Editing in Japan...

Hey sports fans, a couple of cool updates to send out to the internet ether:

1. Discussions with a little radio station in LA are going well in as far as gaining permission to use their station identifier;

2. I'm editing my butt off tightening up cuts and laying in music tracks.

In the last post I made an error in the calculation of the runtime. We're at 1:40 including the credit roll so everything is fine now! At any rate, I thought I'd post some photos of the editing suite here in Tokyo (and good lord that sounds so much more glamorous than it really is):

My stash of 100¥ coins for the sodee pop machine-o-des-ka and looking intensely at footage.

 What you have here is your standard battle-worn HDD that contains all sorts of magic.

It's been from the harbor of Seattle to the mountains of Colorado to the plains of India 

to the shores of Japan. No, there is no backup drive, we're on hot rails to hell if it takes a shit.

 Let it not be said my office is nothing if not equipped with a view.

 We need more hamburgers and fries 'round about these here parts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Runtimes of the edit so far

EDIT: Scene 15 is finally DONE! We have a complete rough cut. This means we can start working on a picture lock, sound design, music and soundtrack mixing.

The END of post production is in sight!

So far we have about 137 minutes not counting 3 scenes that we will fit into the director's cut but will leave out for the final theatrical release. 2 hours and 17 minutes is to darn long though. It's time to trim a little here and there, but not too much! We'll get it down to a healthy runtime for a movie of this type. We're pretty confident we're sitting on a piece of dynamite in any case! Can't wait to get it out there.

Scene 01: 14:00
Scene 02: 08:47
Scene 03: 06:04
Scene 04: N/A
Scene 05: 05:02
Scene 06: 13:30
Scene 07: 05:56
Scene 08: N/A
Scene 09: 08:09
Scene 10: 08:05
Scene 11: N/A
Scene 12: 05:37
Scene 13: 03:40
Scene 14: 02:01
Scene 15: 09:45
Scene 16: 04:44
Scene 17: 01:56
Scene 18: 00:14
Scene 19: N/A
Scene 20: 00:19
---------------
137:49

In other news, the T2S comic (Two Sillies of Playa de Verona) is coming right along and the artistic team in Chennai, India is beginning scene 2 of 3. We're super happy with what we have seen so far!

Thanks again for visiting, and we look forward to greeting you in the near future 

with more ETE news!

The Comic is Happening!

I had several more great meetings with the artists in Chennai, India over the last week. Their work is stunning! At our last meeting we once again viewed the film rough cut and discussed how the comic book fits in with the movie itself. A lot of ideas were exchanged and it looks like things are moving forward nicely.

Gopi, Simon, Brandon and Sravan

 We even had the chance to take some photos and video clips of the workshop.

Apparently the word 'posters' calls for additional emphasis?

Chatting about artwork panels and sample work.

Looking at the script and answering questions.

I think we have some good ideas coming together here!

The soundtrack is also coming along nicely. We have several bands and artists lined up and the music is rockin' out 90's stylee! Meetings are planned in Ireland and Los Angeles in the near future, keep visiting for more updates.

Thank you for visiting!

Two Silly Updates!

I had a great meeting finalizing the contract for our comic which will also make appearances in the opening title sequence of the film. Sravan and I had dinner prepared by his mom at his house in Chennai. It was really great. He provided me with an example of their work to post here on the blog. It's pretty jazzy, take a look!

 

I have some really great expectations for our comic. Having finished the storyboards and completed numerous meetings regarding character design, props and sets, we're ready to start with rough drafts of panels. This has been a really great experience and I think we have established a really positive working relationship for future projects.

Calmly explaining the finer points of bootcamp running XP

The creative team pauses to dine

My wonderful host and hostess

So, we're looking forward to seeing some rough drafts in the near future! Once we have an official T2S movie website up we'll be adding links to the comic when it's ready. 

Thanks for checking in!

Two Sillies of Playa de Verona

Everybody has been wondering when the comic would be done and it looks like it will be soon!

Wait wait wait. Whaaat?

A COMIC BOOK?

That's right sports fans, we have a comic book on the way. After an early screening of various scenes with a certain unnamed, famous veteran filmmaker who you all know, it became apparent that some back story needed fleshing out. We thought about how to accomplish that in the introduction of the film. Then we thought, "Aw hell, let's make a friggin' comic!"

It's 22 pages at the final draft with 2 pages left for merchandizing...

Wait wait wait. Whaaat?

