Friday, 18 December 2009Yarn
Well, it's been a bit less than a month since an update so here it goes. I have finished the script for Sickness of the Flesh, and hope to begin filming that just after christmas. That will be hard work and will test me mentally. I have also got a few ideas for other movies, such as IM Legend (a play on the words I Am Legend, from the movie, google it) which is about 2 people sitting next to each other, having an MSN chat in real life. And Dave ep 1 will be done when I get around to it, tomorrow if it isn't too hot. Remember, this is Australia. Don't count on it.

Um, that's about it. Cya later.
Sunday, 29 November 2009New Video
My friend was around and so we filmed a short video spoofing on Counterstrikes gameplay and moving style. It only goes for about 23 seconds, and the gun sounds are a little too loud, but it was fun making. Currently it is in Movies (Standalone) but in the event of us making more it will be relocated to Series. Enjoy it.
Saturday, 28 November 2009SOTF and Dave

Alright, more changes have been made to the horror movie. My brother is a goodie now, and he is immune to the zombies, which obviously changes the whole world. The horror movie is now heavily zombie based, and it is spread through a strain of the rabies virus, which is passed on by biting. It is also called Sickness of the Flesh, or SOTF, and it will be created in 3 parts, each approximately 20 minutes long. This will make up a complete movie of 1 hour. That involves like 20 zombies coming to stay at my house while we film stuff. So we checked out a community centre that is close by and that looks fit for housing a few people (ping pong table). So that is good. I am looking forward to that.

And another movie that I will make is a comedic series about a dude called Dave. He is a problem solver, crime fighter and a high school student. I have started making the first episode. The montage at the start is nearly done and the script is complete. I will film more of that tomorrow (Sunday).

And finally, my friend Brendan, who is also the Alpha Zombie/Sprinter in my movie, came over today and we made a short video that has nothing to do with anything at all. Well, we were mimicking the Counterstrike game. Check it out. It's the featured video. It looks pretty good actually, except the guns are too loud, but I think we might even do another one.

Wednesday, 18 November 2009Horror Movie and Themes

OK, so some changes have been made to the horror movie which I will shoot in the holidays, in like 4 weeks. Until then I will be recruiting actors (chances are I'm not going to be in it), writing the script and playing Xbox :) Um...OK, changes. OK, before it was gonna be based around this creepy little kid who kills people. I started writing the script for that then realised that it just wouldn't last. So I'm going for a more commonly used theme. Zombies :P Yes, I know that has been used way to much but it would do better than just my brother looking scary. He will still be in it. Oh and on that note, if anyone reading this knows of a good tutorial on changing someones eye color in Adobe Premiere or After Effects, that'd be awesome. Head over to the contact page to help me out. It'll make my bro look creepier.

And a new theme is in the pipeline. However, just to get stuff straight, it will almost definately not be for this site. Coz I fail at making themes and my cousin helped me with this one, which is why it pwns. So unless I get good enough to make a theme better than this one, this one is the norm. OK, cya later.

Tuesday, 17 November 2009v2.1

Well, the updates are done. All the bugs have been fixed, and we are now moving to v2.1, v1 being the previous theme for Sam Graves Film (back then it was Sam G Film and Special Effects). So we are now definately onto the 2nd stage of this version of the site, and if all goes well I will not have to update it for a long time, for bugs. I'll probably just keep getting ideas of what to put into this site, and put it all together into the magical v2.3!!! Although that won't be too amazing for anybody besides me.

If I get super advanced at HTML/CSS/Javascript then I may update the theme, however I am quite content with this one and couldn't make a better theme with my current programming skills anyway. If I get good enough to make a site that has video functionality and looks even better than this one, I will make the change and that will be v3.0, but that is a long way off. Although I am designing a theme now, so I make try and add the flv player to that site and then it may function as a proper site :D

Also, now most categories have videos in them. The only ones that don't have videos in it are Vlogs and Movies (Series). I am writing a script for a comedy, and am planning the production of a horror movie. For the horror movie, I am very excited, although it'll probably take all holidays and only go for half an hour in the end. But hey. I am gonna need to recruit a whole load of zombies and a few main characters, that will all end up dying :P

OK, that's all I have to say, enjoy the updates.

Thursday, 05 November 2009Videos and Bugs
Well, I now know exactly how to get videos up on this site perfectly. This means that more videos can come through mouch quicker. Thanks to the Embed Designer for that.

However, while I was doing this I found so many bugs with this site. Like there being to Contact buttons in the footer. And the Blog category in Movies that I thought I deleted. So, these next weeks I will sort all of them out and then I will make movies with speed.

I will also change a few non-bug related issues, such as my motto thing still being "Film and Special Effects" when I don't really do special effects anymore and even if I did, I would not really post my effects as a video in its own, just include it in a series or something. So I will delete the Effects category and replace it with a new Blog category. And then I think that will solve most of those problems. I'm also thinking about making a 10 post limit to the news section, and after that there is a link to "All News" or something, which then shows all of it. Maybe.

So, fix the bugs, upload the videos, change the site around. That's the plan.
Sunday, 18 October 2009Eggs
Just a quick update, I am about to test my start stop animation with some eggs, as well as a Fanta bottle. The quality will not be that great as I am going to use my video camera for taking photos *gasps from the crowd* and as my video camera is not designed for photos, it may look slightly weird. But whatever, I'm not gonna buy an SLR anytime soon, and as far as I know, I am not going to be a photographer, so you'll have to live with it.

