Look at the claims!

Greetings from NorCal!  I drove through Lovely, good-smelling Merced today and I could swear I though I heard it say "Hello, Eric!  I miss you!  Come back to me..."  

You know, on the wind.

Nothing inspires motivation like having to live up to a publicly announced deadline.  Good one, E.  

If you talk to her, tell Kenna my sternum is still not talking to her.

Making Short Films Using a Canon ZR50 and iMovie

These first 13 shorts (including this week's short) were all shot with a Canon ZR50 and cut on iMovie. We often get asked, so I just wanted to make it official.

In the future, we hope to shoot on a Panasonic DVX100B and cut on Final Cut Pro 3, but that day has not yet come.

When will it come?

I'm saying it now - by the end of July we will have one of these things. Oh yes, dreams do come true.

Free Massages - The Making of

Filmed "Free Massages" today, the newest effort from Brian Hurley.

With Lawrence Long, Kenna Knost, and introducing RJ Victoria.

Some choice moments...

Me: Can you do a handstand?
RJ: No.
Me: Can you do a bridge, upside down, like in yoga?
RJ: No.
Me: Can you stand on one leg?
RJ: Yes.
Me: Cool. In this scene, you're standing on one leg.

Kenna: What if I dress up like a nurse and lick a lollipop?
Me: Do it.
Kenna: Even though it's not in the script?
Lawrence: We'll find a place for it.

Me: Now elbow him in the chest, lightly. RJ, act like you like it.

Lawrence: With my shirt stretched like this, I look like a dancer, not like I got beat up.

Me: Dude, do you know how to roll a grape?
RJ: I guess not.

Lawrence: Ow.
Me: Keep hitting him. Don't stop. Why are you guys stopping? He's just acting.

...

Coming Friday: Free Massages - A Short Film

Week 12 - Flip a Towel - A Short Film

The Short-a-Week Project Presents: Flip a Towel
Written and Directed by Eric Myers

Based on "Flip a Towel" by Klaus Varley of The Literary Brothel

Starring Stefanie Oudiz and Lawrence Long

Song "The Night is Young and So Are We" by The Silent Track Plays

Flip a Towel

I'm okay with nudity

Is what Lawrence's girlfriend said when I asked, "Do you want to be in a short?"

Laughter ensued.

My laughter.

Lawrence was not laughing.

Well, maybe a little.

Coming Friday: A reenactment of Flip a Towel by Klaus Varley of The Literary Brothel. Sorry, no nudity.

The Casting Couch has over 200 Views

Thank you to everyone who watched The Casting Couch over and over again.

Don't give up yet - 1000 is just around the corner.

Ratings, but no comments on YouTube

Dear Person or Persons who give some of our shorts low ratings on YouTube but don't leave a comment to tell us how to improve:


What's up with that? Help us out!


Sincerely,
Eric

Week 11 - Défense d'Afficher II (Post No Bills II)

The second part of the acclaimed short film "Post No Bills," finds our protagonist on an existential quest to discover the one who removes that which others have posted.

Starring Lawrence Long

Written by Lawrence Long and Eric Myers

Running time: 3 minutes 12 seconds

French with English Subtitles


Défense d'Afficher II (Post No Bills II) - A Short Film

Editing with voice over and subtitles...

Takes a long time. Not to mention cutting the footage, putting in music, credits, and even a still frame (oh my!).

But the director (Lawrence) has said it's where he wants it, and the co-editor (me) is happy with it, and so it will go up in the wee hours of the morning.

Look for Post No Bills II, coming soon to a monitor near you.

Could it be? Lawrence's Directing Debut?

Say it ain't so...Eric hands over the reins to the second installment of Post No Bills to Lawrence who has some ideas about how he wants (Eric) to shoot it.

In other words, I'll be DP-ing this one.

Which seems a bit strange, since I can't even spell cinematography.

Never mind, it appears that I can.

The Cost of Shorts (Short Films, that is)

This follow up to Lights, Camera...all Cost Money is just to help keep track of the cost of this "project." It looks like after ten weeks, that cost is $59.

From before:
$8 - chips, salsa, cups, soda (for Foot in the Mouth)
$15 - Big-ass Clamp-Light + 200w light bulb (so far, only used on Rock Star)

New Costs:

$26 - Six Blank Mini-DV cassettes.
$10 - One year domain registration for www.shortaweekproject.com

That's right, we've got a domain. Worth it.

Next on the list: Microphone, microphone, microphone...

And

A place to take donations. Seriously.

A Short About Shorts, Sher-lick Holmes, and more..

Time to plan ahead. Future Short Ideas:

-Post No Bills 2 (Lawrence's version if he sends me something soon; the original plan if not)
-A short about shorts
-Sher-lick Holmes: A short about a detective who uses his tongue to detect
-A short acting out the article Flip-a-Towel while it's read in voice-over...in Spanish! (j/k)
-Short Documentary on the 99 with voice-over commentary
-A Chinese instructional video about Americans (In Mandarin. Seriously.)

Larger Projects in development (in code, so you don't STEAL the ideas)
-Survival Vid (5 parts)
-Anti-Stereo (at least 5 parts)
-Chair in There (1 part)

Of course, we're open to ideas. We'll even give you credit.

I know Brian Hurley is thinking really hard about his "massage" short right now. Thanks Brian.

Week 10 - The Nigerian Banker

"The Nigerian Banker"

The Nigerian Banker - The Making of a Short Film

Last minute change of plans had me writing a short at 7:30 pm on a Thursday night, and filming it an hour later. Some highlights from the 45 min shoot.

