DEUCE OF SPADES hotrod movie - photos and updates

I second that, I listen to devil pretty regularly and you are right....she's also a pretty badass artist.

 

hardly any contest

http://www.cafepress.com/deuceofspades.181429519

 

Yeah, I really like that shot a lot too... The pose is unusual and I like the fact that I am facing away from the wind, making for a fresh approach, also facing the rear of the car. So the positioning is interesting to me. But what really makes the shot is the high wind, which to me makes it feel like an invisible force is passing through the shot, conveying a sense of spirituality to the photo. To me this photo really represents very well the essence of the film and that of my character.

Then of course the roadster doens't look too shaby on that shot either

 

UPDATES

Wow! I completed the first part of my camera move course. I still have 2 DVD to ingest, but they are basically on notations, organizing scenes, coming up with actors movements etc... So the hard part is behind me now... .

Had a really productive week, learned a LOT, and became a member of the Digital Cinema Society. I was honored to have the founder emai me to personnally invite me to join and he gave me a complimentary membership . Special thanks to my fellow hotrodder and friend Oak for making this happen. Oak has been helping me a lot in the last few weeks, both with advice on the production end of things, legal contracts, but also helping me screen Director of Photograhy applicants. Last but not least helping me get special discounts on the package I am about to purchase.

Going to filming gear stores last week has been a little depressing. Most of what they have on their floor I cannot afford and never will be able to. When you walk in and the first camera on display has a price tag of $200,000.00 , you walk right back out, vomit and then once the stomach spasms subside, walk back in, feeling very, very "small". "Huh... Excuse me Sir, might you happen to have a itsi bitsi tiny little camera for say... about $5,000 ?" Reaction of the salesman:

(sigh)

On the brighter side of things, I wanted to officially thank fellow HAMBer Ozzie for going with me to the various stores thursday, and looking at gear with me (he held my hair while I was vomitting LOL ) . He also taught me how to callibrate a monitor. I then had the pleasure to pick his brains (with a large spoon) on lighting my Saugus race night scene which is a whole other headache in itself. I truly enjoyed being able to talk to a pro and get more insight into filming, lighting and steadycam moves.

THANKS OZZIE!

Last night at BBB I snatched 3 more cars, carefully hand picked amongst a good 100. All of which will be in our last flashback scene (June 1960). BBB was very hopping with a lot of foot traffic. Everyone had a good time.

 

TODAY'S PHOTOS

the DOS's cousin



I like this one:



This will be Peggie's car in 1956:




This one is likely to end up in the SAugus Dragstrip day scene:



This will be used for cross traffic or parked cars on the street:



Same here:



Ok folks, that's it for this week-end. I have to go back to watching my DVD course. See you all Monday!!

 

Any more pictures of the T roadster??

 

That '50 Olds is perfect! Needs wider WWs, but I love it either way!

 

Faith, it was a pleasure meeting you and sharing thoughts on the shots and composition of the movie. I'm sorry I could not make it to BBB. As you know I was packing and getting everything ready for the trip. I'll be back on the 6th and ill be happy to talk shop whenever you'd like. I have P2 camera here with me and ill be able to get it to you to try and practice with when we're back next week. We should plan a day where you can shoot a few things with it and try out lighting etc.. Maybe we'll go somewhere where the lighting is good at night to see how the camera will react to super dark night exteriors and then digitize the images and you can run tests. OK got to run... Keep up the good work, Your gonna have a winner on your hands, Your ideas are that of a seasoned DP's mind when it comes to camera moves and composition... Keep it up.

Ozzie

 

Ozzie, coming from you I take it as a huge compliment! YES, I agree, let's test the darkness and P2 camera when you return. Yesterday I watched a movie and paid very close attention to the lighting. It was a period film. There were several night scenes. I am starting to see a pattern emmerge, when lighting night for night. I'd love to talk to you more about it when I see you. Have a safe trip and say hello to dear Ol' Europe for me!

 

UPDATES

YES!! I have officially completed my scene blocking and camera moves training course. I then watched a movie and analysed all their moves. I recognized every single one of them and could tell how it was done. I also was able to tell length of lenses used and why they picked each. I recognized many of the moves from the training course in the film, especially the long lense-compressed space- steadycam shot that did a complete circle around the main actor, for what seemed to be "no apparent reason"... but I knew why they did it there, because the scene called for a sense of unrest, and that is a typical "unrest' move. Oh my God , maybe I DID learn a thing or two these last 3 weeks!!

