That's a wrap

We wrapped last night! Everything was great! I really hope we don't need any reshoots and I really hope everything turns out as great as I think it did. Expect a trailer soon. For now, I'm going to rest just a short while. I'm going to lay around and do whatever else I forgot that the world has to offer for the next day or two and then off to editing and scoring and I guess I should begin writing a new project.

Winsor

Wow

It's so close to being over with the film. We have 1.5 scenes to film and then 1 tomorrow. The scene today is actually one of my favorites. We'll see how it goes. Fingers-crossed that everything looks good, fingers-crossed that we'll be done and clear by tomorrow. Fingers-crossed.

Winsor

Three more

Well, three more days of shooting. Our ability to shoot has gotten easier each day and we're coming to the end of the road. I'm a lot less stressed than the last few days and I've actually started to get some sleep. However, I am still a little bit stressed but nevertheless I'm finding time to help remind myself there's another world that I must reenter after this film. Including last night, Two Stick Trivia. We won first place and it felt great. It let me go to sleep easier. However, it is now the morning and now I'm back to being the worried guy I've been since last weekend. After we shoot today, we will only have 2.5 scenes left in our film to shoot.

Winsor

Filming

We have completed four days of filming, completely on schedule. After a few mishaps and problems, we are going strong and everything looks beautiful and great so far. Although I can't necessarily say my health and stress level is at its best because of the film, I can easily say it is worth it right now.

Hopefully I'll have some footage up soon, of course the one or two of you that read this know, that my promises of footage aren't always very good.

Winsor

How quickly

How quickly things change! The sound equipment is in, the camera is ready to go, the lights too. The script is even better now, I'm super excited. Hopefully I won't lose sleep tonight. Hopefully everything stays like it is now. Hopefully.

Winsor

Nerves Deteriorating

I keep waking up every morning, worried. Ready to work. There are still a few things going on that may be problematic, but I got one good thing this morning so far: the weather. I know predicting the weather isn't always perfect, but it seems like for the week we film, the weather is going to be great. So that's one good thing I can add to my list.

The sound equipment is coming in today and hopefully everything else will finish falling into place.

Winsor

Can't Sleep

It's 5:42. I've been awake for about an hour. There are butterflies in my stomach (I know, what a coincidence). I know it's been a while since I posted anything, I apologize. This film has been getting the best of me, as it should. This past weekend was very important. Clay (the DP) and I got together and went over most of the locations, story, some ideas, etc. The art is really starting to come together in the twilight of production (how existential). The actors were great, everything was great. The Memphis Zoo, the Butterfly area, was stunning, comforting, everything I could imagine if not more so. It settled my mind. It all settled my mind. Knowing, that everything was coming together when it needed could not have made me feel better. It was really good to have all these people around completely ready to help out and who you can count on, that is except one person.

Which brings me to the reason I am awake this early. I'm worried. The thing is I'm always worried, but I've never lost sleep over it.

Filming is scheduled to begin on Friday. Almost everything is in order. Almost.

Keeping my fingers crossed and praying to the film gods,
Winsor

Storyboards

I made a tentative schedule through August and just completed storyboards three weeks early. Right now we stand at 279 shots but that's tentative as well. Lots of nervous excitement coming along.

Later,
Wins

Hey there

Currently in the middle of rehearsals, one is about to start in a few minutes actually. There's an extra special plan going to happen soon but I'm not really wanting to give too many of the details at the moment. Gotta get ready for the next rehearsal.

Wins

Casted

Our main cast has been casted...

Go to our website thebutterfliesfilm.com to see who they are.

Whoops

Haven't posted here in a while. Lots of things have been going down recently. Most important is that we have completed our first round of auditions. I am pretty pleased with our current choices of people and we are planning to hold call backs in a couple of days.

A lot of things with money and locations are still being worked on but I'll probably post later with a cast list.

Winsor

Keep on

Austin and I did some location scouting yesterday. We now have officially two locations for sure. I have a meeting with Dr. Barbera today. Everything is extremely hectic and I'm extremely tired.

We filmed our location scouting yesterday so I'll edit the video and put it up here later. It's somewhat funny because that's who we are. It was raining yesterday so not exactly the best things to shoot and it looks worse when not in person. The weather is very confusing this year.

Gotta go study,
Winsor

Well

I have to get up in a few hours. I'll be tired. I have a whole slew of new people working on the film. I think I'm up to about 30-40 crew all together and I think I'm done looking for more right now. It's pretty exciting. I need to go to bed.

Later,

Winsor

Some movement

Actually a good bit of movement. Again I want to thank everyone that has been responding to my screenplay since my last post.

Crew edited.

There's a few more people I'm currently in talks with but it's still decently early into (official) pre-production.

Equipment-wise - Whether or not to buy a 35mm adapter for the XL2. If you haven't seen what the difference in quality is, look it up on youtube.

