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.)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
It begins...
Audio files have been chopped and labeled. MP4s have been converted to HDVs. Files have been loaded into Final Cut. Here's what it looks like.
Now, it gets fun. I'm putting my rough cut together from scene A to scene SSS in order. I'm a strong believer in intuition in storytelling, and I think going straight through the footage from beginning to end will help me get the flow of the story intuitively as I edit. I would have shot the movie in order to if I had the resources, for the same reason. Instead, I have to spend a lot of time between scenes on set reminding the actors what day it's supposed to be and what just happened in story time. Sometimes I'll forget, and I wrote the damn thing. Pretty embarrassing.
All I've edited so far are the opening credits, and I'm even excited about that. They aren't even flashy credits or anything, I just think it's a cool walk-in to the world of the movie.
Hell, why undersell it? Guys, you are going to LOVE these credits! In fact, I'll make a stand right now; opening credits of the YEAR! You will be BLOWN AWAY!
Next up; editing the first scene with people in it.
Listening to: Sleater-Kinney, One Beat (The greatest all-girl band OF ALL TIME! Jeez, I'm done with the caps abuse, I promise.)
Now, it gets fun. I'm putting my rough cut together from scene A to scene SSS in order. I'm a strong believer in intuition in storytelling, and I think going straight through the footage from beginning to end will help me get the flow of the story intuitively as I edit. I would have shot the movie in order to if I had the resources, for the same reason. Instead, I have to spend a lot of time between scenes on set reminding the actors what day it's supposed to be and what just happened in story time. Sometimes I'll forget, and I wrote the damn thing. Pretty embarrassing.
All I've edited so far are the opening credits, and I'm even excited about that. They aren't even flashy credits or anything, I just think it's a cool walk-in to the world of the movie.
Hell, why undersell it? Guys, you are going to LOVE these credits! In fact, I'll make a stand right now; opening credits of the YEAR! You will be BLOWN AWAY!
Next up; editing the first scene with people in it.
Listening to: Sleater-Kinney, One Beat (The greatest all-girl band OF ALL TIME! Jeez, I'm done with the caps abuse, I promise.)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Saturday Night's All Right (For Editing)
I'm still stuck on the boring part of editing. I've pledged to myself that I will move on to the good part by March 15, so I'm working through my Saturday night. WOOH, PARTY! And now I'm blogging so I can take a break. Christ audio prep is tedious. But listening to the tape and some of the between scenes chatter is fun. (I can hear what actors say about me when I leave the room, heehee.) And I'm over the halfway hump, and getting a big chunk done this weekend. I'm only taking a break to edit a video for my radio job in which I pretend to get a blow job from a snake. And the Oscarcast.
I watched the Hurt Locker recently, and was pretty un-blown away. Partly because every Iraq War movie I see from now on will have to live up to the impossible standard of Generation Kill, and HL doesn't. Partly there's not much of a narrative and so no real stakes, just free floating anxiety. Partly all the thematic, "war is hell" stuff between the action setpieces was really shaky. Partly the dialogue and bullshitting between the soldiers was sadly flat (once again, GK rules here.) It's not a terrible film, and it's very well crafted, but I don't get the Oscar hype, and I'm especially sad to see such a small film potentially beat out something as sweeping as Avatar. (Or as thought-provoking as A Serious Man, my favorite film of last year. Goddamn the Coen brothers, I could keep making movies until I'm 80 and never be as good as they are.)
My open Logic window is staring at me, telling me to get back to work. Until next time.
Listening to: One Hundred Years, The Cure. (An old coworker of mine claimed The Smiths rock and The Cure sucks, and he's %100 wrong.)
I watched the Hurt Locker recently, and was pretty un-blown away. Partly because every Iraq War movie I see from now on will have to live up to the impossible standard of Generation Kill, and HL doesn't. Partly there's not much of a narrative and so no real stakes, just free floating anxiety. Partly all the thematic, "war is hell" stuff between the action setpieces was really shaky. Partly the dialogue and bullshitting between the soldiers was sadly flat (once again, GK rules here.) It's not a terrible film, and it's very well crafted, but I don't get the Oscar hype, and I'm especially sad to see such a small film potentially beat out something as sweeping as Avatar. (Or as thought-provoking as A Serious Man, my favorite film of last year. Goddamn the Coen brothers, I could keep making movies until I'm 80 and never be as good as they are.)
