web site

it's been a very active and productive weekend. friday, i spent most of the day making travel arrangements for bob, tom and andrew for the screening in june, and i also started to design the invitations as well. the rest of the weekend was spent finishing up the invites and working on the new website - and i'm glad to say that a preliminary version of the site is currently up and running:

praxis.damagedfilms.com

as with anything else, there are a ton of little tweeks and things to fix to the site, and i'm planning to add a lot more cool and interesting stuff on there as well, but at least the current version has the trailer on there and a bunch of cool photos from when we were shooting the film. what i'm finding out tho, is that the site always seems to look really great on my home computer, but when i try to load it on a different computer, things don't exactly come out identically the same. anyhoo, i'm sure over time that i'll be able to fix most of the current website issues.

this week, i plan to mail out the official invites to the screening, and also check out the current version of the film. i'll need to reserve the subrental of the digibeta deck for the final output of the film soon, as the tech rehearsal for the film at the AFI in in the middle of may. sounds like a lot to do, and it is, but fortunately, it's all coming together quite well. and it's nice to feel like iive got a good rhythm going...

now i have to decide who to invite to the screening, which is about as much fun as making invitations to a wedding - which in-laws to invite or not invite...

fun stuff...

grindhouse

today, i head to a meeting with the event coordinator at the american film institute in silver spring to finalize a couple of things for the cast and crew screening in june. i'm looking forward to this, and it'll be awesome to see the film on the big screen. hopefully, this will be the starting point for the film's next phase: applying to festivals and putting the film out there for all to see. but of course, before i get too ahead of myself, there's still a ton of things that need to get done before june: posters, invites, after party, website, press kits...tons of stuff...but it's all good, and it's very cool to be at this point of the movie making process.

last weekend, me and paul got a chance to see grindhouse, the rodriguez/tarantino 3 hr plus epic and homage to the exploitation films of the seventies. though it is a bit long, and kinda gets a little boring in the middle, the first film is a straight up zombie gore flick, and the final sequence in tarantino's film is absolutely incredible. in the age of CG and computer effects, back in the day, stunts and effects were done with real people in real danger. old school...needless to say, i loved the film. i thought it was incredible. even though this film has nothing to do with praxis per say, it's still cool to see movies that are genuine good movies - seems hard to do in this day and age.

so, my goal for the weekend is to put together the trailer for the website, and finish some of the other press kit stuff, and maybe even start work on the website.

back to work it is!

le samourai

plugging away at all the things i have to work on: i finished the first version of the poster for the movie, and i like what i was able to come up with. i'd like to make at least one more alternative poster, but for now, i like the simplicity of the first one - i think it represents the movie quite well.

so, me and paul have re-vamped the damaged films web site, and are just starting to make a dedicated praxis website. there are still some minor tweeks to the damaged films website, but i'm glad that me and paul are happy with the results. i've also been working on putting together a 2min trailer for the film, which is a lot more difficult than i initially thought. because the film is so cinematic and not a lot of dialogue, capturing the essence of the film in 2 minutes is pretty hard to do. but i hope to have something by the end of the week.

i got a chance to catch up with both tom and andrew over the weekend, and it sounds like both of them are doing fairly well. andrew just completed a pilot web-tv series called zero, and hopefully it'll get picked up. tom just completed his own website www.tommacy.com and i looks like that both tom and andrew will be working on another pilot tv series that's supposed to be shot in new york in may. i'm glad to hear that both of them are doing well in the acting careers.

i also got and email announcement for the official release of bob massey's new album for the Gena Rowlands Band. i'm glad that bob is doing well too...

anyhoo, me and paul got a chance to watch Le Samourai, a french noir film from the sixties by the director Jean-Pierre Melville. it's definitely a cool little film, a precursor to Blade Runner, and a very beautifully shot movie about an assassin. i also dig the way it captures paris in the sixties - a very stylish and slick film with not a lot of dialogue. tho, the film doesn't have much of a story, the overall visuals are what carry it. if ya haven't seen it, put it on your netflix list.

