Pictures from LA

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So, I believe I owe you some pictures. I'll keep this pretty simple.

Here's our fearless sound re-recording engineer, Kieth Waggoner, sitting in his red studio in front of  his sweet sound set-up. This was after we watched the movie with the pretty new dialogue that he had cleaned up. It sounded better than we hoped.

We were also able to just brainstorm together and do some good ol' fashioned artistic collaborating about getting or improving some of our original sound effects and about how he would eventually mix the dialogue, sound effects and music together. It was pretty nice, I tell ya. Well, until we got into a huge fight and were threatening to kill each other.

We also got to hang out in LA and be awesome.

Stay tuned. I'll have some more pics of our score recording in the studio adventures soon.

Movie-Making Learnings Plus A Thought On Sexuality

Hey all! This is Charles filling in for Trisha. She's been a little busy at the day job, so I thought I would write a little something today. OK, this movie has taken way longer than we ever anticipated, but it's almost done, and we're proud of it. We're excited to move into this new phase of "getting this thing out there," and while I'm sure there will be an interesting learning curve there - no matter how prepared we think we are - we're ready. Its been an interesting process so far, so I'm gonna go over a few things this movie has taught or reinforced in me as filmmaker. I think they apply to pretty much any independent creative endeavor though - especially one executed by a group.

1. There are things that cost time, and there are things that cost money, but a lot of things can cost either if one is creative enough. 
2. Everything will break, inexplicably and usually not permanently, but enough to slow one down or ruin one's day/week. This applies to machines one uses, software one runs, and people one depends on. Be prepared for this. Have backup methods, and understand what is essential and what is not. This is not a matter of if but when. 
3. There is a way to crew/produce an independent movie that is very different than the way one reads about in books by Hollywood people. There are essential on-set roles like boom and camera, but the management, wrangling, and  even the directing need to be much more fluid, and there is even less room for any ego on set.
4. Digital asset management is the most critical thing. How you handle this will dictate how fast every other process can happen.

Yeah, those are movie things, and I know the readership for this blog is (hopefully) less full of filmmakers than persons interested in female sexuality and how we can be making it better. So, on that note, there is one thing that has continually been in my mind as we made this movie. Its not gonna shatter your brain, but it is food for thought.  Every generation has to learn sex all over again. Sex is not something you generally sit down with your parents or grandparents and discuss at length. Details, mistakes, funny stories, and tips about sex are not shared this way as they are with so many other things. They are much more likely to be shared between friends of the same generation as they figure it out with each other. Sexual discussion is very largely intra generational rather then inter. I feel like there are a lot of implications because of that, and I could go on for a bit but I think it will be more fun if I let you think them up.

  -charles

New Style on the SSL Blog!

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Big news people! This blog that you are looking at right this very second has a new style. It's really not that exciting, but I thought I should mention it, so you are not confused. It's really just a basic template from Blogger, but I think there are some people who may really like the change.

You see, my friends, I've had some complaints about the previous yellow background. It was hard on the ol' eyes, I was told. Honestly, we never realized people were having a problem. It never bothered us at all. It reminds me of a time when the fabulous Bitch Magazine started using 1-color print for their magazine and after one of the issues (I can't remember which color it was - I think pink) people started freaking out and writing letters because they were infuriated by how hard it was to read. I remember thinking that I didn't have any problems with it, but could obviously see that it wasn't just an isolated few people who did. So...I figure if I heard a couple complaints, there are probably a lot more out there that I didn't hear. If you know anyone who stopped reading this blog because it hurt their eyes, let 'em know they can get back to it!

Oh and Happy St. Patty's Day! I will be out and about in Indy the next couple of days with my dear sweet family who believe we fell straight off the boat from Ireland. We did not, but we do know how to make an excuse for celebrating with friends and family. I'll get back to my regular blogging on Monday.

Why no 3-D Clits?

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So Charlie and Barnaby have been looking for 3-D lady parts for our movie. One of our possible solutions for finishing up our most anatomical heavy scene is to find then buy a pre-made 3-D model. We - okay really Charlie - would then have to texture it and rig it (make it so it can move to our liking).

