Time Slacker Production Diary

by Scott Alan Woodard

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Saturday, September 30th, 2000

It's hard to believe, but after a year and however many months, "The Six Minute Time Slacker" finally went before the cameras today (although we have a few more scenes to shoot tomorrow afternoon). Ultimately, this project was the victim of my chronic procrastination (a serious and possibly incurable case), but shooting for almost twelve hours today really made me feel good about overcoming all the obstacles to make it happen.

Obviously, there has been a lot of pre-production involved in this project and suffice to say, the past year or so has been riddled with failed plans to shoot the thing, script meetings, rewrites and more, but I've learned a lot (since our days of shooting films and video projects in high school are long gone and we've had to adjust and change with the times).

So let's focus on this past couple of weeks…

After mutually agreeing that Saturday, September 30th would work for all of us, we began to really prepare to make the whole idea a reality. We had a location (Mike's apartment (which, strangely enough, matched the original apartment concept I had when I wrote the script before Mike lived in his current place)), we had our talent, we had a director and we had a lot of the required equipment, but there was so much more to take care of.

My script called for a Dalek and short of constructing one ourselves, I decided to check with the Time Meddlers (the Los Angeles area "Doctor Who" fan club) to see if borrowing their's was within the realm of possibility. It was a rather sad-looking Dalek, but I figured that I could make it shine with a little T.L.C. (Time Lord Care???) Anyway, one of my friends in the organization was able to track down the Dalek (nicknamed Howard), and two Sundays ago, he was in my possession. Most of that week was devoted to cleaning and modifying Howard so that he looked a tad more Dalek-like and after investing thirty of fourty bucks, I think he came out looking rather splendid! The Doctor's greatest nemeses were in our hands.

Next it was down to costumes, props and technical equipment. Most of these hurdles were easily overcome (the bulk of my Doctor's wardrobe was pieced together from articles in my own collection), but a couple trips to stores like Hot Topic, Miller's Outpost and Urban Outfitter's helped me put the icing on the cake. Then it was down to audio and video equipment, and a couple friendly phone calls and E-mails allowed us to "reserve" a Canon EV-1 and a DAT recorder.

Yesterday (Friday, September 29th) was rather tense because we discovered that someone had taken the camera away and it took a lot of digging to find out who the resposible party was. Eventually, though, we received a late phone call and we were told that the camera had been returned and it would be awaiting me this morning (Saturday).

I picked up the camera at approximately seven AM, but was shocked to discover (some time later) that the battery recharger/power adaptor was missing.

Our call-time was 8:00am, but I showed up at 7:45 before anyone else. We shot until the battery died and then broke for lunch. Our director (Aaron) went off in one direction while I went in the other (Circuit City) in search of a battery charger. Fortunately, I was able to find one that would accommodate the Canon battery and we reconvened at Mike's apartment, snapped the dead battery into the charger and proceeded to pass the time (while we waited for the battery to at least take SOME charge) by indulging in a game of the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" boardgame. The Judge (second season baddy) won by defeating all of the Scooby Gang… EVEN Buffy! Cheeky monkey…

Around 2:30pm, we were back in action with a partially recharged battery and a lot of post-lunch energy. We had already shot quite a lot of the script including Captain Taylor's arrival, his meeting with The Doctor, the answering machine sequences, the pizza delivery guy and more, but there was still much to do.

We were fortunate to have a cool day outside which kept the interior temperatures down even with a thousand watts of light and little or no air-flow during shots. Kevin was warm in his suit and tie, but I was downright boiling in my heavy coat, knit hat, long-sleeved shirt and pants! Add to that the billowing fog around our single eye-stalked nemesis and you've got all the ingredients for an uncomfortable shooting environment, but fortunately, our spirits were high for the rest of the day until our battery died on us, yet again, at approximately 7:00pm.

We packed up a lot of the set dressing and decided on a call time of 12:30pm, tomorrow afternoon.

Sunday, October 1st, 2000

Once again, your beloved producer arrived at the set fifteen minutes early (even after driving through a local Taco Bell in order to grab lunch and waste a bit of time)! Regardless, I was able to slip into my costume and get ready for a day's shooting. Kevin showed up soon after followed by Aaron and soon the set was flooded with light and we were back into position delivering lines before the camera yet again.

One of the most important scenes to do today was my "death." As is always the case with low/no-budget productions, the actors must do their own stunts, and in this case, the screenwriter/producer/actor (yep, yours truly) had to fling his body through the air into a pile of cushions hidden out of sight. It took seven or eight takes, but eventually the scene was complete. One or two other shots after that and we wrapped the interior sets!

Outside, we turned my Jeep Cherokee into a U.N.I.T. transport and shot a few scenes with Captain Taylor driving past, parking and exiting the vehicle. After that, we piled into the Cherokee and drove twenty or so minutes south to Venice in search of a suitable city sign. The script called for a sign that read "Welcome To Venice" or words to that effect, and although we were able to find some beautiful welcome signs, none of them were for Venice! They were all for Santa Monica!!! Knowing that Venice fits this character far better, we opted for a rather weathered and plain sign that read, simply "Venice."

We shot the sign and shot some more shots of Captain Taylor cruising past (on Lincoln Blvd.) and then that was it! Our sets, costumes, props and talent were all wrapped! It was time to pack it all in and head for home with pangs of editing anxiety stirring within.

Some time this week, Aaron and I will view, log and transfer all the footage into the AVID and I predict that we will have a completed project by October 21st. I will continue this diary while we edit the video.

