Hands

It takes a lot of hands to make a movie.



On a film set, hands hold the boom mic. Hands set up the camera for the next scene. Hands move light stands, sandbags, props, and costumes. And those are just the behind-the-scenes hands.



Often, after a film set has wrapped for the day, the crew isn't quite finished. Yes, the actors have been released for the day and are able to go home. But, while the equipment is still set up, the crew will often try to grab some shots that didn't make it off the shot list of that day's filming.

So, we film some inserts. And most inserts involve... Yep! You guessed it... Hands.

And that's where we need the "hand double". In this case, instead of the actor's hands, someone else's hand is used for the shot. And sometimes, once the film is pieced together, it's hard -- even for us -- to spot whether that insert is really the actor's hand, or the double's hand.

Substitutions are supposed to be like that.

You shouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Kind of like the hands of a certain carpenter...

Could I behold those hands which span the poles,
And tune all spheres at once pierc'd with those holes?
John Donne (1572-1631)

Collaboration and Teamwork

Some thoughts on collaboration and teamwork...

"A film is not done by one person. It’s done by a lot of people. I love this whole collaborative aspect. When it works well, you end up with something better than any of us started out to do."-- Jim Henson

"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than myself." -- Alexander Graham Bell

"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." -- Andrew Carnegie

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." -- George Bernard Shaw

"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it." -- H.E. Luccock

"Every single art form is involved in film, in a way." -- Sydney Pollack

Predictions in 3D

There are lots of predictions going around right now as to future of 3D.

Although, it's not like 3D is new.

But, with a whole assortment of movies being released in 3D -- Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, to name a couple -- it's certainly on people's minds. But is 3D just a passing fad? Or is it here to stay?

Everybody is making predictions. But predictions can be interesting things.

For example, in 1900, a writer for the New York Times predicted that the advent of the automobile would solve the parking problem. The reasoning? The auto occupies less space at a curb than a horse and wagon. (Oops! Bad prediction.)

Second example... Have you ever heard of "Disney's Folly"? This was the pejorative nickname for a full-length animated feature film that Walt Disney had in production in the 1930s. Up to this point, no one had ever attempted a movie-length cartoon. People in the movie industry predicted that it'd be the death of Walt Disney Productions.

In addition to this, Walt Disney even had opposition even inside his own fledgling studio. After a viewing of the almost-completed movie, one employee wrote an anonymous note to Walt: "Stick to shorts!" (This note apparently upset him for days.)

Of course, ultimately, Walt Disney got the last laugh.

Because the movie that his peers had dubbed "Disney's Folly" was, of course, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

(By the way, after the enormous success of Snow White, if a Disney employee responded in a negative manner to one of Walt Disney's ideas, he would exclaim, "I'll bet you're the guy who wrote 'Stick to shorts'!")

So... what about 3D?

Well, they're coming out with 3D televisions, now. One thing to consider is that these TVs are rather expensive, especially considering there are only a handful of movies out there using 3D technology.

And you still have to wear those glasses.

What do you think? Is 3D here to stay?

Visit From a Black Raven | Part 2

Film: Under Jakob's Ladder
Name: Jeff Hyatt
Role: Owner of the "Black Raven"

Q: Have you ever been on a film set before? What would you say the experience was like?
A: No, never been on a film set. It was fun. Had a great time.

Q: How did you find out about this movie?
A: Craig's list.

Q: Explain what you did on set?
Drove my car and sat in it.

Q: What did you enjoy the most about working on this film?
A: I enjoyed the whole thing, seeing how a film is made. Met some real nice people there.

Q: What, if anything, did you (or the film crew) have to do to your car to make it film-able?
A: They had to blackout my whitewall tires. [Look at the photo above, you'll notice the whitewall tires. Yes, the crew had to use black tape on the white part of the tire.]

Q: What is the make and model of the car used in Under Jakob's Ladder?
A: It's a 1939 Chevrolet master 85 business coupe.

Q: Did you restore this car yourself?
A: Yes, I restored it myself. It took a few years, a little here and there.

Q: How many vintage cars do you own?
Just the one. But I have a collection of antique tractors & engines at www.tillyfosterfarm.org.

Q: What "lesson from mom or dad" do you still live by today?
A: Be happy :-)

Visit from a Black Raven

If you lived in the Soviet Union in 1938, and you came across a Black Raven, what would be your reaction? Welcome it? Ignore it? Want to run away in terror?

