Apple vs. PC

There has always been a great debate and I find myself in the middle of it at this current moment. I am looking to get a new computer, because frankly my 5 yr old laptop is on its dying days. I have no internet, there is not a R key, the cd tray cover falls off and it’s now a separate attachment. It’s about time to do something about it.

The great debate that I am talking about is to go with a PC or a MAC. Mac has pushed their products and they are becoming better and better, while PC is much of the same just better equipment.

I want to use this computer for graphic images, editing and all sorts of things. So its making me really consider buying a MAC because they are very powerful and you don’t have to worry about the system crashing.

But we still live in a PC world (that is slowly changing away from that) and is everything compatible. So what I’m saying is am I going to be able to build something in my personal computer and then work on it on another. That is the biggest thing that is pushing me away from the MAC.

There are programs out there that allow MAC’s to run windows on them and it can change the operating system. But why would you buy a MAC to run windows… it’s a mute point to me then.

I am tossed between where to turn. On one hand a mass amount of graphic work is done on MAC. But is not an absolute and, in fact more people are moving back to PC, because any upgrade done to a MAC has to be external.

The problem is getting a non bias opinion because you have your PC lovers and your MAC lovers, and there is no wiggle room. In the PCL you are stupid for buying a MAC and the IMACL they can’t understand why you would ever want anything other then a MAC.

Overall I want a MAC but I’m just not comfortable to jump on the bandwagon. I think I am going to hold off and go with a PC still. I am far from loving the idea, but I think for me it’s the safe bet, but I’m still looking

Lights, Camera, Action

This week I filmed my capstone. I really don’t know what to say about it. It was a crazy experience. In all practicality I went from having a script last Sunday to filming 6 days later. It has been a marathon. But it is filmed!!!

There was a lot of different emotions that ran threw my mind while filming. Before I got to the locations we were working at there was a lot of stress and anxiety that people would show up. It worked out great. I always had just the right amount of people there. In all honesty I wish I could have had more, but it’s not a big deal.

Filming went smooth. There were no major issues with equipment, or any technical problems. The one thing that we did run into was while filming on a street the police stopped us. He wanted to know what we were doing, and wanted to make sure we were being safe. But not to worry because like a good camera man they kept filming during the interaction. So now there is video of me talking to the police with my co-star.

Using the locations that we used worked out great. The people there were more then willing to help us out in any way we needed. Including forcing one girl to be an extra for our film.

We have roughly 150 minutes of film. Majority of this was bloopers. It was very hard to keep a strait face threw most of the filming. So it took a lot longer, but was incredibly fun.

My friends and everybody who I asked to help out pulled through. If I didn’t have the support that I had, this would of fell flat on its face as well. A lot of people took a lot of stress off of my shoulders. But it is filmed and ready for post production.

The next step is to step into the audio studio and record some voiceover tracks. I am looking forward to that!

A new start

This post was suppose to be last weeks, but do to the fact the Westminster College is on spring break, and the school fails to recognize that students are still doing work, everything is locked up and did not give me the ability to get online.

Anyways

This week was “start from scratch week.” My original film script was not lifting off the ground at all. There was one road block after another, and I had to make a choice of cutting my losses and moving forward. Like I said before I did a great deal of pre planning and had a backup script with me.

I decided to keep my filming schedule and that gave me a week to do all of the preproduction. I dove head first into working on this script clawing away at it and trying to get all the preproduction done. Site location, talent, crew, story boars, music, the whole nine yards, and some how I managed to get it done.

The locations were a breeze. Every person that I talked to were more then willing to bend over backwards to help me out. The gave me the run of their stores and catered to any needs that I had. I cannot say how much of a stress relieve it was.

Music, my friend is a genius and after just giving him a basic rundown of the script he had an idea for music and already cut demos to most of the tracks.

Talent, well that was interesting. I don’t know how to piddle around this topic without giving the story away but let’s just say I had some very interesting phone calls with companies to try and borrow supplies.

Storyboards were worked out, shot and editing script, as well. I was just shocked of how well everything flowed together.

lessons I learned

Lessons I have learned from anything that I have done is always have a backup plan. That includes if a camera breaks, have another. Bring extra tapes, extra power cords and extra anything. Reading one of my books, it has an intire section on dealing with backup plans. And within that there is another section of advice geared towards low budget films. The idea is to make sure for everything that you have going on that there is a backup plan, including talent. My lead talent backed out and I have been having trouble with finding people that would be able to replace him. So what am I going to do?

Well Josh planed ahead and maybe to the enth degree. I did not plan on a backup for people but I did have a backup film incase this film did not work. After all I want to graduate. I was thinking that the film would turn out poorly, and I would not show something that was poorly done. So I always had another script and a film idea on the back burner.

Why did my film fail? First the time frame. The weather decided it was going to stay winter and destroyed any chance of me filming the scenes that are suppose to have a spring or summer look. The time frame that I have means that there is NO time to wait.

Second, I don’t want to say pre planning because I did a ton, but I might of focused on the wrong things. I don’t think I focused enough effort on gathering talent and assumed that they would be able to just fall into place, which was not the case.

But overall college and capstone is designed (in my eyes) to teach lessons for the “real world,” well I have learned a lot from this project. But I am not scared yet. I am still planning on filming over spring break and everything else is scheduled as planned.

Murphy's Law

It’s really funny to me that the main characters last names are Murphy. The name spawned from the famous Murphy’s Law, where what can go wrong will go wrong. Boy I should have picked a different last name like Mr. and Mrs. John “nothing is going to go wrong on my capstone film.” I know it’s a lengthy last name but maybe I jenksed myself, and well I wish that name was able to be used.

I have been hitting one road block after another with filming, and everything along with this, and I see right now why low budget films are such a pain in the butt. Frankly my budget is zero and that in itself is its own problem. I have to beg people to give up a TON of their time to help me out, and not everybody is willing to do that. Besides playing a juggling game with my talents schedule so that I can get this done, talent and locations and whatnot are a pain too.

I finally locked all my location shots and I called the cast members to give them dates. These, in all reality, are the only days that everybody is able to be there to shoot. Calling my lead to talk with him about dates, he is not able to work on the film anymore. Which this puts me in quite a pickle.

My options are as followed

I act in it as was planned from day one, and I find another person to run camera

I run camera and find another person that will work

I run camera just grab somebody and pray for the best.

Frankly I am trying to find the silver lining in the situation. Hell, Jack Nicholson was not even close to the top three picks for Randle P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and look how that turned. I am really nervous about the situation considering that I am planning on shooting in 2 weeks and I do not have a lead. ANY IDEAS PLEASE!!!!!!