DONE

or is it? After nearly three months of, um, delays and setbacks, I had no choice but to pull the post production of "The Bet" back into my hands. Not to say that in that time some nice things hadn't happened, just that they hadn't happened, um, completely. Hmmm, I am intentionally trying to be vague on this and it's not working, so let's just say I pulled the film back and made some adjustments to the color myself (based on what they'd done, just making it darker - waaay darker - even, actually, darker than the new trailer I posted since I was more concerned with that being bright and clear enough for web viewing) and as far as sound is concerned, pretty much just weeded and structured what was there, some subtle massaging and a little bit of foley to fill in the blanks. Not sure if this is the FINAL!!!! version. I still want to check the color on a calibrated NTSC monitor and want to fine tune the sound - the recording on set was, well, not all that good. Would love nothing more than loop all the dialogue and foley everything. From scratch. The ground up. But. At least it is, in some form, DONE!!! and not a day too soon. I couldn't have taken time off at a better time, since I spent almost the whole week (aside from Friday's IKEA outing) working on the film. There's no way I could have gotten it done and all the other things that needed getting done (like the snazzy "Official Director Headshot" that Francis George took.

Closer and closer

I told Chris "The Bet" was so close to be finished I could feel it in the back of my throat. Yes, it's that close and that annoying. Well, only annoying because after going through post production I was being the diva director and wanted to get my fingers into it and massage it in a way I thought only I could. Long story. But the short version is that I made some technically small but artistically gigantic steps on the color (it went from looking good to super awesomely creepy) which was no fault of the colorist. I knew what I wanted but didn't know how to explain it. Learning curve on my part. And the sound felt a bit off to me, but after listening to it a dozen times without worrying if I was bugging the crap out of the sound guy, I'm starting to like it. And having the files in front of me I figured out what it was that was bugging me - something that might have taken hours with the sound guy and just a few minutes on my own - again, nothing against him. It's me. The biggest problem I'm facing doing it on my own is that I don't have an NTSC monitor to check against, so I'm pretty much guessing, rendering, burning a DVD and chceking on a TV. LOOONNNGGGG way around, but, again, not bugging the crap out of the guys who are probably sick of this thing by now.

And I have a secret - a really fucking awesomely cool super duper awesome secret - that I'm just busting to let loose, but refuse to. And if you are actually reading this and ask really, really nice, I just might tell you what it is. My way of seeing who reads this stupid blog at least.

Eyes on the Prize

Tonite, Kurt Rauf, the DP on "The Bet," is screening "My Name Is Bruce," the Bruce Campbell-directed film which Kurt was DP on, for Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert and also showing his reel including scenes from "The Bet." Which (if you didn't follow that last sentence) means, potentially, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will be seeing scenes from "The Bet." That's kinda cool. I mean, it's not like they're there to see scenes from an independent short and even if they do watch it that they'll be like, "Wow, we like this!" But, it's still fun to think that the guys behind EVIL DEAD (yes, it deserves all caps) will be seeing stuff I did. I am a dork. I know. But still, isn't that kinda cool?!?!

oh. no.

i'm going to unveil "the bet" to an audience of mostly cast and crew in a few weeks. as soon as i sent the invitations out, i was struck with a sudden bout of abject terror because now people were going to see a FINAL version of the film. not a rough cut. none of me whispering how such and such would be different or this and that was going to be fixed. no. this is THE FINAL VERSION!!! unless, of course, i pull a george lucas and decide to remaster it and re-edit it and update it and endless change it year after year because i can't come up with anything new.*

i told my wife hopefully no one would boo when the credits rolled, and she said of course they wouldn't. what follows is the email i sent her.

"they'll boo in their heads. they'll sneak off to the bathroom so they can laugh in private. they'll have a secret meeting afterwards at a bar to laugh at me and mock my attempt at filmmaking. "what was that red square about?" they'll ask and laugh - oh how they'll laugh! "do you even know what happened?" they'll wonder amongst themselves and decide i am a pretentious hack with no clue how to tell a story. "did you hear he wants to make another movie?" they'll groan and make a secret pact not to work on the new film just so they won't have to feign excitement at another premiere. they're all gonna laugh at me! dammit! where are my telekinetic powers and my prom dress to show off my dirty pillows."

*and, being a sensitive artist, if they boo or laugh or mock or any of those things, i'll never be able to make another film. ever. and being me, even if they applaud and cheer and congratulate, i'll still hear the silent snickering behind their lying eyes.

Soundtrack on MySpace

Four of the tracks from "The Bet - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" are on MySpace. Take a listen, comment, add the page as a friend (and the ones for Rubbersquare (my personal page) and "The Bet" if you haven't already.