Test Screening

The test screening is official. I'll be screening my film, Things Fall Together (yay, I have a title) this coming Monday at 9pm at Natura Coffee & Tea, along with several fiction shorts. Come check it out & tell me what's wrong with my film :)

still editing

It's coming along. I still have a lot of work to do, but I'm happy with where it's going. I got some good feedback from a friend tonight (Lily, you're awesome), and if all goes according to plan (which it rarely does), I'll be test screening the film at Natura Coffee & Tea on Monday along with a few other short films. If that doesn't work out, I'm going to screen it at home for a few people. My class has been great giving me advice along the way, but I'd like to get feedback from people who aren't familiar with all of the incarnations of this film.

If you'd like to see what I have so far, here's a REALLY compressed version of cut #5 (still really rough) on vimeo. You can leave your comments either on vimeo or here.

Also, I'm changing the title. A while back I realized the Nike reference, and I don't like the current title anymore. I may post a poll & let people vote later.

update on Poetically Just Us: Following the Dustracks: It's going well. We're way behind schedule, but I feel like it's actually going somewhere now. I'm not the only one putting in time and effort on this project anymore. I'm loving it. I've got a meeting tomorrow afternoon at Expo to show the two people who taught the class/directed/produced the film the progress we've made. Which considering the film should have been done months ago, isn't much. But I should have a rough cut by the time we meet tomorrow. I'm excited. This film is finally coming together. And I've recently become completely nocturnal, so the fact that it's midnight & I've got a ton of work to do is fine. My "normal" sleeping hours are now between the hours of 5am and noon/1pm.

Editing

It's 2am, I'm editing, and I realized I haven't updated in a while...

I'm not really sure what to say about the direction of the film right now. It's changed. Again. What else is new? I really shouldn't be surprised. Throughout this film, I've had trouble finding firm ground. It's gotten harder now that I'm cutting, and I can't ignore the holes any longer. It's coming together though. It's different, but it's something.

In short, the film is now about me getting my tattoo. I feel like there is more to it than that, but until I'm done cutting, or at least quite a bit farther along, I don't think I'll be able to tell you what more there is to it.

Things I've learned/been reminded of these past few weeks:

I've still got a lot to learn. God is in control. Sometimes you've got to just deal with it (whatever "it" may be). Film isn't the most important thing in the world. Lamentations 3:21-23 is really good to remember.

Today's shoot

Today went really well. At least from my point of view. We had good conversation, and if nothing else, I now have a nice tattoo. Though I'm pretty confident I got some nice footage also. I guess I'll know for sure when I get to see the tape. I was planning on heading up to campus to capture &edit right about now, but it sounds awful outside. Since it's almost 1am, and it's at the very least insanely windy, if not storming, I'm going to stay in tonight. Which means instead of a video clip of today's shoot, I'll be uploading a picture of my tattoo taken with my webcam. I really want to work on some more editing tonight, so I'm going to dig through all my unorganized stuff and see if I can find my little sony handycam to capture what we shot today.

Overall, today was good. Noah and Lindsay were awesome. So was Johnny. I may have to go back one more time for another interview, but I'm hoping I got what I needed today.

Tomorrow

Today has been mostly a prep for tomorrow. Which if we get philosophical, most todays are prep for tomorrow... but that's not where I'm going with this. Tomorrow I'll be shooting at Orlando Tattoo again, and if all goes well, it will be my last shoot over there, and my second to last shoot for this film. It's a big shoot, and I spent most of today getting ready for it. Later tonight I'll be talking with my crew again, confirming last minute details. Earlier today I picked up the equipment. I went over the footage that I've already shot, and spent some time editing. I've got an ending. I'm sure it will change by the time I turn in my cut on March 4th, but it's a draft, and right now I like it.

Tomorrow I'll be talking with Johnny more about what led him to start Orlando Tattoo Company, and what it's been like running his own shop. I'll also be getting my tattoo, which is why I'm slightly nervous about tomorrow's shoot. Not because of the tattoo itself, but because what we shoot tomorrow will be a big part of my film, and I can't be there to look through the lens. I'm trusting Lindsay and Noah to get what I want/need. They both know what they're doing, so I'm not really worried, but it drives me crazy knowing that I'll just be along for the ride...I guess I'm a bit of a control freak.

In other news...I'm going to expand this blog to include all films I'm working on. I realized (again) while I was editing that I need to follow Johnny's advice..."if you want to do something, just do it." I think this statement has limits (you know, moral guidelines, etc. should be followed), but in general, it's good advice. I'd get a lot more done if I didn't wait around for other people to push me along.

I started working on this film when I wasn't sure if I really wanted to stay in film school. I kinda burned out last semester. Now that I know I want to stay in film school, I feel like it is fitting to expand Just Do It (the blog, not the film) to cover tracking my journey through filmmaking in general. So here we go.

Poetically Just Us

The past week or so, I've been lacking the motivation to really work on anything. I've been doing what I have to in order to get things done, but there's been no real passion behind any of it. Most of the time it was like pulling teeth. Monday, I was able to work on editing this documentary that was shot as part of a class I took this summer. It's called Poetically Just Us. It was rejuvenating. Life just makes sense in the cutting room. All the pieces are there, and I've just got to make something out of them. Taking those 4 hours to work on something else helped give me the energy I need to gather the rest of the pieces of this film together. I still feel like I'm a long way off, which is irritating because I'm impatient, and I had scheduled to have a rough cut done by February 19th. It's now the 24th, and I've still got quite a bit left to shoot. I should have the first draft of the ending assembled within the next few days though.

Next film, I'm getting a partner. Film is meant to be collaborative.

Highlights this week:

* Gabbii got a tattoo, and we got it on tape. Pictures to come soon.

* Johnny & Co. do more than watch YouTube videos :) I knew they did, but I hadn't been able to shoot when they were busy.

* I started this blog.