MERCHANDIZING?

Yes, you read it right, merchandizing. We've got all kinds of ultra-cool T2S stuff coming down the pike! And I mean ULTRA-COOL! I think we even have a famous LA fashion designer making T2S edition duds and whatnot... kiddin. No we don't have someone like that yet, but maybe in the future...

So, the comic is planned to be a part of the ticket sale at special theater screenings with autographs and a CD of awesome tunes by the bands on our soundtrack...

Wait wait wait. Whaaat?

A CD SOUNDTRACK?

Yes. A CD soundtrack.

Holy crap, I think my brain is going to explode with all of the awesomeness!

Anyhow, back to the comic. We'll have it as a download on our official website when we get it up and running, we'll offer hard copies for order and as I said there will be hard copies at special screenings of the film.

I found a super cool group of artists in India who are really excited to be a part of our project. I got the idea in my head one day over here and did a google search for local art colleges. I found one right down the street, put on my walking shoes and went on over in search of artists. After almost dying several times of heat exhaustion and getting run over, the security guard almost shot me when I tried to get in! After a friendly little chat (LOL) he escorted me to a class where some of the college guys agreed to meet. Two hours later it was settled; they wanted IN on the project. We're putting the finishing details on our agreement and it's all coming along very nicely. The cover art is going to be awesome and YES it will HAVE to be a T-shirt design for sure.

The Indians have some fabulous art and have promised to give me at least one of their works to put here on the blog. For now check out the rough story boards we've been working on together. One of the guys is working on a documentary of the making of the comic to show with clips of the film at a local film festival in December. Also, they have a lot of contacts and friends in local media outlets so it's looking really good for a release in India!!!

Hell

Yes

More Music!

We're not quite ready to publish the bands and musicians we've been working with lately but they are AWESOME. We have a band from Ireland that has a perfect 90's grungy sound and get this: they've offered to re-record one of their early tracks just for the film! How awesome is that?! They're on a road trip in Canada now and went by their recording studio for work on this and a new album slated for release in Nov/Dec this year. We hope to compliment each other's releases by bringing out T2S at the same time.

Also, I've been meeting with some musicians in India who have a fantastic sound. We're negotiating for a couple of songs that they have already written that would be great for one scene specifically. They are also considering writing an original track based on the line "Colorless green ideas..." from the dialog of scene 06.

Lastly I've been negotiating to see if I can obtain the rights for a Wesley Willis tune. It's a little anachronistic being from the tail end of the 90's but it's a good song.

Add to all of this the potential for using some early NOFX songs and we've pretty much got our soundtrack well under way!

T2S Editing Update

The rough edit is almost complete with scene 15 halfway done and scene 16 almost done. Total runtime is getting close to 120 minutes!

The additional shots are going to be developed next month which should bring the rough edit to a close.

We're negotiating some additional material to shoot with the DJ we're going to feature as part of the soundtrack. It might be nice to have some cutaways of him in the studio at the mic and spinning records.

Once the rough edit is done we'll start screenings in earnest and begin the revision process for a picture lock.

Once we have a picture lock we'll start the soundtrack for a sound lock.

Once the entire film is settled, we'll scan high-rez and finish with timing and titles.

I hope to have this done by early January 2015. There's a lot of work to do between now and then, but it can be done!

In PITT with Gulzar!

Shaz is hosting an event tonight in PITT presenting several works he has been involved with lately including T2S. If anyone happens to be around drop by! As we ramp up the campaign we'll be having more and more of these events around so don't be bummed if you miss it...

We're getting closer and closer to having clips ready for youtube and vimeo. Keep coming back here for the latest and greatest news!

Editing Statistics at the Halfway Point

Editing up a storm here! It's been really instructive, I've been learning a lot about production of all things: what worked on set and what didn't. Some of the stuff I was really worried about turned out to be no problem. Some stuff I thought would be no problem turned out to have some little challenges to solve. Most of it cuts together like butter, which is no doubt the result of proper preparation and pre-visualization, not to mention a great cast and crew.