My open Logic window is staring at me, telling me to get back to work. Until next time.
Listening to: One Hundred Years, The Cure. (An old coworker of mine claimed The Smiths rock and The Cure sucks, and he's %100 wrong.)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mother Nature's a bitch
I'm still categorizing everything. (See my last post.)
Today a killer whale at Sea World killed a trainer. Years of doing the same show for screaming kids, but this time, for whatever reason, instead of jumping out of the water and grabbing a fish, it grabbed the woman, shook her around like a dog with a bone, and dragged her under the water.
I get what the whale was feeling. Captured and taken away from your family and friends, then not only kept in a tank most of the time, but forced to perform for the amusement of sugar-addled kids who just want to get splashed. I'd flip out too. It's called a killer whale for a reason. What do people expect? Still, you can't just kill someone no matter how pissed you are. Not cool, whale.
Today, I killed two mice in my home. I mean, indirectly. I didn't even put the trap out, Ken did. But I signed off on it, and when the CRACK! happened an hour later, I came out to the kitchen and saw that we killed two mice with one stone. One fully cut in half by the metal bar, the other with just a broken skull, still squirming a bit. I think that's all of them, but there may be more in the wall or something.
These weren't big rats, just mice. They mostly lived in the kitchen during their short life inside my apartment, rarely seen, but they'd started getting ballsier recently. Last night, I heard one scurrying around under my bed. It wasn't all that bad, sharing a room with a mouse. I went back to sleep fast. All it wanted was some chips I dropped. And for that I let it die today? Not cool, Josh.
What's the moral here? Maybe it's "Mother Nature's a bitch." We kill, we get killed. It'll happen. Animals aren't here to be our friends. Maybe we should stay the fuck away from each other.
I don't have any interesting editing tidbits, and won't for a couple weeks yet, probably, until I get to the "rough cut" stage. Diamond Bar is inexorably in progress, but it will take time to take shape. I want it to come out right, after all. For the curious, though, I've got two screenplay ideas floating around in my head to write as soon as I'm done with DB, and one of them is about the relationship between pets and pet owners. I've never been a pet person, and I think there's something a little deranged about the whole idea, honestly. It's going to be a science-fiction action epic. In the meantime, watch Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" if you haven't seen it yet.
Listening to: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Live)", Wilco (Every Wilco song is better live.)
Today a killer whale at Sea World killed a trainer. Years of doing the same show for screaming kids, but this time, for whatever reason, instead of jumping out of the water and grabbing a fish, it grabbed the woman, shook her around like a dog with a bone, and dragged her under the water.
I get what the whale was feeling. Captured and taken away from your family and friends, then not only kept in a tank most of the time, but forced to perform for the amusement of sugar-addled kids who just want to get splashed. I'd flip out too. It's called a killer whale for a reason. What do people expect? Still, you can't just kill someone no matter how pissed you are. Not cool, whale.
Today, I killed two mice in my home. I mean, indirectly. I didn't even put the trap out, Ken did. But I signed off on it, and when the CRACK! happened an hour later, I came out to the kitchen and saw that we killed two mice with one stone. One fully cut in half by the metal bar, the other with just a broken skull, still squirming a bit. I think that's all of them, but there may be more in the wall or something.
These weren't big rats, just mice. They mostly lived in the kitchen during their short life inside my apartment, rarely seen, but they'd started getting ballsier recently. Last night, I heard one scurrying around under my bed. It wasn't all that bad, sharing a room with a mouse. I went back to sleep fast. All it wanted was some chips I dropped. And for that I let it die today? Not cool, Josh.
What's the moral here? Maybe it's "Mother Nature's a bitch." We kill, we get killed. It'll happen. Animals aren't here to be our friends. Maybe we should stay the fuck away from each other.
