MTC - Multi Talent Co-operation

[Thomas]

MTC (Multi Talent Co-operation) is a further development of the old "Fan Production" and a production made by professionals and semi-professionals in co-operation with talented amateurs (ProAms), and a detailed description of how to use advanced networking and crowd sourcing as a tool to produce a huge projekt with little or no money!

The principle is about understanding the amount of resourced found in your own social network besides the cash you have available or the potential to pull in, as well as the art of building networks, trading services as well as stepping out of the box to solve the problems you bump into with new and creative solutions.

All MTC productions are non-commercial and created with the artwork in mind only, and can best be described as a highly advanced portfolio for anyone involved - supported by professionals.

[Thomas]

The MTC group program!

MTC allows you to create advanced film productions with celebrities participation - starting from scratch. A must for all independent film makers and large fan productions.

The next few months we'll be talking about a number of aspects of MTC film production - from how to get started, to how to plug the final product.

The MTC program is first and most created for independent film production and fan productions and so the subjects will primary be directed at these producers. (BUT! Any of these subjects are of interest in any type of production).

Here's the program so far. Feel free to add to it at any time. I'm sure I've missed something:

* Idea
* Brainstorm
* Production Bible
* Script
* Story Board
* Know How
* Equipment (camera, lights, aso)
* Studio
* Locations
* Partners
* Sponsorship
* Artists
* Actors
* Music
* Sound - Actors
* Sound - SFX
* Make-up/SFX Make-up
* Animatronics
* Miniature models
* Props
* Costumes
* Concepts
* Matte Paintings
* CGI (3D)
* Animals / Children
* Production Routines
* Stunt
* Pyrotechnics
* Copyright
* Commercial/Non-Commercial
* Fan productions
* Celebrities
* Edit
* Back-Up
* Screening
* PR
* Making off

...and more.

[Thomas]

No 2: Idea
- The Birth of a project!

Getting the ball rolling is often a part of the production similar in most cases, whether you are producing a film, a novel, or a big event like a convention. It all starts with a good idea - often conceived while you least expect it, sitting on a bus on your way home from work or planting a solid cable in the toilet bowl - pardon the visual.

The idea can spring from absolutely anything. A dilemma, a photo, an interesting personality, a news story, a conversation overheard down town, or an ethical or political theme important to you - but it always contain some sort of conflict!

This idea can then be cultivated further, and I often use a very special technique to get the pictures flowing - whether I'm at the idea stage or writing the actual story later in the production: Film Scores.

Film scores are the part of the music used in films - created for the specific scenes in which it is used - as opposed to songs or melodies made outside the production and used as an opening or closing tune. The scores are specialized to trick you into feeling stronger about a scene than you otherwise would, and is amazingly effective doing just that.

When building your idea or getting stuck in your script or your novel, laying down on your bed listening to music within the very category you are about to create - in general or for that particular scene only - will work magic on the flow of pictures about to appear in the ceiling above you.

When getting stuck it is often your train of thoughts struggling (as most trains do) which means you need to grease the machinery a bit by making the rails visible. Talking loudly to oneself is a very effective method used by professional writers all over the world, but do try my Score Method.

Now let's move it along, and please forgive me for using my own production "Gatekeeper" illustrating the process. It can be somewhat different in each case mind you, but I do feel this is a good recipe never the less:

A few years back I gathered four experienced and resourceful science fiction profiles to create the group 4Fathers, and we decided to take advantage of our huge networks, our knowledge of film production and our experience with large projects and create a science fiction film and that our first production should be a so called fan film.

A fan film is a production where the story is inspired by other films, TV productions or comic books. This means that the copyright belongs to another production unit and that such films can never be made commercial. Instead they are screened on the web and on international convention cinemas, and made available on DVD by paying for shipment.

This means that the production needs to be somewhat creative to achieve the same results as a commercial production, but the fact of the matter is that this can very easily be turned to a great advantage. We will talk about this later.

Our production started with a question: What happened with the characters from the huge sci-fi giants Star Trek and Star Wars after the shows/films ended? In Star Trek's Voyager the characters found their way home after being lost in the Delta Quadrant (other side of the Galaxy) for several years - barely escaping their arch enemy; the Borg, and in Star Wars the body of Darth Vader was burned.

We decided to answer these questions in the very same film, and so the production became a crossover. But where to start?

We entered the brain storm part of the production (see next chapter).

