Sprites are a new, chewable nanotechnology that lets you take photos with your eyes, cures cancer and eliminates body odour. Forget outsourcing, insourcing is cheaper and closer to home!

But the early adopters are realizing they got extra "features" they didn't count on. And cats in Bangkok are starting to use tools...

Maybe migrant workers in the bloodstream wasn't such a great idea.

Infest Wisely is a lo-fi sci-fi zerobudget feature written by Jim Munroe. Seven segments, each with a different director and intertwining characters, explore a world changed by the tiniest product in history.

PRE-PRODUCTION [COMPLETE]

I'm going to write and produce a series of interlocking shorts with some kind if science fiction bent. I can write it so that separately they work on their own, but together they tell a larger story. Given that it's a science-fiction narrative, this disjointedness will be stylistically appropriate. There will be recurring locations, actors and music to give it a sense of continuity. We're going with a team of seven directors, each responsible for a 12ish minute segment within of the 80-90 minute final.

I want to get the directors involved in the script writing process now because I want to pool our resources and write it from what we have access to rather than what we wish we had. Stage one is getting interested directors to keep an eye out for sf-suitable or just interesting locations, thinking about the actors they'd like to use and the themes or situations they'd like to shoot. Through conversations and this site we will amass the resources we need to make this movie for $0. The resources are listed on the left nav bar.

PRODUCTION [COMPLETE]

• For the shooting schedule see this calendar. [UPDATE: We shot 85 pages in 97 hours over a six week period. Kick ass!]
  
• Production stills from Craig's "Early Adopter" segment...
  

• ...from Rose's "General Chaos" segment [Rose has some more over here]..
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• ...from Chris' "Spawning Rebellion" band sequence...
  

• ...more of the city destruction from Patricio's eye view

• ...Betty Wang took some shots at Chris' nonanite gang meetin at the Reservoir

• Jim also took a couple at Benny's bike stunt shoot...
  
  
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• and a couple more were shot at Jim & Benny's Scarb u of t shoot
  
  

How Are We Shooting?

These are some of the issues that have come up and should be thought about before the shooting begins.

• Do we have enough 24p cameras to go around?
  
• Should we try to shoot most of it in 24p, letterbox style?
  
• Craig M clarifies: The two main issues with shooting format are frame rate and aspect ratio. It's probably for the best if we all shoot regular NTSC (30fps), Progessive if we can (non-interlaced). Trying to all do 24p or mixing and matching sounds like a nightmare. Next is the choice between 4:3 (normal TV) or 16:9 (letterbox). I'm gunning for 16:9, but it might not be the most practical if we're using different cameras. But we can find creative solutions to mix and match the two ratios, no? Thoughts...?
• We're shooting 16:9, in normal NTSC (30fps)
  
• Will this translate to a web vid OK? (yep, no problem - CM)
• Other than still photos are there other press-kit type tools that we should generate at this stage?
• Benny had the idea of us all doing a white balance off of an off blue bristol board, so we all have a similar eerie hue.
  

POST-PRODUCTION [COMPLETE]

Editing Protocols

Many of us have always shot and edited our own stuff and evolved our own idiosyncratic methods. We're doing our own edits of our segments but probably at some point we'll want to hand it over to a third party for special effects, colour correction, sound level syncing etc. Here are a couple of things that will let us hand over our edits and tapes to a fine editor or a sound editor and have them be able to work with it easily.

• BEFORE YOU BEGIN, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NO TIMECODE BREAKS. You can find this out by simply fast-forwarding through your tapes -- if at some point it resets to zero, then you have a break. Get in touch with <craig@mise-en-chien.com> and he'll redub it onto a new tape.
• work with an editing system like Premier Pro or Final Cut Pro -- in the end, you'll have to export an EDL (Edit Decision List) in CMX3600 format.
• In Premiere, when you are in the "Capture" window, you should always give the tape a name in the "Tape Name" box that is your name and the number of the tape, ie. jim1, rose3, whatever -- make sure it's less than 8 characters. in Final Cut Pro this is in the "Log and Capture" window. i think you can do this after the fact in your bin -- there should be a "Tape Name" column you should be able to change.
• Steve, our post-audio editor says: Give me everything. Don't delete any channels of audio (camera mics or whatnot). It's better if I get too much than not enough. Don't consolidate or mix-down anything. I should be getting audio *exactly* as it was digitized off the shoot tapes, please.
  
