Killshot: Proposal (First Cut)

I am the Warden!!

This past weekend was incredibly busy, stressful, time-consuming, repetitive, and finally, rewarding. With so many other factors, rewrites, and difficulties dealt with and factored, production finally began on Killshot: Proposal, the opening video for the upcoming Kickstarter drive for Killshot. On Saturday, we started and wrapped up principal filming. Saturday evening into Sunday night saw countless hours of editing and rendering to create this initial cut.

There are still a few tweaks to make, particularly with the first 10 seconds and whatever that crap is about, plus the sound issues in the initial dialogue, but I'm incredibly happy with how it's turned out. Oh, and I have some updated rough sketches made by Kieron O'Gorman, the artist who will take on the task of bringing Killshot to black-and-white life if the funding goes through.

In the how-to suggestions listed on Kickstarter (which is incredibly helpful and intuitive - I love using this site!), they highly recommend a good video to start your pleas for cash. It's a means of demonstrating to potential bidders how much passion you have for the project; this video has to provide that and then some while simultaneously offering a concept of what the game's all about. Doing it in the form of a short film rather than a direct face-to-face webcast to the bidder was the best - and only - way to go.

At this point, we're just waiting for the finishing touches of the bid to go through (approval of the bank account). Until that happens, I'm working on making the corrections required to get this sucker as perfect as it can be with the tools I have at hand. Then it's just a matter of kicking back and praying it makes the impact it needs to make.

How To Make A Short Film With NO Money

Cast: It's me, your lovable Warden. The handler and the voice on the phone, I should clarify, modified using Garageband included in my old Mac laptop. 

Filming: Operating the camera was my lovely fiancee (you'll have to take my word for it - I'm forbidden to post her picture on here if I ever want to have sex again) who did a great job in more ways than I expected. For example, when I turned on the light over the workbench in the basement, she noticed the chain swaying back and forth and made sure the proceeding shot had the shadow of a swaying chain moving atop the bench as I place the silver briefcase on it.

Props: First off, the gun is not real (though that should be fairly obvious). It's an old stage prop I found years ago on my way to work at Algonquin College and thought it could one day come in handy. Saturday was that day. The sound of unloading the mag and pulling back the slide were added in post using an old sound effects CD I bought years ago. 

To be honest, there were some props paid for the purpose of the film, but not exclusively. All the Killshot books, Tracker, character sheets, and more in the envelope were paid for a few days earlier... but I also needed them for my last playtest on Friday, so I'm not counting it here.

Editing: All of it done on iMovieHD, once again included in my 5-year old Mac laptop. I love that program and love it even more because it came with this old girl.

Music: A piece of classical - and copyright free - music by Maurice Ravel. The piece itself is only 3 minutes in length and blending the track twice was sheer coincidence and happenstance. After rendering this initial cut of the film, I realized that I never completed a proper edit for a seamless background track, yet it somehow worked out flawlessly. However that happened, I'm not tempting fate and take it as proof I made the right choice.

And so I've been enjoying a relaxing day off and will get to making the necessary corrections tomorrow as I wait for all the paperwork to process. With any luck, the Killshot drive will begin in a week's time.