Without a Wrinkle

In getting the Matter of Chance Productions web site up and running, I had to quickly scrub through some footage of Days of Being Wrinkle Free to get a still for the web site (pictured above). Some thoughts while reviewing the footage:

• We have 90 minutes of footage for a film that is supposed to be five minutes long.
• After double-checking the screenplay, it's quite wordy. I'm not sure five minutes will be long enough.
• The lines that we have thrown around (e.g., "Ta zhangde shufu chenshen") are actually the simple ones. There are some real barnburners in there. Translate "If ones clothes become overly tattered, perhaps it is best to discard them and try on new clothes" into Chinese and say it. Not easy. Makes me question whether I should get an actual Chinese speaker to do the voiceover (to which Brock posed the question, "What would Tim Nm do?" and it became clear I, as a non-Chinese speaker, needed to tough it out and get through it myself.
• The footage is an interesting combination of two directorial styles. Jeremy and I co-directed, but not in the sense of collaborating and making decisions about each shot. Rather, I shot it one way, and Jeremy would say "try it this way" and we'd shoot it his way, too. We're each going for as interesting and meaningful shots as possible, with two different visions of what that is, and we have all of the footage to prove it.
• This is going to be tough to edit, just due to the sheer volume of footage. So many decisions to make. There are so many ways to go with the footage. It's an editors dream and nightmare, all in one. It would be interesting to pass the script and footage around and see what other editor's would make of it.
• There are so many WKW influences in the footage already, but a lot of it will also come in the finishing touches. Doing some radical color correction in post. Maybe some ghosted step-motion. A sound track that is either ethereal or laced with old pop music, or both.
• Wasn't sure which credits to put on the web site. Went with reality... for now.

So, to final cut of Leonardo is on the verge of being completed, and we don't start shooting Wildlifeless for another six weeks (woah, it's coming up fast!), so maybe I'll have some time to dive into this? Hold up! A3F is coming up. Micah will be town. Very interesting.

Matter of Chance is Alive!

The Matter of Chance Productions web site (a bone fide actual real web site), if now online. Ah, it feels good.

This One's For Brock

The props are pouring in...

The Subject Poster

All the talk about taglines and plot synopses got me thinking about posters. Here's the little stab at a poster for The Subject that I messed around with.

Luggage

Southwest lost my luggage. My single piece of luggage. My luggage that was small enough to carry on, but they didn't have room for and forced me to check. It's 16 hours later and I now have my luggage, but it was a streesfull night.

Outside In Color Correction

A while ago Brock and I discussed getting Outside In up to spec for general release. So far, this film has stayed off the web site due to uncleared music. Also, we talked about some color correction. In general, the original uncorrected footage was a bit washed out with a slight blue tint. We talked about getting the tint and contrast right, and really making the reds (Gary's tie, clerks shirt) and golds (mailboxes) pop. I had some time today, so I took the footage into After Effects and color corrected the whole thing (pending Brock's approval). Brock has a new edit of this film that I haven't yet seen. However, if the color corrected footage looks good, maybe you could take one last swipe at it, and get some licensed music as well, so the world can see the twisted masterpiece that is Outside In.

Top 50 Music Videos of 2005

For your consideration, music blog DoCopenhagen has put together this list of the best music videos of 2005, and you can watch them all. Sweet!

Bretton Woods

Finally! After seven years off, I went skiing last Friday. The location was Bretton Woods, near Mount Washington, in Northern New Hampshire.

We weren't quite sure where we were going to ski, even up to Thursday night. It had been raining across most of New England on Thursday, with more coming on Friday. We scoped out almost every ski resort in New England, and found Bretton Woods had only had drizzle part of Thursday, turning into snow at night with snow all day on Friday. Sounded good.

We headed out at 8am Friday morning with JAG in tow, picked up Carl in Natick, and headed North three more hours. We got there just at the right time to check in and get half-day passes. Between the car and the base lodge adjusting hats and gloves, I managed to lose my wedding ring, only realizing it when I got in to rent skis. We backtracked and Carl eventually found it in the middle of the parking lot, where I had checked two or three times already and missed it. Yikes!

Angie was skiing for the first time, so I took her over to ski school. She did really well, much better than I thought. Actually, what I thought was that she'd never be able to ski at all, but she did it, and got pretty good at it. JAG was trying to snowboard for the first time, so Carl got him started. I think he made it up and down the bunny slope (nay, the learning area) a couple of time. Maybe not the most value for his money, but I'm glad he tried it out.

I blasted out of there and hit the lift. I ended up getting six good runs (and a couple of runs on the learning area with Angie) in before they closed the lifts at 4pm. I was shamelessly giddy about the whole thing. I was born to ski, I love it, I just had forgotten how much I do enjoy it. The trails were great. A couple of nice fast runs, some winding runs, a couple of bump runs, and a leisurely two-mile long trail from the summit to the base, around the side of the mountain. I even busted a couple jumps.

Anyway, I can't wait to go again. I'm not going to let it go seven years, that's for sure. Maybe we can head up to Colorado with Gabe at some point? Anybody want to ski?