"Bring It, Grandma! 2" Progress 7/15/09

We have finally made progress on our anticipated hit film "Bring It, Grandma! 2". We have recently completed filming for one scene in the short film. Post-production for this scene is almost complete; we just need to make a couple of audio adjustments. Here are some production stills to show you how things are coming along:





Currently, we have no scheduled day to continue shooting.

Possible Changes...

First of all, the dolly has been complete for a few days now and you can check out the video for that which has been posted.

Alright, so onto the possible "changes" that Honeyberdy Productions may be going through sometime soon.
Newscasts - We will still continue making BerdyCasts, which relate to news about Honeyberdy Productions, but also I see the potential in actual NEWS-casts! Lots of the mainstream YouTube audience watches videos of people voicing their opinions on news stories and controversial issues. In fact, it seems that these videos fetch the most views. Now, I cannot garuntee that we will make many of these, but initially we will try it out to see if it has any impact on our viewership.
Removing Old Videos - With the increase in viewership we hope to receive, we may have the potential to become a YouTube partner. To qualify, however, all of our videos must contain content that we own the copyrights for or have permission to use. This won't be a problem for MOST videos currently up, but we may beginning phasing out the old videos that we do not quite own the copyrights for. One big example would be 'Wheaton Bank Standoff', which contains mostly content we did not creat. SO, sorry if you love our uncopyrighted videos, but we have to get rid of them if we hope to maintain an increased viewership.

I thought there were more, but for now that's all we have. "Bring It, Grandma! 2" will no longer try to be scheduled; it's too hard to plan, so we'll just film whenever everyone is ready and hope that it'll get done soon enough.

Track Dolly

It's been a LONG time since I've updated the blog, but I have a feeling I'll be getting to it more often. So anyways... I have all of the necessary supplies to build my track dolly... except the wheels. Patriot Range Technologies is being generous enough to supply HP with the wheels needed for the dolly. I provided them with the dimensions, so it seems very optimistic that these wheels will work out. If this is the case, then we will be assembling our track dolly this afternoon. And if that works out, we may even get to filming the first scene of "Bring It, Grandma! 2" tonight! Please note that the dolly delay will push back the release of "Bring It, Grandma! 2" by a couple of weeks, so I anticipate a release closer to early or mid-July.
As for current statistics, our total number of video views is 12,293 and channel views is 3,640. The average number of views for our 37 videos is 332 per video. We now have TWO videos with over 1,000 views. We have 40 subscribers.

UPDATE #1: The wheels are the correct dimensions! So we will be building the track dolly today and might get to the first scene of "Bring It, Grandma! 2". Again, special thanks to Patriot Range Technologies for providing us with the wheels!

UPDATE #2: We decided not to rush ourselves with the production, so we will begin shooting tomorrow (6/25).

UPDATE #3: Missing required 5/16" drill bit. Shooting delayed to possibly 6/28 the earliest.

Earth Hour: Some Long Exposure Photography

Honeyberdy Productions participated in Earth Hour yesterday by turning off all of our lights and electronics. The darkness inspired us to take some long exposure pictures. Earlier, we conveniently happened to stop by our local American Science & Surplus (great place for buying props!) and laser pens were on sale, so we grabbed a few and here are the results:







For the ghost-like effect, we used quick flashes from cheap LED flashlights. So cheap and easy to do, and produces incredible results!

In other news, we are very pleased that "Grandma After Surgery" has received over 1,600 views. Our total number of video views is at 7,492 and channel views is at 2,632. This makes the average number of views 288 per video. We have reached 29 subscribers, almost 30, which is also good news.

We are currently working on another video that will possibly be up in the next few days, so look out for some more of HP!

Summer Videos: Possibly Not Happening?

Now, I'm sure it has been said plenty of times that due to cold weather in the winter, HP would not be able to make many videos until the warmer months. But those months are quickly approaching, and some things really need to be sorted out. The 30-page-screenplay that I've talked so much about, which has now been reduced to 23 pages after some massive re-writing, is in jeopardy of being a canceled project. I have worked with others to create this script, but I am still unsure who is willing to act in it. I know that I've said before that we've gotten some volunteers, but it is becoming really confusing who is actually committed to the project. As of right now, I believe that nobody other than myself is willing to act in it. Now, I think that a big reason for the cancellation from others is that the video was intended to be posted on YouTube. For that reason, I am going to say right now that our internet viewers, as awesome as you are, are not going to see the movie. Even if it does get made, I am sure that it would be best anyways that it not be posted, because it'd be over YouTube's length restriction (and nobody likes watching videos in parts). I know some (if any) may be disappointed by this statement, but I am more concerned for making videos than posting them. I really look forward to seeing the final product, but that won't happen if it makes others uncomfortable being on the internet. So, once again, I am sorry for any disappointment.
Also, I am unsure whether "Bring It, Grandma! 2" will actually be made. Due to the request of some, the grandma character (not the actress, the character) is getting old, and shouldn't appear in many (if any) more videos. I myself would love to continue the project, and I don't see what's so bad about the grandma character.

I would like to thank all of our viewers and supporters and continue to expect good things from us! There's still 45:33, and I can tell you that it is turning out awesome.

