In late May, 2009, while waiting in the theater to see the movie "Up", weirdly enough, I started conceiving of an idea for a movie. Two ideas were swimming around my head. One was the Futurama episode "Time Keeps On Slipping", and the whole concept therein of time suddenly jumping forward, and people (or aliens, or robots) finding themselves in strange life situations, wondering how they got there. Maybe there's a bit of the Talking Heads song "Once In A Lifetime" in there too. The other was low budget filmmaking. I'd spent the last few years in LA writing spec TV scripts, spec feature scripts, but I missed what I had in college, when I used to help produce one act plays I wrote with the theater arts department. I wanted to make a movie, and figured if I started writing a script I knew I could make cheap, maybe I could direct it too. I also knew I wanted to write a script with a female lead, which I'd never done before.
That night, waiting for the movie to start, and later that night at my laptop, I outlined the basic concept for "Diamond Bar". I started writing it on June 1st.
It's now been a bit over a year working on Diamond Bar, easily the longest I've worked on any single project ever. I finished writing the script in August, and thought, I can get this finished in a year, easy. Cast in September, prep in October, shoot in November/December, and I've got six months for post. But shooting ran over by a month, and post proved to be much more time intensive than I imagined (shocker). Even when that June 1st, 2010 deadline looked unfeasible, I didn't change it for a long time, cause I have an OCD appreciation for nice, round numbers like "One year".
But it's not going to happen. The movie as it looks right now is good. Releasable, even, maybe. But it's not done. At this rate, it'll be late July or maybe even August. And that's OK. As it turns out, even if it was done today, I wouldn't want to release it yet. That's because Sundance demands movies that haven't publicly premiered yet only, and they won't show their 2011 slate until January. I'm not getting into Sundance, but might at well shoot for the top, right? I'll hold a private cast-and-friends screening in LA when it's done, wait for Sundance's response in December, and then start working on more festivals and broader distribution.
So screw internal deadlines and rushed products and OCD number love. This thing is getting done right, even if it will be 14 months instead of 12. It will be worth the wait.
Listening to: Talking Heads, Once In A Lifetime (My God, what have I done?)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Round Two
I kinda forgot to post for most of May. Sorry bout that. I moved, and put on a big event for my day job, and you know, life bullshit. So I stopped blogging. But if you worry I stopped working on Diamond Bar, fear not; I'm making steady progress on The Edit: Round Two.
The Edit: Round Two is a hybrid pass at the edit. The first step was watching through the rough cut with master cinematographer Ken / good, DB-unaffiliated friend Maddy. Ken took notes, and afterwards we had a good chat about what needed fixing/cutting/polishing. Now, I'm back at my Final Cut bay (also known as the futon in my living room as I hunt for a new desk, the old one couldn't fit through my old bedroom doom), taking a look at each scene, and fixing it; sometimes just sightly tweaking the edit points, sometimes wholly reconstructing it, sometimes even leaving title cards where I intend to put pickup footage to be filmed soon. It's a challenge, not least because of Ken's enigmatic notes (what the hell does "flow interference -1" mean?), but also because second passes suck. Writing is more fun than rewriting, and editing is more fun than re-editing. As a writer, I often get away with first drafts, because I'm lazy and talented, but I'm determined to get this edit perfect, and that means real re-edits.
At the same time, I'm creating the sound mix. This means first and foremost layering the Flip-recorded sound with the lav-recorded dialogue I painstakingly labeled and categorized back in February, but didn't include in the rough edit. Finding each line, and adding it to the mix at a precise position and volume to sound clear and avoid double-tracking is a bit of a chore, but it's made much easier because of the earlier labeling I did. I think using multiple sound sources on every line will give me a rich vocal sound that's, dare I say it, quite impressive for such a low budget. It's hard to tell at this early date; I'm eventually going to have to import it into another program to compress, equalize, and perfect the mix, but at this inbetween stage I like it a lot.
Also involved in this step; creating and adding SFX (thank you freesound.org!), and replacing most of the temp music with budget-friendly, contractually approved music (more in another post). Plus recording every line obscured by any sort of noise or mic error, to be redubbed in a June looping session. After the loop, it's time for the final sound mix, a short round of pickup footage with Chelsea and Nick, the final edit with incorporated new shots, and topping it off with a round or two of color correction and adjustment. It's a process, but it's fun.
