Brett Sullivan's 'The Chair' Blog

LATE UPDATE

2008-06-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

This is our Trailer for THE CHAIR

Well... I know it has been a LLLLOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG time since my last update.... so let's see what is new....

THE CHAIR is now out on DVD from Lion's Gate
The film has appeared in many festivals worldwide
It has won MANY awards and nominations including;

Best Feature at Shriekfest in L.A.
Best Feature at Winnipeg International Film Festival
Best Director at Canadian Filmmakers Festival

Just to name a few.... this little movie-film-project is kicking-ass whereever it plays... I'm very proud.

There are also a bunch of great reviews about;

As well there are interviews with me scattered about from various sources....

Dread Central

Pop Syndicate

Indie Express (on video)

With Dom at Bloody Disgusting

Well that's about it.... well that and the fact that we are entertaining the idea of a CHAIR II...

or as we are playfully calling it... the SOFA KING HORROR FILM.... say it fast and it will make sense...

As always, I look forward to any comments and questions...

The End IS NEAR!!!

2007-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

So where were we.... oh yeah... I was writing a daily BLOG, that turned into a weekly BLOG that slipped and evolved into a monthly BLOG and perhaps now a semi annual. BLOG.... yeah sorry about that.... but there hasn't been anything to report of late...

Okay.... there are a few good tidbits of info... THE CHAIR won BEST FEATURE at SHRIEKFEST in Los Angeles and won BEST HORROR at another in the same weekend. Some nice Kudos for our little movie.

Now, we are in the midst of trying to finalize the selling of the movie.... so that awaits....

There you have it.... be patient, as it may be a few weeks or months until the next BLOG....

Thanks for checking in.

Our Premiere..... YIPPEE

2007-08-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hello... all those faithful persons that have been checking in to see if and when I would add anything new....

Well TODAY I am....

THE CHAIR now has a premiere date...

On August 31, for the MIDNIGHT SLAM portion of the Montreal World Film Festival, our little film that could will have its first public screening.... HOORAY...

The Producer and I, and probably one or two of the cast will also attend.... Its gonna be at the IMPERIAL, which holds like 2 million people, so I hope we even fill half...

How's that for an update????

TRAILER ONLINE

2007-06-20T21:14:00.001-07:00

Wow... this internet thing is catching on...

A few days ago, we posted a trailer for THE CHAIR on youtube

I can post the actual video here thanks to a tip from Graham... yippee....

And already we have over 3100 hits on the actual link and a few clone links. Also, all the horror and fantasy webzines have picked up the link and have written articles... what a great tool the internet could be for advertising....

Tomorrow, I'm gonna call the people down at the internet and make some suggestions to make money off this world wide webby thing a ma jig....

Please visit the trailer and pass along any thoughts, comments or questions you may have....

Yep.... all Hyperbole

2007-05-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yep... its true... it started off as a daily blog, but now, it's more of a monthly thing...

It was about the CHAIR, and The Chair is done having daily new info... hence, no daily updates...

Sorry... I Suck and I should change the title...

Please Forgive me....

Brett

Pumping the Midgets

2007-05-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well.. the F%#$#^& is finally done and NOW screened for cast and crew.

Last week we had a fantastic viewing for all those that were instrumental in THE CHAIR's completion. I'm not a person that can take compliments very well.... I'm skeptical...I try to be gracious, but I'm not sure people would tell me to my face .... however, after the film... MANY of the audience were genuinely impressed.... And even me... a very harsh critic of film in general, really enjoy the film....

Yes, I'm biased... but I like it. I sat at the back of the screening and have moments of horror, not because its a horror movie, but waiting to see/sense the audience reaction...

But it went AWESOME....

Now we are submitting to festivals, and then try to sell the F%#$#^&... and then.... and only then, as my partners and I are keen on expressing.... then we can 'pump the midgets for information'...

You know, its been so long that Doug, Michael and I have been using that expression, I forgot its origin... but if there is one thing I know in this world... you do NOT want, under any circumstances, be prematurely 'pumping the midgets for information'

And to graham of the internet.... the biggest 'pain in the ass' but the loyalest of readers and fans... THANKS for pushing and prodding... this post is for you....

DONE....

2007-04-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

I have but one word....

DONE!!!!!!

NO News... But is it GOOD News? And a Sneak Peak

2007-02-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

Okay... okay... OKAY...

I am updating the blog... get of my back... geez....

