I did it, I finally completed one of my goals for the year. To win a film festival competition. It may not have been the high profile film festival I wanted but one step at a time gets us to the top of the hill. I was in doubts at moments, but the hard work paid off. On to the next project which is going to be bigger and better. I am going to aim for more challenges so I can up my skill level. This is a great occasion for NIVEK. I can't thank the actors Marlon Walker and Jean-Paul Levy enough. I can't thank ERS enough and I certainly can't thank my facebook group of friends enough for the support. Jamaica Design Association, Jamaican Film Industry, Jamaica Animation Nation and many more. Thank You!
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I received an amazing compliment recently on the choreography in Enter The Blackberri episode 1. Someone accused me of stealing the fight sequence from "Fist of Legend" with Jet Li. I find that accusation an amazing compliment because this is a completely original fight choreography. The fact that someone mistook it for a fight scene from a classic like "Fist of Legend" I was honoured. How hard was this fight scene to choreograph? Well considering I've been choreographing fight scenes since I was in high school, it wasn't that hard. I've watched so many fight movies I know what the good the bad and the ugly look like. I almost never choreograph without letting my fight supervisor Julian Turton look it over first. He and I started choreography together when we were at Jamaica College many, many, many years ago. We have the same ideas and eye for good fight sequences. He is one of the members of MadMidget Action Group. After we choreographed the fight scene we did a test shot in our intended location. We did not reuse that location because it got destroyed by the time we were ready to use it. Why we didn't re-film sooner is because I injured my ankle on test shoot day. The ground was very lumpy. You can check out the test footage video above. I'll upload and post some raw choreography footage later on today. Right now I'm just occupying my insomnia. Daylight has broken so I'm going to make some pancakes and then head to work, red eyed an all.
I just completed editing and submitting a film for the Caribbean One-Minute Mobile Short Film Festival competition. The link to vote is above, so please click on it and like. I never thought I would ever do a film using my cell phone, no matter how nice the camera is. However, I found it very liberating and challenging at the same time. It was difficult to figure out how to stabilize the camera but I discovered some methods using simple string. I used the lanyard from my work ID mostly and for the most part it worked. It was very easy to just break out your phone and start shooting video. The hardest part of this was finding a time when both actors could be on location simultaneously. At first I shot this in a different location but it was so noisy and shaky I considered it a test shoot. I researched stabilization methods and I saw holder I could build for my tripod and the string method. I liked the string method simply because I had to be ready at a moments notice to be able to shoot since my actors were both into fairly new jobs and had little time to play with. But they were also both kind enough to get up early one morning and shoot this even though one of them had to make a trip to the country hours from start time. I really appreciated the sacrifice. I think they both did a good job.
Finally, my martial arts comedy short is finally finished. It took me so long to edit this. I finally decided to go to my friend Robin Chin of Enhanced Realizm to complete editing and the final touches. Nothing like company to make the work less tedious. Thanks Rob. I hope y'all enjoy. In the coming days I will cover the choreography and the failed first attempt. For now enjoy the film about a guy names Kevin who enters a fighting tournament to win his girlfriend a new smartphone.
A Malta ad concept I did a very long time ago when I just started out filming. Back when I was living with the parents. I had some free time on my hands. Luckily mom wasn't home or else she would have cussed about the fridge being open for so long LOL.
This was another idle shoot. Decided to do some improv while testing out my friends jib. The sun was hot and it was early but we had fun. We plan to do it again as we weren't completely satisfied with this attempt despite how good it looks.
This was a silly little film we did one day. We were trying to fulfill a 24 hour online film challenge. Wrote the script and filmed in the same day. Did this back in August 2011. Had fun doing this no matter how ridiculous it turned out. I really loved the cinematography and on spot problem solving we had to do. LOL. Enhanced Realizm Productions.
Protect and Serve is a piece I did 2 years ago. It was near and dear to me. I did a lot right and a lot wrong. I filmed it in 2 hours while I was waiting on my girl friend to pick me up. Horrible audio and poor lighting really killed some aspects to this film so I re-edited it. Made it black and white so that the grains from poor lighting would give it a retro effect and I removed the vocal audio to let the visuals tell the story. I really like the effect it had given the film. Take a look for yourself and be the judge.
Missing Pieces is a short film written by Maurice McCallum the founder and CEO of CM3 Productions. Since it's release on the internet on May 1 it has received 1,712 views and 23 likes at the time of this blog. A lot of good feedback has been received and I definitely appreciate it considering the trials to get it done. Maurice approached my about filming this short for him because everyone else he turned to was either busy or didn't want to do it. I read the script and I liked it. I could picture every scene. I am a big fan of films like this so it definitely was intriguing to me. At first I was apprehensive about filming it with my camera but I was also excited to push my little Canon Vixia HF R100 to the limit. I had some work lights and decided to use those on set but the color range on those lights were all wrong so I abandoned it for natural light. Not the brightest ideas but it made me realize I need a light kit even if I have to make one. The biggest issue we faced was the fact that the Church we used promised we would have 6 hours to shoot but instead we were told 2 hours when we arrived. A HUGE set back considering it was a 12 minute short with lots of dialogue. Days leading up the shoot so much was wrong. The producer is still a student and was busy studying for exams so he didn't have enough time to ensure certain key things were in place, but he did try. We had to recast the female leads role twice because the first lived too far and she had no transport and the second one just wasn't reliable. I asked a good friend of mine who is always willing to work and has proven very reliable to date. Thanks Nadya Raymond. The guy who plays the father was recruited the day before the shoot when I realized no actor was secured for that role. Then on the night before the shoot I heard the make up artist dropped out despite meeting with her and getting her assurance she wanted in on the project. Sigh. One disaster after the next. Then there were wardrobe issues. WOW. Normally I would have given up at this point but because of my relentless attitude and the fact that it's not easy to get a church I decided to go ahead and make due with what we had. I borrowed an H4N and Boom mic from a friend and had a guy on set operate it. Unfortunately, because I only used an H4N once several months prior (If not a year) I forgot some fundamental basics (like turning the mic on and putting the H4N on the right channel). So the sound was messed up. We had to use on board camera mic which doesn't sound too good but I did what I could in post to make it some what acceptable. 1,712 people watched it so it must be. Anyway, without further adieu here is the film Missing Pieces. This is episode 1 so expect another episode soon. This time with all the amateur kinks ironed out.
So I entered the Heineken Inspire competition. Unfortunately I entered late and I entered while the Facebook app Heineken set up was having some glitches. It seems they have figured out how to fix it but in doing so they made the process of voting longer which makes it hard to vote for my video. So even though I think I have the best video it doesn't look like I will win. None the less the exposure is good and it was a good challenge. I filmed, acted and edited the video myself in one evening. Then the following evening I created music to set the mood and modified the color. Now that it's done I'm back to editing "Enter the Blackberry". Look out for a short by CM3's Maurice McCallum called "Missing Pieces" which I filmed, directed and edited. In the meantime Here is a look at the Heineken video I created.
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AuthorI am a Filmmaker, Animator and Writer. I love telling stories and making them come true. You will see me on the big screen soon enough. Archives
November 2019
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