Almost two years into “The Dead Can’t Dance” (which is nothing in filmmaking time), I’m beyond thrilled to be in the latter stages of post-production. But I’m still laboring over some color-correction issues. I’m using Red Giant Software to give the film a dated film look using its aptly named Looks filters software.

It is an indie digital filmmaker’s dream. You apply the software to the clip on your Final Cut Pro timeline, and a palette of different “looks” pops up. Depending on the visual feel you want for your film, you click on a “look” and it applies all the settings for you (manipulating color curves, saturation, effects, etc). Pretty amazing.

Beyond that (or in lieu of it if you don’t want to change your raw video image that much), the Looks program comes with tools for color correction, letting you alter the exposure, contrast, saturation, or add a color gradient (to make a sky bluer, for instance) or do 3-point color correction and more. It really is a phenomenal tool, and will probably only be improved in updates. I highly recommend it.

While this process is (somewhat) fun in its own right, color correction is also a laborious, time-consuming process. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I already added film “scratches” and “dust” to give the movie a pulpy, B-movie feel — enough to give it texture but not be distracting.

I’m also going for a color-reversal film-stock look for the exterior scenes. It gives the beginning of the film a very dreamy, surreal look, and when the action moves to indoors and nighttime, I let the lighting that Jerod designed set the visual mood.

But, really, it’s all going well, which is fantastic ’cause this Saturday we’ll be ONE MONTH AWAY from our screening. Awesome!

There should be posters all over town now, and we’re getting a second batch made this week so we can hang more. A lot of people are asking if they can buy tickets in advance, which is cool that they’re asking, but it’s not possible. Only at the door.

Here’s to living — or dead — color,
-r.

We’re busily preparing. We had a promo meeting this week and came up with some cool and unusual ideas for promotion. We’re setting those in motion now, and will involve street-theatre-type stuff, a “zombie walk,” fake news coverage, Spookt Soda (featured in the movie) campaigns and more. We’re making it a HUGE event. It’s gonna be a blast!

Post work on the actual film continues. I’m STILL messing with Looks filters, and Sergio is making headway on audio editing and mixing. He’s in Albuquerque this week, so he’ll get some ADR work with Guy done while he’s there. Perfect!

I will be featured in an article in Kansas magazine next month, and will be traveling to Lawrence for a photo shoot on March 20, so while I’m there, I’ll check in with Sergio, take a look at stuff and do some of my own ADR work. Everything is working out!

Marching on,
-r.

I think it’s going to be a great year. I really enjoyed my other double-digit years. I was 11 when “Star Wars” came out, and that movie changed my life. I think for the first time, I saw that the universe was massively expansive.

When I was 22, I was still in college, and my last year of it was a blast. I got my first really great acting role in Lanford Wilson’s play “Angels Fall.” I got to play a really, really confused character, and I think that role taught me a lot about acting. How to focus, how to be subtle. It was theatre in the round, so the audience was literally at arm’s length. There were “windows” hanging, and I remember I had to look look through them and “see” the desert. And I did see it. The far-reaching sands, mountains in the distance.

At 33, I started writing my first script, which became “Dancing on the Moon.” I had no idea what that would lead to and I never, ever imagined that it would actually become a movie — that I directed, no less. That first attempt at writing a script opened up an entire new world, and got me into two writing labs at Sundance, almost unheard of for a first-timer. Those experiences taught me wonderful, invaluable things about the craft of writing, analyzing movies, the film business — and myself.

Now, at 44, my latest movie is almost done. I’m anxious to show “The Dead Can’t Dance” to the world, I just hope the world wants to see it. I really hope we have a great festival run, that we get into some great places. And I still want to take it on the road on tour, possibly in the fall. I’d go door-to-door showing my movie if I could. We’ll just have to see.

It all feels promising. And looking ahead, I can safely say I have no idea what’s in store. It feels like I’m about to step off a cliff. Let’s just hope I don’t crash.

The clock is ticking,

-r.

Otherwise, sound designer Sergio and I have run into a few small compatibility problems in our work flows. Mainly, I can’t export the correct files from Final Cut Pro that he needs to do his audio mixing work. (If this doesn’t make your head hurt, here are the details: I can’t export an OMF file from FCP with timecode intact and unflattened audio because the file exceeds 2G, which is “unsupported.” I tried exporting the whole timeline as a Quicktime file then re-exporting that as an OMF file, which worked but the tracks came over as AIF, not WAV files, and everything was flattened instead of being separated into its own waveforms — dialogue, music, sound F/X, etc.) Geez, that made my own head hurt just saying all that.

Arrrgh. Technology bites me in the ass every time. But we’re working on it, and I think we’ll have a solution soon. It doesn’t help that he’s in Lawrence, I’m in Wichita and that he leaves for New Mexico soon, but we’ll get it, dammit!

Promotion-wise, I’m slowly revamping the Harmy site, and have uploaded a new trailer to YouTube (but I’m still not happy with the quality, gotta do more research there now, too), as well as refining the posters. Need to design some T-shirts, too, and get those ordered. There’s just not enough time in the day! A guy’s gotta see “Lost,” ya know?

Plus I was head dancer at a powwow last weekend, and I’m still sore! I was literally dancing all day, and I’m just not in shape for that. I’m not in shape to stand all day, much less dance.

Anyway, things are moving along, one way or another. So, onward!
-r.

Very exciting news, I’m stoked! And I’m very thrilled to be back at the Orpheum, we had phenomenal screenings of my first two movies there, so this should be a blast, as well. Look for heavy promotion to kick in fast. Things are gonna get movin’!

Can’t wait to share the film with everyone. It’d be great if some people came dressed as zombies! (But we don’t want to clean up any fake blood.) More info to come…

-r.

