Test screening...

...is out. When I looked through the reviews, I felt a kind of peace though the result was not good. I think it is because I found the audience felt the same way as I did, which encouraged me of what I would do next. Better editing, shape the story line and better sound. Thank you guys.

First impression...

...is really important. My brain was stuck before I took a look at my first rough cut, which was really rough and awful. I was just tired of looking at it after a couple of days of editing. No matter how ugly it looked, the laziness and self-defence kept finding different reasons to persuade me to accept it until the moment when I watched it in the crowd... I finally realized that there are no excuses but the cold truth. I shouldn't be afraid of problems but face them. There are always ways to improve it only if you are honest to yourself.

Yes, this is what I am doing. I am in the editing bay fighting the DAT machine. I have already finished a much better cut based on the first one, and... there are much more to do...

Editing

Small update on editing... Mark has already finished putting together a very rough cut that he showed me a couple days ago. It still needs tweaking and but the footage looks great. Wednesday we'll see what the newer rough will look like and hopefully get good feedback from the class. :)

DONE!!!

We are done shooting A Misfired Match!!! We even had a fun chocolate cake to wrap up the night with the title of the movie and Mark had to blow out the "match". For now we are just going to relax, return a few things, and enjoy Spring Break coming up. After that, do some voice overs and just deal with post production. I want to thank the crew for doing an awesome job on set. Yay for us!

Finished Shooting Day 2

Day 1 was a little slow and we were unable to finish some scheduled shots, but Day 2 went great. We even had some problems with cars not starting and were running a half hour behind, but then we picked right back up. We shot at the library and were out of there on time with everything done. Then at our second location, we finished all the shots and picked up some that we had to do from the night before. Friday was very successful!

Now on to Day 3, or shall I say Night 3 of shooting. There are a few setbacks. The Maid character is hard to get in contact with and we start with her tonight. Also, the Old Lady character had to leave the country so we have to find a new one by tomorrow. Other than that everything is still going fine.

Now I want to give a high five to an awesome crew! "High Five" lol

Also, the actors so far have been wonderful! Especially Sidney, our lead, he is amazing and very cooperative.

That's all I have for now, wish us luck on Day 3!

To add on

To add on to Mark's last blog entry... yea we are ready to go. I got so lucky and found the library location we wanted at the Winterpark Public Library for Friday night after hours. All the cast is ready for filming and the schedule is finally set in stone! I'm going to get some last minute props today and craft services and we start shooting at 8pm.

Ready and Action!

Script, check.
Equipment, check.
Cast, check.
Locations, check.
Crew, check.
Passion, big check on that.
Action...
- M

Casting and Rewriting

Audition went really well with the hard work from Beatriz, Idris and Carlo. I think I've got as best as I could. I will make decision this week.

Awesome Victor's rewriting of the script not only fixes the writing but also inspires me a lot of new visions. Hopefully I could talk with him in person and make the script solid this week.

I am receiving not only the help from my crew but also the artistic inspiration. That's real team work we are talking about! - Mark

Crew meeting

We will have a crew meeting on Wednesday night at my apartment. I will be at home after 6pm. - Mark

I am a horrible person

This is for Veronica, my production designer. I will keep calling you this until the last minute I have to change it. Today, I had an actual production meeting with Veronica. We found that we had some very different opinions for the production design. I kept denying her ideas in a direct way, which made her feel like I am a very horrible person. I should apologize for that. When I went back and re-thought about the meeting, I realized what actually upset me and made me upset her was that I really want to see things going. I could see that there would be a lot of actual work to do. I was a little bit stressed out in the meeting. Some of her ideas are actually good, however, I couldn't stay with ideas as the time pass by. Hope Veronica would not be mad at me and help me out even though her vision couldn't be realized in this movie by any chance. Bow! - Mark

Go back to foundation

Today, Rich gave me some really valuable notes on the script, which I had the same kind of feeling for a long time. A good script is the foundation of the movie. It is always better to fix it on paper than on set. However, the dialogue is always the most terrifying part for me. So I decide to ask Victor to polish it for me. I am 100% confident about him! Hopefully, we can have a surprise before next week! - Mark

Read the script

I like it a lot. This movie sounds like a lot of fun and I'm excited about making it look beautiful. :)

Mark, let me know if you can find out how long John Heppe's dolly track is. Also find out if we would be able to use a curved track dolly from the equipment room. If it's not too much trouble to use the curved track, I would prefer it.

