Lamenting the Lascivious and Lucidity of Certain Ladies

Ah my droogies, your faithful narrator has been more than a bit busy. Between fundraising for the next feature film (which has already gotten us some decent cash on INDIE GO GO.COM, and shooting a new short in series of shorts, and plus shooting for the PBS shows things are non-stop. Combine the day job work and me is tired.



So I got to work with the Canon 5D Mark II with Greg Sabo. It was a really gorgeous look with this DSLR. It has some minor limitations, but for shorts and quick things, it can be staggeringly impressive. Low light, shallow depth of field and portability… the DLSR craze is very much justified. I immediately converted the footage to a low compression, high quality codec for editing. It will maintain quality better in color correction and effects this way.



Alex the Intern has already done an edit pass on the latest short opus, but it needs some magic, as in the Twitch type magic to make this one shine. I can’t even think about getting to it until next week some time because our annual big editing project came in and I’m ensconced in the trenches of my edit bay toiling away for longer stretches of the day. It’s something basic, but will be pretty cool when it’s done; Might take a while if I get some good sound design, sound mix.



I feel really really good about the ACCIDENTAL ART feature script. It’s in the prime shape to get made. There are going to be some tweaks, etc. when it comes time to shoot it, but I’ve gotten some feedback, etc. and this looks to be the one. If… scratch that… WHEN I get to make this, the movie will be the one I was meant to make. It’s got more of my personal tastes in it that something like HORRORS OF WAR. I’ve been honing the skills to make this movie for the last 10 years. This will be the best movie I can make at this point in my life and career.



I’ve made a momentous decision in regards to this. If this movie does not do for me and my career that I intend it to, then I will no longer pursue being a feature film director. I’ll still make movies, shorts, TV shows, etc. but if ACCIDENTAL ART doesn’t do it, then I’m going to change directions in my career path and my life. I want to focus on things with a certain amount of stability and raise my responsibility. I have made many sacrifices to live the life I’ve lived and to do what I have been doing. I’ve reached the end of this rope, and if this movie doesn’t take me to the next plateau, then I don’t think I have the movie in me to ever be made that will.

That’s it for now. There are people reading this blog that talk smack about me and this is all I feel like divulging for now. More is happening on all fronts, but actual friends know how to get in touch with me.

Relationship Card™ ® ©

RELATIONSHIP CARD - 4 min
http://www.vimeo.com/4620796

a troubled couple tries to work out their emotional credit with the new Relationship Card ™ ® ©


starring George Caleodis and Amanda Howell

written by Joanne Fromes and Peter John Ross

directed by Peter John Ross

produced by John Fromes

cinematography by Scott Spears

assistant director - Rachel Hanna

key grip - Derek Rimelspach

art director - Leyna Haller

graphic design - TJ Cooley

special thanks to
Andrew Kramer & www.videocopilot.net

© Copyright 2009 Sonnyboo Productions

Relationship Card from Peter John Ross on Vimeo.

A Timorous Disposition

Now I’m truly done with this short, REFRACTORY . I let the movie ferment for a week; now I made the final adjustments today. Nothing major, just some minor clean up and tweaks. Probably the most significant thing I did was trimming a shot and add a few quick flashes of something else. I have Megan making a sudden movement forward and I now cut the shot before she stops, whereas she clearly stopped before the shot ended.

I like this piece. It’s not for everybody. Not everyone will like the choices made, but I accept that. Overall, it’s something a bit darker and more dramatic, but it is something I like and relate to in some weird way.



This past Saturday was interesting. No less than 3 film projects were running at the studio at the same time. Shane Howard did some technical work converting frame rates for the feature film MINUS ONE. Rachel Hanna edited on her segment from DREAM 13 while I did some graphics on the next Sonnyboo short. I love that every single editing machine was working and creativity was abound. It made me feel like a lot was being accomplished, even when we horsed around and conversed. That’s what editing sessions should be if you’re not being paid, so I love having fun and chatting, but still getting work done.



The graphics work on the next short is killing me. Each shot takes about 2-3 hours to create, animate, and then render. Part of what gets me is that I have too many options on the animation I can do. How do I have the graphics appear on screen and then leave the frame? They can get small into infinity, they can move off screen up, down, left, right, or they can just fade off. Then there are the colors, the placement, framing, and trying to come up with a thousand little tiny graphics to fill in the spaces. This reminds me of the screens in the back of the bridge of the Enterprise where someone has to create all that crap that no one looks at but everyone sees. Unfortunately, I’m that guy. TJ made the main graphics, but I’ve got nothing for the small, illegible stuff that fills out the frame. Getting the pickup shots I need (all 2 of them) are on hold as the actress loses some of her tan from vacation. No problem as without the graphics, I’m in no rush to finalize this.



