| Poche Pictures |
| e-mail: rich@pochepictures.com |
| 09/24/07 Shooting had begun in the first weekend in September so I am writing this from memory. Natalie Edwards is playing the role of Lorraine. She has worked with me before taking on the role of Tanni is our sci fi short, "Edison City". The shoot went well. The character of Lorraine is a competitor and we shot some scenes wherein she's taking on Rufus on the tennis court and golf course. On the tennis court, Natalie nearly beaned this old lady standing across the court from ours. If looks could kill, we'd all be dead. The old biddie thought we did it on purpose. We improvised the golf course scene and shot on a wide open grass field enar the beach which could easily double for the *greens*. There are tons of birds in the area however, and the whole field was covered in goose shit. So as Natalie is showing us her golf swing (which rivals early Michelle Wie...very early Michelle Wie, like 3 years old) there are goose turds that go flying up with the golf ball. 01/13/08 Well, this contribution to the production diary or blog starts with the movie about 75% shot and almost four months later.. Ideally I wish I would have started while we were still in the midst of shooting the main scenes. So this diary will now chronicle the daily editing tribulations I have while producing this movie. I will also document the shoots of the last two remaining characters. But, again, the primary emphasis will be on the editing. Now I realize that editing is outside the realm of interest of most film buffs. Film buffs like to gush about acting and actors....A small minority talk about story. An enlightened few may mention good cinematography. No one talks about the editing process. It is painstaking and boring and thankless. But I will try to make it interesting. In my opinion, editing is far and away the toughest component of making a movie. I've tried my hand at every facet of movie making with mixed success; editing, directing, acting, writing, and running the camera. Without a doubt editing is the toughest of them all. Why? I attribute it to a couple of different things. First and foremost it is a solitary job. There can only be one person at the editing controls. It requires total concentration and a lack of distractions. I don't even have the radio going on when I edit. I put the headphones on and just focus exclusively on the scenes....And usually get frustrated when I see all the mistakes I've made shooting. Because of the solititude and concentration required, editors must be of a certain temperament. I cannot imagine an extrovert wanting to be an editor. An editor has to be able to spend large chunks of time alone, cutting stuff down...Looking over the same footage over and over again until the proper choice is made. Considering I'm somebody that second guesses himself a lot it isn't any wonder that it takes me several months to edit down a project. Which brings us to Rescuing Rufus. I hope that by me chronicling my editing trials here I can motivate myself to work at a faster pace. Currently, I have 15 minutes of a rough cut down. By rough cut I mean I still have to tweak the audio and add in the foley sound. After which I add in the music. It is a multi-step process, I know some folks do everything all at once but I like to complete one process completely than start the other. So I edit down the entire movie then go back and add in the foley sound. Then comes the soundtrack. When the rough cut is complete I can add in the foley sound and soundtrack relatively quick, it than becomes only a matter of days before I can have a finished product. It is the rough cut that takes the longest chunk of time and with some projects I've done, it seems like it can take forever. Last night, I edited down a scene between Elizabeth "Liz" Di Prinzio, Stuart Brazell, and myself. Now the final running time of this particular scene is about a minute. There was about fifteen minutes of raw footage I had to sift through. Three hours later I had a rough cut of the scene. Yes, it takes that long. Or perhaps I'm just too much of a perfectionist to move at a faster pace. So last night's edit involved a scene where Liz's character Stella accosts Rufus of being a "bad baby's daddy." It is a fantasy sequence and I chuckled a few times editing this down. Liz is a character! Basically, Stella is a parody on a single mom who has one thing on her mind...Making babies. 01/19/08 Well, it has been six days since I made the resolution to post a daily diary to chronicle the production status of Rufus... The reason I haven't posted is that disaster has struck. My external hard drive to my Mac has broken down. My Mac no longer recognizes the drive. So I have to take this hard drive into the shop this Tuesday in order to see if they can salvage the data. All of the edited files are on this hard disk. What this means is that I have to start from scratch. I had about 15 minutes edited down and there is a possibility that is will have to be re-done. YYYYAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHH! Okay. I need to go and work out. Maybe go for a loooonnggg run. Damn. 01/24/08 Good news...The good folks at Alameda's Computer Troubleshooters were able to fix my hard drive...Or rather they were able to salvage the data and transfer it over to a new hard drive. We're all good. Now back to editing. 01/27/08 Did the ADR for Lorraine with Natalie Edwards today. Went well. Always fun to work with Natalie. 02/03/08 Did the ADR with Sara Konecky today. Went well...Hard though to match!! Really glad to have met Sara, a truly nice person. |