Class Reunion Project

As a side project, I'll be creating a slide show for the FHS Class of '89 20 Year Reunion. I created something similar for a reunion of sorts for the early 90s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship group a couple of years ago, but unfortunately that was one of the projects lost when my portable hard drive died. In any case, if you're from the class of '89, send me some photos to use! Just e-mail using the link on the left side of this browser window. The larger the resolution, the better. I can handle just about any file format that's out there, so no need to worry about that. For those of you who have posted photos on FaceBook, it would be nice to get those sent to me as well since the photos there have, for the most part, probably been shrunken down in the posting process and wouldn't retain their quality if increased in size. I'm putting a deadline at or about July 17 so as to give me enough time to work on this. Thanks!

New Link

After wanting to do it for quite a while but always forgetting to do it, I added a link to the U.S.S. Red October website on the links on the left hand side of the website. Since I sometimes refer back over to that site, it seemed... well, logical.

Also, only 8 days left until the Fan Film Contest submission deadline over at Atom.com!

Take 2 w/ short intro

It's been suggested by a couple of people that I shorten the credits at the beginning, and I'm starting to agree. I'll keep the longer version up, but I think I'll cut an abbreviated file and upload that for use in the contest. I'll get that done tonight.

"Luke & Leia" now online!

I've posted the movie over at YouTube and Atom.com. I'll have a streaming link in the "Luke & Leia" portion of the website in just a few hours. Enjoy!

SUBMITTED

Since I'm having thoughts of moving the party to the 16th, I decided to upload the movie to Atom last night. It's still in the processing phase, but it should be available at some point today. In the meantime, I'm going to get it rolling on YouTube as well while I can. It shouldn't take me too long to get that set up as long as I find the time to do it while I'm here at work. I'll send out a link at some point today. So, I guess that makes today, April 29, 2009, the world premiere day of "Luke & Leia"!

SUCCESS!

After screwing around with the film quality over and over to try to get the file size under 100MB as dictated by Atom.com's submission guidelines, I ended up using a converter to convert the good MOV file over to a WMV file which came in at less than 60MB! I was thinking of submitting it to Atom.com tonight, but I think I can wait a week and a half so that it coincides with the premiere at the party on May 9.

Quick Update

After playing around with the editing tools again, I decided to use the original footage of Abbie and use a still shot of Shawn and Chris as the transition piece for her to get off of the camera before the booth shot again. I know this may not make sense to anyone right now, but maybe it will when the film is released. I just wanted to let it be known that Abbie is still getting her 5 seconds of fame. ;-)

Some people have received their release forms via e-mail or will be in the next couple of weeks. If you could send the signed forms back ASAP, it would be much appreciated.

Last Edit, then Paperwork

I received the restaurant background photos from Chris over the weekend, and they look great. However, the green screen shot I took of Abbie is not cooperating well. It's far too pixelated around the edges against Chris' background pics, and I cannot smooth them out enough to make them decent. So, after all this time, I believe I'm going to have to replace that shot with a backup shot. Sorry Abbie! I should have this step completed very soon. I am having a difficult time getting the master AVI file working with Windows Media Player, though. I think I finally have it figured out, but in the meantime I'm going to go with a Quicktime file which I tested yesterday. Fortunately, Atom.com allows uploads of a few different file formats, mov files being one of them. Now to try to figure out how to get the file size down to 100MB or less without losing too much quality. Expect the premiere of the film to be at my 18th Annual Sci-Fi Party with online access to follow shortly after.

Next up is getting all the paperwork in order. Atom suggests signed contracts for actors, owners of locations, and music rights holders. I wish I would have noticed this before so this could have already been taken care of, but then again I should have expected it since I heard about what people went through the last time when I was trying to submit "Yoda's Treasure". According to their site, they say to submit the film anyway and will notify me if they need copies of any of the forms. That should give me a little time to get everything in order.

End of principal photography!

Abbie's shot is finished! We used the green-screen and will be adding in the background sometime soon, I hope. Once that is completed, the film is DONE and ready to be uploaded for the 2009 Star Wars Fan Film contest. Then it's on to the promotional materials.

Shirts are here!

The t-shirts are now in! I'll be getting the Shirts already ordered by people to them in the very near future. I do have a small inventory built up now, so people who want to purchase one can now received their shirt within just a few days. In the future, I may go to one color printing. It would save a few dollars per shirt, and I'm thinking of adding something besides just the logo but I'm not quite sure yet. That would make the current shirt a discontinued collectors item, so be sure to get one while they're still around! ;-)

Good news & bad news

The good news: the animated FDP logo is alive once again! Instead of trying to extract it from my backup disks and risk over-filling my hard drive (which I guess wouldn't have happened, but I didn't know until after the fact), Matt extracted it from his backup disks and e-mailed it to me over the weekend and I promptly inserted it into the movie.