Last night I made the trek down to Cincinnati for a SOFA meeting. That’s the SOUTHERN OHIO FILMMAKERS ASSOCIATION, a good group of people. The movie theater where they gather was a 1941 building all tricked out with modern stuff, still retaining its original designs and style. I highly recommend people get out and mingle with other filmmakers, even in other parts of the state. Building bridges and sharing resources are what can make a better whole.
I love inspiration. It’s impossible to truly know where it comes from or why it strikes in the way it does. I’ve had an idea for a movie for over 10 years and I wait for them to grow. Much like the short with graphics I’m working on, sometimes the ideas just need to finish themselves before they come together. Half baked ideas are never as tasty as the ones that ripen just right and get consumed when everything comes together. Describing this half baked idea to someone else opened up a ton of fresh ideas and a fuller picture came into focus for me. I’m using too many metaphors, but when I don’t want to discuss details and still have someone understand something of what I mean, this is what I do.


Anywho. Good day to you all. I’m going to make bread and eagerly await a final render.

- Peter John Ross

Anagrams and Deviant Art

I have a minor secret. I want to tell people, but devilry and not a small amount of childishness prevent me from being forthright. So I came up with a fun way to delay the inevitable revelation.

Here are two anagrams, a free DVD of the latest Sonnyboo HD shorts to the first to get them correct:

am so free man, join

and

sore Nina Joss



The answer to one of these is also the password to seeing the latest sonnyboo produced short film, directed by Joanne Fromes on VIMEO.COM. http://www.vimeo.com/4110271


Refractory from Peter John Ross on Vimeo.

I named the short REFRACTORY, as the word significantly relates to the subject matter. Here’s a secret, I like big words; as if the titles to my blogs were not a giveaway to that little secret. A huge hint to the anagrams is in the paragraph above, as one of those words is in both…



I finished the edit today, at least for now. I am tinkerer, so I expect some revisions and changes at some point. Thank God for a Terabyte drive because for color correction I used uncompressed video files. I chose a vignette look for this to emphasize characters and it worked out in my opinion. The images were pretty good as is, with a consistent color and look. I chose not to over process it too much. I pulled about 15% saturation from the overall image to “depress” the look. We set out to make a green or blue tint, but since the location was primarily red and burgundy, that really didn’t work out so well. I’m not at all disappointed, though.

To emphasize some dialogue and other points, I digitally added two small camera moves. The beauty of HD is that I can manipulate the images a lot in post to do this. I had not considered these camera moves on the day, but here I am 9 weeks later popping in tighter, zooming in. I love the control that editing has over the whole process. You can rethink almost anything and in the High Definition world, we have latitude to affect the picture a lot with little loss in quality.



The music should be sparse. In some ways the sound design and score is same thing here. The sound design is rhythmic and musical, and the music is more ambient and environmental. I love a good sound mix, and one of the lessons I have learned over the years is to bring the volume down and keep it balanced so that you can boost it later more cleanly. If you go for the volume it distorts and no matter what you do later, you can’t un-fuzz the sound, as opposed to being a tiny bit low, you can boost it cleanly.

I’m sending this out to a few peers for review before I make it public. I don’t know if it will be a web video for a while. It’s a drama and not the most appealing to the masses or of interest to many, but it was a story I wanted to tell.

I knew that all I needed was a day or two with a solid block of time to just hone in and focus. I had no new Blu Rays from Netflix, no TV shows to catch up on, and no lingering freelance or day job work handing over my head. I wasn’t particularly in the “mood” to edit, but without these distractions I was able to zero in and get ‘er done.



The sole inhibitor wound up being my kitty “V”. Every time I’d start to cut, he would cry and whine, demanding attention. He was not satiated to sit on the desk and be pat. He brought me many toys that apparently I was meant to play with along with him. Luckily the later processes required a lot of render times, so we could play fetch or in “Cousette’s Cave” (which is me holding a blanket over our heads whilst holding a flashlight). In “V” world, if I am home, my sole purpose is to be his playmate. Cousette is perfectly happy to lie in a ball nearby and pass out.

Starting this coming week, I have one more short film to complete. That includes some pickup shots and one helluva lot of FX shots, but at least it’s edited already…

Now I am to dance the dance of joy, pantsless as usual. Mayhap My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I will get around to watching CASABLANCA on HD tonight. Or maybe I can get THE SPOONS ®; it is after all the Zombie Jesus Holiday weekend.

