I am an insomniac, one of the reasons I am into am-production, you need an abundance of time in this field. Most of the time I have about 3 projects at various stages. I often to start to edit before I have all the footage for a project. I tend to want to have more than one project going because sometimes shoots are scheduled weeks apart from the last scenes shot. So I find myself with lag time between shoots, thus, craving more stuff to edit and produce.

The downside to this: A. Loads of space taken up on my drives.
B. Time taken away from other pre/post tasks.
C. If a project gets killed, I have wasted time.

The upside to this: A. Less boredom.
B. Projects get released quicker.
C. Some footage can be used in the other projects.
D. More projects can be taken on.

I actually have a day job, so all of my stuff is done in the evenings, weekends, vacations, or strategically placed "sick days". The longest project I had going was 1.5 years before it was finally dumped! I hated that day.

At any rate, what is your "style" or "routine" as far as working on projects? What "hang-ups" do you come across during that time? How many projects do you work on at a time?

Hang ups? With all of my issues, I don't have room for hang ups! I also have loads of ideosynchricies.

When it comes to editing, that is a different story altogether. I tend to do my best stuff between 11PM and 6:30 AM. If I had a project as you described, not completely there, I would also start early. As I work on something, I might suddenly shift 180 degrees from the plan, as a new idea strikes me. It doesn't take much to influence me, or to inspire.

I know what you mean. I just RECENTLY started storyboarding, never did before, because I always had what I wanted the scenes to look like in my head. NOW...I try a little harder to storyboard, but usually end up with something totally dif. to the board.

Shoot, if I had a dollar for every time I started cutting a project and completely wiped it to create a better introduction, I'd have about $37.50.

I had some major arguements with my Graphics instructor over storyboards. I hate them. I'm not a planner, I'm a doer. It was easier for me to do my project- whatever it was- without trying to plan it out. She would have a hissy. So, I started doing my project, and storyboard it afterwards. Thhhhhhpt! :)~

LOL that is some funny stuff right there. At least the storyboards would be totally accurate, lol... My problem is that I totally suck at freehand drawing. I can draw architecture and abstract stuff. Just nothing that would make a storyboard of mine legible. I am a doer too, "we don't need no stinking plans" always seems to come to mind before a project.

As I am bad at drawing as well, I had to come up with something.I find I need storyboards if I have to sell a concept,or relay the plan to the crew and talent. So I came up with an Electronic Storyboard.I cut and paste photos of props and people and drop em in the timeline.Play them out on my laptop.Now if I was any kind of artist I wouldnt need to do this.

My hang up is editing.

I always have energy to write scripts, storyboard, block scenes, rehearse with actors, etc.

But when it's time to edit, I always get hung up.

Thats a great idea Jack, the electronic story boarding. I'll have to try that. Sound like some work too though. I'd probably just do them in photoshop as stills.


I always seemed to enjoy the editing most of all. I don't need a crew to do it, it can be done at any time, and I love having the power of making an otherwise dull scene come to life with a good soundtrack and some catchy cuts.

Nothing gets to me more than an UNLABELED tape!!!

RB

OM Friggin G I know what you mean. I have a large quantity of tapes from past shoots (stock footage) and I want to shoot myself every time for not lableling properly. Nothing like having to put a tape in to find out what is actually on it.

I don't much care for most aspects of production besides shotlisting/storyboarding and then on-set camera work.

Casting, direction, art design, etc...not for me.

Why would Bravo give up video production and not even sell Kosher style franks on his new hot dog vending cart?

I agree story-boarding is annoying...I like to pre-plan projects but often end up shooting how i feel rather than how i plan.

A little tip for what I like to do as regards story boarding. I also suck at free-hand drawing so I take digital stills of the locations and stills of my subjects from all angles (and sitting down if so needed) then with a bit of fancy photoshoping you can storyboard in photoshop.

I've only ever practiced this and have never actually storyboarded a whole film like this, but I'm sure I will, when time and occasion calls. It also gives you a rough idea about setting up camera positions within a room and so on and any strange light phenomonen (<spelling) that you'll encounter.

I think i am going to use that method for our up and coming horror project, that should make it really interesting.

I just re-read my post and didnt understand what I said.

What I mean is take stills of the objects in a different location and cut them out using photoshop and drop them on the location shots...but i guess you'd all worked that out.

Owen