As of Sunday I am now tackling lighting. This is the El Bigo. Basic lighting is simple but becoming good at it takes years of practice... So I forsee a lot more CRAMMING of information in my poor little head over the next 2 weeks.

By then I will take possession of my adapter, and my P2 camera will be already in my hands, so filming will be able to resume without further delays.

PHOTOS

A few more oldies but goodies that may or may not end up in the film. Remember that cars that are not 100% correct willl be used for far background, while the most period correct ones will end up as foreground props. So don't freak out if you see a few cars here that, in your oppinion, may not quite be "right". I have some serious experts on my team that will guide through the final selection and help determine where each car will be placed in the frame. It should help minimize potential booboos .

 

Talking of boo-boos - try and build in some "secret stuff". I'd call them easter eggs in software, not sure what they're called in movies..

An example, I just read that in that great restaurant scene (7 minutes!) in Death Proof that in the background was a hidden detail. Not a featured part of the scene, but exciting (in a nerdy kinda way) when you know.

A better example; the whole THX number plate thing.

Build some of them in, and then just tell us HAMBers, or just tell the people that donated to your movie.

 

Interesting idea... Will have to give it some thought...

 

UPDATES

Take a deep breath Faith. Breathe in.... Breathe out...

Feeling a bit overwhelmed today. The amount of technical information, work to do, upgrade to make, all the emails and the 2000000 things on my list to do

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I have the deer cought in the headlights look on right now ...

I think there's smoke coming out of my ears too... I was standing on the sidewalk today and a big fire truck pulled next to me and started hosing me down....

OK, been driving the deuce for a few days now on account that my daily driver is down. And that I have not had time to tend to that COMPLETELY flat tire yet. So DOS and I are going to head out to Hollywood in 10 min to get a last quote for the upgrade. Then I have to take the plunge. Still waiting to get a quote from my PC expert for the upgrade needed to keep up with the HUGE video files that the P2 camera will produce. If you want HIgh res, that's the price to pay. Huge files, HUGE harddrives (we no longer are even talking in Gigabytes now it is Terrabytes). And a slew of logistic problems.

(more smoke coming out of ears)... Shoot. My head just cought on fire... HELP!! Call 911 quick!!!!

PHOTOS

Somebody sent me this candid shot of me pulling into BBB (not sure when this was taken). It's kinda cool that despite the lack of power steering, the DOS can be steered with ONE finger (as you can see from that shot). The reason is: oversized steering wheel + Unisteer system + bias plys tires... ET VOILA!

I look pretty happy in this picture, so it definitely was taken BEFORE I decided to upgrade

 

UPDATES

Had a great afternoon yesterday! Cruised on down to Birns and Sawyer (Special thanks to fellow hotrodder and producer Oak O'Connors for referring me to that store and putting a good word in for me). I was greeted by the head guy himself who was absolutely awesome to me. Not only he did not "look down" on my humble shopping list (humble comparing to what studios and production companies spend at his store, daily) but he gave me his whole afternoon, guiding me through the selection of the proper connectors and carrying bag for my gear. He also gave me the best deal by far anyone else had offered me. I saved mucho dineros . Good thing cause I have no dineros left .

And then a miracle happened: The founder of the Digital Cinema Society himself arrived to buy a camera . What were the chances? 1 in a 4000 ? I was VERY LUCKY. I had never met him in person but he knew of me since he had previously heard about my film and emailed me about it. So while we were both sitting there waiting for our goods, I started picking his brains (not with a spoon, with a shovel ) . I had a short list of VITAL (aka: life or death)questions to ask him and he gave me all the answers I needed to get started with the right project settings. A big weight has been lifted now that I know what I am supposed to do, how I am supposed to do it, and have my gear. Oh and he also saw my deuce in the parking lot and started complimenting me on it...

As soon as the store head guy found out I was driving a 32, his face lit up. Turns out he is an avid car collector and has a few oldies himself. We bonded instantly. He took really good care of me and I left there with everything I needed and (as a bonus) a big smile on my face. The DOS was a big hit with all the employees who deserted their desks to run out to check it out when I pulled in to load up the gear.