(L = Lawrence, Me = Me)

L: Ooh, looks like a film set in here.
Me: Without the good lighting and expensive film equipment.

Me: Is this side table close enough?
L: How about I just put the coffee cup next to me on the couch, since there is nothing in it anyway.
Me: That will work.

Me: Cut.
L: I messed that up again, huh?
Me: This is not only the more important line, but it's the only line I really care about. You can mess up all the other lines in the script, but this one has to be right.
L: Thanks for not being dramatic.

---
Thanks to my girlfriend for the idea of using the Nigerian Internet scam in this obvious sequel to Not a Girl. Hey, when you're pressed for time, return to what you know.

Holy crap we have to post something by tomorrow morning

And we have nothing filmed...

Was out of town last weekend. Then last night Lawrence said he could meet around 11:30PM to shoot the sequel to "Post No Bills." So I got to my girlfriend's apartment.

Then at 9 he says that 10 or 10:30 is good. Then at 9:45 it turns out he meant more 10 than 10:30. I'm on my way to meet when he calls again:

Me: What's up, man? Can you shoot at 10:30?
L: I guess-
Me: You got something to do afterwards?
L: Yeah.
Me: Oh.

[Pause]

In the pause I'm thinking how I haven't printed out the props that he's going to need for this week's "Post No Bills," and more importantly, I haven't planned out the shots. There is no way it can be done in less than an hour.

Me: Wanna shoot tomorrow night?
L: Sure.

Now tomorrow night is tonight, and I'm thinking some advanced planning might save on editing time. We shall see.

A secret about The Short-a-Week Project

I, Alien was actually our first short.

It just took a long time to edit.

Thus, Not a Girl went up first.

Did you know that?

Of Mice and Men and Masterpieces

Yeah, a bit premature.  But, hey, if this blog is suddenly about quoting people I've never HEARD OF then, well, I guess there's nothing premature about me.  

Nothing.

While we (E) may seem stressed out, please know that there is no stress here (my place) 

I don't have to type "shortaweekproject.blogspot.com" to get here anymore, I just google "Canon zr50 MC"

Zing!

p.s. Yes I've seen Leaving Las Vegas, I just didn't know that the person who directed it had a name, that's all.

Quote from Mike Figgis

"...too much information and too much choice is in itself a huge limitation on creativity."

-Mike Figgis (Director Leaving Las Vegas) in his new-ish book, Digital Filmmaking.

Coming Soon: Post No Bills Part II (of III)

Post No Bills Part Deux has been outlined, and well, that means it is already planned out a far more than its predecessor was at this stage.

But yet, we're filming Wed. night, which only gives a day for editing. It's going to be close.

If we don't make it, there is still one more short "in the can" that we haven't posted online.

However, there is a reason we have not posted it online.

And at this point, it would be a large step back.

And we might loose some fans.

Oh, the dilemma.

Canon zr50 MC camcorder

I just realized that the MC on the side of my camera probably stands for "movie camera."

Is this important enough to blog about?

Probably not.

Could these be the best short films ever made on a Canon ZR50?

Possibly.

Do I keep mentioning the Canon ZR50 because our site comes up when people search for it?

Um...what?

I gotta go write a short.

Week 9 - I Used to be Somebody

Without further ado...

"I Used to be Somebody"

Fix it in Post

One of the running jokes on the set of I Used to Be Somebody (due out later today) was the mantra "Just fix it in Post."

Turns out, it would have been a lot easier if "fix it in pre-production" were our slogan.

Who knew?

iMovie and its Limitations

I've cut (edited) these first nine movies on iMovie, the editing software that comes standard with the new MacBook.

iMovie is great for uploading videos, making a few cuts, and throwing some music on there.

iMovie is not-so-great for cutting back and forth between different takes, and layering sound from one clip over another.

iMovie is FRUSTRATING AS HELL if you're cut your films into pieces and want the sound to be consistent and not automatically fade-in on every damn clip, which may SEEM like a good thing, but when you are putting in 1 second clips, the dialog sounds like a car going by. You know, like:

"...hey man, what HAVE YOU been up to..."

This didn't annoy me the first seven movies I cut. Recently, however, this has become unbearable.

Final Cut Pro never looked so attractive.

Stay tuned...more editing software related posts in the future! Oh boy!!1!

And Coming Friday: I Used To Be Somebody (Working Title)

The New Page Design - The Results of that Poll from Two Weeks Ago

Turns out that people prefer the new design to the old design. Mystery solved.

Also, only one person voted for "What new design?" which means we have some steady visitor, and one new visitor, or more likely, one steady visitor-jokester.

While you're waiting for this Friday's awesome short, and speaking of web design, check out Blackle - it's just Google, but it somehow saves more energy because the screen is black.

Yes, it's strange to me too.

Prius - A Short - The Making of..

Some things learned yesterday on the set of Prius (working title):

-It's OK to reverse the roles of the two main actors ten minutes before we start filming.

-When you direct something you didn't write you can respond to all complaints, "Hey, I didn't write it."

-Using real photographers as characters playing photographers is a good way to get production stills.

-Chad is hyper-colored. (No, that is not racial.)

-Everything looks better in black and white.

I'm just glad to say....

...that it was warm out today.

And that Eric had the foresight to move his car outside and let it heat up a bit.

On Friday you'll know the horrifying reason why.