Australian "Backyard feature" films and other stuff...

In the past twelve months I have been witness to the unveiling of many an Indie Aussie flick. They're not Hollywood, no sir. They are the blood, sweat and tears of our young film industry. If they were a movie themselves, we'd see them appear in slow motion clawing their way up an incredibly steep hill, reaching the top... and roundhouse kicking you in the face.

These films have come from the hearts and minds of my fellow film makers Jake Reedy, Dicky Tanuwidjaya, Andrew Thatcher, Joshua Long and many others. These films are each special in their own right. They aren't your typical "Kid in the backyard with the family camcorder and sticks for swords" type film makers... they're just like you and me. I believe, judging by the quality of their work, that they have big dreams of being the best at their craft... or at least, one of the best. I've never had the pleasure of meeting any of these guys, but I'll be damned if I doubt their drive!

Each of these directors has given me ideas and strength to step up my own game. When I first saw their work, I almost gave up. I wasn't going to compare to them. But something about the way they worked, the way I could relate... made me change my mind.

You know the old saying: If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em!

I want you to open a new tab in your browser right now, navigate your way to Youtube... and search these names. Search their names, or the films they've been working on. Tell me you don't see the potential, the skill... the DRIVE in that work. Can you smell the sweat? That's how hard these guys worked.

So look up the following, on Youtube and Facebook:

Tin God

Axed

The Devils 6 Commandments

Loyalty

Charity Hurts

What I would give to have the skills of these guys. Thank you all for helping me understand that I need to step up my game, and 'grow some balls' when it comes to my film making.

Jake: Story Of A Hitman --- This is my plan.

It occurred to me last night as I was finishing the final draft of the SOAH script that I may effectively bite off more than I can chew during the shoot. It also made clear that I will be trying my hardest to make a $1000 movie look like a $50,000 movie and that this may or may not be a bad thing.

The script of 'Story Of A Hitman' plays like a dance. The action scenes will require the actors to dive around, throw themselves about, and effectively 'get into the dirt'. The 'actions' of the characters when firing their weapons, in staying true to the 'Wooism' (John Woo's signature style, which I'm paying homage to in this piece), will be like dancing with no partner. I myself have spent countless hours choreographing the actions, spinning, ducking, diving and stepping just to get it right.

Now, I have a little over 3 months until shooting starts, and so I'm getting ready for the tiresome/boring typing of shot-schedules, equipment-schedules... basically, its gonna be a boring next few months. But, knowing that it's only going to help me effectively shoot this film without any unexpected 'I forgot's and such.

HD Vs. Full HD - How they fool you with your LCD T.V

Take a look at the latest catologue from Myers/Good Guys/Joyce Mayne/Walmart... how many LCD T.Vs are there with the label HD? Now take a look at the resolution for that T.V... lower than 1920x1280? Right. Not HD at all.

Some people out seeking a FULL HD (Thats how they market it... FULL HD) T.V will see these "HD" T.Vs at affordable prices and go out and buy one... Get it home and find out that its not HD at all... its... worse than that. I've seen a T.V advertised with 1024x768 resolution, labelled as "HD". Thats a joke! Remember those old 18inch CRT monitors we used to have (some still do) on our computers 6 years ago? Most of them had a max resolution of 1024x768. Was anything 'High Def' about those monitors? Same goes for these LCD TVs. Don't get fooled into buying one just because it has the label HD and has a nice price on it. Sure... they're fine if you're just looking to update to something a little bit fancier. But they just won't give you the full HD experience when you watch your football/cricket matches and Bluray/HD DVDs, or play your Playstation/Xbox 360 at full quality. DVDs will look better on the lower quality LCDs, not so pretty on the full HD ones (see High Def vs. Standard Def; the article I wrote last week for resolutions of DVD vs Full HD). For those of us who like our (BluRay/HD Camcorder) movies with the best-possible-quality-short-of-owning-the-film-negative-itself... Full HD is ideal.

Now, before I bitch about this.. I'd like to tell you WHY they do this. Besides money, Besides the tech junkies... you get those who don't know what this-and-that means in the tech world (resolutions, contrast ratios, sharpness ratios, response times etc) to fork over their hard earned cash for something less-than-desirable. Now sure, a lot of these people REALLY don't care... they just want their new T.V. But are you sure that its worth that $600+ when you're not sure of its quality?

At the moment, you can expect Sony and Samsung (the leaders of LCD market) to give you what you pay for. But don't go anywhere until you've seen the T.V work, and seen the output quality of the T.V. You don't want to get it home only to find that the quality is... shit. The higher the resolution, the better the quality of your games/BluRays... And stay away from those with 'built in' DVD players... even the ones with BluRay in them. If this player craps out... (and it will... right after the warranty runs out) you're screwed. I don't reccommend that you get one with the built in HD tuner, but thats simply because anything built into the TV is likely to die... and take the T.V with it. But its a matter of personal preference. Buy a Set Top Box if you can spare the extra space. And don't expect your old VCR tapes to look great either... most will look stretched, and otherwise grainy. Make sure you protect your investment, possibly purchasing extended warranty... a surge protector power board (Seriously, get it or you'll regret it) and listing it under your household contents Insurance.

