I know what individual parts I need to write, it should be fairly easy. I'll be using Finale 2007 with the Garritan Personal Orchestra, which really is a lot better than people say.

In other news, I am continuing to compile a detailed filming schedule for the summer so that I can just follow it each day instead of having to figure out what I'm going to do as I go, which could potentially cause some backups. I'm basically incorporating filming and set-building all in the same thing so that I can get done with it quickly. I'm a bit worried that with this filming schedule and deadline I need to meet, I won't spend enough time on setting up shots and making it look right. I don't know. I'll probably just have to see how it goes in June and sort of figure it out along the way.

Also, I am starting up preordering for DVDs for $6 (free shipping). PM me on Brickfilms if you want one. Also, you can preorder a CD of the film suite for $4, or order the DVD and CD together for $8 ($2 discount). I know this is a huge hype, but like anyone reads this blog anyway, right?

Official hiatus

2007-03-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

It's official: I'm holding on production until June. Why? Mainly, actually wholly, because of school. I've tried working around it, but it just doesn't work. But in June, I'm really going to hunker down and hopefully animate the majority of the film. I figure that if I can animate an average of maybe one scene ever Monday-Friday and build sets on the weekends, I should be able finish almost if not all of the animation by the end of the summer. I estimate the film will be about 30-35 minutes in length, so I think the threeish summer months should be plenty of time. Post-production will probably account for the rest of the time from September through December with school starting back up.

Until then, which is in about eight weeks, I probably won't be updating the blog unless something important happens. However, starting in June I will probably update the blog daily. Just about all of my voice actors have sent in their lines, so that's taken care of for when I start filming.

Strange new film idea

2007-02-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

Well, this doesn't have to do with That Darn Smoker, but I came up with this new idea for a film. I might do it at some point before I resume work on TDS, since the entire thing is fairly short. The general gist of it would be another "Brick Zone" film. All I can tell you now is that it would most likely be called The Brick Zone: Sunlight.

Watch for it within the coming months!

NO PROGRESS ALLOWED - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

2007-02-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

I haven't done anything since the last post except rewatch what I've already filmed. Blame my English teacher.

On a side note, I was cast for the lead part in nightowlnikolas's MoB film "Hastings." It's going to be a good film judging by the script.

Script crisis averted!

2007-01-26T19:37:00.000-08:00

Today, I was looking at my script and opened the file on Celtx. It turns out that either the program or the jump drive (flash drive, memory stick, whatever you want to call it) had totally screwed up the file. Stuff was all over the place, and only two scenes remained intact out of the 22 I had written. This seemed to be the end, and I was thinking I might have to rewrite the entire script. Then I remembered that I had posted the script on Celtx Project Central, so I figured out how to download the file off the internet and everything was saved. Crisis averted! I still don't know what the heck went wrong with it, but now I know I can always download it when I need to.

I had been looking at the script in the first place because Nos applied to audition for the part of Minono, which is really fortunate on my part. I just sent him the test lines, so I'll update the blog once the results are in for the audition. The only part that remains unfilled is that of the ambulance assistant, but Spitfire Studios is auditioning, so it could potentially be covered as well. Let's just hope that I don't lose all the files for the voices next!

Now officially behind schedule

2007-01-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

Well, instead of being ahead of schedule, now I'm behind. Yeah. Although I'm already supposed to be well into filming scene 3, I haven't even finished scenes 1 and 20. I'm thinking as things are going along that I'll probably do most of the work during the summer months. I just have a few more shots to do for the first scene (which is longest in the whole script). I have a huge black wall that I'm using and can't tear it down, obviously, so I can't start building the set for the next scene, because it also requires a large black wall. I've gotten some lines back from a few of my voice actors, so that should hold me for a while. Look for some potential screenshots, etc. from what I've completed so far in the next post.

Making some progress

2006-12-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I have filmed quite a few more shots since the last update. I'm running pretty well according to schedule, which says I should have scenes 1 and 20 done by the end of the month (or at least by the end of Christmas break). These two scenes involve the same set, so that's why I'm filming them at the same time.

I've finished Scene 4, as well as several shots from the the first scene. The first scene consists of That Darn Smoker being tracked down and arrested by the Anti-Smoker Society. I've done several shots for this scene so far, and I'm about halfway done with it. There are 22 scenes in all, although two of them are titles and credits. On my current schedule, I should completed the film by October 2007, and that's allowing an entire month for post-production. I'll probably be cutting it a little closer than that, but at least I've started.

A few shots finished

2006-11-28T06:10:00.000-08:00

I have gotten one shot finished from scene 1 and one from scene 4 finished with voices and sound effects. So, yeah. It's coming along quite nicely according to schedule.

-Schlock

Welcome to the "That Darn Smoker" Production Blog!

2006-10-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

This blog will track the progress of the filming of "That Darn Smoker," Schlockading Productions' entry in the Masterpieces of Brickfilms contest. Enjoy!