The bad news: SodaNation, the group who gave us the song "Computer Life" to use in the film, has disbanded. We'll still be able to use the song, but I was going to promote them a bit in the credits.

What? Almost done, you say???

Since Shawn was taking up all of my LOTRO time today, I continued editing the movie from this morning. I now have the majority of it completed. Abbie's reshoot is the only major item needed. Other than that, I have to grab the Flaming Death animated logo from backup disks. Then it's finished! Yes, Matthew, you're voice-over is no longer needed! Turns out that the boom mike noise blends in with the background ambiance sound file I'm using, so it's all good. I'm going to change the film from color to black and white, but I haven't made a solid decision on that yet. I'll have to create one of each and compare them.

And oh... by the way, Happy New Year!

Shirts ordered

T-shirts have been ordered! I put in an order for two small, two medium, four large and four extra-large shirts last week, so I should have them in a couple of weeks. One medium and two extra-large are now spoken for. I do have one extra-large from the first batch on hand right now, however.

The first two minutes and 17 seconds of "Luke & Leia" have now been edited. I'm going to try to get everything done this weekend with the exception of the items that need to be redone. Looking good, though. I have it in widescreen format now as well.

Editing, shirts, and more

After a minor little setback, I was able to start the editing process over the weekend. One thing I did notice that was previously NOT seen was that the boom mike got into the shot. I haven't gone through all of the video to see how many times it makes an appearance, but hopefully I'll be able to crop that out. If we had filmed in letterbox format, it wouldn't be an issue. However, I believe the program I'm using can accomplish that task as well.

We also have Abbie's re-shoot coming up at some point soon. At some point we'll have to get Matthew's short voice-over recorded, and then a photo shoot for promotional purposes (DVD cover, etc.). I haven't picked a time frame for the photo shoot yet, but Matthew and Mitchell should start thinking of what days are free for them in the first quarter of next year if at all possible.

Flaming Death Productions t-shirts: who wants one?! You know you do! Hehe! I'm going to be submitting an order in at some point soon, and if the facility I go through still has a minimum order number then I need seven more shirts to order that haven't been spoken for. I could go and order the rest and sell them later on, although it would be easier on my finances if we could get enough to cover at least half of the full order. If you've been a part of the cast or crew in either "Yoda's Treasure" or "Luke & Leia", I'll sell them to you at cost plus shipping only if needed. Just a little bonus for being part of the FDP gang.

Annnnnd if you haven't noticed yet, FDP is now on Facebook! Just do a search for Flaming Death Productions and we're listed there.

That's it for now. Thank you for reading the mega-post!

Movie progress?

Since it's been asked, I thought I would address the question of how the movie is coming along. At this point, I have each of the individual shots ready to be edited together except for the scene with Abbie that needs to be re-shot, the music, and any files needed to edit the thing together. I would have been further along in the process and completed the majority of the editing already if it wasn't for two things: 1) busy weekends, and 2) Lord of the Rings Online's expansion pack "Mines of Moria". Poor excuse, I know, but it's addicting. I just have to sit myself down at some point and tell myself "You ARE going to do this today." Unfortunately, today isn't one of those days since I'll be out of town. Maybe I can find some time tomorrow.

Maybe. :-P

Congratulations!

A little late on the news here, but congratulations go out to a few Flaming Death Productions people. Wade and Amanda Wolkenhauer had a baby boy, Paul Arthur Wolkenhauer, on October 20. In addition, Chris and Tina Marler had a baby girl, Emma Ruth Marler, on October 25. Feel free to send any congratulatory messages via the e-mail button on the left side of the web page, and I'll make sure they are forwarded on to the happy parents. :-)

And now for something completely different

Just a little promotional plug here for Kevin Smith's latest.

Sci-Fi Party and other news

For those of you looking for the website for my 17th Annual Sci-Fi Party, head on over to http://flamingdeath.net/scifiparty/.

In movie news, the beginning shots for "Luke & Leia" were filmed on August 24. So far it looks like I'll have one voiceover for Matthew to do, and unfortunately we have to reshoot Abbie's close-up. Hopefully we'll be able to do that at some point in the near future and then we'll have all filming complete.

In other news, you may have heard that Don LaFontaine has passed away. He was the BEST for voiceover work in movie trailers, commercials, etc., and was most recently seen in a few Geico commercials. R.I.P., Don.

Flaming Death Stockroom updates

I made a few changes in the way the Stockroom operates. All orders are now tied into PayPal, and it's pretty slick. For some reason, the donation button in the left menu isn't working properly in IE but works with Firefox, so if you're having issues when donating and don't have Firefox then just use the e-mail button and let me know so we can circumvent the issue. There's a couple other tweaks I need to make, but I'll save that for another day. Off to bed!

Sodanation news

"Computer Life", the song featured in "Luke & Leia", is getting its own video, and they've got photos from their video shoot. Check 'em out!