How to be an acrobat...

Finished assembling/first cut of the opening scene.

It holds together very well. And lo and behold the ‘original’ cut assembly wasn’t all wasted – I ended up using large chunks of it and modifying other parts of it to fit into the new whole.

“Leap and the net will appear.”Julia Cameron

Chaos - Tears - Monsters and Fears

I’ve been editing the opening sequence over the week-end. So, yes, I’ve started editing the second last day of the shoot (not counting day 6 since that was a ‘repeat’ of the shoot). Nearly there…

Very nervous – this is it – this is how the film opens – I hadn’t watched the scene since we had shot it.

Some amazing stuff – Danielle cries on cue - all in close up – even at low resolution you can see several tears welling in her eyes and cascading down her cheeks – this was one take –I worked the whole sequence around it.

Her panic and tears are dramatically countered by Luke’s and Chris’ cold and Zen-like manner. Hot and cold. Shocking and arresting. Love it.

For a writer/director, it doesn’t get any better than this; this was the way I wrote it – this is the way it was performed and shot – this is how it plays in the edit. I got to enjoy it three times.

So I cut - remember we’ve got ten cameras – cut - shot angles – cut - many takes – cut- reaction shots –cut – shouts – cut – screams –cut –ECU - cut– soundscape – cut etc etc…

And I made a complete mess of things… not just a little mess but huge utter custard of images and sounds – you’d think I had just got the program out of the box and started editing that day. I’ve been doing this now for over three months – on any other scene I can drive that thing like a F1 car. Usually, I’ve been working with vision from a minimum of five cameras to handling up to 8 to 10 video tracks – I’m a high performance machine.

[As an aside – I do not refer to my script as I edit – so the continuity is all in my head and based on the good take.]

This should be a cinch yet the beautiful designer baby had turned out into a monster…

How could this be?

What happen I think is that as I worked around the performance I lost track of the logic of the scene – my mind couldn’t recall what happened when and where and…disaster.

I looked at it – I’ve been working on this scene the longest of all – tweaking every nuance. Fourteen hours over three days of solid work.

My eyes were stinging – my mind was numb. My heart was – well - bleeding lifelessly on the floor...

Late Sunday night - I started back from scratch. Yes – threw it all out.

Still not there yet – but as is the case, I’m rediscovering the scene and I can tell you that there are more great moments…it rocks.

[yet to edit the closing sequence – I will have to watch my step there too.]

Nearly there boys and girl – nearly there – I hope I can surprise you all with the finished product.

Will keep all posted…

Unafraid of the dark

Had a great session yesterday – till 1 am – fantastic stuff...sounds images cuts, cuts, performances...

I was enthralled by everything - and I’m tough audience - usually fall asleep watching action flicks (don't ask)...

I’m either extremely deluded or I got something special – time will tell.

Sneak Previews

CHW came over for lunch a sneak previews...if any one's interested in seeing some rough cut footage drop me a line...No i didn't tell him the real name of the film or show him the opening credits(!)

Thanks for the laugh CHW

Chris (‘Paris’) Hilton-Woods left a message on my voicemail saying cast and crew are at the studio all waiting for me to do pick ups (!)

I wish…

Anyway – this was funny because:

1. We shot a s*&^load of footage…who needs pick ups.

2. if everyone was on set – they probably wouldn’t wait for me and go ahead and shoot something; I’d like to think that this is because everyone is so prepared and has a clear idea of what I want as a director – and not because they think I'm an idiot who should not be listened to (!) and that indeed I can make a creative contribution.

3. We shot a s*&^load of footage…who needs pick ups.

Over the ½ way mark

Looking good. Looking very good.

Last night I was working my way through day 3 and 4 footage– Crikey we shot a s*&%load…who was the maniac director? Man, I was knackered just logging.

Isn’t it interesting? In retrospect you think – good enough take – but on the day –I can get better – or I need better than this – mind you it doesn’t hurt to have the footage for one reason or another (technical (camera, sound), performance (never!), variety)…

Day 3 was a particularly interesting day – full of cooing pigeons and barking dogs;

What I find interesting – because I never noticed on the day – is to see the actors’ reactions up close before “action” and after “cut”.

The shear fury in Danielle’s eye every time we had to cut and go for a further take – is a short film itself - and here I was worried she was too sweet-looking. Hell hath no fury like an actress upstaged by cooing pigeons…

To be fair - she wasn’t he only one with daggers in her eyes – I could see fury and rage even in lovely Luke’s visage. Reckon it all improved their performances…

The only one to take it on the chin was Chris – unfazed by this or that problem – he just kept putting his performance out…very Zen.

It is a strange feeling making a film I get to spend so much time on my own - writing first, then reliving it all in the editing.

I still miss production and the shoot – not as bad as previously – I don’t have ‘withdrawal symptoms’ – but I am itching to go at it again…I will have a first draft script by X-mas.

There, scoop.

In the end - it all works...

The other night I thought that a particular card (the 'leading' Red camera none other!) had not been digitised (Nooooo….)

Yeah, I know why would I think that with such an efficient and reliable onset postproduction crew? Well – to cut a long story short – all the other cameras recorded the card/shots – Blue and Green had the card and the log book had it recorded but the red Card was nowhere to be found on my hard drives…And I was certain I had transferred all the cards across to the Firewire HDD (see this post)

I then checked the original slave drives and lo and behold it was there.

Anyway – it was a painless exercise to then import the folder and edit.

Again, I’d like to thank all those involved in designing the system – it wasn’t perfect – and may do it differently next time - but things in the post have worked out well so far.