I feel a little guilty as I thought I was going to blog on Friday but I didn't. Rest assured we did decorate Easter eggs... PRO TIP: if you get "craft Easter eggs" you don't have to hard-boil them or anything and you can use sharpies to decorate them. Plus they don't smell sulfurous like eggs and won't go bad. Not sure if you can tell, but few things gross me out as much as a hard-boiled egg. Bleh.
Here's how they came out! Not too bad! Definitely not too smelly, which is a victory in and of itself.
But anyway, today we start another week-long intensive on filmmaking, and for this month's film, I want to try something new and exciting: MAKING A 360 FILM WITH MY KIDS. We've already made one together for Chugga Chugga Tooth Tooth, and then if you count this other one we did during the making ofthe 2D version of Chugga Chugga Tooth Tooth, the kids already have two 360 videos under their belt. This is more than most fillmmakers have, and I'd like to get them way ahead of the curve by making a third, this time from their own imagination.
The way I see it, with 360 video, finding a space to do a shoot is half the battle. You need to design a set that lends itself to exploration and then let your actors run around the set. I chose a playground on our block that opens bright and early. I figure we can get there and open it up for a few days to shoot our film.
When I told Zephyr where we'd be shooting, I asked him if he could come up with a story we could shoot there. Zephyr came up with a film called "THERE IS A MONSTER IN THE PLAYGROUND", and I think that totally nailed it.
Here's what we're going to do:
- I'm going to set the 360 camera up in the center of the playground for a few mornings.
- While the kids run around the playground in circles, going over the playground equipment and such, I will hide wearing a monster mask at various places in the playground.
- Eventually I will get out of my hiding spot and chase the kids around in a circle as the monster.
- Then they will do something and end up chasing me and defeating me
- I'll splice together a few days worth of video and turn it into a 1-2 minute film.
What I'm hoping the end effect will be like is something like one of those "when you see it" pictures, where close inspection of the shot can reveal something surprising. I made the mask up this weekend out of a box of ziti, some black construction paper, some red yarn, and two pink plastic easter eggs I turned into four spider-like eyes.
The mask.
Yaaaah!
So we were going to shoot the first one today, but it was rainy this morning, so Zephyr and Lyric came up with this Vine:
A translation is DEFINITELY needed here: Braniac (played by Lyric) laughs and says "HA HA HA! My Invention is gonna turn superheroes into super-spaghetti!" and then Braniac 5 (played by Zephyr) bursts in and says "Have that for lunch!" Not one of our strongest vines, but it was spontaneous and fairly rushed because the kids were all noodly and slow to start their day after a long weekend.
But tomorrow... shooting begins!