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It all comes together in Post

I've decided that I need to come up with Rules on Editing, all according to the Post Girl. I'm not sure on the final list, and surely they need to be more witty, but you can be sure they shall include

-If while shooting you say "oh, we'll fix it in post", don't do it
-It all comes together in Post
-Pacing cannot be taught
-Text solves many problems
-Music solves everything else
-And silence is the most powerful device of all
-Embrace the blur
-People will watch shitty video but won't listen to awful audio

Any others? Bueller?

48Hour Film Project trailer

Because no one reads this thing, but you never know what google turns up, check it out daaaahlings:

Filmapalooza 2007

And behold the power of the smash zoom, blur slide and the Clash!

Holy holy holy fuck

Today I said the word "Fuck" quite possibly 200 times. Shit probably another 100 times. Combinations of the 2 in colorful variations another 100. It's not every day you accidentally delete 360 gigs of irreplacable media.

Yes. Accidentally. Delete.

Some of you might remember this incident and think, hah, nothing accidental about it! But I assure you. I only wanted to delete Render Files, not the Capture Scratch. NOT THE CAPTURE SCRATCH. But oh fuck, I hit the keyboard shortcut to empty trash and despite it being 360 gigs, it emptied far too quickly. Far too quickly for my slow ass, yet caffeinated brain to really figure out what I had just done. Far too quickly for me to really think about what I had done, what the mac had done. Until I noticed that suddenly, the drive I was working on had 360 gigs free instead of just 6, and surely the render files couldn't possibly be THAT big.

And then I opened the Final Cut file and saw red. You know what that's like of course. You furrow your brow, frown, grumble, hit reconnect media. And then the swearing commences because it's ALL POINTING AT THE FUCKING FOLDER YOU JUST TRASHED. AHHHHHHHH. But I relax somewhat. It looks like video footage. Which we have on tape.

So I wander down the hall, perturbed, but find out where the tapes are. I regard them with calmer assurance. If data recovery doesn't work, the tapes are right there! Easy cheese! My ass is saved!

Did I mention that I have never done data recovery before? I may have left that out. Details details...

The google gods quickly tell me what program I should use to recover and my roommate has no suggestions, so I fiddle around with software binders in the cabinets until, duh, I see that the application is ON the computer I'm working on. Riiiight. I am a master of the obvious just not on the day that I accidentally delete 360gigs. Tends to frizzle the mind, that deleting business.

The software is seemingly obvious on how to operate it, so I operate and wait. Wait 2 hours. 2 excruciating hours during which I left, went to Dunkin Donuts, took someone else's bagel, returned someone else's bagel, got mine, drank coffee, ate my sinful lemon donut and finally told the producer at work what I had done. He left to get lunch. I left to go stare at my monitor and finish some other projects.

At the end of 2 hours there is media to be recovered! But only 70 gigs. Hmm. And in that 70 gigs, it's mostly crap. Only 1 file is a file I need. And then I figure out that what I've deleted isn't media on tape, which I can re-digitize, oh no! It's screen captures. Which are done straight to hard drive. And have no backup. This would be the point where I started to panic. I was in a fine state of agitation before to be sure, hence the bagel bumbling, but now, oh yeah, the shits and fucks started flying.

I start tracking down if there is in fact a backup of said crucial files and there is none, naturally. Storage doesn't grow on trees! The editor who really knows the project who comes in and dashed any remaining hope I might have for sekrit backup files. I start to really panic. I mean, shit, this project isn't DONE, it's not DONE, this is a major CLIENT and there's no way to get THESE FILES BACK. FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.

I think you get the idea. And then I had to tell my boss who's travelling. Can't tell you how much I dreaded that. It's like telling your mom you broke her crystal vase (uh, which I've done twice and one was a Waterford). You just do NOT want to do it. You look for excuses not to. But when the other producer asks if the boss knows yet, and you cringe, well, dude, buck up or suck up.

Thankfully he didn't flip and had helpful suggestions. Which I did, then came home to eat, wait, then go back to see if it had succeeded, which it did. I thanked many deities.

