THE TRAILER!

On youtube until I get the bandwidth for the site taken care of.

Back on track

Ok. Finally. Back to editing. Got the first 2+ minutes copied from lo-def to hi-def this morning. Cutting together nicely. I'm amazed at how un-digital it actually looks. Not as clean as I'd feared, but still, no substitute for film. Of course, when you consider how much it actually costs to shoot/develop/transfer film, there's no way we could have done anything other than digital. We shot on a Sony F900, which is freakin' nice! And the lighting definitely helps. Can't wait to get it done and into color correction. I messed a bit with Final Cut's color correction on the trailer and was shocked at how nicely it worked. I know what big difference color correction can make, but it was nice to see (in a very amateur way with me doing it myself) how much it really changes things. Gonna be fun to define the look and see it executed properly once we get there.

Speaking of making a difference, it's also funny how much the sound is going to have an effect. Right now, with just production sound, it's not all that captivating. Plus, we recorded lav's in one channel and boom in the other, and sometimes the lav's weren't on or weren't working (or vice versa) so the sound ends up all in either the left or right channel. Plus, with no ambient sounds (rain, television, atmosphere, fx) and no adjustment to the sound, it's a bit flat. Okay, it's a LOT flat. So it'll be fun to create that aspect as well. I read somewhere that bad sound can make a film seem more low-budget than a bad picture. And I'm definitely not a "sound" person, so I'm putting a huge amount of faith into post to make it really good.

About 18 minutes of film left to cut together. Can't wait to get going on the next scene.

Delays Delays Delays

Editing has been delayed until I can get the newest version of Final Cut. I only have 5.0. Damn.

The trailer has been delayed until I can get a license to use music from Angel Heart. Failing that, I'll have to get something original or stock, but nothing would be as good as the track from that film.

No web updates until I get a few more bios.

Sheesh. Full steam ahead for a month and now hitting the brakes big time. Hopefully the new year is a bit more productive.

And that's a wrap!

Yesterday marked our third and final day of filming. Despite a couple of digital effects shots that eatdrink and myself are doing, the film is in the can (or on the drive in this case).

Much thanks to everyone who worked on the production, everyone from an amazing cast to people who helped clean up after the shoot and everyone in between. Nine days over three weekends and voila! a movie was shot. It's bittersweet to see it end.

Now on to the wonderful world of editing, followed by full finish, including color correction, scoring and sound design.

The Dark Hallway

Our final set, the hallway between Henry's and James' rooms, is up. Last night we cleared the room - we had to set up in one of the classrooms, rather than the theatre since a Christmas party is going on tonite - and moved all the flats and such into the room.

Starting about 10 this morning, Kurt, Matt and I got the flats into place and then Matt, Shannon Sarver, my wife and I started the daunting task of once again painting and dressing. Of course, this time I decided to add wallpaper into the mix. Not surprisingly the wallpaper wouldn't stick to the flats, since they had gone through some serious destruction for the last two sets, so we resorted to spray mounting the paper to the walls. Not the recommended method for sure, but we got nice and high from the fumes. Then perked up when I started spraying coffee to stain the walls and wallpaper, followed by getting high again with the addition of black spray paint to darken things up.

This set is the most directly-influenced by Silent Hill. Not only does it just feel like something out of the game because it's a hallway with doors on either side, but I added the "body bag" door from the alternate hospital in Silent Hill 2. Partly because I didn't want to cough up another $70 for a fourth door, but also because I love referencing the game. We wrapped a black shower curtain around a frame and ran black tape across it. If nothing else, it is just an odd addition.

Plus, finally, the red square comes into play.

Leaving the school, I couldn't help be amazed that once again, we'd created a pretty believeable world for the story to play out. But then, I might still be high from the fumes.

"Say it!"

If what I saw on the monitor today was any indication, this film is gonna be amazing. Not only did it look great, but the knife scene was just absolutely painful to watch - in a good way. Courtney wasn't feeling well (bronchitis and a sinus infection) and the way Walt (in character of course) was going at her, screaming at her, thrashing her around... so believable. And tense. I just fon't want to give anything away. Just. Wow.

Donnie and Maree finally got to ham it up for the "real" camera. The DVD of the newscast ran on the TV in the room, much to people's amusement. Donnie is a dirty fucker.

Everything we shot today just screams mood. The lighting. The angles. The performances. Everything was just spot on. I was sad to have to break down the sets because it was just so great being in there. You truly felt like you were in another world.

I'm tired. But can't sleep. I keep seeing the scenes play out in my head. Keep wondering if we covered everything. Keep telling myself we got it all and then some. But I can't help think there has to be some kind of bad news. Everything was just too perfect. Maybe it's all a dream. And the nightmare will be when I wake up and it never happened.

James' Room...

WOW! If Henry's room looked good, James' room looks fuckin' amazing!

Last night we did the basic build (which was pretty much the same as Henry's with the door and window walls flopped and repositioning the door to match how it would be in the hallway.