I don't have any interesting editing tidbits, and won't for a couple weeks yet, probably, until I get to the "rough cut" stage. Diamond Bar is inexorably in progress, but it will take time to take shape. I want it to come out right, after all. For the curious, though, I've got two screenplay ideas floating around in my head to write as soon as I'm done with DB, and one of them is about the relationship between pets and pet owners. I've never been a pet person, and I think there's something a little deranged about the whole idea, honestly. It's going to be a science-fiction action epic. In the meantime, watch Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" if you haven't seen it yet.
Listening to: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Live)", Wilco (Every Wilco song is better live.)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
It's Labelin' Time!
Shooting is done! Hurray! Now to start editing, which is one of my favorite parts; I love editing. Picking the best takes, establishing the right rhythm for the story, trying out color schemes...
Wait...I forgot. I can't edit yet. Because I have to prepare my video and audio for editing first. Which, for the record, I don't love, because it's really, really tedious.
I've already taken the first step by labeling all my video files. Thanks to shooting via Flip, each take is already in it's own separate file...so all I had to do is label each file by Scene Code, Daily Take #, Shot Code, Shot Take #, and Auxillary Code. For example, what is W023CLEL003b.MPG?
W = "Lunch With Eloise" (each scene has it's own letter code, from A to SSS)
023 = the 23rd take that day. (for syncing with audio files)
CLEL = Close-up on Eloise (Each camera angle has a two letter code, and so does each character, so I can easily identify the type of shot, and who's in it.)
003 = The third close-up on Eloise take.
b = Filmed with the backup camera. (Most files don't need an auxillary code, but its there so I don't confuse what might be different aspect ratios, etc.)
What looks like gibberish at first becomes easy to read when you know what to look for. I'm not an editor normally, I don't know if other editors use a system like this, but I think it's pretty genius.
But naming each video file turned out to be the easy part, and even though it was tedious, I could listen to Eugene Mirman and Todd Barry while I skimmed the videos on mute to figure out the name.
Not so for the audio files; those need my ear's full attention. During shooting, I didn't use an audio mixes; each actor had a lav mic which went directly to an independent digital recorder. The advantages of this method is it's fast and easy; the downside is, I have to manually sync each actor's audio tracks together for each take. Which takes forever. And the aud files are often hours long, and have to be cut before they can be labeled. And because most scenes have 2 or more actors, there are more than twice as many aud takes to label. (These files are a bit easier to label, it's just scene code, take, and actor, e.g. W023EL. Still takes forever.)
Once I'm done with labeling, I can FINALLY...convert the files from H.264 MPEG to HDV MPG so I can edit it in Final Cut! Which isn't as tedious; I just have to press a button and let my computer run for the better part of a day. At least I can go to a movie or something for this part! Isn't it fun to see how the sausage is made? I promise most of these posts won't be so technical, but you should all know how much ridiculous busywork I have to do before I get to the fun part. I'll be fully organized by the end of February...I hope.
Listening to: "Fairytale of New York", the Pogues. (Works just as well on Valentines Day as Christmas.)
Wait...I forgot. I can't edit yet. Because I have to prepare my video and audio for editing first. Which, for the record, I don't love, because it's really, really tedious.
I've already taken the first step by labeling all my video files. Thanks to shooting via Flip, each take is already in it's own separate file...so all I had to do is label each file by Scene Code, Daily Take #, Shot Code, Shot Take #, and Auxillary Code. For example, what is W023CLEL003b.MPG?
W = "Lunch With Eloise" (each scene has it's own letter code, from A to SSS)
023 = the 23rd take that day. (for syncing with audio files)
CLEL = Close-up on Eloise (Each camera angle has a two letter code, and so does each character, so I can easily identify the type of shot, and who's in it.)
003 = The third close-up on Eloise take.
b = Filmed with the backup camera. (Most files don't need an auxillary code, but its there so I don't confuse what might be different aspect ratios, etc.)
What looks like gibberish at first becomes easy to read when you know what to look for. I'm not an editor normally, I don't know if other editors use a system like this, but I think it's pretty genius.
But naming each video file turned out to be the easy part, and even though it was tedious, I could listen to Eugene Mirman and Todd Barry while I skimmed the videos on mute to figure out the name.
