The eagle-eyed among you would've already noticed and hopefully watched the final cut of 'Peace Patrol vs. John East' and, at the time of writing, we've managed to amass 45 views and a suspicious yet totally legitimate 5 star rating! Not a bad start at all. To top things off, as far as viewing pleasure's concerned, we've also compiled an 'outtakes' video, comprising of the most amusing cock-ups and dodgy camerawork we managed during the shooting process. It's quite good, so take a look here. Make sure you watch the proper video first though! And please leave comments if you have anything you'd like to say. Ta!
Winding back a bit, we were quite chuffed with how the video ended up, particularly during the slow-mo' scene, where we managed to match the pace of visuals with the music to a tee. After that, when you see Lenny's cupped hands release the tuna into the sea, everything else fell into place like a Scooby Doo's villain's plans. Except we got away with it at the end!
As far as editing went, it couldn't have gone any smoother; although a time-consuming process, it was rarely a chore. On occasions we had to alter or enhance some sound here and there, but the raw footage we shot was mostly exactly what we needed. Personally (Cynical Mike aka Lenny, here), the car boot scene's unintended but excellently fitting seaside background theme matched the mood perfectly, and captured the clumsy atmosphere we were striving for. It basically acted as a useful indicator to not take us seriously (if that was still needed by then), so thank you quirky Barry Island!
Fits of laughter were abound, however, when putting the finishing touches to the final product, courtesy of having to speak 'seriously' when doing a Don LaFontaine impression. After around ten minutes of attempting to record the whole script in one take, it was finally ready for the introduction's montage. If it wasn't for our jobless reputable vegetable farmer, it would've been completed in three takes or less! But his image etched in my mind while reading it was too much to take! Good times.
Other than that it was a relatively smooth ride until the very end, where converting the video to a DivX-friendly format proved to be a bit annoying. For some reason, after two 'successful' conversions, it decided to omit either the beginning or the end of the video, seemingly disliking either Jez's unnecessarily American announcement or the 'maaaase' at the end. Eventually it behaved, and that is what you see on YouTube right now.
To avoid further rambling, it's time to tantillise and tickle: originally we had a couple of ideas for our next project while working on Peace Patrol's first outing, but now we may have something more familiar for JikeMez viewers in the pipeline. As ever, watch this space and have a nice day!
We'll be back.
Saturday 24 October 2009
Monday 5 October 2009
Action Satisfaction
If you've been keeping up with JikeMez's recent tweetings you'll know that we finally got some filming done for 'Peace Patrol vs. John West'! Although unsure at the time, we're fairly certain we managed to capture all the shots we needed to at last complete this rather drawn-out affair.
It's remarkable what a bit of preparation can do, as our script and storyboard, both produced back in June, did wonders in helping us get to started on day one of filming. So, (rather amusing) costumes at the ready, a few accent tweaks here and there and it's 'take one' of many! Thanks to the storyboard and script, we knew how to begin and, unlike 'normal' filming, we started at the start! Rather than trying to be clever, we thought best to shoot chronologically, so we knew exactly where we were progress-wise. We're only amatuers at the moment, after all...
Getting into character proved a little tricky (we're only amatuers at the moment, after all...), while talking to the camera and driving the 'Peace Patrol Wagon' was quite enjoyable, with many-an-outtake ready for use in our 'Peace Patrol Bonus Features' video, coming soon (once the editing of the main feature is actually completed). So we had fun with the initial stages, and from what we can tell insofar, it should all merge together as a harmonic entity when the jigsaw is complete! With a few improvisations now and again, the public interfering with our shooting (we don't yet command the respect to get people to piss off, because we're only amat... Ah, you get the idea by now!), the discovery of a creepy but perfect horror movie backdrop in Barry, a (hopefully) amusing car boot (trunk, to the Yanks) scene and some tuna-releasing safe-spot locating; our first day (or few hours) with cameras, microphones and exaggerated accents drew to a close as daylight was of the essence. We swiftly learned a lesson here: 'note to selves: get our arses ready before half bloody 2 tomorrow!'.
And didn't we just! The second and hopefully final day (my frustration at it not being done becoming evident towards the end) didn't feel as fruitful as we would've liked at the time, but on reflection we did quite well. We re-shot the tuna-releasing safe-spot locating scene just in case, successfully avoided 'Speedo Man'*, got Jez an accent, "released the fish", froze our arses off in shorts and sandals on a miserable September afternoon at the sea side, drew a few on-looking spectators in and wore the camera's battery to a 'must... sleep... gaargh!' degree (dramatic death scene, you know what I mean)! Not at all a bad day's work, taking all into consideration.