so, for now, it's back to finishing up the press materials and organizing the screening at the afi.

whew...

zodiac

things have been incredibly busy lately, which is a good thing. far better to be busy, then completely bored out of my skull. so, i've been able to get some feedback on the current version of the film, and it's really cool that everyone seems to be very excited about it. i've gotten some different reactions, but what's cool is that the few who have seen it, have had the film reasonate with them - i'd get a phone call a couple of days later, and they'd be talking about something else that kept them thinking. which is totally cool. fortunately, a couple of my close friends who were on the crew complimented the film on the technical side of things - as in they thought the film turned out beautifully. i think that since i've been friends with them for a very long time, and that we've always concentrated on the technical side - mainly the cinematography, that to get their approval is really grand. so, i think were at a stage where me and paul are comfortable with the current version of the film, confident that it'll do well.

so, me and paul are in the process of re-doing the website and also making a dedicated praxis website as well. this will take some time, but so far, i like the way everything looks. we've also started putting press kit materials together, and have hired a writer friend to help out. the initial way the film was described prior to the shooting, the film was represented differently then the way it turned out in the end. so, a new description and synopsis and a different way of describing the film is needed at this point. so, it's good to have friends who can write.

i've also started to plan the cast and crew screening at the afi silver theater in silver spring, which will be in a couple of months. i met with one of the even coordinators there, and it's going to be a really cool screening. the theater is such an incredible venue, and it'll be a really great way to screen the film before it's on to the festivals and such. we're going to have a nice after party and have a few drinks and celebrate the film in the right way. i think that both tom and andrew will be totally blown away by the screening, particularly seeing it on the big screen. i also have a couple of surprises for them, and bob too. but for now, we still have to buckle down and finish up everything else.

so over the weekend, me and paul got a chance to see the film ZODIAC. i was totally blown away by this film. it's such an incredibly well made film. i don't even know where to begin. even tho the film is nearly three hours long, it was so jammed pack with stuff, that it never dragged on anywhere, nor did it feel slow. there are some pretty intense parts, but fortunately, it's not a typical horror-flick. you definitely have to pay attention or you might miss something.

it's really nice to be able to see something once in a while that reminds me that you can still produce a well made film. something that can inspire and that can really get to people. i think that somethings i get so caught up in the logistics of production, that i forget what a well made film can do - really make people think.

one of my friends said that PRAXIS has a lot to offer if people give it a chance - it'll really make people think. i think that's totally cool.

buckle down

this past weekend was one of the best weekends in a while. the trip to new york was better than ever, and me and paul were able to show the current version of the film to andrew and tom. they were both absolutely blown away by it, and it's very cool that they're both incredibly excited about it. there are still a bunch of little tweeks that i need to do to the current version. but, the gist of the film is definitely there. for quite a while, i was a little worried that nobody would get the film - that it was too abstract. but so far, the few people who have seen it totally get it. and they're actually elaborating much more into the themes and meanings represented, while is total cool.

so, now that me and paul are back in dc, it's time to buckle down and focus on all the different things that we want to do with the film - final digibeta masters, organize the local cast and crew screening, update the website, put together the press kit, and start submitting the project into consideration for the festivals. it's going to be a lot of work, but i'm definitely trying to take each step one at a time. i'm confident that it'll all come together.

this weekend, i have a couple of other close friends - j, wes, and tim from the crew, and my friends morrigan and mike, they're all gonna come over to check out the current version of the film. i think it'll be good to have other honest opinions about the film, and how to tighten it up even more. tho, i'm confident that everyone will be excited about it as well. fortunately, we're planning to hire a writer friend of ours to help with the press release, and various synopsises for the film. we also have some friends who are going to help with the website stuff, and also organizing the screening too. so, it's all good...

