Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Thank you for all your support and kindness throughout the year. Please have a safe holiday, and I wish you nothing but peace and good will.
And, and zombies, too.
-r.
Posted in Uncategorized, zombies | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
I honestly can’t believe it’s November!! Oh, wait. DECEMBER??!!!
I mean, really, where has the time gone? “The Dead Can’t Dance” has literally consumed a year of my life at this point, actually more (if you count writing the script, which I do). I knew production would make the time go by fast, but this is ridiculous!
I’m still chipping away at the rough cut. I got all the radio announcer parts laid in last night, and I love it! We did some callbacks casting before we finally settled on our friend Michael “Archie” Archibold, and it was a perfect choice. He has a great radio voice and great snarkiness to his delivery. They are really some very funny parts.
I need to get a couple of voiceovers from TJ, but that might have to wait until early next week, as he just had surgery today to remove a hernia (thank goodness - I mean to provide him some relief). And I need to do some foley work to fix some audio gaps on a zombie attack.
And one big hurdle left is finding some powwow music I can use. We thought we had something all set up, but now that fell through. I may just have to use something temporarily then add in something else later to make our deadline next week.
Other than that, it’s all pretty much there. Tightened up some stuff, and even with adding the radio bits, we’re still clocking in at about 1:45. Not bad. I do want to tighten it up just a bit more, though, and once we get the powwow music sequences in, that will add probably another 3 or 4 minutes, plus end credits.
Now I’m rethinking the title sequence just a little. I want to try a radically different approach than what I have now just to try it. I don’t think I’ll like it, but I just want to try it.
But we’re getting closer, peeps. Something else I can’t believe!
Have a great December,
-r.
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Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Editing is going great. I’m an hour into the film now, and really happy with how most of it is coming together.
I jammed last week, working on all night on the movie, sleeping for a while, going to work, then coming home to do it all over again. But I absolutely love it.
This is when all the hard work of shooting pays off. This is when it finally — FINALLY — starts to look like a movie. It’s flowing pretty well, and I particularly spent a lot of time editing the zombie sequences.
First it took me a awhile to pick the music I wanted, because that affects how it will cut together. And anything goes here. Slow-motion, dissolves, jump cuts, it doesn’t have to be real time, so it was a blast editing that stuff together. One sequence in particular is awesome, a long shot with Guy and Randall running through a hallway of zombies. That one shot took us about 8 hours to get, from lighting through blocking and then final takes. It lasts about 30 seconds.
The entire sequence is longer than that, of course, because it cuts nicely with other shots that worked fabulously. I can’t wait to share this with people. It’s going to be cool.
And so far, I love the tone of it all. I’ll need to look at it overall when I have everything laid down for pacing, and I know I’ll have to tighten up the beginning a little, but this is going to have a cool, hyper-realistic tone about it. Almost gothic, kind of like a comic book. I love it.
Audio will take a lot of work, and we knew it would. We tried our best, but there were just things out of our control (trains, planes, people driving by). Hopefully we can clean it up, but that’s a whole different phase (and one I’m secretly dreading, but it’ll come much later).
The performances, also, are great. It’s really weird watching myself, though. My character is such a high-strung control freak. Not saying that I’m not like that in real life, but, hey…
So I’ll tackle more editing this week, as well. On tangent stuff, we held callbacks for the radio announcer part on Saturday, and think we may have it cast after we get two more people to read, and we’ll meet with someone this week to get work started on the title sequence. And 2nd A.D. Craig is busy rounding up more CDs from local bands who want to submit. We want to use as much local talent as possible.
Today I’ve been cleaning and doing mountains of laundry, just trying to get caught up on life in general. I miss everyone. I haven’t seen much of my family lately, or anyone really. I haven’t seen my nephew TJ or my nieces since the wrap party. I miss them.
But all in due time, slowly it feels like I’m able to catch my breath. but with an impending festival deadline, it looks like I won’t really get to slow down until December. Oh my gosh — DECEMBER??!! When did this happen?
Better get back to work, then. I have to fold my socks. And by fold, I mean dump into a drawer.