Since this THE CHAIR BLOG, I am to report on the status of THE CHAIR...

But first, before I tell you there is NO NEWS, at left is a SNEAK PEAK at one of the awesome effects shots. Those that worked on the film will know what it is... those that didn't... well guess???? Actually, I'd like to hear what YOU think the image is????

WELL, it is STILL not done. But loyal and patient readers.... oh so close.... SO EFFING CLOSE. The Sound is totally done and it kicks ass, the special effects by CORE are done and are wicked... all that is left to do is to cut the special effects into the movie... that will happen in early March as I am off to Vancouver for a few weeks.

Then shortly after that, we will have a cast/crew/whoever screening then we can all pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. Then we can finally start pumping the midgets for information.

We are currently applying to festivals about... see what sticks there and also in the midst of working on a trailer...

Oh and the BIG news is, Doug and Michael (the Producers) got married. Believe it or not... to each other. God bless our liberal Canada... After witnessing their non stop PDA's for the last 18 months, it's about time... They went to Costa Rica for their 'honeymoon' and Michael held Doug's hair as he threw up after eating some bad oysters... Good luck you 2 love birds....

Okay, that last paragraph is all lies, but I had to fill the blog with something... if you want more blogs, ask some more questions

I'm Not Here

2006-09-21T03:32:00.000-07:00

Hey' Y'all

Just a quick little blog today to update what the hell is going on with THE CHAIR. Well NOT much at the moment.....

The sound is totally done and KICKS-ASS.

The crew at Tattersall did a great job.... as did composer Swinghammer.

Now we are just waiting for the visual effects shots from CORE... once they are approved the shots need to be cut into the main film and colour corrected....

THEN the move is done and we can begin to show it.... YIPPEE....

But the main reason THE CHAIR has slowed down is that I'm not on Canada at the moment... I'm in London working on another film...

I'm totally digging it here.... so much history and cosmopolitan action.... it's FANTASTIC albeit possibly expensive.... I wouldn't really know as the places I am working and the people I am working with keep picking up the tab... SWEE-EE-EE-T

So I'll be home near the beginning of October and hopefully we can finish this film....

Cheerio

Brett

I SUCK

2006-08-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'ALL;

Okay, I just realised it has almost been a month since my last post. This blog started out as a daily thing... now it's just not. Mainly because achieved on THE CHAIR has been limited... okay, actually NIL until the end of August. We are waiting on visual effects, a VERY time consuming process, and we have a few more days of mix at the end of the month... oh, and some colour correct fixes too. Then it is done. Yip-%*&^$-eee.

Thanks to all that voiced their opinions about our name. It seems "THE CHAIR" beat out "HUSH". So in my opinion, I agreed with most comments and think "THE CHAIR" is a better title. Have a read of the comments on the last post to get a sense of the comments.

We, the Producers and myself, have decided that NOBODY will see the film until it is FINAL. You only get ONE chance at a FIRST impression, so I believe it better be the BEST it can be. So when it is done, we will send it out to various companies etc and then sell this film.

When that process starts, I'm sure I'll have to write about. Until then, keep the questions coming.

JULY 11 - RANDOM JUNK

2006-07-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

Dudes;

Nothing new to report on "THE CHAIR" but I do have a question to pose to all those who read this. I know you haven't seen the film but what title intrigues you most..... "THE CHAIR" or "HUSH". We are having the title debate again. Honestly I'm torn... each has its own merits....

So please if you are reading this.... comment on your favourite and if possible a brief explanation for your choice.... MUCH THANKS. You may have influence over the name we choose.

Now to other random things...

Graham... thanks for the offer... but we need more than about $3 to make our next film... not much more, but more....

And to Louis - I do NOT think "THE CHAIR" will make it into Fantasia THIS year.... I don't think we have enough time to get it submitted and ready considering that Festival starts this month. And it is a FANTASTIC festival. I was there last year. The fans at FANTASIA are the best.

What is happening on the film is this....

- we are going to soon enter the mix studio to some fixes. We had the luxury of some time off to evaluate where we are and what needs fixing... so if/when we get all the 'band' back together, we'll attack the sound. But even as is, it's pretty kick-ass

- I will have to have another more subtle go at the colour timing.... in retrospect and when watching at home, I discovered that I sometimes went to far with the 'look/style' and with the vignetting we have been using.... again, we're lucky we have this opportunity to fix it.