so, i started playing around with movie poster ideas, and messing around with photoshop. i'd like to come up with several ideas, and to have all this material ready. i also enjoy the design aspect of this phase of production. i'll really have to think about the images, and how they represent the film, and if they do that in the best way possible. but it's also fun to play around with images and see what stuff you can come up with.

so, it's time to buckle down, but it's really cool to think that this film will do really well, and it'll definitely make a lot of people think. which, i find, is all really grand...

off to nyc

so it's off to nyc for the weekend, and i'm looking forward to hopefully meeting up with tom and andrew, and to be able to show them the current version of the film. it'll also be great to catch up with old friends, and also relax in the big city - even tho it is new york, and the part of dc that i live in is pretty much like living in soho...it'll just be a different city...and yes, it is possible to be able to relax in a big city....lol

i'll be cool to get some feedback on the film. after working on it for so long, and the years of life that it's take to produce it, i think it's sometimes hard to step back and wonder if anybody will get it. fortunately, my partner paul gave me some very honest and direct feedback last week, and i'm really happy to have that kind of feedback. i really like the way the film has turned out thus far, and i'm eager to see it on the big screen.

over the next couple of weeks, i've got tons of work to do. between organizing the screening, and producing all the publicity materials and re-doing the website, - it's a little bit overwhelming...but i'm going to take things one step at a time, and really focus on all the little details, to make sure that everything represents the film in the best possible way. the last thing i want to do is slap something together and make it look half-assed. basically, everything that i do, and everything that's put out there represents the film. so, i think it's important to remember that, and to keep it on a professional level as much as possible.

lately, i've been really looking closely at different movie posters, trying to develop a couple of different ideas for the movie poster. as with all press materials, i think it good to make up a couple of different ideas, and to have those ready for potential distributors and such. even if they decide to go in a different direction, at least you have a couple of things ready, versus not having anything at all. so, i've been keeping a sketchbook with different ideas and also looking at other movie posters and any other image that i think looks cool. i kind of like this creative part of promotion. and it'll be fun to come up with these promo materials.

i'm also considering putting together a soundtrack and a book deal. if possible, i'd like to coordinate the release of these materials at the same time as the release of the film. even if the book is produced on small press and the soundtrack on a small volume, i think it would be cool to have these things produced. i genuinely think that PRAXIS has a lot to offer, and all these other thinks could add to the success of the film.

in the meantime, it's off to nyc...

festival cut, lots to do

last weekend, i spent most of the weekend transcoding the festival cut 1 of the film onto dvd. it took an enormously long time to trancode a quicktime reference movie from the avid, and then burn it onto a dvd-r. anyhoo, i showed the film to my partner and producer paul, and he gave me a lot of honest advice about how to tighten up the film. i know that i'm going to make a lot of changes, but i also feel comfortable at this stage to be able to show this version to a couple of close friends, to get their honest opinions. i'll hopefully be able to show the film to some of the crew, jamie, wes, and tim, sometime this weekend. i've also sent a copy out to bob in l.a. - i think he'll give me the best advice, since he's always done that in the past, and i feel like he's very much of a creative peer.

most of the changes are easy fixes. but i'm also eager to get some feedback on the overall aesthetics. i'm very happy with the way the film has turned out. but i also think it's important to get other opinions, and to see if the film works as a whole. i think it's also important to gauge the different opinions you get, to determine where they're coming from and to see if they're worth changing something specific in the film. for example, if only one person out of the four or five doesn't get a specific scene, then it might not be worth changing it. but then again, if they all agree, then i would definitely reconsider the scene. the important thing throughout this whole process is that you have to believe in the film and to have a pretty thick skin, to be able to take all kinds of criticisms. i think that the more films a person makes, the more they learn that everyone sees the film in completely different ways. so, the only sure thing that you can do is know your own personal reasons for making the film, and why you believe in it.

so, i plan to spend most of this weekend on these quick fixes, and on tightening up the film as a whole. i also need to work on re-vamping up the website, and to start work on press materials...and a trailer...and movie poster ideas... and plan the screening...
lots of stuff to work on....

