My Stepdad's A Freakin' Vampire! will be released on DVD 11/22/2011 through Level 33 Entertainment!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
DEPART FROM ME (revised)
DEPART FROM ME (revised) from David Matheny on Vimeo.
This is an updated version of Depart From Me. In this new video, Douglas Edward updated the sound design, I fixed some color correction issues and I shortened a few cuts. I had to do this because it's been bugging me for almost a month.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Behind "Depart From Me"
To see Depart From Me the short film, go here: http://www.vimeo.com/23516052
Like most independent films these days, Depart From Me was made on a low budget. Roughly $700. I'm not so sure that's even considered low anymore. Anyway, I wanted to take some time to let everyone know what kind of equipment and software I used for the film and what we spent all that money on. If anyone has any questions about the production of Depart From Me, shoot me an e-mail and I'll try and get back to you as soon as I can. damatheny@gmail.com
I guess I'll start with the money. There really wasn't anything that we really needed to buy besides the set and lights. The lights were from Wal-Mart and cost about $70 for the fixture and the bulbs. They were just really cheap fluorescent lights. We also bought lumber, cloth, buttons, batteries and cement. By the way, NEVER use actual cement on walls if you want that kind of look. The walls in the video weighed about 300 pounds. Most of that weight was the cement. It really sucked moving it around.
CAMERA AND LENSES
I filmed Depart From Me with a Canon 7D DSLR camera. I shot mostly 1080 24p, but for the slow motion I had to use 720 60p because the 7D doesn't allow you to shoot slow motion in 1080p. I used a Canon 28-135mm IS zoom lens for all the moving shots because of the image stabilization. I would also use a Nikon Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.4D that I bought from Overland Photo Supply for shots where I needed a shallower depth of field. The only thing that sucks about using Nikon Lenses on a Canon DSLR Camera for video is the shakiness. I had to use a lens adapter to attach the Nikon lens to the canon body. The adapter doesn't allow the image stabilization to work in the lens. So I had to keep the camera locked down on a tripod for all the Shallow DOF shots. Bummer. I used the marvel cine picture style you can download here. This picture style allows you to capture more color information, so you can manipulate it more in post-production.
GEAR
I used a super crappy tripod I bought from Wal-Mart because I couldn't find my Bogen, which totally sucked. I also used a really crappy skateboard dolly that I built about 5 years ago. It's similar to the picture above, but not near as well built. The thing barely moved. We had to put a ton of WD-40 on the wheels. To fix the shaky movement from the tripod, I would rest the camera or tripod on pillows. It absorbed a lot of the shock. For other shots I would have somebody push me and I would just hold the camera steady. The tripod and the dolly are the only two things we used. We didn't have sound, so a microphone wasn't needed.
LIGHTS
I used 4 fluorescent lights that I bought for $15 a piece at Wal-Mart to light most of the set. To light the monitors inside the laboratory I used those same lights and just put them behind the plexiglass. I also used a 6" battery powered fluorescent light for the woman scientists face.
POST-PRODUCTION
I do all my post-production with a Mac Quad Pro with 8 gigs of ram. It really gets the job done. I edited it in final Cut Pro. For all the visual effects I used Adobe After Effects CS3. I also used Video Copilot's Optical Flares and Action Movie Essentials 2 for some of the fire effects.
I used 4 fluorescent lights that I bought for $15 a piece at Wal-Mart to light most of the set. To light the monitors inside the laboratory I used those same lights and just put them behind the plexiglass. I also used a 6" battery powered fluorescent light for the woman scientists face.
POST-PRODUCTION
I do all my post-production with a Mac Quad Pro with 8 gigs of ram. It really gets the job done. I edited it in final Cut Pro. For all the visual effects I used Adobe After Effects CS3. I also used Video Copilot's Optical Flares and Action Movie Essentials 2 for some of the fire effects.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Music of DEPART FROM ME
I asked Douglas Edward, the composer of Depart From Me to write a few words about the score. I'm really excited about this post. Working on music with Douglas is always something I look forward to when I make a movie. He's a super talented dude. I think he has some great things to say about the score and composing music. Here you go!
Depart
From Me Score by music-49
"Hi my name is Douglas Edward and I am a composer for Film and TV. Dave Matheny asked me if I would answer some questions for his blog and I thought it would be a fun way to talk about my favorite subjects: Music and Film!
I first met Dave after he contacted me through myspace. Over the course of a couple of years, we worked on The Scientist (which was a finalist for best film score at a film festival in 2008) and My Step-Dad's a Freakin' Vampire! (which recently acquired distribution and will be out this October). The interesting thing about those films is that we never met each other in person until the scores were already finished. We didn't know what each other looked like until he drove into town for the scoring session to Step-dad!
Now that those films are behind us, we started working on Depart From Me. This film was an interesting project to work on for a composer because the film expresses many layers of emotion without a single line of dialogue. The film also gave us several options as far as the music goes. Since I knew Dave had originally shot this as a music video for a metal song, we both talked about how an edgy, dark, distorted type of sound would be great for the film. However, we quickly decided to change gears completely and create a score that accented a subtle emotional undertone that otherwise had gone unnoticed. It's a great example of how two completely different elements, that being music and video, can come together to create something that neither could do on its own. It was a lot of fun working on the score for this film!"
