Author: Ed

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Getting down to it - PICTURE LOCK next week

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. Read more

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Hallelujah!!!

The screening went very well! Very well indeed. I was going nuts last night when Rob called and said that the film had just started and that he would call me back as soon as it was over. I kept looking at the clock every two or three minutes it seemed, then Gregg called, said he was doing the exact same thing. I mean, we were confident in the film, but you never know with these things. Maybe we were just being delusional. But Rob called after an excruciating hour and a half and said that everyone dug it pretty good. They had a few notes but they were pretty happy with the results. They gave us a grade of A-, whatever the hell that means. And that's before our final cut, sound mix or music. I was very pleased with the results. Made my night. Reed then called and said he couldn't believe the difference between this and the last cut he saw back here in MD. He said that Amy Smart and some of her family were there and that Amy's mom cried at the end! That's kind of cool, eh? So we have another screening on Sunday with a few close friends, most of them filmmakers, to give us the final read on any notes. Should be a good night. Then Cronin and I digest the notes and get back to work on this thing. We have two weeks to lock it down and lock it down GOOD. Yeah. I need to go to sleep. But we did it! We may actually have something good here! Hot-diggity-dog! Peace. -ed YOUTUBE FLICKR

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Big day today

Word. Huge day for us today. We're showing the film to our agents at ENDEAVOR in LA, so this will determine a lot as to how and when this film gets out there. We all certainly hope they dig it. I was supposed to be out there for this screening but it got moved to today, which is my daughter Bianca's birthday, so I couldn't go out to LA. I'm a bit nervous about what happens but the film is what it is, I can't do anything more at this point. I think we have a solid film and everyone that has seen this cut is really excited about it but you never know. We did a ton of work to the film last week after we got notes back from everyone on the first director's cut. I asked Gregg to come up and help me sort through all the notes and just to add a fresh pair of eyes to the process here, since Michael and I are so burned out that we can't tell what works or doesn't work anymore. The film really pops now. We cut another 4 minutes off of it, which puts us at around 84 minutes with credits, a really solid length for this type of film. If it goes theatrical, this length allows the theaters to show one more showing each day, which is always good for the box office. We went through and tweaked the edit quite a bit and added a lot more temp music, which really helped some scenes that needed a bit more of a push. It really works now and moves fast. I'm pretty proud of it. Added some of the temp stuff that Tony Cora and Kent Sparling (composers) have been giving us. They work really well, especially one piece that we added at three different places, kind of as an early musical theme to the film. Gregg left over the weekend and Michael and I did some more work on Monday, including replacing the end scene's temp music with something that we both think works so much better than what we had before. The scene is now really creepy now, which was something that the other piece of music wasn't doing to us at all. So we'll see what happens today. The agents will give us notes, I'm sure, and then we have another screening in LA on Sunday for some friends that will hopefully give us some solid notes, too. Then Michael and I are back at it for the next two weeks until picture lock. Then Gregg and I head over to SKYWALKER SOUND to do the spotting session with Bob Shoup, the main dude that did ALTERED with us. We'll go through the film at that point and talk about the sound ideas that we all have for every scene. It's a cool process and these guys are the best in the world so I'm really excited to see what they do with this film, since it depends so much on the sound. Then we meet with Kent and Tony for one day to talk about the music and hear some of the stuff they've been working on. This latest cut has a lot more music than I ever thought I was going to put in the film so the guys have more work to do, but they seem to be excited about doing more score. So I'm off to THE RAINFOREST CAFE for the Bink's Birthday lunch. Should be a real hoot. I'll update how the screening went as soon as I can. I'm hoping with all my heart that it'll be a good post, filled with good news on their reaction. Keep your fingers crossed! Peace. -ed YOUTUBE FLICKR

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Director's cut - just about done!

Word to all the sisters and the brothers. Cronin and I are sitting here working on Saturday, man, which sucks a great deal of whatever you can think of in your dirty little minds. But we're just about done with the director's first pass, which means we now finally have an edited film where I've supervised every single edit in the thing. It's been quite a haul but we're proud of what we've done. So we have a film that still needs a lot of tweaking, but at least now we are finally ready for notes. Honestly, if I had it my way, I'd spend a few more days re-watching and tweaking the shit out of this thing before sending it out, but what's done is done. The boys are anxious to watch this thing. We sent out DVDs of the first four reels (we're finishing reel 5 now) on Wednesday to a few of the key production people and the reaction has been quite good. Most of the notes are things that I wanted to re-visit anyway, so things are looking up. Everyone so far really digs the changes between the last cut and this one. Cronin and I will hit the edit hard next week to address everything and really tighten this sucker up before the ENDEAVOR screening later in the month. ENDEAVOR are our agents and will play a huge role in how this film gets out there and how it gets distributed. I hope they dig it, man. I really hope they dig it. That's the scariest part of this whole indie thing, man. The film still needs to get sold so we all have this huge weight on our shoulders until someone shows some real interest. We're very optimistic about what we have here but it's still one of the things that keeps me up at night sometimes. But a lot of shit keeps me up at night, so what can I say. I need to figure out a way to release some of the stress I'm feeling while I'm making films. I'm not going to be able to do this too many more times if I can't change the shitty way I feel most of the time during the process. I still love to make films but it hurts too much to even think about doing it again, man. It's like childbirth to me. We're almost done with the director's cut! We're doing the final edits now! Cutting the hell out of the last scene! Exciting stuff! As soon as we're done we'll make reel 5 into a huge QUICKTIME and post it for the guys to watch and give notes on. Then our weekend begins! After more editing and a small short fart break, the director's cut is done! Long live Cronin, super-editor! We came it at around 86 minutes with credits. That shit is tight. Tight. Now off to the rest of my stormy weekend. Things are harsh outside. Going to hang with Stef and the kids. I feel like I haven't seen them in ages. Peace from a very relieved Florida editor and a Cuban filmmaker. From the Oakwood furnished apartments in Frederick, Maryland, Cronin and Sanchez, out! -ed YOUTUBE FLICKR

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A disturbance in the edit...

