Thursday, February 4th, 2010
OK. Edits are officially locked on “The Dead Can’t Dance.”
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.
Tags: The Dead Can't Dance, zombies
Posted in Inspiration, Picture editing, The Dead Can't Dance, postproduction | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
There were some audio issues with the last post. Sorry. Always so many variables…
‘The Dead Can’t Dance’ teaser
In Breathtaking Harmyvision | MySpace Video
Tags: The Dead Can't Dance, zombies
Posted in The Dead Can't Dance | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Had a fantastic time at last weekend’s Tallgrass Film Festival here in Wichita. The opening night was great with the screening of “The Only Good Indian,” and the crowds were hoppin’ at the beautiful old Orpheum Theatre.
It was especially fun for me because the Tallgrass staff asked me to host the Q&A after the screening, so after the film, I took the stage along with director Kevin Willmott and star Wes Studi. They’re both just such great guys, and it was really nice to see them again.
We talked about many things at the Q&A, mainly on independent film and the themes of “TOGI,” then opened it up for questions from the audience.
A really cool nite, good buzz, good energy.
The rest of the weekend was packed with stuff, as well, and we all went to the closing night film at Wichita State University and the after-party there at the Ulrich Museum.
But yesterday I was just completely wiped out. I still haven’t really gotten a chance to catch my breath. Through the hectic roller coaster ride of four months of shooting literally right up until organizing the wrap party, then immediately writing about and covering the film festival and now heading into an ambitious post-production schedule, I’ve just been so overwhelmed for so long, I’m beginning to feel numb.
It’s all been good, but, WOW.
And, as I tend to ignore my body and mind telling me to just take a break already, editing on “The Dead Can’t Dance” has OFFICIALLY BEGUN. I have the opening scene cut, and worked on it till about 5 this morning. I just got carried away. It’s very rough, of course, but it’s going to be very cool. I’m pumped!
So, I’ll be back at it tonight (and most nights now), but tonight I’ll also try to make a dent in my mountain of laundry.
Here’s to clean socks and movies,
-r.
Tags: Tallgrass Film Festival, The Dead Can't Dance
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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 »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
I’m excited yet daunted by the next phase: Post-production.
We still have to get one more day with car interior scenes, and if everything goes right, it looks like we’ll be able to get that on Saturday. Then principal photography will be done. I simply can’t believe it.
I’l digitize the next few tapes this week so that I’ll be all caught up. It takes me about 2 hours per tape to get it into the computer, and we amassed three more tapes in Oklahoma. I’ll also fine-tune the trailer and we’ll get that online probably next week.
It’s going well so far, and seeing the rough version of the trailer has me pumped. We’re actually going to have a movie here! This wasn’t all for naught.
But then I’ll dig right into the real editing. I’ll simply start at the beginning and work my way through. And this is the part I love, when it starts to actually take shape and form the story. I should have plenty of stuff to work with, Jerod did a great job of covering scenes. Just putting it all together will be the challenge.
And that means I’ll pretty much be chained to my computer for the next couple of months. Then after we get a rough cut, we’ll tweak and fine tune, do color correction then head into audio work (my least favorite part). We’ll add music and layer the sound design. It’s also going to take some foley and ADR work (basically dubbing the dialogue that will be unfixable). So this film’s journey is long from being over, just the first step will be done.
And it’s a monumental step, believe me. Putting the trailer together, I was amazed at the scope of this thing. It’s HUUUGE. We did a lot with very little, and my amazing crew pulled it off. I just don’t know how we did it. It was ambitious, to say the least, and at times I thought I would go crazy.
But we just chipped away a little piece at a time. And that’s what we’ll keep doing. But I will be ABSOLUTELY thrilled that I won’t have to mess with any more scheduling (well, mostly — we’ll still need to cast a radio announcer part).
It’ll be interesting to see the audience reaction to the rough-cut trailer at the film panel I’m participating in tomorrow. I’m kind of nervous. It’s the first time anyone will see any of the film. OK, I’m more than nervous, but it’s good.
So, exciting stuff, and I need to move myself into a different mind set now. Post-production. We’re finally here. It’s gonna be a movie, baby!
Onward,
-r.
Tags: The Dead Can't Dance
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