Listening to: Michael Mayer, Slowfood (the German techno producer, not the fictional serial killer.)
KOMPAKT Label on Myspace
The Edit: Round Two is a hybrid pass at the edit. The first step was watching through the rough cut with master cinematographer Ken / good, DB-unaffiliated friend Maddy. Ken took notes, and afterwards we had a good chat about what needed fixing/cutting/polishing. Now, I'm back at my Final Cut bay (also known as the futon in my living room as I hunt for a new desk, the old one couldn't fit through my old bedroom doom), taking a look at each scene, and fixing it; sometimes just sightly tweaking the edit points, sometimes wholly reconstructing it, sometimes even leaving title cards where I intend to put pickup footage to be filmed soon. It's a challenge, not least because of Ken's enigmatic notes (what the hell does "flow interference -1" mean?), but also because second passes suck. Writing is more fun than rewriting, and editing is more fun than re-editing. As a writer, I often get away with first drafts, because I'm lazy and talented, but I'm determined to get this edit perfect, and that means real re-edits.
At the same time, I'm creating the sound mix. This means first and foremost layering the Flip-recorded sound with the lav-recorded dialogue I painstakingly labeled and categorized back in February, but didn't include in the rough edit. Finding each line, and adding it to the mix at a precise position and volume to sound clear and avoid double-tracking is a bit of a chore, but it's made much easier because of the earlier labeling I did. I think using multiple sound sources on every line will give me a rich vocal sound that's, dare I say it, quite impressive for such a low budget. It's hard to tell at this early date; I'm eventually going to have to import it into another program to compress, equalize, and perfect the mix, but at this inbetween stage I like it a lot.
Also involved in this step; creating and adding SFX (thank you freesound.org!), and replacing most of the temp music with budget-friendly, contractually approved music (more in another post). Plus recording every line obscured by any sort of noise or mic error, to be redubbed in a June looping session. After the loop, it's time for the final sound mix, a short round of pickup footage with Chelsea and Nick, the final edit with incorporated new shots, and topping it off with a round or two of color correction and adjustment. It's a process, but it's fun.
Listening to: Michael Mayer, Slowfood (the German techno producer, not the fictional serial killer.)
KOMPAKT Label on Myspace
Monday, May 3, 2010
Short One
First edit is done. Preparing for next stage. More details to come in less than a week
All I'll say now is I'm really sad my blog music sharing service of choice, Lala, is disappearing. Apple better have a replacement in the works, because if they're just stabbing a great site in the back Netscape-Navigator style, I'll be pissed.
I'll have a new song service next post, hopefully.
Listening to: Caribou, Odessa (great production on this one)
Caribou on Myspace
All I'll say now is I'm really sad my blog music sharing service of choice, Lala, is disappearing. Apple better have a replacement in the works, because if they're just stabbing a great site in the back Netscape-Navigator style, I'll be pissed.
I'll have a new song service next post, hopefully.
Listening to: Caribou, Odessa (great production on this one)
Caribou on Myspace
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Maple Cream Soda...
is surprisingly tasty. The maple doesn't overwhelm the vanilla...it's kind of like what you'd imagine vanilla waffles would taste like, in a soda. Also oddly reminiscent of French Toast Crunch cereal, a short-lived spinoff of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. If you live in LA, the sandwich shop "All About The Brea" next to Pink's Hot Dogs packs this stuff, and I recommend it.
That's not what I'm blogging about today, though. I'm here in my makeshift editing suite, rough cut standing at T=70:46. The last two minutes I've edited are backed by a single song without cuts, the longest music cue in the movie to date. For the most part I haven't used music under dialogue, but in some situations it works.
My thoughts on how to use music in Diamond Bar have changed as I've edited. Many sections I thought would go great with a certain song are now music-free, and some stretches I assumed would be nearly silent are full of music. Before I started, I had a whole playlist of 20 songs, and I assumed I know exactly where I wanted each of those songs to go. I worked for a long time on that playlist, too. I've been a music guy for much longer than a movie guy, and I had very strong ironclad opinions on how each of these lovingly chosen songs would fit in my project, and I've had to revise those opinions many times.