- the visual effects LOOK SPECTACULAR. I saw some tests last week and CORE has done wonderful work. The visuals could easily be from a 100 million dollar film... WICKED COOL.

That's it for now....

Oh, and I had a GREAT surprise today. This stranger from AFRICA, asked ME, of all the people in the world, to help him get $25,000,000 out of his country. If I help, I get 10%. Seems fair... by this time next month, I could have 2.5 million. SWEET. The internet is awesome... otherwise Mr. NBULU, a good Christian, wouldn't have been able to ask my assistance.

June 24 - Grand Prix Spectacles

2006-07-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am safely back in Toronto… thanks for asking….. but I haveone more entry to praise that whacky Montreal. June 24 in Quebec is'St. Jean Baptist Day'… a day where Quebec celebrates its pride as a'nation'. I thought it was a province of Canada, but that's a wholeargument that is gonna get me into trouble. Regardless, St. JeanBaptist Day was happening as well many other events in the city. Asan aside, I asked about 10 Quebecers, who /what St. Jean Baptist wasor what the actual celebration is based on…. NONE knew. It was a dayoff, a day to drink, party and celebrate the Quebec 'nation'.Also, last Friday it was the beginning of the Grand Prix F1 weekend.To check out the hoopla, after work, I decided I would take a strollover the center of the events…. Crescent Street. My assistant inMontreal told me it would be full of Euro and white trash and, as sheput it in her lovely French accent, tight white top girls. She toldme this I guess to persuade me it wasn't worth the effort…. However,I'm always up to seeing spectacle, especially if it includes 'whitetop girls'.So around 7pm, I headed over. It was a 5 minute walk from my loft. Ipassed one street that was blocked off for cars… ordinary cars. Itwas full of pedestrians given the opportunity to see about 100 or soüber fancy sports car parked along the street. There were dozens ofeach brand…. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Lotus etc and some streetracers. It was easily the most AWESOME display of machine and well,decadence/wealth I have ever seen. Usually you see one or two ofthese beautiful machines a year and from a distance. Here, there were plenty that you could walk up to, touch, ogle and peer into the cockpit. In fact, they lost their charm after the first 20 or so…. Oh look, ho-hum, another $300, 000 car… whatever. I've included many pix here, mostly to make Eric Apps upset he didn't visit for the weekend like I offered.

Then I continued to struggle with crowd on my journey over toCrescent. I could hear the sounds of music. As I got closer, I could swear it was "The Tragically Hip" … I actually they were playing onthe stage set up at the corner of Maissoneuve and Crescent. Well their set ended, and I discovered it was cover band as I got closerand asked a few people… but WHOA were they good. I was talking to a roadie/mixer and he informed me that next band was on in 15 minutes…So I strolled around for a bit, enjoying the spectacle then plantedmyself at the FRONT of the stage.Long story short, the next band came on and played a whole 2 hours ofdance and Top 40 covers…. U2, Marley, Outkast etc. They were full ofenergy and were GREAT. I had front row and enjoyed the whole show… ithelped that a few Quebec women squeezed in beside me and insisted onme drinking with them as they celebrated 'St. Jean' and also danced tothe rhythm. I don't know where they kept getting them, but the drinkswere flowing, the music wa

s 'feisty' and the 1000's in the crowd andsurrounding bars were having a great time. A few of the localpatio/eateries had 'white top girls' dancing and tossing free swag outinto the appreciative crowd. After the band left, it was about 11:30pm, as I walked home, I passedyet another street set up for an event. The avenue had a bunch ofcatwalks set up for a weekend of open-air fashion shows. There was one happening as I passed. I stopped and enjoyed this unique event for bit. All free, all within 3 minutes of each other….. Of course there were other things to see that night .... a heavy but amicable police presence, overflowing garbage and preachers telling all the Grand Prix visitors that they are all going straight to hell for their sins... you can see all the pix here....

The next day, I was walking to work as usual, and I came across the St. Jean Baptist Parade....

Montreal WOW….But I'm back in T.O. now…. If you wanna keep me T-dot, you better start wooing me cuz Montreal kinda stole my heart.

There were number of excellent comments on the last blog… I will respond to them ASAP…. Please be patient.

FINALLY EH? - June 22

2006-06-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hey Fwiends;

I know, it's been OVER 2 weeks since my wast entwy... pathetic. I'm stiw in Montreaw... at weast untiw the first week in Juwy. In case you haven't got on yet, I'm doing this Bwog FUDD STYWEL. Some of you weaders have been asking me fow another entwy, so hewe it is....

