Room 18 Films

update

2006-02-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

So, now that THAT's out of the way...I guess I'll have to change the name of this thing to something more relevant. Like "Continued Delusions", or "I Should Be Working, Actually".

I must say, this whole process has been enjoyable - from intitial excitement, to high expectations, sheer mind-numbing boredom, wretched excess, and numbing reality, we all managed to begin, execute, and actually finish a project (or projects). And that's saying something, I guess, in a feel-good-we're-all-winners-social-promotion-kinda way.

Educational? Sure. As President Reagan once said, famously, "mistakes were made." And no doubt we all have learned from those, and can go on to make newer, larger, more expensive mistakes in the future. But we won't make those exact mistakes again.

Actually finishing a project gives you the confidence to begin another, and in that spirit I now have two in the works - a music video and possible documentary, about my pals The Paranoids, a great Austin garage-rock band who recently reunited after six years and are recording a new album.

And the other nascent project, currently bouncing around the film salons of South Austin, will probably be a short comedy film with Potter (star of both "Dry" and "Making 'Dry'"), exploring the world of low-rent, putt-putt golf courses in modern-day Austin. Hopefully I'll just be handling the camera on that one, and Paul, now a father and thus increasingly homebound, will serve as editor.

I know you can hardly wait.

shocking news!

2006-02-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Well...can't say this was a big surprise. The submission fee was probably the biggest waste of $20 that Paul or I have ever spent, and would have been more wisely used for something useful and practical, like, say, two lap dances at Expose happy hour. Or something.

"Dear Jeff,

We did not select 'Making "Dry"' for screening at this year’s South
by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

This year, SXSW has received more film submissions than ever and the
overall quality is just about the best we've seen. Watching the
submissions makes us realize just how talented so many filmmakers are
in the world today. Unfortunately, this means that we cannot invite
many quality films. We enjoy viewing the projects that filmmakers
submit - please be assured that your film was given full consideration.

Thank you for considering SXSW Film when you chose which festivals
your work would be submitted to. We look forward to viewing any of
your future projects, and we hope to see you at this year’s
Conference and Festival!"

check's in the mail

2005-11-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

Mailed in my copy of "Making 'Dry'" last week to SXSW. My number one concern: it's too damn long. Almost immediately post-deadline, I watched again and saw three entire sections (probably a good ten minutes) that could be chopped. My goal now is to do a new, leaner edit for any future submissions. But the 38 minute version is out there, and I'm happy with it as a document of the film, and the good times we had working on it. As a souvenir, it's very satisfying, but as an actual documentary film...well, we'll see.

Watched "Dry" the movie last night after a respite of two weeks or so, and both Deb and I agreed that it gets better with repeated viewings. The absurd/experimental avant-garde vibe is there, if you watch for it.

So from this point on, this blog will focus on the attempts at getting "Dry" and the doc. viewed or noticed in whatever fashion. During December I will also be working on the story and rough screenplay for the next production. And then I guess I'll change the title of this thing.

done and done

2005-11-15T14:07:00.000-08:00

Paul dropped off his edit of "Dry" at the SXSW offices yesterday. Watched it last night, and it looks as good as it possibly can, short of shooting the entire thing over again. Our last-minute FinalCut immersion may have paid off - the color is rich, sound is improved, and it doesn't look like cheap DV.

As for me, I'm mailing the documentary in, probably tomorrow. The past few days have been spent waiting for rendering, dealing with technical gremlins, and even inserting a few last-minute scenes. But it's done, at long last. The addition of music (songs from my friend Matt, and my last two band projects) was a vast improvement - it's amazing what a good song can do for the feel, tone, and flow of even the crappiest scene.

I haven't watched the burned copy all the way through yet on the DVD player - the final test.

is it over yet?

2005-11-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

The end is near. This Monday is the deadline for SXSW submissions, which has been our marker for completion (as if we have any chance whatsoever of being accepted...), and we have decided to turn in our respective films in person on Monday. So that gives us until, well, at least Sunday night to clean up.

Paul feels like his film is complete, inasmuch as that's possible. After a hectic week of late night editing at Ahrens' house, and all night marathons in front of his own computer, it's as close as it will ever get to being an actual film. He's had little sleep, and has been lapsing in to hallucinations and catatonia, due to the heavy work load. However, I think it's possible that the film is best viewed in this state. Hopefully, the SXSW admissions-czars will be in a similar mindset after days of screenings, and the film will perfectly match their own unreality.

As for the doc., today is my last day to edit. Paul will be over tomorrow to help with the FinalCut transfer, and hopefully we can at least get the sound normalized, and smooth out the transitions. It's too late, really, to do too much heavy lifting. Although tonight, I may just take a machete to this thing, and get it down to like 15 or 20 minutes. I don't think anyone's interest can be sustained for 39 minutes of this, outside of our circle of friends. There will have to be a festival edit, and a director's cut, which is how I should look at it, I guess. I've become attached to the edit thus far, but I need to get some cold-blooded objectivity, and quick. Otherwise the doc. will be unwatchable to anyone but us, and even then I'm not sure.

hell week

2005-11-09T22:14:00.000-08:00

Returned from California late Sunday night, and I've quietly been in panic mode ever since about the documentary. The deadline for SXSW is this Monday, Nov. 14, which means it needs to be mailed on Saturday, which means, uh, it's gotta be done by Saturday mid-day. And I still don't have my ending.

