Word to your sisters.

Finished another version of the film on Tuesday. Super tight. We worked on a bunch of the notes that we got from the LA screenings, spending most of our time on the third act transition that wasn’t working for a bunch of people. I think we nailed it. It was mostly sound design but Cronin and I finally got it to where we think it worked, and that’s before SKYWALKER SOUND gets a hold of it.

We also cut out a bunch of the shakiest shots, which were bothering a bunch of people. Much steadier film now, though still very handheld. No locked off shots in this sucker. Well, maybe one.

Johnny posted the cut this morning and the reaction has been pretty great so far. Gregg and Rob dug it and have some notes, of course, but Gregg thinks the third act transition finally works now and dug a bunch of the new stuff we added, including some sub-titles that we’ve kind of struggled to put in. He was pretty much against them until this cut and now he’s on the fence, leaning toward keeping them in. That’s kind of where I am.

The whole film was originally supposed to be without subtitles to give the audience the same isolated feeling that our main character, Melissa, is feeling. But our executive producer Bob Eick watched a cut with a dude that spoke Cantonese and filled him in on some of the juicy stuff the Chinese characters were saying, especially in one scene where a pretty important moment in the film is foreshadowed half-way through the movie.

So we put that one exchange in but the test audiences were kind of bothered by this one instance of sub-titles right in the middle of the film and not anywhere else, so I added more subtitles on this pass and I have to say that I like the extra dimension that they add to the film. Now the audience gets these little bits of info that our main character isn’t getting and it’s kind of creepy sometimes.

So Cronin and I took Wednesday off and went downtown to see the cherry blossoms in DC with Stef and the Duke. The weather was pretty good and we had a good time. It was good to be away from the film for a day, even though I had to keep answering emails about a few things. We’ll probably take the day off tomorrow, too, and wait for notes. Michael might work on the trailer a bit, then we’ll probably get back on it on Friday.

So we’re in great shape to finally hit our picture-lock date next Friday the 11th. Then it’s off to SKYWALKER for the sound and music spotting sessions and then to LA to do the color correction. It’s just going to be great being done with this edit. Been a lot harder and longer on me then I thought it was going to be.

All right, time for bed. Gotta work on tax stuff tomorrow so it’s going to be a fun day for sure.

Peace from Urbana.

-ed

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