Becoming Obsolete

"Becoming Obsolete" is an unofficial biography of Emily Richter, who started out in a band called 'Hearts Tell Tales' with boyfriend Jeremy. The documentary follows the couples developing relationship and how it shapes their musical careers.

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As promised! Here is a music video I made for Leon Monaco's song "Suspection" (which was composed for Becoming Obsolete).

The video uses both in-film footage and some behind the scenes footage of the band. So consider this a sneak peak at the film! Enjoy. 

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Something New, Something Exciting

Now that I have finished editing the film, I can finally focus on other things revolving around the film. Such things like developing the Becoming Obsolete Facebook page, posting screenshots and working on the exciting things that I am constantly promising. I am doing my best to make sure that these are not empty promises, but I have had a lot to work on that I have had to prioritize first. So today I am hoping to work on something exciting. I plan on being able to start AND finish it today, so hopefully I will be able to upload it this afternoon. I won't say what it is, because I may not get it done at all. Wish me luck!

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You Have a Facebook?

If so, please follow the official Becoming Obsolete Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Becoming-Obsolete/163981010341252 

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Creative Theories: Research and Analysis (part 2)

Now that the film is done and dusted, I can finally report back on the two creative theories I researched and attempted to apply to my film.

Mind Mapping Ultimately, I used only a little mind mapping, and even then only during the character creation stages of the film. I used mind maps to create the personalities of the films three main characters and developed what they were like, what they did etc. which I think helped me finish the script. Beyond that point, I did not use mind mapping for anything.

Flow Experience Flow is definitely something I would like to have been able to achieve during the making of my film. Obviously, Flow would have been very useful and efficient to the process, but alas it did not work for me. Not having a lead actor about a week before the film affected this greatly. This served as a bit of a distraction, as I had difficulty finding a new actor and did not allow me to focus as much time and effort on other important parts of pre-production. Ultimately, I had to take the lead role myself and re-cast a much smaller part that was meant to be played by me. Now having taken on directing AND acting duties, I was under a bit more pressure when it came to getting things done. It became difficult to achieve Flow as I was not able to focus on a single thing.

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The first official poster for Becoming Obsolete.

How awesome is that?! I have very limited photo shop skills, but I somehow managed to create that!

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Yet another screenshot from the film.

Here, Emily (played by Allie Borrett) is talking to Jeremy (played by me, Cooper Breen).

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A new screenshot from the final cut of the film.

In this shot, we see the band The Obsolete performing live.

From left to right: Guitarist (played by Leon Monaco, who also composed some of the music for the film), James Oakland (played by Ryan Zorzut) and Trevor O'Donnell (played by Dean Panopoulos). 

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Even Greater News!

The final cut of Becoming Obsolete has been completed!

This is all very exciting, given all the work I have put into it, not to mention the work of all the others involved.

Soon I will be posting more stuff to do with the film, and ultimately, hopefully the film itself!

Stay tuned! Everything is getting exciting! 

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Great News!

So as it turns out, Becoming Obsolete is almost finished! As of today, my editor Ashleigh and I almost put the final touches on the film. As of this moment, all that needs to be done is a bit of sound editing and perhaps a few minor tweaks and it will be finished!

Hopefully, this will be all done by tomorrow afternoon (tuesday 25th of October).

I won't be uploading the finished product anytime soon, but I will be uploading a bunch of other things, including more screenshots, news updates and anything else that comes up. Hopefully, I will also be able to put together a trailer, but we will have to see how we go with that.

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Fourth screenshot from the film.

In this shot, Jeremy (played by myself, Cooper Breen) does an interview with The Obsolete's lead singer, Trevor O'Donnell (played by Dean Panopoulos).

This is the last screenshot at this point in time, but I am sure that more will come soon enough!

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Third screenshot from the film.

In this shot, we see Emily Richter (portrayed by Allie Borrett) talks to Trevor O'Donnell (played by Dean Panopoulos), the lead singer of The Obsolete at a party.

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Second screenshot from the film.

In this screenshot, Emily Richter (played by the talented Allie Borett) performs with the band The Obsolete. Other members of the band that are pictured are Jacob Wood on bass and Ryan Zorzut (whose character name is James) on guitar.

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First screenshot from the film.

The film's main character Jeremy (played by myself, Cooper Breen) faces issues.

I will keep the description bland to avoid spoilers at this point.

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Days 3, 4 and THAT IS A WRAP

Far belated, but better late than never.

Almost two weeks ago, Becoming Obsolete had it's third and fourth shoots and I am more than happy to announce that it is finally a warp!

I would like to thank my entire cast and crew for all their hard work.

So now it is time to edit and fortunately for me my D.O.P. Ashleigh is also my editor, and I know that if anyone can help my film look the way I want to, it will be her!

I'm sure there will be some awesome updates soon, so keep watching!

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Day 2 of Shooting

Day 2 is down!

I could not express how much of a relief it is to know that I am half way!

Today went great and I was very happy with the product. Today was my first day on set with "The Emily" and I must say, she was fantastic and I have no regrets about my casting decisions. 

Due to my amazing scheduling skills, we managed to finish an hour and a half earlier than we were suppose to, which is good.

But still, we are yet to reach the most difficult days! The penultimate shoot shall be more difficult, and the final even more than that! But with the way that we have worked so far, I have no doubt that my cast, crew and I will be able to get through it just fine.

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Day 1 of Shooting

Today was the big day!

"Becoming Obsolete" finally had it's long anticipated first shoot! And by long anticipated, I meant by me.

I personally think it went quite well and I am really happy with how it turned out, although I will have to wait to review the footage before I make a call on that.

Even though it was only the first day and the easiest, with much more challenging shoots coming soon, I would like to thank my incredible crew.

*round of applause*

Keep an eye out for future posts, as I'm sure I will be able to post some interesting stuff soon! 

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Creative Theories: Research and Analysis

FLOW EXPERIENCE

Flow is a concept developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a mental state in which a subject becomes fully immersed in an activity. In flow, the emotions must be positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. If depression, anxiety or any negative feelings towards the activity are felt, this means that the subject is not experiencing Flow.

A person who experiences Flow will have clear goals, high concentration and a distorted sense of time. These are but a few of the things that may occur during Flow, another being that the subject may lose awareness of their bodily needs and can get very hungry or tired without even realising it.

MIND MAPS

By definition, a Mind Map is a graphical approach to note taking. Typically, they take on a tree-branch format. Mind Maps are used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, to help study or organize information, as well as to help problem solving, making decisions and writing.

Generally, when constructing a Mind Map, you will put the core idea in the centre of the space and each idea will stem from there, and the next ideas from each of those branches, ultimately resulting in a tree-like or a web-like diagram of the developed idea.

HOW I MIGHT USE THESE IN THE CREATION OF MY FILM

Mind Maps is obviously a fantastic way to develop an idea. Using this, I can create a Mind Map that can include many possible themes that I could include in my movie, as well as develop my characters and their possible personalities.

Flow would be a harder thing to include as it is a reasonably hard thing to achieve. As there are many things that can go wrong a film set, some unforeseeable, it may be very difficult to achieve a state of Flow. However, I believe, with the pressure of shooting out of the way, Flow can be achieved in the post-production stage. As editing will be a reasonably lengthy process, concentration will be required as well as clear goals, and a distorted sense of time and being unaware of bodily needs probably wouldn't hurt either.