For one thing, putting music in a scene often forces you to lengthen it, sometimes disrupting how quickly you want to flow from one moment to the next. Either that, or put two bars of music in, which just feels weird. Other times the music I picked out was so strange as to be distracting. I don't want to be that guy who fills his indie film soundtrack with slow, strummy, earnest indie tunes, but it's so much easier to achieve a certain tone by using a simple, emotionally direct song. It's hard to match OOIOO or Mount Eerie to a scene in a sensical way, when it's easy to throw anything on top of The Shins or Band Of Horses and make it full of feeling.
Finally, and I've known this from the beginning, I don't have the budget to use 20 established songs in a movie, even from fairly underground artists. I've been talking to friends who are musicians about replacing some of the music cues I've chosen with original music that's similar in tone. It's cost-effective, and in a lot of situations having original cues tailored to the movie feels much more natural.
Still, in other situations I need the real thing. For one thing, the climax of Diamond Bar turns on a specific song that's referenced in the script. Even beyond that, sometimes the benefits of having a known, great song are more subtle. My two-minute cue is "Middle Cyclone" by Neko Case. It's singer-songwriter, girl-with-guitar indie of a type I've tried to avoid, and I could probably get a friend to make a reasonable fascimile of it. But I doubt the sequence will work as well with any other song. Neko's clear, ringing bellow, the warm reverb of the chorus, the vivid imagery, it all fits DB perfectly. There'll be parts of the movie with weirder music, and original music, and no music at all, but I'm convinced she's the right choice for this moment.
Listening to: Neko Case, Middle Cyclone (Natch.)
That's not what I'm blogging about today, though. I'm here in my makeshift editing suite, rough cut standing at T=70:46. The last two minutes I've edited are backed by a single song without cuts, the longest music cue in the movie to date. For the most part I haven't used music under dialogue, but in some situations it works.
My thoughts on how to use music in Diamond Bar have changed as I've edited. Many sections I thought would go great with a certain song are now music-free, and some stretches I assumed would be nearly silent are full of music. Before I started, I had a whole playlist of 20 songs, and I assumed I know exactly where I wanted each of those songs to go. I worked for a long time on that playlist, too. I've been a music guy for much longer than a movie guy, and I had very strong ironclad opinions on how each of these lovingly chosen songs would fit in my project, and I've had to revise those opinions many times.
For one thing, putting music in a scene often forces you to lengthen it, sometimes disrupting how quickly you want to flow from one moment to the next. Either that, or put two bars of music in, which just feels weird. Other times the music I picked out was so strange as to be distracting. I don't want to be that guy who fills his indie film soundtrack with slow, strummy, earnest indie tunes, but it's so much easier to achieve a certain tone by using a simple, emotionally direct song. It's hard to match OOIOO or Mount Eerie to a scene in a sensical way, when it's easy to throw anything on top of The Shins or Band Of Horses and make it full of feeling.
Finally, and I've known this from the beginning, I don't have the budget to use 20 established songs in a movie, even from fairly underground artists. I've been talking to friends who are musicians about replacing some of the music cues I've chosen with original music that's similar in tone. It's cost-effective, and in a lot of situations having original cues tailored to the movie feels much more natural.
Still, in other situations I need the real thing. For one thing, the climax of Diamond Bar turns on a specific song that's referenced in the script. Even beyond that, sometimes the benefits of having a known, great song are more subtle. My two-minute cue is "Middle Cyclone" by Neko Case. It's singer-songwriter, girl-with-guitar indie of a type I've tried to avoid, and I could probably get a friend to make a reasonable fascimile of it. But I doubt the sequence will work as well with any other song. Neko's clear, ringing bellow, the warm reverb of the chorus, the vivid imagery, it all fits DB perfectly. There'll be parts of the movie with weirder music, and original music, and no music at all, but I'm convinced she's the right choice for this moment.
Listening to: Neko Case, Middle Cyclone (Natch.)
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Rollin' just to keep on rollin'...
And ripplin' just to keep on ripplin', slidin' just to keep on slidin', etc.
Oh oh, what's going on here? Dayum you're sexy people, Chelsea and Nick.
