10/29/04 - Mike and Adam discuss the upcoming Nija Slayers short for Robotmedia X.
Marvin Mahogony: I've been thinking about the movie and how we should go about doing it.
Jasper Voodoo: and?
Marvin Mahogony: Like, how the Ninja Master behaves, and how we balance interviewing and actual footage of stuff.
Marvin Mahogony: I was thinking, the Ninja Master should only be subtitled when he's speaking to other ninjas.
Marvin Mahogony: Otherwise it might get tedious to read all the subtitles when he's speaking normally.
Marvin Mahogony: He would speak in English for the intervies, and in Ninja to the other ninjas.
Jasper Voodoo: we could have it dubbed with someone else's voice?
Jasper Voodoo: or your voice just un synced
Jasper Voodoo: or something
Jasper Voodoo: you know what i mean
Marvin Mahogony: well I was figuring he'd be wearing a mask the whole time.
Marvin Mahogony: It's conceivable that he would know both languages
Marvin Mahogony: .being a Ninja Master.
Jasper Voodoo: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: cause he has to talk to the sof
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Marvin Mahogony: I was trying to figure out how to make the buildup interesting. And make it so you sense a great fight is about to take place.
Marvin Mahogony: Try not to be to bland in the documentary process, you know.
Jasper Voodoo: well on the nija side we are going to have the enemy of the week thing with the SOF's face on the callendar
Jasper Voodoo: so i mean its kinda obvious there
Jasper Voodoo: i dont think that we should worry about that too much, i think we should just let that flow...
Jasper Voodoo: one side doesnt know that there will be a battle, and evertying the ninja master does, is preparing for mortal combat with the sof
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Marvin Mahogony: armoring up, and training and such
Marvin Mahogony: should we have a scene of the sof training?
Marvin Mahogony: shooting range or something.
Jasper Voodoo: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: we can go up to the shooting range that my dad belongs too
Marvin Mahogony: that'd be cool
Jasper Voodoo: then we can really shoot guns
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: we can take handguns and rifles
Marvin Mahogony: what does your schedule look like this week?
Marvin Mahogony: I have no work until Thursday.
Jasper Voodoo: i have school 5 days a week
Jasper Voodoo: im done at 10am on mo wed and fri
Marvin Mahogony: cool
Marvin Mahogony: what time off on Tuesday?
Jasper Voodoo: i usually get home at 6
Marvin Mahogony: cool
Marvin Mahogony: I'm going to come home tomorrow.
Jasper Voodoo: cool
Jasper Voodoo: what sux about this time of year is that we are severely limited by daylight
Marvin Mahogony: yes
Jasper Voodoo: although time changes next sunday
Marvin Mahogony: that's true
Marvin Mahogony: but we have precious few good filming days in the next few weeks.
Jasper Voodoo: rgr
Jasper Voodoo: so
Jasper Voodoo: hammer the script
Jasper Voodoo: story board it
Jasper Voodoo: ?
Jasper Voodoo: the fight at the end was going to be anit-climactic?
Jasper Voodoo: i was re thinking the whole idea
Jasper Voodoo: i think at that point we should change the style of film
Jasper Voodoo: and go with like a hollywooded out type of original nija slayers type feel
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Marvin Mahogony: that's kinda what I was thinking.
Jasper Voodoo: so then it looks liek it WILL be a big block buster fight
Jasper Voodoo: and then it just sputters out witha bullet to the brain
Jasper Voodoo: and then back to the docu-style for the ending
Marvin Mahogony: maybe we should switch to widescreen for the fight.
Jasper Voodoo: where we see the sof raido into the control
Jasper Voodoo: that would rox
Jasper Voodoo: we should do it all in WS
Jasper Voodoo: then it looks like we filmed it
Marvin Mahogony: even the documentary portion?
Jasper Voodoo: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: we used 8mm
Jasper Voodoo: dont have to say it wasnt film
Marvin Mahogony: hmmm
Jasper Voodoo: is it celulos?or celuloid?
Marvin Mahogony: but even 8mm isn't widescreen
Marvin Mahogony: at least, I've never seen anamorphic 8mm
Jasper Voodoo: heh
Marvin Mahogony: celluliod
Jasper Voodoo: well i think it would work
Jasper Voodoo: i was thinking of examples of that
Jasper Voodoo: they ususally do that in cartoons
Jasper Voodoo: like the Star Wars Clone Wars by the dude who does dexter and Powerpuff girls
Marvin Mahogony: would you want to do a film look filter on it too?
Jasper Voodoo: i was thinking..but i would want to see a test before the goahead. If it would detract cause it would look like an effect or if it would ad a rough feel to the emersion of the movie
Jasper Voodoo: what does that filmfilter look like in your opinion? is it good?
Marvin Mahogony: eh... it can be, where it has a place.
Marvin Mahogony: I think people overuse it a lot.
Marvin Mahogony: I mean, it's not exactly subtle. And if you make it subtle, there's really no point, since everyone knows you aren't using film anyway.
