'Mad Nation' Post-Apocalyptic TV show Megathread

Latest update: I've got the parts to repair my computer, so production will be up and running again in a week or so. I've been doing a little writing, but most of what I've been doing is location scouting. In the middle of the movie there will be a sequence where Gray travles through the desert and then into a ruined city. I've got all the desert stuff shot and it looks pretty good, and now I just need to get together my city footage. Fortunately, I currently live in one of the shittyiest, poorest cities in massachusetts, so I have no lack of locations, expecially since I litterally need only about a minute worth of footage.

It's hopefully going to cut together as a montage sequence that lasts about 30 seconds. Any longer than that would drag, but it might be tough to get all the cineamatics in at the same time. I might cut a longer, more visually interesting version and have it as a bonus scene on the DVD.
 
I must say this is my favorite thread so far (I like the updates) ;)

It's great that you put so much into this project! I hope your computer is a little more nicer to you from now on.
 
Thanks a lot: sometimes i get discouraged by the vast amount of work that there is still left to be done, and the fact that you and the other posters on this thread are patiently waiting to see the end result and are hopefull and supportive helps keep me going. This project is particularly important to me because it is based on the first story I ever wrote, a post-nuke short story/novella that I wrote about half of and have yet to finish over the course of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. I'm hoping to do a short featurette on the evolution of the story and throw it on the DVD, since I've been working on these characters and this story for almost 7 years.

Also, this is probably going to be the last movie that I shoot on Digital 8 mil, which is an obsolete format and is what I've shot all my movies in so far (except those i've done for school), and the last movie I do with my old production crew that I've known since before highschool. So in a way it's going to sort of mark the end of an era for me, when I'm moving up from my own shooting for fun things to professional grade projects.

And yeah, my computer is a dick, but that's what i get for building a Mac from scratch. Macs have a reputation of being ever-relyable, but that's only when you don't build them yourself heh.

Update, 3/25/06:
Alright, after spending close to 500$, 156 of which I didn't need to spend, my computer is currenly waiting on a new processor card to come along and be popped into it. I also need to upgrade my video card at some point, but that has yet to happen and frankly isn't important enough to deal with right now. I've also been doing a lot of work on the script.

The big new thing however, is that I know have access and know how to use a really fun program called Frame Forge 3d. It's a 3d storyboarding program that alows you to create an entire storyboard in 3d, then export it as an animatic (an animated slideshow of sorts). So with any luck I'll have a few storybaord screen shots availible soon. As of now I'm pretty overworked by school, but a friend is going to get me a copy of the software and hopefully I can work something up on my own time.
 
Alright, my mac is back up and running, and though I'm spectacularly busy, I'm still working on the movie. I'm thinking about doing a little promotional stuff to elivate interest, such as perhaps releasing a few clips, concept art, whatever. Anyone have any recomendations/requests?
 
Buon giorno, Ethan!

I'm so glad to be hearing from you again!

All of us here are looking forward to the "Mad Nation" movie.

And yes, releasing a few clips would be wonderful!
Could you please give us the list of featuring guns? Or will you keep it secret?

Cheers!
 
is there a photo of Elvis in it?

so very glad to see that you're back
 
I'll work on that Velvet painting, haha.

As for guns, I won't list them all because there's too many, but the following are the guns that'll be looking the best, since we're using the real thing instead of props.

Beretta model 1934
Luger 9mm
Mauser 7mm bolt action (I forget which model, it's a WW1 gun)
12 gauge double sawn-off shotgun, made by Ithica gun co.

The rest of them are either well painted toys (the extra's guns) and high end airsoft (going to supporting actors who will be seen more often).\


I'm working in a few quite fallout references with the props and dialogue, one of them will be dead obvious if you can catch it but it'll make you all laugh.

Also, the project I'm doing right now for my class is coming out real well and I may release it online for fun. It'll look totally different from Mad Nation because it's being done with much better cameras, but it's still an indication of my style and you'll get an idea of what to expect.

I'll get back to you all on the promo clips to be released.
 
Alright, schools out, meaning production is back on schedual.

I've decided to completely re-write one scene. So far in the movie we have three separate scenes that are just dialogue between two characters, and while that is a bit more in line with how Fallout's gameplay can be, in a movie it gets old fast. So I'm replacing a fourth such scene with a more exciting scene involving Gray coming across the aftermath of a caravan attack and an ensuing gunbattle/knife fight. This change will make for more action to break up the otherwise simple traveling sequence (gray walking from one town to the next), but the trouble will be finding an area where I can set a couple of trailers on fire and make a half decent looking caravan attack.

After the caravan attack thing, and a few montage shots for the Traveling sequence, it's time to do the last three scenes. With that over and done with, it comes down to editing and music. So it's actually possible that we'll get the shooting all finished by the end of summer.

May 24th Update: Nothing really worth mentioning other than I'm more or less done with script rewrites. Also, I've got a scene tentatively planned for shooting on saturday, a short dialogue between Todd the bar tender and Marcus. It's really just to establish some stuff about the story and the characters, and to intercut with the traveling sequence of Gray making his way through the desert. I'll post screenshots when I can, though it will probably be nothing you folks havn't seen before really, same set, different actors. The fun bit will be shooting everything else we need: a scene at a caravan attack, and the big fight sequence. That will provide plenty of fun stuff for you folks to look at.
 
Great work man, couldnt actually -see- the trailer because winamp wont let me, i can hear it though. Your doing great man, tis excellent.
 
Hey, thanks a lot. The file is in a crap format, but if you have quicktime or another video player it should work, or you could maybe find an update for winamp.