This still is from 48:15 into my rough cut, which means we're a little more than halfway. I had to take a few days off for a comedy boxing match with my sister in front of 1000 fans in Las Vegas (my day job is a weird one), but now I'm back on the grind, for some of the trickiest scenes in DB. I just finished editing a scene we shot on the fly in secret in a bar in Hollywood, in very low light. It looks quite cool actually, very stylized, though most of the sound will have to be redubbed. But we only had a bare minimum of footage to work with, obviously not ideal now that I've put on my editing hat. Even trickier was the first in-moving-car dialogue. We didn't set up any special rigs or anything, we just shot while driving with a couple artfully placed lights around the interior. Again, cool shots, but continuity is a bitch; when some takes are in motion and others are stopped at a traffic light, stitching it together is no mean feat.
And now there's a love scene, one of two in the film, thorny for a whole different set of reasons. This isn't a straightforward romantic love scene, either, there's a lot of emotional ambiguity for both characters. How do I keep that subtext without being entirely unerotic? Lots of shots or a single take? What sort of music, if any? Is slow motion cheesy or involving? Most crucial, how much to I want to test a viewer's comfort level?
This is on my mind in particular because I just, finally, watched "The Room", which lived up to my very high expectations. What a hilarious and sad movie. Nearly every shot in the movie evinces the question "What the fuck was Tommy Wiseau thinking?", but in the four soft-focus, very long, entirely inappropriate sex scenes, you get at least part of the reason; Dude think's he's a stud, and wants to show the world. It's a lesson in why you shouldn't star in your own movie, but also in the dangers of letting the audience become really, really uncomfortable, particularly not even three minutes into the movie. At the same time, allowing a little squirming will get people talking, and thinking, and curious what these characters will do next, and really, isn't that all you want as a storyteller?
There are a lot of lessons in the Room. Among them: If everyone were nice to each other, life would be a lot better. Also, don't do drugs, don't betray your best friend, and don't announce that you're pregnant just because you want to make things interesting. That really isn't a good enough reason.
Back to work. I can't wait for y'all to see this. This summer, people. Be ready.
Listening to: Mark Lanegan Band, Methamphetamine Blues (And I DON'T WANNA LEAVE THIS HEAVEN SO SOON)
Oh oh, what's going on here? Dayum you're sexy people, Chelsea and Nick.
This still is from 48:15 into my rough cut, which means we're a little more than halfway. I had to take a few days off for a comedy boxing match with my sister in front of 1000 fans in Las Vegas (my day job is a weird one), but now I'm back on the grind, for some of the trickiest scenes in DB. I just finished editing a scene we shot on the fly in secret in a bar in Hollywood, in very low light. It looks quite cool actually, very stylized, though most of the sound will have to be redubbed. But we only had a bare minimum of footage to work with, obviously not ideal now that I've put on my editing hat. Even trickier was the first in-moving-car dialogue. We didn't set up any special rigs or anything, we just shot while driving with a couple artfully placed lights around the interior. Again, cool shots, but continuity is a bitch; when some takes are in motion and others are stopped at a traffic light, stitching it together is no mean feat.
And now there's a love scene, one of two in the film, thorny for a whole different set of reasons. This isn't a straightforward romantic love scene, either, there's a lot of emotional ambiguity for both characters. How do I keep that subtext without being entirely unerotic? Lots of shots or a single take? What sort of music, if any? Is slow motion cheesy or involving? Most crucial, how much to I want to test a viewer's comfort level?
This is on my mind in particular because I just, finally, watched "The Room", which lived up to my very high expectations. What a hilarious and sad movie. Nearly every shot in the movie evinces the question "What the fuck was Tommy Wiseau thinking?", but in the four soft-focus, very long, entirely inappropriate sex scenes, you get at least part of the reason; Dude think's he's a stud, and wants to show the world. It's a lesson in why you shouldn't star in your own movie, but also in the dangers of letting the audience become really, really uncomfortable, particularly not even three minutes into the movie. At the same time, allowing a little squirming will get people talking, and thinking, and curious what these characters will do next, and really, isn't that all you want as a storyteller?
There are a lot of lessons in the Room. Among them: If everyone were nice to each other, life would be a lot better. Also, don't do drugs, don't betray your best friend, and don't announce that you're pregnant just because you want to make things interesting. That really isn't a good enough reason.
