I got a new Movie on Youtube for Halloween

The Living Deadpan

Click the link or watch it here:



It took me 7 months to make this movie. Possibly one of my biggest productions to date. More in depth post to come. Cheers,
Zach

New Movie and Post: Mark on the TV

http://chumaioproductions.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/new-video-mark-on-the-tv/

Check it!

Competitive Screenwriting!!!

http://chumaioproductions.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/my-foray-into-competitive-screenwriting/

Butterfly Effect 3 vs. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Yes, I admit it. i am a fan of the low budget horror movies that are in the After Dark Horror series. Sometimes hilariously bad, but also pleasantly surprising. I had avoided BE3 since it was, after all, a 3. But it was surprisingly tolerable and entertaining. Unfortunately, I could not get through the first 5 min of the Curious Cage of Benjamin Button. Somethin about that old lady was weird and annoying. It did not make me comfortable nor did it prepare me for a long movie. So, the answer is Butterfly Effect 3 wins.

Oh and, got a new post up for my latest vid:

http://chumaioproductions.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/interrupting-universes/

New Video Up!

In this one I tackle the important topic of the overcrowding of parallel universes.

New movie and New Blog

So, I have decided to move my blog over to Wordpress, as the format over there is closer to that of a website. In the next few months, I will be job hunting as well as trying to increase my Freelance work opportunities.

Please check my new blog site at: http://chumaioproductions.wordpress.com/

I also have a new post up about my latest movie, "Mylar, the Unhappy Happy Birthday Balloon." You can view that here:

http://chumaioproductions.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/the-mylar-balloon-movie/

I will probably hold on to this blog and use it for movie reviews as well as short updates. Thanks for following, and I hope you continue to follow me over at wordpress.

Thanks,

Zach

The MeTree Movie

Alright, so I did it. I made another movie completely by myself; in fact, I even put together my own music. The new short is called The MeTree, and is about a guy who summons a helpful delusion. The delusion begins to grow fake mustaches, which distresses the guy who is stricken with the inability to grow hair above his upper lip. Just watch the video to find out what happens next.



The idea for this came from an earlier project that I worked on while I was visiting my old college for its annual 24 Hour video contest. My friend Jeremy and I made a short video called Steampunk in a couple of hours; we played with melding body parts of one person together to create a creature of sorts.



I of course wanted to take it a step further, so the idea of a MeTree seemed logical. And the idea that it would be a self-delusion also just made sense. Plus, the project seemed perfect since I lack collaborative partners, and it was a great way to turn one person into multiple characters.



The original idea was that I could simply position myself so that all the pieces lined up, and so I would only have to worry about meshing the centers together. But since i did this by myself, the little marked paper I had taped to the LCD was not enough to help me effectively position myself. Thus, I had to use an 8 Point garbage matte to cut around the images of myself (making sure to adjust the smoothness and the feather) so that I could rotate and move the images to line up appropriately. This method can only do so much, which is why you can see some repetitions or distortions in the background behind me. Now, I could have spent several hours keygraphing the matte to avoid disrupting the background, but since I was a delusion, I felt I could logically excuse the issue as part of the design.



Above is a cool picture showing the amount of layers that were used to create the metree. In total, there are 9 layers of video--5 for the heads, 1 for the pants, and 3 layers of just orange shirt--that helped to create a distorted, shadowy, wrinkly, and Nike-logo-free center.

So, I had completed the film and thought that I had done a pretty good job of creating what was in my mind. However, this was before I had added any music or any flash effect for the appearance of a new delusion. The lack of those things made the film feel very flat, and too reliant on my own bad acting (seriously, I don't want to cast myself in these; I just have a weird schedule, so it is easiest to do it myself). So, I came up with the idea to have a flash on my face appear whenever anything new was created. I used the 8 point again to create a second layer of my face. I then applied an intense bloom effect for a couple of frames. I found a nice funny noise off Soundtrack Pro, and was able to create another cool looking visual gag to round out the film.



I've probably already talked way too much about this film, but just wanted to revisit the idea of what I was trying to do. I was hoping to create the idea that the delusion is a more rational, even-tempered, and intelligent being than the one who is having the delusion. I wanted to suggest that even though a better person exists within us, this existence does not mean we can tap into that resource. I also like the idea of someone trying to use or take advantage of his own delusion, while also ignoring advice from that same delusion.

Lastly, I am happy to say that I have been maintaining a certain level of productivity. My goal is to produce something of value at least twice a month. I am also sitting on two screenplays that will hopefully become films shortly, and I was recently hired to shoot and edit videos about flower arrangement. Hopefully, I will keep the work rolling. Cheers.

