That's A Wrap

I cannot believe that this semester is already over and that we have a finished narrative film.  When I play this dvd it will remind me of the grueling hours of arduous work in the dreaded sweatshop/editing lab (but on a serious note they need to leave the air conditioning on over the weekends.. it is outrageous and intolerable when the lab is full of people).  I have learned how to cope with problems and how to work with what you have.  We had an entire scene without sound at all and had to completely pull it together, which I think worked better than I imagined it would have.  Although these situations were not ideal, I think that the end product was something that we can be proud of.  The color correction stepped up the quality of our film immensely.  Cutting out lines of dialogue improved the film as well, because I remember reading the script and thinking certain lines were cheesy.  With our refined cut, I think that there is less on the nose dialogue.  Overall, I have had a great time working on this project and can't wait to see what becomes of it if Taylor decides to enter it into a few festivals!

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL

I cannot believe how the semester has flown by.  This past week we got our ADR recorded, which was a new experience for both of us.  I have more experience in experimental film and have not worked on many narratives, so the tonal quality of the sound recorded on set and that recorded in the booth is a bit different.  We will have to get someone to help us out with a little more experience in sound to add a few filters onto the lines that we cut into the film.  I think they all match up very well to the image and it is exciting to finally see the audition scene with sound.  We also used another piece of music to bridge a transition into the auditorium, which really adds to the momentum.  The producer watched our cut and suggested that we take out a few of the black slugs in between scenes because they make the film a bit choppy.  Some of these dividers had to be left in for pacing reasons, but the work that we did on the few that we edited have really improved the film.  The feedback in the class was pretty conclusive that the film is a lot tighter, and I think that this will help this film with quality as well as programming at festivals.  We still need to work on our sound design with a few foley sounds and levels.  I will also work on the format of the credits in the next week.  We are almost DONE!

Week after easter break

The Method is coming along very well, we are getting close to the end and I am so ready!!!  So far the cut is pretty finalized in image selection, and we are awaiting our music compositions so that we can start to get a better feel for certain scenes.  Christiana, our actress playing Emma, was going to be coming into Wilmington this weekend from South Carolina, so we booked an ADR session with her.  It was so convenient for us because she needed someone to pick her up from the bus station also, and we did not have to pay her to come down here!!  We also booked sessions with Will (Nate), and people to play the judges for the final audition (the shots that were recorded without any sound).  While we have the H4N we will record the foley that we need as well.  To prepare, Taylor and I watched the entire film and made a list of lines that we would like re-done for quality and intonation purposes.  There were a few shots outside that had a bit of wind over the dialogue, so we will re-record this entire scene.  Also, some of Emma's lines that she says do not sound very scared, and we will suggest other intonations in which she can come across more frightened and angry.  We made a to do list of small things that we want to go back over and fine tune.  We also started to level sounds a bit, mostly penning clips in and out for a more smooth flowing soundtrack.  We still have to go through levels and assure that they are all about the same volume.. for the most part it sounds pretty good.  I can't wait to put the music in and really get the audio finalized with foley!  I can't believe it is almost done!!!

week of rough cut & credits presentation

Our entire timeline is finally laid out!!!! There is definitely a lot more to be done, but it comes as a sigh of relief to have the fifteen minutes down.  We will probably cut it down quite a bit, but a rough frame is helpful.  We have to fine tune and add sound.  We got one piece of music composed for us by Sid, which we added into our credits for this rough cut.  Now that we have this cut,  hopefully we can send him a copy and get a little ore music written (more catered to our eerie scenes).  We have a lot of fading to do on sound clips, as well as adjusting levels.  The credits need to be formatted better.  Our class presentation this week went well and we got some great feedback.  I think that the adjustments that we made this week based on our previous feedback has really improved the film.  The cuts that we have made to eliminate dialogue has strengthened the narrative a lot and helps with pacing.  The shot selections that we changed have improved the film as well (in the dinner scene, for example).  All in all, this week has been extremely productive and I am happy with what we have completed!

week after spring break

We are officially on the last page of the shooting script and it is such a relief!!  Spring Break was not as productive as we would have liked, but at the same time it was nice to have a little bit of a break from the project.  Once we were both back in town though, we met up frequently and had small work sessions.  We got through about two pages each day, and are currently in the last conversation.  Today we finished working on the scene where Emma auditions for her role with the company from New York.  There is a small piece missing from this scene that we will go back and finish this week before we present our cut on Thursday.  This piece will be a collection of images representing Emma's racing mind in her anxiety towards the performance.  Finally, the judges dismiss her and Nate is waiting to surprise her outside the theater.  So far, the cutting has gone pretty smoothly with the exception of certain sound barriers.  One argument between the couple, for example, had a lot of overlapping dialogue and sometimes the actors would improv a few lines here and there which changed up the order of the conversation.  We were able to work around all of these obstacles, however, and now have most of the ground work finished.  Tomorrow we will meet and hopefully finish laying out the timeline.  Next, we will go through with our notes and fine-tune according to class and producer suggestions.  Then we will add sound effects and music and adjust sound levels.  I can't believe how far it has come, this semester is flying by!

SPRING BREAK!!!

This week Taylor and I both were extremely busy and did not have as much time to meet as we would have liked.  Luckily, spring break is here and we will both be in town so we are hoping to make good use of that time.  I really would like to get as much cut as possible early on because we all know that the end of the semester is a nightmare.  Once we have an image-lock we will be able to work on the tedious fine tuning and finally sound.  To get ahead of the game, we have tried to look for sound effects on our own time this week.  I’m not sure what sounds will be usable, or even if we should go record a few sounds ourselves.  Once we get a folder of them all we will probably get together and try them out with the images, and then make that decision.  We still need to go back through our class and producer suggestions to make those changes.  We may take the spring break opportunity to do this as well.  I’m not sure if we will change the beginning or just keep plugging away towards the end and then refine, but I think the next time Taylor and I meet we will set our spring break goals.  We will keep you updated on those.

This week Taylor and I were preparing to present our second 4 minute rough cut.  For this cut we included the living room study argument, Emma’s run, Nate talking to Kathy on the phone, and the kidnap sequence.  Continuity gave us some issues, as with all narratives.  We tried to go through the footage with the script supervising notes and color highlight the good takes.  This way, we could easily locate the best performances, and try to find ways to continuously edit those.  When that was impossible, we looked in the non-highlighted footage.

Sound-wise, we haven’t really done too much yet.  We did put audio filters on Kathy’s telephone dialogue though, and we tried to make sure to use the pen tool at least on the ins and outs of the sound clips so that it wouldn’t be so jarring.  We still need to go back and adjust levels overall, I noticed in particular that the scene where Emma bangs on the front door of the apartment yelling for Nate is pretty loud.

I think that things are coming along very smoothly, we only have a few more scenes to add onto the end.  I really liked the suggestion that we had in class this week about moving the title sequence until after the first scene, I never even thought about doing that.  The plan is to keep getting the image and dialogue roughly laid out, and then go back and fine tune the entire movie as a whole using the in-class and producer critiques.  Then we will add foley and music.  I think that we are staying on track and we are trying to get as much done as possible in a timely manner so that we won’t have a lot to do at the end of the semester.