Happy New Year to everyone and their mothers! Man, it’s been a while.

Watching the rough cut of the film right now on a big screen in a Baltimore theater. The DVD transfer came out dark but otherwise, it looks good on the big screen.

Rob Cowie, Gregg Hale, Matt Compton (producers), Bob Eick (executive producer), John Rice, Michael Cronin (editors), Jamie Nash (co-writer) and a producer friend of ours from LA, Reed Frerichs, are in attendance.

It’s the third time they’ve seen the film in the past 24 hours. They gave us a ton of notes yesterday. A lot of very constructive stuff but it was a grueling experience for Michael and me.

It’s another part of the process that I just fucking hate. It’s like having a bunch of people giving you a detailed breakdown of how bad one of your kids is. Excruciating.

I take it way too personally, mostly because I’m a pussy, but partly because of what happened with ALTERED. I didn’t think I could feel so low again, but I did yesterday while getting feedback from everyone.

But fuck it, I’ll get over it. Overall, everyone thinks we have a really solid film that just needs some loving. Plus, I’ve only done what I call a director’s pass for about 40 minutes of the film, and the rest is very loose. We’ll take these notes and get the rest of the film in top form in the next few weeks.

Then we’ll get another set of notes and have our egos demolished and start the process all over again. It’s so much fun making movies!

The post process has been great up to now. Cronin and Johnny are busting their asses on this thing. Having two editors is great because I can have them working on two parts of the film at the same time.

Up to now, Cronin has been working on the first assembly and I pretty much left him alone. I figured he needed time to get familiar with the footage and notes from me would only complicate shit. During that time, Johnny worked behind him with detailed notes from me. The system worked well.

But now we’ve gotten to the nitty-gritty. Cronin finished his pass two weeks ago started from the beginning again, working over Johnny’s notes pass. I sit behind him and we tweak out everything, reviewing footage, sometimes completely re-editing entire scenes.

In the meantime, Johnny continues his pass with my notes. Once he’s done, he’ll come off editing completely and continue with all the technical work, including some simple digital effects work. That’s the great thing about having Johnny Rice on the team. The man is proficient in so many skills that he takes on a wide-range of responsibilities. One minute he’s editing the film and the next he’s adding digital smoke to a shot. He’s crazy talented.

Film is almost done now, I’m out in the lobby. The projection is too dark and I can’t sit through the film again.

Now’s the time to roll up our sleeves and get his shit done, man. A great film is in there somewhere. Cronin, Rice and I just have to chip away at the marble until we find it. It will be done. Wish us luck.

And so ends my first bog written completely on my iPhone.

From the Landmark Harbor East 7 Theaters, a slightly ego-bruised and sleep-deprived Cuban director signs out.

Peace and much love to all.

-ed

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