Back to work. I can't wait for y'all to see this. This summer, people. Be ready.
Listening to: Mark Lanegan Band, Methamphetamine Blues (And I DON'T WANNA LEAVE THIS HEAVEN SO SOON)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
More Q&A!
(Rough cut currently clocking at 33:19. Just finished scenes "Z" and "AA". About 35% done.)
Q: Josh, I like that blog post where you talked about how to organize files and prepare for editing, because nothing excites me like learning about the nuts and bolts of film editing. You should do another post about how to make a rough cut!
A: ...That's not a question.
But I'll do what you say anyways, because I like those educational posts too. This is easily the biggest thing I've ever edited, and my first time using Final Cut, so I'm learning all this as I go.
So I've got all this footage. I have video files, and each file is one take. Because of the camera I used, each video file is tied to an audio file that has that video's ambient-mic captured sound. I also have audio files with the lapel-captured dialogue, but those won't make it into the rough cut. Right now, I just want to see what shots I want to use, and in what order.
Lets say that I want to start my film with a 20-second clip of my main character, Alexis, waking up and geting out of bed. (Very original). I have these options: A001MA1 (Master shot, take 1), A002MA2 (Master shot, take 2), and A003CLAL1 (Close up on Alexis, take 1). I watch all three. I decide the close-up is too short to be my first shot, and the first master doesn't feel that natural. (Later, Chelsea will tell me that she's "terrible at acting like she's asleep", which frankly seems like the easiest acting in the world. Certainly easier than acting like you're dead, even. She must have her reasons.) Anyways, Master Two is a brilliant waking-up performance from Chelsea. So I mark an In-Point (usually right after I clap for Action), and an Out-Point (she gets out of bed), and drag the marked clip into the Timeline (a big gray number-line that starts at 0.) The clip turns into a big rectangle on the Timeline, starting at 0:00 and ending at 0:20, telling me where and how long the shot is.
What shot is next? A005-A007 are all, lets say, shots of Alexis getting out of bed, then slipping on a pair of sandals. (What an exciting movie!) I like A007 best, so I drag that on the Timeline starting at 0:20 and ending at 0:30.
But wait a second. Now, the movie is: Alexis wakes up, Alexis gets out of bed, Alexis gets out of bed from a different angle, Alexis puts on sandals. Whoops. I have to choose the In and Out points carefully on each take, to make sure the story is one uninterrupted flow. How do I do that? I have four tools that sound like a Bar Mitzvah DJ is yelling at me on the dance floor: Roll, Ripple, Slip and Slide.
ROLL: The bit between two shots on the Timeline is called an "edit point", To roll, I click on the edit point, and drag it left or right to make one take end earlier and the other start earlier, or vice versa. Like, if I have two shots of the same scene, but one is wide and another is close, and I want to start wide and end close, rolling helps me decide when I'm going to switch from one shot to the other.
RIPPLE: Like one sided rolling, this just lets me start or end one clip earlier or later. I can ripple my editing point and make my second clip start later, to get rid of the redundant getting-up bit.
Now it's time for clip 3. I have a two minute take of Alexis brushing her teeth, but i don't want to use the whole thing. I'm not Romanian, I'm not going to punish the audience with unnecessary long shots of nothing happening. So I pick 1:15-1:20 and make it clip 3 in the timeline. But if I later decide a different brushing-teeth moment was more exciting, I can...
SLIP: I know I want "brushing teeth" to be 0:30-0:35 of the movie. So I grab the clip, and slip it left or right, keeping the start and end points on the timeline the same, but changing what part of the take I'm using.
Finally, if I'm making a morning montage of Alexis brushing her teeth, gargling, brushing her hair and putting in contacts (Why am I not making this movie, this is gold!), I might think to myself "I want gargling to start at 1:20 instead of 1:10, but I still want it to be between teeth brushing and hair brushing". So I can
SLIDE the gargling clip back and forth, and the space before and after will automatically fill in with bits of the takes already before and after it in the timeline.
This is all more complicated than it sounds; once you know the tools, it's really intuitive. So it's just: OK, what action or line of dialogue comes next? Look at all the takes, pick one, drop it in the timeline, and roll, ripple, slip and slide until it flows naturally from the previous clip. Then go to the next action.