I weawwy don't have that much to wepowt on "THE CHAIR". When I weturn, we'll go back to putting the Finaw touches an the sound and the cowouw timing.

On a diffewent fwont, me and my partnews form PANIC PICTUWES are twying to detewmine oow next pwoject..... OKAY SCREW the FUDD speak... it's a pain in the but to keep that going.... back to my normal self....

Our original concept was to follow THE CHAIR with this wacked out story of redemption called "DENISE's BACK"... it's going to be uber wicked.... but we are not sure if that is going to be ready for the fall.... the script is really going to have to be SOLID and we don't know if there's enough time to get it there. Next on the agenda is MY FAVOURITE script entitled AREA 50... I would LOVE to shoot that, but it will need more $$$. It's highly conceptual and full of unique visual treatments and some special effects. But a GREAT script. It would just be more $$$. Why am I telling you this...? Perhaps one of my 2 readers has a spare million or 2 hanging around and wants to see this AWESOME story be told....

In any event, PANIC PICTURES is going to try to shoot something this fall.... don't know what yet....

In other news.... I've been enjoying all that MONTREAL has to offer... well maybe NOT all, but some. Smoked Meat from the famous SCHWARTZ's, Festivals, Plenty of Parks, Bagels from FAIRMONT Bagelry, Casino, Maple Butter, Semi-Nude Midget wrestling... Bangladeshy Style, friendly French people, historical sites, unique architecture and much more.

Had a nice tourist visit to Old Montreal and to St. Joseph Cathedral. I must say that the Cathedral was a real surprise. I wasn't expecting it, but it may have been one of the MOST impressive building I have ever scene. It was spectacular. With a fantastic garden.... I'm not a religious type, but it was impressive in scale and in craftmenship, all they need is a Starbucks in there and it would be perfect.

And don't just say 'when's your next blog entry?', ask a question that requires a lengthy answer.... geez, I'm running out of pertinent ideas.... I'm gonna have to start just ranting on generic stuff....

Over and Out

June 06 - CRAZIEST FUCKING THING I'VE SEEN

2006-06-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well I'm still in Montreal. I don't have much "THE CHAIR" news, sorry. Things are kinda at a stand-still as I am in Quebec.

And I want to address the comments from the last blog. Yeah I know there were NO pictures.... and boy did both the readers let me know how disappointed they were the lack of photos. GEEZ. What about all the lovely prose? Not entertaining enough for ya eh.

Well, let me tell you about, as Stephen Colbert says, "The Craziest Fucking Thing I've Ever Seen".

But firstly, how I got there. This past Sunday, I went walking around Montreal. The city is so full of little events. Firstly, the downtown core was shut down for a bike rally thingy... I'm not sure exactly what it was, but there were thousands of people, all ages, riding bikes thru the car-less streets as people cheered them on.

I also happened upon a bunch of these slacker type dudes doing this weird dance. They were in like four groups, 3-4 to a group. One guy would move his legs at a rapid speed, bending and twisting them at the same time as he was bending and twisting his body. It was this bizarre dance. Then he would stop and another dude take over. As I got closer, I could see the guys were actually playing 'foot-bag', y'know like Hackysack. But not with partners, they were balancing and juggling these little sacks with their feet. It was truly amazing the things they were doing.... Over the head, spinning, back of the foot, heel, around the other leg etc. Just looked plain awesome. The dexterity was incredible.

Then I walked to to the mountain.... I wanted to watch and listen to the Tam-Tam, which is this wacky hippie drumming jam for all ages. It's every Sunday and it attracts hundreds of all shapes, ages. As I sat amongst the wafting haze of the pot smoke, this metal dude behind me asked his metal friend "Do you wanna go see the nerds?" They left. A few minutes later I went in search of "the nerds".

I found them.

It was this group of about 50 'nerds' involved in mock medeivel battle. Some were dressed in home-made costumes; chain mail, tunics, tartans, helmets etc.
They would line up, then charge at each other with these homemade weapons; swords, spears, maces, sheilds etc. All covered and protected with foam. Oh there were rules as heated discussions would break out over who lost an arm first, or who should be lying in a pool of their blood. As I was leaving, I saw small 'groups' of fresh recruits with their own crafted foanm weapons enterring the park eager to join the mock melee

But even stranger than the battling geeks, was the fact that a few of them were 'female'. WHAT????