Marvin Mahogony: So it would have to be a part of the overall effect of the movie.
Marvin Mahogony: As in
Marvin Mahogony: this is supposed to look like an old 16mm documentary reel. To be funny.
Marvin Mahogony: That's my opinion.
Jasper Voodoo: do you think it could work?
Marvin Mahogony: If we wanted to go that route. But I had it envisioned more like a made for TV documentary, like reality TVish.
Marvin Mahogony: So, the video look would be more appropriate.
Jasper Voodoo: thats cool
Jasper Voodoo: i think that would fit
Jasper Voodoo: watch some of the shows on the Discovery Channel or TLC
Jasper Voodoo: we can get a good idea of how the camera looks, and what type of shots they get
Jasper Voodoo: we can kinda replicate the same feel
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: i guess the only formula there is interspersing some personal drama with what is actually going on
Jasper Voodoo: maybe a couple of remarks about co-workers or bosses or soemthing like that
Jasper Voodoo: or we can show the SOF talking to a manager or soemthing
Jasper Voodoo: like out on a call
Jasper Voodoo: i was thinking, we should show a couple of shots of the SOF on a calls other than just the final
Jasper Voodoo: so the viewer thinks its going to be just another henchman sighting
Jasper Voodoo: if he were to watch the SOF only parts
Jasper Voodoo: HEY
Jasper Voodoo: good idea
Jasper Voodoo: I think we should view it as 2 different movies
Jasper Voodoo: and then slice them together
Marvin Mahogony: like one documentary about the SOF and one about the NJM?
Jasper Voodoo: well not exactly
Jasper Voodoo: im saying as far as writing the dialogue
Jasper Voodoo: you know what i mean
Jasper Voodoo: we should want it to work as a single entity, like teh SOF part, and then the Ninja side
Jasper Voodoo: so if we were to take the two differnt things apart, we could have 2 seperate movies, like 2 movies in 1 kinda deal
Jasper Voodoo: we are already doing that i guess
Marvin Mahogony: yeah. I was thinking of it from the standpoint of having two film crews. One following the SOF and one following the NJM.
Jasper Voodoo: ok
Marvin Mahogony: then the footage is mixed in the final product.
Marvin Mahogony: that's just what I was thinking, though.
Jasper Voodoo: well i think i know what we should do for the interviews
Jasper Voodoo: we should make it an interview
Marvin Mahogony: I'm not particularly married to any idea but the last scene.
Jasper Voodoo: unscripted questions
Jasper Voodoo: we make them up
Jasper Voodoo: what would we like to know if we were a flim crew
Jasper Voodoo: then we can get into charater and then kinda just ad lib
Marvin Mahogony: I kinda like that idea.
Marvin Mahogony: We should experiment wit that when I come up.
Jasper Voodoo: then it would give it the more real feel
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: rather than trying to remember dialog that isnt always the easiest to remember
Marvin Mahogony: right
Jasper Voodoo: or give emotiont o
Jasper Voodoo: to
Jasper Voodoo: the last time i checked i hadnt won an oscar
Marvin Mahogony: hehehe
Jasper Voodoo: are you writing this down or saving it or something?
Marvin Mahogony: your funniest shit is usually ad lib anyway.
Marvin Mahogony: EG, supreme ninja commander/.
Jasper Voodoo: lol
Jasper Voodoo: did i make that up?
Marvin Mahogony: you kinda took liberties with your lines.
Jasper Voodoo: cause i could never remember them

Jasper Voodoo: illusion is to allusion as illustration is to ?
Jasper Voodoo: figure that out
Jasper Voodoo: hehe
Marvin Mahogony: hmmmmm
Marvin Mahogony: prose, I guess you could argue.
Marvin Mahogony: though not necessarily
Jasper Voodoo: i cant even fiture out a relation ship
Marvin Mahogony: well you can create illusion in an illustration, and you can create allusion in prose
Marvin Mahogony: that was my reasoning
Marvin Mahogony: but maybe there's a bete rone.
Marvin Mahogony: so
Marvin Mahogony: on the widescreen/formatted thing
Marvin Mahogony: what if we were to shoot in 3:4 for the interview/documentary parts, then it switches to widescreen for the bat;le scene, but in kindof a transitional effect
Jasper Voodoo: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: cancel that yeah*
Jasper Voodoo: was a reply to the previous comment
Marvin Mahogony: like, when the fight starts, the screen narrows to 16:9
Jasper Voodoo: reading long txt
Marvin Mahogony: with an aftereffects trick
Jasper Voodoo: the camera will capture 16x9?