Today we painted (a dark aqua blue that I was afraid would be too "pretty" when we started putting it up - but huh-uh, it's awesome!). We did a crackle effect that we left on overnight. The crackle idea worked to a certain extent, in some areas the grey from Henry's room is bubbling through, in others, it just looks like the paint is old and cracking. Not as much destruction to the walls. But what really makes the room is that it feels like an actual apartment. With the loveseat, coffee table and the dresser and TV in there, it really feels like you're sitting in someone's crappy-ass apartment. Walt came in for rehearsal when we were done (which was about 6pm - much better than the 1am finish last week) and he was floored. When he came in to audition last week, the flats were still mostly unassembled and there were backdrops the students had painted on the stage. Not to knock the kids' stuff, but Walt thought they were for our set and was a bit, um, reserved. So walking in to a complete set that looked like a real deal set, he was just shocked. And thrilled.

I gotta say, I'm particularly happy with how the window turned out. Square panes on plexi and the fluorescent light hanging in front of it... Looks pretty damn close to the reference image. Just WOW!

Matt said at the beginning of this whole thing that the location was like a fourth character in the story. I totally agreed and am so relieved we were able to pull it off.

So, then on to the rehearsal with Walt. The guy just oozes James - not to say that Walt's evil or anything like that, but the wicked playfulness I pictured in James from the beginning is just right there, bubbling under the surface.

After the rehearsal we ran to Target to get the wardrobe. Walt tried on a few pairs of jeans and outside the fitting room, right in front of two employees, I asked if it was comfortable when he squatted. I'm thinking, he needs to be able to bend over and kneel down and be active in what he's wearing for the sake of the performance. Then, when he went to try on another pair, I wondered what the employees were thinking. Just another uncomfortable/funny moment for the sake of art.

Can't wait to get going tomorrow. The set - WOW! Walt - WOW! and to see him interact with Courtney and Lou... oh, and the knnife scene is tomorrow as well - kinda nervous/excited to see that play out.

I gotta sleep.

First Day of Shooting Complete

Now I must sleep.

edit:

Ok, now that I've slept, I really have to add something to this. No way I could let such a monumental day go with just the one sentence.

Once we got back on set in the morning, Kurt decided (rightly so) that the set was too plain. It looked like some walls with grey paint. So he and the grips had a good ol' time hacking away at the flats, scraping off paint, making holes in the walls, throwing dirt around (which was NOT fun to clean up later), pouring coffee, spraying paint, just anything to give the walls a fucked up, decayed look.

While that was going on I rehearsed Courtney and Lou for the scenes in Henry's room. The biggest concern was to get the right subdued, somber out of Lou without the character being boring. Secondly, what Lou was going to do when he was "waiting" in the room. Much of his performance is standing at the window, trying to imagine himself somewhere else. How to shoot multiple scenes of that and not get boring, was a challenge. But I think everything worked out fine.

SPOILER - Highlight text to read, but not if you don't want to ruin a surprise.
Adam Lawrence of eatdrink was there first thing to figure out the possibility of adding more clocks to the wall and if it was possible to digitally add more angels to the closet. It turns out that the 400 angels were enough to fill five shelves, so we decided to shoot that live. Of course, after we had wrapped for the day and the set was taken down, I realised we hadn't set the clocks up for the plates Adam was going to need. I'm hoping it's still possible to add more clocks, for continuity if nothing else. I'm also regretting that we didn't get the clocks to match from edit to edit. Quite a task considering there was from five-20 minutes between shots, and the clocks show that passage of time. Hope there's a way to fix it in post.
end spoiler.

All in all, it was a stressful, but productive first day of shooting. And after seeing the footage the following day, I had a renewed excitement for the next weekend.

17 hours later...

tired. sore. but we have a set. Spackled. Painted. Put in conduit and electrical boxes. We have drapes (ugly ones, to boot!) over the window. The rug and chair, bookshelves with books, wall sconces, moulding, Francis George's cabaret chair in place... It looks like a room. Dark, dingy, dreary, bleak... but that's the idea.

8am to 1am. But it's done (mostly).

By the way, a fun way to cut moulding is to let it hang out the window of the car and let it snap off from the wind in traffic. Right next to your face. That's fun!

I just hope I can muster the energy tomorrow (well, today actually - lord! - less than eight hours from now) to direct.

Day One of Construction

At about 6pm we hit Imprints with truckloads of frames and panels to build the flats. Once put together, we got them standing and built what will be Henry's room. But right now, it's just a 20' x 16' room with stark white primed walls. To think in 24 hours this will be a (hopefully) believable room is pretty difficult to imagine right now. But, hey, seven hours ago it wasn't even a room. It's one in the morning and I'm tired.

The Cast is, well, Cast!

Today marked the completion of our casting. In the role of Henry is Lou Diamond, for The Girl, Courtney Stavros and today we added Walt Turner as James. Such a relief to have some great actors to play the roles.