Producing : Change the plan to shoot now or wait to shoot by Vital Butinar

Vital Butinar

Change the plan to shoot now or wait to shoot

Hi guys, I hope everyone is doing OK.

Here's a question for some of the more experienced producers.

Anyway my team and I have produced a proof of concept TV show pilote episode last summer in order to try and sell the concept easier.

I recently even wrote a blog about it here

https://www.stage32.com/blog/How-to-Produce-a-TV-Pilot-for-Next-to-Nothing

In which I mentioned that we actually only had one problem in order to finish our pilot and that was that we weren't able to shoot two shoots that we needed.

The thing is that we hesitated to shoot scenes with the narrator in order to be able to adjust the narration after having a rough cut. But because of lockdown we haven't been able to to shoot anything and unfortunately because of financial problems we have also lost the filming location for this scene.

So I am faced with a decision and this decision is, do we wait for another couple of months to shoot the two shots or we can rethink the concept and turn the narrator to a woman and change the setting a little and shoot the two shots at home. Which would be an alternative.

But I'm a little hesitant to do that because we are changing something that has been the idea from the start from an elderly gentleman sitting in a chair in an old house to a lady sitting in a chair in a newer house.

What I cannot decide is if this change is OK and will not impact the story too much.

So what's your opinion?

Thanks for the input and regards

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg

Maybe I don't understand the issue clearly. You narrator is off-screen, right? So you shoot without the narrator anyway, decide on male or female later on. If you are worried about scene timing matching the narrator, either (a) have your script supervisor read through the narration as you film, or (b) ensure that you have one or more cut-aways that you can use to change up the timing in editorial, or both. If your narrator is on-screen then my advice is - unless there is an artistic or dramatic, story reason for the narrator to be male, just go with the female. I mean, get it done, we don't know what is happening with lockdowns, etc. They may be here for a while or they may go away soon. For instance here in the US & Canada in the last week has shown the CDC to have overestimated "covid" deaths by 1600% and at least one provincial government admitted there is no scientific basis for lockdowns, while the federal governments are talking about indefinite orders... we'll see but we have to adapt. Easier for us in California as we are designated essential service.

Vital Butinar

Thank you Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg.

Well the narrator is mostly off screen and only appears at the end of the entire thing. For now we've had temp narration which we have already refined and a storyboard image at the end of the pilot episode. The narrator is heard throughout the whole episode but is only seen in the last couple of seconds and only has a couple of lines. So the footage part is very simple.

As far as the artistic choice goes I actually don't think that it makes much difference if the narrator is male or female. The only difference is that we have access to my in-laws house for the filming location and my mother in law as the narrator, who has also done narration for audiobooks.

So I know we don't have a problem with narration and it enables us to finish the project.

The concept is still the same and I'm beginning to be really frustrated with waiting to finish the project because we have already lost the filming location since it's going out of business and I would not want to risk the male actor and bother him now. Besides if we change the location it wouldn't fit with him as much anymore and if we wait we might lose him anyway.

Anyway thank you again for the input.

Nicholas Jordan

You can get sound-reduction panels about anywhere; You setup what is called ADR { Automated Dialog Replacement } · Myself I am stuck on 1-khz time base though that is fart from SMTPE ( however they do it ) ~ Primarily you look to be extra cautious about how the Narrator V.O. sounds on machines—non-film-production not experiences often does not grasp how people appear different in a machine • Once I astounded a DJ with an 85¢ "mic" soldered into my Sony water resistant Sports Series portable cassette playback ◘ Shadow Dragu-Mihai: Is correct—very correct actually—cv-19 has been "enhanced" by "helping-hands" which is evidenced by multiple Forensic CPA Tools

Once Section Chief Timothy Gallagher of US DOJ Financial Crime Section was asked: Do your agent's pack iron? He laughed and pointed to the Inkas Builds Civilian Armored Vehicle ~ that is what our SOI drives; You think we are stupid?

Wanna know what lake and species was deployed at?

I can tell ya;

You can snyc a "narrator" whom is on-screen to a VO Narrator then patch it all together in an editor which should be able to adapt any time base to any other giving you "edit points" and boo-coo of fades & wipes ▬ what you do not have in the can you can fudge with B-Roll ▬ You have your 1-sheets & above excellent production values in a market that sells ~ your LARP can be done chroma-key over stock just squink it around some to fill in what you don't have

Covid closed for the winter Friday 8-th January 2021 « stats are "down" to 32% of what they peaked at this winter ○ Covid will be back next winter though I do not see how you can pitch with this and get it into production B4 time to follow network schedule ~ myself I would look for co-op by smaller production houses and read Amanda Toney

Works at Stage 32 ♦ Manager, Director Of Operations, Producer which is next up on my notifications >>> Amazing fixes can be fast-tracked by the majors and they know how to patch the holes which remain

Julie Herlocker

Vital, it's all about story. Can you make those changes support, or even elevate the story? You will have to look at how the change would impact the whole project. Unless you have a firm delivery date, if you feel that changing the gender and location of the narrator would take away from the story you're trying to tell, I would think it might be worth the wait.

Problems like this can force you to step back and really look at what's important. Think outside the plan you've had, and look at what you can do with the possibilities in front of you. Good luck!

Karen "Kay" Ross

Have you placed a placeholder in your edit to know exactly what you need and how it would play out? You may find a workaround to the shot once you see it in play.

Vital Butinar

Thank you Karen "Kay" Ross. In fact we did put the storyboard images in the edit and even animated them so we have a pretty good idea of what the shots will look like. These are really two really short shots. One is just a simple pullback from a painting and the other one is a static or slight moving shot of the narrator sitting in a chair with the painting on the wall behind them. So very simple.

Julie Herlocker thank you very much. This is exactly what I'm battling with. On one side we don't have a deadline but it's a good time to shop around the idea and a proof of concept defiantly helps with that. But on the other hand I keep thinking that maybe I'm just clinging on to the original idea of the original actor we have for the part of the narrator. We've actually discussed it and it doesn't make much difference as far as the story goes.

All in all to someone watching they wouldn't notice any difference because honestly it doesn't make much of a difference.

Vital Butinar

Well the last two shots have been shot and I just imported everything and synced up the audio.

Now to see how everything goes together.

And it couldn't have happened on a better day, which is our national cultural day.

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