Let’s get real

 

Friday, July 10, 2009

 

WOW!

I started to watch the new DVDs of the Indiana Jones movies in letter box format.

And WOW is the only word I have for the experience.

This will teach me to clinging to the old boxed set of “modified to fit your screen” VHS for so long.

I knew Spielberg manipulated the screen for other films, but was blinded by the fact that the tapes I had changed his whole screen world view. I should have guessed from the shots in the café in Raiders where Indiana seemed distorted in the foreground “Now you’re getting nasty,” when the whole sequence was shot in a wider frame that fit his whole face – helping to frame his arch villain in the background.

I’m going to have to junk all my old tapes – possibly leading to my wife to put me out of the house with the TV set and the DVD player.

So if you see my on the street with a pile of DVDs and VHS tapes, I won’t be selling them.

 

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I started building the set for my western monologue, “Boots.”

In this case, I mean literally.

I’m not comfortable with green screen and the only reason I have worked with it for the most part has been to create scenes I can’t otherwise film or I’m too embarrassed to shoot for real.

I’m a guy running around the Metropolitan area trying to shoot movies on the sly. The subways scenes in Jurassic Puddle I did completely under cover.

I love live camera, but I can’t film live except in remote areas where people aren’t looking at me like I’m a nut (which I might be but why advertise the fact).

Live shots – in door or out door – solve a host of perspective issues when it comes to movement that my limited space for green screen (I have one wall painted green) can’t match.

While I admire cgi, I’ve never felt comfortable combining it with real action. (Crystal Skull accomplishes this but I can’t)

I also want to shoot in tape not in camera cards. But the cards record the green screen better than the tape does (I need an atomic blast to get the right light needed for the tape to work with green screen).

I can green screen in effects, but I’m trying to make sure that my master shots are tape. This means I have to create some real sets or shoot outdoors, then play with the copy.

Sound is also an issue. Since the monologue requires little dramatic action, I need to construct a set in my library that I shoot as if real – a lot like some of the crypt sets Spielberg uses again and again in the Indiana Jones films.

All this for a monologue that will last slightly over two minutes? Of course.

 

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This, of course, leads to another important point about the material I have been selecting lately.

Parody or original, a ten-minute version of a full-length movie is cramped. I’ve always felt like I’ve had to cram everything in, and when acting out the scenes, felt rushed.

My monologues may run as long as three minutes, but it is a quality three minutes, where I can linger over language and interpret character in a way the larger productions won’t allow.

This is particularly true in the upcoming monologues I’m currently shaping.

While I’ll continue the large productions – such as the Old Mill and others – I need the shorter versions in order to polish my film skills without feeling the pressure to rush. Perhaps I might even learn how to act if I don’t have to face time constraint issues.