Editing sesson #3

Thursday night was my third editing session with Rob for "Changing Lane." We watched the film, and it was very exciting to realize that we had very few notes about the cut. We played with the timing of music, traded out the trumpet Superman march for a smaller, flute Superman theme, and then started working on the end credits. Rob had already color-corrected the film, so we tried to come up with something fun for the credits. An initial idea of a "comic book style" didn't pan out so well, but eventually Rob found a text style that would mirror the opening titles from the 1978 Superman movie. Putting them under the Superman theme, it was cool beyond words to see our names flying across the screen to that music. When I had to leave, Rob was working on the flying titles for the introductions of the actors. We said that they needed to be something that would be cooler than the flying text from Superman: The Movie, and Rob is working on something that certainly promises to deliver. I won't say any more about it, so as not to ruin the surprise effect from it, but it is easily going to be one of the coolest things ever.

Editing session #2

Last Tuesday, I sat down with Rob again to work on the edit for "Changing Lane." Since we had pretty much cut the whole film last week, we now had to look at more advanced editing ideas. Since pointing out that the edit is our third chance for rewriting the script, we took a closer view on that. We ended up cutting a few lines here and there, including one large piece of the conversation toward the end of the film. The characters had already reached a decision, and the extra lines were not helping tell the story. While they gave a little complexity and depth on the script page, the actors were able to bring those dimensions to the movie with the subtext in their lines. It ultimately made those few lines redundant.

We also had to solve a particularly tricky problem of continuity at the halfway mark of the movie. In her closeup of a line, Lucy took a swig of her beer and looked away from Lois. She reproduced that physical action in no other shot, so we had to insert another moment in Lois' closeup so we could match the action from one shot to the next. It took us (and by "us" I mean Rob) a good hour of hard work to figure that moment out, but it ultimately it works better than it did before. It was a great instance of a practical necessity producing the best of all artistic options. We took a crack at the opening credits, finding a really cool effect for them. It took a while for Rob to get the graphic for the title card correct, and while it still needs a little tweaking, it's heading in a great direction.

We also took a quick pass at laying in some music for the film. We found a piece for the opening, a nice set of riffs on an acoustic guitar. Rob and I went back and forth as to whether the music needed more than just the guitar, but I eventually convinced him to just put the track over the opening of the film and see what we had. After we watched it for the first time, we both looked at each other and agreed that it was perfect just the way it was. It goes to show that sometimes you can over-complicated things, and that the simple solution might just be the best one. We wrapped the work around 3 in the morning, but we have done more since this post. The deadline for the film is fast aproaching, so we're working overtime on this so we can get it submitted in time.

Finish to the weekend

Last week we finished the second weekend of performances for the show. My family and friends came to the show last night, and they all really enjoyed it. I went out for drinks with Tim, Daryl, and Becky from Cedar Crest College, and we had a great time. We talked about the show, upcoming stuff, and the next season up in Allentown. The semester is just coming to an end up there, so they were all in the middle of grading, final projects, etc. We chatted about that stuff for a while, and it was a great night. All their comments about the show were in line with everything that I had been thinking about it. And while the word "justified" is too strong of a word, I think the word is just "corroborated." Three professionals had the same reactions to the show that I did, both critical and encouraging, so it was fantastic to learn that my instincts were in line with what the pros thought of the show.

That's better!

Last night's performance was not only better than Friday's, but it easily has a claim on being my best performance of the show yet. It felt very natural and very honest, although it didn't feel as "dramatic" as the performances last week. I'm not sure exactly how to describe that feeling, other than by saying that I didn't feel like I was forcing anything last night. The character of Ben was a little more "me" than he has been in the past. And while I'm not sure if that is the "correct" way to act, it was a method that was really working for me last night. I have more friends and family coming to see the show tonight, so I just need to make sure I get myself into the right head-space before the show. Something very much like last night...

And the Razzie goes to...

Last night, I gave perhaps the worst performance of my career. So far, anyway. I completely reserve the right to suck big time in shows down the road, but up until this point, last night was probably the worst. Having said that, I want to make clear that this is not a "oh, poor me" entry, or a post where I want everyone to comment and say "I'm sure it wasn't that bad..." I am not fishing for compliments of any kind; I am being completely honest with my readers and telling them what I truly think. I also don't intend to offer any excuses for last night, and if that is how some of the story comes across, it is unintentional. I take full responsibility, and I revel in it.

