Wednesday, November 30, 2005

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...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, are you offical yet?

I hope there are continuity errors. That's one of my favorite parts of the IMDB to browse (the "goofs" section, that is.)

I'm glad things are coming along. I really, really hope I get to see your picture one day. It's so cool that you're actually doing something of which you always seemed to be pretty damn keen.

Anonymous said...

Dude. I hate it when I don't preview for typos. Lame.

Grammar School Pictures said...

as the man says, "even our superficial rhymes is [sic] super-official."

we've got a federal tax id number and everything. now when i fill out all those best buy surveys in hopes of winning a $500 gift card, i can honestly say that, yes, i am a small business owner.

additionally, we too hope that you (and millions like you) get the opportunity to bask in the warmth that is currently titled "drift". i'm sure once all is said and done at the very least we'll find the means to show it to a couple hundred people (though probably not all at once). and, of course, anyone who would like a dvd copy need only to send a check or money order our way. we'll even autograph it.

Michael Johnson said...

Hey Matt - I think it's superhuman that you're editing the whole entire movie by your own damn self. It's an inspiration to us all. Please, for God's sake let any one of us know if there's anything we can do to help you. I, for example, could help you out by putting some samples up on the site!

Hey, by the way, I ran into Lisa at the 24 hour deli in NW. She was having some soup and going to a show. Did you know she's working on a novel? Anyway, just thought I'd share. Toodloo! Happy Christmas and all that!

luv,

m