Unfortunately, as they were looking through items labeled "sexual" or "reproduction" and other like terms, they couldn't find any that included the inner parts of the clitoris. Some had the ol' nub chillin' on the outer parts, but none had the Starfleet looking part of the clit inside. We kinda need the whole deal to do what we want to do, so it's a little frustrating, and kinda weird. Probably this lack is due to the creator's choice or need to keep the pelvic space uncluttered, and since I assume no one who wants a medically accurate reproductive structure cares about clit innards - it was the first to go. The bladder was missing in some also, and we need that too, but there was sometimes an option to add the bladder in. The full clitoral structure is not completely forgotten in the 3-D modeling world though. It is sometimes available on its own as a singular structure.

Don't worry about this hardship though. We have other stylistic options for this scene, and Charlie was just discussing the possibility of cramming together the singular clitoral structure with the other parts, but that's just crazy, off the cuff talk at this point.

I don't think there's anything deep to be taken from this except that maybe this is a reminder of how the clitoris is an afterthought...in anatomy, in sexual education, and (this part is deep) in our sexual culture.

A few more notes from Charles

I just wanted to post a few screenshots of the scenes I have been working up. SO now we havce 20 scenes of 54 in some kind of production. But don't let that number fool you. After scene 39 its all repeats. Here's a few samples.



The happpy hand gets it's first incarnation. He's supposed to be a little bristly, cute, and industrial. I think his eyes are a little bit stale right now. In the animation you can see it. He's not all there. That'll need a little work.

Scene 15 gets a nice updated background with a near final color. I left Barnaby in this comp so you can see his boom technique. Thats actually my couch. Those awesome 50's housewives are dressed in vintage outfits courtesty of Debra Silveus. In fact all my couches are used in this movie.

Melissa Bickel and Scene 42 gets its first pass. I reworked the look of this considerably after a lookthru adding some camera movement and setting the horizon a little differently. The students seem a little close in this one, but this is where it started.

I've been working a heck of lot on scene 2. Its an early scene and lays a lot of the foundation for the movie down. Thats David Charles, Abigail Wright, and Tim Stroud chillin there. The background is inspired by a seafood place we ate at in boston. It was that color throughout, Ceilings and walls. I originally had more pink in the foreground but after a second look went more neutral. I can also give it back later, but I'm trying not to paint myself into any corners.

And update on our storage issues. Our G-Raid Drives been running great. Just killing it. So fingers crossed. I think we're out of all that hassle.

-Charles



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Another quick One

Hey guys, just a quick update here from Charlie. I wanted to link to this little example of tracking for you guys. I thought someone might be interested in seeing what I've been doing, and I'm sure those of you who were there for the shoot have been wondering how this tracking is going to actually work for these little signs. I'm actually done with this tracking now we're onto streamlining this convention scene. It has maybe the most titling of any scene so far so its taking a bit of time, but its also a great opportunity for some interesting creative things. Anyway, nothing to crazy but here's the sample.

Tracking Test (mocha AE) from Charles Borowicz on Vimeo.

Work Continues

Man, Its been way too long since we posted here. Trisha and Charlie (me) had a whirlwind vacation right after the Sneak Peak (which went great!) Since then we've finished off four more scenes and counting. I know the biggest question I've been getting is, "When will it be done?" and my best guess is three...four months...if all goes well. I am going to set up a little scene counter on here so you guys can track my progress as I whittle these scenes down. I think it'll give everyone a good perspective of how fast I can work and I actually how much work is going into this baby (A little!)

Today I am tracking all the signage from our Conference scene. It was one of the largest groups we put together and it took quite a while to shoot. We also did dolly and tracking shots that day which always add to the time. (especially when our "flextrack" ie. industrial hose- doesn't want to cooperate.) For all you nerds out there I am tracking with Mocha AE and it works excellent. We shot all our signs as white board though and I think that mocha would much rather have color. Something to remember.

Thanksgiving - A little late

We're a little late on this since the appropriate holiday for this has already passed, but I thought I'd write about a couple things AnC is thankful for - well thankful for in relation to this movie at least.


1. Cast and Crew

We recently sent out questionnaires to all the cast and crew so we could get some info about them for their pages on the Science Sex and the Ladies website. Barnaby is putting together the bios, and after he read the first few he mentioned that he missed everyone, and we all reminisced about those crazy people that for some reason decided to work with us.
The truth is we had very little money, no fame, we were shooting all the way up in creepy warehouse in Anderson, and frankly - it wouldn't have been crazy to think we were tricking them into shooting a nasty, low budget porno - but they showed up anyway.


