New Trailer, New Poster, New Headshots
Things are busy! And it’s good. As we put the final touches on the movie (music and sound), I was hoping things would slow down a bit. Quite the contrary–things are speeding up. But, it’s all good.
New Movie Trailer
We’ve finished our new movie trailer, and it’s amazing! It really captures the story and keeps you wanting more. If you get a chance, check it out.
New Movie Posters
We’ve also finished work on our moive poster/one sheet. This is the 8.5″ x 11″ marketing one sheet that we use to market the film to distributors. More than likely, the distributor we sign will create their own one-sheet and movie trailer. But, we still need to market our film to them.
New Headshots
I don’t really like pictures of myself. It’s a lot like listening to your voice on a recording. “That’s not me!” Well, I feel the same way about pictures of myself. But, my publicist needed some headshots of the director, so my friend Kevin and I went out to Southlake Town Center and took some pictures.
Haunting Melody - Movie score
My sound guys in LA have been working hard on the score and sound. I’ve really enjoyed laying down the various music tracks, sound tracks, and effects tracks. Watching it all come together has been a blast.Just recently, we nailed down the melody. I don’t know how else to explain it expect it’s our haunting melody. If you’d like to get a taste of that huanting melody, click on this arrow: Fissure Melody
2008 Film Festival Circuit
Now that Fissure is coming to a close, it’s time to hit the film festival circuit. Typcially, Sundance is the one key film festival to kick off the festival season. They have a requirement of only accepting “World Premiere” films. So, most people start with them.We have a very specific film festival strategy for Fissure. Here are the top tier festivals we will be targeting:
| Film Festival | Deadline | Event Date |
| Sundance (pass) | Sep 28, 2007 | Jan 17-27, 2008 |
| Slamdance (pass) | Oct 9, 2007 | Jan 17-25, 2008 |
| Palm Springs (pass) | Oct 9, 2007 | Jan 3-14, 2008 |
| Berlin (pass) | Nov 1, 2007 | Feb 7-17, 2008 |
| Santa Barbara (pass) | Nov 16, 2007 | Jan 24-Feb 3, 2008 |
| SxSW (pass) | Nov 16, 2007 | Mar 7-15, 2008 |
| Tribeca | Jan 11, 2008 | Apr 28-May 4, 2008 |
| Victoria (pass) | Oct 2007 | Feb 1-8, 2008 |
| LA Independent | Nov 29, 2007 | Jun 19-29, 2008 |
| Dallas AFI (IN!) | Dec 1, 2007 | Mar 27-Apr 6, 2008 |
| FirstGlance (IN!) | Feb 1, 2007 | Apr 10-13, 2008 |
| Salem (IN!) | Feb 29, 2008 | Apr 18-20, 2008 |
| Phoenix (pass) | Dec 1, 2007 | Apr 12-19, 2008 |
| Vail (pass) | Dec 1, 2007 | Apr 3-6, 2008 |
| Nashville | Nov 30, 2007 | Apr 17-24, 2008 |
| Florida (pass) | Nov 30, 2007 | Mar 28-Apr 5, 2008 |
| GenArt | Nov 30, 2007 | Apr 2-8, 2008 |
| Ann Arbor (pass) | Dec 1, 2007 | Mar 25-30, 2008 |
| Cannes | May 14-28, 2008 | |
| Hollywood | August 2008 | |
| Montreal | August 2008 | |
| Telluride | September 2008 | |
| Toronto | September 2008 | |
| Venice | September 2008 | |
| Hamptons | October 2008 | |
| New York | October 2008 | |
| Radiance | October 2008 | |
| Tokyo | November 2008 |
We’re very excited about taking Fissure to some of the festivals. We’ll keep you posted!
On the Lot. Twice.
I’m writing this while sitting in the Burbank airport. Today was a very interesting day.
But, before we get to that, let me share what happened last month. Last month, my family and I took a road trip to LA. I had some meetings around our movie but had the opportunity to hook up with a high school buddy of mine, Rob Thomas. (No, not the lead singer from Matchbox Twenty.) Rob is the creator and producer of Veronica Mars. Recently, Veronica Mars was cancelled and Rob is moving on to new projects. His latest stint is consulting writer/producer for the new television series, Big Shots. Don’t know much about the show, but it’s supposedly the male version of Desperate Housewives.
