Cyndil and Hunter have both seen the rough cut and their responses have both been overhwelmingly positive. They're the two most honest and critical people I know so I value their opinions highly. They wouldn't be afraid to tell me if it sucked.
I'm kind of on edge, keeping myself from getting too excited (or too cocky) because I just feel like there's going to be some catch somewhere. I've built up a lot of defenses over the years against being too optimisitic or too proud because I nearly always end up humbled by reality somewhere down the road...but I'm getting somewhere with this one. For one, it's 5 months since we shot, and I'm happier with the results now than I think I was when shooting. Usually by now I've moved on and learned my lessons. And now, I'm getting early feedback that suggests most of the film is pretty awesome and works and is everything it's supposed to be. And that's the rough cut. I haven't even had to make any excuses yet.
I really really want and need this to be what it's supposed to be so that I can take my bigger and better next step, whatever that ends up being. But it's like I know better...but based on my current evidence I have no reason to believe myself.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Roughed Up
The rough cut is...cut.
I'm exporting the files for Ben and Hunter right now, which by the way feels really official because I'm uploading them to the server at Aspect Ratio (the pro trailer house that Hunter works at) with a client login and everything.
So I'm really excited to see a new trailer from Hunter and to start hearing some awesome Ben-music. It's already pretty good without music, so I really can't wait to see it (hear it) with it.
But yeah, the rough cut is good. I watched it with Cyndil last night and we both liked it...and while biased, we're both pretty critical people too so I think that speaks well for it. I never really know though. I'm always pretty skeptical, and try and be realistic with my expectations (sometimes brutally so), which I think keeps me going and never settling for something less. I mean I can very confidently say we did the best with what we had. It feels like a real movie. It's certainly not a secret that it's a low budget movie, but I think it definitely shows we maximized our potential and that if quality scales with money then by any professional standards, as a group I think moviesauce looks like it has enormous potential.
...which is really what I was out to prove with this project. None of us had ever tried a feature, even though it's kind of what we're all after. In a way it's almost been sort of an elephant in the room. We all think we can make features and want to make features, but this is the first time we've really tried it, and maybe naively so, but I feel like it was a really important step to take. Now we know. We know we can do it. It wasn't some huge disaster that doesn't approach anything like feature filmmaking. It's actually an impressive, creative, and ambitious project that among those things is also a very watchable film. I really feel like I made a movie that I would want to see. It's really hard to detach yourself from something you put so much work into, but I really feel like if I saw a trailer for this I would really want to see it and if I saw it I would like.
Like if we got it as a submission to the Moviesauce Film Festival, this would be my top pick. I know it seems sort of pointless for me to talk about why I like my own movie. I mean I'm supposed to. It should be obvious. But there's something different about this one. I don't feel like I like it just because I made. I feel like I really actually like it and that other people will too. Most of our other projects, while interesting, I think lean towards being inside jokes. They may show creative potential, but they lack that certain something in the execution that actually makes it a movie in the sense that most people know movies...and maybe it is just because it's normal length...in contrast I feel the majority of other aspiring filmmakers make films that are just too normal...just trying really hard to look like a movie, to show they can do what everyone else does, which is an accomplisment to a certain degree, but then it's also like, "well, what does that really prove outside of impressing your friends/family."
I guess I just wasn't prepared for a feature film to be such a different animal than a short. It really is more than just a scaled short film...and I'm glad I know that now. I feel like shorts and features are almost different mediums now. Shorts are more about displaying a concept, and displaying a skill set...they rarely actually exist on their own...and that's probably mainly because of their context and history of being "practice" and school projects. And I guess I never realized it, but shorts really are restricting. You can't tell very much story in them, and that can be a relief to some, but I realized it's been sort of a burden for me because I've wanted to achieve the effect of a feature with a short....whether that's through mimicking styles or certain types of scenes from certain films or whatever....but something that's a lot more clear to me now is that shorts are only ever really aspiring to be films. Even good shorts. They're just something entertaining and promising, but not fulfilling in the same way a full film is. A good example would be Pixar shorts. They're often really really good...but Pixar movies are better...and what you remember.