Fun with the Public Domain

My old College just started a new contest specifically tailored toward video editors, and that utilizes old public domain footage. It is called the Recycled Video contest and its goal is to "celebrate Earth Day, Remix Culture, and to promote an awareness of the importance of the public domain." Even though I am not eligible as an alumni, I, of course, could not pass up such a fun idea. I got a hold of the mini-dv tape with the 50 minutes or so of old footage from the Prelinger Archives, and went to town. Here is what resulted:



Now, the goal of the project was to show the value that such public domain footage has in its ability to be manipulated. And not merely as a way to represent the time it was created in, but more for its ability to be useful now (like how a collage of old pictures can be viewed as current artwork). Parody is not a necessity, but certainly something I can identify with. So, I opened the video like that of a tv show. When looking through the footage, the first thing that struck me was the girl's acting and how she casually suggests that if "she was a motor" than a boy might perhaps take more interest in her. This scene was great because I really wanted to play with the idea of man and machine, and how obsessed we are with technology. Also, the idea of having the girl imagine herself as a train really made me chuckle.

I ended the scene with a mushroom cloud just because it tied in with the voice over of "fallout of litter." I edited the dialog to say "trash only becomes trash because of scientific advancements and modern living." I think this statement is also a good summary of my goal. As we advance as a society, so many items become outdated and thrown out, simply because of a better replacement. Plus, it is also a discussion of the archival footage and how we've thrown it away. Of course, youtube is a strange beast that allows for the re-valuing of old footage as well as the re-defining.

I then changed the voice over of "who would think that from this crude oil pure baby oil is refined" to "Who would have thought that from this baby pure crude oil is refined." Again, I liked playing with the connections of humans to machines, or in this case that oil is refined from a baby. The original footage itself was drawing a connection between birth and the country's need for oil, so i just took it a step further. I was also trying to suggest that if baby equals oil, than oil also equals baby. I mean just look around your room and everything in it can probably be measured in a quantity of oil (transportation and production).

The rest of the video I just play with connections and imagery, and tying the human to the machine. I also made a point to breakdown the "serene grandeur of our glistening structures" with the mass chaos of the city. Sure we are capable of building something beautiful, but there is always a cost, or side effect as the case may be. Think along the lines of hotels obscuring a beautiful coast.

Also, throughout the piece I tried to create a feeling of anxiety, tension, and fear which was quite easy to accomplish with the footage since some of it was about the big bomb. Even though we aren't in a cold war or an arms race, we all are still quite scared of where all this technology is taking us. Even more so now, with all of the economic problems we are currently dealing with. The future (more specifically, our view of the future) isn't guaranteed. And that is how I recycled my footage. Of course, I was just having fun as well.


Want to get your own footage to play with? It is all easily downloadable from right here:

Prelinger Archives
General Internet Archive



Please note: fake mustaches have been received, new short to follow soon!

Freaked the Crap out by Rating of Tyler Perry's movies

This just really bothers me. What is the deal with the IMDB rating of Tyler Perry's movies? I have not seen any of Mr. Perry's movies, and I know that he kind of mass produces a product that will turn a quick buck, but still, his films are in demand and make lots of money. Madea Goes to Prison has earned over 64,000,000 dollars in just 2 weeks (#1 at the box office).

People clearly enjoy the Perry films and enjoy the character of Madea, so why is the IMDB rating of his film a 2.7 out of 10. I don't know what number installment this is, but there are a lot of Madea films. So, most people going into this film should be able to know what type of product they are getting. I clicked on the IMDB rating to see the breakdown, and discovered that 1,599 people out of 2,718 (58.8%) rated the film a 1 out of 10.

This freaked the crap out of me. Because even though I'm guessing it was not the greatest movie ever, I am pretty damn sure that to its target audience this was not a 1 out of 10 movie. So for me, this leads to all kinds of questions like who really went to see this movie that could really be that disappointed? It just doesn't add up, and the only logical answer seems to be that there is some secret hateful group that is against Tyler Perry's movies. And that scares me.

The fact that their might be a group of people out there using the IMDB rating system as a weapon to attack filmmaking they don't agree with, really scares me. I sure hope it is not a racial thing, sure hope it is not anger about him playing a female character, I mean I don't know. But it is completely wrong.

And even though I haven't seen Madea Goes to Prison; I did see Saw III, and holy cow that was one god awful movie. That is a movie I should have rated a 1, and it would have deserved it. But surprisingly, it's rating on IMDB is 6.3, with only 5% of votes as 1 and 14.9% of votes as a 10. All because of the fans of the franchise. For the same reason, Madea should have a higher rating.

