we’re editing the movie! yay!
although we wrapped shooting back in August, there’s been a lot to occupy our time#–September was all about making money (and securing finishing funds), and October was all about vacationing. i skipped the country for a little while, visiting australia and new zealand; the trip was actually work related and a great experience (i will probably post some pictures soon). the biggest difference I noticed between life in the states and life in australia was the pace. even in Sydney, the world’s largest city (by square feet), the people were noticeably calmer#–not in such a hurry. the speed limits are slower, the food is prepared slower, the people speak in a slower meter. it was a very welcome change. the food was also very different#–even in places like mcdonalds; for instance, in New Zealand I visited a mcdonalds and ordered the same food I would order here#–but the food was all organically and locally grown, prepared with very little extra grease, and looked like real food rather than something mass produced. it was more expensive (by comparison), but then the people there have a minimum wage of over $9 an hour. if you want to escape the rigors of daily life, travel to the other side of the world#–a caveat: night people are magically (by way of time zone changes) transformed into early-birds.
editing
the editing process is never easy. for us, it’s even harder than usual. why? because in the absence of a proper crew, we shot without slates#–not always, but often. this makes it very difficult to pick out the clips that were good, match the audio, and track your progress through a scene. we’re editing with Adobe premiere, which puts little pictures over each clip of movie, a handy feature, but the only real way to know what you’ve got is to watch each and every clip several times over. one positive result: we’ve found some great cuts that were actually bad takes#–places where actors made mistakes that ended up being better than what was scripted. never underestimate the power of the unplanned… we hope to have a rough cut within the next two weeks and a "final" cut at the end of december. then, time to submit to festivals!