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2000

Aaron and I sat down and reviewed all the footage tonight (and digitized it at the same time). It all looks pretty dang cool if I may say so myself, apart from a couple shots that appear to have fallen victim to a dirty lens... This is not to say that these shots are unusable, in fact we have no choice in a couple instances, but just seeing these shots really bugged us... Maybe it was a one-time failure to clean this particular lens when we switched it with another, but it was enough to render at least one particular shot utterly useless (it's horribly backlit to boot).

Aaron was an adept enough director, though, so we have other angles that we can use in place of these corrupt ones.

Sadly, it looks as though the material is devoid of really amusing bloopers. Apart from a few flubbed lines and a couple cases of the giggles, there isn't much here to merit a gag reel, per se...

Shots that really stand out in my mind: Any involving the Dalek, my stunt work, Captain Taylor's angered speech, exterior stuff.

Our next big hurdle is figuring out the best way to integrate the audio from our DATs... It might be a little tricky. Also, music and effects design... Got some work to do there!

Until the next entry...

Saturday, October 21, 2000

So it has been a while since we did the editing thing! I was starting to worry that our November deadline was going to become an unobtainable goal, but alas, things more or less fell into place (with regards to Aaron's and my schedule) and the two of us were able to get into the editing bay today.

Granted, with one of my cats going under the knife earlier this week (which resulted in some exciting Halloween party plans on board one of the oldest sailing ships in the country being scrapped), it was beginning to look a bit shaky for the weekend, but alas, her return visit to the vet fell at a reasonable hour and all worked out just fine.

Aaron went into the bay at around 10:30 this morning and I arrived (per his request, actually) at approximately 1:00pm. The bulk of the time was spent doing a preliminary picture-only edit. In other words, although the separately recorded audio (from the DAT) has been digitized into the AVID, we opted to piece together the story with our focus on the video right now, and then we'll cut in the better quality audio at a later date.

The "completed" edit ran only about three-and-a-half to four minutes, which is fine considering that we completely avoided construction of the answering machine sequence (which is reliant on post-production audio) and we don't, as of yet, have a title or credit sequence either. Can you tell how awesome non-linear editing is yet???

In other news, I have spoken with a friend of mine who is a composer to provide us with a special theme for the video (consider it an unusual remix of something you will all likely recognize) and (and this is the really exciting bit) I also contacted someone from Doctor Who's past to see if he might be interested in recording a small bit of audio (one of the answering machine messages) for us! I've got my fingers crossed for this one! If it works out, it will really add an air of "authenticity" to the project!!! Let's just say that I did this particular person a favor once and leave it at that.

Aaron and I left the bay today deciding that we will devote an hour or so to the project every night this coming week. I don't see any reason why we won 't have the completed project in-the-can by early November.

Saturday November 4th, 2000

Aaron and I met at approximately 9am for a full day of editing (well, at least until 3 or 4pm). The bulk of the video is already assembled, so today was devoted to a bit of padding (we're running a bit short with the current cut) and some work on visual and audio effects.

What can I say, the results so far have been very impressive. Since this diary is being posted and will likely be read by many before the video is viewed, I don't want to spoil too many things, but let's just say that the necessary effects sequences have blown me away!

In regards to "padding" the existing material… After watching the complete cut, I really don't want to insert things simply for the sake of time, but knowing the tight constraints of the Six Minute "rules", we're certainly going to have to explore that option. We do have a lot of material that we can pull from in order to open a few scenes up, but the results will certainly not flow as well as the first complete cut.

We wrapped things up at 4pm leaving the following elements for Saturday, November 11th (our intended FINAL day of post-production): End Credits (titles are complete), incidental music, gag title card (you'll have to wait and see), audio dubbing from the DAT (no we haven't addressed this nightmare quite yet). There might be one or two other bits and pieces, but for the most part, that will spell the completion of "The Six Minute Time Slacker."

Saturday, November 11, 2000

It is Sunday morning, November 12th (as I write this) and last night, Aaron and I completed editing of "The Six Minute Time Slacker." Yep, you heard right. We're done! Well, almost. I brought a VHS home with me last night (as did Aaron) to go over with a "fine-tooth comb" to see if there are any problems that we need to address before we send it off to Chicagoland. Already, I found one scene in which you can clearly hear someone (I'm assuming it's Aaron) say ".and cut!" This is an easy fix, though.

We worked from 9am to 9pm yesterday (we did break for lunch) and we're both quite pleased with the results! We do agree that this was very much a learning experience for both of us. Next time, we'll handle sound a little differently. Next time, we'll shoot some more stuff for inserts. Next time, we'll plan ahead a bit more to insure that we're not sitting in the edit bay saying to each other: "Next time, we'll." whatever it may be.

A couple things that didn't work out: 1) I never heard back from that "person" from Doctor Who's past, and so it fell on me to record his lines. There was only a tiny chance that this was going to work out anyway, so no great disappointment there. 2) We decided to go with a different piece of music for the titles and end credits instead of having my friend do the remix of the Doctor Who theme that I had originally suggested. Apart from these things, the results have surpassed my expectations!

To think that when I wrote the first draft (ages ago, it seems) I was thinking that the production was going to be a camcorder, deck-to-deck, slap-it-together in my living room affair! Instead, we went digital (with a top-of-the-line camera), recorded audio on DAT, edited on a $50,000 editing system and had access to talented people and professional resources. I think it shows.

So where does that leave things? Well, we'll be sending the vid to Chicago this week sometime and after that, well, the future looks pretty bright. One intention of this whole project was to get everyone's creative juices flowing and I think I succeeded in that regard. Already I have written several notes for future projects (both long-form and 6M2) and Aaron is excited to explore some of his own projects. I think that we can safely say that you haven't seen the last of any of us!!!

Enjoy the show!

Scott Alan Woodard
 Sunday, November 12, 2000