tomorrow l.a.

tomorrow, i get on a plane and head out to l.a. to meet up with bob massey, to shoot some interview stuff, and also for some much needed r and r. it's kind of a long flight out there, and i get into l.a. kinda late tomorrow night, but i think the short trip will be a lot of fun. i'm planning to meet up with bob on friday, and we're going to finish up all the music stuff that we've been working on for the past couple of months. we're also going to shoot a promo interview similar to the interviews that i shot of andrew and tom while i was in new york back in september. it's good to have these things shot before hand, since it's difficult to get them later on in the film's publicity and advertising stage.

i also suggested to bob that we could easily shoot promo material for his upcoming album. i was thinking of putting together a couple minutes of stuff that would be great for a website and/or press kit or such. the main thing is to cover the praxis interview, and anything else we get to do is gravy. hopefully, we'll be able to go to the beach as well, and maybe shoot some video and stills for promo stuff too. so, the trip is part business, part r n r.

it'll be great to hang out with bob. he's done a wonderful job with composing music for the film, and i'll be cool to thank him in person. it'll also bring the post-production of the film in the final stages. i'm about a half-hour into the on-line edit, and so far, everything is looking really cool.

soon, this first version of the film will be done, and it's on the planning of a local screening, and publicity and advertising, and festivals, and.... and... and...

setback and lynch

so, things have finally settled down a bit with the holidays over, and it's nice that things are a bit back to normal. i was able to work on the on-line of the film for a full three days, and apart from a major set-back, i got a good portion of the film on-lined. late friday night, i discovered that during the capture session of the digibeta footage, there was a problem with the audio of about 4 camera rolls: the audio was not transferred properly, and the audio for these files was really low. i initially thought that this was a major set-back. but fortunately, i was able to re-transfer the original DAT tapes of the footage and re-sync each of the camera rolls of raw footage. though it took all day saturday, the fact that i was able to find a solution and work it out made it a lot less worrysome. the point is that i got it done, even though it took a lot of time to re-transfer and sync the footage.

i got a lot of scenes done this weekend, and i definitely feel i've got a pretty good rhythm down. all of my focus is on editing, and not much else. i was able to finish the coffeehouse scene, and it turned out absolutely amazing. so, needless to say, the film editing is going well, and even though i have a lot more to do, so far, i edited a good portion of the film this past weekend.

so david lynch was in town this past weekend, promoting his new book and movie inland empire. i thought about going to see him speak, but instead, i decided to stay in and concentrate on the film. i've read a couple of his books, and my work is heavily influenced by his early work. but i guess i preferred to keep my impressions of david lynch simply on this level. i think he's an incredible director, but i'd like to keep his influence simply based on his films, and not how he speaks infront of an audience.

maybe someday i'll meet him on a more personal level, and tell him the story of how i was thinking of coming to see him speak, but chose to work on the film instead.

he'd prolly understand.

new titles

so here we are, at the start of a new year. and i can tell that i'm really close to finishing up the festival cut of the film. despite it being the holidays, i was able to get a few hours work done on the first couple of scenes of the film, and also redo the opening titles. i changes a few things and re-edited the titles to fit a newer version of the opening music of the film that bob just sent me. i used after effects for the opening, and tweeked a ton of little things to get them to be just right. in the end, i'm happy with the result, and i think it's a great way to begin the film.

it's tough to find time to yourself during the holidays, and after new years, i totally feel a bit exhausted, particularly with dealing with different people. so, i hopefully will be able to buckle down and finish the editing of the film. i think it's totally about getting into a rhythm at this point, and making it a priority, and trying to assemble all this footage into the finished product. so far, i was able to get the first couple of scenes done, and it's very cool to be working with the highest resolution material. now is all about perfecting everything so that it all comes together. and i love the way the film looks at this point.

i'm also looking forward to my trip out to l.a. in a couple of weeks. it'll be cool to hang out with bob, shoot some stuff, and also get a little r and r as well. but for now, i have to buckle down and finish as much of the film as i can before heading out there.

i have a feeling that this year will be a very exciting year for the film...