Thursday, February 19, 2009

Friends With Benefits

Honing, honing, honing... I have these bursts where I can't stay away from editing and then days when I'd just rather sleep than think about it anymore. It is really coming together, though. I have put it in front of a few more people whose opinions I trust - Namely Eric, again, and now Stacie Jones-Gentzler, a local Producer/WonderWoman with Black Ink Films. Got some good feedback from them and made some more adjustments. Eric is especially great with this because he, good friend that he is, sat down and watched the whole thing with remote in hand, pausing and taking notes down to the details of FRAMES (split seconds) that he thought I should add or subtract to tighten things up. Out of probably a dozen very specific suggestions, I took his advice on all but two of them. Stacie's notes had mostly to do with sound, which I am still working on. I am glad that I have taken on that demon by myself, I have learned a lot, though probably the hard way. If a real sound engineer looked at the way I have jury-rigged some of the sound to fix problems, they would likely wonder what the hell I am doing. But, on the cheap, because I am pretty much COMPLETELY out of cash, I have found ways to patch things together so they are at least not completely jarring to the ear. Also I have three of the actors coming in on Monday to loop a few scenes that are virtually unsalvageable without doing so (God bless them!).

Collaboration is such an important part of the process, and one I really enjoy. Learning something new every day is one of my favorite things about filmmaking. I don't think any of the things Stacie or Eric told me needed to be fixed surprised me, and certainly none offended me. Especially the tiny details that Eric picked up on - these scenes bugged me but I wasn't sure how (or if) I could fix them. Sometimes you are so close to something it is hard to put your finger on the problem. You have to trust other people, and fresh eyes.

Not to say you should bend to everyone's whim. Eric, Sean, Michelle, have all made a lot of suggestions I have implemented. And each have made several that I said, no, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. These are three people with VERY different tastes. You can't please everyone, and never should try to. You'll just water everything down.

On Saturday, Valentine's Day, I crammed 15 people into my living room to watch an updated version of Smalltimore, though i have a newer version still nearly completed. I cooked dinner, champagne & truffle mushroom risotto, that turned out pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Several people brought other accoutrements, including my friend Elizabeth bringing homemade chocolate chip cookies (so fresh that the chips were still gooey!) and my friend/star Cheryl bringing homemade and hand-decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies. She told me she noticed a big glop of red icing on the back of her underfoot cat in the midst of this little project. Have I mentioned that Cheryl is my own Lucille Ball? She just cracks me up.

It was really nice to have my living room carpeted (literally) wall-to-wall with my friends, watching the movie. Of course, they are a partially- biased audience, but the laughs and the silences still help me to judge where it needs further tweaking.

Other cast members who were guests were Phil Calvert (Thom), Kyle Holtgren (David), and Kelly Coston (Mel). Phil has been my friend for several years, and Kyle was more of a friend-of-a-friend before being cast in the movie, but is my own friend now. Cheryl and Kelly I hadn't known before all this, but as they were leaving after our very fun night together, I said to them, this is one of the things that really makes me happy - that we can do these things, that we are friends, to whatever degree, now. There are so many people I can say that about who worked on Smalltimore, Michelle, Regina, loads of people, certainly all of the cast I am on good terms with. And that means something to me, as I told Cheryl and Kelly on their way out. It makes me feel like I did something right. I am sure there are times they were frustrated with me, and sometimes me with them, on the set, but we have a mutual respect and just enjoy each other's company, I think. Maybe I am wrong, maybe they are just sucking up to me to be in my next movie :) . But (a) I don't think so, and (b), if that is the case, that is a big fat compliment as well.

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