New Projects

I'm excited to say that Gradual Upgrade has several projects on the go! 

Davin has an action flick that he is currently devloping for a shoot sometime in spring.

Summer time has Davin and I hooking up in Vancouver shooting our biggest project to date.  I can't really give any details except that it is a short film, approx 10 minutes and that it's going to have a very intense fight sequence and will have a summer blockbuster vibe.

The fighting is going to be so intense that I've been going to the gym since Nov to get my body into shape so I can handle the rigours of the shoot.

After we finish our big film, I'm going solo to direct a dramatic short.  This film will be a complete 180 from our "summer blockbuster" style movie and will be more of a character piece.  I'm pretty excited about the script and so is my potential lead actor, this guy right here.... also check this out.  

Once things get into production mode I'll be less vague on the projects.

Travis

Valentine's Video For My Sweetheart

Thinking about this skit is somewhat depressing.  

Not too long ago I was hanging out with this girl I had recently met and was slowly attempting to go past the friendship stage.  It got to the point where I was certain I had crossed that line and things were looking good.  

That was until I realised that Valentine's Day was coming up!  At this point in time I didn't have a lot of disposable income floating around and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with a Valentine's gift.  

One night while I was thinking of something original to do for this girl, the idea for Valentine's Video For My Sweetheart popped in my head.  I was excited and thought it would be a funny gift.  I opened up Final Draft and banged away at a script into the early hours of the morning. 

The very next morning I got the terrible news that my new friend that was girl wanted to stay just friends.....AIE YAAAA!  I shrugged my shoulders and was depressed about it for a week but decided to re-work the script and shoot it as a Gradual Upgrade skit.  

The shoot itself went along at a brisk pace, there's a lot of funny moments that were cut due to time issues, as well as some great gag reel material that will eventually be posted.

On a side note, this marks the first skit that Davin has had no part in (he's in Vancouver, I'm in Fredericton) and it also introduces Crash from The Fox as a new regular in our skits.  

There is also an alternative version of this skit that can be viewed here.  This version was a personal one that we did for Crash and his lady friend.  He's made it public so I'm posting the link.

Travis

Warner music group

(This was a piece I wrote several months back but forgot to post)

It was bound to happen.  Warner music group has finally put the squeeze on youtubers everywhere and are silencing videos that have their music content in it.  It doesn't matter if you're a legit filmmaker or a 12 year old girl, if you have content from Warner's your vids will be silenced.  

As a filmmaker I really don't mind, as I'm fully aware that I need to acquire the rights to song before I can use the tune.  However it is kind of annoying to have to put effort into finding songs... oh well c'est la vie.

However I think it's important to note that there are thousands of kids and teenagers (perhaps some grandparents) on YouTube that don't have a clue about how copyrights work.   Shit, even I don't know how to fully get into the music rights (that's what overpriced lawyers are for)

If you read any comments on YouTube about this whole situation it doesn't take too long to figure out that there are some pissed of kids on the Internet.  Can you blame them?  Film and music go together, like peanut butter and jelly.   Most kids are just putting up silly vids of them and their friends hanging out, or "skits" that only mom and dad will see.  

There was talks of Warner and YouTube joining forces in some manner to make YouTube a payed sight. Where that money would go is anyone's guess, however I don't think the artists would be winning here.  Most likely this cash would end up lining Warner's pockets.  Rest assured you have nothing to worry about (at the moment) YouTube squashed that idea pretty quick, maintaining that the site is for everyone.

So what are the alternatives for kids who just want to make fun vids and don't have the knowledge/time/money to acquire the legal rights to play their favorite band's song?

YouTube has taken steps to allow youtubers legit music tracks that they can use in their vids. As it stands, that list is quite piddly. 

I guess the best thing I can suggest to budding film makers and 12 year old girls everywhere is to go down to your local music shop or 2nd hand CD store and find some home grown talent.That's right, local bands almost always, always want their music to be heard.  While this may not be a perfect solution it sure beats watching a video of your best friend stuffing 10 timbits in his mouth without a music track of any kind.

Christian Bale blows up KAPOW! BOOM!

Have you ever watched a special feature on a DVD and see the cast (and sometimes crew) patting each other on the back and kissing each other's ass? Have you ever wondered, "do they ever fight on set?"

The answer is a simple and resounding yes. Look no further than Christian Bale and his mishap with the Director of Photography. What a whopper of a fight that was!

Now everyone and their dog has an opinion on what happened and I do to, however I'd like to think that my background affords me to have an educated guess to what was happening prior to and after that tape was recorded.

First of all, movies are not easy to make and there's always a certain high level of stress on the set at any given time. It's how people deal with this stress that makes all the difference. Channeled properly, I find it to be an excellent motivator and it can help with the creative juices. Some people however cannot handle stress and crack under pressure. These are the people that drag a set down and slow it to a grinding halt and make it awkward for everyone else on set.

Stress on a movie set is different than any other type of job. Depending on what department you're in and how high up you are in that department there could several different people asking you for something and you need to have the answers or make up convincing answers on the fly. Sometimes there's thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars riding on a single choice. That's a lot of responsibility on a person's shoulders.

Stress on an actor can sometimes be even greater than the filmmakers and the crews. Serious actors take lots of time to research and understand their character. For a lot of actors it takes considerable effort to become someone you are not (unless you are Sir Anthony Hopkins).