It was "the craziest fucking thing I've ever seen"

JUNE 02 - BONJOUR

2006-06-02T10:01:00.001-07:00

I'm still in Montreal. Enjoying the vibrant city and the warm weather... if you really care.

On "THE CHAIR" front, I received a DVD here with the film as it stands now. The sound mix AND the picture are 90% there. I watched the DVD and first impressions were fantastic... it really is a GOOD movie. Of course maybe I'm biased and I'm sufferung from Stockholm Syndrome. but I think we all pulled together and made a fantastic film, regardless of the cost. I'm REALLY proud. Less than a year ago, this project wasn't even an idea yet... WOW. You'll see.... it looks and sounds super.

There's always a but though. We still have to go back to the sound mix and clean up some dialogue and music and also fix some picture issues. In both cases, the issue is going for style OVER substance. For the picture, we have added 'vignetting' around most of the film... added darkness around the edges. It's there is you look for it, but in most cases, it's subtle. There were moments where I wanted a more 'stylized' vignette. And those are apparent and maybe I wnet to far. If at any moment in the film the style makes the audience think 'oh that's cool' or they actually notice the 'effect', I went too far. Cuz then, the viewers have 'stepped out' of the story we are telling and they become aware of the filmmaking process. I don't like seeing that in other movies, and i don't want it in this one. We have tried to build this suspenseful, eerie film full of impending fread, and if the audience is distracted, the moment and the mood is temporarily lost. So, when I get back, I will try to fix those moments.

ASs for the sound, it's a similar issue, but with comprehension. There are moments when the soyund design, music or sound effects overpower the dialogue. It's a question of the story being understandable and making sense. But it's also a case of keeping the viewer 'in' the moment. If they have to struggle to hear, or ask the oerson next to them waht was just said, we've lost them. The more I can hold their undivided attention the better. And hopefully I can take them on a morbid and macabre ride that makes sense and is visually attractive..... fingers crossed.

All that said, my partners and I agreed that is 'good enough' for the screeners at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to see. Of course we will send them the 'caveats' and the conditions commenting on the state of the films 'unfinished' position.

Now... to respond to few comments...

1 - I LOVE vampire movies. If they add to the legend and take a fresh approach and they have vulnerabilities. I don't like NOT knowing what the vamps weaknesses are and I don't like them being OMNIPOTENT... I like vampire films that are 'semi' realistic and play within the 'real' world.

2 - THAT's IT... there are no more comments/questions.... nobody cares.

Well then, I'm in Montreal until early July I guess...

PS - Know what ... I did NOT spell check this BLOG - DEAL WITH IT!!!

MAY 25 - MONTREAL

2006-05-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

BONJOUR DUDES;

I'm in Montreal working on a 2-Part MOW as the picture editor. Hence you are all gonna have to suffer less frequent blog entries.... I'm not gonna talk about this project on "THE CHAIR" blog as it just wouldn't be right. So unless people, either of you, comment or ask questions... the blog will slow down.... Perhaps take a month off...

Before I left Toronto, here is where it sat. We were on day 6 of 5 for the sound mix. We are still not done. We're VERY close and it all sounds MOST WicKeD. Thanks to the sound team.... Ronayne, Jean, David, Brent, Marilee, Randy, , Kathy-1, Mandy, Kathy-2, Steve, Joe and Dashen. Plenty of people to make a movie sound "MOST WicKeD"

But alas, this past Monday, we worked well into..... well Tuesday... and I was on a plane in a few hours. So instead of killing ourselves by rushing and possibly hurrying the quality, the quorum of 5 agreed to a happy finish when I come back. Did I use quorum in the right context there. And by quorum, I mean the mixers, Eric and Kirk, and the Producers Doug and Michael. Overall, I think the mix may have gone smoother if ALEX TONG (seen here) was there. He is basically the backbone of Tattersall Sound and Picture. He supports the whole company. Wait, but then there's ED, and the company also rests on him, I guess Ed can be the ass then... but in a good way. Cuz really, we all need our asses. Sorry Ed... did that come out wrong? Ahhh, he doesn't read this anyway. Please admire a picture of Ed's cat, seen below. We tease because we love.

Eric and Kirk were doing a wonderful job putting up with our tomfoolery. It must be a drag to sit up at the board trying to work as a 'giggle of idiots' wax poetic behind you. But surprisingly, those two guys would even chime in with their 2 cents when you think they weren't even paying attention. Talk about multi tasking... it's like multi-listening. They must have like 'Spidey' hearing senses.

