Cyborg Ted

Ted doing the dirty work.


Don't mess with the sound guy.

Getting closer

We're polishing up a final cut of the picture. The boys knocked out some of the last little bits of footage that will be coming my way. Again, they've really taken Kennyboy on their shoulders and made it happen. Once I get that footage dropped in, we should be pretty close being "done". The film will still need to be handed off for the final audio mix, which is a lot of work, but at least it feels like it's downhill from here. Nevertheless, it'll be mid-summer at the earliest that we'll see the finished product.

"We'll do the drink take essentially."

I encountered the above quote while screening some of the new footage the B-unit guys sent me. Apparently, that is what happens when you send men like that into the wild with a camera. I'll just leave it by saying they should have turned off the camera at that point rather than doing their best "Beerfest" impression.

Actually, the B-unit have been busting their rear ends to gather up the last bits of footage and ship it to far away me. They deserve a ton of credit, as do those who've given them a hand in their efforts. I've been working on incorporating their material into the final edit and it's looking great.



Since I've seen all the footage a million times and wrote the script, a lot of the humor fades away (only to leave me pondering the stark, neo-realist beauty and existential tremblings of the picture) with the familiarity. It's always refreshing then when I see new footage or revisit a scene after some time away and it just makes me crack up laughing. Like when Fender "Five Take" Robinson finally puts that fastball down the middle and Mike hits it out of the park or when Paul does just about anything.

It all reminds me how many hilarious performances are in this film. I think that's why I spend so much time agonizing over the movie, because I want to make sure everyone gets the best reception possible.

And because the person I borrowed the money from has no qualms about running my car off a mountain road all 80's TV-style.

Real Hollywood Glamour

As a director, very little of my time is spent "directing", in the sense of inspiring an actor to release the performance of their career. Most of my time is actually spent emailing or talking on the phone. I often come home, turn on the computer intending to do a little fine-tuning on Kennyboy, and three hours later I'll finish up my correspondence.

It's pretty busy these days between arranging some last B-unit shooting, receiving edit feedback, coordinating post-production, reviewing F/X and recording voiceover. It feels like this is all in the way of making the movie, but it's really just what making a movie is.