next weekend, me and paul are heading up to new york to meet up with tom and andrew, and i'm going to show them the festival cut. i'm sure that they'll be excited about seeing it.

while i was out in l.a., me and bob talked a lot about blade runner - he was reading an article about how chaotic and difficult it was for the producers, actors, and all - how almost seemingly an impossible task it was to make that movie. we also talked about the director's cut of the film versus the theatrical release. so i sent him a copy of the director's cut, since he hasn't seen it. we both agree that blade runner is an incredible film, and how beautiful and inspiring it is. despite the circumstances that it was made under, and also how it bombed at the box-office, i'm amazed and how much, over time, it has influenced so many other movies, and just how incredibly beautiful a film it is. i prefer the director's cut - it's much more subtle, and doesn't have the annoying voice-overs. it also has a dream about a unicorn, which really gets ya thinking.

anyway, i totally enjoying watching that film, and i find it truly inspiring. i think about that film, and i think about all the possibilities...

encouragement

so, i got back from l.a. about a week and a half ago, and it was an awesome trip. me and bob hung out, we finalized a bunch of the music stuff, and i also shot a couple of promo video interviews. we shot most of this stuff first, so the rest of the weekend was spent catching up with an old friend, drinking a few beers, and having a grand ole time.

l.a. is a very strange place. everyone is in the business somehow, and everyone is desperately trying to get 'discovered'. everything has to have a 'hook,' something that pulls people in and gets them to fork over the price of a ticket. i kinda feel that this concept is entirely so hollywood. praxis is not a hollywood movie. praxis is an independent film. and it's purely that concept of being entirely independent and not hollywood, not about selling, not about the business, that praxis is all about. to some, this is a very easy concept, but in fact, i think it's really easy to get all caught up in the hollywood business of movie making, that you may lose the whole point of making independent film.

just after i got back, i was able to hang out with an old friend, jamie. jamie helped out on the shooting of praxis, basically doing the majority of the sound work. we've also known each other for a very long time, and we've helped out each other on various projects over the years. jamie came over and i showed him a couple of scenes from the film that turned out really well. i also showed him a music video by The_OutCircuit that i did a couple of years ago. anyhoo, jamie was absolutely floored by everything i showed him. i forgot about the music video, but he totally dug the music, and absolutely loved the abstract pixelization of the video, which is the complete opposite to praxis - which is more about producing clean, clear, beautiful moving images. jamie said that the production value of praxis was ten times way more advanced than that of unfortunate man, my previous short film. he said that he can tell that i've gained much more experience in making films over the years, and that it shows this in the film. he even said that it looked like 35mm, tho i think this is going a bit far...

anyhoo, i thanked jamie for his encouragement. it's way cool for someone like jamie to be this excited about the film, and it definitely makes me even more excited about completing it. i think the film will look incredible on the big screen.

but for now, it's important to enjoy the process of making the film, and to spend the quality time with those who you connect with on both a creative and spiritual level.

it's important to have this kind of encouragement.

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...

music videos

last friday, before me and paul were heading up to new york for the christmas holiday, i took a few hours, and worked on capturing a couple of music videos that i really liked, and i converted them and dumped them onto my ipod. first off, i have to say that trying to put videos onto an ipod is a complete pain in the ass - i had to convert the original mp4 files several times into a format that the ipod would finally recognize. anyhoo, after a few hours, i was able to put a couple of videos that i really enjoyed an dumped them onto the ipod (a couple of videos by everything but the girl, doves, and crowded house). on the train ride back to dc, i was able to watch the videos over and over.

i think it's absolutely amazing to be able to carry around cool music videos on an ipod and to watch them whenever you want. granted that the resolution may not be perfect, it's still pretty damn good for something so small. i remember, years ago, i would always have to wait to see a video for something that i only heard about. now, i can watch them over and over again.