Over and over.
Until you've covered the whole story somewhere around 90:00.
It's a long process, but also fun. Because this is storytelling too. Pace and timing in storytelling is everything, and this is how you control it. You move in and out points by half-seconds until every joke is perfect, and every pause sounds natural. And then later, on the second pass, you put in music and SFX, you color-correct, then you do it all again. But most of the work is on the first pass.
Next time on the blog: less wonky, more funny, hopefully.
Listening to: From Here We Go Sublime, The Field (Also a triumph of editing, BTW. This used to be a Lionel Richie song.)
Q: Josh, I like that blog post where you talked about how to organize files and prepare for editing, because nothing excites me like learning about the nuts and bolts of film editing. You should do another post about how to make a rough cut!
A: ...That's not a question.
But I'll do what you say anyways, because I like those educational posts too. This is easily the biggest thing I've ever edited, and my first time using Final Cut, so I'm learning all this as I go.
So I've got all this footage. I have video files, and each file is one take. Because of the camera I used, each video file is tied to an audio file that has that video's ambient-mic captured sound. I also have audio files with the lapel-captured dialogue, but those won't make it into the rough cut. Right now, I just want to see what shots I want to use, and in what order.
Lets say that I want to start my film with a 20-second clip of my main character, Alexis, waking up and geting out of bed. (Very original). I have these options: A001MA1 (Master shot, take 1), A002MA2 (Master shot, take 2), and A003CLAL1 (Close up on Alexis, take 1). I watch all three. I decide the close-up is too short to be my first shot, and the first master doesn't feel that natural. (Later, Chelsea will tell me that she's "terrible at acting like she's asleep", which frankly seems like the easiest acting in the world. Certainly easier than acting like you're dead, even. She must have her reasons.) Anyways, Master Two is a brilliant waking-up performance from Chelsea. So I mark an In-Point (usually right after I clap for Action), and an Out-Point (she gets out of bed), and drag the marked clip into the Timeline (a big gray number-line that starts at 0.) The clip turns into a big rectangle on the Timeline, starting at 0:00 and ending at 0:20, telling me where and how long the shot is.
What shot is next? A005-A007 are all, lets say, shots of Alexis getting out of bed, then slipping on a pair of sandals. (What an exciting movie!) I like A007 best, so I drag that on the Timeline starting at 0:20 and ending at 0:30.
But wait a second. Now, the movie is: Alexis wakes up, Alexis gets out of bed, Alexis gets out of bed from a different angle, Alexis puts on sandals. Whoops. I have to choose the In and Out points carefully on each take, to make sure the story is one uninterrupted flow. How do I do that? I have four tools that sound like a Bar Mitzvah DJ is yelling at me on the dance floor: Roll, Ripple, Slip and Slide.
ROLL: The bit between two shots on the Timeline is called an "edit point", To roll, I click on the edit point, and drag it left or right to make one take end earlier and the other start earlier, or vice versa. Like, if I have two shots of the same scene, but one is wide and another is close, and I want to start wide and end close, rolling helps me decide when I'm going to switch from one shot to the other.
RIPPLE: Like one sided rolling, this just lets me start or end one clip earlier or later. I can ripple my editing point and make my second clip start later, to get rid of the redundant getting-up bit.
Now it's time for clip 3. I have a two minute take of Alexis brushing her teeth, but i don't want to use the whole thing. I'm not Romanian, I'm not going to punish the audience with unnecessary long shots of nothing happening. So I pick 1:15-1:20 and make it clip 3 in the timeline. But if I later decide a different brushing-teeth moment was more exciting, I can...
SLIP: I know I want "brushing teeth" to be 0:30-0:35 of the movie. So I grab the clip, and slip it left or right, keeping the start and end points on the timeline the same, but changing what part of the take I'm using.
Finally, if I'm making a morning montage of Alexis brushing her teeth, gargling, brushing her hair and putting in contacts (Why am I not making this movie, this is gold!), I might think to myself "I want gargling to start at 1:20 instead of 1:10, but I still want it to be between teeth brushing and hair brushing". So I can
SLIDE the gargling clip back and forth, and the space before and after will automatically fill in with bits of the takes already before and after it in the timeline.