We are also (crossing our fingers) trying to borrow some equipment from the media department at Ole Miss.

Things are moving, and it's going good.

Later,
Winsor

A promise...

Isn't a promise. Sorry, I don't know when the video blog will be up. I've been slowly doing some editing here and there so it's coming around on the script. I think I can say that the camera that will be used to film the majority of the movie is a Canon XL2 I'll attempt to get some XL-1s and some other cameras possibly.

Yes, the XL2 as well as its predecessor are DV cameras. I decided against using 35 mm or possibly 16 because of costs. It is much cheaper and easier for me to edit digitally than manually and I do have experience with the DV cameras mentioned. Many independent and short films these days use DV cameras including "Once" and "28 Days Later." The latter actually using XL1's to film all but the ending.

The idea visually will hopefully be something that will surprise people when they see the film. Creativity is the key. Hopefully, it will all play out. Crossing my fingers.

In the following weeks, I will eventually post a video blog and also I will continue to star telling more about my film and my past in film.

Here's a little bit: My favorite films include Pan's Labyrinth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Rebel Without a Cause, Casablanca, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and many a Spielberg film

Tonally, my thesis film will be close to Eternal Sunshine. I am borrowing a few of Michel Gondry's techniques and we'll see how that goes.

My thesis film is a love story. It's got several minor themes other than the idea of love but that I'll save for later to tell.

Winsor

Update

Thanks to those that have responded recently to the script. I'm awaiting a lot more responses but I assumed that it would be a little slow thanks to the spring break that most people are currently on. I'm awaiting my possible lead's response to the script as well as my possible thesis adviser's response. It's a little nerve-racking but its exciting I suppose at the same time.

I've begun work on the storyboards, I finished the main theme, and I may already have the title sequence. I'm trying to figure out budgeting and what not as well. I'll post a new video blog by the end of the week I promise.

Winsor

Second Update of the night or morning

Okay, it is now 20 pages. I'm not going to say it's the final draft, but it's pretty close.

Night,
Winsor

It's done.

The first draft is done that is. 2:23 am CST.

Page count: 21

Scene count: 40 + a couple.

Still not willing to give up the title and I may go back to Butterflies, we'll see.

I'd say the overall film will be 30-40 minutes. I know there's the saying that pages equal minutes but it is not true for this one at all.

Okay, well it's late. I've gone ahead and did a little bit more chopping but I really like what I have. Like a lot. A lot lot. I'll probably shoot a video blog at some point this week, but I can safely say that I am very happy right now. And tired. :)

Off to do some editing,
Winsor

Spring Break

So my spring break has started and I have yet to post any new videos or post any big updates. I can officially say that I will attempt to finish my script over spring break, I'd say the likelihood is 80% that I will finish it. I have some other work to do, as in homework but hopefully that won't get too much in the way.

I'm starting a little side project (set of projects really) with a friend of mine. They are trailers to faux movies like this one below, but they will probably be funnier. We already filmed some of one and it is going great so far. Enjoy this one:



Later,
Winsor

Still Working

Apologies, I am a great procrastinator. The week after next is Spring Break and I plan on getting the script done (if it is not by then), calculating a budget, casting and location ideas, and hopefully figuring out who I want for my thesis adviser. I've been coming up with many a good idea, but I still am unwilling to say anything more. I think in the future I will slowly put up a few pages and character descriptions maybe some storyboards, but we'll see.

Later,
Winsor

Butterflies

Butterflies was the working title I was using before yesterday. Take that as you will or don't.

Winsor

A title

It's a little weird and out of order like this movie and me in general, but I'm pretty sure I've got a title. Not just a working one, but the final title. I even have an idea for a one sheet and I probably shouldn't.

Also, I'm at the point where it's worthless to say what page I'm on now because I'm writing a little out of order.

I've got a few themes and melodies in my head already for the movie, hopefully I'll find the right people for those (I can only play the piano).

I saw Be Kind Rewind by the way, it's a good movie you just have to suspend reality. Which is what movies are really, they suspend reality. It's fun, that's all you need to know before you see it.

Later,
Winsor

Heyo

Hey everybody or nobody,

I'm now on page 14. Going a little slow, but I'm alright with it. I just came up with a really great idea and it seems like it will work out in the story. Hopefully. I'll be posting my next little journal video in a day or two. I'll probably just talk about my influences or something and give any new updates I have to give. If you're interested in helping out with the film just send me a message. I'll eventually start letting out some plot details once I've written a little more. To those who have already talked to me about my film or have encouraged me and whatnot, thank you much!

Winsor

The first video entry

Here's the first video entry of my journal:



In non-video form, I'm at about page six. I'm taking my time trying to perfect pages but at the same time trying to keep moving. It's going really well and I'm really enjoying the writing for the first time in a while.

Later,
Winsor

Test

Just what the title says.