i also found that watching the videos was very inspiring. it gave me a lot of ideas, and i think that i would enjoy directing music videos if i had the opportunity to do them more frequently. they're kind of visual collages of images, in such a short format. anyhoo, i totally dig watching videos, and i hope to watch them more often.

so the trip to new york was awesome: got to catch up with tom and andrew, and have a few drinks at the savoy, which is the restaurant where tom works. i'm glad to hear that they're both doing real well.

i'm a little disappointed that i haven't been able to do that much filmwork this past weekend, but hopefully, i'll be able to put in a couple of hours this week. i have a bunch of music stuff that i have to send to bob massey, and i want to get that stuff out to him as soon as i can.

let's see how much i can get done before the new year begins...

milestone

over the past weekend, i hit a major milestone in the post-production of the film. i was able to sub-rent the digital betacam deck from a local dealer, and i spend most of the weekend digitizing the footage into the avid: roughly six and a half hours worth of footage that used between 500-600 gigs worth of space. fortunately, i had plenty of hard disk space: 1.5 terrabytes on the avid system, and a terrabyte worth on a backup external hard drive. i captured all the footage into the avid as uncompressed 1 to 1 .omf files and .aiff files, which are the native file formats for the avid. needless to say, the footage looked incredible, and i'm excited that everything worked out this past weekend relatively without any problems.

i guess that i can finally say that i'm in the final stages of the film's post-production. over the next couple of months, i'm going to on-line the film footage using the off-line edit that was created using adobe premiere. i'm also fine-tuning any effects using after effects, and finalizing the music for the film as well. and i can tighten up any scenes that need a little tweeking.

up until now, i was essentially working with a lo-res dvd version of the film, which is like watching a fourth generation vhs copy. now i'm working with uncompressed super16 digibeta footage, and i think everything looks incredible. it's given the film a brand new life, and i think the final product will look incredible on the big screen. the footage still needs a bit of color correction, but fortunately, everything was transferred well enough that this won't be that big of a deal.

so the plan for the next couple of months is to finish the fine cut of the film on digibeta, fly out to l.a. and meet up with bob massey to finish up all the music, and plan for a local private screening for cast and crew and any press/production contacts.

in the meantime, me and paul are head-up to new york for the x-mas weekend.

guess, i better finish this film soon, yeah?

digi beta weekend

this coming friday, i'm picking up a digital betacam deck and spending the majority of the weekend capturing all the footage of the film into the avid for the final on-line. i'm confident that it should all be fine. of course, i'm working with about six and half hours of footage to digitize, so i've got my work cut-out for me.

the past few weeks have been rather hectic, and i haven't been able to work on the film as much as i like. tho, i was able to work a little bit on re-doing the opening titles using After Effects. as much as i like using the program, as with all effects, it can get a little overly complicated. the program gives you a ton of options in manipulating pretty much everything. but if you're not careful, you can get a little lost in being able to do simple effects. so, i'm trying to keep it simple. so far so good...

me and paul are heading up to new york for the x-mas holiday, then up to philly for new years, then in late january, i'm headed out to l.a. to meet up with bob massey. lotsa traveling...

so, hopefully, in the time in-between, i'll find the time to work on the final editing of the film.

let's keep our fingers crossed.

more music

tis the season as they say, and turkey day was very cool and relaxing. though, the weekend was still quite busy as ever. bob massey sent me a couple more tracks of music for the all important apt/park bench sequence and the black limbo w/filipino man sequence. so, i synched up the scenes with the lo-res versions and ftp them back to him so he had a idea of what everything sounds like all together. this is just meant to be a thematic reference, and not meant to be perfect in timing and levels and such. so far, i really dig what bob has brought to the project, and i'm extremely excited to see the final product when it's all said and done. there's just one more track to produce, then it's refining all to tracks that have been produced thus far.

since i was able to finish tom's actor reel last week, and also since i had the short promo interview of him from the last time we were in new york, i offered to author the dvd reel. still waiting to hear back from him, but it really shouldn't be that much more to do with it. i think as an actor demo reel, it looks really short and sweet, and very polished. so hopefully he'll get more gigs as a result.