2. Digital
Strange to say now, since everything is digital, but when AnC first started making movies in late high school and early college (gems, these movies were), we were shooting on SuperVHS and editing from VCR to VCR. There were no consumer digital cameras. Let's just say, things shot on VHS look like they are shot on VHS. The only real option to make a quality movie was to use film - which is super crazy expensive. Luckily, during college, movie quality digital cameras started becoming relatively affordable. We hatched a plan to save and buy a Canon XL1. We now have a new baby that shoots in HD, but our first born digital camera will always be close to our hearts. It was sold 2 years ago to a couple shooting wedding videos in Rhode Island.

3. Mild Spring Weather
The first shoot for this movie was fairly cold (especially for Chris West and Brandi Payton who had to sit half naked on a pedestal with a fan blowing directly on them...sorry about that you two). The last couple shoots were pretty hot (especially for the dancers in layered clothing busting a move in 80 some degree weather with lights beating down on them...sorry about that too, but I didn't enjoy it either. I realized later I has a 102 degree fever that day). The days in between were just right though. In the past we have shot in some of the hottest and bitterly cold places I could imagine, Since we were shooting in a non heated or cooled warehouse, we tried to plan this in mild weather. In the long years and months of pre-production we were never sure if we could get to the shooting part at the right time, but somehow the stars aligned, and we got about the best weather period we could hope for.

Scene 39 Rough cut

Here is a screenshot from the newest scene to get a good rough in. The words might change in content and form in the final version. Scene 39 deals with sexual education and the particular points that make it less useful and even useless in some instances for women. The happy couple here is Ben Aaron and Michele Morones. We shot this on our second green screen we built. We had learned a lot from our first one (which worked great) and we were able to make use of the largest room in our shooting space for this long walk (about 145 feet). It turned out really nice.  We hope to have a complete rough cut in the next week or week and half then we can start talking about pickup shots, music, and the future!

70 minutes rough!

Hey guys, I'm giving Trisha a break from blogging this week. She's been making a lot of posts about things related to Science, Sex and the Ladies, but what about the actual movie? Well, I'm here to give you an update. We have 70 minutes of rough cut footage. It looks like the rough cut is going to come in somewhere around 100 minutes. Its been really fun reliving all the exciting days on set as I build each of these scenes. I feel like our actors brought something that wasn't in the script everytime they were on camera, and I'm making a lot of use of that. This is an extremely information filled movie and its easy for it to get bogged down under a lot of Voice Over, and Explanation. The cure, I always thought, was creating interesting ways to impart that information, while maintaining a strong visual theme, that is supported by interesting characters who are fun but authoritive. Our actors have really helped us get to that point.

We recently recorded VO for our "Happy Hand" scene. Cathy Hammaker, who we have worked with before in our MD Hearts Series as Martinique ( a vengeful fencer and EX lover of Evan Evans who later plans to develop a WMDB "Weapon of Mass Destruction Bomb" in MD Hearts 4 which is my personal favorite of the MD Hearts Episodes although watch them all at ancmovies.com) was excellent. Recording for an animation was a first for us, and we're excited to have finished the first step in bringing the "Happy Hand" to life.

(Also you might notice our blog has added the 3d logo of Science Sex and the Ladies in the upper right.)

-Charles

another week a bigger green screen

We shot this weekend. Saturday and Sunday. Whew. Barnaby got to nap on set. That bed is made from a wierd box frame and a tumbling mat covered in elegant sheets from Target.
Here Ervin and Brandi share a moment on set. They were playing a prom couple coming home to...experiment.
Alicia Walker and Melissa Bickel as modern women. We only had a two man crew so we're recreating the moment here to photograph it. Notice how our green screen has seriously enlarged (doubled and then some) in size since our last shoot. We're covering more and more of our shots with the green. Its working great!
Heidi Keller Phillips with visor (!) plays the mother of our Prom lady above. Heidi appeared in our movie Embolism about 6 years ago... or maybe it was 7... She is also the secret weapon behind our soon to be shot opening dance number. Multi talented people.
Stephanie Hurt made an appearance as one of our revolutioners. While she's not an actress by trade she knocked out her line with the best of them!
and Kristin Marley returned to portray the illustrious feminist writer Shere Hite, author of "The Hite Report" which is a fantastic collections of accounts from real women about their sexuality. A classic and must read for anyone seriously interested in the subject.
And the day wouldn't be complete without Josh Ramsey stepping in to deliver a line...I mean a page of dialogue. Well...one line short of a page. That's just what he does. I think he could also hypnotize you with that stare. Watch out!

this just in.

