Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Two of Us

For Christmas, I got a ZOOM audio recorded, dolly and Action Essentials 2. These will be a big help when I make my 45 minute movie next semester. But I needed to test this equipment out before relying on it, so Matt James and I decided on a whim to make a new short--'The Two of Us.' Right now it is only available on Facebook.

The sound quality is a huge improvement using the Zoom. Although it would help to get a slate, which is being shipped and will get here tomorrow. Kinda late now. So some of the sound is a little off sync and I didn't have the settings high enough so its very quiet AND half the short was recorded without the digital recorded and you can tell because it's fuzzy. So there you go.

When you pull a movie out of your ass, you're gonna get shit. But it served its purpose and we had fun doing it! 'The Two of Us' was improv'd scene-by-scene and completed in one night. The purpose was to test out my new equipment. So it's a bit rough. But that's okay, it's nothing serious and was made for FUN!

No TVs were harmed in the making of this film.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

'Waiting for Eternity'

Living up to its name, it almost felt like waiting an eternity for 'Waiting for Eternity' to be released--and now that time has come! What can I say about it? The project was to make a portrait about a person or place and I did a vampire. Is that a bit cliche? Yes. Which is why I like it. Nobody would expect me, an anti-Twihard, to contribute to the vampire cult. But here it is. And people seem to love it for the most part--at least my targeted audience does. Watch it now on Vimeo.
So, what lessons did I learn since 'Citizen Prophet' that keeps this particular movie from being a flop? Well, it still isn't the greatest film in the world but this is an introductory, first-year course final and coming out in the top 20% of students is something to strive for to make a good first impression.

White-balance
-- how did I not figure this out on my own? It's so simple.

Cinemode
-- My camera has a feature that mimics the looks of feature films and I'm just finding this out!!!

Exposure
-- A huge problem in 'CP'. My camera didn't react well darkness. But I came up with a simple equation to solve that. Open iris to 30 minus 6 exposure.

Lighting
-- A pair of $9 flood lights from Walmart makes a huge difference.

Bullshit-- Knowing crap like what NTSC, codecs and other rendering related stuff is helps with quality.

Acting
-- If they're not professional, don't give them lines. No dialogue = no problem!

Special Effects-- They double your resources and catch the audience's attention. I went all out with the green screen this time.

Time-- If you have it, use it.

Now that it's all over and done with, I'm stuck on a horrible sleep schedule with nothing to work on. So I guess it's time to start working on the next project. This time I might need some help from the great people I've met here at the U. Happy Finals Week!

Waiting for Eternity from Zachary Hayes on Vimeo.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

'Welkin's Gate'

'Welkin's Gate' is finished and up on Vimeo! Two months of hard work finally paid off. Although, the original concept for 'Welkin's Gate' came about a year ago and was supposed to be a comedy about how Heaven is a socialist society. That idea was scrapped because it would be too similar to 'Citizen's Prophet'.

As mentioned in previous blogs, 'Welkin's Gate' is based off a poem I wrote in High School called 'I'll Be Waiting in Heaven' and is dedicated to my friend, Trevor, who passed away this year. When I came to the University of Iowa, I was exposed to a lot of avant garde/experimental films so I decided to attempt one for my final project in my Intro to Film Theory class. It isn't really my specialty, but I managed to produce something worthwhile. Avant garde is a fancy way of saying that nobody will get this film, but they'll assume it is a masterpiece that they can't understand because they're not sophisticated enough. They are typically made by people who pray for subtitled, non-linear films that personify objects and emotion.

I asked my dear friend, Zach Bird, to be in 'Welkin's Gate' and he did a great job with his expressions and fake crying. Stephen Hueholt helped record the car crash scene and I forgot to put him in the credits but I suppose this makes us even--since he broke one of my swirly, florescent light bulb.

Now all I have to do is write a paper about why this film exemplifies theories we learned in class. That should be fun.

Watch 'Welkin's Gate'

Welkin's Gate from Zachary Hayes on Vimeo.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Coming Soon(er or later)

So a lot of people ask me, what's next? Okay, nobody really asks me that besides myself. But it is a valid question! 'Waiting for Eternity' and 'Welkin's Gate' come out next week, and then in a month starts a new semester of classes. Sadly, I will not be taking any classes that involve making a film. They filled up before I was even capable of registering. I did, however, get into a film festival class in which we learn to produce film festivals. Yay? Why not! Seems like a good skill to have. And it won't stop me from making movies. I came to college to build a portfolio after all.

Sometimes I promise I'll be making a movie, and I don't keep them. Not that anybody but myself cares, it is still a bad habit! So this time I am going to propose a bunch of film ideas, and then maybe at least one of them will be made.

Sci-fi/Fantasy- You could say 'Waiting for Eternity' is a fantasy portrait about a vampire who falls in love with his victim--because that is what it is. But having vampires and fairies in a story together is sooo True Blood.

Idea 1: So it's time for an epic Sci-fi showdown between humans and aliens. Yes, this sounds a lot like Probed and Xenophobic, two flops. This is different! With new technology allowing me to use stunning graphics and such, I'm finally able to make the alien film I've always wanted. The title is in the works, but it is about a NASA-like company discovering a wormhole in outer space, and in close proximity with our solar system. So using a new space probe that is capable of going further than any spacecraft before it, they send two chimps out to collect data. But the probe disappears! But even more surprising to our head-of-NASA-like protagonist, the signal from the probe returns and heading straight for Earth. But instead of the probe, an alien ship comes out of the wormhole and reaches the outer atmosphere of Earth and begins orbiting it, sending out radio waves with a shocking, encoded message. Who or what are these extraterrestrials looking for? The answer is almost too much to bare.

Problem with this idea. It will require actors who are at least in their late 20s and who are willing to work for coupons to Village Inn. Although they wouldn't have to commit much time to it since it is a short films (Approx 30 minutes), it will still be hard finding good enough actors of that age around here. In Citizen Prophet we were able to come up with a reason why the police inspectors were played by young guys, but that won't work this time. And hopefully the acting will be better.

Idea 2: This idea has always been on the table. 'Super Fluous the movie'. An epic adventure of our favorite super hero and his super friends. It would be a dual story about Super Fluous fighting his adversary, Mask-er-Raid--and Cockatoo Kid taking on The Hypnotist (as in a remake of 'Cockatoo Kid vs. The Hypnotist' being the subplot.)

When a few friends come together for the first time to take down an evil, faceless crime lord--The Genie--they save the town and become heroes. But Super Fluous, who doesn't like that he has to remain masked and his true identity doesn't get the credit for saving the city, unmasks himself to the public. As a result, his house is raided by thugs who kill his mother and his twin brother (thinking it was Super Fluous). Not being able to find who killed them, Super Fluous gives up being a hero out of guilt. Years later, his brother's killer resurfaces forcing Super Fluous back into crime fighting. Meanwhile, Cockatoo Kid investigates the disappears of the chief of police and meets his arch-nemesis, The Hypnotist. The Hypnotist's plan is to put all the heroes under a trance and take over the city.

There's the first two! More to come?

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Work in Progress

Since my film, 'Waiting for Eternity', has had an early start--I took some "work in progress" footage into class. Check it out. The first 3 minutes is behind the scenes stuff and the last minute is the fully edited scene.



'Waiting for Eternity' will be released later next week.