Day or Night - The Results...

Read the previous post first if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

I would have left this a few more days but I could do with actually getting on with the edit. Also my voting widget went weird and stopped working so I'm counting up the results from the various comments people left for me on here and on forums and Facebook etc.

And the night shot won!

By one vote...

Night - 9
Day  - 8

This at least validates my indecisiveness as it seems to have divided everyone else too!

From reading the comments and feedback from everyone I've come to the following conclusion - the night shot is better in theory, it's just that technically the day scene looks better. This is mostly because we were on the beach at 10pm after a busy weekend of filming so we were trying to get it finished as quickly as possible. Plus we were in real danger of being eaten by weird jumping beach bugs.

This outtake just about sums it up -



I think with a little more time and preparation it would have come out better, although we were always going to be filming late at night so there was no way around that. And I'm not sure what we could've done about the beach bugs (shoot the antennae maybe?).

Despite this I am still going to go ahead with the night shoot as decided by the voters! This is partly because I want to see the whole thing in context with the other scenes before making a final FINAL decision. So I may still be editing two versions and could well be asking for your help again in the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who voted and left me comments about the shots! It definitely helped me make a decision and I really appreciate the feedback.

Please sign up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com and/or the Facebook page for regular progress reports! 

Jenny Ringo 3 - Help needed!

I'm currently editing the third film in the Jenny Ringo series (visit www.jennyringo.com to see the first film and sign up to the mailing list for news on future adventures!)

 

This one is called Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook, and it's a little different. It's a lot shorter for a start. It also features dinosaurs, clowns and spaceships. And a couple of monsters.

 

My plan is to enter it into the Virgin Media Shorts competition, but before I can even think about doing that I need to finish editing the thing and for that I need your help!

 

Because it was so short I was able to experiment a bit more and filmed a few scenes a couple of different ways. One of these scenes is the main dialogue scene between Jenny and Gavin which we filmed on Worthing seafront. It was written to be set at night, but this posed a bit of a problem for a three-person crew with no money. So we improvised.

 

However, fearing that the night shoot wouldn't work I also filmed a daytime version.

 

The issue I now have is that I kind of like both of them. So I need you to help me decide which one to use.

 

Please forgive the sound quality and the shoddy editing - this is a very rough edit just to give an idea of how the scenes will ultimately look.

 

Here is the daytime version - 

 

Here is the nighttime version - 

 

Here is how you vote - 

Which version - Day or Night?

If you have any more detailed feedback I'd love to hear it! Please leave me a comment below or on the Facebook page.

And if you want to keep up to date on how it's going, sign up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com

Thanks for your help!

Jenny Ringo and the Funhouse of the Damned...

Ever wondered how Jenny escaped from Hell at the end of Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw? All will be revealed in the soon to be released webcomic Jenny Ringo and the Funhouse of the Damned!

Sign up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com and I'll let you know the moment it's available!

Oh, and I totally filmed Jenny Ringo 3. More on that to follow...

Writing in space...

So on Saturday I was in space helping Steve Hayes and his team with their entry for the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge. Steve did the visual effects on Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell so I was happy to be able to return the favour. Plus I wanted to borrow his spaceship, but that's another story.

We were given a title (Robot), a line of dialogue (You only have to ask you know. Just say the word) and a prop (a mug of steaming liquid). From this we set about putting together a 5 minute sci-fi film in 48 hours. 

I say 'we' - I mostly helped with the script and shouted lines of dialogue at the actors for a day. 

And went on a mission for lunch, which is actually quite difficult to find when you're in space. 

There were three of us working on the script, initially using my car as a writers' room as the script became a series of scribbled notes that no one could read except me.

But ultimately it was a team effort and there were many moments in which we stood around doing this...

Then we filmed for eight hours. It was cold.

Then Steve and sound designer/mixer/composer Chris Upfield spent the Sunday putting it all together with magic and stuff. There had to have been a bit of magic involved anyway - I've no idea how else they could have done it in time. It took me a year to finish the post on Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell. A year. They did the same with way more effects in just 24 hours. Here's how it turned out...

https://vimeo.com/63551201

Scouting locations for Jenny Ringo 3...

Spent this afternoon looking at some potential locations for Jenny Ringo 3. I need something a bit prehistoric and something that looks a bit like Hell...

It was very cold and windy...

Have also been buying clown masks. Lots of clown masks.

And bidding on the Holy Grail on ebay.

Sign up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com if you want to find out what all this is about. 

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell poster...

Here's the new poster for Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell...

It was put together by Caroline Ryder who also appears in the film with her band Hollywood Assassins (you should check them out, they are awesome) and the photos were taken by Kristina Sälgvik (see more of her work on her website).

Last week I spent an afternoon in a studio in Clapham checking out the sound mix with Adrian Townsend who is doing a fantastic job pulling everything together. It was the first time I'd seen the film with all the sound design, music and dialogue in place and it was fantastic. So many parts that I was worried wouldn't make sense seem so much clearer now. And it means we're very close to finishing the film.

Speaking of which, I am determined to screen a close-to-finished version of the film at the next MovieBar as it will be the last one I host. I'll post more about that in the next couple of weeks, but if you're in Brighton please come along - it will be on Monday 1st of April at the Caroline of Brunswick.

There is more exciting Jenny Ringo news to follow soon and if you want to be kept updated (and why wouldn't you?) I recommend either signing up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com or liking the Facebook page.

It was only a pound!

I recorded a podcast with Brother Pete. We watch films that only cost £1 and then discuss whether they were worth £1 or not. It's only short and we had fun doing it. Hopefully we will do more.

It's not on iTunes yet because we haven't quite figured that out, but you can download or listen to the first episode here - 

https://soundcloud.com/sabiathus/it-was-only-a-pound-episode01

We talk about Dark Floors - The Lordi Movie - 

Oh, and while I think of it, here's the video for Blood Red Sandman which Pete mentions in the episode...

Watch this space for news of future episodes!

Also, Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell is very close to being finished now with the grading and sound mix well on the way to being done. So naturally I've started planning Jenny Ringo 3...

As always I'm on a mission to get a few more Facebook likes and mailing list subscriptions so please check out the pages and give us some support if you have time! You'll be the first to hear about cool stuff, I promise!