Bad news Update: Both my computers shit themselves, so I'm pitching them all, taking a loss of around 2000$, and buying a new machine. The movie is still okay though (atleast, it is 99.9% likely to be okay...) so nobody panic. I might have to take up a collection to be able to afford gas and food after I buy a new computer though.

Another small update: we have a tentative shooting date for this coming saturday for an important but hopefully short establishing scene. Last time I watched the full cut, I decided that it needed some trimming for time and pacing, and that it needed more action sequences, since it is infact supposedly an action movie. For now, I'm contenting myself with coaching my lead actress and re-writing (again) the last three scenes. I'm expecting to do 1 or 2 scenes within the next two weeks hopefully.
 
Alright, latest updates:

Saturday, we're shooting a short scene involving Marcus and Todd. Not alot needs to be said, I'll post pictures when it's done if I can but with my computer being a shit head it's not all that likely :(

Also, here's an interesting bit for you all: We got us a car.

http://www.austinjeeps.com/front4.jpg

This is a 1978 Jeep CJ5, not the same one but very similar to the car that a friend of mine has offered to let us use in the movie. It's bright orange and beat to hell. We're going to cover it in mud, take the cloth top off, and replace it with something post-nuclear like, probably a home made top like that on the raider buggy in Tactics. I'm just glad we found a car at all, but his will probably add a lot to the movie visually.

I'm now in the process of getting a set for the big fight at the end, finishing some revisions on the script, and doing general tidying up of the production.



Another fun distraction:
This movie, written and directed by my friends Kevin James and Matt Sinclair, and staring myself, was #77 on Google Video's top 100 for a few days. Since then it seems to have unexpectedly dissapeared from the ranking altogether, but the movie is still up so check it out if you like. It's based on the early 90's video game Shaq Fu:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-340820404036903162&q=shaq+fu
 
So we shot another scene on saturday, no pics yet sadly but I'll get some up as soon as possible. Because of my lack of a working editing computer, we won't be getting this edited any time soon, but atleast it's shot well. So far, the movie is about 40 minutes. I'm hoping it won't break an hour, and I'm trying to trim it down as much as possible.

This marks the final stage of production and shooting: the last 4 scenes are all that's left to do, as well as a few individual shots, and maybe a little bit of a travel sequence through the city. So, more or less, the shooting is 75% done, with editing at more or less 50% done. So, if all goes well, I can ball park the release at some time around late winder 06/early spring 07.

For the release, I'm going to make the movie itself available on my website for a certain period of time, as well as uploading it to google video and youtube for long term viewing. I never put too much faith in those sites until some friends of mine started having a great deal of sucess with them. Anyone who'd like to see the bonus material should consider buying a dvd. I will probably make it availible at some point for free, but I doubt I could host the whole batch of it on my site all at the same time, and I'm too lazy to upload -everything- to a third party site, plus while I do want to be fair to everyone in making it all availible, I gotta atleast pay the bills somehow haha.
 
Could you perhaps have it in segments? Like have about ten minutes per segment and host them? That would enable you (and viewers) to download the pieces and watch them individually and you can release the early parts you have finished for people to watch while you finish up the rest of it.
 
paridoth said:
are you going to be uploading it to bittorent as well?
Click to expand...

Cha.

Sunder said:
Could you perhaps have it in segments?
Click to expand...

I was considering it, and probably will just to be dialup friendly. I doubt I'd need to release the first segments before it's done, because probably by the time I'm ready to release the first segment most of the rest of it will be done anyway: when I edit the movie (as with any movie), I do the cutting first, make a rough cut (the whole movie, without special effects, sound editing, or color correction), and then do the fine tuning. Thus, chances are by the time the first scene was done, the rest of it would be too. But I might release them separately anyway, just for fun. I'd probably have it by scenes: as in, say, 2-3 scenes per segment, and have about 3 or 4 segments total.
 
Ya know I never said it and I feel kinda bad waiting this long, but I'm super impressed you're doing so much work for a fan-based project. I mean I've seen plenty of stuff, but as art goes this is probably the largest project I've seen.

I just know your work will pay off.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
Thanks a bunch. It's a lot of hard work, and it's good to be reminded that it's appreciated. And there's nothing wrong with waiting around to say what you think, that way you give yourself plenty of time to see what I come up with and give me valid opinions.
 
Alright, my hellish summer is over, I'm back at school and I'm pulling life back together. I'm not going to bother explaining it all, just suffice it to say that my life more or less fell to pieces over the course of the summer and thus made it impossible to do anything on my own time. But now I'm in the position to start working on the movie again. With any luck, I can finish some at school, and then get the rest done over my two major school vacations and the early summer.

The lack of productivity over the summer, due mostly to working to fund the movie and bad schedualing with actors going on vacations, rendered us one completed scene. I'm soon going to schedual another scene in at school to shoot, and possibly changing the screenplay slightly to make it possible to do a second here as well. That will leave us basically the climactic battle scene and the last two scenes to do.

My new computer is the bomb. 20" widescreen Apple Intel Imac. With the movie stored on my external hard drive, I might have to re do some edits because I have upgraded from Final Cut express to Final Cut Pro. Also, a good friend of mine has also supplied me with DVD studio Pro and also, even more useful, Soundtrack pro. For those who don't know, Soundtrack makes it possible for me to do advanced editing on the movie's sound, like including better sound effects, embedding them deeper into the background, adding echos, reverberations, etc. But the simplest change is also the most important: I can actually -remove- sounds, like the horrid background werrrring sound from my crappy ass camera. I'm very happy about it, since it'll give me the ability to really improve the movie and give it a much more profesional sound.
 
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