Meet The Storyboard Manikin

A Collection of Kama Sutra Pics are on Their Way

He has no face, he's wooden, he has a metal pole sticking out of his arse and yet makes a more convincing heterosexual male lead in a romantic comedy than Tom Cruise.

By means of threats and a spot of haggling at the local department store, I bartered for a $10 limb-adjustable manikin. For someone who lacks the ability to draw people quickly, I’ve found this time-saving technique for storyboarding. Using a digital camera and photographing the manikin over a “green screen”, in this case I used a red shirt, I simply added the manikin to a chosen background. The cheapskate that I am, this one manikin will play all the roles in the storyboards, along with drawn backgrounds.

Brainstorming

Hopefully our first meeting will be on Friday 16th February. I’ll be bringing the yard glasses and keg taps while Rich says he’s phoning in some strippers from Newtown. This should be a productive night.

It’ll be a brainstorming session, which will give me a chance to pitch my movie idea about the love child of Chewbacca and Han Solo called “Star Wars: Ewok Genocide Operation a Go! Go!” starring that fat kid from “Hey Dad!” and revolving around the submission of a small business application to the local Jedi council.

At the Starting Gate

After finding out that I was one of TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for 2006 (and in hindsight I could have done more during the year), I thought I'd join the blogosphere, that which is made up of a series of tubes (and I recently discovered has nothing to do with a big truck). This will be a little different as it will chronicle the slow, long, arduous journey of a third short film from beginning to end in a fun blog-ish kind of way. I've always dreamed of being one of those cocaine-snorting Hollywood elites. And I'll throw in some rants about the world if I have the time. Feel free to provide advice, suggestions, complaints, stupified ideas, or whatever. I want to use this blog to make the short more collaborative where everyone can have a hand in all aspects of production.

Here's a brief summary of the other shorts:

James Brown is Half Dead (unknown date)

A short developed many moons ago with my cousins. I can't for the life of me remember what it was about. But it starred my brother who, to this day, hasn't forgiven me for dousing him in tomato sauce. And it started with a credit sequence of home movies of my brother to the tune of "Stop the War in Croatia", 'cause you know, we thought James Brown was Croatian. I need to find that VHS tape.

The Drunken Reclusive Star of "James Brown is Half Dead" Aged by About 15 Years

11:54:34 (2006)

Some say it doesn't hold a candle to James Brown is Half Dead, others stare blankly into space, paralyzed from what they had just witnessed. It didn't turn out to what I originally pictured in my head, to say the least. We came across many complications from finding a location, no rehearsals, batteries running out of juice, missing/forgetting shots, sound of planes flying over, editing to under 7 minutes and generally running out of time. But what we came up with, I think, was good. I'm still fond of the last shot. It was a steep learning curve, but I think it turned out to be a great start. For those of you who have yet to see it, it was a simple idea to do a short with a one camera set-up. We came up with the idea of a journalist interviewing a future suicide bomber.

Pirated Chinese DVD Cover for "11:54:34"

Untitled (2007/2008)

The idea is pretty simple. Or complicated for the simple folks out there. It begins with a guy waking up in a hotel room, thugs burst in through the door, grab him and cut off a finger then knock him out. He wakes up in the hotel room, finger attached, when thugs burst in.........

I think it'd be good to focus on the visual/audio aspects this time with none or throw-away dialogue. It'll give us a chance to work on:

• Set design
  
• Physical Special Effects as well as some basic computer effects
  
• Action orientated choreography
  
• Sound design (music as well as sound effects)
  
• Editing
  
• I also like the idea of using a wide angle lens for a shot or two.

This is just some food for thought. Hopefully we can meet up around mid February and discuss it. Until then......