still nothing significant to report...

as the title indicates, i have nothing significant to report. then why am i posting, you ask? good question. the answer: i don't know. maybe to dispell any romantic notions you may have held about the editing process (it's really just a whole lot of me sitting at a computer screen watching take after take of the same shot and trying to decide which of joe's slightly varied inflections of "what are you doing here?" is going to sound most natural and create the illusion of emotional continuity between the three or four other shots i'm using.) not that it's not fun - it's actually really engrossing work (especially when you're editing something that's yours). but the physical details of it are very minimal and the work/fun is primarily mental. in any case, i've starting closely watching the cuts of every film or television show now. and it's clear that editing (like all of the filmmaking process) is about 50% craft and 50% art. most of the decisions you make are to keep pace and continuity, but every once in a while, things come together and continuity is not an issue and you can make cuts that actually elevate a scene (the rest of the time, you must rely upon the script or the acting or the photography to serve the story and deliver the goods). and then there's the middle ground where you might not have perfect continuity, but by trimming a frame here or there and bleeding the audio from one take to another, you can cheat a little and hope that what you're really trying to do, creating that moment, distracts the audience from the fact that mike's right hand went from being on the table to under the table between shots. but it's coming along nicely so far. and the feb 26th self-imposed rough-cut deadline should be no trouble at all.

additionally, i sent in our articles of organization today and within a week or so, we should be an official business. wahoo.

also: still no new name for the movie. not that we've been trying that hard, but still...

who wants to name our movie?!?

so, we (i) have kind of cooled on the title (drift) and am more or less coming up blank for potential new names... we had this issue during the writing phase too and cycled through about seven or so names before settling (settling) on "drift". so if anyone has any bright ideas they'd like to share, please to post them in the comments section for this entry. if you happen to suggest a title that we fall in love with, we'll probably steal it from you and make no mention of its true origin in either public or private conversations. but there's always the off-chance that we'll throw you a bone and give you an associate producer credit or something.

checking in

not sure if anyone's still reading this (esp since i haven't posted in nearly a month) - but there's nothing major to report right now. i'm still editing (it's going well) and i've got about 35-40 minutes worth of scenes rough cut. sequences are starting to form. characters are coming to life. and the plot coheres. highlights: (1) joe's nose whistle. it's everywhere. EVERYWHERE. i can't think of a single scene i've cut where at least one take of each angle doesn't prominently feature a nose whistle. BRILLIANT. i'm thinking of stealing from mike nichols and inserting the nose whistle at key moments throughout the film. (2) the subtle variations of mike johnson. as per a previous post, mike excells at tweaking reactions and delivery just enough to change a line's mood without breaking continuity. BRILLIANT. (2) alicia's attention and energy. i've not cut many of her scenes together yet... but in the few that i have done, alicia carries herself extremely well. once a take gets going, there are no breaks in character or blank expressions - she's incredibly focused on each scene. BRILLIANT. (3) lisa's versatility. admittedly, we didn't give her any slapstick or broad comedy, but lisa nailed everything else we asked her to do. from kissing joe (ewwwwwww!) to striking a balance between sarcastic/hurt/angry/embarrased (all in a single moment) to being motherly, she pulled it all off. BRILLIANT. (4) jim is funny. as the dad, jim is really funny. and soft. and you kinda feel bad for him. but he's funny. BRILLIANT. (5) erick is a punk. as with alicia, i've only cut a few of his scenes together, but erick plays a pretty good asshole. which is nothing like him in person! BRILLIANT. (6) dylan is cute. BRILLIANT. (7) dennis is cute (but dumb). BRILLIANT. (8) bob ham can walk-out-of-a-bathroom-and-give-a-disapproving-look like a sonuvabitch. BRILLIANT. (9) mollie definitely looks like she thinks joe is weird. BRILLIANT. (10) all those high school kids in eugene are crazy and young and hip! BRILLIANT. (11) ashleigh is crazy and weird! BRILLIANT. (8) payam is EVERYWHERE. BRILLIANT. okay... i'm done for now.