Rough Cut

Sunday night I met with Rob and we cobbled together the first rough cut of “No Reason.” It didn’t take as long as I thought it might, and it came together pretty easily. There were only two or three spots throughout the film where there were problems with either continuity or missing camera angles, but no problems that we couldn’t solve. We also figured out a couple of really cool transition shots that Rob has to work on some more, but even the rough versions of them work really well. We still need to edit the opening dream sequence of the film and put in the credits and titles, but everything looks great so far. There is still more work to do, but we’re now working from a strong foundation. The final shot has an amazing effect in it, one that we’re both proud is done with the lowest-tech trick in the book. Most of this movie was done with low-tech tricks, including halogen work lamps, makeshift lighting stands, and lots of gaff tape holding things in place.

But with all that technical craziness behind the camera, this project has turned out very well. Even better than I may have hoped, if I can actually write that out loud on my own blog. This film is very different in subject and tone from “Changing Lane,” and I was never fully convinced while filming that we were really finding that tone. But watching the rough cut of the film, it’s clear that we did in fact hit the tone beautifully. Some of the lighting setups are very effective, and the performances are simple, sweet, and actually rather touching. It’s going to be a good project.