Lastly, I was thinking about the boom mic being wired straight into the camera as we had discussed and while I am comfortable doing this if necessary, it might be better to have a DAT recorder with someone in charge of sound. If sound is fed straight to the camera I will have to monitor audio levels and I would like to focus on the images.

Please let me know when you have the storyboards finished and shot list so I can start getting familiar with all the shots.


Thanks,

Marco

Work safely

Hope everyone was safe during the horrible storm last night. I was on the I-75 at that time. My car has never been so clean...

Good Ideas

All,

This is smart to use the blog as your virtual meeting space. I like it. - R

Snapshots

These are some pictures of Jimmy's apartment (raw). I just want to give production designer and DP some idea of the space and structure. Veronica, the book shelf is a rough model of the style. Take care!

Crew update

Misfired Match team now has Beatriz as producer, Veronica as production designer, Danielle as first AD, Marco as DP and Mark as director. I put everyone above as the authors of the blog so that they can post and edit this blog. I also invited Rich and Lisa as authors as well. Welcome to post your ideas on this website! ...Or just chill out!

Looking for "Where"

Beatriz is such a great producer. She drove me around downtown today to search a perfect apartment. We know it would not be easy, however, I am very confident that she can always make things going. Here are some possible choices we got today.











This apartment is on Colonel near downtown, which is the best best option by now. If I could get this location, I would be blessed! Does anyone know someone's friend's relatives live over there? Please let us know. Bow!

Ok, this one is a fancy new apartment in downtown, which is still in construction. It has very nice balconies. But we hope they've got furniture in there.


Anyway, we are still looking. Any info will be great help! Bow!

Cast list

A Misfired Match

By Xiaoguang Mark Zhen


Cast list:

Jimmy (leading role) – Young white male, 22, librarian, college student look, has clean face and short hair, better to wear glasses. He has eyes of confusion.

Lucia (leading role) – Latin female, 28, FBI agent, professional and beautiful, in great shape and strong, better to have big eyes and thick lips.

Mrs. Newman (supporting role) – White female, about 55, library manager, strict and bossy, better to have curled hair.

Nick (supporting role) – Male, 29, FBI undercover, he is charming and experienced, better to have long hair.

Old lady (supporting role) – Female, about 60, she is nice and looks like grandmother.

Maid (supporting role) – Female, 35, normal look.

Stranger in the hallway (supporting role) – Male, 35, criminal, is better to have weird look.

Two door knockers (supporting role) – Males, 30s, criminal, have cruel voice.

FBI agent (supporting role) – Male, 35, has professional look.

Young couple: man (supporting role) – Male, 26, blur collar.

Young couple: girl (supporting role) – Female, 23, college girl.

Girl in library (atmosphere) – Female, 20, has hot figure.

Boy in library (atmosphere) – Male, 16, hip-hop look.

FBI agent and police (atmosphere) – 3 males and 1 female.

Production book

Every team will create a preproduction notebook that includes:

• Pitch outline with story synopsis, character analysis and identification of the production’s unique challenges
• Crew List
• EP schedule
• EP budget (or excel format budget)
• Call sheets
• Cast list and deal memos on cast
• Deal memos signed on all crew
• Maps
• Shot list
• Overhead camera placement diagram OR storyboard for entire script
• Location agreements signed
• Final shooting script (15 pages max)

The Preproduction Book must be approved by Lisa Cook at least 2 weeks prior to the equipment checkout date. No equipment checkouts will be authorized until the production book has been approved.

Production update Jan.26

I am drawing the storyboard and preparing the cast materials. Beatriz is looking for a hotel look apartment or any apartment that has a indoor hallway; and a library. Any help would be highly appreciated!

Check out these two movies

When I was writing the script, I wasn't aware. Later on, when I was planning to produce this film, I realized that a French film called L'Appartment and the American remake Wicker Park could be the inspiration source.



The film shows how differently a same event could be looked at in the different point of views. Furthermore, I also put the hero's journey to the major character Jimmy, who conquers his weakness in the growth as a writer.

Happy pitching

I enjoyed the pitches we had in the class. Thank you guys for supporting. We have Beatriz as the producer and Veronica as production designer. We still need a first AD. If you are interested in the story, please join us.