Needeless to say figuring out how to fit all these boxes in my tiny little roadster was a puzzle worthy of Einstein himself. But I didn't do too bad. That is, until I stopped in front of Capitol records on Vine street at a red light and was rear ended by a distracted lady who did not strike me as the type who has any car insurance . Fortunately it was only a little bump. I came out and could not see any damage. Turns out the chrome bar behind the gas tank is stronger that I thought. I looked again this morning in broad daylight and still can't see any sign of damage.

All in all, a great experience buying my new gear. Went to bed early , completely exhausted, but woke up again at 2AM and could not resist the temptation to go open my boxes and pull all the toys out. Everything fit perfect in the one Petrol Bag. And it has wheels so i can roll it behind me when hauling the stuff at the next car show / shoot.

LIFE IS GOOOOD.

TODAY'S PHOTOS

Here are the 5 new cars I recently snatched, all are stock cars for parked cars or cross traffic during the 1953 through 1960 flashback scenes:

This car was GIVEN to the current owner by an old lady. For FREE. It's all original and in good shape



I can only say one thing about this car: SWEEEET



This one is a real beauty, immaculate looks brand new so will work perfect for the one 1960 flashback:



same car from the rear (nice wings!)



This one belongs to a BBB friend:



This is another sweet ride



love the tail lights!



OK, that's it for today, got to go back to reading my manuals.

 

Man, you should've snapped a quick pic of the DOS laden with packages! Hey, it could always be photoshopped into a Christmas card later...

Was that '60 Cadillac really an Eldorado, or just some dude lucky enough to collect the trim pieces? Was it an Eldorado Seville?

Rare bird if it was... I just have a '60 Series 62. It's got a '64 drivetrain, but not nearly that nice - hell, it's put together from probably 20 different cars, and shows it (Dr. Frankenstein would be proud)!

I am drooling for that strip of trim on the trunk below the lock and above the rear "grille"... every one I see is almost totally pitted beyond recognition.

 

No, I really think it is an ELDORADO, that's what the guys were saying at BBB that night... I can contact the dude and ask him if you want, he is a younger guy too, real nice. That car is GORGEOUS and immaculate from top to bottom. I was very impressed with it when I saw it drive by (impressed enough that I ran after him on my high heels and threw myself across his path to stop him so I could get his info.) hehehehehe... Who said I don't chase after boys? I bet you he must have thought when he saw me run after him: "Man, she really likes me" - but I was only after his car! LOL.

 

UPDATES

GREAT NEWS!!

Many thanks to fellow HAMBer TwinH for alerting me to the fact that Johnny Callaway was JUST spotted in Finland !! The boy is traveling fast, I can't keep track of his whereabouts (and I created him!!)...

From New Zealand he has resurfaced in Finland and who knows where he will go from there?

YOP WE GOT INK IN V8 MAGAZINE, THE LARGEST AMERICAN CAR MAGAZINE IN FINLAND. I had NO idea, this came as a TOTAL and VERY NICE surprise!! Oh.. And the HAMB forum was also mentioned in the article, because it is supporting the film - How cool is that?

Which makes me wonder when the US magazines will take notice of the fim's existance, it's funny it is "right under their noses" but apparently they are not seeing it ... While magazines on the other side of the globes are somehow getting wind of it and taking the necessary steps to inform their readers... Let's make some bets: Who do you think will be the first US hotrod magazine to snatch the scoop?

Here is a scan of the article, to read the English translation click here.

 

LOL!

Poor guy... kinds reminds me of the scene at the end of Animal House where a girl flys through a window, lands in the 12-year-old boy's lap and he says, "Thank you, God!"

Little did he know!

How come girls don't dart in front of my car?

What color is his car, anyway? It's hard to tell.

~Jason

 

Guerilla marketing...

You've got the boards going. Have you contacted any mags at all?

Also, any paper - even a local one... as long as you can get fed into the AP feeds, folks will pick your story up as filler. NASCAR, for example, regularly writes smaller stories, and puts 'em out on the wire. Then when some newspaper editor has some blank space to fill, they go out and look, find something that's just the right size, and paste it in. NASCAR also produces videos, too - 30 sec, 1 min, etc, that are used in nightly local news broadcasts in the same way. Yes, they are good PR written by NASCAR about NASCAR, but the public never is aware that that's what's happened - it's presented as news.