Seriously, whoever these Tyler Perry haters are, they should really be stopped. Too bad IMDB doesn't have a system in place to deal with these trolls. And I know it is just an IMDB rating, but seriously, the principals of those people has got be zero.

24 Speed Weekend at W&M

My old College held their 5th annual 24 Speed (24 Hour) filmmaking contest this past weekend. On Friday February 20th, 12 teams received their genre, line of dialogue, and a prop. By 6pm the next day, 6 teams turned in a video on time, 3 turned in a video after the 6pm deadline, 2 did not turn in a film, and one giant idiot did not understand that the contest was 24 hours. The 9 completed films were then screened at 5pm the following Sunday. I figured what better time to visit the school then during a film competition (after all, I had been a participant myself for 3 years '04-'07 helping to organize the first one, and even came up with the 24 speed name).

I also contacted a few alumni to see if I could also get them to come back for the event, and was fortunate enough to get my buddies Gustav from L.A. and Kevin from New York to come down. I even setup a little talk about the film production business, where they each discussed their respective cities.

(L-R Gustav, Me, Jeremy, Kevin)

Only about 5 or 6 people were in the audience (not including myself and my buddy Jeremy), but it was still fun, and the few people who did show up appreciated it. I had aspirations of creating a "just for fun" alumni team for the 24 Speed event, but that of course, did not pan out to well. We were all happy to see each other, so instead spent the night of the competition drinking at the Leafe (the College's main bar). However, I did manage to throw together a short movie with my friend Jeremy in the few hours before the competition deadline. The joke genre we received was called Steampunk, which is basically the category that Bladerunner falls into, or so I am told. Regardless, the product that resulted can be viewed below:



The weekend also afforded me the chance to meet with Nathaniel Kahn, a two time Oscar nominated documentary maker. He was nominated for his films My Architect and Two Hands: The Leon Fleisher story. A small lunch was setup with Nathaniel Kahn consisting of about 5-6 people. We all got to personally share our own stories with Kahn and received very pertinent and useful advice. It was really cool to meet Nathaniel Kahn and I definitely appreciated the interest he showed and willingness to give advice to us all.

Later that weekend, I also got to judge the films in the 24 Speed contest. The previous year I was an official judge, and had setup an editing award called the "Xanadu Editing Ignited Award." This year, I thought that I was just going to help pick the Editing award, and nothing more; however, another judge canceled, and since I was hanging around, I got to be an official judge a second time. Nathaniel Kahn was the Special Guest Judge this year, so I got the pleasure of discussing and judging the films with him. Now, this is really cool because Kahn is a member of the Academy board and so he also votes for the films that get nominated for the Oscars.

The final screening of the films was 5pm that Sunday night. The film that I liked the most was made by Rifthead Productions. The teamleader Ted Hogeman is a friend of mine and makes alot of films. Here is his youtube channel: Rifthead01. Ted's film Shadows of Shadows won the Xanadua Editing Ignited Award, the Excellence in Sound Award, and the Audience Award.



The rest of the films can be viewed here: 24 Speed 2009 Films

Hand Some Devil

Check out my latest flick. Mad props to Chris Damon who allowed me to use his music.



THE STORY BEHIND THE MOVIE

So, I got one of those urges...one of those I need to make a movie stat urges. And so I did. Well, it didn't happen as quickly as I liked, but it happened. It started with a simple skit idea that I had several months back, which was basically a severed hand in the litter box, but more deeply, "what if my cat solved her problems by hiding/burying them."



The skit was simply: I uncover the hand, then confront the cat, who then jumps on me, thus knocking me out, which then cues a trippy knockout dream, and a cut back to me waking up with a start and a pile of kitty litter on my stomach. I would of course end it with me yelling something like, "Phantom! This is not how we deal with our problems!"

However, when the desperation hit me to make a film, it started to go in a darker direction. This started with the inclusion of Phantom's claws under the door. I always found my cat's pension for sliding her claws under the door to be quite hilarious. Plus, i wanted to open with the idea that the cat had been out doing something mysterious and something way beyond my own knowledge. One of the trickiest parts was directing the animal of course.



The moment I set down the rolling camera in front of the door, she refused to stick out her paws, even she always did this time and time again on her own. I had to use a cat toy and swing it under the door to get them out, and in the process, I got my finger slashed twice. Initially, it was supposed to be a cheap gag. I was going to walk to the door, the paws pop out with some loud music, and then I open the door. I couldn't get her to pop out her paws, but I could get a nice slice on my hand. So when she tagged me, I decided to just put it in the movie, which worked out really well.