Yesterday was a particularly hard day for me, in terms of my acting career. So when I arrived at the theatre last night (late, I might add), I was totally not in the right "zone" for the demanding performance of the show. So I got dressed, and while thinking of other things I finished the screenwriting book that I've been reading. The book, as well as the play I saw on Thursday night, was all about how to not only work in the arts but also have a fulfilling life outside of your devotion to them. And so when I went backstage to start the show, I wasn't really as focused as I should have been. And when we didn't get started until around 8:15, fifteen minutes or so after we were supposed to start, I confess that I had become completely distracted from the performance and the show. And so only a few minutes into the show, I realized how distracted I was. I normally don't hear or see the audience members when I'm onstage, but I couldn't ignore them last night. And so when I embraced the sheer folly of the acting moments, when I gave myself over to the crappy job I would be doing, then the performance paradoxically got better. I stopped trying to reclaim something that had been long, and I instead started honestly responding moment-by-moment to what was happening without any preconceived ideas about it. I won't lie; it wasn't a miracle of acting by any stretch of the imagination. No sudden epiphany here about the craft. Just a slightly bewildered actor trying his best to make it through the evening.

Tonight's show is going to be a better one. And, in fact, all of the ones coming up as well. It was an unfortunate set of circumstances last night, and I ended up doing the best job that I could. It's heartbreaking and heartwarming to think that all performers have bad nights, and that these sorts of stories come with the territory. Also add in the idea that I spent the rest of the night having a few beers, eating Doritos, and watching "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Things weren't so bad after that.

200th post!

This, according to the blogger website, is my 200th posting. And I will totally believe what blogger wants me to believe, if it means that I don't have to go back and count all of the entries one by one. I've been keeping this blog for just under a year, so 200 posts is arespectable number. I originally had thought that perhaps I'd try to post every day, but not enough happened on a daily basis to justify posts. So I'm sure that I'll post another self-congratulatory message when I reach my one-year anniversary, but for now I'll just move on to my rehearsal yesterday.

We had a brush-up rehearsal for "TMS" yesterday afternoon, which felt very useful in the sense that we got a chance to run through the show and run through all the lines. But in the other sense, it felt to be a waste of time because we've already been running the show. The director keeps giving me what I think of as "notes from acting class," making me feel like an acting student again. I might be getting defensive when it comes to these notes, and I'd be the first person to admit that. But perhaps the week after a show opens is not the most appropriate time to be giving notes on "how to act."

First edit on Changing Lane

Can't you just hear the John Williams theme playing....?

Last night, Rob and I put in about six hours of work on the first rough cut of "Changing Lane." He had assembled the first half, more or less, and after watching it and going over some notes on it, we finished the first cut of the film. A few more notes on the progress, and we called it quits for the night. As Rob said, we were left with something that was a little more than a rough cut and a little less than picture lock on the film. There are still several elements that we need to add into the movie, but we've at least got something to work with now. (Part of the process was to go through the film and find still images that would be used as the marketing and promotional images from the movie. Some of those pictures accompany this entry.) We're meeting again next week to add those new elements into the film. We need to record and include a news broadcast that Lois is watching at the top of the film, as well as any musical cues or credit sequences that we need to add to the film. We're also looking at trimming the film down, since we feel that it might be running a little bit long. I would have liked to bring it in around the ten minute mark, but it's running around 15 minutes at the moment. I had wanted to cut several pages out of the script before we got to shooting, so I still might get the chance to do that during editing. We could also edit the pace of the film in the editing room, and we actually made some dialogue overlap to give it a stronger sense of drama; we raised the stakes. We also used the editing tools to give a little room to other moments, including Lois' rant to Clark as well as the moment in which Clark reveals his secret to Lois.

One of the fun (and challenging) parts of movie making revolves around that fact that the editor is the one in charge of organizing and pacing the performances. On stage, you speak your lines in order, the other actors respond to you, and the moments come to life as the cast and director have rehearsed them. But on film, the lines and moments can be changed, re-timed, and in some drastic cases even re-arranged. As Rob says, "the film is written three times: Once on the page, once with the actors, and once in the edit." He freely admits that he may have stolen it from Spielberg, as they've worked together often. But it's still true.

Now that we've put all the images and sounds into the correct order for our film, we now enter the world of fine-tuning and "tweaking" the product. In a big-budget project, we would now have a list of re-shoots: scenes, lines, or moments that we didn't get on the day when we were shooting. But because we're on a rush schedule for the contest deadline, we don't have the luxury of doing re-shoots. As a matter of necessity, we need to assemble our film based entirely on the footage and the coverage that we actually have. There were at least three times last night when I asked if we had a different angle on a scene, Rob told me that we didn't, and so we just cut around what we had. The final moment is working rather well, so I'm excited about that. And Rob's roommate laughed at the final beat of the film, so the first test audience to see the film gave us a good review. The best part of the night was just sitting down and watching the footage, knowing that we're starting to have a pretty solid film on our hands. There is still work to be done on the project, but it's good to know that we've got a good foundation from which to work.