My Experimental Project

I've been a part of an amateur video group called Oklahoma Movie Makers since 2004. This group has made several projects over the years and I've been lucky enough to work on a good number of them. I started out being the sound guy but soon tried my hand in other things as well.

After a while, I decided that I'd like to do a kind of experimental project that would allow us to try several things that we haven't done before.

The story, This Is Entity One is an old fashion Sci-Fi, set in 1961. Any kind of period piece is a tough one with a micro-budget. I mainly concentrated on locating at least one vehicle from the era, locations and props.

Vehicle from the Era

I went to local car shows but found that very few looked like a standard "factory" vehicle. While driving by a local PetSmart, I saw a 1964 Ford Falcon Van with a new paint job. It looked great. Not knowing who owned it, I left a note on the windshield. A short while later I told my sound/light guy, Brian Jackson about the van and come to find out that he knew the person who owned it. Brian introduced me to the owner and she was kind enough to let our actor drive her van down the street and into a driveway. We shot in an area of the neighborhood without parked cars. Almost all of the shots worked well, except the van interiors. We quickly parked the van, put some lights inside and had someone hold a blue screen just outside of the window. The next week I got some "out of focus" footage while driving through the neighborhood and bluescreened it in.

Locations

My camera person, Marc Hall was able to get access to a 1920 era, Masonic Temple which had some mid-century furniture. I used this building to pose as a government agency. The effects/graphic arts person, William Sweeney had friends who had a uniquely decorated house with a 1928 stove in the kitchen. Nothing in the house looked modern, yet everything was in fine condition. It worked out well for the production.

While in Muskogee, OK, I came across two large towers with a horizontal truss connecting the two. These towers were used for HAM Radio at a private residence. The HAM Radio operator had passed away a number of years ago but his family allowed me to shoot on their property.

All of the interior locations had very dominate earth tones. So to provide a different set of colors, the radio room used a color theme of blue and grey with a little bit of red for accent. The props that were used were all legitimate electronic devices except for the HAM Radio itself. HAM Radios from the era are rather boring looking and I wanted something with a little character. You know…… goofy.

The Look

Since the story is somewhat lighthearted, I wanted to try some ideas with color. The locations and budget didn't allow for any kind of set dressing. Photoflood lights with colored gels were used to wash some of the walls with color.

All lighting was done with photoflood on stands or clamp-on lights. Since there are no barn doors with these lights, black-foil was used to control any spill.

The area used for the "radio room" was big enough to allow us to use our homemade dolly tracks. In the past, anytime we have used a dolly for indoor work, it didn't provide that much difference in perspective. This time we set up a table parallel with the dolly track. We put a small desk lamp, some sort of grate and a clear glass vase on the table. These objects were so close to the camera they were out of focus and didn't really take away from the movement of the main character. They passed through the frame at a different rate of speed, giving the shot a little more energy. The same technique was used on a shot of feet running up the stairs outside of the government agency building. The camera followed the action of the feet with railing between the camera and the actor. In this case the cameraman did not use a dolly. The cameraman just followed up the stairs on foot and did a great job.

Chromakey Shots

For the flying saucer, a model was used instead of a computer graphic. The same camera used for the model as for the live action. The idea was to have a similar look for both the foreground and background elements. The combination of handheld shots and movement of the frame by the editor, allowed for a more organic look to the flying saucer's motion. The hope was to have the effects look like something from the 1960's. I think it came close to having that "feel".

Sound

For collecting sound effects, a Zoom H4 audio recorder was used. For dialog, a Rode shotgun microphone and a microphone pre-amp connected to a laptop was used. I was happy with the results of this set-up. It was quiet enough to allow me to cut in mid sentence of various takes without it being noticed.

The effect that was used for the voice of Entity One was obtained from a TC Helicon Voicetone. This is a device that is used for adding harmonies to a voice during a live performance. It allowed me to alter the pitch of the main character's voice, yet keep that voice understandable.

The music was provided by Alex Allen, a college student in his early 20's. He had a real sense of what I needed for early 60's music. I think a lot of today's young musicians have a good appreciation of music from all eras. I found that very encouraging.

As far as how people respond to the project is always up in the air. It was a good learning experience for all who were involved. I plan on using the techniques we developed and hope to refine them on the next project.

- Gregory Raw, Tulsa, OK