#production team

[slobbered]

Playing Video Director at rehearsal this evening (instead of CameraOP). Being hopelessly colorblind made it a little "challenging" with the color coded buttons tho. 🤣

[daveinediting]

It's definitely a new experience watching a production spin up online through conversations and photographs, the evidence of a production team working hard to tell a story on the fly... a process that's its own fascinating story.

It also helps me make predictions about my own day.

The morning was, as expected, an exercise in absorbing the script. Reading and making notes. Reading and making plans. Reading and setting up the project in Premiere Pro. Thinking about what's coming my way and how I'll want to engage with it. And so on.

The morning was also about semi-front row seats to the work of two other professionals: the composer and the graphic designer who both got a head start on the day leaving me about 6-8 hours behind. The graphic designer took their cue from the producer about opening titles that also suggested the design for close credits. The composer sketched out some ideas first thing upon getting the script.

One of the challenges of the day on the post production side, was that our composer had to tag out around 10 that night. She wouldn't be available all the way through Sunday when we polish polish polish... so there had to be finished music before the first cut was even on its feet.

And so it was.

For example, she had the music for the fight scene done well before I actually got around to cutting the fight scene. The music was done before I had an idea for the fight scene. Pretty much before I saw the footage for the fight scene.

And guess what?

It turned out brilliantly. As if she'd scored the music to what I cut instead what happened… which was that I cut the fight scene and then laid the music under it.

Speaking of editing, I finished my Saturday on the early side. Around 230 Sunday morning.

What can I say?

When your first time doing this takes you through 5AM Sunday morning...

Two-thirty in the morning seems pretty reasonable. 

In other news and once again, the writing team pulled off a quirky script with heart. It seems to be their signature regardless of genre. There's a cleverness in their work, a natural tendency to find the humanity in any circumstance including the fantastic, the strange, and the absurd.

And yes. They also have no problem finding the laugh out loud funny when they want to.

Their signature seems always to be a certain empathy for the characters they create that I find heartening.

I'm told, by the way, they have a secret weapon: one amongst their ranks who seems to thrive in the ungodly hours of the morning.

The reason that came up?

They delivered this round's script, intended for an 830 Saturday morning shoot... at 430 the same morning. After which, between call time and when cameras rolled, the director and producer reconciled diverging ideas for the script's ending with a clever compromise. Something that both served the story as well as each of their objectives, literally (and wonderfully) having it both ways.

I told them there's brilliance in their disagreements.

Which there is.

The major editing challenge of the day was Scene 2 of the script that was one of those very complicated to shoot scenes. It also, therefore, happens to be one of those scenes that's a headache to edit. This time around, we're talking about two speakers and four audience members for which there's three takes of the wide shot encompassing the entire scene, a two-shot of the PTA president and fundraiser, singles of each, a single of one of the group members and a two shot of that group member (the spy, actually) and the person next to whom they're sitting, as well as a two-shot of another pair of group members sitting nearby. Every take of the scene is the complete scene. There's full dialogue in every take. There are reactions in every take. There are different performances between the takes.

Just contemplating all those takes made my brain hurt. 

I was still working through all those takes when the producer and director came over after the shoot to drop off the afternoon's footage and talk through what they'd done... as some changes were made on the fly and weren't reflected in the script.

The best thing, though? The absolutely best thing once the director and I commiserated about Scene 2? 

He told me Scene 3 was done as a single take. And then it turned out scene 4 was shot as a single. Scene 5 was a short single. And Scene 6 was a fight scene involving a mop and an umbrella for which there was plenty of footage but not egregiously so. It's one of those things where I could see what the director and photographer were going for and I leaned into it.

Hard.

I think in my career, I've done a piece on boxing with actual fighting in the ring. I cut a short film that involved a fight on a beach with a flaming sword. And then this one with the mop, the umbrella, and the guy who gets his feet completely knocked out from under him. I haven't yet been able to stop watching and re-watching that section of film. If I'd been able to resist that temptation, I easily would've been to bed by two in the morning instead of two-thirty.

Oh well.

Anyway, last night's rough cut features full color correction, sound design, and music. We're missing the graphics that are forthcoming today. And I've got the sound mix yet to do.

However.

We're set up today to do what we've always done while some teams are still shooting and some editors are just grappling with their first cuts. When the director and producer wake up, they'll look at my overnight cut and judge it on the spot. They'll track any obvious misstep on my part that needs fixing. They'll think about what's already great and  figure out if there's even more great to wring from the footage. Or more funny. Or more intensity or empathy. Then they'll come over later this morning and we'll polish the first cut to within an inch of its life. We'll regard different options available to us, try a few of them out, and when we're done...

You better believe it. We'll be done.

A fully no regrets experience by the time we deliver our work.

And yes. Now that you ask...

There's nothing like it.

🙂

[chloeworships]

This could also involve a promotion 😬

[offonaherosjourney]

The only thing I need from life is an Um, Actually episode with Sam Reich as a contestant, except they do an "Um, Actually, this is a Game Changer episode". The walls of the Um, Actually set fall down, revealing the Game Changer set. The other contestants walk to their podiums. Sam, having no idea what is going on (because this has all been planned behind his back), is unsure of where he is supposed to go. He goes to his usual podium, but there's an incorrect buzzer noise. He then walks to the remaining contestant podium, and a pleasant ding validates his choice. "Surprise!! We secretly planned a Game Changer episode where you get to play!" There's hugs, tears, heartfelt messages. Brennan Lee Mulligan walks into the set in a suit. He's been here the whole time! He gets behind the host's podium and smiles a wicked smile: "Brennan says..."

[skylarksof]

Nerdy Prudes Must Die + Reductress articles

[biologyologyy]

"im gay" "im straight" ok well... im swamped?? with business????? stocks???? bonds????? golden parachutes?????????