And so now that I've made a full length film I feel like I've opened up the door to something that I always felt I was trying to do, but was unable or maybe even scared to try. But I really do feel like I've succeeded too. Most projects I do are learning experiences, but probably none of them have felt as complete as this one does. The GOS short was probably the most movie-like thing I had done before this, but I obviously felt like it needed more afterwards.
So I guess I'm saying I like being a feature filmmaker. I'm not really interested in making shorts anymore (unless just for an exercise as that's all I feel they amount to now). And since I don't feel like feature films are unattainable, I'm really excited about making more. It feels right.
And that's something I really had to prove to myself with this movie too. I've always said I wanted to be a filmmaker, but it's a hard claim to make if you haven't made a film. Part of me was worried that I'd fail or end up too overwhelmed and somehow uninterested in fighting to make this into a career. That'd I'd realize the reality of filmmaking might not be worth it...but I ended up proving it's exactly what I want to do and I'm confident in moving forward and I guess confident that I have a place in making films too...I feel like a lot of people aspire to be filmmakers, but don't really justify the effort and resources to make their films...people that just want to be filmmakers, not really make films that contribute to the medium. Part of me was afraid that maybe that was me...maybe I didn't really have anything to offer the world. Maybe it would turn out that I'm just knocking off Wes Anderson because I really like his movies. But I'm confident now that I have something unique to offer, and that film is a worthy pursuit.
I feel like I have the means to pursue it too. Because on top of all of that, I've made a hell of a cheap film...and half of my budget was spent on equipment. So in theory I could make the same movie again for half the cost. But I could even very reasonably quadruple my budget and be at relative low risk in terms of the rest of the industry. When I imagine quadrupling my resources, I get really excited about the quality of films I could put out. And I think all in all that makes for some good investment potential.
But yeah....I'm really proud to consider "Getting Outer Space" my first film...and hopefully it'll be something I can look back on as the start to a film career.
Now let's fast forward a few months and see how much everybody hates it...
I'm exporting the files for Ben and Hunter right now, which by the way feels really official because I'm uploading them to the server at Aspect Ratio (the pro trailer house that Hunter works at) with a client login and everything.
So I'm really excited to see a new trailer from Hunter and to start hearing some awesome Ben-music. It's already pretty good without music, so I really can't wait to see it (hear it) with it.
But yeah, the rough cut is good. I watched it with Cyndil last night and we both liked it...and while biased, we're both pretty critical people too so I think that speaks well for it. I never really know though. I'm always pretty skeptical, and try and be realistic with my expectations (sometimes brutally so), which I think keeps me going and never settling for something less. I mean I can very confidently say we did the best with what we had. It feels like a real movie. It's certainly not a secret that it's a low budget movie, but I think it definitely shows we maximized our potential and that if quality scales with money then by any professional standards, as a group I think moviesauce looks like it has enormous potential.
...which is really what I was out to prove with this project. None of us had ever tried a feature, even though it's kind of what we're all after. In a way it's almost been sort of an elephant in the room. We all think we can make features and want to make features, but this is the first time we've really tried it, and maybe naively so, but I feel like it was a really important step to take. Now we know. We know we can do it. It wasn't some huge disaster that doesn't approach anything like feature filmmaking. It's actually an impressive, creative, and ambitious project that among those things is also a very watchable film. I really feel like I made a movie that I would want to see. It's really hard to detach yourself from something you put so much work into, but I really feel like if I saw a trailer for this I would really want to see it and if I saw it I would like.
Like if we got it as a submission to the Moviesauce Film Festival, this would be my top pick. I know it seems sort of pointless for me to talk about why I like my own movie. I mean I'm supposed to. It should be obvious. But there's something different about this one. I don't feel like I like it just because I made. I feel like I really actually like it and that other people will too. Most of our other projects, while interesting, I think lean towards being inside jokes. They may show creative potential, but they lack that certain something in the execution that actually makes it a movie in the sense that most people know movies...and maybe it is just because it's normal length...in contrast I feel the majority of other aspiring filmmakers make films that are just too normal...just trying really hard to look like a movie, to show they can do what everyone else does, which is an accomplisment to a certain degree, but then it's also like, "well, what does that really prove outside of impressing your friends/family."
