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.

Chief Bryant, AKA "The Egg Smasher"

The tyrant loosens his grip...

This blog post comes courtesy of Assistant Director Mike. I've silenced his voice long enough, maybe. Here's what he had to say about the shoot last night:


Thanks to Stuart who filled the last speaking role of the movie. We've been very lucky to have great actors with a high degree a professionalism work on this film. Perhaps that is a testament to the quality of acting in the area, perhaps we've just been lucky.

We filmed in Nick's house, again. This time we threw raw egg around his kitchen which is not too terrible compared to the armed nuclear warhead we threw around his living room, but regardless, sorry Nick. I hope we cleaned it all up for you.

We didn't necessarily film in the locations we intended. In one scene the Chief is turning on the shower, but we forgot that the bathroom walls were covered with mirrors. Rather than set a record for the highest number of camera reflections in a shot (infinity), we opted for the bedroom. I think we made the right decision and got some very entertaining footage.

We also filmed the first non-human animal of the film. Dorian Gray, Nick's pooch managed to cute his way into some footage. That reminds me, we also filmed Kroz the Alien... Do we have to put a "no Kroz's were hurt in this film" notice in the credits?

It feels really good to have the Chief scenes done. They've been hanging over our heads since we started filming and for one reason or another they've eluded us. The list is shrinking and Patrick and Nick are largely responsible for it. Thanks, guys.

Gotta love that microphone

Thine sound man has been on the move over the last week or so. Sightings have placed him and his recording gear in Kenmore and as far away as West Seattle in a quest to capture our radio voices. And man, do they sound GOOD! Kudos to Patrick for gathering up some great audio.

Keeping the dream alive

Patrick just watched the most recent version of the film and sent along some great notes for stuff to tweak in the edit. The weekend saw the delivery of some of the first final effects as well, which is cool. There is a lot of 3-d stuff still to come in, this was mostly 2-d stuff.

Also, never animate a digital numeric display. That is a lot of keyframes. Only in the morning after, while contemplating the affair did it occur to me a graphical element like a needle would have made life a lot easier.

More f/x goodies

Some new work in progress shots of the scenes with the rocket launch. Our man John is cranking out some awesome stuff.