A LITTLE 20TH CENTURY FOX GIG

The week has started out well, and as things go, once it rains, it pours (on in this case, drips faster).

On Monday, my buddy, Darrin Denlinger (who has been mentioned in a previous blog) recommended me for re-shoot boards on a Fox film. I’ll discuss that when the gig is done. Basically, it is a few days of drawing new scenes for a children’s film that has already been shot.

Believe me, a few days will come in very handy with bills. If it is a week, it will be even better. It is good to be back on a feature. Hopefully, I will make some new connections.

The same day, I got a call from my old client, the commercial company Hungry Man for a job Tuesday (today) with a new director I haven’t worked with. Unfortunately, I had to turn the job down as I am now on the feature. My friend Steve, who has freelanced there for years, always looks out for me. Very cool guy.

Then, I get a call from a producer friend who needs spec boards ASAP for a possible project. He can’t pay unless he and the director get the gig, which is fine, as they are close friends and great guys. I might be able to fit it in, but I won’t know until I get some of the feature boards done.

Slowly, but surely. Hopefully, I will get a long-term gig very soon. Or, sell my screenplay. One has to think big.

 

A CHANGE WILL DO US GOOD

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME, so sang Sam Cooke, and it’s a song I emailed to some close friends tonight.  I will NOT use this blog for politics, but I am in a good mood.

My old and close friend, director Maurice Marable (he directed the title sequence for ENTOURAGE and I did some of the boards) called me on a last minute promo spot for the ABC show FRINGE just before “President elect Obama’s acceptance speech.

I was with 100 or so of my “closest friends”.  Actually, 99 percent of them were strangers.  Very happy strangers.

I will meet  “Mo”  (we call him by both names, including Big Willie, Grand Puba, and and Lens Master ) and the crew during a location scout tomorrow (Nov 5^th for you all) and at least get a day’s pay.  The production company only “limited” funds do to it being a rush gig,  but the money is close enough to my rate and it is money coming IN.  Always beats money going OUT.

I am VERY grateful to Maurice, as he has used me for years and has always been a true friend in every sense of the word.  Mo is also a director of color (rather than being translucent, of course) who is has transcended the confines of what a Black director should do. If there is a story, Mo wants to tell it, and he will tell it in a visually dynamic manner.

This is a link to his reel, and you will recognize a good number of these commercials.

http://believemedia.com/director.php?director_id=24

I have to get to get my equipment ready for tomorrow. I will use paper and pen, do to the fact I have to draw on the spot and be quick about it. No Cintiq.

I think I can make it the old fashioned way.

Good night and good morning to you all.

NO STORYBOARDS, SOME CAMPING, AND A LOT OF GUNS

Well, can’t say the work week has been any better. I did get a check that will tie us over for a bit, but a brother needs a nice long-term gig. Six months would be great.

Just spoke with my buddy Darrin Denlinger, a talented colleague who offered his usual good words of encouragement. Always nice to hear. Darrin is on the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS.

The weekend was good, as I took my son Joshua (12) camping for the first time, and he loved it. Anything to get the kid away from video games, which he has been on a bit too much. Our neighbor Don, road Josh and some other kids on a ten-mile bike ride during the trip, and Joshua had such a sense of pride that he finished it.

A got a nice little surprise when I bought the DVD of YOU DON”T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, a film I worked on last year for about four months.

On the audio commentary, director Dennis Dugan refers to me as “an idiot savant of martial arts movies” and “the Rain Man of anything martial arts”) which had me laughing out loud.

I guess it beats just being “an idiot”.  As he went on, Dennis was actually very, complimentary with my involvement and helpfulness in the process of designing the stunts for the film.

I bought the DVD at a 2020 DVD store Sunday night, and when I walked out of the place there were about 7 cop cars and a police helicopter outside of the fast food store (I think El Pollo Loco) twenty feet away with two guys already cuffed on the ground.

All of the customers were marched out (hands over their heads) and put against a wall where they were ALL frisked.  Like 20 people!!! I assume cops couldn’t know who was involved (robbery attempt) and may have tried to blend into the crowd (ala INSIDE MAN). Sorry for the film reference.

I had to wait outside for over an hour as I smartly parked my car EXACTLY where the police pulled in kitty corner like to block any escapes.

I knew it was tense when they pulled the pump action shotguns from the police car trunks.

All this for a DVD ego boost!!!

Anyway, props to Eric Ramsey, who boarded the enjoyable RED BELT, which I just saw on video.

 

 

DOING THE LAST MINUTE OVERNIGHT STORYBOARD JOB

It was Monday night at about five-thirty in the evening that I got the call.  There was a nice sounding woman on the phone saying that my good friend Danelle (lovely person and talented fellow storyboard artist) recommended me to her for doing boards.

