avid up and music

last friday, i received my new avid xpress pro software and mojo box in the mail, and pretty much spend the rest of the weekend, getting it all up and running. it pretty much took all weekend to set it up, and test different configurations to make sure it was all kosher. it's a little bit overwhelming, but the avid is an incredibly powerful tool. it's the industry standard, and the new software maximizes newer computers that have multiple processors. it's all really wild, and i'm excited about the amount of capabilities the avid has to offer.

i spend most of the time on manipulating the color correction features, and have been using tom's interview from the last time we were in new york as a way of getting familiar with the new software. avid gives me much more control over the color correction of scenes, much more that any of the other programs that i have been using. but avid is definitely not for anyone who is not familiar with non-linear editing. you have to be fairly tech-saavy to even scratch the surface. either way, i'm excited to work with the program, and i have a lot to learn to get completely up to speed on finishing the project.

bob massey also sent me a bunch of different mp3s of music ideas for the film, and i have to say that it's all incredibly beautiful. i purposely let bob interpret the scenes and come up with music on his own, just to see what he could come up with. i wanted to see what bob would be able to add to, and bring to the images on screen. like i said, the music is incredibly beautiful, and the film now has much more of an identity. me and bob, went over a couple of places where the music didn't quite fit. so, over the next few months, we'll refine the different pieces and match them to corresponding scenes.

so between getting the avid and hearing the new music, the weekend was very productive film-wise.

onto the on-line

over the past week, me and paul configured a brand new system to finish editing the film. it's taken about a week to order the new computer, order new hard drives, install the cpu, and install all the current software. we also needed it to be assimilated into our home network. the last step to get the system up and running is to get the new avid software and install it and test that everything is kosher.

after thinking about how to post the film, i decided that the cheapest way was to purchase my own avid system and edit the on-line on my own. because the film is so complex, the amount of time that it would take to take the project to an outside editor, have them on-line it, and post it and pay them for their time and their editing, etc. i decided that purchasing my own system was the way to go. and owning my own system is cool because i can use it not only for this project, but for future projects as well.

once the avid system is all up and running, i'm planning to sub-rent a digital betacam deck and digitize all the footage of the film. once it's all edited and everything is complete, i'll dump it all back out to tape. sounds complicated, but i think it should all work out great.

i'm excited to be on-lining the project. working with the digibeta footage is going to be way cool, since up until now, the rough-cut was lo-res. so it's kind of like getting used to seeing a second generation vhs tape of a movie, then watching a High Definition DVD of the same movie.

i think that once i get started on the on-line, it'll re-affirm the reason why i shot film.

re-edit

over the past weekend, i got a chance to really work on tightening up the film. i shortened up a lot of scenes, added some sound effects, and even added an effects shot to the boxing sequence. this particular scene was a little difficult to synch: we shot a couple of shots at 48 frames versus the normal 24 frames, but we didn't have any specific synch sound for that scene. i initially wanted to keep the scene rather long, and not use any of the slow motion shots, thinking that the scene would be more effective and more natural with the long takes. but i decided to shorten the scene, tighten up the long shots, and add the slo-mo shots. we did record some nat sound and room tone, so i just slowed down this audio, and added it to the slo-mo shots. it was a little complicated, but in the end, the scene works a lot better, and i think it really adds to the subtle complexity of the scene. i'm very pleased with the way the scene has turned out.

the film it definitely taking on a new life. by shortening a lot of the the scenes, taking out a lot of the long takes, and adding sound effects, the film definitely feels a lot tighter. the film doesn't feel so sparse and distant. sure, there are a lot of subtle nuances to long scenes with no dialogue. but i think that the scenes convey their messages a lot more clearly now, and i'm looking forward to seeing how bob massey's music adds a whole new dimension to the film.

though, bob is doing the majority of the film score, there are a couple of different places where i'll be composing a couple of songs myself. i haven't written music for quite a while, but i used to be in a couple of bands, and i've been playing guitar since i was twelve. writing music is definitely a different animal than making movies, but i plan to keep it simple, and see what comes out. should be fun to see what i can come up with.

so, i have a couple of effects shots to sort out, and also a bunch of animation sequences to work on as well. soon, i'll be purchasing an avid system and digitizing the footage for the final cut/festival cut. if all goes well, i'd like to have this done by the end of january 07.

we'll see...