"Writing and producing music on a low budget is always challenging. Luckily, the sound we wanted for this film was intimate enough that a large number of players wasn't necessary (nor had to be faked with orchestral samples). I am a huge advocate for using microphones and live instruments in scores, just like a director uses a camera and live actors. So I played a lot of what you hear musically live, including the viola solos and vocals towards the end (which were pitched up to create an eerie sound). Even the electricity sounds were recorded live (they are the sounds of my dad sanding a floor with an electric sander). There isn't much else I would do for this film if I had a larger budget. The only thing we considered is using a children's choir instead of my voice for the vocal section."
"My advice for aspiring composers is pretty simple: Learn everything you can about music. From writing parts for any instrumentation, playing as many instruments as possible, running your own recording sessions, knowing how to work with microphones as well as midi, and most importantly knowing the value of being sensitive to picture in every sense of the word. For the more advanced composers, I would suggest that emotion is always more important than being technical. For the new composers, you must know technique before you can properly yield to emotion (in other words, ignorance is not bliss). I don't mean to sound arrogant- I remind myself of these things every time I write a new score."
_____
Douglas Edward is a festival award-winning composer and classically trained Violinist and Pianist. He has scored many productions, including ABC's Ghostbreakers (hosted by Joey Greco from Cheaters), SyFy's Meteor Apocalypse (starring Joe Lando from Dr. Quinn), and The Boys of Ghost Town (co-starring Danny Trejo from Desperado). Douglas has performed live and in studio with many bands/artists including Bill Callahan, Flickerstick, Calhoun, and Clinic. His string arrangements and performances have aired on TV shows including the WB's One Tree Hill, MTV's 16 and Pregnant, and NBC's Chuck. He currently writes music for media while based in Los Angeles.
For more information, visit DouglasEdward.com
DEPART FROM ME from David Matheny on Vimeo.
Depart
From Me Score by music-49
"Hi my name is Douglas Edward and I am a composer for Film and TV. Dave Matheny asked me if I would answer some questions for his blog and I thought it would be a fun way to talk about my favorite subjects: Music and Film!I first met Dave after he contacted me through myspace. Over the course of a couple of years, we worked on The Scientist (which was a finalist for best film score at a film festival in 2008) and My Step-Dad's a Freakin' Vampire! (which recently acquired distribution and will be out this October). The interesting thing about those films is that we never met each other in person until the scores were already finished. We didn't know what each other looked like until he drove into town for the scoring session to Step-dad!
Now that those films are behind us, we started working on Depart From Me. This film was an interesting project to work on for a composer because the film expresses many layers of emotion without a single line of dialogue. The film also gave us several options as far as the music goes. Since I knew Dave had originally shot this as a music video for a metal song, we both talked about how an edgy, dark, distorted type of sound would be great for the film. However, we quickly decided to change gears completely and create a score that accented a subtle emotional undertone that otherwise had gone unnoticed. It's a great example of how two completely different elements, that being music and video, can come together to create something that neither could do on its own. It was a lot of fun working on the score for this film!"
"Writing and producing music on a low budget is always challenging. Luckily, the sound we wanted for this film was intimate enough that a large number of players wasn't necessary (nor had to be faked with orchestral samples). I am a huge advocate for using microphones and live instruments in scores, just like a director uses a camera and live actors. So I played a lot of what you hear musically live, including the viola solos and vocals towards the end (which were pitched up to create an eerie sound). Even the electricity sounds were recorded live (they are the sounds of my dad sanding a floor with an electric sander). There isn't much else I would do for this film if I had a larger budget. The only thing we considered is using a children's choir instead of my voice for the vocal section."
"My advice for aspiring composers is pretty simple: Learn everything you can about music. From writing parts for any instrumentation, playing as many instruments as possible, running your own recording sessions, knowing how to work with microphones as well as midi, and most importantly knowing the value of being sensitive to picture in every sense of the word. For the more advanced composers, I would suggest that emotion is always more important than being technical. For the new composers, you must know technique before you can properly yield to emotion (in other words, ignorance is not bliss). I don't mean to sound arrogant- I remind myself of these things every time I write a new score."
_____
Douglas Edward is a festival award-winning composer and classically trained Violinist and Pianist. He has scored many productions, including ABC's Ghostbreakers (hosted by Joey Greco from Cheaters), SyFy's Meteor Apocalypse (starring Joe Lando from Dr. Quinn), and The Boys of Ghost Town (co-starring Danny Trejo from Desperado). Douglas has performed live and in studio with many bands/artists including Bill Callahan, Flickerstick, Calhoun, and Clinic. His string arrangements and performances have aired on TV shows including the WB's One Tree Hill, MTV's 16 and Pregnant, and NBC's Chuck. He currently writes music for media while based in Los Angeles.
For more information, visit DouglasEdward.com
DEPART FROM ME from David Matheny on Vimeo.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
DFM original footage
FOR THE FINISHED VERSION OF DEPART FROM ME SCROLL DOWN TO NEXT BLOG ENTRY
DFM Original Footage (no vfx or color correction) from David Matheny on Vimeo.
DFM Original Footage (no vfx or color correction) from David Matheny on Vimeo.
Monday, May 9, 2011
DEPART FROM ME (short film)
DEPART FROM ME from David Matheny on Vimeo.
It's been a while, but finally, here it is. Depart From Me. A short film that was originally a music video for my brother Jon. It kind of evolved into a short film over time. This was my final project as a student at Avila University.
I'm putting together some cool special feature stuff that I'll post in the next couple days.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
"Depart From Me" Production Photos
I've finished a new project about 2 months ago. I'm super excited to release it in the next couple weeks. In the mean time, here are some production photos to check out.
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