This woman, worked for a company called THE JONES, and they had a gig where their current storyboards needed to be changed.

The previous artist had to do forty-nine frames in ten hours (a lot), and new frames needed to be drawn, while other frames had to be cleaned or altered.

As work has been extremely slow all the way around, I instantly took the gig.  I was told that I would only work “maybe three or four hours” and the rate would be good.

Well, I got to the office at seven o’clock, set up my computer and Cintiq monitor, and was given digital copies of the old storyboards that I needed to change.

First thing is that it was TWO spots that needed to be worked on.  I actually thought the first artist did a good job, given the time frame he had to work in.

I had to add new frames and keep the style someone consistent.  Well, that wasn’t much of a stretch as I had to legible scribbles just like the first artist.  Boards had to drawn, added to the old frames, re-cut into four frames per page, and then sent to the production team, who then had to type descriptions, run it by the director, then email these boards to the agency.

GOT ALL THAT????

This repeated for both spots, and as I got tired I made mistakes when it got past two o’clock in the morning.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t get home until five o’clock the next morning.  When I got home, my wife Betty had slept in the living room so she could greet me.

Yea, it was freaking hell in terms of the hours and the rushing. The production team were all nice people and very professional and I will get a nice little check in a few weeks.

But, it was one day, and I need a long-term gig. Keeping things in perspective.

NO STORYBOARDS THIS WEEK

Hello all of you out there.

I’m afraid this will be another one of the short blogs as the only

I really didn’t work this week. I did get in a little practice time on

My STORYBOARD PRO software, but besides from that, family

business took over.  My lovely mother, Ruth turned 85!!

 

I am however, taking a little time to clear my workspace, but then,

that is akin to keeping a sandcastle at high tide.

Put a lot of work in, and then it gets wiped out when things get

busy.

 

 Just took my son Josh to see EAGLE EYE.  Yes, it is entertaining,

with an initially interesting premise of an omniscient villain, but if

you are over thirty five (that would be me) you will see elements of

* LIGHT SPOILER*

a certain Kubrick film that takes place oh… SEVEN years ago.  That is, if

this is 2008.  Shia grows on you.

Anyway, if I work this week that means money, right?

MORE ON TOON BOOM’S “STORYBOARD PRO” SOFTWARE

Since last week, I have been trying to immerse myself in the STORYBOARD PRO software. Since there will never be a golden time use it, I decided to try it on some current projects.

One directer wanted some preliminary boards done on a sequence so he could get CGI bids on it. I did the boards on the Storyboard Pro. I tried my best to work out some camera moves (it let’s you PAN, BOOM UP OR DOWN, AND PUSH IN OR OUT) while keeping a flow. Then, I exported the panels into QUICKTIME file, which the program allows you to do.  Storyboard Pro also allows you to time each frame, so some shots will last a second, while you can specifically get other frames (like a PAN) to last longer.

The program is more designed for animation, but it has many uses for LIVE action as PITCHES have been made and jobs won with it.

Another use, if you are tired of writing descriptions after drawing is that you can import the screenplay (Final Draft) on to your project and cut and paste the dialogue and descriptions to match the frames. There are dialogue boxes built in.

When you get good at it, one can import music to your projects (like I TUNES) as well as add vocals.

I’m not good yet. LOL.  When I got into trouble, gentlemen such as Philip (pronounced French way) J.R. and Ron were always an email away. Neither of them could have been nicer or more insightful.

Please contact me via this site if you want to get in touch with the TOON BOOM people, who make Storyboard Pro. They will be much more helpful and knowledgeable on how the software can help your work.

USING “TOON BOOM STORYBOARD PRO ” SOFTWARE

Well, let’s see now.

I went to a private party within a club, Saturday night. It was there that I met Mr. Robert Lee, younger brother of my absolute, all time hero, Bruce Lee.  Robert is a very warm and intelligent man, who had no problems discussing his legendary brother, even though Robert is his own person and a gifted (though “retired”) musician.

I also met a great stunt/fight coordinator named Andy Cheng, who to martial arts geeks like me is way up the ladder for having been a former member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team.  Since then, Andy has coordinated and directed second unit on THE RUNDOWN, the first hit movie for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Back to storyboards, I am starting work with my friend John Singleton.  This has given me the chance to start using (with scant knowledge) a new software I’ve had for months called STORYBOARD PRO from the Canadian company TOON BOOM, which is well known for animation software.

Once I learn how to use it properly, STORYBOARD PRO will allow me to not only continue to do storyboards digitally without paper, but I will also be able to do my own animatics, doing camera moves such as PANS, TILTS and BOOMS.

Tradition storyboards can be done as well, certainly. What I am excited about is the ability to add to certain scenes where the director needs to get a sense of pacing and motion. 