I just put this rough composite together. I'm sure a lot of you were wondering how the Prom scene was going to fit together. Here's an example. There is still some work to be done in the background and there are 2 more couples to add but the Keys are pulling good off of our giant greenscreen. We're having a little bit of spill we still need to clean up here on Joanna and there is a little edge on the balloons but there's only a couple of hours work in this. It's looking good. I can't wait to composite some caveman footage!

We've become a little behind in out blogging this is the first post that will start to catch us up. We've been hard at work producing a couple of scenes shot mostly in greenscreen and Charlie has been spending his time planning for that. We've had a few shoots in the middle of the week too which were both fun and easy going thanks to our actresses being professional and prepared. But that's for the next post here I'm going to talk about our shoot for Scene 5 and 21. If you know AnC you know we love a good prom and we pulled out the stops to create a fun little prom scene that explores the G-spot function and anatomy. We shot all our elements seperately. So you'll just have to wait and see how fun it will all look together but here's a few notes and pics from the set.
Joanna gets all props from AnC for being spot on and hitting her lines like a pro. We have some mammoth sections of text and she launched through them easily. It really helped our shooting go smoothly and will be appreciated even more in the edit room. Here she is running her lines off to the side during a short break.


Melissa and Jason Bickel stepped up to help out as Joannas Assistants helping her display various liquids and even a short little dance. They were also a great help for our two man crew Jason starting and stopping our sound recorder and Melissa slating.( see above)

We dressed as many of our cast as we could for the prom extras. Everyone was having fun with their little parts I think we should cast our next movie based on their outfits for this scene. It would write itself. Here's Jerem,y Grimmer, Leslie Hankins, Melissa Bickel and Trisha getting ready to go on camera.

Here we are. Leslie is Trisha's BFF and she stepped up to help us get some fresh faces in this scene. She was awesome.

Here's Kristin Marley acting like a wallflower. Every prom has them she was great!

Sherry Philpot another one of Trishas longtime friends came over to help out to she was great. Her and Erving made a great couple.

Harrison Aaron got in on the fun too. Here he is standing on our flex track waiting for Barnaby to pull him through the shot.

We had our actors dance as they were being pulled throug the shot to simulate camera movement . It worked really well actually. We experimented a bit and as we suspected a wide lens gives the best perspective and created a nice sense of movement.



Here's Jeremy getting pulled by Barnaby and Jason. The flex track we have is sorta janked..sorta cool..it takes a little to work with and it makes the dolly prone to jumping off the track, but it got the job done.



Here's Charlie getting a ride.

We shot all our elements for the Prom Seperately. Here's Barnaby blowing some wind on our balloon tower to make them move gently. We shot them at 32fps and they had a really nice gentle motion.

Harry and Barnaby hanging out

Here's Rosaling Helping trish with her hair. We got everyone in on the action. I'll let you go with a few shots of everyones great costumes!

Thanks everyone for making a complicated shoot that much easier!

Another good shoot.

We shot scene 26 this weekend. It's a quick primer on how the feminist movement dealt with pornography...by splintering.

The scene called for a range of looks that were 70's and 80's specific and once again our hair and makeup people delivered. We were able to find a make-up person last minute and she really did a great job. Our regular make-up artist Lauren couldn't make it, but we hope to have her back soon.

We lit the whole scene with the china balls you see above. The big guys have 300 watts the small guys 200 watts. Then we gave the background a little bit of a kick with 2 600 watt fresnels. I didn't want to blow out the background I just wanted to give them a little bit of a hotter spot behind the table. I lit the carpet just in front of the tables with 600 watt fresnel too. This shot doesn't have the final light in it so you'll just have to image...:)

Here are our some our actresses. Left to right Lisa Smith, Pat Eberle, Joanna Winston, and Kristen Marley. They're holding signs that I''m going to track some images onto later.

Jake Fritz helped be set the lights. He's quickly becoming an AnC regular. We love to have him around. He helped dolly our shots which would have been pretty impossible otherwise.

I'll leave you with a few shots of the other looks we had produced for this shoot. Everyone looked great! Thanks again!

Rick Clark as a Producer

Bill Eberle

Sare lukeszewski

Katie Sheets

Kristen Marley

Joanna Winston

Lisa Smith

Sara Lukaszewski

Pat Eberle

Kristen Marley

Abigail Wright

Lisa Smith

Erin

Cathy Hamaker

Jeremy Grimmer -