Int:
A windowless office decorated with movie props and posters.

Sorry no update last week.  I was in editing hell. I had started an entry, and by about the middle of it, I decided to do you all a favor and not post it.  Boring stuff, is boring…

So, this hasn’t been the most action packed of weeks. It’s been a lot of editing and preparation for the upcoming June 11th shoot. At the end of the day, it’s a good thing we didn’t schedule because we’ve been inundated with rain, and not the gentle spring shower kind.

We also picked up our cut acrylic on Friday, which will be used for the title sequence.  And that’s all I’m going to say about that. I wonder if it will survive the shoot…

Saturday, however, was action packed and we started the day with lots to do.  I was up late (of course) and we went and shot some publicity stills with the lovely Trinka, who couldn’t possibly have looked any prettier, and we had a stand in for Stan.  Set up seemed to took forever, but once we were rolling things went well.  After that, some quick audio recording to dub over some bad audio from Spring.  There’s a fine line between ambiance and racket. The bugs were too loud, and they had to go., ironically, to be added back in on a second audio track, and turned way, WAY down.

A farewell hug to my lovely leading lady, and we were off to Clayton to shoot one of the intro shots with Scott.  We found the perfect spot, I told everybody what I wanted, helped position all three of the cameras, and we were shooting.  Got it in eight takes.  Not a record, but speedy.  Then it was off to the airport to shoot a second intro shot.  Found the perfect spot, and we’re shooting again.  Afterwards, despite the fact that we were in a location where it’s okay to shoot, everyone confessed they were afraid that security was going to pull up and confiscate all our gear.  It didn’t happen, but everyone thought it.

Then it was back to home base to pull footage and start editing.

How do I know editing is action packed and a thrill a minute?  Because everyone was asleep by 11:30 on a Saturday… except Tina.  Who actually watched with some interest while the sequences we shot were put together.

Editing is the least exciting and most crucial part of this whole process.  It’s a frame by frame game that every film maker has to deal with.  With some films, they’re worried about being short, so they tend to pad out scenes.  Not so with us.  I’m worried about running long, and so every frame counts. If it doesn’t forward the story, onto the virtual cutting room floor it goes. I’m trying to keep each segment to 35 minutes or less, but that’s proving difficult sometimes.   There’s so much great stuff in there, you want to use it all.  It’s a matter of choosing the best of the best, and it can be a painful experience.  There may be some great facial expression or movement that you really want to use, but you only get to choose one.  And with our spectacular cast, they didn’t make it easy.  Watching the same two or three takes over and over to see which one is the best to use, or which parts of each take to use is as tedious as it sounds.  But it’s also pretty fulfilling.  When you string together a bunch of great pieces, and you set a scene for output,  you can’t wait to actually see it all put together.  This frame, cut, that frame stays, that one gone.  It’s all very intuitive and feels like painting in a dark room sometimes.  You never really know how the finished piece is going to come out until you’re all finished, and watching it for the first time is like seeing it all for the first time.

Anyways, that’s enough rambling.  This week we have a full schedule, and it’s a short week.  We are doing the last of our prep for the June 11 shoot, and we’ll be shooting two intro sequences this weekend.  Almost there.  Just the sprint to the finish line….

Stay tuned!