Once the boards are done, they be loaded, shown or sent to a client in various ways, such as a PDF or a QUICKTIME MOVIE.  The latter is great, because in STORYBOARD PRO, you can add sound effects, music and voices.

If you still work on paper, that’s fine. The program will allow you to import storyboard files. You just have to make sure the individual frames are on separate documents and not three or four to a page.

For a direct link, check it out here.

http://www.toonboom.com/products/storyboardpro

It’s worth a look.

DRAWING BRUCE LEE

            

     The past week I had to work on some concepts for some Bruce Lee illustrations. For people that know me, they know that Bruce is my hero whom I loved ever since first seeing THE BIG BOSS (released in the U.S. as “FISTS OF FURY”) some thirty-six years ago.

              First thing I did was to make screen grabs (picture from a dvd) from my copy of ENTER THE DRAGON for reference. I made as many shots as I could.  Even though a Mac comes with a built in program called “GRAB”, you can’t use it on dvd’s.  In that case, there are programs you can purchase that work on dvd’s for image capturing like SCREEN SHOT PRO. 

              Once I had all the images I needed, I started to sketch out some poses and then compositions. I used my Wacom Cintiq to do the job. (see an earlier blog on Wacom Cintiqs) The drawings came out “okay” , but something was missing.  The resemblances were really kicking my ass.

              My friend Lawrence Christmas suggested that I NOT draw everything on my Cintiq from scratch, but that I pencil the initial sketches. I find that using a Cintiq is great, as I draw directly on to the screen and I don’t have to scan drawings. The problem is, there is a textural feeling that cannot (or at least not Larry and myself) be duplicated when working with a pencil first on paper to sketch things out.

 

              Doing resemblances to real people is enough of a task. A pencil can get sharp and yet have tooth. The glass of the Cintiq, is just that, glass. There is no tooth and no feel. There is that finite bit of control when doing something extremely fine that I can’t replicate.

              When I do storyboards, I can do detailed work in terms of the amount of detail I put in.

              When I am doing extremely fine work, (like an illustration)or something that takes an effort like a likeness done in small details, the best thing for me to do was to pencil a few Bruce heads, scan them, and then ink and add them to the bodies I had done on my drawings I had done on the Cintiq in the Photoshop program.

              There are people that can do anything on a Wacom tablet or a Cintiq screen, but for my purposes, I will now start my illustrations with the old fashion paper and pencil.

              Bruce deserves that.

BACK TO BACK STORYBOARDS AND NO SLEEP - PART 2

Okay, I am doing one of those back to back gigs. Actually it is a same time - two gigs as I have been working storyboarding on a PUSSYCAT GIRLS  video at the same time as doing spec boards for a director who has a meeting TOMORROW, so I am sorry that I don’t have time to write and gab. The video job was fun with lots of waiting mixed in with a lot of boards in little time. The other gig is still going on. My good friend Jim Magdaleno pitched in to finish a bunch of pages off my roughs.  My wife Betty just massaged my very sorry drawing hand.  Love her. See ya.

BACK TO BACK STORYBOARDS AND NO SLEEP

Well now, I’ve had a rather rough patch of it as far as workgoes. As we ALLLLL  know, the “defacto” SAG strike has kicked all of our collective butts.

I haven’t worked on a feature since the demise/hiatus of a bigfilm I was on, but thankfully, I got some commercial work.

Let’s say, a lot, actually. Thank you, God!!!!  I was assigned to do ten commercialsfor a production company that I work with on a semi-regular basis. I won’t namethe project or the company as it could have ended a little better. As we areall human, people got tired on the last day, and there were blow ups.

 It got to thepoint that I just signed my time card and walked out of the office. SEVENTEENhours after I started that morning. It was a very long last day and everythinghad to be completed. Thankfully, two colleagues were able to pitch in with theboards and we got it done.

I was as tired as I ever was. But then, I had to start a newgig on the following day with my friend, Bennett Miller. Thankfully, we metduring the evening where I could recharge my batteries. This job was not asshot specific (there would be improvising upon shooting) but I still had a lotof boards to do.

For all of you single, non parents who complain about neverhaving time to yourselves, please shutup. I love my wife and my son, but when I have a deadline, “family time”can get me a little cranky.

Only because that time away from drawing is time added to atthe end of the day. My wife and son and I made quick trip to the beach to getmy son some fresh air, but I ended up once again finishing a gig well aftermidnight.

No, I don’t chargemy client for this. I bill according to the hours I put in, but let me tellyou, I was wiped at the end of the job. I am wiped as I write this blog, but Iam trying to be on time with it, as I have fallen behind recently.

Storyboarding is something that takes time. Having a HAPPYfamily demands time. The two do not always go hand in hand. One has to occasionallychain them together like Poitier and Curtis in THE DEFIANT ONES. Or, Pam Grierand the blonde in BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA.

Your choice.

 

 

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