- Peter John Ross,
- All loosey Goosey
Great ZOMBIE JESUS!

A Marked Propensity for Carrion and Fodder

I was serious about taking my time with these edits. I’m not rushing the process. These days I start to tinker and watch takes, and lately, the various performances are being scrutinized more than I ever did before. Since one of these pieces is a drama, the performances are so much more important to nail. Selecting the most consistent and “true” acting is my mandate.

The first clips are a walking montage and the ending is a similar, non-dialogue piece but I wanted to modernize the editorial style for these. It’s not just some passé need to be current, as my justification is the mindset of the character we’re focused on, since her mind is somewhat fractured, so I wanted something editorial and effect-y to represent this visually. Learning that doing things “just because” or because “that looks cool” are lame to me. If there’s no reason to affect the color or stylize the footage, then don’t do it. Few things in a movie can cheapen it or make it appear to be amateur as all get out than people who try to follow the trends without understanding the reasons they were founded, or worse morons who try to create their own trends without any justification whatsoever. These never create waves, only mockery.

I’ve taken to duplicating all the footage and project files to a portable 1Terabyte drive so I can work on this at work or at home or even on my laptop anywhere. I never know when the muse will hit and I want to be able to take my metaphorical mallet and shape the orange metal while it is proverbially hot. Riding the wave of creativity when it starts to overtake one’s self should never be ignored.

I may attempt to create a 5.1 Surround sound mix for these two projects myself. I have never done it before and it interests me a little, especially since I have a DTS sound system now. I don’t have a 5.1 Surround audio card, but I might invest in one if I think it’s worthwhile. I prefer to find people who already have an interest in such things.

For the 2nd piece, the comedy, I made a list of all the CGI graphics work it will entail. I’m humbled by the idiocy on my part for co-writing this incredible amount of post production work. There are well over 120 graphic elements that need to be created for a short that is under 4 minutes. I already did a 4 second title sequence out of nowhere yesterday. I created a virtual credit card and flew it around with specular lighting.



In the end, it will all be worth it. So far, I’ve been dead wrong in my predictions, but I’ll go on a limb again and say this will be the most popular Sonnyboo produced short online I’ve ever been involved in. I don’t regret not being the director, as I am a co-writer, producer, and editor on the movie. There is still a lot of “me” in it, but I am not the sole creator and not the director. This title belongs to the lovely young lady.

George Caleodis and Amanda Howell do a great job in it. George’s comic timing slays me every time and Amanda, whom I had not previously worked kicked ass. It’s hard pairing George with strong female actors with strong comedic timing and Amanda went toe to toe with him just fine.

I estimate 2-3 more weeks of post production work on this short. There’s about 2 weeks left on the first short too. I’m getting some of the aforementioned editorial effects work done now, and doing the meat of the scene work after. Even when the rhythmic muse is not present, I can work on these technical and render intensive elements.

Here’s a conundrum for my friends: what is it about me that inspires so much jealousy? There are a few (can you believe more than 3-4) guys out there that read this here blog and just burn up with the hate and envy.

I guess I am still confused by the “this guy is fat, his girlfriend is ugly, he is gay, he loves Paris (the city, not the girl), he’s a total geek, and he’s a total failure…..” which is why they spend so much time reading my words, watching my movies, then writing diatribes and comments for literally over a year. If I were so pathetic and my life so devoid of meaning, then why am I worth so much time and attention? The answer is a resounding obvious “JEALOUSY” from some, but I have never known jealous to last well into the plus 1 year mark, and isn’t it a contradiction to say I’m such a loser, yet be jealous?

I am not a fan of Michael Bay movies, but I can’t find the productive or usefulness in the idea of going to his message board and writing to him semi-daily saying “You’re talentless and your momma is ugly!” I don’t pay to see his movies; I don’t read his blog, and it is amazing how little Michael Bay bothers me, although I will say I thought THE TRANSFORMERS was decent. I got no time for these people anymore. My recommendation remains the same as it always has; If you’re reading this blog and upset or unhappy, then stop reading it. Find something better to do with your time. Then again, these words are falling on the eyes of either imbeciles without the mental capacity to comprehend logic, or they are being read by emotionally imbalanced, irrational buffoons that are incapable of recognizing their desperate cries for mental and emotional rehabilitation. Either way, not really any concern of mine, just an idle curiosity. Perhaps one of my readers can shed some insight into this phenomenon, or perhaps a trained psychiatric opinion can….