I've also been tracking some interesting stats like page count vs. run-time. The rule of thumb is that 1 page of script equals about 1 minute of runtime; however, I've heard that dialog tends to run fast. It seems that 1/2 way through the edit it's pretty close to 1 page per minute despite the dialog heavy nature of the film. Take a look:

APPROXIMATE RUNTIMES BY SCENE
________
01 13:50 15.5 pages
03 06:05 06.1 pages
06 13:29 16.5 pages
07 05:57 08.1 pages
12 05:38 05.7 pages
13 03:40 03.7 pages
14 02:00 01.7 pages
17 01:57 02.3 pages
--------
TRT 52:36 59.6 pages

So we're looking at an average of .88 minutes per page (53 seconds) or an error of 1.2% per page. For 130 pages it looks like the total runtime is 114 minutes if the same pace holds for the balance of the film, right in the standard 90~120 minute feature length. Depending on how additional photography goes, we may see 120 minutes... or if we cut scenes down, we may be closer to 90 minutes. The nice thing is that we have options to play with.

Music!

Today I met with a fantastic musician and producer Roger Mera. He and his partner in groove Gabe have created a massive collection of great original tunes dating back a couple of decades.

We spent several hours at his super-secret bat-recording-studio nestled in an otherwise unassuming PV neighborhood. The painting on the wall behind his rig was done by his uncle who lives in Peru; it's a really inspiring work to look at while perusing music and exchanging creative ideas (get it? Peru... perusing...). Anyhow, it was a great meeting, and I'm really looking forward to having Roger and Gabe join our devious plot for world domina... I mean, making kickass movies.

PS:
Me and Phil also stayed up to watch the dang moon... it was a little underwhelming and tough to believe that ancient civilizations used to freak out when this kind of thing happened way back when.

Phil's snapshots of our shoot

The Latest Shoot in LA

We started the day with my arrival at Union Station downtown; how I got from the train to the curb with 2 heavy camera cases, a big duffel bag and suitcase is another story. The dog apparently ate Phil's suit so we made a quick stop at the Goodwill on Figueroa and 30th to put together an impromptu wardrobe.

Sue me? Sue EVERYBODY...

 

Flannels are so 90's; hey, Nirvana is playing at the Forum!

Once we built the camera it was off to shoot around downtown. First stop: the Courthouse! Parking was actually quite easy to find, and after schlepping the equipment a bit we squeezed off our first shot of the day.

  

Where's Waldo?

Perry Mason in the flesh.

Where the heck is my client?

NO CAMERAS IN THE COURTROOM.

After that we raced off to the South Bay area to click off a few more clips. I love film!!! So does my shoulder. OUCH. Can anyone say, "Occupational hazard," three times really fast? Anyhow, we found a quiet spot with some shade; it was about an f-22 in the clear even exposing for ASA200 (we were using up the last of some old Russian stock from the 90's we had on hand).

Don't ask, OK?

 No, really. Don't ask.

Anyhow, it all went really well and we even had a chance to shoot the sunset off Manhattan pier for an insert.

Calculating f-stop and correcting for wind, density altitude and rotational variation.

Santa Fe pilgrimage

"Say 'baroque" in 3... 2... 1..."   **click!**

 

We went on a very productive road trip up to Santa Fe today.

We met with Pray for Brain, a local group with an awesome sound who is interested in contributing to our film! It was interesting that their little studio is on Bishop Lodge Rd where there is supposedly a Pope Yes restaurant where they serve world famous Monk's Mashed Potatoes, Padre's Pickled Peppers and Clergy's Crispy Chicken.

We didn't have time to go to Pope Yes because, well... the group jams hard core and we just chilled with them for the afternoon instead:

Be sure to check them out at:

www.pray4brain.com

Chris, the bassist, served up some kickass chicken enchiladas and Turkish coffee! The band loved what we have edited together of the film so far, and are really enthused to be a part! They have a jam this Friday and we're going to film them a bit to add as establishing shots for Cafe #2 in T2S.

After the impromptu jam session, we went scouting theaters where we could potentially show our film when it's done:

The night before we met with another local musician to discuss ideas for the film; it's really looking (sounding) great!

Scene 3 screencaps (and one from 14)

"You see, despite volume 3, California penal code, §121.993 ¶2 subsection 8, a recent Federal Court Circuit ruling... I think it was the 5th Circuit...? Anyhow, according to that ruling..."

 "So, where do you want to go for lunch, hon?"

 Noel Bastien clappin' it up with the ol' clapper!

"OH GOSH, LENIN DID NOT SAY THAT DID HE???"

"Hmmm. What is this 'Napster' thing I keep reading about on the dorm BBS?"

"So, yeah, you have to be really careful parking there because this is the second time I got a flat..."

*Please feel free to D/L and post the photos from the ET-Ent blog but please attribute them back to this site.

Thanks!