  

Transitions & Credits

How can we facilitate transitions from one segment to another?

• Craig M had that idea about using abstract images as interstitials, especially if the breaks have any kind of text, like date ("September 5, 2395") or location ("New Brampton, Mars Colony").
  
• Benny mentioned using the lipstick cams to get a super low perspective of the street with lights flashing by overhead for that lo-fi sci-fi feel.
• We'll have a much better idea of how to do this once we see the rough edits
• Craig is keen on the idea of the title of the movie going last
• Jim thinks that for the feature length edit, the credits from each segment should go at the very end, otherwise the flow will be seriously messed up.

DISTRIBUTION

Cover Concepts

Some ideas for things that could work as a poster or dvd cover.

• close-up of Stef/Andrea's face with the duct tape, INFEST WISELY written across it
• a stencil graffiti style rendition of Digger's face with INFEST WISELY beneath it -- in this kinda style. [UPDATE: The guy who made the stencils on that site, is into making us a stencil of Digger!]

How Will We Get it Out There?

• We've been lucky enough to get Innis Town Hall for the premier of INFEST WISELY! The Innis Town Hall (St. George and Sussex) is a modern theatre space downtown, seats 300 and best of all, we're getting it for free.And it also looks like we'll be able to charge $5 at the door, which should fund a pressing of DVDs as well. [Done. It went amazing.]
  
• I will be looking for funding as the process continues but as long as we're prepared to do it anyway we don't need to get caught up in the budget-approval game. Any funding or money we make off the movie will be split evenly amongst me and all the directors. Some funding ideas that people have brought up are arts councils, Bravo/Fact, and Kinooga... please add your ideas here.
• Bravo/Fact has a 6 minute max, and our shorts are twice that, so no go. The Canada Council has a November 1 deadline for the Media Arts Dissemination Grant and it looks very promising. Jim will apply for this if our project is eligible. [It wasn't, as only completed artworks are considered, but it'll be eligible for the May 1 2007 deadline.]
  
• I'd like to make this a Creative Commons licensed movie. This won't interfere with us making money off it if someone wants to distribute or broadcast it through traditional means and will help with promotion and puts forth the science fictional notion that culture should be free. We won't be the first (Star Wreck, a Finnish spoof, was) but I think it'd be cool.
• Pressing DVDs of the final rather than burning it might be something to consider, if we were able to raise the funds: to press 1000 in bulk (ie, we'd have to buy a cover/case on our own) costs $700, to have it fully manufactured costs about twice that.
• Doing a screening of the shorts we've done as a fundraiser was a suggestion Craig M had. We can also recoup the costs by promoting the hell out of the screening of the actual screening [have to check what the Bloor charges for a rental]. I think if we can make these events work as promo for the final project it'd be well worth it. At the shorts screening fundraiser, perhaps we could make a trailer for the final feature? So perhaps we should make it happen after the shoot but before the final edit?
• Craig M also mentioned http://www.withoutabox.com/ as a way to apply to a bunch of film fests simultanously. Apps also cost money, but if we each take one, that's 8 festivals.
• Craig M (so full of ideas, that guy) thinks it might be a good idea to get a rough cut into the NSI FilmExchange Canadian Film Festival. it's a Canuck-only festival in Winnipeg each March and a heck of a lot of fun. Here's the link- http://www.nsi-canada.com/ - but the deadline is Nov. 1.[Maybe next year.]
• Craig's found another fest that looks good -- www.canfilmfest.ca -- deadline's Jan. 12. [Submitted, denied]