I guess I just wasn't prepared for a feature film to be such a different animal than a short. It really is more than just a scaled short film...and I'm glad I know that now. I feel like shorts and features are almost different mediums now. Shorts are more about displaying a concept, and displaying a skill set...they rarely actually exist on their own...and that's probably mainly because of their context and history of being "practice" and school projects. And I guess I never realized it, but shorts really are restricting. You can't tell very much story in them, and that can be a relief to some, but I realized it's been sort of a burden for me because I've wanted to achieve the effect of a feature with a short....whether that's through mimicking styles or certain types of scenes from certain films or whatever....but something that's a lot more clear to me now is that shorts are only ever really aspiring to be films. Even good shorts. They're just something entertaining and promising, but not fulfilling in the same way a full film is. A good example would be Pixar shorts. They're often really really good...but Pixar movies are better...and what you remember.
And so now that I've made a full length film I feel like I've opened up the door to something that I always felt I was trying to do, but was unable or maybe even scared to try. But I really do feel like I've succeeded too. Most projects I do are learning experiences, but probably none of them have felt as complete as this one does. The GOS short was probably the most movie-like thing I had done before this, but I obviously felt like it needed more afterwards.
So I guess I'm saying I like being a feature filmmaker. I'm not really interested in making shorts anymore (unless just for an exercise as that's all I feel they amount to now). And since I don't feel like feature films are unattainable, I'm really excited about making more. It feels right.
And that's something I really had to prove to myself with this movie too. I've always said I wanted to be a filmmaker, but it's a hard claim to make if you haven't made a film. Part of me was worried that I'd fail or end up too overwhelmed and somehow uninterested in fighting to make this into a career. That'd I'd realize the reality of filmmaking might not be worth it...but I ended up proving it's exactly what I want to do and I'm confident in moving forward and I guess confident that I have a place in making films too...I feel like a lot of people aspire to be filmmakers, but don't really justify the effort and resources to make their films...people that just want to be filmmakers, not really make films that contribute to the medium. Part of me was afraid that maybe that was me...maybe I didn't really have anything to offer the world. Maybe it would turn out that I'm just knocking off Wes Anderson because I really like his movies. But I'm confident now that I have something unique to offer, and that film is a worthy pursuit.
I feel like I have the means to pursue it too. Because on top of all of that, I've made a hell of a cheap film...and half of my budget was spent on equipment. So in theory I could make the same movie again for half the cost. But I could even very reasonably quadruple my budget and be at relative low risk in terms of the rest of the industry. When I imagine quadrupling my resources, I get really excited about the quality of films I could put out. And I think all in all that makes for some good investment potential.
But yeah....I'm really proud to consider "Getting Outer Space" my first film...and hopefully it'll be something I can look back on as the start to a film career.
Now let's fast forward a few months and see how much everybody hates it...
Monday, May 3, 2010
Something to prove
Just did a tally after a good 3 hour editing session.
I'm at least 100 minutes in. Maybe 105ish.
And there's a good 20 minutes worth of script left to cut. Which means the rough cut will be 2 hours. Which is crazy. I never thought it would be that long. I felt like I worked really hard just to get the script to 90 pages because I just remember having a 75 page script for "Making Of" that ended up being 65 minutes long. But now I've got a 110 page script that's 120 minutes long.
But it is a rough cut. So chances are I'll end up shaving about 10 minutes or so rounding it out to close to what the script was.
It's really weird to have that much movie though. I'm really eager to push through these last few scenes so I can have it and watch it. I keep going through waves of excitement and disappointment. I'm dying to know what the end product makes me feel like. My hope is that through experience I've just set myself to expect the worse and set my expectations pretty low. I've built up this defense mechanism against failure, which is a good thing to have, but it can make you overly cautious and skeptical sometimes. When I'm not editing and not in the mood to edit, it's almost like I can forget about the project as something I've done. Like giving up on it, assuming it won't be more than it already is. But then somehow I get myself to work on it and more often then not working on it gets me really pumped about it and I'll edit a sequence I'm really proud of or I'll discover some really nice shots I had forgotten about.