Get into those feeds and you'll be all over the news.

Seriously - call some national shows and TV networks and make sure you have a card in their research department's rolodex. That helps a lot, too.

Have you considered an agent that can book you on Leno? Of all the people in the World, heck, he'd have you on. I mean, if Letterman can have stupid tricks...

 

Hey you have some good ideas here... Some of the above stuff I have to wait, it is too early at this stage, but others I think I could benefit from even right now. Will look into it. Leno would be great when the film is about done. After all he almost ran me over the other day (it was my fault, crossed BBB's parking lot without first looking), so we "almost" know each other now .

 

UPDATES

Did some test filming with my new P2 camera and all I have to say can be summed up in THREE words:

OH MY GOD


The depth of field with this huge lense was incredible. The image is so CRISP and the colors are amazing. Some of the footage looked better than what my naked eye could see... Colors seemed ALIVE. Granted I did tweak the in camera scene files to push the warmth, gamma, master pedestal etc... I'll spare you the details.


I am in looooove.


And I have not even connected my 35 mm adapter to it yet!

Fell asleep at my computer last night while installing the upgrade for my editing software. Woke up with the keys imprinted on my cheek . Really? No not really, but I did fall asleep at the computer.

Will be doing more test footage at BBB today. If you guys behave I might even share some of the cars rolling into the lot with you. But not until I have upgraded my PC because right now it probably will not be able to handle the huge file size the P2 camera generates. But, hopefully soon.

PHOTOS

More misc cars...







This is one gorgeous car.

 

Glad you could use some of the ideas. I put them through the paces while creating the aftermarket iPod repair industry. Not quite from scratch, but damn near . After getting some deals going with suppliers, I went on a PR rampage... that is some of the stuff I learned.

The new camera sounds awesome... but no Final Cut Pro/Motion/etc? Faith! Shame on you! LOL!

Every time a bell like THAT rings, another Mac consultant (like yours truly ) dies!

What ARE you running, anyway?

And yeah, surely Leno would hook you up with an interview. "Excuse me, Mr. Leno...? Hi, I'm that nice girl you almost ran down the other day? Yeah. That day. How 'bout an interview on your show? You OWE me... I'll even let your 1913 Turdmobile be in my movie."

~Jason

 

I'd love to see some pre/post 35mm adapter stills. If it looks THAT good before, I'd love to see the after.

~Jason

 

UPDATES

Exhausted. but have great news to share!

1. Worked three day straight on the script, doing a final rewrite. Went over every scene, every dialogue and kept trimming the fat until I ended up with a 130 minute movie!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! I did it. I am now right where I should be for a drama. This was no easy job and took a lot out of me. I worked from 3AM every day... But I DID IT

2. Filmed at Bob's last Friday. Just to test the camera. I took to fiming in 16:9 format like fish to water. Framing posed no challenge. Came home with amazing footage. I was mostly experimenting with depth of field and low light capability. The camera produced film like footage. It looked gorgeous, even on my huge screen TV. I am SOOOO glad I took the plunge and upgraded. I am now confident the movie is going to look good.

Started upgrading my computer. Was able to download the footage from the HVX into my PC no problem and even open the clips up in my editor. but until my dual core processor is in manipulating the high def files will be a bit slow. I should be up and running again in about 10 days.

PHOTOS

Photos? You must be kidding ! It's 8:30PM and I'm still at work. Screw this, I'm going home time to eat and rest.

See you all tomorrow. If I can figure out how to capture screen grabs I will try to post some here this week.

 

Yeop, to run FCP I owuld need a mac. I priced the mac saturday out of curiosity and I would need about $6000 for a mac, when my current PC and vegas 8.0 (which I already own) can do everything FCP does for my specific film application. So I am going to go the less travelled road.

It's not like I am making a science fiction movie or an action movie with a bunch of special effects. It's pretty cut and dry really: clean cuts and a few fades. Vegas 8.0 shou dbe more than sufficient to do the job. It has never let me down before. Glitch free.

But when I win the Loto, then I'll buy me a mac .

