The Trouble With Post

That's right, post production can be troubling.  I'm finding it's much easier to get people on board with your insane demands for the short term of a 10 day shoot schedule than it is for the long term of a multi month post process.  During production, you're in the midst of it, in the heat of the battle, and pure adrenaline drives all forward in lieu of hard cash.  During post, I found it much more difficult to inspire the troops on a daily basis and keep a solid momentum for the almost 2 months of rough cutting.  The other problem with post is this - all of the problems created while shooting are there in your face and require much more work to solve.  When shooting, you're always going forward, regardless of what happened before.  During the post process, you go forward until you realize, "Oh crap.  Did we REALLY do that?"  And now you MUST go backwards!

The plan now is to take a few weeks, probably two weeks, to step back and do nothing DR.  Then we'll watch the rough cut.  After watching the rough cut, we'll make a determination of what needs to be done to make the film complete and final - and what it will cost to do so, since as I mentioned, no monies in post equals less getting done.  Part of the purpose of the rough cut was to have a showpiece for raising the TBD finishing funds needed to make DR as good as it can be, so the plan is in place and we're moving forward on the plan soon enough.  What kind of things need to be done to the film to make it right?  Possibly a day of shooting (I hope NOT!), definitely some ADR, sound design and mixing, color and picture correcting (reframing, cropping, etc.) and the creation of a DR website with all the gadgets.  This is most of what's still needed, though I'm sure there's other stuff to be done - oh yeah, like scoring, securing rights to music already contributed, and settling actor deal memo issues.  Maybe that's it?  Maybe not. :)  

The great news to come out of post is this - we have a nice film that really moves.  We made a feature for under 10K and it looks great.  Overall, we did a good job and I'm proud of the work - it's a miracle the film is what it is.  We simply need to make it as good as it can be, and that's what post is all about.  We're almost there, and we won't stop until we get there...or at least I won't.

Our first goal in post was achieved - we thankfully and successfully made our deadlines for SXSW and CINEQUEST.  I really wanted to submit to DURANGO since it's so close to ABQ, but they do NOT accept rough cuts.  Screw them!  :)))  I'll have to find another fest within traveling distance, though I'm hoping we make SXSW and cast and crew find time to make the trip.  Next deadlines are the L.A. FILM FEST and TRIBECA, both in December.  Stay tuned...

And oh yeah, if you haven't seen the trailer, check it out on YT.  Here's a link - http://tinyurl.com/drtrailer.  Enjoy!  

Wrapped and back in Brooklyn

The wonderful and exhausting experience that was Desert Rain has officially entered the next phase.  We finished shooting Thursday evening and got sloshed on homemade margaritas.  Of course, we had to watch dailies during the wrap party and in the course of our celebration we somehow lost track of Tape #7.  Thankfully it's backed up to hard drive, but losing tapes is not something you want to do when you work so hard to get the footage.  We couldn't look thoroughly enough before leaving Albuquerque Friday afternoon, but I'm praying it shows up in the next day or so.  A running line throughout shooting was "lucky take 7" - it's fitting that the number 7 has taken center stage in the missing tape saga.  

In the end we recorded just under 30 hours of footage for a 90 minute film.  That's roughly 20:1 on the shooting ratio, which gives us plenty of choices in post.  My gut feeling tells me we have 97% of the film, if not all of it.  There's a phone call we need to shoot (we'll shoot it here in NY) and there could be one or two beats missing from the story. Technically, we have some sound and camera issues that can probably be salvaged in post, but maybe not.  Put all of this together and it could mean another day of shooting back in Albuquerque to complete the film. I hope to avoid it - we all do - but 11 days to shoot a feature is a ridiculous pace, and if we need a day of pickups, I can live with it.  We may have no choice.

I'd like to take this moment to thank my super duper cast and crew - everyone worked so hard.  I saw this movie in my head well before we started shooting, and all involved helped me realize that vision.  It was incredible to see shots and scenes come off exactly the way I envisioned, and I owe it all to them - they worked like dogs and never wavered.  We all came together, we all believed.  The experience was like no other, for me personally, and it was largely because of the people around me.  Thanks guys!

I'm excited to be back in Brooklyn, relaxing some, and even more excited to be dropping the footage with my editor, Matt Zoller Seitz, this coming Monday - I truly feel we have a great little film.  Shooting the movie was an ambitious venture, and I'm counting on that ambitious spirit to drive us through post and beyond.  Our sights are set on the SXSW November deadline - yeah, quite ambitious indeed.