I've witnessed actors do all sorts of things to get into the proper "zone" to do a scene. A good example was an actress who was trying to do a very emotional scene. She was lying in a bed remembering her dead husband and talking to him through a picture. Before going on the set she listened to something on her ipod to help get her in the mood and she also had a personal picture which she was using to get in the right space. This took a solid half hour to get there, it was pretty much ruined because the crew was being noisy in between takes and it pissed off the actress to the point of saying something.

On top of all of that, you're hardly ever working with the same people so it's hard to know who you'll be able to work with and who you will have to tolerate and who is just a plain dipshit. I've worked with all three.

So, if, for example, your Director of Photography is a complete fool and is consistently ruining shots by wondering into the frame to check and see how his lights look, we'll maybe he's got a bitch fest coming to him.

And that's where I sit, over there in the corner.

Travis

Public Safety

Public Safety

This little skit was the third thing Davin and I ever shot together.  In many ways this is one of my all time favorite skits of ours.  It's fast, makes no sense and has the most jovial walk you'll ever see on film.

We shot this while we were filming "Paper Trail".  Creatively and physically we were exhausted from the gruelling pace we had set for ourselves on "Paper Trail" and we needed to clear our heads and do something less physical, well for me at least I was sitting in the car the whole time.

I don't really recall who came up with the premise of running over Davin...I seem to remember a conversation about how sometimes I just wish I could run over certain pedestrians....and that most likely led to us talking about how funny it would be if someone stopped their car to let a person cross, wait for the right moment and then just hit the gas.  Seems funny to me.

We didn't script this thing at all.  We made it up as we went (we really didn't start scripting until years later with "That Ain't White")

Public Safety didn't take too long to shoot and the only part that gave us any trouble was the actual hit.  There must be a dozen takes of Davin getting nailed by the car and screaming for his life. His screams are so funny that I'm sure we could turn that into a skit somehow.

I also remember the reason we have the camera planted in one direction for so long is because there was about a dozen kids playing just down the street.  At this point the kids were used to us shooting on the street because of "Paper Trail" (which took months to shoot) and were kind enough to be quiet while we were filming.  

Travis

Chew On This

Chew On This...

This skit is a byproduct of a brainstorming session that Davin and I had sometime early Nov. 2008. I was flying to Vancouver to Produce a film and to help pass the time during the flight I came up with 2 or 3 potential skits in my "film journal". A little book where I scribble ideas and random thoughts. 

I presented the ideas to Davin and from there we came up with some new ones. It was Davin who had the idea to make a gum commercial about two guys who sit down chew some gum and get really obnoxious. The concept was simple enough and had the potential to be nice and short but very amusing. Davin insisted that we not prepare ourselves at all for this particular skit as he felt that would make the skit as fresh as possible. So we didn't bother scripting any ideas or making any type of shot list.  

Normally when we make these things, it's just Davin and I which is painful, because it limits what we can do with the camera. Thankfully Bjorn was on board to help with the shooting. It's always nice when he helps out because we don't have to worry about camera setups, he has a naturally eye for these things. Davin and I usually just look through the lens after he's set it up and say yes or no.  

Max was a happy accident. He just happened to be at the location and wondered by just as we were setting up. We changed the skit on the spot and added him, which I think elevates the humor tenfold compared to what it would have been.  

We shot the day after we finished on the film I flew to Vancouver to make in the first place. On a side note, Davin was the camera assistant, Bjorn was the Director of Photography and Max was the sound mixer on that film. We shot on location at our old school VFS in the lobby.  

It was about 7 or 8pm when we started shooting. The annoying thing about shooting there was the heavy traffic of students who were still floating around. We'd get a take or two done and some loud mouthed fool would walk right in the middle of the shot not noticing the camera/tripod setup. They'd ruin the shot and go, "oh sorry" and then just stand there looking half mystified and then bumble on to whatever it was they were doing in the first place.

The production took no more than an hour or two to shoot. We had a lot of good laughs while filming. The biggest laugh of the night was trying to throw that gum so it would hit Max in the face at the right spot. We did about 6 takes of that one shot.  

It's interesting to point out that the shot that's in the skit has been dubbed over with room tone because the minute we hit Max in the face, Davin, Bjorn and I began to laugh uncontrollably. You can see Max trying very hard to keep it together. The gum we used had a nice minty flavor to it, but after about 16 chews I wanted puke the stuff up.  

When it came time to cut the thing, I had a hard time because there is literally 8 minutes of footage of Davin and I just making funny faces and noises. The skit started out at double the length the final product is now. I slowly had to chip away at it to bring it down to a good length so the joke wouldn't overstay it's welcome.  

I think the skit turned out pretty funny and I hope you do to.  

Travis

Whose Bright Idea Was That?

Another question we often get is who comes up with your skits/film ideas and how do you come up with the idea?

The blanket statement I like to give is that I come up with most of my ideas when I'm in the shower.  If nothing jumps out at me in the shower then I usually stay up probably an extra two hours past the point when I should have went to bed.  I find that once my brain is mush it begins to create all kinds of fantastic ideas.

I run the original concept past Davin and then we go back on forth on what we like and don't like about the idea.  If we're really lucky Ricmond (Davin's older brother and one of my best friends) will be around and we bounce the idea off to him.

Since Davin and I have quite a few skits and shorts we'll go over the whole process one skit at a time.  Sort of like a director's commentary.

First up will be "Chew On This"  because it's still fresh in my mind.

Travis