Need more help please

[Ernie]

Ok, remember the short film I'm making? The one some of you guys helped me with last time about the pizza guy and all that...well, I need just a little more help with it. Now, I'm not the type of guy to ask a favor, get an answer and turn right back around and ask another favor so please don't think that...I'm just really freaking out with this and I need some help and I really think somebody here might be able to help me with it.

Alright, first...if you already know the story of the film, just skip the next paragraph. If you don't know anything about it...just read this short little summary of this very short film....

Mickey Price, an unemployed loser wakes up one morning and gets the mail, in the mail there is a letter from his ex girlfriend, Wendy, requesting his help. Wendy's husband is beating her and she needs him to rescue her, Mickey is her only hope. Wendy's parents forced her and Mickey apart soon after college, during which they had a long relationship that would have lasted forever...if not for her controlling parents.  So they made her move to Florida and made sure Mickey stayed in New York...keeping them apart. Well, they set her up with a husband who has developed some abusive and controlling tendencies. He has taken away Wendy's freedom and, as mentioned before, is now physically harming her.

Ok, now...remember, this is a very short film. I want to send it into a local film festival that only allows ten minute films tops. I want to maintain that shortness...so I want the letter to be short. The audience sees the letter in a 30 second insert, I don't want it to be much longer than 30 seconds. So, in this short letter...I need to establish all these things because there is no other way to show the audience. I'm not casting a Wendy because I'm playing Mickey and there is just not going to be a fucking Wendy, it's not happening. So...please...if you guy's could...try to write a letter for me (you can post anonymously if you don't want people to know your fucking awesome at writing love letters)...try to write a letter for me establishing the following things. These are only guidelines, you don't have to follow them necessarily, be my guest...change them around a little. These aren't constraints in any sense. They are things I want the audience to know. Feel free to completely go and do something different. Mickey already knows she has a husband, let me just say that. Ok, so...this stuff is stuff that the audience doesn't know and some stuff that Mickey doesn't know.

she/her=Wendy

-she is STILL living in Florida (mickey doesn't know)
-Mickey and her were forced apart...they did NOT break up (Mickey knows this but the audience must know this so they understand Mickey's heartbreak)
-her husband is beating her (Mickey doesn't know this)
-her husband has taken away her freedom (phone line, car, etc......Mickey doesn't know)
-she wants Mickey to come to Florida when he is out of town and save her
                                           OR
-she wants Mickey to come to Florida and confront her husband face to face and save her
-when Mickey saves her, she wants him to take her back to NY with him so they can be together like they always should have been

Alright, I don't think there is anything I'm forgetting. So just please...I would appreciate it so fucking much if you guys would just put the above in letter form. Everytime I try to do it, I swear to god...it sounds AWFUL. It sounds just so corny and unrealistic and just horrible, I don't know why. Maybe because I've never written a love letter. Anyway, I want it to sound the opposite of that, I want it to sound convincing and real and sort of heartbreaking too. If you want you can do the anonymous thing...if you want I would be glad to give you a special thanks in there somewhere if you wanna give me your name...or if you just want me to thank you by your xixax name, that's fine too. You deserve a special thanks if you do this for me, it's the least I could do.

Thank you so much. PLEASE ask any questions if you have them and remember, do not follow the guidelines if you don't want to. The only thing that is set in stone is that the letter must be very short so I can fit it in a 30-45 second insert!

[Ernie]

Nevermind, nevermind...I fixed it, I changed it. Now, the letter is informing Mickey of the arranged marriage Wendy is set to have. It's fixed now...Mickey feel he has to stop it. Thanks anyway guys, I'm sure I'll need your help sometime in the future. Thank you.

[ReelHotGames]

EB - good you got the fix, but also remember 30 seconds of a letter on screen is an eternity of boredom if not filmed right.

Somethign to think about isd to hit the keywords, the highlights in a disolving from excu's of the words and sort of making the other words and the rest of the page dimmer.

Just a thought.

[Ghostboy]

I was going to say the same thing....think about the scene in Boogie Nights where they're reading the reviews of Spanish Pantalones.