That doesn’t mean the film is finished, it just means that editing is complete (a HUGE feat nonetheless). Now I make a Quicktime file of the film and send that to our brilliant sound designer Sergio Snmiguel, who will edit and mix the final audio.

While he’s doing that, I will continue to do color correction and image manipulation with Red Giant’s Look filters, which are amazing. I’m giving the movie a very aged, B-movie look, with film scratches and a color reversal-film appearance. It’s going to be cool. I just can’t move anything around on the timeline in Final Cut Pro while doing this, or Sergio’s final audio file won’t sync up (hence the term “picture locked”).

I’m ecstatic to be at this point, absolutely. We’re thisclose to being done. Simply amazing.

On other fronts, I’ve started redesigning the Harmy site, and will update that frequently. And now I’ll turn more energy to the promotion phase, and finalize our screening here. Should have details on that within the next week, hopefully.

So keep an eye out. Things are going to move fast now. And I can’t wait.

-r.

“Dear Rodrick,

Thank you so much for submitting your film to the SXSW Film Conference and Festival 2010. We wouldn’t exist without the support and engagement from filmmakers such as yourself.

However, it’s a crazy numbers game. We’re sorry to let you know that while ‘The Dead Can’t Dance’ was given every consideration, it did not make the final cut. This year we received well over 4,000 submissions for a final program of about 120 features, and 120 shorts. There are way more excellent and fascinating films than we can program, and the final decisions are agonizing.

Again, we thank you for your support, and apologize for this disappointing news.”

It’s not really a surprise (and I tried to not get my hopes up too high). But I think it IS very cool that we hung in there as long as we did, and with only a very rough cut submitted (while it would have been cool to have sent them a more polished cut, it just wasn’t possible). Unlike many other festivals, SXSW sends out notices in batches, so if your film gets a thumbs down right away, you’ll know. Final notifications will go out around Feb. 1, so that means we were still being considered much longer than many films. Very promising. (The last time I submitted to them, I got a rejection before the first deadline was even up — ouch.)

And 4,000 submissions???!!!! It makes getting in nearly impossible. Crazy!

But this officially kicks off the next phase: Dealing with the festival beast. And I feel pretty ready and confident, with my armor glaring. Bring it on, freaks! This won’t be the first rejection for “The Dead Can’t Dance,” but hopefully someone bites somewhere. We’ll just have to see.

And while I was reserving world premiere status for SXSW, knowing this I can now pursue our own world premiere here.

Sure, it would have been absolutely incredible to be in SXSW, and with no word until now, it almost seemed possible. It’s fun to day dream, but it wasn’t meant to be (probably never will, and that’s OK). Still, it’s a bitter pill. Just gotta wash it down and make room for more.

Until, hopefully, we get that nice, sweet — elusive — one. Someday.
-r.

So the film is soooooo close to being wrapped. I suspect I’ll have picture locked by next week, then turn it over to my sound designer.

Otherwise, loaded a BUNCH of pics on my Facebook page. Some official stills and some behind-the-scenes pics . There are tons more, I’ll try to get those all up soon.

Festival deadlines are fast approaching. Gotta burn some new DVDs and ship a couple off next week (SciFi London!). So starts the course of this next phase. But I’m ready to show this puppy!

Or, I will be. Soon. :)
-r.

It just completely consumed me, and that wasn’t healthy. I needed to get the first cut out, and I set an ambitious deadline for myself. I just can’t explain it. I had to get it out, the festival deadline was really just secondary. Wade mentioned that I needed to just take my time, that there are other festivals. I know that, and while it created insane stress, it had to be that deadline to make it real. Sure, thousands of others are vying to get into the festival. But you can’t get in unless you try.

And I think the deadline was also like closure, in a weird way. I had been working on the film non-stop throughout the whole year. And I think I needed to feel like it was worth it, to have something to show for it. Sure I could just edit every now and then, but It’s kind of like writing, if you don’t have an ending in mind, you’ll just keep writing and writing, and go on and on.

So I spent a few weeks just letting the film sit, and I didn’t look at one frame. And since I didn’t have much time throughout the year as I normally do to see movies, I tried to catch up on films I missed before compiling my top 10 list of 2009 for my film column.

It was really inspiring to see lots of beautiful work, and made me anxious to get back to my film, which is good. But I still made myself wait a bit.

Until this past weekend, and I must say it felt fantastic to dig back in again. It was kind of like visiting old friends. And going back in with fresh eyes was amazingly helpful. I was able to tighten up some sections that were bothering me, and I’ve shaved 4 minutes from the first act, which it desperately needed (that doesn’t sound like it much, but believe me, that’s a lot). Also doing a little prelim sound work before I turn it over to our sound designer, but I”ll let him handle the artistry of it.

Still no festival news, but that’s a good thing. No news is good news. Otherwise, we have our next few months pretty much planned out with festivals we want to submit to, and it kicks off with a bang in February, then we’ll start sending this baby out and see who bites. Hopefully someone.

But I feel really good about “The Dead Can’t Dance,” again. Especially after the break and working on it more. It’s leaner. It’s fun. I hope it’s original. And I hope it connects with audiences on different levels. We’ll just have to wait and see.

But much more work in store for now. As soon as I get picture locked with final color treatment and correction, I have to turn to PR duties. I need to redesign the Web site, recut a new trailer, post pictures and upload a press kit to the festival submission service (which, by the way, whoever invented Withoutabox.com, the Web site that specializes in festival submissions, is a genius. You will get to know it well when you submit your film to festivals).

I think it’s going to be a good year.

Here’s to the new journey — whatever it holds in store,
-r.