December 2004 Archives
December 31, 2004
A Willingness to be Embarrassed
In my humble opinion this is the most important thing one needs to face in order to do any sort of creative endeavor. Every step on the way you have to put yourself out there. You have to show your actors the script. You have to direct a whole bunch of people in public, and security guards will come by. Ultimately you will have to show people your movie. In any of these cases you will have to overcome your embarrassment to get your job done.
I think a lot of closet-artists hide their work out of fear of criticism. They might use excuses like, "My art is for me, I don't do it so other people" or "People don't get me" or "The medium of human skin carving is frowned upon in your society." Nonsense, they don't value criticism. They don't like criticism because they are embarrassed by either positive or negative attention of their work. One can not be objective about their own work. You can only make your work better if you open yourself to the opinions of others. Maybe you'll learn that your script doesn't make any sense, or that you cut to fast and people missed something, or that a particular scene actually had a strong impact on your viewers. In any of these cases you need to show it off, and in order to do that, you need to shrug off your embarrassment to improve your artistic work.
Embarrassment stands in the way of getting the work done, and in the way of improving your work. It has no place in making a film.
December 31, 2004 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 3:12 AM
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Entertainment,
Film,
December 22, 2004
Now running at the latest versions of my software:
Movable Type 3.14
MT-Blacklist 2.03
Let's hope this further helps me to reduce spam on the blog. I know some people out there criticize Blacklist, and it's not perfect, but it has blocked over 300 pieces of spam since I installed it, and that's spam I didn't even have to look at. I'm sure that's nothing in comparison to what bigger blogs get, but it's more than enough for me.
December 22, 2004 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 11:57 PM
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Meta Blogging,
I wrote out a whole article and then I accidently deleted it. So this will be a series, instead of a single post as I remember what I wrote.
I make amateur films, and the most frequent comment I hear on them is "I could never do that." When I did improv comedy I heard the same thing. I'm going to try and dispell this myth, by sharing exactly what you need to make a movie.
Disclaimer: I make amateur short films. I have gotten my movies onto local TV, and placed as a finalist for the 48 Hour Film contest for Philadelphia. However, I haven't gotten paid for them, nor have I received any awards. So this might be nothing more than advice for making mediocre shorts.
First, plan for the correct size film. I say, for your first outing, plan on a 5 to 10 minute finished project. Any more than that will become unmanagable quickly.
Now what do you need:
- A Willingness to be Embarassed
- An Idea
- A Story
- A Script
- Access to a Camera
- A Computer
In the next couple posts, I'll try and explain the difference between a story and a script, I'll say some things that will piss off the two Mac users who read Aarrgghh!!, and I'll give tips on how to lose your shame.
December 22, 2004 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 2:33 AM
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Entertainment,
Film,
December 16, 2004
I have a new section dedicated to my newest movie, A Christmas Party. My job has had a media competition for the past two years, and so I did this.
I'm pretty happy with it. I think that I hit a certain base level of competence with the whole thing. I couldn't look at any part of it and see glaring errors. The script's mediocre, not fantastic, but okay. So is the directing, as is the editing, as is the design. No part shines, but no part really is blatantly bad.
That sounds like I'm being down on it. I'm not. It's hard be happy with your own work. I'm honestly content, considering I spent 3 hours on the script, 4 hours planning, 3 hours filming, and 10 hours editing. 20 hours from just one person. Not too shabby.
But don't take my word for it. Watch A Christmas Party, and tell me that I'm wrong.
A Christmas Party
December 16, 2004 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 1:31 AM
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Entertainment,
Film,
December 6, 2004
After weeks in development hell, I'm finally done working on Craig's Variety Hour, and they're putting it on the air.
To find out more, go to http://www.citizenwumpus.com/cvs/.
Watch it or set your TiVo's:
January 22, 2005 12:10 AM
Whyy Channel 12.
December 6, 2004 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 7:38 PM
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Entertainment,
Film,
December 5, 2004
I haven't written in awhile because I've been dealing with family issues. My grandfather passed away earlier this week. I wasn't particularly close to him, so this isn't an attempt to seek sympathy. But I figured I would at least write something about it.
Continue reading "Death in the Family"
December 5, 2004 Posted by Terrence Ryan at 1:54 AM
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Personal,
