Tuesday, December 2, 2008

JUSTIFYING MY BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS

I’ve had a lot of bullshit sarcasm and speculations as of late that I somewhat don’t appreciate the importance of finishing the film. I do not feel like I have to justify my actions when it comes to MY film, I’m in the process of finishing. Let me, let you know that, (with the exception of Rick, who wrote it,) I’ve been there since day one on this thing and I WILL BE THE ONLY ONE there at the end as well. BUT if you must know “what’s taken so long,” I will lay it out to you.

September 30th - We shot it.

October 1- 21 - Was spent working on the proposal and script for the horror feature we were pitching to some big wigs out west SINCE it had already been decided that I was going to LA to cut the film. (We weren’t going to mess things up by starting on one computer and then getting to LA and realizing this computer doesn’t have this or this or this, so we left it alone.) I did capture the Documentary footage if you must know.

October 22- November 2 - LOS ANGELES - 18 hours a day editing, flying in planes to get shots, syncing ADR, adding sound efx, cleaning up sound and even trying to score the thing ourselves. The last day I worked on the film for 22 hours.... 22 hours straight.

November 2 - Upon looking at the film a couple of times, I realized it needed a lot of work.

November 3 -4 - Ryan did a cut without me. I flew back to Hickory.

November 6 - I figure out what the film is lacking with a few days away from it. Ryan uses his cut to get what he needs from some connections and a plan is set forth to make a documentary and then make the alien invasion film.

November 7th - Ryan washes his hands of Jeopardy and sends me the external drive.

November 8 - 17 - Absolutely nothing.... I cut two trailers and begin work on Strapped and Strained because I couldn’t work on the film because I needed a $700 upgrade in order to open the fucking file and oh yeah, I quit my job to go out to LA and cut the film so guess what.... I have no fucking money to float a $700 Upgrade so I’m fucked........

November 18 - The upgrade and a HD Monitor miraculously show up on my doorstep with a note reading “Finish the Fucking Movie” on it. The deliverer still unknown. (I’m gonna’ say it was my father or Ryan.... I don’t know.) I get right to work.

November 19 - 26 - Recut the film, redoing all transitions, flashback sequences and even adding some footage unused in the first cut. Three things that took the longest: 1) Redesigning the Transition from present to flashback and back-- made everyone of them unique this time around 2) Learning the program Color and building some extensive effects for imaging composites 3) I fucked up and cut the 2nd cut on a timeline which frame rate was 29.97.... (It was suppose to be 23.97) ---- That took a day to fix the amateur screw up of mine.

November 27 - December 3 - After breaking up the timeline by at least a minute and half and because of rushing through the process in LA’s cut and being very unorganized in the Sound Department section of the film, I opted to start the Workflow of the Sound Design and Editing completely over, using nearly 34 additional effects than the first cut and laying it all on a new timeline instead of using the first cut time line and trying to re sync up all the ear candy individually. (It will make it easier for transfers, surround packages etc....)

Tomorrow - I will fine tune every burp, fart and tweep’s levels/pans on the timeline, making sure foley like footsteps match and assuring DONGS hit when the DONGS should.

Then I ship it off to the composer.... While the composer is scoring the film, I’ll clean up the god awful sound we have in a couple of the key scenes. When I get the score back, I’ll master the sound effects, score, dialogue together, tweak any last minute color issues and render out the final movie.

How much longer? Depends on Greg, the composer. As of Friday..... I’ll be idle waiting for the final master.

You ask about a finished movie/premiere..... Let’s say by Christmas, no later, I’ll have a finished piece.... Getting a place to have a premiere, probably won’t happen until after the New Year considering the Holidays are terrible for movie premieres unless you are George Clooney or Tom Cruise.... Sorry, but going back to the first couple of sentences in this glorified timeline, “I’ve been working on this movie for a year and half.” With the pressure of the money men off my back, I would just assume, if it takes me until April put out the absolute BEST film I could possibly put out and not let everybody’s hard work go to the shitter because I am being told “Finish the fucking movie” by people who aren’t doing crap to help my cause. My career is waiting... Yours can too. Did I forget to tell you also that during all this I’m raising two kids, prepping to new projects, trying to save my marriage, and having to move back to Los Angeles by the third week in January. LAY OFF, I’m doing the best I can......


Here is a couple screenshots of the bullshit I’m having to methodically and precisely lay down.


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