[nobodysdaydreams]

One of the funniest things about “Hatchet Town” is that over the course of three musicals and Nightmare Time, most, if not a significant number Hatchetfield residents HAVE committed murder or been accomplices/accessories to murder in at least one timeline. To the point where if you randomly accused pretty much anyone in town of being a murderer, there’s a good chance you’d be right.

[kairithemang0]

[hatchetings]

is this anything??

[violetheart77]

Happy Halloween Beans 👻🧡🖤

(text post source)

[yourlocalabomination]

Tick Tock, Teddy-Bear.

[somecunttookmyurl]

the "all customer service people are trained by management to be illiterate apes you can never get any resolutions by design dont be mean about it" crowd would faint to know there is a guy at my bank RIGHT NOW attempting to resolve an issue that would normally take a week

see. i tried to order food (having nothing of note in the house, and too much pain currently to get down 3 flights of stairs about it) and the payment failed on just eat's end.

but it went through fine on my bank's end, so the funds are tied up in "pending"... for a week. my available balance is now 95p so i can't just do it again

the bank cannot typically do anything about this until the normal time frame for collection passes and they funds just release automatically. just eat have zero contactable customer service

but it is for FOOD and there's no more MONEY and i am a DISABLED CUSTOMER so BY FUCKING GOD not on zeeshan's watch

[daveinediting]

August 2 Wednesday poc

It's a week later that definitely feels like more than a week later. Last week, though, Tuesday night, was the debut of films from this year's 48 Hour Film Project among which was the world premiere of "PTAgent" from Combat Wombats Productions. 

That's the team I'm on.

These showings on the big screen with a live audience are rare in my career so they're always enlightening.

Enlightening?

Yeah. Sitting with an audience watching the film you cut... you feel the reactions in real-time. Sometimes you hear a spoken word or two nearby. There's no longer need for informed choices or best guesses. This experience is the answer to the question How's this gonna play?

Our very own test screening, if you will. And yes.

It's enlightening.

The Combat Wombats also have a tradition of gathering at the director's home before the screening to hang out for drinks... and dine on pizza baked in an actual pizza oven. It's a social event for a team that, when last they saw each other, were flying by the seat of their pants to shoot a seven minute short film in one day. (That's a self imposed deadline, of course. You can take however long you like. The CW template, however, is script Friday night, shooting and first assembly Saturday, editing and polishing Sunday. It's a schedule that works super well for us and the films we create.)

The gathering at the director's home is a fantastic way to decompress and debrief and just be, by the way. It's also an opportunity to—

Okay.

Here's the deal:

I'm an editor. By design, I only work with the producer and the director on any given project. Mostly the producer. For this production, I also coordinated with the composer and art director by phone and text Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In general, though, if the production team was a house, I'd be the mother-in-law apartment out back.

Typically (although I'm trying to change this) there's no opportunity to speak with the production crew after the fact. I don't usually debrief with the sound person or the director of photography, for example.

These Combat Wombats gatherings solve that shortcoming in a big way. 

Definitely I get to talk shop with the art director and the composer. We compare notes on the experience and later talk about the finished film (as they only see it for the first time when the rest of the world does). Of course as it's also a social gathering, we can talk more broadly about our careers, if we choose. 

In addition to the post production crew, I have the opportunity of speaking with members of the production team like costume and make-up, production assistants, sound and, of course, actors. I have the unique experience of telling the actors how their on-set efforts worked, added, and fit within the editing and polishing process of the film. As well, I get to hear stories from the set, learn more about how these actors do what they do, and I get to ask questions. It's a huuuugely instructive and wonderfully entertaining discussion for me.

Now, I mentioned the sound person in passing earlier. That's just me getting distracted. What I meant to point out was how easy it is to overlook the contribution of the sound crew. After all, when they get that job right, well... everything sounds great. And when you're used to, as I am, everything sounding great on a fairly consistent basis, that "great" becomes "normal", more or less. It's only when I think about the specific challenges with which the sound department must deal on a given project, how many wireless mics are on set, how good the live mix of those mics are, and the fact that iso files of each of those mics exist, well... that's a sincerely well done job. And I got the chance to say that out loud to the person who did me a solid.

So I did. 😊

As I said before, in general, if the production team was a house, I'd be the mother-in-law apartment out back. I really do work separately and isolated most of the time from the rest of the production team.

But.

There's yes... a lot to be said, a lot to be gained, from getting out every so often, sharing our stories back 'n forth, giving each other feedback, and most of all: taking in a little of the other person's perspective. Soaking in a little of their discipline: how they engage with the film and the story we're all trying to tell...

From their part in the telling.

😊

[microrockets]

happy five years to me getting into kakairu and ruining my life !!! here’s a redraw of my first ever pic of them 🙏💛

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

I recently saw a post theorising that Sir Oswald and Sir Ethan are a couple (if anyone can find it, please share) and holy shit they so are

not only do they travel together, but when they arrive in Camelot, Arthur only knows Oswald, not Ethan*. He simply assumes they are together and offers Merlin to serve both of them

Then! when Oswald tells Merlin to move their (shared) luggage trunk from one side of the (singular) bed to the other, Ethan says it will 'get in my way there' despite this room being established as Oswald's chambers

we later see Oswald sleeping on his side of the bed (shirtless, no less)

but Ethan is immediately there in the next scene (maybe he just popped out to go to the loo in the first scene idk)

what's more, Oswald then says that Ethan can vouch for him as a witness, implying that the whole court already knows that they're sharing the bed

so yeah, openly gay couple in merlin, we love to see it

(*or, Dagr and Ebor masquerading as Oswald and Ethan, but I'll refer to them as the later for convenience)