Maybe I'm just scared to let myself get too excited about it because I don't want to be let down if it sucks...but maybe...and hopefully, it'll actually be what it's supposed to be...which is something good. And then I can rest easy knowing that I am in fact a good filmmaker and I can safely move forward with proof in hand.
I've always felt with past projects that I've been on track to be a good filmmaker, but never actually was able to prove how good I wanted to be or thought I was or thought I could be. I may have been aware of that, and have been able to channel that to get me to keep making things, but I've always wanted that piece of evidence. I really hope this is it.
I'm at least 100 minutes in. Maybe 105ish.
And there's a good 20 minutes worth of script left to cut. Which means the rough cut will be 2 hours. Which is crazy. I never thought it would be that long. I felt like I worked really hard just to get the script to 90 pages because I just remember having a 75 page script for "Making Of" that ended up being 65 minutes long. But now I've got a 110 page script that's 120 minutes long.
But it is a rough cut. So chances are I'll end up shaving about 10 minutes or so rounding it out to close to what the script was.
It's really weird to have that much movie though. I'm really eager to push through these last few scenes so I can have it and watch it. I keep going through waves of excitement and disappointment. I'm dying to know what the end product makes me feel like. My hope is that through experience I've just set myself to expect the worse and set my expectations pretty low. I've built up this defense mechanism against failure, which is a good thing to have, but it can make you overly cautious and skeptical sometimes. When I'm not editing and not in the mood to edit, it's almost like I can forget about the project as something I've done. Like giving up on it, assuming it won't be more than it already is. But then somehow I get myself to work on it and more often then not working on it gets me really pumped about it and I'll edit a sequence I'm really proud of or I'll discover some really nice shots I had forgotten about.
Maybe I'm just scared to let myself get too excited about it because I don't want to be let down if it sucks...but maybe...and hopefully, it'll actually be what it's supposed to be...which is something good. And then I can rest easy knowing that I am in fact a good filmmaker and I can safely move forward with proof in hand.
I've always felt with past projects that I've been on track to be a good filmmaker, but never actually was able to prove how good I wanted to be or thought I was or thought I could be. I may have been aware of that, and have been able to channel that to get me to keep making things, but I've always wanted that piece of evidence. I really hope this is it.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Inches
It's May 2nd. Sorry, but the rough cut isn't quite done like I hoped it to be.
Moving kind of got in the way. I'm in a new house, still not all the way, but it's just really hard balance everything.
I think the 40 hour workweek thing is just really taking it's toll. I love what I do, but it can be hard stay on track. A full-time job really is full time. It's hard to make yourself work more when you come home at night, or work during your two short days of a weekend. There's not enough time to both work and unwind. If I want to watch a movie when I come home then that's pretty much my night.
There are also interesting crossroads when I have to actively look at giving more to my job or to myself. Because I have a creative job and I have opporunities to excel and push myself to do cool things, but a lot of those things would need more time and attention than what's available in my work week in order to do right. So I have this internal struggle where I basically have to keep myself from going to far in one direction and abandoning the other.
There's also this weird element to it where I feel like I'm becoming a really great graphic designer, but I have a little bit of resentment for it because while it is creatively fulfilling and something I enjoy doing, I know there's something better that I want even more. And sometimes I feel guilty for not being able to spend as much time doing film and getting as much practice in with that as I am in design.
But it comes back to money and the reason I majored in design in the first place. It's where I can get a job. And in having a job I've really come to better understand how people can settle and commit to one thing for money in life. Not that I'm falling that way, but it just makes more sense to me than it used to. I get it. I see it.
But alas, progress is being made. I haven't tallied the numbers yet, but I think I'm remarkably close...probably somewhere in the realm of 15 minutes or so left. And I'm about to work again now...I've given up on deadlines, but I'd really like to ship off a cut to my post team next weekend.
Moving kind of got in the way. I'm in a new house, still not all the way, but it's just really hard balance everything.
I think the 40 hour workweek thing is just really taking it's toll. I love what I do, but it can be hard stay on track. A full-time job really is full time. It's hard to make yourself work more when you come home at night, or work during your two short days of a weekend. There's not enough time to both work and unwind. If I want to watch a movie when I come home then that's pretty much my night.
