How To Disappear Completely…

My, it has been a while…

May is almost over and I just realized that I have not blogged during the month of May.

I really do not have much of an update. There is very little to report on the progress of the series. At the moment it is on a slight hiatus.

Tidying up (yet another way to procrastinate)

I have been tidying up around the site. Go ahead call me “Queen of Procrastination”. I should be doing other things, but this was the easiest, and it has been nagging at me for a while.

So what did I tidy up:

Coming soon *updated*

*update April 8, 2008-Production notes have been added to the site. Currently notes for part one are available. Part two notes will be released soon.*

Okay, okay. I think I am over my “Spring Fever” and ready to get back to work. I have viewed, listened to, and experienced a lot recently that has inspired me to get back to work on my current project (s). Today I have knocked out quite a bit on my production notes project and hope to be finished soon. (Did you notice I didn’t state an exact day this time. Yep I’ve learned LOL)

First day of Spring

I think this is actually the first time in my entire life that I have looked forward to this season. I am usually a cold weather, gray skies, cloudy day kind of girl, but lately I have been craving the warmth and sunshine. It is so wonderful to see the trees sprouting leaves and flowers begin peeking through the soil. I’m looking forward to seeing the butterflies return, flitting about the yard.

It put me in the mood to do a bit of freshening up around the site and blog. I’ve updated my links page on the main site and updated my blogroll. I’m also putting some finishing touches on the production notes portion of the site (I’m hoping to have the first set of notes up by Sunday) and revamping the script for part three.

And in between all of this I’m taking a few minutes to open the blinds and lift up the window to welcome Spring .

Caterpillar and Chrysalis

Part 2 of Metamorphosis is finally here.

I have to thank my talented voice actors, Blessed and Jixs. They had the lines back to me way back in December, I believe. The intent was to have this episode released in January, but…well you know the rest of the story.

This part is a bit shorter than the first. It didn’t start out that way. I had so many little unnecessary details that got snipped during the editing process. It went from right round 10 and half minutes down to 8 and a half (with credits). I ran into a few snags along the way, but nothing too major. Mostly sim related glitches. (Don’t you just love when you tell your sim to do something, after you have spent half an hour setting up the perfect shot and they look at you with that “Yeah right look” and wave their arms wildly, completely ruining the shot. Yes, I had a lot of that occur)

I’m not sure how much this part pushes the storyline forward. My goal in this was to give a bit more insight into the relationships between Anna and Gage and Monica and Gage. I also see this miniseries as a challenge for myself. I have been so used to doing music videos that I never really took the time to use the animation boxes to their full potential. I had to take some time out and really play with them before I could really delve into filming. Although I can say I learned a lot, I still have a long way to go.

I hope you enjoy this journey with me.

I can see the finish line

At the risk of jinxing myself…I’m finished! Yes, I just edited together the final scene and I am FINISHED!

Okay, well technically not finished, finished. I still have to fiddle with this and that, and switch that scene for this scene. I also need to tweak the sound in some spots, but *sigh of relief* I am finished with the major work.

If all goes well I’m looking at a release of Part Two by Wednesday at the latest. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Glued to my chair

I have been at my desk for the past three days working diligently to finish part two. I’m close, but not as close as I’d like to be. Heck, I’d like to be finished!

My problem, I get caught up in the silliest details. As I was telling one very talented director *cough* Trace *cough*, I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide whether my character should leave his desk, walk over make his bed, and then walk to the kitchen, or if he should just skip all that and go directly to the kitchen. (Neither scenario makes a difference to the story really, I just get stuck on the weirdest things.)

Last night I was at the point of filming a pretty significant scene when I decided I didn’t like the outfit I chose for my lead. So of course I had to go on a downloading spree. Three hours later, and I still didn’t find the perfect outfit, but I did find tons of clutter, a few paintings, and a gorgeous lamp.

I’ve also come to the realize just how much I don’t know about shooting dialog. It feels as though I am having to teach myself, with a little help, how to film all over again. *reading Judy’s “Tips and Tricks for Making Talkies” *

Anyway, the good news is that I have over five minutes completed and pretty polished. Closer still.

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Now playing: Lisa DeBenedictis - Ocean In Her Head
via FoxyTunes

Just a few notes

I’m getting closer to completing the next part of Metamorphosis. I have filmed and edited about four and a half minutes, which is pretty good. My guess is that this episode will be right around nine minutes long (with credits) so I’m close.

I’ve kept myself on a semi strict production schedule this time, filming and editing every other day. It feels good taking those small breaks in between. I’ve also been a lot more organized this time around, taking the time to make a folder with the date for each day I film. Ordinarily my movie folder is total chaos and I find half my time is spent hunting down clips which then results in a lot of hair pulling.

I’ve also added what I hope to be a bit of a fun element to the miniseries page. Over the last year or so, I have followed several web series (Lonelygirl15, OpAphid, RedEarth88, and KateModern) I like the element of character interaction (through blogs and forums) I find it adds another layer to the story. I wanted to take a small part of that idea and post Gage’s journal on the site. I wanted to also include notes here and there from Monica. Some of the entries that will appear there will be taken directly from the script while others may not. Of course, it doesn’t allow for the opportunity to actually interact with Monica or Gage, but I hope it will give a bit more depth to the characters and the story.

So, just a small update on my progress. I can’t say exactly when I will be finished, but soon.

“Monica, it isn’t that simple.”

Production is coming along on part two of Metamorphosis. This part is supposed to be a bit easier to produce and I must say I am beyond thankful for the talents of Decorgal, Jaydee, and Jixs, to name a few. Without their hacks, I believe I would have given up on Sims machinima a long time ago.

Although filming has gotten much easier over the years with these mods, I still really despise filming. It takes forever to get my game to load and then to get the perfect animation and angle. By the time I get one scene filmed, two or three hours have passed. Yikes. But, I am determined to make my deadline of mid February.

(Oh, here is the result of three hours of work today Gage saying, “Monica, it isn’t that simple.” I didn’t notice until I’d edited this photo that I need to change the door of the apartment, so three hours of work…down the drain. No, Monica, it isn’t that simple. *sigh* )

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Now playing: Radiohead - Reckoner
via FoxyTunes