Not so for the audio files; those need my ear's full attention. During shooting, I didn't use an audio mixes; each actor had a lav mic which went directly to an independent digital recorder. The advantages of this method is it's fast and easy; the downside is, I have to manually sync each actor's audio tracks together for each take. Which takes forever. And the aud files are often hours long, and have to be cut before they can be labeled. And because most scenes have 2 or more actors, there are more than twice as many aud takes to label. (These files are a bit easier to label, it's just scene code, take, and actor, e.g. W023EL. Still takes forever.)
Once I'm done with labeling, I can FINALLY...convert the files from H.264 MPEG to HDV MPG so I can edit it in Final Cut! Which isn't as tedious; I just have to press a button and let my computer run for the better part of a day. At least I can go to a movie or something for this part! Isn't it fun to see how the sausage is made? I promise most of these posts won't be so technical, but you should all know how much ridiculous busywork I have to do before I get to the fun part. I'll be fully organized by the end of February...I hope.
Listening to: "Fairytale of New York", the Pogues. (Works just as well on Valentines Day as Christmas.)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Fingers Crossed!
Remember my first post (cue flashback music), when I said " Tomorrow, we reshoot a couple driving scenes that needed better lighting...Tuesday, I resume negotiations with Beggars for music rights for the trailer. (Fingers crossed!)" Well, it took another 10 days to get the informal thumbs up for using the tUnE-yArDs song in the trailer, and the ink still isn't dry on our contract. Then, we finally reshot the driving scenes last Thursday, thanks to unusual rain, then an insane schedule at my day job. There's a reason I wrote "Fingers crossed!" You just never know.
But this Wednesday, we shoot the final scene and so FINALLY wrap. (Fingers...you know.) It's a really short scene that takes place at a doctor's office. Problem is, it's pretty tough to get the rights to film on location at a working doctor's office, and it's even tougher to find a spare room/office that would make a convincing set. I've checked out so many disappointing leads. Of course, the only person I have to blame is myself. Why would I write a scene in a doctor's office? Stupid writer.
(Fun fact: the first draft of Diamond Bar had a scene in a futuristic supermarket, with shelves full of lab-grown meat and a fully automated checkout row. And I wrote that AFTER I decided I would be filming whatever I wrote. What was I thinking? How was I going to build a supermarket set? Why, 2009 Josh?)
Anyways, I can't even start thinking about editing until shooting is wrapped. I can't explain it; it's a psychological block. I can't overlap production and post-production. So Wednesday (assuming it happens, F.C.) will be both a relief and a kick in the pants to get going on editing. And before editing, categorizing and naming the video chunks and especially the audio chunks, which is going to be long and boring. Ah well. Onward and Upward!
Listening to: "Shock The Monkey", Peter Gabriel (I could lie and say something cooler, but at least I'm not listening to Phil Collins...)
But this Wednesday, we shoot the final scene and so FINALLY wrap. (Fingers...you know.) It's a really short scene that takes place at a doctor's office. Problem is, it's pretty tough to get the rights to film on location at a working doctor's office, and it's even tougher to find a spare room/office that would make a convincing set. I've checked out so many disappointing leads. Of course, the only person I have to blame is myself. Why would I write a scene in a doctor's office? Stupid writer.
(Fun fact: the first draft of Diamond Bar had a scene in a futuristic supermarket, with shelves full of lab-grown meat and a fully automated checkout row. And I wrote that AFTER I decided I would be filming whatever I wrote. What was I thinking? How was I going to build a supermarket set? Why, 2009 Josh?)
Anyways, I can't even start thinking about editing until shooting is wrapped. I can't explain it; it's a psychological block. I can't overlap production and post-production. So Wednesday (assuming it happens, F.C.) will be both a relief and a kick in the pants to get going on editing. And before editing, categorizing and naming the video chunks and especially the audio chunks, which is going to be long and boring. Ah well. Onward and Upward!
Listening to: "Shock The Monkey", Peter Gabriel (I could lie and say something cooler, but at least I'm not listening to Phil Collins...)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Q & A Time!
Q: When can I see the movie? Where? Tell me more!
A: This is my #1 most received question since launching the website.
The short answer is, I don't know.
The snarky answer is, didn't you read my Eight Point Game Plan? (See the first blog post). It's only half joking.
