Sound Design and Color Correction

Yesterday I went to Sun Media to address the color correction and, while it is a very, very subjective thing, I think it came out pretty good. Kinda disappointed we did it in Final Cut and not Smoke and it didn't quite hit the contrasty look I'd hoped for (which I was afraid we wouldn't since my tests fell short of what I wanted when I really started going through the scenes) - but it DOES look good. Could it look better? Probably. Will anyone think it looks bad? Not likely. So, like I said it's subjective.

And I just got back from listening to the audio mix which is still in progress. Made a few overall comments and few specific notes. We got the music in there and, well, I think it sounds pretty awesome - but, that's just me. Kevin, the audio guy, did some wild things in a few of the scenes (specifically the hallway) that were just creepy. Still a lot of foley work to be done and addressing the overall feel, but I think it's gonna sound pretty good, too.

So, I'm pretty happy with where it's at right now and it will only get better. Now, just to get it done.

Score Completed

The score for "The Bet" is finished! And it's pretty darn good, actually. The only thing that hasn't been done is a full version of the song "Hallway" which runs over the credits, but since it won't actually be in the film, it'll wait a bit. All of the tracks from the score have been exported and will be integrated into the sound design... soon.

That just leaves the final sound design and color correction and the mutha is done.

First development meeting

Chris Smith and I chowed and pow-wowed about stuff today, including where we are headed with the new as-yet-untitled script. He had (of course) a pretty interesting idea which would tie into something I've had in the back of my head for quite some time, so that was pretty cool. I'm going to try to hash out an outline once I get through the post on "The Bet." Hard to even give a little taste of what the new script's about without A) descriving something that might change or B) giving away something that might stay. Leave it at it's a small, clever psychological thriller with human drama elements and some potentially creepy moments. We even haven't quite nailed down the location it takes place in. Nor who the protagonist is. We have a very, very rough blush of what's going to happen, and then we'll fill in the blanks as we go. But I'm pretty excited to start something fresh and new having spent nearly a year on "The Bet." Hopefully the next one will go a bit more quickly, at least relatively speaking. A year for a 20-minute short seems insane, but juggling a full-time job and other folks' crazy schedules - while necessary - was very time-consuming. Hopefully the process will be a bit more streamlined the next time through.

DELIVERED!

The viewing copy of "The Bet" was hand-delivered by yours truly about 30 minutes ago. Yes, it's still in progress, but at least I made the deadline. Now, to finish the damn thing!

The Bloody Glitch - in MOTION

FINALLY! I got the QuickTimes to export so that the glitches held (it has something to do with the scene that preceeds it, I think. Without that scene before, the glitch goes away. But once I exported it with the preceeding scene, reopened it and cut that out and saved again, the glitch stayed. So, take a look at the BLOODY GLITCH...

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The Bloody Glitch part 2

More bloody goodness that shouldn't be (though it really freaks me out). I don't know why the glitches popped up in the first place, but the film has suddenly taken on an entirely darker feel because of it. The smear across the wall would have been awesome in the other room. And the blood on the floor and on The Girl during the attack are just gruesome. What the fuck is going on in this film? Makes me kinda wish we'd done it all on purpose. Too bad to go in and add it digital would be, what, 10x the total budget? Heh heh.

Development begins

Chris Smith (co-writer of "The Bet") and I are meeting Thursday to discuss the new script which as yet has no title because the original title kinda sucks so I made it go away. We've decided to go for the thriller rather than the gorefest which he thought was a smart move and the more I thought about it, I think so too. Once I put the other out of my head, all kinds of great scenes started popping into my head. So we're going to sit down and hash out an outline of sorts. I'll probably rush through a first draft and hand it off to him to make it good and then go back and forth from there. Pretty much the same technique we employed on "The Bet." Hopefully (meh... Certainly) it'll be good and we'll be able to get some financing together to shoot it. Lionsgate, you out there? Heh heh.

The Glitchy Blood

Went through the edit on Saturday with Chris Defranco and he had a few minor tweaks. Now to get the submission copy in my hands and to CineVegas. Going to be submitted as "In Progress" since there's about two weeks of sound design and still need to color correct.

Started going through and scoring. And when I rendered the sequences a few glitches popped up that were just wild. Apparently the computer thinks the film needs more blood, since there are a couple of scenes where red smudges appear on the actors' skin and move with them. Looks really creepy. But if I copy the sections, the glitches disappear, so I took a couple of screen shots.

I'm hoping to be able to get the whole thing finished and perfect before the end of the month when there are two more festival deadlines.

To gore or not to gore

Waffling back and forth on the next project. Should it be a clever, twisty psychological thriller? Or should it be a thrill-ride gorefest? I'm pretty much torn. I think the gorefest would garner a bit more attention than the thriller, but it would possibly be a superficial interest. While the thriller could (read that COULD!) be a much better film, but infinitely harder to write and direct. Then there's budget concerns. The thriller is undoubtedly cheaper to produce, whereas the gorefest would be a bit higher. More locations, larger cast and, of course, the FX budget for both makeup and visuals. I personally would love to be behind the camera and in the audience for the gorefest, but I am wondering if the thriller is the smarter move career-wise. I dunno.

I've had about five ideas for the gorefest (lord i'm already sick of typing that) and finally got to something I think would be different enough to stand out, but still relatively homage-anized (not homogenized like milk, rather cullina bunch of ideas from other films and bringing them together as a series of homages) - where the thriller is just a smart little film with a shitload of twists and turns.

I look at a film like "Hard Candy" and think WOW! that'd be amazing to have directed, but it did very little business. Whereas something like "The Descent" made a relative buttload. Not that I'm in this for the cash, believe me. But I gotta make a living. And I'm afraid that something like the thriller would be really, really tough to pull off without an amazing script and amazing actors.

And the thing with the thriller is it's harder to find the "niche" festivals and such, whereas the gorefest would thrive at places like Screamfest, etc.

Grrr.

Either way, there'll be something new coming up soon.

Whaddya think?

"Hallway" and 9 days

I've got (at least a temp version of) "Hallway" finished, the "Film Version" which starts with music that leads to the end credits which is where "Hallway" plays. Also different from the regular version in that it's shorter and has a different instrumentation. Thanks big time to Rachel and Justine (and Mike Powers at The Tone Factory) for the great job. Too bad there won't be a soundtrack album, but I'm sure Rach and Justine have plenty of ways of distributing the song if they want.

Hopefully today I'll see the new cut of the film. Meeting at 6 at Sun Media for that and to set up a schedule to finish out the film before the deadline. Fingers crossed.

EDIT: Nope. Meeting got moved again.