Well, to answer that question, you'd have to know what kind of Black Raven we're talking about. We'll give you a few hints. First, we're not talking about a black bird.

Second hint... The story for Under Jakob's Ladder revolves around a typical arrest that happened in the Soviet Union in the late 1930s. Like so many others, Jakob is arrested in the middle of night. The secret police -- the NKVD -- who handle the arrest are driving what is called a "Black Raven".

And since 1938 was at the height of Stalin's Great Terror, you could be arrested for -- well, practically nothing. This was a time when neighbors denounced neighbors. Even a child saying something innocently at school could result in one of these visits.

So, what would you do if you saw a Black Raven drive by in 1938?

(Although, in all likelihood, you'd probably be asleep when the Black Raven came calling. Because they always came out at night. And by the time they showed up and knocked on your window, it would already be... too late.)

Do You Hear the Sound of Coconuts?

In filmmaking, unless you're going for cinema verite, you're going to be doing something called foley.

"Foley" is basically the technique of adding sound effects to a movie... It's named for a guy called Jack Foley, who helped transition the movie industry from the silent era to include all the sounds required by talkies.

Watch any movie. It was a foley artist who added the sound of footsteps as your favorite character as walked down a hall. The rustle of clothes. Thunder. Sirens. Lightsaber noises. All created in the post-production sound edit.

So, what do coconuts have to do with anything?

Watch that classic Monty Python movie and you'll see the coconuts in action as King Arthur and his knights ride their low-budget "horses".

Yes, there are some talented folks out there in movieland that make up the world of foley artists. These people are so talented that, not only can they can use two coconut halves to sound like horses galloping, they can also use a watermelon to sound like just about anything.

Being independent filmmakers, we work on our own foley. But we ourselves don't use a lot of watermelons or coconuts.

Depending on the sound needed, we often start with getting together the props used on the actual film shoot. Marta's bell in Under Jakob's Ladder comes to mind. If you were on set, you may have noticed that this bell actually made no sound. All bell noises (from the actual bell) were added in post.

Our other foley sources? Well, times have changed and we have access to sound effects libraries. Certainly a great tool. (There's a great online library here called The Freesound Project.)

You might be surprised at what sound effects people have captured. The names of some of them are pretty intriguing in and of themselves. "Unusual Space Echo" is one. (No, unfortunately, we didn't get to use that one for Under Jakob's Ladder!)

Other effects are more mundane. We'll spare you the toilet flushes and the coughing and sneezing and other such sounds... (Except, by telling you this, we actually didn't spare you this information!)

The thing is, foley isn't always about matching the exact sound. Do you think anyone would notice if we used the "Eating an Apple" effect, when on screen the character was eating a PEAR? The thing is, if you can't hear the difference, does it matter if it's an apple or a pear?

So, that's the reason that if you bang together two coconuts to sound like horses' hoof beats... then you get the sound of horses' hoof beats.

Vote for your Favorite Tagline

We've come up with three taglines for Under Jakob's Ladder. And we'd like you to vote of which one you think goes the best with this poster image! Below you'll find the taglines as they would be placed in the poster.

Here are two questions to ask yourself:
1 -- Which tagline would make me want to see this movie?
2 -- Which tagline goes well with the photo?




Place your vote. Then tell your friends and have them vote. Hey, if you want to get strangers to weigh in, we'd like that as well...


P.S. Thanks again for everyone who submitted ideas for the poster tagline. It was your ideas that inspired these!

To Do List

Let's see. A year ago at this time...

(Which would be March 2009, by the way.)

We were in the middle of pre-production for our feature film Under Jakob's Ladder. So, just what were some the things on our to-do list... a month and half before filming was to begin?

Here are just five of the things we were working on:

1 -- Ordering the uniforms for our NKVD Guards.

2 -- Working on the camera shot list.

3 -- Working on the filming schedule.

4 -- Verifying locations and contacting our liaisons.

5 -- Setting up a casting call for background actors.

And at THIS time... March 2010?

With regards to 'Under Jakob's Ladder'... It's color correction, color correction, color correction (i.e. when we made the transfer to high def, all and any color correction that we did earlier got thrown off. So, yes, we're doing it all over again. And because it's high def, the files are very large which just adds to the time it takes.)

That, and we're also working on stuff for the film festivals. Preparing to send off screeners to film festivals. Deciding on taglines. Etc. Etc.

(That's part of the reason why there is only one blog post this week.)