Going for festivals!

Yep, thats right... Daniel Rutter Films is going for film festivals!

Early last month, I started up a project entitled "A Short Story About Love And Loss", a script I'd been silently working on. Planning is under way, and actual actors have been cast. Shooting hasn't begun yet, but will begin *hopefully* mid-August. I'll be using BRAND NEW equipment, and hopefully spitting out some higher quality stuff. This film will not be released on Youtube untill I have put it through its paces via any short film festival I can get it into.
Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted!

Daniel Rutter

Hunting A Shadow RELEASED!!!!

It’s about time I released something I promised to you guys. As usual, here’s the info all you technical junkies wish to know.
This film was filmed, as with my others, with a Nokia N95 camera phone. Unfortunately, what you see on YouTube is only one quarter of the quality this camera can produce. I shot it in about four hours (it was rushed, the phone was going flat…) and wrote the script in a week.The music, as with my other films, is provided by the talent of Newgrounds.com and their audio portal. Thanks to FarCryDX, Chris, and the others whose tracks I used… without them, the film would have been crap.
As you would have noticed, this movie had a huge amount of rough camera work. It was rougher than I wanted, but I think that it actually works for the particular storyline. I wanted to emphasize the reason of the story a lot more, but when you’re working with the limited resources I have… you make do with what you get. I had planned a massive scene that the soldier character shares his exact reason for revenge. It was a majorly emotional scene, and required acting skills I certainly don’t possess. We did film some of it, but decided not to finish it, because it sounded crap. That, and it took the film over 10 minutes.I would also like to mention that I stole the sniper rifle sounds from Battlefield 2, and edited them to fit. Thanks EA games, please don’t sue me!
Skye was a great help with the filming of this movie, as always. I’d like to express that she is the reason I make all these movies with her.
I had planned on sending this away to a Film Festival, but decided that I would make something bigger, better, and high quality for that. I’m in the process of penning the script for the said project… but without giving to much away… it’s going to be based on a novel I read recently.

Cancellation of Revenge. And release of thescenes.

I've decided to cancel my long-awaited short film, Revenge.
I came to this decision after discussion with my actors and not coming to an agreement in order to fix the situation holding me back from continuing filming. In light of the situation, I've decided also that I will not be using children in my future action movies. This is probably for the best. I've also released a video on youtube containing the scenes I had filmed. I had a whole word document typed up for this blog post, but this computer I'm using doesn't like me much, and refuses to open the file. So I cannot give you any other info at this time.


Reguarding the scenes video

If you've followed the link from Youtube to here, then thanks for taking notice.
I never showed this in the clip, because I didn't know how to... but heres the story.

The main character returns from active duty to visit his brother, who he had lost contact with after having
an argument over him joining the army. His brother, a journalist... hated war, and therefore despised his brother
for joining and fighting. On returning, the main character finds his brother murdered after uncovering a drug ring
in town (Opening scene, guy with bag over head... gets executed). He then decides to dish out his own brand of justice...
Revenge.

After the opening credits, I wanted to have the main character just walking through the town, and have him narrating
something along the lines of what I mentioned above. This would bring you up to date on the story and have some idea of
what's going on.

While I don't want to give to much away (I still have the script, and its a good story... so I can still use it in the
future), That is the general idea of the movie. What I thought would be simple and easy to shoot ended up being a headache.

I shot the "opening scene" in about an hour, and the river shootout in 3. Editing both (seperately) took about a day (combined).
The river shootout was my first major shootout that I'd edited. All gunshots and sounds are digitally edited in, and I
really had to be patient editing them all in.

Music, as I always tend to do, was found on Newgrounds.com and provided by Xerxes Sango and MaestroRage. Both very talented
in composing battle/buildup sequences. Thanks to both, and please check out their stuff!

Movie was shot with Nokia N95, as with Lovers Poet and Suicide: A Broken Heart. I had shot craploads of footage for
the shootout scene, but it was a windy day and it messed with the camera heaps... so most of what I shot ended up
screwed because it was so shaky. I edited it all in Sony Vegas 8, as I have done with all my recent work... and all
gunshot/bullet hits/ricochet effects (not sounds) were provided by Action Movie Essentials (made and sold by Andrew
Kramer... www.videocopilot.net). Thanks Andrew!

Actors were: Patrick Veech (young boy, blue shirt), Skye Veech (Tallest girl, she was the character Nikita... the drug
lord -stands in the middle, executes the prisioner), Laura Dooley (Revolver weilding, short fry girl) and of course
Myself (I was the character refered in the script as "god". The main character).

That is all the information I can give you.