BerdyCast 3 News

I have posted a new BerdyCast which will fill you in on what little has been happening at HP. Some of the video was cut off while importing, so I'll post what else I meant to put in the video. First of all, I have found all the necessary actors to play roles in our 30-page screenplay, which will be filmed this summer. Some of the same actors may appear in other videos before then, and will probably also appear in videos afterwards as well. The total employees of HP has therefore reached 7, and more may be expected. Also, I am happy to announce the success of "Grandma After Surgery". We were hoping for thousands of views as most other video responses had, but over 600 is still pretty good, now becoming our most-viewed video. For anyone interested in statistics, we now have received as of this posting 5,633 total combined views for all of our 26 current videos, averaging out to 217 views per video. We also have 1,755 channel views. Both increased dramatically due to the short period of time that "Grandma After Surgery" received hundreds of views. 2 subscribers have also been gained, bringing us to 26 subscribers. Thank you to all of our supporters, and remember to spread the word of our awesome-tastic videos. I will try to update the blog more often, but there isn't much to talk about as of right now.

45:33 One-Third Completed!

I am proud to announce that the anticipated Honeyberdy film 45:33 is now at the 1/3 mark. This means that about 15 minutes of the total 45 minutes has been completed. I would like to thank mother nature for granting us a couple of great days earlier this month that allowed us to get some quite stunning time lapses. Of course the law overrules good weather in this case. We were attempting to get some great time lapses at a local mall when we were stopped almost instantaneously by a security guard. Of course I know this would happen, but it was worth a try. Anyways, to celebrate the progress we've made so far, I made the first theatrical poster for 45:33!



Click on it to view a larger size!

Editing Progress: 45:33

45:33 is so far a little ahead in terms of how much that has passed through post-production. I can announce that 1/4 of the entire film has been filmed/edited. Of course, it is still anticipated to take until summer to be completed. So far, most of the time lapse footage we've taken over the past few months has been put together, but now we've hit the point where we need to start capturing more footage. We've tried this for a couple of days in the past week, and the results have turned out good, but the effort involved is somewhat annoying. I have nearly lost feeling in my hands on a couple of occasions due to the brutal winter weather. Even on sunny days it is so cold. As much as I'd like to get done in the winter, nothing seems possible. Interior shots aren't needed, or at least not at this time. So I will sparsely work on this project until around March when the warm weather will once again allow me to continue working. But what will Honeyberdy Productions be doing? Well, as stated plenty of times, close to nothing. Enough screenplays, ideas, and storyboards have built up that it's just a matter of waiting. And I just happen to be writing this on Groundhog Day, when I have learned to troubling news that there will be another six more weeks of winter. Oh, how life, and YouTube, would be a whole lot better without the bother of that creature. Six more weeks...

Lack Of Videos

Recently Honeyberdy Productions has obviously not been doing much. Not that we don't want to do anything, but rather we can't do anything. Chicago is a bad place to be in winter, especially when temperatures have gotten as low as -20F and snow has piled well over a foot. Due to the extreme winter in Chicago, don't expect many big projects to be completed until summer. Several films are just waiting in queue to be completed in warm weather. But things are still getting done. Screenplays are being written, ideas are being written down, new equipment is being researched, purchased, or even made. So don't loose faith in Honeyberdy Productions just yet. This coming summer will be huge for us. Projects several times larger than what we've already done are expected. Just so you don't miss out on any new exciting videos, remember to PLEASE subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks to all that support HP.

Also, we have created an E-Mail address for any questions that anybody may have.
honeyberdyproductions@yahoo.com

Work In Progress: "45:33"

Honeyberdy Productions apologizes for the lack of updates recently. Hopefully the first Berdycast filled you in on what's going on. Recently I have released a trailer for an upcoming project, entitled "45:33", which derives its name from the soundtrack, "45:33" by LCD Soundsystem. As I have listened to this song before, I have thought on numerous occasions what kinds of videos could be made to accompany the track. Recently, I made the decision to create a KOYAANISQATSI remake, with "45:33" as the centerpiece. So what is the video? Well, it will be both a combination of time-lapse footage and video footage filmed in the past year and much more to be filmed later this year. As of writing this post, only the first 10 minutes of the 45-minute film has been edited, and roughly at that. So much needs to get done before the summer release date. Speaking of which, how will it be released? YouTube limits most members to a maximum of 10 minutes, 59 seconds per video uploaded. This restriction will cause the inconvenience of having to split the video into parts, which can be tedious if one would care to watch the entire film. There are exceptions, however, as to whom the restriction applies. YouTube has introduced a "parter program" which allows original content providers that gain thousands of views to gain a few perks, one of which is the lifting of a time restriction. Another interesting feature of the program is that the "partner" receives ad revenue that Google has made off of their videos. Both of these would heavily support Honeyberdy Productions' effort at bigger and better films. But how to become a partner is a much more complicated process. In order to become a partner, Honeyberdy Productions would need at least a couple hundred subscribers and thousands of channel and video views. As of this post, we have 2,969 total video views and 872 channel views. This is most certainly not enough. We please urge you to tell all of your friends to SUBSCRIBE and check out the channel and all of our videos. It would be highly appreciated, and would be one more step to improving Honeyberdy Productions. Thank you for your support!

New Video: A Day At The Park - A Time Lapse

Today Honeyberdy Productions went to a park to do some time lapse filming. The person holding the camera apparently forgot why it was attached to a tripod.

New Video: New Years Time Lapse

I left a camera on for most of New Years eve, so I put the 4 time lapse videos I took together and made the following video:



Also, the logo shown at the end of the video was so cool looking I'm posting it again here.