On another note, the colour correct is on day 6 of 2. It looks SPECTACULAR. Sue (the colourist (not a racial thing)) and Kiarash, his Dee Oh Penis, Director of Photography, have been burning the midnight oil making the image pretty. They are darkening areas we want dark, and vice versa. Also, thru-out the film, there is a bloody character. And they had to darken the blood in each shot as time progressed and the blood 'cured'. We are also adding a subtle vignette on most of the images, giving a more eerie and darker feel. And sometimes, different shots from the same scene are photographed at different times of day, and maybe even different days. Hence the colour quality of these different shots has to be adjusted to match. Stuff like that. So EVERY shot has to be tweaked with hue, brightness, saturation, contrast and an added vignette. It's time consuming but well worth the trouble... particularly if I can be in a different province as it happens.

To all the poor bastards mentioned in this blog... (and Gibby, and that lucky SOB EJ too)

KEEP GIV'N 'ER EH!!!

PEACE and AU REVOIR

MAY 22 - MIX DAY 6 of 5

2006-05-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

Dudes;

I'm back. I've stopped shirking my blogging duties. We've had a few guests come visit us at the mix so I wrangled those suckers into writing my blog.

To be honest... I'm exhausted and slightly delirious. Last week I was doing colour correct during the day and the mix at night getting back to bed around 6am-ish. To top it off, you all remember Morty, my cat... I had to sneak time in during the day to take her to the vet for a spaying and declawing. I had planned on doing it myself, I have vice grips at home. But I think it's illegal.

Anyways, my sleep patterns are messed up and I'm averaging 3 hours a night this past week. I would prefer more, but it's fun as an experience. I kinda feel punchy and drunk... my speech is sometimes slurred and I lose my balance sometimes.... It's definitely weird. My concentration sometimes wonders. As does the concentration of the dudes I'm working with. For instance.... a couple days ago, when we should have been mixing, we all had a debate that lasted 15-20 minutes about the difference between; swashbucklers, Buccaneers, pirates, marauders, Vikings and republicans. It was serious at the time, with each of us having unique opinions. In retrospect, it's ridiculous...

So, today, we are on DAY 6 of what was supposed to be 5 day mix. But, WHOA, the film is sounding F^%$ing WICKED .

The ADR is fitting nicely, the music is kicking ass, the sound design and foley are selling the action..... it's just all awesome. Way more than us losers at Panic Pictures deserve.

We're about 30 minutes from finishing the mix. We then have to do 'go backs' and fix small mistakes/omissions that we have noticed on the way thru. Then we will have a PLAYBACK, where we watch the entire thing... START to FINISH.... then we will give notes and do fixes...... I do NOT know what time we will finish today. But thru the kindness of TATTERSALL SOUND and PICTURE and the talents of all the sound crew, we are gonna have a top notch soundscape for "THE CHAIR"....

Miles to go before we sleep.....

I'll keep you posted.

Guest Blog - Matt Roher - Sound Recordist

2006-05-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hello...

Silently I sit, waiting... watching... Our two heros work fervently at the helm of what appears to be the bridge of the star ship enterprise. Under the unwaivering instruction of Mr. Brett Sullivan and his team (Doug and Michael), Eric and Kirk are beginning to ignite smoke under their fingers working the controls to solve the mysteries of files gone AWOL. Alas, solutions are found, more work is to be done. The team pushes on.

It's truely humbling being able to sit in on a project nearing it's final hours of complettion. Looking back in my mind to the first day of shooting, I fell silent when Doug asked me,

"So what do you think?"

Though usually articulate, I was barely able to mummer a "wow" before nodding my head with a smile of approval. At a quarter after 10, our night has just begun. There was talk of dinner, but I hope they wait. We're right in the middle of the good part. No I'm not telling which that is, you'll have to see it. Back to work... ...Wow

-Matt Roher

ps. Bosmat says Hi.

GUEST BLOGGER - FOLEY ARTIST MARILEE

2006-05-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

When Brett approached me about being the Foley artist on his film I was filled with feelings of jubilance and honour. I began preparation post haste. I was working at the time as a referee in the basement of a mexican hat shop where there was an illegal cock fight arena. I spent the nights collecting the dollar bills from the floor and fist fighting. Since the "incident" I have a had a rare and irrational fear of chairs. Irrational since the "incident" had nothing to do with chairs at all. Plus that was the 80's! I decided that I probably needed to get over it and thus began my quest. We did the work of 10 pirates and created some of the scariest sounds a chair has ever made.