 

Well if you're using Vegas, then you're okay! And you're right - it'll get you by on a budget, and does exactly what you need it to do. Unlike other Mac folks, I'll totally acquiesse - sometimes the right tool for the job is a trusty set of Craftsman tools, not everybody needs an entire new set of Mac tools (pun intended) with a matching toolbox to build their masterpiece.

Hell, sometimes all you need is a good hammer.

If your production company is a .org, nonprofit, and in existance for a year, you can get a 501-C3 form (I posted this on the Harvey's Broiler page). With that form, anything donated to you is a tax write-off. You can also get free stuff from http://www.giftsinkind.org/ , which is the main way Apple, Microsoft, etc channel new products down the pipe for donation. You could get a new Mac and software... eventually.

If I had one I could spare, I'd ship it out there myself, WITH the http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/ on it!

I'll bet that even Vegas looks badass on that huge-ass TV, by the way.

What Mac were you pricing?

Also, about ALL RAM you buy anymore has a lifetime warranty. Not everyone knows. A Craigslist ad for dead RAM could get you some to mail in... but if you're like me, you have no time. If you go to http://www.coastmemory.com they sell RAM retail BELOW what I can buy it for wholesale at 99% of the places out there. Not only that, but that take trade-ins on your old RAM, and even buy dead RAM to refurb. They totally rock.

Where does this fit into a new Mac? Simple - order it with minimal RAM, and get enough to max out your machine at http://www.coastmemory.com . For example? $175 to totally max out a brand new MacBook Pro. Not bad, eh?

Same for other PCs - check those guys out.

If you need burners, hard drives (even hard drive enclosures, to make an internal hard drive into an external one), or other parts, just ask. Like I said, I've done all kinds of stuff for so long I can pretty much tell you where to go for decent prices on anything computer related... Mac, PC, whatver.

Besides, about the only advantage anymore the Macs have over the PCs is in staving off obselescence. I say wait and buy one with your first million. You're totally on the right track.

3:00 AM? Damn girl, that's dedication...

~Jason

 

Dedication or dementia not sure which

 

UPDATES

Each day I wake up and go: OK. What am I going to get accomplished today? Sometimes it's frustrating because you hope to get 10 things accomplished and by the end of the day you only were able to do 5, but overall, we are moving forward nicely.

Today I got my rails from Canada, they will brace the 35 mm adapter and lenses. In two weeks I should get the 35 mm adapter itself. This week I'll order my additional 35mm camera lenses... We're getting there...

Today did an interesting experiment with the script.

I took my scene recap (list of the scenes and one line description of what happens in each scene) and created a new column I called "audience meter". Basically I gave each scene a color code based on what I estimate the mood of the audience will be while watching that specific scene.

Light hearted, entertaining and fun scenes were colored in different shades of green (relief). Scenes that make you think (ex: Audience is putting the pieces of the puzzle together) were grey (neutral) and scenes that are more intense (tension) were in shades of orange to red, with bright red being the climax scenes, the most intense scenes in the movie. I also have a few flashback scenes that have some sexual content and those were colored hot pink .

It was kinda interesting to then step back and scroll down the timeline, and looking at the colors change... Seeing how the audience is going to feel as the film progresses. It's pretty green at the beginning, but then orange becomes increasingly more dominant about 69 minutes into the movie and it doesn't back off much until the end. I also counted about 7 bright red scenes.

Fasten your seatbelts this is not going to be a fluffy, happy, cutsie film filled with little pink bunny rabbits dancing in the morning light.

Expect emotions to be in the high RPM, unless, of course, you don't have a heart to begin with and in which case you have nothing to worry about.

So you have officially been warned.

PHOTOS

Well I just purchased the 3rd party plugin software which allows you to import the P2 card footage into a PC Vegas timeline. It worked well. I was able to look at low res version of footage, and once I upgrade my CPU will be able to see high res too. So I will be able to post some actual misc quick footage taken at BBB pretty soon. But for now here are a few low res small thumbnails screen grabs of some of my shots. I had fun that night, and experimented with capturing BBB via reflections in the cars. That was cool.

I am going to post the new, larger screen grabs in a second.

 

Thanks for the update, Faith. I'm really looking forward to seeing this. It's going to be great.

 

Wow, I just joined here and found this thread. I've been sitting here for a long time now catching up.

I looked at the website and watched the teaser. All I can say is "I can't wait till the DVD comes out".

Great job and keep on going.