The long answer is, my self-imposed deadline for a fully edited and mastered film is June 30th. So the when is "Sometime this summer." The where is "An initial screening in Los Angeles, then around the festival circuit, finally followed by a distribution plan that may include a DVD, online, and/or theatrical release."
The best advice I can give is, bookmark my blog! I promise that when Diamond Bar is ready for you to see, you can read about how to see it right in this space. Keep checking in, I will do my best to make it entertaining.
---Josh
Listening to: "The Lisbon Maru", by Fuck Buttons (great band, terrible name)
A: This is my #1 most received question since launching the website.
The short answer is, I don't know.
The snarky answer is, didn't you read my Eight Point Game Plan? (See the first blog post). It's only half joking.
The long answer is, my self-imposed deadline for a fully edited and mastered film is June 30th. So the when is "Sometime this summer." The where is "An initial screening in Los Angeles, then around the festival circuit, finally followed by a distribution plan that may include a DVD, online, and/or theatrical release."
The best advice I can give is, bookmark my blog! I promise that when Diamond Bar is ready for you to see, you can read about how to see it right in this space. Keep checking in, I will do my best to make it entertaining.
---Josh
Listening to: "The Lisbon Maru", by Fuck Buttons (great band, terrible name)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
This Is The First Post
Hi folks,
I'm writing this inaugural post to the official Diamond Bar blog on Jan. 17, 2010, a few days before the trailer and site go live officially. Yesterday, Ken, Chelsea, Nick and I went back to Rosarito to shoot the first scene. Today I put the finishing touches on the trailer. Tomorrow, we reshoot a couple driving scenes that needed better lighting. If all goes smoothly, we'll be approx. 96% done with principal photography. I've got a nasty sounding wheezy cough and am probably sick. Tuesday, I resume negotiations with Beggars for music rights for the trailer. (Fingers crossed!) Saturday is the wrap party, and although we won't be officially wrapped, I'd still like to have some promo ready to show the team.
This is my first time directing a movie. Movie-making, I've discovered, is not one big project, it's a thousand small ones, and every new project has an "if all goes smoothly" or a "hopefully" attached to it, and all the "hopefully"'s are cluttering my brain space and interrupting my sleep patterns. I used to be a laid back guy. Movie-making has turned me into a neurotic crazy person.
Everything has gone remarkably smoothly so far, weirdly enough. I was expecting so much more to go wrong. Either my neuroses are helping me stay organized, or they're unwarranted. Either way, I've pretty much got a movie in the can, and that's amazing.
Last May, I got the idea for a story about a woman who loses two years of her memory. I started writing it, consciously trying to write something I could potentially film for a very low budget. Around the same time, thanks to my other job as a radio producer/vlogger, I discovered the Flip video camera, which was giving me unusually solid video and sound for something you can get at a Best Buy. This was the discovery that made a micro-budget movie project seem honestly viable.
Soon, I finished the script, recruited friend and fellow movie nerd Ken Williams as my DP, and started auditioning from LA's deep pool of talented actors. Before I knew it, I'm hosting a sweet cast at my dad's house for sandwiches and a table read. Then, a three month whirlwind of location scouting, designing and buying props, buying some basic audio equipment, picking shots with Ken, and finally shooting. I'll save the details for the DVD commentary. Point is, I have the basic building blocks of a feature-length movie sitting on my hard drive, and I think it's something special. Now what?
Well, now I start a blog to tell you what. I provide you with exciting Diamond Bar news, update you on all the latest developments, and let you in on my eight-point game-plan for Diamond Bar. Like this:
MY EIGHT-POINT GAME-PLAN FOR DIAMOND BAR
Jan-June 2010: Edit and polish the final film, secure music rights.
July-August 2010: Screen the film and start entering it into film festivals.
Fall 2010-Summer 2011: Show the film at festivals, and get picked up for a distribution deal.
Fall 2011: Become the year's breakout hit. Make $200 mil box office. Win at least 4 Oscars or 7 Golden Globes.
Winter 2012: Enjoy my immense wealth and playboy status.
Spring 2012: Buy controlling stakes in the world's largest banks and liquidate all assets to consolidate my power.