As a foley artist my job is to recreate all the sounds that the actor(s) makes as a result of movement and prop manipulation. All the footsteps and clothing moves are also recreated because the mic's on set are designed to pick up the dialogue, in as clean a fashion as possible. In effect the subtle but nessesary sounds are lost. We add them in so as to enhance the movie viewing experience.

It was a great experience doing 'The Chair". We laughed and laughed because of the delirium which is nice... it's great to have fun at work! I got over that insideous chair fear thing and I met some really great people. This movie is going to be huge. I think as big as Titanic so when I am famous I can say I owe it all to Brett Sullivan. Thanks everyone...thanks for nothing! Wait....that's not right.... I mean thanks for real.

Marilee

May 17/06 - See 'C' The Movie

2006-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Doug here, producer of Brett's opus we are currently calling 'C' - we haven't been able to settle on a title, so this should satisfy everyone I hope... Brett has pressured me into pitch blogging tonight, so I hope I can live up to what has become the daily reading of the Toronto film elite.... at least that's what I tell him to keep him blogging....he's very needy....

It's quarter after 11, and I'm sittiing here with Kirk, Eric and the captain himself, BS. All I can think is how lucky we are to have had such incredible support on this film. From day one we've had one amazing surprise after another, and now on day 212 of 15 not only is everyone still with us, but we're gathering even more and more help.

Kurt Swinghammer has put together a killer score which punctuates perfectly (nice use of alliteration Doug) Brett's creepy moments.

Tattersall, our post sound house as put together the sound design of a Hollywood film, on the budget and timeline of an indie-it's ridiculous it's so good. We just keep throwing problems at them and they keep solving them for us. We realized today we needed one more line of ADR (again, we're still not sure what that means....) and the guys here have come together on short/no notice to get it recorded. As well, the actor is rearranging his schedule to come into the studio at the drop of a hat and Michael is organizing the whole thing. Brett is not avail for that ADR recording because after sitting through the mix all night long, he goes home, sleeps for a few hours and then heads over to Mag North where he will sit with Sue, the colorist all day long tweaking the picture to as good as it can be.

You might be saying to yourself, oh yeah..., so what are you doing Doug? Well, good question... I'm feeling a little helpless... I've used up all of my holidays from my day job long ago so I'm not really much good to the film from 9-6. I am able to slip out of work throughout the day to check the messages on my cell phone or call Brett and Michael to see what's happening. If my boss is away and I'm lucky enough to get any one of the zillion people I have on my list on the phone, I can get something done, but more often than not when I'm available, they are not. That means my nights and weekends are spent trying to get everything done - but of course the people I need to deal with are not thrilled about working on that schedule.

All in all I'm as useless as Brett's third nipple for the better part of each day.

Bottom line is, I'm very thankful for all of the help from everyone. I am thrilled with what we have and am still in shock that we've pulled it off. We're not there yet though, so I guess we should leave the midgets alone for now...

Oh yeah....it's my job to make sure that more than just the two of you hear about this movie....so do me a favour and tell a friend.

Thanks everybody.

MAY-16 - HORROR CHANNEL

2006-05-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hey Gang.... small blog today...

A interview I gave a few weeks ago, partially, came out. The interview was mostly about "THE CHAIR, but he coaxed some info out of me about Panic Pictures next project.....

CLICK on the Link --->DENISE's BACK info

WARNING
(But Mom and DAD, don't read it.... I curse and swear a bit... please forgive me)

MAY 15 - MIX BEGINS

2006-05-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Okay... so I'm officially at the mix for THE CHAIR.

Doug Patterson, the producer is here as well to offer moral support... and well basically make smart ass comments. I've decided to ignore him.

"These guys have expensive chairs eh?"... a verbatim comment from Doug.

So, at the mix console we have Eric on the left, mixing dialogue and Music, and Kirk on the right mixing effects and foley and backgrounds....

Behind them, on standby is the sound designer Brent, with a healthy five o'clock shadow... in case something comes up that needs his immediate attention and requires some quick editing
.

So' I just sit, in the comfy 'expensive' chairs at the back and make a comment every now and then; "louder", "Can we pan that left", "Less sugar in my latté, bitch". It's the most fun part of making a film because you can achieve anything you desire with sound.

