Thursday, January 29, 2009

School of Rock

Argh! Wireless problems AGAIN. I am actually writing this from my neighbor's house, as I had some email that I HAD to get out for my other job (the paying one). It is probably for the best, though, because it is really coming down to the wire and I have to be completely done with this round of editing by tomorrow. I have put more than 40 hours into it since Saturday, including 12 straight hours of color correction on Wednesday with Michelle. She has a helluva lotta patience, I tell you what.

Watching the whole thing through with her, veeeerrryyy slowly, I saw some more little glitches I wanted to correct, and a WHOLE lot of sound issues. So yesterday was watching the whole thing straight through in real time and making notes, including what songs might possibly fit in scenes I had not put any music in yet, and THEN 8 straight hours of dealing with sound and songs and a few more video cuts. So almost 10 hours yesterday, and I'll probably log that many today.

Last night I stopped at almost 4:00am, about halfway through the movie. Tonight (I can't seem to get any work done until the sun goes down, I don't know why, I just can't seem to concentrate before that)should go a bit faster, as I already have most of the music laid in in the second half. But the sound is terrible, I have everything maxed out because I wasn't paying attention to the little meter that tells you that when I first did it. I am sure there are much more technical terms for all this, but I don't know them and it will only confuse those of you who might if I try to guess.

For a movie like "Smalltimore," you don't really realize how much music goes into a feature length film until you are the one trying to lay out this giant puzzle and make it all work. I have about 85 to 90 scene changes. Almost all of them require some sort of music in the background. Think about that.

See, when I was first mulling over how much music I would need, I thought, 95 minute movie, songs average 2-3 minutes, not every scene needs music, so, what, 20 songs? Maybe 30? I have close to 30 songs laid in already and can probably use 20 more, PLUS some scoring inbetween. Songs might average 2-3 minutes, but most scenes are 30 to 90, MAYBE 120 seconds in a movie. Lucky for me I have some longer scenes, or scenes that kind of connect so I can cheat and bleed one song from one scene to the next. It is a LOT of work.

The biggest nightmare, though, is layering all the sound. No wonder the pros charge so much! In any given bar scene I have to layer the dialogue of the characters, room tone, background chatter, and music. The levels of all of these have to be measured out so that it sounds natural, but so that you can still understand all of the dialogue. If the microphone wasn't in the right place or if the actor moves their head around (away from the mic) then you really have to screw around with it, sometimes phrase by phrase or even word by word. And if the music is a live band instead of just piped-in bar music, that is a whole 'nuther animal.

Eventually, I will probably have a pro take a pass at it, but for now, it is just me. Have to do my taxes first and see if I have any money left over for such luxuries (not bloody likely). But though it is very difficult, I am glad to have my hands all over it. While we were doing color correction Wednesday, Michelle asked me if I felt I knew a lot more now than I did before we started production. I laughed and said, "You're joking, right? I am still learning something new every single day!" And that is what I love about it, even the really crappy stuff that is mind-numbingly tedious. At the end of all this (assuming there is an end to this project) I will have learned more than I could have possibly imagined I ever would have. I know this to be a fact, because I still have a long way to go and I have already learned that much.

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