Marvin Mahogony: yup
Marvin Mahogony: we could also do the documentary scenes interlaced, and the fight scene progressive
Jasper Voodoo: i dunno
Jasper Voodoo: i think it would be more effective more chronologically ordered
Jasper Voodoo: then we would kind of lose the point of the entire fight scene at the end
Jasper Voodoo: the point was to show that the battles are ususally short and pointless
Jasper Voodoo: that after all this hard work, the power of flesh is less than the power of steel
Marvin Mahogony: well, I didn't mean that all the fight scenes would be in widescreen progressive
Marvin Mahogony: but the others wouldn't be fight scenes so much as routine niunja neutralization runs
Marvin Mahogony: but somehow we need to lead the audience to believe the final battle is going to be an epic showdown.
Jasper Voodoo: I think that is accomplished by the story line we have going
Jasper Voodoo: i mean, we are kinda spelling it out by showing that face of the SOF on the enemy callander
Jasper Voodoo: i mean this dude is training his entire life
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Marvin Mahogony: that's true
Marvin Mahogony: so you want to stick with the documentary style filming for the battle scene?
Jasper Voodoo: we can show like news clippings or something that say like "Ninja Crime Up, Ninja Master wanting Revenge"
Marvin Mahogony: maybe a bit more cinematic than the rest, but not to the drastic extent of a different aspect ratio
Jasper Voodoo: Make a moc comercial or TV news thing
Marvin Mahogony: obviously it's going to have to be somewhat more cinematic, considering the slow motion attempt to catch the bullet.
Jasper Voodoo: I think by making it widescreen and having some sort of techno music will get the idea across
Jasper Voodoo: if we can use the camera to just have like close ups "strafing" left or right...IE Darth Maul vs Qui Gon and Obi Wan
Jasper Voodoo: you know what i mean
Jasper Voodoo: anime style?
Jasper Voodoo: every thing seems a bit slower
Jasper Voodoo: time has stopped
Jasper Voodoo: adrenaline is rushing so time is slow
Jasper Voodoo: i think we should show them stanced oposite of each other
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: cam circles
Marvin Mahogony: so you want to have the fight scene widescreen?
Jasper Voodoo: yes
Marvin Mahogony: and the rest of the movie also, or just the fight scene?
Jasper Voodoo: just the fight scene i think
Marvin Mahogony: k
Jasper Voodoo: i think if we go wide screen, it will just seem more dramatic
Jasper Voodoo: have to find a creative way to frame the picture
Jasper Voodoo: so it looks more dramataic
Marvin Mahogony: but you still want to keep the whole thing progressive scan?
Jasper Voodoo: maybe play witht he color
Jasper Voodoo: does that make it look like 24 frames a sec or something
Marvin Mahogony: not that that's a decission we have to make up front, I mean, it;s in post.
Marvin Mahogony: it just makes it look more like film than tv
Jasper Voodoo: ok
Marvin Mahogony: like we did with the sun god
Jasper Voodoo: yeah
Jasper Voodoo: i think we should
Marvin Mahogony: as opposed to, say, Carraterra 76
Marvin Mahogony wants to send file C:\Documents and Settings\Adam Burgett\Desktop\supremeNJC.jpg.
Jasper Voodoo received C:\Documents and Settings\Adam Burgett\Desktop\supremeNJC.jpg.
Jasper Voodoo: dude, can you sketch a picture of me as the sof for the Rough cut pic?
Marvin Mahogony: yeah I can probably do that
Marvin Mahogony: that would be cool
Jasper Voodoo: send it to me and ill color it in
Marvin Mahogony: I was thinking to myself the other day... I should revamp the website
Marvin Mahogony: totally change the color scheme and shit
Marvin Mahogony: I remind myself of Trent, from Daria.
Marvin Mahogony: "We're Mystic Spiral, but we're thinking of changing the name."
Jasper Voodoo: lol
Jasper Voodoo: how many sub domains do you get?
Marvin Mahogony: 3
Jasper Voodoo: for free?
Marvin Mahogony: yup
Jasper Voodoo: do you pay monthly or up front?
Marvin Mahogony: up front
Jasper Voodoo: for the year?
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Marvin Mahogony: you can pay per month, I believe, but you have to register for the whole year to get fre domain regestration
Jasper Voodoo: find out how much it would be to add an extra login
Jasper Voodoo: and some more bandwidth maybe
Jasper Voodoo: or a database login or something
Jasper Voodoo: unless we did a split forum
Marvin Mahogony: I think bandwidth is like, .... fuck I forget.
Jasper Voodoo: we could have a dual forum
Marvin Mahogony: yeah
Marvin Mahogony: LPC and NSP
Marvin Mahogony: It would make sense, since we're linked at the hip anyway.
Jasper Voodoo: rgr that
Marvin Mahogony: dude, I'm hella tired. I feel like I'm gonna pass out.
Marvin Mahogony: I'll give you a call when I'm in los mo tomorrow.
Jasper Voodoo: ok
Jasper Voodoo: i may have to do some homework, but if you want to come over we can brainstorm at the same time
Marvin Mahogony: sounds good
Marvin Mahogony: I hope I'm not getting sick
Marvin Mahogony: that would piss me off.
Jasper Voodoo: dont come over if you get sick
Marvin Mahogony: rgr that