[Thomas]

No 3: Brainstorm
- Doodling the rough shapes of the story

Now that the idea was clear it was time to build a skeleton, and then start dressing it:

The genre was off course science fiction, with a 3rd person subjective multiple viewpoint - which means the story is seen through YOUR eyes and not through any of the characters' eyes.

We asked 4Father Barbara Adams to create a detailed description of all of Voyager captain Janeway's relatives after her arrival back home and 500 years into the future. Everything from who was born, who they married, when they died and so on, and decided to take it from there

A few months later an impressive ten meter long roll of paper was presented - displaying the Janeway line in great detail, and we decided to stop at the most interesting relative - I believe it was 14 or 16 generations later - starting from the year 2889. Her name was Elisabeth Janeway! A bright young Starfleet captain with a great interest in tactical warfare and ship's design.

But what about the Star Wars part? The films had placed the story in a Galaxy far away and a long time ago - and that was pretty much it. Furthermore - most of the characters were dead and the technology in great conflict with the far more realistic Star Trek productions who has always co-operated with NASA and other scientists for greater believability.

After a long evening of brainstorming and enough coffee and Danishes to feed a substantial part of the Third World, I found myself on the bed starring at the ceiling again, with the powerful soundtrack from the Star Wars saga, and there behind my lamp came the helmet of Darth Vader gliding across in slow motion before a passing car outside ruined it all with its headlights. Or did it! The light beam hitting it gave me an idea!

I gathered the 4Fathers again and we decided to have the Borg Queen escape the final "hunt down", ending up in another dimension - the world of Star Wars. Then, after assimilating the long necked Kaminoans - also called "The Clone Makeres", she found Vader's helmet floating in space, discarded as any other vast from the planet were his body was burned.
From cells inside the helmet she clones him back and raises him as her own, refusing him any other memories from his past but those pushing him further and further toward the dark side.

And so a basic skeleton was raised, establishing the main characters, as well as a setting for the story. Now we needed to create the story itself!

Much was jet to be decided as the story needed an outline. We knew the 29th Starfleet Century was a period of time and dimensional travelers and would have to create technology and a story line influenced by this.

After balling several ideas around we decided to bring back a popular phenomenon from an earlier Star Trek movie called "Generation". The phenomenon "Nexus" was presented as a rift in time and space were everyone entering could live forever and create their own reality. It floated around in space like a glowing ribbon.

To present something new we decided to make our Nexus the first stationary one, suddenly appearing above the terra formed planet Mars. By changing any aspect of it we could naturally also give the Nexus other abilities than the original one and blame it on its stationary state, and decided we would give it the ability to revive even dead bodies drifting into it after being buried in space - which gave us the opportunity to revive any historical character from the earlier stories. And as time is relative in the Nexus we could easily present these characters through younger lookalikes - giving us a much larger crowd to choose from.

We imagined how everyone living in the Galaxy would react to such a phenomenon, given that everyone can live forever and create their own reality, and decided that this would most likely mean total chaos for the planetary system we live in. Aliens would come from all over the Galaxy to enter the Nexus and the only way to prevent this would be building a defense to keep everyone at a distance.

And so the Gatekeeper station was born, and soon after the different characters running it - like a team of genetically engineered aliens with specialized abilities suited for what would be most important task in Starfleet's history.

By letting Vader search for his long lost love Padmé inside the Nexus (a memory planted by the Borg Quen), and the Borg Queen using him to defeat her old enemy, the conflict of the movie was set. Given that the physics of each dimension is different the exaggerated technology of Star Wars could easily be toned down - like the sped of their ships. Unlimited power pretty much ruins the excitement.

And so the brain storm continued dressing the skeleton with meat, and in its final stages clothes and jewelry - gathering each and every detail in an extensive "Production Bible" (see our next chapter).

[Thomas]

No 4: Production Bible
- The Production Archive

A few months into the production you are already turning your office upside down to find some small note where you draw an outline of a prop or scribbled down your new CGI artist's mail address. You will also find your future constructions having to wait in line until you remember what former decision you made for all the details related to that very construction. And I promise you - it will NOT be any easier as the production develop.

Naturally this is not an expectable situation. It will create frustration, stress - as well as problems with your contingency and believability - AND it can cost you a number of talented artists and actors who again and again wonder why you never got back to them with information you may have promised in-between building a space craft and eating a far too late McDinner.