[BonBon85]

You could do one of those cheesy montages where you sweep the camera across key lines of the letter while dissolving into the next key phrase. You could even record the girl reading the letter and have her voice over lap as well. I hope this makes sense.

[Ernie]

I was thinking about trying to do something like you guys seems to be talking about, talking about the Spanish Patalones reviews and Sydney Barringer's suicide note...I would love to do that. How do I do that? I need to know how I can do that so I can at least try. Do I set the letter on a desk and pan across key lines? Do I have to make the text extra large? I have no idea how to it. I hope my camera has a dissolve thing. If it does, I doubt they are that fast. We'll see though. I need to watch Boogie Nights to see exactly what is done. Let me do that.

The narration thing can probably not happen even though I love the idea Bon Bon. I don't know how I could make that work. I don't know who would read it.

[bonanzataz]

You really can't get the text big like that unless you have a tight-ass lens. You could just scan the letter and do the pan digitally if you were so inclined and knew how to work after effects...

[Ghostboy]

In lieu of a lens, just print the text out really really big and pan along that. It would probably look a little more natural than a digital pan, which is a little tougher if you don't have the right software. Tougher to make it look good, that is.

And you don't ever need to worry about doing fades with your camera. That's an editing thing.

[Ernie]

In lieu of a lens, just print the text out really really big and pan along that. It would probably look a little more natural than a digital pan, which is a little tougher if you don't have the right software. Tougher to make it look good, that is.

And you don't ever need to worry about doing fades with your camera. That's an editing thing.

Alright, that sounds easy. Editing is something I still need help with though. Premiere is too fucking hard, there's gotta be something easier other than Final Cut Pro. I need to learn how to edit in the next two months on a program I don't even have or know about yet...lol, I'm fucked.

The part that really worries me is whether or not I'll be able to find a relatively basic editing system that works with my computer...it's not that old but it's definitely not brand new, maybe 2-3 years...maybe 4. All I wanna be able to do is regular cuts, fades, dissolves, music, and maybe titles. That's all.

[Bud_Clay]

The part that really worries me is whether or not I'll be able to find a relatively basic editing system that works with my computer...it's not that old but it's definitely not brand new, maybe 2-3 years...maybe 4. All I wanna be able to do is regular cuts, fades, dissolves, music, and maybe titles. That's all.

Do you have a Mac?...if so you should download I-Movie...i know I-movie is free to download, but if you want I-Movie 2 it's something like $50 to download...not terribly expensive. anyway that's a very over simplified editing program with nothing but those basic needs you describe.

[Ernie]

The part that really worries me is whether or not I'll be able to find a relatively basic editing system that works with my computer...it's not that old but it's definitely not brand new, maybe 2-3 years...maybe 4. All I wanna be able to do is regular cuts, fades, dissolves, music, and maybe titles. That's all.

Do you have a Mac?...if so you should download I-Movie...i know I-movie is free to download, but if you want I-Movie 2 it's something like $50 to download...not terribly expensive. anyway that's a very over simplified editing program with nothing but those basic needs you describe.

No, I don't have a Mac...I'm starting to wish I did. Is there any simple I-Movie type programs for PC's? Anything at all similar? I really need something.

[BonBon85]

Ulead video studio for pc is simple and easy. You can download a free trial from their website //www.ulead.com

This site has some free video programs: http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/VIDEO_MULTIMEDIA/

[bonanzataz]

Read the adobe premiere handbook. It's stupid to have the $1000 dollar program and not even use it. Once you get the hang of it, it's really easy to use. I never read the book and I still think so (even if I am tech savvy, it shouldn't be hard for the average guy to learn it through fiddling around with the buttons). It's the program I use and it makes things a lot easier for me. I took the High School NYFA course over the summer and cut on film. Premiere is a lot like cutting on film only more organized and more time efficient. Use premiere.

[Ghostboy]

Yeah, just learn it. You'll thank yourself later. Two months is plenty of time, manual or no manual.