Have a good week,
-r.
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
You’ll need QuickTime. If you can’t play this, a lower-res version is available on Veoh here
Enjoy,
-r.
Posted in The Dead Can't Dance, Uncategorized, zombies | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
It is indeed a pleasure to say that. We officially called it yesterday at 5:20 p.m., after we got the last scene out on the road by the windfarm near Beaumont. Again, we were fighting the clock, as Jerod had to shoot a basketball game at 6, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s been a tremendous journey, through ups and downs, much stress but also much, much joy. It’s an amazing feat that we did it. It took over the course of four months, but we got it. Hallelujah.
I tallied things up. We logged more than 1,000 miles traveling to locations — and that’s probably on the modest side (and that’s not including location scouting), used almost 200 extras and shot 35 hours of footage. Oh, and went through about 10 huge containers of cheese balls (there were always cheese balls on set).
I know I say this a lot, but I simply cannot believe it. And I have my incredible cast and crew to thank for it. They worked through some 16-hour days, troubled locations, frustrating circumstances, failing equipment, little sleep, strenuous action and just about every weather condition imaginable — extreme cold, excessive heat, wind and rain. And it seemed every outdoor shoot was fighting an ever-impending setting sun.
Several times throughout all of it, I kept asking myself, “What have I gotten myself into? Why did I possibly think I could do this?” And yet, somehow, I drudged on.
When I used to run 6 miles a day, I remember being so tired that I just wanted to stop, lay down and curl up. I often felt that way during this shoot. But I kept going another lap on the track, imagining a string attached to my chest, pulling me to the finish line, and I just let my body keep going.
Maybe that’s what I did here. Maybe I didn’t want to let everyone down. Or — most likely — I didn’t want to let myself down.
I really do love filmmaking. It’s certainly a crazy, uncontainable beast. But I love the ride.
I said the other day that I don’t really like rollercoasters anymore. That, I guess, was a complete lie.
Dancing across the finish line,
-r.
Tags: The Dead Can't Dance
Posted in Inspiration, The Dead Can't Dance, production, zombies | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
On Wednesday, we finally were able to get the final scene with Stupid, the good zombie, played by my dear friend Wade Hampton. So I’m pleased as punch to announce that WADE HAMPTON IS WRAPPED on “The Dead Can’t Dance.” (The pic is from the Independent School shoot, which seems like years ago.)
And as we get closer to wrapping up principal photography, things are getting emotional for me. Believe me, I want to wrap this baby up for good, but I also hate to see it end, in a way. We’ve all become such a filmmaking family, getting to know each others’ quirks, strengths and personalities. I’ve had the very good fortune of stumbling onto an amazing crew and I hope the friendships we’ve developed keep growing.
Especially with Sir Christopher and his family, whose farm near Udall is where we shot all our exterior road scenes. We are now wrapped at that location, as well, and I hated to see it end, just because he and his family are such great, warm, inviting, gracious people. Making this film has certainly been an adventure, but what has made it great is all the people we have come to know and work with, all sharing in the same pursuit: to make a movie and tell a story.
On Sunday, we’ll get an interior car scene done, then on Tuesday we’ll get a quick bar exterior scene. Then on Oct. 6 and 7, we’ll travel to Oklahoma to get the Quik Stop scenes. And then, lo and behold, we will be done!
I just can’t believe it. I’m excited and overwhelmed at the next stage, too, though. This is going to take a LOT of post work, but I think I’ll really enjoy it. This is the phase I love, where it starts forming the actual movie. Then there’s lots of audio and foley work to be done as well as digital effects. Just another phase of the adventure, and it’ll be great.
For now, I’ll enjoy the few shooting days we have left, and focus on organizing a wrap party. And I need to set up some photo galleries and cut a trailer in the very near future.
I have a line in the movie, where I tell Stupid, “So long, buddy.” I really hate to be done with him. But I love that we are, too.
Dancing to the finish line,
-r.
Posted in Inspiration, Picture editing, The Dead Can't Dance, Writing, acting, postproduction, production, title sequence, zombies | No Comments »
