World Premiere

Tonya and I attended the world premiere of my film last night. It was well received and got really great response.

I won't lie when I say I was nervous as Hell. My first completed film and it played on a large screen. The only unfortunate thing about it was that the sound in the the venue, aptly called "The Venue," wasn't very good. A lot of the films didn't have great sound and they sounded even worse.

The highs were great. We got a lot of laughs in all the right spots. I even had a couple of people tell me they really loved the film. It felt really great to know, first hand, that they enjoyed it.

Sadly, we didn't win the overall award. But as my first offering out of the gate, I wasn't expecting to. My future offerings will be much stronger.

The picture in this post is of the company logo. It was HUGE on that big ass screen. The future logo will be animated.

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Keep swimming

Aside from my short film, I've also been working on other projects.

I'm working on a sci-fi project with another indie director. We're looking to try and get it sold or funded. I'm trying to write it in such a way that it won't be hard to shoot locally, but has the ability to bend to a real budget. Eric, my collaborator, also has plans for a sci-fi TV comedy which he has written a pilot for. He wants me to write an episode of that too.

Not to mention that I've got a great idea for a script with a powerful female lead. I want to shoot a trailer for that and fully flush out the script. I think I could shop it around if I was able to show potential backers what I had in mind.

My dream project is a series of films that I've dubbed "The Trilogy". They started out as one film about a man on a mission to decipher the female mind, but have painfully evolved into something much more. So much more that it requires three films to do it. Only one film has been started, the second has an outline, but the third is still in limbo.

I venture to say that I've got enough ideas in my skull to last me a long, long, long, long time.

9/11 has also been something I've been thinking about. I praise and condemn Oliver Stone for his film. On the one hand, he was brave enough to tackle an event that is still so fresh in our collective consciousness. It is important that we tell this story and that we tell this story now. On the flip side, I know that there are a lot of people who are still dealing with the tragedy of 9/11 and those of whom it has affected personally. I think we all have some stake in what happened that day in September. I might have not been there or known anyone who died in the attacks, but I considered myself a New Yorker that day. I think we all were that day.

I want to do a film, mostly for myself, for purging, about 9/11. I'm caught up in all sorts of things about 9/11. It's my Kennedy assassination, it seems. I'm fascinated, sickened, angered and saddened about Sept. 11th. I need to turn that pain and hatred into something useful. For myself. For anyone who wants to see it. I'm not sure how I will approach the subject yet. I'm still in planning.

There's so much to do and so little time, it seems. I hope I get a little time.

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Almost

I've been staying up late. Real late. Little by little I've put together the entire film. No music. Sound is still rough. A few cuts have jagged edges. I have big bags under my eyes. But it's basically done.

I see movies different than I did before. I mean, I use to pay attention to the edits, but they seem to be more prominent. Like raised type on a business card.

Last night my wife and I watched the rough cut. I'm not thrilled. I'm happy, not satisfied. I think the satisfaction won't come until I do this for a living. But I'm happy. Happy to be doing what I was meant to do.

I think I got some great performances from my actors, but I didn't get their best performance. Some actors were just too inexperienced or just didn't come prepared. Still, the scenes aren't horrible and their performances aren't either. I'd work with all of them again.

By the same token, I wasn't nearly as prepared for this as I had thought I'd been. I saw so many things that I could have done better or shots that I could have worked better than what I had planned. If I had storyboarded this like I had planned, it would have looked sharper and would have seemed more deliberate.

The sound isn't clean yet. I know that will help the feel of the film by leaps and bounds. And I haven't put the music down yet either, so I know that will help too. I'm already planning my next project, at least the production aspects. I have a few ideas of what I will shoot next. Right now, I just need to get this film in the can and out to the world.

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Networking

Sometimes, it doesn't matter how low on the ladder a contact can be. He just needs to be able to give you what you need.

During my time at Rumbo, I use to walk through the parking lot across from the Milam, on the Soledad side, every morning. And every morning I'd spot the lot attendant from across the lot. He'd wave and I'd wave back. I think the most we ever said to each other had to do with weather. He was always cool, always courteous and always waved.

I had to run downtown before work to get some pickup shots of the Milam building today and I saw him. We spoke for a bit.

He commented on how he hadn't seen me for a while and asked where I was working. He said he'd heard about all the layoffs and about how he'd heard there would probably be more.

I had my camera and tripod with me so he instinctively asked what I was doing. I told him I just came to get a shot of the building. With that, I went to it.

I got a so-so shot of the Milam and then went inside to get some room tone for the scene with Luis walking to the office.

When I left, I stopped by to say later to the attendant. Now, this may seem kinda fucked up, but I didn't even get his name. But we talked a bit more, shook hands and as I was leaving, he said, "Whatever you need out here, just come and see me in the morning."

Making contacts rules. Making a new friend rules harder.

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Post Toasting

Luis emailed me yesterday and said, "Hurry your ass up and finish the damn thing so i can see what it looks like."

I don't think he really know what's involved in editing. lol

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrapped on principal photography. Much to my dismay, there were several problems with the existing footage.

The pick up shots we took to correct the parking lot shots with the boom in frame worked out well, but they didn't have great sound. The sound was place on a separate tape that was in my camera.
I misplaced the tape.
Yes. I misplaced it.
So I went back and looked at the footage we had shot originally and was able to salvage it using a cropping technique in Final Cut. Wheew.

The internal mailbox footage that Hank shot was good, but it didn't really show the opening of the mailbox like the one I shot. And there was yet another problem with it. The mail they used was mail that they found in the mailbox, not the 'stunt mail' that we had used on the first day of shooting. What sucks most about it is that Hank went the extra mile and removed my name tag from the mailbox and place one with Rick's last name on it.
So, I went back to the original footage and looked at the second round of internal mailbox footage and found the best one. Then, using the magic of editing, I was able to apply the cuts in and out in such a way that you don't even notice my real name is on the inside of the mailbox door. Unless you slow it down to half speed. lol.

Luis went to see a film group friend, Mike, to record the narration. Mike has a home studio and allowed me to send Luis over to get it on cd. When I got back, I swung by Mike's and picked up the recording. It sounded fantastic. He and Luis did a great job. It was natural and well paced. Only one problem.
In my haste to leave for Houston, I hurriedly compiled the narration from the original script, made some additions and subtractions and sent it to Luis. I tried to make sure I changed everything that we'd either altered or dropped. Sadly, I missed one thing.
It has to do with the sudden change of locations from the gas station to the parking lot. Rick's narration specifically mentions the gas station in such a way that might be difficult to edit. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I've got some ideas. I think that I might be able to splice in a word or two from some other part of his reading or cut a word out somehow or even have Luis call me and give me some dialogue that I can dump into an audio program and clean up. I'm gonna consult with Mike to see if there's a way he can help me.

Lastly, there were little pick up shots I wanted to get with Luis, but didn't get around to it. I've got an idea of using a stand it that won't be directly seen and grabbing some shots for filled in certain sections. I'm not comfortable with the idea, but I want this to feel good if not look fantastic. The front 5 minutes are the most crucial ones for the development of the story, I think. As it stands, it's working well, but I'm going to need some additional footage. Fortunately, I think I'll be able to do it all on my own. The optical issues that my camera was experiencing seem to have cleared up long enough for me to give it a shot, so to speak.

I'm really excited about the editing portion. It's a whole different animal and I think I have a greater understanding of what it means to chop a film.

The last thing I'll have to do is score the thing. That part I'm not looking forward to. But that's another blog.

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