Actors!

A minor announcement -- the three lead actors for ENDINGS are now secured!

Okay, that's perhaps a bit premature, as we still have to put together the schedule for the film and make sure the actors can actually be here for the dates we need them, but I've spoken to everyone and given them the general parameters, and things look good.

Most importantly, I have actors who want to make the film with me involved from an early date, which should make planning easier. I'm jazzed about working with these people -- I love actors in general, because the good ones really know and love their craft and are excited to collaborate and get inside a character.

I'm also excited because I now have actual PEOPLE to associate with these characters in my head, so the entire project be easier for me to visualize now.

I'll announce the actors and put up some headshots when we've worked out the details.

Routines

Looks like Sundays are turning out to be my regular blogging day. I'd love to post more during the week, but my brain doesn't seem to be able to focus on putting my thoughts together in a coherent way.

CLEAN FREAK UPDATE: It's almost done. Aside from finishing the final scene and doing some sound editing, I think it's mostly ready (though I need to watch it straight through again to see where more cuts could be made).

For some reason today, I feel a sense of anxiety or antsy-ness. Maybe it's the desire to put the final touches on CLEAN FREAK; maybe it's the grading I have to do for school; maybe it's that my film is out on DVD and I'm hoping it will take off (and I'm trying to figure out good ways to publicize it); maybe it's waiting to hear back from a producer who is going to read ENDINGS and might just consider jumping on board the production of the film I have planned for next summer (or, who knows, maybe it'll become a bigger thing altogether). He's shooting a film right now just a few hours away, and he invited me to come for a visit while they're in production, so maybe that's a good sign.

Maybe it's just the fact that I haven't seen a movie in weeks and I am dying to get out the cinema again (Across the Universe is calling my name).

Maybe it's all of the above?

First (un)official CLEAN FREAK still

This still is a frame taken from the film...

Editing Interviews

I've been tackling the interview footage with my family for CLEAN FREAK. My student assistant, BK, took the first cut at the material and culled it down to some of the best pieces. He made some great selections, editing down hours of footage to the best clips that related to the main theme.

Then this weekend I went in and started making some edits based on BK's cuts. HE had already put some stuff together, and I went through and played with that, re-edited some stuff, and started editing some stories together, but the sequence as it is now is way too long.

So Josh, my editor on AMERICAN MESSIAH, is now taking a crack at it, and as Josh is wont to do, he's re-thinking the whole sequence, re-ordering it and re-configuring it. From what he's done already, I think he's doing a great job. Truth is, I'm probably too close to the material to cut it as objectively as I need to. Things that seem compelling to me might only seem so because it's my family. So it helps to have another set of eyes...

Clean Freak update

Clean Freak is moving along pretty well. I've got a large chunk of it pretty well edited now (and I have to offer thanks to my American Messiah editor, Josh, for coming in and helping me polish some of the cutting and trim some scenes; Josh is also going to help me clean up some sound issues when the cut is finished).

Right now, I'm struggling with the length of the piece. I'm determined to keep it under 20 minutes simply because, as I've learned from the festival circuit, a short that's longer than that is very hard to program. Actually, 20 minutes is pretty long for a short, too, but I've realized that I can't get the film much shorter than that, so that's the round number I'm sticking with.

It's sitting at about seventeen and a half minutes right now.

But...

I haven't yet edited in the interviews with my family (B.K., one of the student assistants on the film, is taking a crack at that because I'm too close to the material). That stuff is going to be long-ish because it's so important (and funny).

And have I mentioned that I don't have an ending?

Because I don't.

Even though there are copious amounts of "fake" material in this documentary, I'm trying to honor the intent of the film by making the ending "real" (or at least not too artificial). So I've tentatively decided to finish everything else and THEN figure out the ending.

I'll probably go very "meta" and capture with the camera this process of figuring out the ending. Whether or not I use that stuff is another issue (I don't want to succumb to some artsy cliche).

Another thing: when you're plumbing your own neuroses on camera, you learn all sorts of things about yourself. In addition to being a clean freak, I'm also clearly a control freak.

Actually, I sort of knew this already, but now it's clear to me.

Slamdance finalist news is expected some time later today, so it's a little hard to concentrate...

Award

I mentioned on the blog recently that the film won the "Ridiculously Good Movie (Feature)" award at the Southern Winds Film Festival. Well, I missed the fest and the awards ceremony, so it was a pleasant surprise when this arrived today by mail:



It's always nice to be a winner, of course. But it's especially nice to receive an actual award when you win. Thanks, Southern Winds!