For the record, Data Rescue 2 is amazing. I highly recommend it. Should you do something inanely stupid like I did, you should do the following:
1- Stop everything.
2- If you deleted stuff off your internal hard drive, hook up an external hard drive.
3- Run Data Rescue.

Do not move files anywhere. Don't do anything other than what I said. And you should be able to get your media back. You shouldn't save your media to the drive that's missing the media, hence the external hard drive or other internal drive.

Learn from my muy stupido mistakes! Or laugh. Either way is fine by me.

Week in review: Netflix, movies, telly

You know, I wish Netflix kept the last 5 movies you rented somewhere coz I tend to forget what the hell I've rented. But here's what I remember:

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Well this was a cool doc that I had known about, but admittedly didn't know much about the issues involved. The only electric cars we have in the East are hybrids to my knowledge, so the idea that electric cars were built, were a success, then taken away and destroyed was ridiculous to me. And to the filmmakers as well. Now, the graphics were lame and the editing was much to quick in that in between sentences from different people there were no breaths. It was push slapped together and it got irritating as the movie went along but seemed to slow down a bit the more you were into the movie. Or possibly I got used to it. Hard to say. Also, Martin Sheen as narrator? Meh. And I love Martin Sheen.

Tristan and Isolde.
Ok, ok, I knew this movie was supposed to blow. But I am a COMPLETE SUCKER for period films. Hook, line and sinker sucker. And that's what Netflix is for- guilty pleasures! So yeah, it was not fabulous. The costumes ever weren't that great. ADR was a huge issue in the beginning, but worked itself out. I hate films with shitty ARD (Gilliam?!). So thumbs down on this one. Eh.

Match Point.
I wanted to like this, really I did. But it had the same problem that I had with The Talented Mister Ripley- complete lack of sympathy for the characters. Scarlett Jo was gorgeous as usual, but, uh, yeah, that's it.

RANDOM MOVIES
Grave of the Fireflies.
This is a gut punch of an anime if there ever was one. I've never seen a cartoon that dared to tread on such a serious subject in such a heartbreaking way. It's haunting, it's a bit over the top, but it makes you think twice about what animation can accomplish in the Disney age.

Remains of the Day.
I actually own this but it was on the telly the other night, so I watched it again. This is one of my all time favorite movies. The pure ANGST of the film is mesmerizing. Oh the British and their closeted feelings! Who among us can't identify with Ms. Kenton and Mr. Stephens on some level? Guh. Ishiguro is my hero.

United 93.
I bought this on DVD because it's the one movie that, to me, comes closest to what everyone went through that day, on the ground. That feeling of utter disbelief, shock and reluctant acceptance is so believable in this film, and what makes it more impressive is that there are a ton of non-actors in the film. These are everyday people reliving one of the worst moments in our history. I listened to the director's track and was interested to find out that all the scenarios- on the ground and in the "air" were run in real time takes- ie- one take would go for an hour or so. The situations would run sans interruption and 2 cameras would revolve around hte action. The 2 film cameras were loaded at different times so they could keep reloading the mags and keep rolling. I had wondered how Paul Greengrass managed to capture the immediateness of the moment, so there you go.

IN THE THEATER
The Fountain
All the critics are undecided on Aronofsky- genius or moron? Who cares I say. The Fountain is breathtakingly beautiful and unlike anything seen in theaters this year (that I've seen). My hat is off to him and directors of his ilk (Michel Gondry comes to mind) who toy with the idea of what parts a proper movie should contain and challenge the traditional 3 act story arc. Did I mention the movie was beautiful?

So I'm procrastinating on editing my own documentary. Perhaps I shall do that now... sigh!

Netflix week in review: The Aristocrats

It's not every movie that can clear a room, but I'm sure the Aristocrats managed this. After probably the 18th mention of "cock" my roommate leaves the room. The Aristocrats is not for the weak at heart. And if you're easily offended, well, fuck you, watch the movie!

