November Update

With a rough (rough, rough) edit my left pocket, my (paid) job heating up, and a window of opportunity looming, Daniel and I together focused on getting some ADR done in Chicago.

My yearly academic convention was scheduled for late November, and both Levi and Anna live and work in Chicago. So the two of us glutted ourselves on self-taught crash courses in ADR & looping. Books, websites, calls in to experts. Daniel finally settled on using Logic and a software add-on that would simplify the process.

I took the bus from Canton to Chicago -- Daniel drove over from Michigan and we transformed our hotel room into a sound-damped-down space with a huge recording set piece in the middle of the room. I taped sound panels at head level at intervals around the entire room, we duct taped sheets and bedspreads in front of doorways, entrances and one entire wall. We pulled the curtains absolutely closed.





We got two of Levi's lines done (finally!) after many malfunctions when Anna showed up. We had finished her lines when the system went down again (!). Anna and Levi and I went around the corner to Buddy Guy's and had some great conversation over some great jambalaya while Daniel stayed on the phone with tech support.

At the end of the day we were disappointed to have to give up on looping Levi, but had at least enjoyed being together again with these creative spirits who we enjoy so much.

October Update

This month was even more of a struggle than September, in terms of keeping those Thursdays free of interruptions: Advising filled a (thurs)day, shooting a short film with Andrew Gates filled a (thurs)day, and littler other accretions filled the equivalent of another day (grading, designing a new course).

So that's the bad news.

But the good news that I'm this close to having a rough (very rough!) cut of MLR (which I've taken to calling it in my myriad of todo lists).

I'm utterly baffled by the process of compositing. I don't know why I hoped that it would be more natural and intuitive. If you think about it, it's one of the most unnatural things in the world -- right up there with apparating, beaming & haunting.

While I like the rhythm of my cutting right now, I don't trust myself or my criticism of myself. I just feel too close to the project. I'm the sort of social processor who wants to put this rough cut up on the web for everyone to look at it -- but I know that wouldn't be such a great idea...

September Update

I spent this month sifting through the footage of Multilevel Relationship and uploading the best clips to the computer. Because we shot Multilevel partly in the house on Cedar Street, the scenes are strewn all across the seven tapes we used. Unlike the compact (locationally and time-wise) Stick In The Mud, which we wrapped in two days and in one location, we only filled three tapes worth of footage.

Andrew Gates who just happens to still work in my academic department, did a ton of the grunt work in cleaning up our logs and organizing the footage.

I was able to keep most of my Thursday's sacred for the footage. I have one other movie/art project that I had said yes to before we even started pre-production that I also have to fit into my Thursday-break-from-professor-like work. The good news is that it only managed to steal half a Thursday this month.

August Update

For both Daniel and I, August has been the time to catch up with all the things that we put on hold in order to make the movie happen.

For me that's meant getting ready for starting school and starting classes. For Daniel, it's included the overwhelming tasks of selling a house, selling most of his belongings, navigating a divorce and moving -- all while trying to father two-year-old twin boys.

We have divided the projects between us. Daniel will be editing STICK IN THE MUD.

I'll be editing MULTILEVEL RELATIONSHIP.

I'm eager for school to start so hopefully film editing will fit more neatly into the space that I've carved out for it (Thursday mornings --- and occasionally ALL DAY Thursday).

That's a Wrap!

After five days of early mornings, late nights, freezing waves, sandy bathing suits, amazing food, endless rooms constantly transforming from rent-a-center-bed-dorms-into-sets, ice cream, dailies, diabetic shocks, a hundred hilarious stories and one magical twilight hike -- we've wrapped primary footage for two short films.

The whole experience was as exhausting and exhilerating -- as fulfilling and rewarding as we could have hoped. I know that I can speak for the whole production team when I say thanks to an amazingly talented cast & a tremendously skilled and hard-working crew.

This kind of work -- creative, intense and chaotic -- can only be this enjoyable when you work with amazing people. It was a good four days...

Thanks to everyone who inhabited and pitched in at Cedar Street --

Danielle, Emily, Daniel, Andrew, Michelle, Johnny, Anna, Levi, Katie, Tim & Chad.

Great News About Our Cast

I'll post at great length about their various attributes later, but I'm happy to announce our cast...



Tim Carmany will play the role of STEVEN in Stick in the Mud



Katie Rose will play the role of JENN in Stick in the Mud



Johnny Russell will play the role of TERRY in Stick in the Mud and KENNY in Multilevel Relationship



Anna Carini will play the role of ERIN in Stick in the Mud and Becca in Multilevel Relationship



Leve Petree will play the role of AARON in Stick in the Mud

I can't tell you how excited I am about these casts. I'm actually (literally) dreaming them in their roles..

Good Things Coming Together

Our cast is coming together -- we should have more of an announcement about them soon -- but we're continuing to find great people to work on our team.

We're still looking for an audio technician if anybody knows one...

I do have to say a big THANK YOU to the folks at the Michigan Film Office! They've been very helpful -- even though our production isn't making the wheels of industry in Michigan spin (yet!), they've still been prompt, geneous & resourceful in the way they've responded to us...