um... i'm not sure about that shot/line/piece of music/scene/character/sub-plot/sequence/act/whole movie

so yeah... my head's still spinning a touch from the super-small screening we had on sunday (and also the multiple beers i used to drown my anxiety). it was the first time we'd shown the film to anyone besides select members of our immediate families and it was a little nerve-wracking. special thanks to richard and payam for their objective commentary (being that they were the only ones who didn't really know the story and hadn't worked (much, in the case of payam) on the film prior to seeing it).

it went well, i think for only being a second cut... the highlights/lowlights:

1. payam starts giggling during my very brief cameo and proclaiming that i "look like a child molestor" (ed. note: not true. in no way does mr. knapp resemble a child molestor, nor is he playing a child molestor in the film in question.)

2. as soon as the movie's over, payam calls me out on my over-use of dramatic pauses. (apparently, somehow during the editing process i fell in love with structuring the scenes as follows: medium shot or close-up that jumps right into the dialogue; more med/cu shots as conversion continues; final joke/moment in cu; end on a very long wide shot in which nothing happens except for the characters looking at each other silently. this structure, while fine to highlight the occasional dramatic moment, may not be the best selection for EVERY THIRD SCENE.)

3. during conversation, everyone at the table suggests shortening/deleting a shot at the end of a particular scene. i look down at my own notes where i have underlined three times, my own thoughts for the scene: EXPAND THE END SHOT.

4. joe reminds everyone for the fifth time to refer to his character as "colin" and not as "joe".

5. issues arise regarding a scene in which joe fights with a middle-aged man, who slugs him (off-camera) resulting in joe having a black eye for the rest of the film. it's suggested that the scene simply does not work - which, on some level, i think joe and i were always aware of (that scene went through about three drastic revisions, including a final one five days before we shot it). however, if we cut it, it will leave a distracting gap in the continuity of the film (the black eye is discussed with other characters, but i really think something like that (at least as it relates to the tone/flow of our story) needs to be at least partially witnessed by the audience. richard suggested that a few editing changes (keeping the pace quick and steady through the entire sequence, and cutting down on the fight scene) might make it work... but there are also some sound issues to deal with. so, we're probably looking at another scene to re-shoot (the tally is at three so far), although this particular one will actually require significant scripted revisions to the dialogue/tone of the scene.

okay... i'm getting the anxiety again about all the work that still lies ahead. ultimately, i think we're still on solid ground. lots of work left to go (duh), but we have plenty of time to do it well. and, most importantly, nobody was too confused or throught that it outright sucked. so, yeah... i'm taking a few days off from the whole thing to kind of clear my head. then, it's back to work. (by the way, february marked the two-year anniversary of the project... it was during a triangular road trip from salem to los angeles to salt lake city to salem that i came up with the initial characters and concepts that became our currently untitled film.)

the point of a democracy

by the way, we finished that first cut weeks ago. and we're already well into the second draft.

there's music now - lots and lots of music. i think i've placed about 10 pieces of source music, some of which is legitimized by handshakes with gentlemen, the rest will hopefully not be too expensive. of course, we've got lots of p&r in the mix (and more still to come (hopefully including some by-request, unreleased b-sides and re-mixes) - there's also a very nice blanket music cover of a corrina repp song, some older reclinerland tunes, an amina track, and, finally, the stuff that will probably drain a fair portion of our post-production budget: belle and sebastian's "if she wants me" over a cheery summer montage and a.c. newman's "drink to me, babe, then" over our opening credits.

so, yeah, swimmingly is an appropriate word, i think. we'll be watching various cuts with friends/family/crew members over the new couple weeks and collecting notes on improving the edit. additionally, we've got some re-shoots scheduled for may, which i'm actually looking forward to. second chances are A+ in my book - especially with 9 months of hindsight... we'll be re-working two scenes specifically and i'm very much looking forward to bettering my shot selections and finding more active and interesting environments for the scenes in question. besides that it's all music and audio sweetening and then we're off...

keep checking in on occasion... and also look us up on myspace if you like (we're too lazy and insecure in our html to post an actually link here...) - hopefully we'll have some clips circulating on our myspace page as well as our home page (www.grammarschoolpictures.com) within the next few weeks.

until next time...