The Aristocrats is very simple- there's a joke by the same name that most people have never heard. Why? Because it's so rude, crude and socially unacceptable that it cannot be told on a stage (generally). There are only 2 lines that are required of the joke, and the entire middle is adlibbed. Every comedian who tells the joke adds his own je ne said quoi to the whole thing, and therefore it's never the same thing twice. Most of the time there's fucking and sucking and shitting involved. Sometimes bleeding and puking and things in orifices that you might not imagine. The dirty is required. Shock and awe must occur. And all comedians try to up one another.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I swear like a sailor. I will swear to the cows come home. Fuck is practically every other word out of my mouth when I get on a roll. But I'm rarely crude. And this movie is crude. It's a study in crude and what offends and it revels in that which offends. The joke usually focuses on sexual humor, but some note that the sexual humor is no longer the most offensive thing out there- it's race. And some of them take it there. And after you get over the shock value, it's pretty fun and interesting to watch.

And best of all, Steven Wright is in it. How I love Steven Wright, well, my writing does no justice. He's the man. Not even Lewis Black can top him. (Uh, well, what they do in the privacy of their own homes...) So yeah, Steven Wright.

It's also a bit of a treat to see some of your favorite comedians being absolutely raunchy- Saget, Carey, etc. Hilarious to see what comes out of their mouths really.

Anyway, very much worthy of a rental. Now I shall sleep :P

Metsa Metsa

You know, when I took my current job, I knew, and I mean that in every sense of the word, I KNEW that it wouldn't be the most creative. I viewed it as the kind of job where, hey, do it for awhile, rack up the experience as an actual editor (not tape librarian, E2, what have you) but EDITOR and then see where you are in a year or two. I think somehow in my little pea brain I thought I would do something more interesting after that point. Doc work, series television, what have you.

And then I remembered the guys I worked with at Hearst-Argyle Television Productions. We did 5 nationally syndicated television series, and the thing about series tv is that it's highly forumulaic. Once the formula is down that first season, it's rare to deviate from what works. I do recall asking the 2 main editors why they were doing what they were doing, and both times the response was "I like telling stories". Now at the time I took this at face value and didn't think too much about it, but as time's gone on, it's sat in my brain and nibbled here and there. Documentary series (stuff like HGTV, TLC type stuff) is a grown up game of show and tell. There's creativity involved, but it's not like scripted narratives.

And truth be told, telling stories in the doc series world, and yes, industrial video work, is a bit boring. Some days it can be boring as shit. Some days you agonize over what shot to choose to illustrate this one "tell" and you're screaming to some b-roll god to give you the shot that you need, but hey, even he can't materialize shots out of the ether. And some days you realize that it ain't gonna get any better than this for some time, so buck up and suck up.

Thank christ I'm also an independent filmmaker and have the opportunity to edit my own creations, or have enough connections to edit the creations of others. Ok, the creations of other people who I know do good work ;) I'm a selective editor biatch!

So yeah, today was one of those days where it was a PITA to embrace the boring. Every now and then it's tough to "own" the boring. You just wanna get it done. You want to go home. You want to ignore the fact that many many many people might end up seeing what you edit. You want to ignore the fact that your clients or bosses might not like the cut you love. And you definitely want to ignore the bad edits of others that makes your skin crawl, but shit, it did make your skin crawl so clearly you still care about editing the boring shit.

Werd for coming full circle!

Speaking of editing, I just saw the movie The Queen. I rarely use this term to describe a movie, but it was MAGNIFICENT. Utterly and completely. I liked this movie for several reasons, but here are some of the top ones
1- It made me laugh. And it's a very serious movie. I like making movies that make people laugh. Nearly everything I cut will have a least one laugh in there, and this had many many laughs. It was a very nice example of pacing to alleviate some of the pervading heavy emotions in the movie.
2- The use of silence. Silence, as I'm fond of saying, is very underrated by today's filmmakers. Silence is extremely powerful. And The Queen uses silence quite well. There's one particularly powerful scene where the nat sound gradually fades and you're left with the character coming to a realization. No words, just guesstures and looks. Incroyable.

Could be a movie of the year nod too. Who knows?