Well, while my family and I were in LA, I decided to call Rob and see if he was interested in having coffee or lunch. He agreed, and so we decided to meet at his new offices on the Warner Brothers lots. I’ve never been on any of the production lots, but it was very cool. Part of our morning coffee was a golf cart tour–a Veronica Mars golf cart, I might add–of the Warner Brothers lot. I enjoyed the personal tour. Thanks Rob.
Yesterday, Dan Millican and I arrived in Burbank to meet with Kevin Max, formerly of dcTalk to discuss a new feature we’re starting work on. While in LA, Dan and I got to meet with a gentleman who was working on a project at Universal Studios. So, we met at the Universal Studios lot. Again, very cool to walk around and see the sights and peek into the various sound stages.
All in all, it’s been a lot of fun talking and meeting with those in the industry.
Digital Goosebumps
I’m so impressed with how the coloring is coming along. It’s really amazing! You can so easily change the entire feel of a scene with color. Let me show you what we’re doing.
This movie is a thriller. There is a creepiness to it. It’s an “edge of your seat” kind of film. You don’t quite know what’s around the corner. So, typically, it’s good to show these things in darkness. But, our story takes place during the day. So, we needed to create a creepy, darkened shadowy feel inside the house.
However, when we shot a lot of the scenes, we lit them pretty bright. The reason we did that was to give us a lot of dynamic range regarding brightness (luminance) and color (chrominance). The nature of digital HD is that the dynamic range is pretty limited compared to film. So, we had to be careful that we didn’t go to bright (and blowout the whites) or too dark (and create digital noise).
So, with that mind, this is what our footage looked like right out of the camera:
Not too creepy. Pretty flat. No real depth.
And, no goosebumps.
So, we take the footage, add some shadowy vignettes, change the color a bit, lower the saturation (color) and crush the blacks, and get this:
Now, add some creepy music, some deep textural drone sounds, and viola!
Goosebumps!
Color grading in Final Cut Pro
Today, we start coloring. I’m looking forward to seeing how our colorist, Omar, will take our existing footage and create the movie’s tone and feel. Below are some screen grabs of our first pass at some of the shots.
Road Trip
What an exciting time for this project! We’re making great progress and achieving very exciting milestones!
Last week, we officially locked the edit. And what a relief! (Now, I can sleep at night.) The burden of finalizing the edit has been pretty intense. After working on the edit for four months straight, I’m very confident that the edit is solid, and the pacing is good. The feedback from the beta viewings has been really encouraging.
I must say, though, it was very hard for me to lock the edit, because I can tweak and polish till the cows come home. And as an artist, that’s difficult. But, it’s time to fling it out there and move on. As they say, an artist’s work is never finished–only abandoned.
Today, we officially head out on our next phase of post production. Literally. We’re packing our bags and making a two-week long road trip…
First, we’re headed to Austin to meet with our colorist, Omar. I’ll be meeting with him today to outline a strategy for coloring the film. We’ve been talking for quite a few months, but with the edit locked, he can start to work his magic.
After that, we’re driving to LA. Typically, I would have flown, but we’ve decided to go as a family and take a few detours along the way–Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, Gallup New Mexico (my birth town), Universal Studios, and the beach. I’ll be spending a day or two with my score and sound guy, Bryan Miller. I’m very excited about releasing him and his team to work their magic as well.
All in all, I’m very pleased with how things are progressing. I’m very excited about entering into the distribution phase. I believe there will be lots of great opportunities.
Locking the edit this week
We are now within a week of locking the edit. So, what does that mean “lock the edit”?
The post production process up to this point has been all about editing. Assembling shots and visuals and cutting them together to tell a story. Some visuals are cut for mystery and intrigue. Others are cut together for action and danger. Yet, others are cut for relationships and connecting. Each feel has it’s own style of editing. Action and danger is cut tight, interupted and fast. Yet mystery is cut methodically, slowly and unrevealing at times.
At one point, however, we must lock the edit. That means no more changes. No more additions, no more cuts, no adding or removing frames. You lock the edit so that we can…
1. Start color correcting the shots. A little blue here, a little orange there, a little darker here, a little lighter there, etc. The first step is balance the footage. Then, once it’s balanced, then we use color to increase the mystery, action or romance.
2. Secondly, we need a locked it to start all of the audio work, which includes scoring the film, adding the sound effects and then mixing it all together. This also includes re-recording any audio that needs cleaner sound. This is called ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement).