so, i found a place locally that i can rent a digital betacam deck and i'm currently filing out all the paper work to get that going. it's mainly getting a certificate of insurance faxed over to the main office, and for them to approve everything. if all of it works out, i will prolly start to digitize the film at hi-res in a couple of weeks. six and half hours of footage is a lot to digitize. over the weekend, i tested out the the avid deck configuration that i planned to use with the digibeta deck with a dvd player with component outs, and everything worked out solid. so hopefully, the digibeta deck should be no prob.

so me and paul are heading back up to new york for x-mas, which will be really cool. i'm also planning to head out to l.a. in january for a couple of days to meet up with bob. i'll prolly shoot some stuff out there as well.

chipping away

over the past couple of weekends, i've mainly been focusing on getting up to speed on the avid system and also concentrating on working on the music for the film. i'm also putting together tom's demo reel on the side. soon, i'll sub rent a digibeta deck and digitize all of the footage to work on the final on-line of the film. so, i'm basically chipping away at different aspects of the film,slowly but surely...

me and bob massey have been ftp-ing files back and forth to work on all the different music themes for the film. so far, i think everything that bob has composed has been absolutely beautiful, and it's so cool to see all these different scenes finally come together. i think it's really cool that even though bob is in l.a. and i'm here in d.c., that we can still work together on this. i'm looking forward to my trip out there as well.

tom sent me a bunch of other short films that he had been in, and he asked me if i could edit his demo reel for him. tom doesn't have a whole lot to work with, but i think that there are some really strong sections that can be edited together to make a pretty decent reel. i've also had to think about what scenes from PRAXIS i am comfortable with including on tom's reel. anyhoo, i'll prolly put something together by this weekend.

on a more technical note, i'm planning to sub-rent a digibeta deck, and i've been reading up on how to properly configure everything so that it's all kosher. avid is not as straight forward on this stuff, but i have roughly six and a half hours of footage that needs to be digitized, and i'm giving myself ample time to be sure that i can do this properly, just in case something comes up. proper planning....yadda yadda yadda...

i think it'll all work out... :P

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...

yakitori nyc

so it's been a couple of days, and me and paul just came back from the weekend in new york. it was such a wonderful trip, particularly being able to catch up with tom and andrew and shoot their interviews, and also hang out and grab a couple of beers as well. the interviews went really well, and i definitely think that there's enough there to edit a couple of minutes of the interview down for promotional stuff later on. they turned out really well.

after shooting andrew's interview on friday, we met up with tom, and me and paul took them to our favorite japanese yakitori restaurant in st. mark's place. we got there early, and we were the first in line, but soon after we got there, a line of people started to form around the corner. paul and andrew started talking to a couple of people that said that they were visiting from san fran, and had heard about the place, but was it was their first time there. whenever me and paul are in nyc, we always try to go there, just because it's so different, and it has such an authentic feel to it, and the food is awesome except for the more unusual things on the menu (octopus dumplings...) i don't know if andrew and tom liked the food, but either way, we had a great time and it was very cool to take them someplace different. andrew said that he'd always walk right by them place, but in a way, never even knew that the place was even there. after dinner, we walked a few blocks, and had a few beers just around the corner. it was great to catch up with tom and andrew, and also to see that both of them are doing really well for themselves.

now that we're back in dc, it's time to buckle down and finish the film. i finished synching the couple of foley scenes that i did last week, and i'm also re-editing a lot of the scenes in the first half of the film. i like the new changes so far, and i think the film has a much more concise and tighter feel to it. Bob Massey is starting to compose music, and next month, i plan to purchase an Avid system to on-line the film. the goal is to have a fine cut of the film by late january. there's a lot of things to work on, but i think that this is totally doable.

the trip to new york was awesome, tho, i'm glad to be back in dc.

time to get focused and finish the film.