There's a slight concern, however; we're unsure whether the shots we managed for the releasing scene were all that good, or any good at all. Although we haven't played back the video properly yet, we're unsure whether it looks convincing enough. Considering it's meant to be our 'money shot', I couldn't help but feel despondent that it hadn't panned out as originally hoped. We took various shots though, so providing there are no horror shows, we should have enough to piece together to make it look half decent. With any luck re-shooting won't be a neccessity, and we can finally move on from this project! When it's done, drop us a line and let us know whether it was cringeworthy or not! Public opinion/criticism is key to our future improvement.
As soon as it's up and running on our YouTube channel, you'll be sure to know via Twitter and probably here. For now though, this is a relatively pleased 'Cynical Mike' signing off.
'And I'll see ya next time, turrah!'
*'Speedo Man' (not the guy above) was some bloke who thought it'd be wise to have a swim in the not-exactly-tropical tropical temperatures of the Bristol Channel. He wandered up and down the shoreline, seemingly attempting to find a warm spot, intruding our camera's lens twice, looking grumpy at the sea's apparent lack of heat and buggering off home. Seriously, Speedos, at the end of September, at Barry Island! There's a comedic short film in there somewhere...
It's remarkable what a bit of preparation can do, as our script and storyboard, both produced back in June, did wonders in helping us get to started on day one of filming. So, (rather amusing) costumes at the ready, a few accent tweaks here and there and it's 'take one' of many! Thanks to the storyboard and script, we knew how to begin and, unlike 'normal' filming, we started at the start! Rather than trying to be clever, we thought best to shoot chronologically, so we knew exactly where we were progress-wise. We're only amatuers at the moment, after all...
Getting into character proved a little tricky (we're only amatuers at the moment, after all...), while talking to the camera and driving the 'Peace Patrol Wagon' was quite enjoyable, with many-an-outtake ready for use in our 'Peace Patrol Bonus Features' video, coming soon (once the editing of the main feature is actually completed). So we had fun with the initial stages, and from what we can tell insofar, it should all merge together as a harmonic entity when the jigsaw is complete! With a few improvisations now and again, the public interfering with our shooting (we don't yet command the respect to get people to piss off, because we're only amat... Ah, you get the idea by now!), the discovery of a creepy but perfect horror movie backdrop in Barry, a (hopefully) amusing car boot (trunk, to the Yanks) scene and some tuna-releasing safe-spot locating; our first day (or few hours) with cameras, microphones and exaggerated accents drew to a close as daylight was of the essence. We swiftly learned a lesson here: 'note to selves: get our arses ready before half bloody 2 tomorrow!'.
And didn't we just! The second and hopefully final day (my frustration at it not being done becoming evident towards the end) didn't feel as fruitful as we would've liked at the time, but on reflection we did quite well. We re-shot the tuna-releasing safe-spot locating scene just in case, successfully avoided 'Speedo Man'*, got Jez an accent, "released the fish", froze our arses off in shorts and sandals on a miserable September afternoon at the sea side, drew a few on-looking spectators in and wore the camera's battery to a 'must... sleep... gaargh!' degree (dramatic death scene, you know what I mean)! Not at all a bad day's work, taking all into consideration.
There's a slight concern, however; we're unsure whether the shots we managed for the releasing scene were all that good, or any good at all. Although we haven't played back the video properly yet, we're unsure whether it looks convincing enough. Considering it's meant to be our 'money shot', I couldn't help but feel despondent that it hadn't panned out as originally hoped. We took various shots though, so providing there are no horror shows, we should have enough to piece together to make it look half decent. With any luck re-shooting won't be a neccessity, and we can finally move on from this project! When it's done, drop us a line and let us know whether it was cringeworthy or not! Public opinion/criticism is key to our future improvement.
As soon as it's up and running on our YouTube channel, you'll be sure to know via Twitter and probably here. For now though, this is a relatively pleased 'Cynical Mike' signing off.
'And I'll see ya next time, turrah!'
*'Speedo Man' (not the guy above) was some bloke who thought it'd be wise to have a swim in the not-exactly-tropical tropical temperatures of the Bristol Channel. He wandered up and down the shoreline, seemingly attempting to find a warm spot, intruding our camera's lens twice, looking grumpy at the sea's apparent lack of heat and buggering off home. Seriously, Speedos, at the end of September, at Barry Island! There's a comedic short film in there somewhere...
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