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 HAXAN YOUTUBE FLICKR

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Slacking in Urbana

Been back home for almost three weeks now, trying to get back in the swing of things here. Cronin and John came in early last week to start the edit so things are moving on that end, but I just haven't felt like doing anything work-related these days. I guess I deserve a break, though. First week back was tough. Stef, the kids and I were all banged up with the time difference. We were sleepy at like 4 in the afternoon, just drifting around like zombies trying to stay up at least until 7 pm or so. One night I suggested we go to a movie and ended up watching BEE MOVIE alone, the three of them sleeping comfortable next to me. It was great fun. But the jet-lag was expected, the semi-culture shock wasn't. It was like we were in a completely different world over here in our home in Maryland. The familiar was unfamiliar. Even my Star Wars museum in my basement didn't bring me as much joy as I thought it would when I thought of it in Hong Kong. Seems like things had changed. The cold hit us immediately and then it snowed a few days after we got here, so the weather was definitely a factor. It was so nice in Hong Kong. It was also all the driving we were doing all of a sudden after three months of riding in the backs of vans or taking taxis and the MTR everywhere we went. And the fat people. I forgot how fat Frederick was. And how many people drive around in big trucks and dress in camouflage. I'm talking REAL camo, not like the TARGET shorts that I wore during the summer. I never noticed these things before. I texted Amy after the first week here and she seemed to be going through some similar things in LA. It was like we had gone through this thing in Hong Kong that we didn't even know we were going through until we got back to our normal existence back here in the states. So yes, I missed the shit out of Hong Kong. I had dreamt of coming home for so many months while I was there but I actually missed my life there. I think I'll miss parts of the experience there for a long time. Still kind of in a funk with the sleep thing but finally got back to work this week. At least a little bit of work. The editors Michael Cronin and John Rice arrived last week to start the edit and they are chugging along at a great clip after some technical issues right when they go here. Some problem with different versions of FINAL CUT PRO and the sound clip going out of sync. I couldn't quite make any sense of it but that's why we have John around, who Cronin calls a genius. That boy can fix anything once he puts his mind to it. They've been working for about a week now and Michael has 20 solid minutes edited already! That boy is flying. They're staying at these new furnished apartments about 15 minutes away from me here. Michael has a two bedroom and edits out of one of the rooms. He digs it pretty good, even though he missed his wife and little boy, Joe, quite a bit. The weather has been pretty brutal since they got here. It's been cold and they didn't even see the sun for the first four days they were here. Welcome to Frederick, boys! I went to visit Michael for the first time this week today. I was nervous as hell about seeing that much of the movie already, especially the beginning, which could make or break this damn film. But Cronin blew me away. Honestly. I had given him some notes on the opening last week, trying to give him a clear picture of the way I wanted to the film to look, the way I wanted the flow of the film to go. And he just fucking nailed it. And I knew he would. I designed the look of this film from the very first day with his cutting style in mind. I just didn't know if I had pulled off the raw footage that he needed to make his alchemy work. And it looks like I did, so I'm a very happy camper today. They leave on Saturday for the holidays and then return after New Years. They should have close to 30 minutes of the movie done by then. At least this cut. That's pretty damn great. It gives us plenty of time to tweak the hell out of before looking it. Michael thinks that we'll come in at 95 minutes or so for this cut. We'd like to end up at around 85 or so. But his speed is great news. Gregg and Matt were worried that we'd need more time since I decided a few weeks back to start fresh and not with the cut that John had done in Hong Kong. It wasn't that I didn't like John's cut, I actually liked it a lot. I just wanted Cronin to come in as fresh as he could, without even seeing what we had done in Hong Kong. I thought that seeing a cut of the film already would've confused him and given him ideas that I wanted him to come to on his own. I honestly thought it would slow things down. Seems like the plan is working. Michael goes back through John's cut as he finishes scenes, just to get a fresh feel of the scene in another way to make sure he didn't miss anything that John caught. It's a great system. Anyway, it's 10:30 and I'm about to collapse. This is really late for me since I've been back. Feeling good, though. Real good. Damn good. ALTERED came out exactly one year ago tomorrow and I don't even like to think about the shit I was dealing with at that time. I'm so grateful to be where I am right now. What a difference a year makes. I'll keep updating the FLICKR and YOUTUBE thing as we go. Should be a cool journey when it's all over. Trying to keep the blogging thing going, too. To anyone reading this from the crew in Hong Kong, Golo misses you Chinese bastards like crazy! If case I don't blog before then, Happy Holidays to you and yours! And let's hope for more good things for 2008! Peace and love from Urbana, MD. -ed HAXAN YOUTUBE DIRECTOR'S FLICKR PRODUCER'S FLICKR ACTOR'S FLICKR