Friday, June 08, 2007

"The Wonders Of Oz" Part One Production... part 1

Having today off of work, I decided to work on the first episode of "The Wonders Of Oz." (Remember, what's already been released is episode zero: the introduction.) My goodness! This can get hard when you're working alone, although I already have an ACTUAL submission. (Thanks, Marc!)

In the beginning of the first episode, you will hear a quote from L. Frank Baum. Sadly, if Baum ever made a recording of his voice, it no longer exsists or has not been found. (And anyways, in all my research, no one has mentioned one.) This means that no one knows what he sounded like, except that he sang in a baritone voice. (Just like A. D. Stonecipher from Chapter 6!) I had originally meant to record myself reading it, but the first few attempts were unintelligible! Then, they didn't sound so good or I messed up. (Maybe I should've saved my attempts, as one time when I messed up, I started singing the quote all of a sudden, but I did not bother keeping it.) It got even harder when I tried to remove a few bits to make it go faster.

What was my solution? I won't be heard reading the quote, but it will still be there. I used a nice text-to-speech converter, and recorded the results and did some editing.

Another thing I'm still working on is filming my own hand writing "Dorothy lived" backwards! (I'm right-handed, Baum was left-handed.)

The opening credits will look different again, and will hopefully be easier to read. I went back and redesigned almost all of the frames, though the basic format is still retained. The lettering on every frame but the "Wonders Of Oz" screen is now florescent instead of looking like it's made of gold, and many of the "emeralds" look different. Someone also suggested that I change Baum's picture, which I have done. In the revised screen with all those Oz characters, none will overlap the resized emerald. And also, I will not have my YouTube ID on the screen with my name and photo.

I'd love to chat more, but I need to get back to work.

I hope I can get the first episode done in one or two weeks. (Fingers crossed.)

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