There are also interesting crossroads when I have to actively look at giving more to my job or to myself. Because I have a creative job and I have opporunities to excel and push myself to do cool things, but a lot of those things would need more time and attention than what's available in my work week in order to do right. So I have this internal struggle where I basically have to keep myself from going to far in one direction and abandoning the other.
There's also this weird element to it where I feel like I'm becoming a really great graphic designer, but I have a little bit of resentment for it because while it is creatively fulfilling and something I enjoy doing, I know there's something better that I want even more. And sometimes I feel guilty for not being able to spend as much time doing film and getting as much practice in with that as I am in design.
But it comes back to money and the reason I majored in design in the first place. It's where I can get a job. And in having a job I've really come to better understand how people can settle and commit to one thing for money in life. Not that I'm falling that way, but it just makes more sense to me than it used to. I get it. I see it.
But alas, progress is being made. I haven't tallied the numbers yet, but I think I'm remarkably close...probably somewhere in the realm of 15 minutes or so left. And I'm about to work again now...I've given up on deadlines, but I'd really like to ship off a cut to my post team next weekend.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
I know.
I just blogged yesterday, but it's worth noting that I watched the full first 40 minutes of the movie last night and not to sound conceded but I was really impressed.
I mean in the end it's about the total gestalt experience, and to watch about a third of the movie and have it feel like a real movie that actually is about something sincere and meaningful and see that coming out in it was really exhilarating. And this is just the rough cut. There's no music yet or anything. I still don't want to hype it up too much, but it's looking so far like the story I worked so hard on is actually coming to life on screen, which is as much as I could hope for.
It feels good. I'm also happy that so far it seems like a very unique kind of film and I don't mean that as an excuse for being bad. It really does feel like a movie (which I guess is weird to say), but it feels like just the kind of unique film that would appeal to me that I would pay to see. I know it seems obvious that it should be that since I made it, but I suppose this is just me realizing that I've actually made a real movie for the first time, and there's a good chance it'll actually be good.
Also, from a style point of view I feel like I'm really showing off something unique as well. There are some really bold choices that actually work really well. For instance, there's a 5 minute long conversation between Neil and Travis and it's just them sitting across from each other at a table silhouetted by the window behind them and it's basically the first real conversation they have with each other in six years and both Kemer and Steven do really nice jobs of delivering everything and it just works really well as one long shot. I had extra coverage of close-ups I could cut to, but they just really break the tension and weaken the power of the shot. It makes me think of a 5 minute single shot conversation I did in "making of" which really didn't work...but here' it's a really great shot/scene. I'm also glad to see that I really think I have my own visual style, which borrows a lot from other directors like Wes Anderson, but I don't think people will look at this and say I'm just copying him. It really feels like a mix of all the things I wanted it to be.
I mean in the end it's about the total gestalt experience, and to watch about a third of the movie and have it feel like a real movie that actually is about something sincere and meaningful and see that coming out in it was really exhilarating. And this is just the rough cut. There's no music yet or anything. I still don't want to hype it up too much, but it's looking so far like the story I worked so hard on is actually coming to life on screen, which is as much as I could hope for.
It feels good. I'm also happy that so far it seems like a very unique kind of film and I don't mean that as an excuse for being bad. It really does feel like a movie (which I guess is weird to say), but it feels like just the kind of unique film that would appeal to me that I would pay to see. I know it seems obvious that it should be that since I made it, but I suppose this is just me realizing that I've actually made a real movie for the first time, and there's a good chance it'll actually be good.
Also, from a style point of view I feel like I'm really showing off something unique as well. There are some really bold choices that actually work really well. For instance, there's a 5 minute long conversation between Neil and Travis and it's just them sitting across from each other at a table silhouetted by the window behind them and it's basically the first real conversation they have with each other in six years and both Kemer and Steven do really nice jobs of delivering everything and it just works really well as one long shot. I had extra coverage of close-ups I could cut to, but they just really break the tension and weaken the power of the shot. It makes me think of a 5 minute single shot conversation I did in "making of" which really didn't work...but here' it's a really great shot/scene. I'm also glad to see that I really think I have my own visual style, which borrows a lot from other directors like Wes Anderson, but I don't think people will look at this and say I'm just copying him. It really feels like a mix of all the things I wanted it to be.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Back in Action
So my productivity has skyrocketed recently.
