Choose Your Own Blog

Saturday, June 25, 2011

6/25/11 Update

 We take our crew to the best places. Habib, inside "Murder Warehouse".
 P.A. Noah taking a two-second break.

Wow, didn't realize it had been so long since I did an update! Having some of those pesky personal-life issues that sometime get in the way of moviemaking.

Anyway, I have a rough cut of GOH completed in chronological order. I say it that way because when you're making a movie, a lot more is done creatively while editing than I think most people believe. Many people think the director goes out and shoots the movie, then hands the footage to the editor who edits it according to script.

Not so in many cases, especially low budget flicks. The editor is sort of the unsung hero, the guy whose job it is to fix anything that couldn't be fixed on set. (hence the term "Fix it in post")

But many times the editor can come up with something better than the way it was written, so it can lead to some great creative choices.

So the movie is now edited according to script, but I'll be changing the order of scenes, and unfortunately it appears that I'll be completely removing a scene that will remove some actors from the movie almost completely. It's unfortunate, but sometimes it happens. (Hey, it'll be a great deleted scene!)

Bigger problem is that we had technical issues on the sound, so much of the movie needs foley and looping. Never had this many issues with sound before, and it's going to add months on to post.

I'm trying to talk Luke into a September or October premiere, but we'll see.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Update 4/16/11 & Who's Spiking #5

Still plugging away at the edit. I took a week off to go to Vegas, but am now back at it.

I have one and a half scenes left to the rough edit. The current scene I'm in is kind of the big climax, so it's taking a while to edit. I just did 81 cuts in a 56 second time period. So yeah, there's some flashy editing in this one. The ADHD crowd is gonna love it. :)

Today's Who's Spiking features the return of lead actor Richard Cutting as he faces off against Manuel Poblete!


Also, another actor(John Bailey) tells me what he thinks of my directing.
Manuel Poblete on the left, Carl Stevens on the right.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Update 4/3/11 and Who's Spiking 4

Actor/Director Joe Ripple...he said method acting was the reason he had to drink the whole bottle.
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Been busting my hump editing. One scene in particular kicked my ass--the pickup that we shot in a Baltimore warehouse. Took me four straight days to edit. And that's the rough cut.

I'm now three scenes from being done the rough cut. Two big scenes and one small scene.

Put them on hold, as it's thundering here right now--editing machines get unplugged during storms. I refuse to take the chance of a power surge destroying all this work.

Anyway, two cast members got to see a brief clip with them in it--it's a very short scene that came out well, so I put it online unlisted for about an hour.

Today's Who's Spiking The Camera? features Matt, who not only spikes the camera, but he does it with a smirk!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Update 3/26 & Who's Spiking 3

Been rolling lately--am up to scene 86 on the rough cut. I think I have a pretty good chance of getting the rough cut done by March 31st, which is sort of what I was aiming at.

Then I will go back in and take a closer look at each scene, trimming and fixing minor sound issues, laying in ambients. I will begin marking "issues", things that will need fixing or possible pickup shots, along with dialogue that definitely needs to be looped.

Hey, what's that? Stripper pole + Kimberly Kerr= Fun

Today's Who's Spiking The Camera featuring Heather and JCVD. Remember, both of these frame caps are DURING a take! Fun!


Sunday, March 13, 2011

Update 3/13/11 & Who's Spiking 2


Danielle telling me what she thinks of my directing

Am working on one of the more complicated edits--it involves Danielle eating about 20 different types of food, so if you were on set that night, you know what I'm talking about. It also involves Ryan Thomas getting a BJ

It was another tough night, and the scene has some problems. We had a problem with a shot where Danielle throws up--her hair kept getting in the way so you couldn't see the throw up. I never planned on using an insert, 'cause who really wants to see the throw up on the ground? But now I could really use it...

Then on another shot we have Danielle spin away from someone, and on the reverse shot she spins the opposite direction. Now the cut doesn't match. I don't blame anybody--the entire night's shooting was crazy, and we ran way behind.

But now I'm in fixit mode. I'm at about the 56 minute mark in this rough cut. I imagine the rough cut is gonna come in around two hours, which I will trim down to about 1hr 42 minutes or so.

Today's Who's Spiking The Camera stars Carl Stevens as "Leon".

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Update 3/4/11

Many will recognize filmmaker David Cross
(though perhaps not sober, as he's pictured here on the set of GOH :)
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First 43 minutes of GOH is rough-edited together. It's got some good and some bad. I am, of course, my harshest critic. I think a lot of it is fixable through flashy editing, which was not my original intention, but so much for intentions...

Still, would REALLY like to reshoot one scene. We'll see...

Anyway...

I've begun playing a game called "Who's Spiking The Camera Now?"

If you don't know the lingo, "spiking the camera" is when an actor or extra looks directly into the camera during a take. It's a big no-no.

Anyway, have run into a number of takes when actors have looked right into the camera in GOH. I think it's just because the Red is so freakin' awesome they can't help it...

So here's the first installment of "Who's Spiking The Camera", and I thought it to be appropriate that the first one is our lead actor Richard Cutting! (and to play fair, all of these screencaps will have been pulled after "Action" and before "Cut!")

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Teaser is here!

As a thank you to all of you who are already on board with us, I'll unveil the teaser here first! Check it out and give us a comment on what you think and/or follow us with the button on the right!

UPDATE:

I hear you...you want it in HI DEFINITION, don't you? Here ya go. Change it to whatever your computer can handle...

CLICK HERE FOR THE HD VERSION


The regular is at the address below, and you can embed it if you want.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/MZhNwVLP6KM