January Update

Now that I'm doing the fine tuning of the rough cut -- into a final cut, I'm increasingly bumping up against my limitations as an editor. Hopefully those limitations will all be overcome by the time you, dear reader, encounter the film. (In fact, the fact that you will watch the film later, makes me hesitate at disclosing my inadequacies; but I still believe in the film enough to believe that my admissions won't weaken your viewing experience.)

It just becomes increasingly obvious to me how intuitive some editing skills become over time....and so in these moments I'm aware of how I can grow both as an editor and as a director. Which ultimately is probably good.

This fine tuning includes syncing sound and visuals more tightly, getting into & out of scenes more quickly, being ruthless about cutting lines, being more creative (and sometimes more conventional) with transitions...

Daniel and I decided this month that we need to actually put both of our energies into one movie at a time and still try to finish MLR within the February / March time frame, leaving SITM for our best energies afterward.

He's just finished a reboot of his business & has started to inch down the matrimonial aisle (a long and unbelievable story that also grows out of our filming time together in July...).

December Update

Finally! I cracked the code! (turns out that it's as simple as reading the user's manual.)

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).