Summer 2012: Become King of Spain. Resurrect the Knights Templar as my personal militia.
December 2012: Hell on Earth, and the Second Coming of Jesus.
There you have it! Maybe a tad unambitious, but it's a start. So now I roll up my digital sleeves and turn Final Cut Pro into my only friend. I'll post again soon and let you know how it's going.
In the meantime, check out the website (have you found the easter eggs yet?), watch the trailer again, and if you're a journalist or studio executive who wants to learn more about this astonishing young talent and his opus in waiting, my inbox is open.
Josh Richmond
Director, Diamond Bar
Listening to: "Lions" - tUnE-yArDs (not a big shocker there)
I'm writing this inaugural post to the official Diamond Bar blog on Jan. 17, 2010, a few days before the trailer and site go live officially. Yesterday, Ken, Chelsea, Nick and I went back to Rosarito to shoot the first scene. Today I put the finishing touches on the trailer. Tomorrow, we reshoot a couple driving scenes that needed better lighting. If all goes smoothly, we'll be approx. 96% done with principal photography. I've got a nasty sounding wheezy cough and am probably sick. Tuesday, I resume negotiations with Beggars for music rights for the trailer. (Fingers crossed!) Saturday is the wrap party, and although we won't be officially wrapped, I'd still like to have some promo ready to show the team.
This is my first time directing a movie. Movie-making, I've discovered, is not one big project, it's a thousand small ones, and every new project has an "if all goes smoothly" or a "hopefully" attached to it, and all the "hopefully"'s are cluttering my brain space and interrupting my sleep patterns. I used to be a laid back guy. Movie-making has turned me into a neurotic crazy person.
Everything has gone remarkably smoothly so far, weirdly enough. I was expecting so much more to go wrong. Either my neuroses are helping me stay organized, or they're unwarranted. Either way, I've pretty much got a movie in the can, and that's amazing.
Last May, I got the idea for a story about a woman who loses two years of her memory. I started writing it, consciously trying to write something I could potentially film for a very low budget. Around the same time, thanks to my other job as a radio producer/vlogger, I discovered the Flip video camera, which was giving me unusually solid video and sound for something you can get at a Best Buy. This was the discovery that made a micro-budget movie project seem honestly viable.
Soon, I finished the script, recruited friend and fellow movie nerd Ken Williams as my DP, and started auditioning from LA's deep pool of talented actors. Before I knew it, I'm hosting a sweet cast at my dad's house for sandwiches and a table read. Then, a three month whirlwind of location scouting, designing and buying props, buying some basic audio equipment, picking shots with Ken, and finally shooting. I'll save the details for the DVD commentary. Point is, I have the basic building blocks of a feature-length movie sitting on my hard drive, and I think it's something special. Now what?
Well, now I start a blog to tell you what. I provide you with exciting Diamond Bar news, update you on all the latest developments, and let you in on my eight-point game-plan for Diamond Bar. Like this:
MY EIGHT-POINT GAME-PLAN FOR DIAMOND BAR
Jan-June 2010: Edit and polish the final film, secure music rights.
July-August 2010: Screen the film and start entering it into film festivals.
Fall 2010-Summer 2011: Show the film at festivals, and get picked up for a distribution deal.
Fall 2011: Become the year's breakout hit. Make $200 mil box office. Win at least 4 Oscars or 7 Golden Globes.
Winter 2012: Enjoy my immense wealth and playboy status.
Spring 2012: Buy controlling stakes in the world's largest banks and liquidate all assets to consolidate my power.
Summer 2012: Become King of Spain. Resurrect the Knights Templar as my personal militia.
December 2012: Hell on Earth, and the Second Coming of Jesus.
There you have it! Maybe a tad unambitious, but it's a start. So now I roll up my digital sleeves and turn Final Cut Pro into my only friend. I'll post again soon and let you know how it's going.
In the meantime, check out the website (have you found the easter eggs yet?), watch the trailer again, and if you're a journalist or studio executive who wants to learn more about this astonishing young talent and his opus in waiting, my inbox is open.
Josh Richmond
Director, Diamond Bar
Listening to: "Lions" - tUnE-yArDs (not a big shocker there)
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