The first set of filming concluded just after I discovered the hand. I was at a loss for an ending, but was planning a "the cat attacks me. Fade to black" type ending. Again, I could not get this cat to act. And after editing what I had, I came to the conclusion that the focus should shift to the hand. I had just purchased the 20th anniversary edition of Hellraiser and decided to throw in a parody of that. Then it hit me, how about I film my face ripping through a plastic bag and overlay it on my hand! A face ripping through the palm, why the hell not. This proved to work better than I had thought, but also more of a pain in the ass than I had thought. In order to make it seem real, I had to keygraph every single frame so that my bagface would mimic the subtle movements of my hand. Meaning: each of those 2 second long hand clips took well over an hour to edit.

In the end, I think the film came out rather well. Part of me wishes I had stayed simple and lighter, but part of me is happy for what it morphed into. Also, I think the hand stuff ended up being pretty unique. It was also my first time shooting in hdv with my camera, which is hella-cool.




Note: I filmed myself as the hand creature saying "In this economy, it is hard to find a proper box." I wanted to throw this joke in, but decided it just wouldn't fit. And yes, the movie is an attempt at being completely ridiculous, while still managing to pull off the horror/thriller genre.

Never Miss An Oppurtunity

Filmmaking is one of those unique hobbies (or professions for those lucky enough to succeed) that is constantly building upon itself. No project or idea is too small. In fact, sometimes it is the smallest of opportunities that can lead to more significant ones in the future. For example, while I was in College at William and Mary, my school opened up a Media Center. I immediately got involved with center and took a job there. The opportunity to create a propaganda video for the center was opened up to the staff, and I was one of the few who decided to make one. Borrowing a little from the Conan O'Brien show, I created a short involving a talking statue of Lord Botetourt (or Loboto, so dubbed by the son of the Media Center's director).



It was just a short little video, but people liked the character of the statue, which led to a couple other appearances in Media Center videos. In fact, 2 years later after I had graduated, the media center was approached by the school to make an Easter Egg video to go along with the launch of the school's redesigned web site. The media center peeps contacted me to reprise the roll of Loboto again, and so I did. WATCH.

Again, it is just a short little video and a small opportunity, but now it is, to a degree, a part of school history.

But you are probably still thinking, so where is this all leading. Well, at the end of November I was contacted again by my good friend Kevin (Media Center's Creative Media Dude) to do another Loboto movie. Apparently, W&M alumnus Bill Lawrence (the creator of Spin City, Scrubs, and Clone High) was planning a visit to the school in January. The SWEM development office wanted the Media Center to do a nice little video to send to Mr. Lawrence as a way to say, "we are thinking of you and looking forward to your visit." So, the idea for another Lord Botetourt vid was tossed around, and I was sent another script for the Loboto part. This approach probably would have been fine, but I was beginning to worry that Mr. Loboto was getting played out. I also thought it might be nice to do something more personal for Bill Lawrence.

I began thinking of another idea, and after searching online I found this real nice article on Why We Write by Bill Lawrence. Read Article. In the article Bill Lawrence says, "That’s what writing is to me - crafting a beautiful lie." From that, I decided a good idea would be to simply make a series of exaggerations, lies, as well as some truths about the changes the College had undergone since Mr. Lawrence's graduation in 1990. Kevin liked the idea, and we both agreed that I should make the two hour trip from Charlottesville to Williamsburg in order to make the video. I took an opportunity to visit some friends and make a fun little video for the creator of Scrubs (seemed like a no-brainer to me).

On January 29th, Bill Lawrence visited the school and I got to meet him. Not only did I meet him, but I got to be introduced as "the guy that made that video for you." And the best part about it was that he liked it! He liked it enough that I got to pass along my resume and a demo reel directly to him. In addition, the close relations I have maintained with the Media center also made me privy to all the events with Mr. Lawrence, including reserved seating to a full house talk with Mr. Lawrence and an autographed Scrubs poster! So yes, taking advantage of the opportunities, resources, and connections that you have is a must. Of course, I am doubting that much more will really come out of it all. But Bill Lawrence is an incredibly nice guy, and he was serious about wanting to help me, specifically, and just that alone is enough to make all worthwhile.

Plus, I cannot go on enough about how wonderful a person Bill Lawrence is. He is the most humble, gracious, and genuine person. He really appreciated being back at his old school, and just wanted to talk as long as possible with everyone, giving them honest encouragement. He is a solid class act, and a true testament to the fact that good people can still be successful in Hollywood. Please purchase and watch all of his shows!

