Exporting.....movie.....for test....screening....
So hard.....gadgets so.....stupid....
So much....aggravation....pra.....
PRA 5.1.05
To the right I updated the link list with the info for our preview screening of "Untitled Asian Invasion Movie" at VC Filmfest 2005. It's May 1, 9 PM, the DGA on Sunset.
It's "Untitled" cos I may want to back off on the title, although I like it, if I hear any more people struggling to remember what the movie is called. "Test Audience?.....Test....Something...."
It's a preview because the color correction, visual effects, audio and all that are not yet finished. So it will look and sound a little rough in parts but it is a whole movie.
It is also one of about seven different movies in the festival this year involving a love story between two Asian women. But ours is the only one between a human and an alien.
It's "Untitled" cos I may want to back off on the title, although I like it, if I hear any more people struggling to remember what the movie is called. "Test Audience?.....Test....Something...."
It's a preview because the color correction, visual effects, audio and all that are not yet finished. So it will look and sound a little rough in parts but it is a whole movie.
It is also one of about seven different movies in the festival this year involving a love story between two Asian women. But ours is the only one between a human and an alien.
I will stand here and scream while something happens.
Just watched "Spartan" on HBO and decided that I basically like the movie (although it is not David Mamet's best-written work, that still makes it superior to most other film scripts, see previous blog rant on film vs. theater) except can we please please PLEASE call a moratorium on, criminalize, or otherwise cancel for all time this cliche:
Something scary happens, and a girl starts screaming, paralyzed, while other bad things happens...usually until someone rescues her.
It's just toooo stupid to watch. The president's daugher, who at this point in the movie is no stranger to sudden ordeals, sees someone get shot and starts shrieking, and stands Stock Still until someone grabs her. Of course her paralysis puts other lives in danger. Of course this makes me hate her as a person. Of course it is always the girl who does this, even though I'm sure that there are plenty of guys who would also, in such circumstances, suddenly become useless sitting ducks with no fight nor flight instinct. Not that I want to see any of these people in movies. I see enough slow-witted passivity in the course of my daily life. In movies I like to see people taking action under pressure.
Something scary happens, and a girl starts screaming, paralyzed, while other bad things happens...usually until someone rescues her.
It's just toooo stupid to watch. The president's daugher, who at this point in the movie is no stranger to sudden ordeals, sees someone get shot and starts shrieking, and stands Stock Still until someone grabs her. Of course her paralysis puts other lives in danger. Of course this makes me hate her as a person. Of course it is always the girl who does this, even though I'm sure that there are plenty of guys who would also, in such circumstances, suddenly become useless sitting ducks with no fight nor flight instinct. Not that I want to see any of these people in movies. I see enough slow-witted passivity in the course of my daily life. In movies I like to see people taking action under pressure.
Feelgood Montage City
The only thing that kept me going through a strenuous day at work was looking forward to making the closing credit sequence for the movie. We're going to have one of those Top Gun/Trainspotting-esque closing montages introducing all the lead actors and the characters they played (which I believe will be doubly useful because many people among our test audiences have had trouble remembering what the various characters' names are) set to one of our composer's lovely cues. Following that, during the credits roll, we'll throw in all the outtakes from alternate scenes that were funny but contextually didn't fit into the final cut. A little gooshy and indulgent to be sure, but if you can't have this kind of stuff to make you feel good about your movie as it's ending, then why even make one, I ask you.
..."Baby baby....I'll get down on my knees for you..."
..."Baby baby....I'll get down on my knees for you..."
overexposure
Hitting that wall (this happens once a month or so) where I cannot tell whether the editing changes we are making on the movie are making it better, worse, or exactly the same.
...It happens because I stop seeing the movie as a whole but rather as a tediously long stream of minutes formed of 60 seconds each, each second being formed by 24 individual frames that can be rearranged in endless agonizing combinations.
...I want every scene to be great. But watching other movies one notices that most movies are a few good scenes strung together by a bunch of interstitial stuff which enables those good scenes.
...I want every scene to not be noticeably bad. But there are some scenes which while not my favorite are key to setting up the other scenes. So some of those have to stay.
...Most of all I don't want people to go, "so what?" But I honestly don't know whether choosing between 1 or 2 seconds of blackness between scene transitions will make a difference on that score.
...In theater it's nice because if something sucks one night you just adjust it for the performance the next night. But at this stage, if it sucks, it will remain so in perpetuity. So I'm trying to keep my suck antennae at maximum sensitivity. But it's hard, because all it takes is One Bad Second.
...It happens because I stop seeing the movie as a whole but rather as a tediously long stream of minutes formed of 60 seconds each, each second being formed by 24 individual frames that can be rearranged in endless agonizing combinations.
...I want every scene to be great. But watching other movies one notices that most movies are a few good scenes strung together by a bunch of interstitial stuff which enables those good scenes.
...I want every scene to not be noticeably bad. But there are some scenes which while not my favorite are key to setting up the other scenes. So some of those have to stay.
...Most of all I don't want people to go, "so what?" But I honestly don't know whether choosing between 1 or 2 seconds of blackness between scene transitions will make a difference on that score.
...In theater it's nice because if something sucks one night you just adjust it for the performance the next night. But at this stage, if it sucks, it will remain so in perpetuity. So I'm trying to keep my suck antennae at maximum sensitivity. But it's hard, because all it takes is One Bad Second.
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