Had a great brunch with Colton Lawrence the other morning. He directed THE SEX MOVIE that I cut for him a couple of years back. He’s down in LA looking to put together his next film, either a follow up to the aforementioned or a angst-ridden love triangle. Either way, he does have a way with words.
One thing is clear with Colton … he really understands the business of film making. He keeps his stories tidy and therefore easy to produce. His last feature was shot in nine days with plenty of coverage. Now it wasn’t a visual feast, more of a roundtable discussion. But the story fit the means and there were a couple of places where you stepped into “private areas” to have discussions where a more traditional setup could occur.
Our meeting was timely as the launching pad for THE SEX MOVIE was certainly the premier at the Frameline Film Festival … where FIONA’S SCRIPT is showing in a couple of weeks. Hopefully Florencia will be able to turn the business end of things toward her favor. She reported during our coloring session yesterday that she has a new script in hand to accompany on her voyage (and handy tool for filmmakers). And the new color is way more mainstream. There’s still a story line that supports her evolution, but it’s not so much of a visual leap. Theory vs. reality.
We’re finally getting to some of the desperately needed post production items on the list. The coloring for FIONA’S SCRIPT has gotten out the door just in time for a cast & crew screening next week and it’s first fest in LA later this month.
Next up, THE APPRAISAL is in the can and Stephanie and I have gone through the first cut. I have an email in my inbox with some more refinements after some extended online viewing, but the cut is certainly on the way.
And THEY TURNED OUR DESERT INTO FIRE is being packaged up and sent off to DER for the master … yes. Tucked in there nicely is a copy of WAR AS A SECOND LANGUAGE, Mark’s previous film that I also edited. And DESERT INTO FIRE has been selected for the Santa Cruz Film Festival in May which we’ll go down and check out.
And Monday is our final shooting day for LUCIFER’S CREWCUT. Green screen elements to assemble into the death sequences where the quartet meet their gruesome demise. Nice that it’s a lock-off shot which equals an easier day for me and we can focus on performance. I’d love to get this project in the home stretch so we can fully share this irreverent little film (be careful, you might get some on you).
Oohhh … and photos in the next post!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks at the ranch. Swooped in from Sundance to take care of a couple of gigs going through the studio. Finished prepping and then shot THE APPRAISAL by Stephanie Carwin. Have just set up casting for a video / photo shoot I’m planning in a week and a half. Found out our Doritos spot didn’t win a million bucks (one nut shot short), but the Bud DD spot did win over at poptent (yeah!). In the meantime, finally settled on the tattoo for my left arm and inked in the outline and some shading.
All of these need more explaining on their own … when’s that gonna happen. Cutting and coloring first.
Finally after a long road … It began with taking an idea that resulted in a short film. Stacey, Mark and I then expanded that out to be a comprehensive analysis of a complex situation. We now move deep into the last stages of a film’s existence … getting it out there. THEY TURNED OUR DESERT INTO FIRE has signed a distribution deal with Documentary Educational Resources for worldwide non-theatrical rights.
We are very excited with this partnership and hope they will help leverage us out there to reach farther with our message. They seem to be interested in continuing on the festival circuit, especially internationally, releasing on DVD for all markets, and finding us a home with some of the broadcast markets. Mark will continue to play a role of ushering through the film in the different iterations and making appearances to help complete the story.
Soon we should have the new master for the DVD release and get it out there. Plus we’ll see about cutting down a 52 minute version for Euro broadcast markets.
There will be more to come on this chapter … but this is a milestone to note.
The bud spot is finished (with a little ADR help). Spot is uploaded and awaiting judgement. I wasn’t totally clear if they were good with me posting it three ways to Sunday, so I posed the question before shot gunning it out.
Overall it turned out well and much like I expected. I briefly pursued another angle but it didn’t totally come together … first thought best thought. It’s nice to have a concept simple enough to be executed in six hours with some play on set. And the new Red / FCP / Color workflow is behaving for the most part. A little issue with handles, but it has never been perfect. Small projects like this are easy to muscle through.
Special shout out to all the participants … those on camera (Bob Brindley, Rowan Brooks, Erin Coker and Krysti Lozinski) and the awesome crew: Matt Boucher – sound, Jennevine Lee – hair/MU, Allison Cohen – wardrobe and of course Stacey pulling together the production side AND the design. Now she gets the studio back to keep working on the next phase of Lucifer’s Crewcut.
I believe we just got word that They Turned Our Desert Into Fire will be a part of the Global Peace Film Festivalfrom Sept. 17 – 21 in Orlando, Florida. I always like to see it in print, but I hear we’re locked in. Mark and I had run across Bryan Belmore when we were at the Sarasota Film Festival. Looks like the rest of the team shared his enthusiasm for the film.
We’ll need to update the film to reflect that al Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, a first for a sitting leader. But even if there is some form of justice for his actions in Darfur, the consequences of the bare earth campaign will continue to impact the region for 20 plus years. And the UN has said that no nation has responded to their pleas for assistance over the last year. All the more reason to keep a light on Sudan.
This one is starting to make it’s way out, an Olympia spec spot for friends Aaron Meister and Anders Osterballe. Shot one dreary Saturday afternoon which flattened everything out … a bit too much for Aaron’s liking. I was playing camera Op to Aaron’s DP role. It was his first real work out on the Red. We spent about as much time coloring it as we did shooting it. That I think is about right for this camera as it seems to want you to massage the image out. But there’s certainly plenty of dough to work with.
They’re dropping in the final music and sound mix. The locked picture with temp sound can found on my reels page ”it’s awesome” under editing (coloring as well). Until then I’ll leave you with the opening frame.
And here’s Anders (foreground) and Aaron examining a setup before we roll on it.