Dario Argento's Deep Red

Deep Red, or Profondo rosso (as it is known in Italian on Imdb), is a great movie, and one of the finer examples of Dario Argento's giallo work. I received the film through netflix, which delivers an interesting version of the film. There were three versions made 126 minute Italian version, 105 minute international version, and a 100 minute U.S. version. Netflix seems to somehow have a 126 minute Italian/English version, where the extra 26 minutes are included but dubbed in Italian. So yes, the English speaking lead actor has dubbed Italian over him for a number of scenes. This is a weird thing to experience while watching a movie, and led me to question if it was intentional. The good thing is that pretty much all of the dubbed Italian scenes were unnecesary, and not crucial to the plot. I used the remote at times to fast forward since these scenes really dragged. The consensus online is that the 105 European version is the best, but I am not sure where to get that aside from ordering it online.

The movie is a great expression of image, emotion, and suspense. There are a number of scenes in the movie that are just brilliant. The story of the film begins with a psychic who feels the presence of a killer. The clairvoyant discovers the identity of this person who then viciously murders her with a meat cleaver. An English pianist witnesses the murder, and during the rest of the movie, attempts to solve the crime himself. And his "snooping" then leads to more people dying, of course. The film has a good surprise ending and wraps up quite nicely.

The films has a lot of cool camera movement, including interpreting the POV of the killer. There is a lot of dollying, hand held, and zooming movement that works to both isolate the characters, as well as to bring you dangerously close to them. The effect is an incredibly peeping tom-esque feel that creates a lot of suspense. Music is also quite an experiment within this movie. The film has one of the most creepy songs ever to precede a gruesome murder (played by the killer themself). The film also makes effective use of bass/guitar rock music to play over the murders as they occur. The music initially feels out of place, but effectively captures the emotion and the panic of the on screen characters. This type of loud jarring music actually raises your heart rate.

And of course, one cannot forget to mention the extended death scenes. This is what makes Argento great. you certainly do not need to be a dark individual to enjoy Deep Red (or any of Argento's work) but you certainly need to be prepared. He does an amazingly beautiful job and crafting beautifully grotesque death scenes. Plenty of gore to please the most ardent Saw fan, but done so beautifully and with so much art to please the most up tight film snob. In fact, the most famous scene in the movie is one I had to watch 3 or 4 times over just because of how amazing it was. In fact, the main problem with the film are the scenes in between the murders, that lack the urgency and tone to successfully tie it all together. But don't get me wrong, the scenes still work, and do provide an important break from the intensity of the muder scenes.

This is only my second Argento film. The other one I saw was Susupiria, which is probably his best (and Best known) work. I am a huge fan of his, and plan to netflix more of his films. Additionally, there is just something about the quality of film in the '70s that was just so good for slasher films. I find it hard to decide a rating for this film since the particular version I had did take away from the film.

But I will give it a fat 7.5 out of 10.

Dario Argento is one of the greatest auteur filmmakers of all time. I highly recommend checking out his work. The trailer for Deep Red can be viewed below.

Film Stuff for Christmas

This Christmas I was able to gain some film equipment. I met my friend Ben, in Lynchburg of all places, and borrowed from him a pink and shag carpeted dolly.



Yes, this dolly has got some sex appeal, that goes way beyond functionality.



Now, it would probably be good for me to build my own, perhaps even one a bit smaller, perhaps a bit lighter, but I got history with this dolly. Ben built it while we were in college, and it was even used by a fellow filmmaker/friend to make Night of the Living P.I. (The film involved shooting in an abandoned mental hospital (yes, it was that fricken sweet) but unfortunately, the film seems to be stuck in post indefinitely).



The dolly even came with the iron track, though its condition is a bit questionable. I may attempt to switch to pvc pipe; however, I am worried the weight may be too much. I also got a hold of another NOTLPI relic, an "all pipe" steadicam, which looks quite badass.



The issue with equipment like this is whether I cannot turn the hassle into value. But I am staying positive, and hey, gotta start somewhere.

Another amazing thing that I got this Christmas was Istopmotion. My sister got me it, and I am extremely excited. I mentored a 2 week Animation workshop at Lighthouse Studios in Charlottesville, and it really got me into the art of Stopmotion. My group's film can be seen below.



Of course, I still need to purchase some modeling clay. But I managed to make a movie with my Uncle and my cousin while they were visiting over the holidays. Marshmellows are incredible to work with for stopmotion I discovered.



So, that is my New Year's update. All I need to get now is Aftereffects, Photoshop, a drawing tablet, computer speakers, crane, lenses, light kit, xlr cable and boom, green screen...