Things are going great for me by my own standards, which are the only ones that matter to me. I am achieving the goals I set forth, so I have no concerns for what other people consider success or failure. When someone calls me a failure (like my mom or my sisters), I am confused more than anything. I’m doing what I want and getting where I want to go whilst simultaneously I am motivated to aim higher and continue my growth. I guess I don’t understand why I would care or give a Shiite about anyone else’s opinion. Why would this possibly matter to me? How can that possibly affect me? See what I mean? I’m confused, not angry or upset. Similarly, I wish that people who read my dissenting views about things I find pathetic would similarly, not care and believe enough in you to not worry about my opinion.



Has anyone else been watching Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE series? Eh, it’s okay. It’s Joss so I’m in for the long haul, but it seems to be missing entirely his trademark HUMOR. There’s little irony or fun in the show. What balanced out the action and horror elements in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER was the amazing humor and wit. So far, we’re lacking that in this show. I was however deeply disturbed by the performance of actor Graham Norris as a stalker. This guy scared the bejesus out of me! It was incredibly intense how he was stalking and spooky in his appearance as a psychotic nut job. Just look at this guy! COMPLETELY BELIEVABLE as a crazy wacko with a gun and nothing left to live. Joss Whedon, get out of my head!



Anywho, I’m finishing up some DVD burns for a client, and once this last disc finishes, I hope to get some personal editing done.


Peace out ya’ll,
Peter John Ross
Your friend in the Avril Lavigne Fan Club!

The Man-gina Chronicles

Last night’s shoot went great. That’s 2 in a row where things were pretty much spot on. We shot in my parent’s house and that was odd because there are pictures of me from all ages all over the house, so it was like a “Ross Museum” or more akin to freak show as people tried to figure out where the svelte good looking teenager disappeared into the fat hairy guy who must have eaten him.





Because of the rush nature of putting this together, I did not get to rehearse and that does bother me. I very much prefer to work for at least an hour or two with actors without a crew standing by or working so we can build some kind of rapport, and work without a net. There needs to be an environment of trust so that when we talk about things I like or not like, and what they prefer and want to try, we can experiment and talk without it being under pressure or with an audience. I don’t want an actor to be self conscious if I tell them I don’t like something they are trying because with 10-12 people watching it might seem like I’m shooting them down and embarrassing them. Similarly, I don’t want to have an argument if they don’t like the way I want a line to be read and we’re in the thick of the shoot with me behind the dolly, camera, and bank of monitors.







Now for this shoot, we shot with the Sony Z1U. Since I have Cineform’s ASPECT HD codec, I read up on it and they recommended shooting in the European PAL format of 25CF (cine-frame) mode. This is a Sony workaround to get the “film” like image, they shoot in an HD PAL format into a 50i image, and my software can extrapolate the 25 progressive frames from it and converts it down to 24 frames per second, but then re-works the audio so that it keeps the pitch normal without slowing it down too. It’s all very technical and makes sense to me. If you’re reading this and feel dumb, that’s okay. Maybe you are, or at least you aren’t as super-duper intelligent like me. Or maybe if you watch Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and the techno babble makes perfect sense to you, we can be friends. It’s a miracle I have a girlfriend, and if I have to tell you that the last 2-3 sentences contained incredible amounts of sarcasm, then you are in fact dumb and that’s not a facetious stab.







What is cool for me about working on some shorts again is trying out several HD camera makes and models. As I gear up for 3 features later on, I want to have some firsthand experience with several cameras and see how they edit, handle color correction, effects, etc. Before I shoot on another feature, I will have seen how these cameras’ footage looks projected too. All of this combines to make more informed decisions about what to shoot the features with when the money is on the line. Shorts can serve a VERY important piece of the process and be multi-beneficial if you use your noggin.







I am proud of John’s sister Joanne Fromes who is doing well with her first few projects as a director. Again, My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ had to work, and there is some tension over the amount of time I spend with this young nubile girl. The editing sessions will begin tomorrow and she’ll see that not many hot young chicks are into hoggin’ it with the biggies. It’s very weird to not be the director on these pieces and just a co-writer and producer. I’m having a blast anyway. Maybe I’ll stop directing and only produce. And maybe it will rain beer.







I’m still waiting for this PAL 50i conversion to 23.976 Progressive frames to finish conforming the .M2T files to .AVI. I’m telling you, if that sounds like Chinese to you, then you need to get busy studying CODECS. Your first assignment? Tell me what CODEC stands for!





Peace and B WILD,

Peter John Ross