I believe it's a mixture of the season changing (so I'm visually not living in the same world as the movie anymore) and also getting a new workspace downtown at the brand new Cohabitat space...which is basically where you pay to have a dedicated workspace at a place with other creative people. It's a cool idea. Right now there aren't any other people, but I've been going over after work and have probably clocked in about 10 hours over there since moving in last Sunday.
I think I also just needed a longer than expected gestation period to disconnect myself from the production as much as possible so that I was coming at it with a fresh look. Which is great because I can feel it working. I've edited 15 minutes of the movie in the last 3 days, which is pretty good, but most importantly I'm really happy with what I'm seeing. Things that initially felt rushed in production actually work pretty well. It's like what I was saying after we wrapped but couldn't quite tell yet, which is that we've raised the bar so high with this project that even the stuff that felt like it might not be as good is much better than most things I've done before.
But most importantly it's really nice to just be seeing it all in sequence without as fresh of a memory of when we shot things. The stuff I've been working on flows nicely and I can see and feel the story, and it's really more than sum of the parts which is nice. All of these little chaotic moments cut into sequence and put in context and there's a pretty good movie there. So that's exciting.
And it's inspiring me to push through. I'm looking at having a full rough cut in a few weeks which I can send off to Hunter and Ben to cut the trailer and create the score respectively. Then it's just fine tuning from there, which I'm hoping will be much easier than the assembly.
But yeah, I know the adrenaline of the production period has kind of worn down and I haven't been updating the blog as much, but rest assured the wine is fermenting and will be ready to taste at the end of the summer.
Also, not to end on a sad note, but I figure this is relevant since it was an issue during the second leg of production. My grandmother died. We thought she was going to go during the second leg and I was really stressed out about that when shooting. But she held on for 3 more months so that's pretty incredible, I guess. It's also sort of interesting to have been to funeral and watch my dad over the last week while simultaneously editing the death scene/funeral in the movie and I think I got a lot of it right.
But overall, I'm just invigorated right now. I want to finish this movie and show it off and start doing more... I really feel like this is my career and I'm ready to keep building it.
I believe it's a mixture of the season changing (so I'm visually not living in the same world as the movie anymore) and also getting a new workspace downtown at the brand new Cohabitat space...which is basically where you pay to have a dedicated workspace at a place with other creative people. It's a cool idea. Right now there aren't any other people, but I've been going over after work and have probably clocked in about 10 hours over there since moving in last Sunday.
I think I also just needed a longer than expected gestation period to disconnect myself from the production as much as possible so that I was coming at it with a fresh look. Which is great because I can feel it working. I've edited 15 minutes of the movie in the last 3 days, which is pretty good, but most importantly I'm really happy with what I'm seeing. Things that initially felt rushed in production actually work pretty well. It's like what I was saying after we wrapped but couldn't quite tell yet, which is that we've raised the bar so high with this project that even the stuff that felt like it might not be as good is much better than most things I've done before.
But most importantly it's really nice to just be seeing it all in sequence without as fresh of a memory of when we shot things. The stuff I've been working on flows nicely and I can see and feel the story, and it's really more than sum of the parts which is nice. All of these little chaotic moments cut into sequence and put in context and there's a pretty good movie there. So that's exciting.
And it's inspiring me to push through. I'm looking at having a full rough cut in a few weeks which I can send off to Hunter and Ben to cut the trailer and create the score respectively. Then it's just fine tuning from there, which I'm hoping will be much easier than the assembly.
But yeah, I know the adrenaline of the production period has kind of worn down and I haven't been updating the blog as much, but rest assured the wine is fermenting and will be ready to taste at the end of the summer.
Also, not to end on a sad note, but I figure this is relevant since it was an issue during the second leg of production. My grandmother died. We thought she was going to go during the second leg and I was really stressed out about that when shooting. But she held on for 3 more months so that's pretty incredible, I guess. It's also sort of interesting to have been to funeral and watch my dad over the last week while simultaneously editing the death scene/funeral in the movie and I think I got a lot of it right.