3. Add any special effects to the shots–add gun blasts, remove boom mics, fix continuity issues, etc.
Locking the edit has been a bit intimidating for me. It’s like an artist being told that by 5pm tomorrow, your painting, your art must be finished so they can start framing it.
An artist’s work is never finished, just abandoned.
Rough Edit is Done!
This week, I finished the rough edit. And wow, I can sleep better now. I feel like I’m finally on the other side of the mountain, and it’s all downhill from here.
I’ve taken a few days to show the rough edit to some fellow filmmakers, and the feedback has been really encouraging. Most of them have shared some tweaks and polishes to help solidify the story, but nothing major. Structurally, the story is strong. The pacing is good. The editing is tight. And, the run time on the first pass is 88 minutes, which is a great place to be for the first pass.
We still have a ways to go. It’s a long hike down the mountain, but we have a cohesive story, and our baby is taking his first few steps!
Very exciting!
Feature Film Editing in Final Cut Studio
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog. Other than editing, not much else is happening. I’m spending my days buried in Final Cut Pro. I’ve got about 70 minutes of the 90 minute film edited. It’s great seeing the story come alive. Just yesterday, I sat down with my mom and watched the fist 70 minutes. What fun!
I must say, Apple has really done well with the new release of Final Cut Studio 2. I did the one thing that most people tell you not to do–upgrade in the middle of a project. But, the new features of FCS2 were needed, so I upgraded. And thankfully, it’s been a relatively smooth transition.
The two new features that I’ll be using extensively are: Color and ProRes 422.
Color: This new feature is so much more than a feature. Just last year, you could by this high-end coloring system (previously known as Final Touch) for just under $6,000. Today, it’s simply included as part of the Final Cut Studio package. With Color, you can now take your regularly footage and begin telling your story with this coloring tool. (See my previous blog on the importance of color in storytelling.)
ProRes 422: This may get a bit technical, but I’ll try to explain. When editing movies on computers, the frist step is to digitize each frame into a digitial image that the computer can recognize. Once your film is digitized (captured onto the computer), then you can begin editing by adjusting those images. How the computer stores those images is of great importance.
Think about the videos you’ve seen on the web. They’re a bit pixelated, fuzzy, sometimes hard to see (and hear). Well, those are highly compressed videos for transferring over the web. With video editing, you can still use your local hard drive, but even then, one single hard drive has its limitations (speed of the drive, how fast data is transferred, etc.). And, when it comes to full frame High Definition (HD) video, hard drive speeds and data interfaces can easily hinder the editing and playback process.
Well, Panasonic introduced a highly compressed format for capture and editing called DVCPro. In fact, we used this format when shooting. We captured our movie on a Panasonic Varicam camera using the DVCPro 720p codec at 24 frames a second. And, I am editing in Final Cut Pro using this format as my baseline format.
However, I don’t really want to finish in this format, because I want to use the new Color application at it’s maximum quality. Introduce ProRes 422.
There are higher qualities than ProRes. For example, I can convert my project to uncompressed HD, but this format is very large and requires a very fast system of drives and interfaces. Huge disk arrays can be costly and quickly become outdated. Plus, you need a high-end fibre optic or Serial Data interface to transfer the high-speed data. Sure, I could upgrade my drives and my interface for uncompressed, but now with ProRes, I don’t need to. ProRes uses the standard interface and can work on a single SATA drive. Amazing! Now, I can use ProRes as my Digital Intermediate (DI).
So, here’s my workflow:
1. Capture the film using DVCProHD 720p.
2. Edit the film in FCP using DVCProHD (no generatlional loss).
3. After it’s locked, we’ll use Color to color the film.
4. Directly out of Color, we’ll create a ProRes version of the film.
5. We’ll then sync the audio with the final, colored edit.
6. Using a Kona3X card, we’ll output the high quality edit to D-5 HD.
7. Then, we’ll buy some popcorn and enjoy the show!
I warned you–it was a bit technical. But, these new Apple announcements have really changed how we’ll “finish” the film. I’m excited about living in this age of technology. It’s truly amazing that we can produce entire feature films at such a lower cost than just a few years ago.
It reminds me of a quote from concerned filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola: “Some little girl in Ohio is going to make a beautiful movie with her father’s camcorder…”
…and Final Cut Studio in HD and ProRes and Color…