how it's done (right)

so just after midnight last night, i sat down to cut together one last scene for the day... i'd been working on stuff from early in the shoot (which was also from early in the script) with joe and mike's characters and it was going okay. mostly, i was just lining things up to be polished at some point in the future when there was more context around the scenes. but so i start cutting together this nice little bit - it's the first time that colin and aaron (best friends 4ever) have to themselves after recently reuniting. it's a simple, two-shot scene set in a very cramped hallway at the basement pub where the characters just sort of chat and establish the situations for the first act. but, damn, those boys knocked it out of the f-ing ballpark. i digitized two takes from joe's angle and three from mike's and between those five times through the scene i had a terrific and uncommon range of reactions and emotions to select from - and without needing to cut around continuity! contrary probably to what i was telling him, mike gave me a slight variations of frustration and playfullness and cockiness without fully changing character. and joe did the same thing with his frustration, depression, and absurdity. both of them provided me with perfect little clips that can be interchanged and shuffled around without disrupting the flow of the scene or causing any awkward breaks of character. it was really fantastic and surprising putting that scene together with so much ease. so, hats off to joe and mike. additionally, hats off to bob ham (bobham!), who hid in the bathroom for several hours that morning, flushing a toilet on cue and then squeezing his large manly frame into an impossibly small gap between the camera and the wall (you can read his version of the story here: HERE! (scroll down to July 11)). i'm really excited to see this all coming together...

even more pictures!

and also here's a few pictures from the wrap party...



andy, gerry, and joe bicker in the kitchen.



joe continues bickering. peter is bemused.



gerry schemes, as mollie and alicia enjoy something someone else is saying.



joe, ashleigh, and yona admire mike while an unidentified person enjoys some liquid courage.



ashleigh and mike converse.



jim looks away from bob and lita.



joe and bob share a "moment".



gerry holds court in his living room.

more pictures!

since there's no new news to really report, i thought i'd catch up with posting some pictures from the latter days of production. enjoy.



joe attempts to put a shoe on.



joe and andy survey the scene.



matt moves incredibly fast behind the camera.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

that's the answer to your question. on that day, we'll hold a rough cut screening for the cast and crew of the film with the intent to gather critical feedback, test temp track music, etc. also, we should probably have another party that night at gerry's house. i'll have alicia put in a few more calls to widmer and liquid. see you then.

don't eat the bug

a brief note on our recent wrap party (brief: since i'm sure most of you (1) were in attendence or (2) are not at all interested in this aspect of the production):

it was fun
we didn't drink anywhere near the amount of beer or vodka we had available
gerry told fantastic stories about everything from ghosts to drunken chemistry teachers
some jerk ate a bug
everyone got a free t-shirt or two
peter drank so much he was hungover
peter also gave matt and alicia a fantastic scrabbleboard as a gift
everyone was drunk enough by the time we showed the footage that they were unable to fully express their disapointment/shame
it was fun

that's all for now... i'll try to keep everyone posted on the post-production, but i'm not entirely sure how interesting that's all going to be... additionally, i'll post some more photos and link to some on-line galleries of photos that people have taken on-set and at the party.

l8r.
matt