Vlad begins – WAYOFF

Vlad Begins! and Ends.

Raphael Baumann — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 11:46:32 +0000

I’m starting to see a recurring theme here. It’s definitely not the first time I started a project to then find excuses as to why I stopped. It’d be a shame to stop this trend when I’m on such a roll. So that series I talked about on that post… 14 months ago. Yeah that’s not happening anytime soon. So here are the excuses in the form of a list:

Job takes most of my time and energy.
Took too many side projects.
Turns out making a web series is a lot of work.
I don’t even drink that much anymore. It’s getting hard to pretend to be drunk.
It wasn’t reaching my expectations.
I got distracted.

That sounds about right. So now I’m making a mobile game…

I really need make a new website. But i’m getting ahead my myself there. That’s next weeks new project.

Instead of filming I wrote that!

Raphael Baumann — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 11:32:32 +0000

I think it’s time for a progress update on the new web series staring Vlad. It’s already been seven month since I last wrote about this project and there is probably one question burning in 3 peoples mind including myself. When will it come out? I don’t know, but probably not this year. Starting this project, I was very aware it would probably not be finished in 2015 but at the time, 2016 seemed so far away. I refused to fix a 2016 goal, but now, being only a few month away from this new year, I know the web series won’t be released before January of next year. So, Summer 2016? Yes please. ow wait…

In the past seven month the script went through a few more rewrites with a focus on episode 1. I’ve been strengthening the dialog, I’ve been learning the lines and action, trying out shots, testing special effect and creating a very detailed shooting plan. That last point is very important. Up to now I have been able to break down all the tasks over time and tackle them one at a time. However when shooting comes this will not be possible anymore. I will have to pay simultaneous attention to framing, lighting, acting, movement, props, and many more fancy shmancy aspect of filmmaking. I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit overwhelmed which is why a solid shooting plan and a few beers are very important.

As I was waiting for the last few props and pieces of gear to arrive I have been working on the introduction sequence of the series. I was scratching my brain for an original way of making an interesting looking introduction. I came up with the concept of using 3d paper letterings instead of using CGI. Long story short, I spend the past few days cutting out letters. With 27 characters and an average of 30 minutes per letters, you can do the math, but it’s exactly 810 minutes more than I expected to be thrown back into kindergarten. It was nice.

Spending so much time on such a large project will inevitably lead to some doubt about your capacity. The simple fact that you will not see the final product for the next few month or even years makes it very daunting. To keep the motivation going you have to look for the smaller achievements, such as being the new proud owner of 27 awesome homemade 3d paper letters. But more seriously with a bit of organisation these achievements are everywhere. Having some sort of to do list will not only help you visualise and plan your work but crossing tasks off the list will make you feel like you’re actually going forward. This is coming from someone who has avoided organising things for the past 25 years, so don’t be scared to take 10 minutes every morning planning tasks you want to achieve during the day. (also if you want tips on never planning things ask me in the comments)

Since I talked about a todo list let’s finish with an app recommendation. This app is called anydo. It is a fairly simple todo list app that allows you to sort tasks by date. Even if you can set a specific date for a task it is not a calendar. it gives you four choice: today, tomorrow, upcoming and someday. if you have a specific deadline for something than set the date otherwise just drop it in one of the four sections. I’ve been using it the past few weeks and I feel and been a lot more productive. Few years ago I heard the best tip about todo lists. It’s simple, start every task with an action verb. It will keep tasks short and to the point. If you can’t start it with an action verb it’s probably too vague and you need to break it down and be more precise. On that note it’s time to go cross off “writing blog post about how that web series that is never happening” on anydo and feel like i’ve achieved something. bye.

ow, and I shaved my head.

What happened?

Raphael Baumann — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 11:11:50 +0000

Soooo…. I was doing daily videos which quickly turned into twice a week to weekly to, well none. but let’s not reminisce on our past failures. That was like 6 month ago and I don’t regret any second of it. It made me realise that I didn’t want to make low production videos. I don’t want to say I’ll never do it again, but with my limited free time I’d rather be spending it wisely. I could have gone back to short 2-3 minute comedy video, but I didn’t want to do that either. On my main channel, I have made more than 50 videos with Vlad, John, Billy Bob and that Australian character that didn’t last long (I couldn’t do the accent). Don’t get me wrong. It was fun while it lasted and I learned so much while doing it, but it was time for me to raise the bar.

The thing is with these videos, by the end, it became less of a learning experience and more of a routine where I would write a short skit, film it, edit it and publish it. On average a video would take me 30 hours to produce from the idea to the uploading. At the time I thought it was quiet a long time, and frankly for an 20 years old it is. Think how many beers you could drink in that amount of time! But truthfully 30 man hours for a video is not very long. Looking at my videos I realised that there wasn’t one that made me proud. The thing is, when I started I was expecting to get better and better, which I’m sure I did, but to a level that was barely noticeable.

Why is that? Well, probably because I got stuck into a routine. My Solution to this stagnating progress was to challenge myself on every aspect of filmmaking (well more or less). The past six month I have been learning about writing, story telling, character development, and many other things to create my own mini web series. As underwhelming as that may sound, it is a big difference. In the past, what I was doing was stand alone video’s with a vague story linking it all together. There wasn’t any time for development or depth. Jokes were simple and story was brief. This time around it is a sci-fi/comedy, five episode mini series.

The five episode will create one larger story with depth, intrigue and suspense. And also I’ve spend six month writing it… To be more accurate, I should say It’s been six month since I’ve started writing this web series. Obviously I haven’t been writing it 24/7, I’ve also been learning about writing and filmmaking in general. Ow and work and stuff… that too. But I can honestly say it is the biggest project I have ever work on. The script went through many pages of notes, 3 major rewrites and possibly thousands of mixed feelings towards it. Needless to say, I’m excited about the final product. The script isn’t even done yet but it is currently being read by friends. I’m not going to give a date for the release because there is still so much left to do. But I’ll everything in my power to release it this year. (2015) Ow, and our dearly beloved Vlad Beletsky will be starring in it as the main protagonist, so there’s that…