Anyway, I'm gonna run my tests, and I'll upload them in Projects when I'm done.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009Big, Fat, Juicy Update
Regarding the horror movie, I have made a few updates to its current state. It still has no name however. But I took a creepy picture of my brother (who is to be the main scary thing in the horror movie) and I'm making him look freaky in Photoshop. I'm going to get him just right (bright orange eyes, pale face, the usual) in Photoshop, and then I will use the same effects in Adobe After Effects. I am also going to look for some people that want to die on camera, in other words, I need some main characters. So I'm going to ask my friends about that. And finally, I looked at some ways of writing the screenplay for a horror movie, and I have a fairly good idea of how to write it. I will start later today.

Also, the egg start stop animation is definately not cancelled. I am going to do a few animation tests today with a regular egg, and if it doesn't fail horribly then I will go ahead with it. Maybe I will use a Fanta bottle, and have Coke vs Fanta wars, which I was originally going to do. And yes, I know that Coke and Fanta are from the same company, and that it should be Coke vs Pepsi, but my brother came up with the idea (he collects Coke and Fanta cans, he has like a thousand of them, he's strange) so that'll be a lot easier than going out and get hundreds of Pepsi cans.

And I'm going to maybe do some filming for my friends who are making a video about "if there was a hl2 console in real life, if you haven't played Half Life 2, or any game where if you press ` a console will come up and you type cheats into it. So that will be good.

For school I am editing a video me and 2 of my friends made. I also need to make another video advertising paint. So I will have to do that before the end of the holidays. I am still editing the soccer video I filmed, but that will hopefully be done soon.

So, there are still only 2 videos on this site, but as you have just read, lots and lots are coming. Stick around and watch out for them.
Monday, 12 October 2009Better Video Idea
Forget the egg start stop animation, I'm going to make a HORROR movie. Starring my brother. I'm going to buy fake contacts and give him so much makeup. I'm thinking solid black contacts for his eyes, and make his face heaps pale. Kinda stereotypical, but it's my first actual production, so it'll do. I have no idea about the story, and I am struggling with the script. All I know is that when people see my brother in this movie, they will be afraid. Very afraid.

Ok, back to working on the script. If you want to talk to me about it, got to the Contact page and email me.
Monday, 21 September 2009Video Idea
So I was getting some eggs out of the fridge right, and we had bought some barn laid eggs, and to show that the chickens were happy they printed little smiley faces on the eggs. So I was slightly amused and it was even funnier when i split one of their heads open, and egg poured out of the wound. It was awesome. So I got the other egg, and I also tortured and maimed him.

And them, I got a very good idea. I am going to make a start/stop animation using eggs with faces as the characters! Now that I have my tripod and camera it is very possible. I'm definately looking forward to it.
Sunday, 20 September 2009Work Underway
OK, I know it's been a couple of months since I wrote something here, but I have been slightly busy. I went to Cairns for 5 weeks with my Dad, and filmed a whole lot of stuff there, so eventually I will mesh that all together and make a small series out of our adventures there. Then later on, I got a Tripod for my birthday! So now, I can do epic stuff with Tripods. So that is a step forward. My friend filmed me playing soccer (goalkeeper), so I will cut all the highlights out of that and put it in a large video.

So, that is what's gonna be up later in the month. Or next month. Or whenever. Um...what else happened? Nothing. Hmmm...see you later.
Tuesday, 21 July 2009Life of a Stickman
So now that pretty much everything is working, I'm gonna try and get a whole load of videos onto the site so it has some content. To start with, I am going to upload the complete Life of a Stickman series to date onto the website, in the Animations section. They will keep you entertained while I sort through some stuff, trying to get more videos. With the machinima, I am currently having a problem with audio, as it will not record sound. This is definately not a hardware problem, because it was recording sound before. I've obviously just changed a setting accidently and I forgot how to fix it. Plus I need voice actors and a microphone. So machinima will be delayed for awhile. And with the camera, I need a tripod to do anything good, as well as an editing program. Adobe Premiere is stuffing up, and I need to work that out. Then once I get my tripod, I'm gonna learn some more Adobe After Effects.
So, due to no movie making program available to me, new videos are not gonna come through until I fix it.
Sunday, 19 July 2009Upcoming Maintenance
It's been ages since last post, so I think you deserve another one. Most important thing first: The .com domain is up, courtesy of my uncle and embed design. Thanks guys. Also, I am going to change a few small things, and add some categories etc etc. So look out for those updates. OK, I'll try and keep you updated.
Saturday, 24 April 2009Hosting
Time for another post. I will be getting hosting over the next few days. It will be all set up soon. That will be very good when that gets set up. And I am going to be getting a bit more money coming in soon, so hopefully I can upgrade my computer and get a video camera even sooner. That's it for now.
Saturday, 18 April 2009Finishing Touches
So, we're just finishing up with a few things, like some of the links not working. A few minor changes were the Work in Progress boxes being moved slightly, and some of the broken links being fixed. By the way, we were up at 5.30am making this site. It was crazy, we didn't even intend to stay up that late.
Saturday, 18 April 2009Domains and Hosting
We found a good hoster and domain, which is $94 for 2 years. After I upgrade and get the camera then that is what I will do. It will probably be www.samgraves.net so look out for that in the next few months. This address will just become a link to the new site, so you don't have to worry. That's all for now.