For this very reason it is paramount to start a production bible from the moment you make the decision to get going with your project. It doesn't matter if it’s a film production, a huge convention, building a shopping mall, or researching a book. The amount of information you'll be sitting on as a project leader will very quickly overwhelm you unless there's an advanced archive for you to find everything - and find if fast.

In the case of the "Gatekeeper" production the Bible is divided in several files. Here's a few of them:

Brainstorm
Divided on subjects like script, aliens, ships, props, settings, locations and so on. This is where all ideas that have not yet been used - or analyzed even - are gathered.

Gallery
Contains everything visual like sketches, blue prints, concepts, mattes, photos of locations and so on.

Script
This is the actual script, but also comments to the script, and notes for future changes or additions.

Production
Contains practical information like routines, what the actors are allergic to, what food we'll be serving, time-schedule, who'll be doing what and so on.
Actors/Artists
An archive with pictures of all actors and artists - including CVs, samples of their work, their measurement sheets for our tailor and so on.

Production Map
All non-visual information gathered in a huge Excel document! It contains all names, phone numbers, e-mails, dates - but also all backup plans if ANY of the responsible personnel falls in front of a buss the day before shooting or the facilities burn to the ground (We'll talk more about this later).

The Vault
The Vault is divided in three. One is where all finished material ends up - like mattes or CGI, SFX effects, miniature models, props, costumes and so on - all waiting to be used in the movie. The other is where unfinished material end up - like the molding of an actor's head waiting for its makeup to be created, and the third is where the used material ends up - like a Vulcan ear that was worn in the last shot and now waiting to be displayed, sold or archived for another production if it's a re-usable object (which the Vulcan ear is not by the way).

PR
PR is a huge subject and we'll talk more about this later, but in short this file contains PR plans, press releases, and an extensive list of national and international media e-mails (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, web communities, organizations, potential sponsors or partners and so on). It also contains graphic ready for print according to what newspapers and magazines usually ask for (300 p/i and CMYK) - and more.

Naturally you may fill your bible any way you please. The clue is that it's all found in an archive and systemized in a way where you can find it fast - because believe me; a piece of information CAN get lost even in an archive. I believe you'll find that systemizing your work - whatever it may be - will release lots of energy to be creative and effective that would otherwise be tied up as stress and frustration.

PS! Remember to document everything you do as well. It'll be very useful for a "making off", a book, or an illustrated article.

Let's take a look at how the script is developed in the next chapter. Should be interesting even for those of you writing a novel! While the form is different the development is the same.

[Thomas]

No 5a: Script
- Content

Part 1:

Let's divide this huge subject in two: "Content" and "Form" - "Content" being the actual writing and "Form" being how a script should be presented.

While a script may look quite different than the traditional novel they do have a lot in common. You are pretty much creating an illusion, but while a novel need to make this illusion absolute in the readers mind, your' script will be cheating by creating an actual visual on the silver screen. This means that while the dialogs need the same pampering as in a novel, the descriptions of the visual around it can be done very simple and practical.

However - a script is always read BEFORE it is seen, so if the script is created to be sold at a studio, you need to make sure it creates an illusion as visual as possible in the text alone or they're not going to see what you see.

Creating the story line is also a common thread between the two, as is characters, creating a drive in the story by conflict and a buildup in tension and so on. So where to start, and how to keep the flow all the way through?

Earlier on we looked at the birth of your idea, which is off course the place to start any project. You have decided on a subject, a conflict, a setting, a character - or whatever you feel like building an interesting story around.

We have also looked at the brain storm to follow, to get all your ideas and possible factors in the story down on paper. This is also a very important part of the actual writing as well, as we will talk about later. People in general seem to have a very romantic picture of a writer, parking himself in front of a fire place at his mountain cabin with his ancient type writer and a glass of wine. Starting with a blank sheet of paper and a "now what should I write about this time" and then tapping away for the next month or so (day and night) until the best seller is finished. Not so!

Writing a story takes quite a bit of planning. It is often said that as a new writer you may consider writing about something you know a lot about and that you feel strongly about. Beside the danger of over doing it by overwhelming the reader with everything you know on the subject or making it too personal, you can really keep writing about the same subject over and over. Sooner or later you will have to take a dive into subjects you know nothing about, and so "research" is an utmost important tool to get your details write AND to get inspired by the facts you dig up.

You may also want to collect photos from the web or from local settings where you live, that resembles what you have in mind for the different parts of the story. These will together with the film scores (se