Lucky Linda's Body Art Commercial is Live

So we've wrapped up everything with Lucky Linda's Body Art. It was a great project to be a part of especially since it contained mostly my vision, since I wrote, directed, and edited the piece.

It also happened to be the first project for the local start up Local Biz Productions, which is currently based out of the Eden Prairie, Minnesota and is currently taking on new clients to create low budget commercials.

Below you can find many of the links that are associated with the project. As well as the finished commercial. Let me know what you think and check out some of the other posts as well. Also if you are in the Minneapolis area, head on down to Lucky Linda's in Shakopee and give them some love.

The Importance of a Storyboard: A side by side comparison of the storyboard and the finished piece
And we Shot in Shakopee. Thanks Lucky Linda.: Picture copies of the storyboard used
The Head is Done: Image of what the muppet head looked like finished
Head Update
The Head is Built
A Small Setback
Tattoo Commercial

The Importance of a storyboard

Now, I know that I've talked about how a storyboard is important, and how it can make life easier, but I want to show you how side by side with the storyboard that planning actually does help regardless of if it is with stick figures, better looking hand drawings, Celtx's storyboard add ons, or any other storyboarding program. Making a storyboard helps out so much when it comes to production.

I know this because I've worked on productions that didn't have a storyboard of what the director was looking for. It was all in their head, so everyone was sitting around waiting for the director to give his vision for the shot instead of being able to jump to the next shot or scene, while the director was working with the actors.

To give you some perspective, we shot the commercial below in about an hour and a half and that includes set up and tear down times. Because we went into Lucky Linda's with not only a plan of what we wanted to shoot, but also an actual shot list of what we needed to get proper coverage we were able to get in and get out in a good amount of time.

If you've never done a storyboard before I am encouraging you to do one now and if you have done them before I continue to encourage you to do them in the projects you are working on. I hope you enjoy the video below comparing the storyboard we made to how the commercial ended up.

And we shot in Shakopee. Thanks Lucky Linda's

So today we shot at Lucky Linda's Body Art tattoo parlor. A link to their facebook page is here

We shot using the Canon 7D with the standard stock lens.  I also got my friend Brian to come along and lend a hand and shoot a bunch of B-Roll for us that we are going to use. He was using the Canon T3i to shoot his footage and I'm planning on putting up some of that random B-Roll tomorrow at some point.

The shoot itself went pretty smooth, except that we didn't have lights and I had to run home quickly and get them. Also, the mouth on our muppet head didn't seem to work when we needed it to either, so I had to put a part of the extra shedding brown cloth over my hand and I had to operate the head manually.

On a plus note though our actress, Destiny, showed up on time and worked out perfectly for the part that we hoped her for. We hope that once we get this commercial finished and out to people that you can help Destiny out who was able to help us out on our shoot even though we couldn't really pay her.

As promised though here is the storyboard for the shoot. In a later post I will tell you how important a storyboard is to a shoot, especially a shoot on a timeline, and no budget.

Like a woman

Like a woman, we have changed our mind on the skin type of the muppet head. We are planning on adding the same fabric that made up the muppet's hair to the rest of his head. We are also planning on giving the man teeth to make him look more like an animal instead of a man. It should be good, but it just means more work for myself, and it all has to be done by tomorrow. It looks like it could be a long night, but I hope not to late. Pictures will be updated, when the muppet is complete.

On another note though, I'm heading to Mankato in about an hour to shoot some video for my buddy Lucky and his network marketing company World Ventures. I'll fill you in with more information after I get done with it.

Until next time readers,
Keep it Classy.

Head Update

I'm ending construction for the night of the muppet, but he is almost done. All that is needed is a nose and possibly some ears. I've uploaded an image of what he looks like at the moment as to not disappoint all of those that were hoping to see him for what he is. Let me know your thoughts if you have any good ideas as to making him better.

Again we based our head off of this Indy Mogul Episode, though I couldn't find a magnetic motor so I used some rope and a pull system. It seems to work well. If you have a chance, give them some love.

And it's Live

As promised the wooddale senior high video that I shot and edited is now live on Wooddale's youtube, I've embedded the video in this post. Also on another note I have begun working on the mask for the tattoo commercial that I wrote for Lucky Linda's Tattoo in downtown Shakopee in Minnesota, we are basing the head off of an indy mogul episode, so if you want to give what they suggest the link is here