Luckily, I think, we'll all be getting together tomorrow to view Paul's almost-complete edit of Dry, and I'll be able to film Potter summing up his thoughts on the film. That's really the missing piece, at this point, and it's too late to think of anything else. It is what it is, and the narrative (such as it is) will have to stand on its own. With any luck, we can get the doc dropped into FinalCut over at Ahren's on Friday night, and do some audio normalizing, color correction, spritzing, etc., to reduce to the clunkiness somewhat.

I really can't say with any certainty whether anyone will have any clue what the hell is going on in this doc. Or the movie, for that matter. We may all be completely delusional, and about to get a big wake-up call. We are total amateurs, in a town full of pros and semi-pros and pro-wannabes. We're not even pro-wannabes. I think we would all rather be rejects, outsiders, anathamea to the cozy little film industry of Austin. And I have a sinking feeling that may just be the case. We're not aspiring. We're de-spiring.

Paris

2005-11-01T08:33:00.000-08:00

Paul says his latest edit is now up to 31 minutes, which is about ten minutes longer than just a few weeks ago, when things were looking, um, rather bleak, you might say. Now the corner has turned, and you sense the optimism in the air. You can just feel it. There, you feel it? Yeah, that's nice.

The problem of music licensing has been solved: Califone has been dumped, and in their stead will be the legendary Beecher, three-fifths of whom have worked on the film. "Paris" will get its due at long last.

39:32

2005-10-30T22:09:00.000-08:00

39:32. That's where I'm stopping.

I feel like tonight I am about 99.7% through with the documentary. I need to leave it for a day or two and come back with fresh eyes. The ending is close, but needs a small handful of scenes yet. I need one more round of brief interviews with Potter and Eddie with their closing comments, which can be pared down to about 15 to 20 seconds. Perhaps we can arrange it for this Tuesday...

I will be leaving town Wednesday for California. My brother had a heart attack last night, and my aunt is dying of cancer. Yeah. Gonna be a fun trip.

When I get back on Sunday I'll have exactly one week to finish up. And so will Paul. Wish us luck...

turning the corner

2005-10-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

Editing session Thursday night was a great leap forward. With all of the principals present - including the long-absent Bryan Potter - much progress was made, with a minimum of conflict. Which means not much for my camera, but a lot for the film itself. The narrative is greatly improved, by which I mean, there actually is one. Paul has done yeoman's work in the past week, and the input from the rest of the crew may have actually been an asset for a change, rather than a liability.

The doc. footage from last weekend has turned out to be quite interesting - much of the conversation relates to events (mistakes, mostly) that take place on camera in the doc., so I'm thinking some of these scenes can be easily added in as framing or narration. But of course that would require removing more scenes. I'm thinking of removing the "musical" bits, which presently are poorly constructed montages with "humorous" music by Don Rich playing underneath, which of course I don't have rights to anyway.

I'm in danger of getting too attached to the edit, and being gun-shy to pull out whole chunks. But the metaphorical knife is gonna have to come out.

feel the magic

2005-10-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

Talked to Paul last night, and things are looking up. Apparently he has channeled his rage and anger, which was so eloquently on display for the camera last weekend, into more productive pursuits, like editing the goddamned movie, rather than, say, just lashing out at everyone within arm's reach, myself included. (hey, I'm just an objective observer here, right?). And he has a secret weapon, one that will solve all of our problems.

Yes, no one needs to worry any longer about the final cut, because the film will have that magical element that solves all problems of continuity, plot, and action:

Unicorns.

Yes, unicorns. After instructing head animator (and Tinky storyteller) Chris Chappel to "just come up with something", something has, well, come up. Click on the link and scroll down to view a "rough draft" of Chris' animation for the opening credits.

On a related note, Paul now assures me that his latest edit has (mercifully) pretty much abandoned the scripted "linear narrative", and is moving towards a more avant-garde approach, with small, loosely connected vignettes replacing the hopelessly lost and disjointed plot that has thus far driven everyone to despair and drink. This new direction sounds promising.

So I'm looking forward to tonight's editing session; a fresh approach is just what this project needs.

That, and some fucking unicorns.

turd polish

2005-10-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Shot some excellent footage of Paul yelling at everyone. He was getting some grief about how bad the film sucks at this point, and chose to respond by pointing out that any flaws in his edit are actually the fault of the actors. Which I would have to agree with, from my perspective. Many good takes have been rendered unusable because of actors breaking character, looking at the camera, etc., or poor camera work on the part of our previous DP. The old cliche "you can't polish a turd" has become a veritable mantra in the past week. I expect to keep hearing it for some time to come.

More doc. editing later today, and an opportunity for more doc. footage to shoot on Thursday.

rough cut

2005-10-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

Making "Dry" - that's the name I'm going with for my behind-the-scenes look at the making of this no-budget film, "Dry", directed by my good friend Paul Eastup. The film has been in production, off and on, for about ten months now, and I've shot approximately twelve hours of footage, which has been edited down to a working cut, at the moment, of 38 minutes. I still need to shoot some scenes of Paul and his co-writers, Potter and Eddie, laboring over the final cut of the film. The goal is to bring the documentary in under 40 minutes, which means I'm going to have to continue to hack away in order to have room for an ending. And I don't really know how it's going to end. Probably with everyone fighting over the final cut, and convinced that they have failed to make a watchable movie.

We watched Paul's latest rough cut last night, and the reception was mixed, to say the least. There are still major problems with continuity and dialogue, and at this point it's not clear whether they can be remedied in the editing room. More editing of as-yet-unviewed footage will be worked on later this week, and I'll be bringing my camera along for that, of course. Perhaps there is a diamond in the coal there. We'll see.