This is all more complicated than it sounds; once you know the tools, it's really intuitive. So it's just: OK, what action or line of dialogue comes next? Look at all the takes, pick one, drop it in the timeline, and roll, ripple, slip and slide until it flows naturally from the previous clip. Then go to the next action.
Over and over.
Until you've covered the whole story somewhere around 90:00.
It's a long process, but also fun. Because this is storytelling too. Pace and timing in storytelling is everything, and this is how you control it. You move in and out points by half-seconds until every joke is perfect, and every pause sounds natural. And then later, on the second pass, you put in music and SFX, you color-correct, then you do it all again. But most of the work is on the first pass.
Next time on the blog: less wonky, more funny, hopefully.
Listening to: From Here We Go Sublime, The Field (Also a triumph of editing, BTW. This used to be a Lionel Richie song.)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A Night Of HCR and FCP
It's a historic night! Health Care Reform is about to pass, probably, which is amazing; this is the biggest thing Congress has done in my lifetime. I might tune in to CSPAN to see the final vote, but mostly I'm celebrating by editing.
I am 20 minutes into the rough cut, which means I'm a little past Act I in screenplay-speak, and I can get an idea of the basic shape and flow of the movie. What's weird is I feel like I'm watching Nick and Chelsea perform for the first time here. When I was in the room with them, directing them, I could only sense what they were doing, where they were emotionally, and try to push them one way or another. But on camera, I'm seeing some awesome, subtle, funny, powerful bits of acting which I didn't register the first time around.
I got more coverage on some scenes than others, and you can really tell in the editing process, because editing with lots of options is so much easier. Some scenes I'm fudging with camera trickery a little bit to keep the flow going. That's been my Prime Directive while editing; don't let anything jar the viewer out of the movie. Keep him/her focused and in the magic circle. Some scenes I'll have to get another shot or two. But I'm happy with my shot composition and thrilled by the acting, so I know I've got the raw material for a great movie here.
I'm getting a sense of my editing style, too. Not a lot of fades, a lot of master shots, judicious use of music. I'm taking a cue from the Coen Brothers, too, in choosing what acting takes to use. The philosophy: picking the most interesting, attention grabbing moments creates the most interesting screen performance, and can complement a naturalistic story as easily as overwhelm it. Better than picking the flattest moments in an attempt at verisimilitude and getting some mumblecore BS.
A year ago, I could only watch other movies and wonder what a movie I made would look like, what my style would be. Now I know. Pretty cool.
Projected deadline for a finished rough cut; April 30. After that, reshoots, dubbing, rights and polish.
Listening To: Liquid Liquid, Optimo. (Cowbell.)
I am 20 minutes into the rough cut, which means I'm a little past Act I in screenplay-speak, and I can get an idea of the basic shape and flow of the movie. What's weird is I feel like I'm watching Nick and Chelsea perform for the first time here. When I was in the room with them, directing them, I could only sense what they were doing, where they were emotionally, and try to push them one way or another. But on camera, I'm seeing some awesome, subtle, funny, powerful bits of acting which I didn't register the first time around.
I got more coverage on some scenes than others, and you can really tell in the editing process, because editing with lots of options is so much easier. Some scenes I'm fudging with camera trickery a little bit to keep the flow going. That's been my Prime Directive while editing; don't let anything jar the viewer out of the movie. Keep him/her focused and in the magic circle. Some scenes I'll have to get another shot or two. But I'm happy with my shot composition and thrilled by the acting, so I know I've got the raw material for a great movie here.
I'm getting a sense of my editing style, too. Not a lot of fades, a lot of master shots, judicious use of music. I'm taking a cue from the Coen Brothers, too, in choosing what acting takes to use. The philosophy: picking the most interesting, attention grabbing moments creates the most interesting screen performance, and can complement a naturalistic story as easily as overwhelm it. Better than picking the flattest moments in an attempt at verisimilitude and getting some mumblecore BS.
A year ago, I could only watch other movies and wonder what a movie I made would look like, what my style would be. Now I know. Pretty cool.
Projected deadline for a finished rough cut; April 30. After that, reshoots, dubbing, rights and polish.
Listening To: Liquid Liquid, Optimo. (Cowbell.)
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