But overall, I'm just invigorated right now. I want to finish this movie and show it off and start doing more... I really feel like this is my career and I'm ready to keep building it.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Distracted
I'm lucky if I get in 3 hours of editing a week. It's not a number I'm proud of.
This Monday night thing is working out pretty well for me except I skipped last Monday.
The weird thing is that when I think about editing, it's something I want to get done, but can't make myself do. I still think it's just that since I know I can't knock it out in a couple of days it feels like it's a never-ending project and so I don't ever feel close enough to the end to get excited about showing it off...and I think that's usually my motivation with projects. I get a good idea and then I can't wait to complete it. This is so incomplete right now that I don't feel compelled to complete it.
But almost everyday I think about it and how I want to see it finished really badly. Some days at work I actually get really motivated to work on it, but can't because I'm at work...and by the time I get home, I'm worn out and not in the mood. And when the weekend comes around I want to relax and have fun. I always end up doing too much of that and then the weekend is over (not to mention art school put me onto 3 day weekends so this 2 day weekend crap is hard to adjust back to) ...Hence editing Monday nights...but I just don't have enough time to really get into it. So I'm only editing little pieces at a time.
The good news is that it's looking good. I cut together the scene where Neil comes home and finds his mom dead on the couch (spoiler?), which is one of the oldest scenes I wrote. It's been in my head and a part of this story for a long time. The day we shot it, I was sick, and we were pretty rushed and I felt like I didn't do it justice, but I just cut something very promising and dare I say dramatic, and I'm really happy about that. It was nice to cut a scene that didn't have any dialogue, but also wasn't a montage. It's like the purest kind of storytelling, and accordingly I shot it in a very different way than I shot most of the dialogue scenes (i.e. more shots and cuts, more traditional).
The more I complete, the more eager I am to see the entire project as one piece. I'm really enjoying rediscovering these little scenes we did that just got lost in the greater mess of the production. My head was in such a different place when shooting and it's very interesting now, 3 months later, to kind of see what I did with a clearer perspective.
I wish my computer would just assemble footage and sync sound while I was at work so I could just come home and do the artsy part of editing. In the future, I think I will end up hiring an editor, so I can just oversee the process and not have to do the nitty gritty stuff. It's just too daunting of a process for a feature film.
This Monday night thing is working out pretty well for me except I skipped last Monday.
The weird thing is that when I think about editing, it's something I want to get done, but can't make myself do. I still think it's just that since I know I can't knock it out in a couple of days it feels like it's a never-ending project and so I don't ever feel close enough to the end to get excited about showing it off...and I think that's usually my motivation with projects. I get a good idea and then I can't wait to complete it. This is so incomplete right now that I don't feel compelled to complete it.
But almost everyday I think about it and how I want to see it finished really badly. Some days at work I actually get really motivated to work on it, but can't because I'm at work...and by the time I get home, I'm worn out and not in the mood. And when the weekend comes around I want to relax and have fun. I always end up doing too much of that and then the weekend is over (not to mention art school put me onto 3 day weekends so this 2 day weekend crap is hard to adjust back to) ...Hence editing Monday nights...but I just don't have enough time to really get into it. So I'm only editing little pieces at a time.
The good news is that it's looking good. I cut together the scene where Neil comes home and finds his mom dead on the couch (spoiler?), which is one of the oldest scenes I wrote. It's been in my head and a part of this story for a long time. The day we shot it, I was sick, and we were pretty rushed and I felt like I didn't do it justice, but I just cut something very promising and dare I say dramatic, and I'm really happy about that. It was nice to cut a scene that didn't have any dialogue, but also wasn't a montage. It's like the purest kind of storytelling, and accordingly I shot it in a very different way than I shot most of the dialogue scenes (i.e. more shots and cuts, more traditional).
The more I complete, the more eager I am to see the entire project as one piece. I'm really enjoying rediscovering these little scenes we did that just got lost in the greater mess of the production. My head was in such a different place when shooting and it's very interesting now, 3 months later, to kind of see what I did with a clearer perspective.
I wish my computer would just assemble footage and sync sound while I was at work so I could just come home and do the artsy part of editing. In the future, I think I will end up hiring an editor, so I can just oversee the process and not have to do the nitty gritty stuff. It's just too daunting of a process for a feature film.
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