Right now, Eric and Kirk are arguing like an old married couple...Thee sexual tension is thick.... Doug says "Guys, c'mon, just have sex and get it over with, you know you want to" Doug is getting close to getting kicked out of the suite. He's giddy.

"Can I smoke in here?" says Doug.... he's a laugh riot. I think he's been drinking, but not alcohol, more like contaminated sewer water. The plus side of Doug here is he has a camera phone, and is taking pictures, which I have included in this blog. Thanks Doug.

So, we have a saying "Are you still on the ladder?" I became accustomed to this expression back during the GINGER SNAPS-UNLEASHED mix. Basically it was stolen from a 'painters' reference. Often, sitting in the back, I may comment on a sound, and the guys are still playing with the qualities of the sound, so they will say, "I'm still on the ladder". Meaning, like a painter, they are still working and are not ready to be critiqued. It's still a work in progress.
Like just know, I made a comment and Eric said "I haven't even gotten the ladder out of the garage yet", basically telling me he's just barely started.Okay... that's all I got for now... this blog is "still on the ladder" but I'm gonna post it anyway.... and besides. I gotta keep Doug company before the mixers quit.

MAY 11 - STUPID SUDOKU

2006-05-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

VERY FRUSTRATING those SUDOKU puzzles.....

So I have been busy everynight this week working on the dialogue pre-mix with Eric Apps. I sit at the back of the room and intermittently voice my opinion... He'll play back various option for various lines. Some will be sync that was recorded during the shooting versus some of the ADR choices. So we listen to all the various takes, that have been delicately synched by the dialogue editors to fit into the actors lip movements where appropriate. Then I make a choice as to my favourite take of all those versions. Of course, before we get to the actual mix, it's hard to tell when the quality of the recordings don't always match. But that will fixed during the mix.

(So I wanted to put a picture near this paragraph that referred to ADR [Additional Dialogue Recording-see previous Blog posts], so I GOOGLED ADR in an image search.... try it....
the VERY first image to appear was the one of seen here..... I have no clue WHY, but I thought it was funny...... )

So I sit at the back of the room, and Eric will play me versions every now and then and I make a selection. In between those moments.... I amuse myself....

1 - Surf the Internet... this week I joined MySpace, and I now have almost 4 friends.... including the guy that automatically and creepily becomes your friend the moment you sign up. Oh, I should say that I joined MySpace so as to listen to some Canadian music on various homepages.... I was VERY successful... I'll get to that later...

2 - Work on the Sudoku.... 4 times now I think I have almost cracked the puzzle only to discover after about 80% being finished that I have duplicated 6's in one row... meaning I made a mistake somewhere along the way.... VERY frustrating. I'm not enthused, or smart enough, to retrace my actions to find the error... So I just curse to myself and plan on hunting Señor Sudoku down and rubbing the newspaper all over his face for wasting my time.... Oh Señor Sudoku, why must you torment me with 'almost' completing your puzzle....

3 - Planning world domination and the perfect heist... or caper... Caper is a fun word.

So I was scouring the net for some great songs to use in THE CHAIR. I had a few choices but nothing perfect in my opinion. Then a came across this Vancouver band.... I won't mention the name in case the deal doesn't go thru... but for now, this particular group has been VERY accommodating and pleasurere to deal with..Particularly since we are under time constraints to get the deal done before we spend the time and money mixing their songs into the film. But we at Panic Pictures are extremely happy with these choices....

Saw a preview of POSEIDON today.. in IMAX.... very disappointed.... if you've seen TITANIC, you've seePOSEIDON..... nothing original in it....
I also have a habit at laughing at inappropriate times during a film if I find something ridiculous... I laughed about 6 times in POSEIDON.
Oh, and I ate one and half LARGE bags of popcorn and about a litre of Diet Coke... so good at the time, but felt kinda gross an hour later....

MAY 8 - THE MIX BEGINS

2006-05-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

Okay.... I had a great blog today, then I lost it.... I am REALLY UPSET. I have to restart from scratch.... well here goes....

To answer a few questions from some comments...

1 - We were conscious of our 'rating' during shooting. Being aware of the nudity and profanity and keeping it to minimum... at least on screen. During the shoot, I was naked and swearing constantly. So I'm not sure what our rating will be.... it's NOT a science and we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not worried.

2 - I think the film will be finished by the end of this month. We would LOVE to have a screening. However, I will be going away from Mid-May to Mid July. SO if there is a screening then, it'll be sans Brett.

And we are applying to the Toronto International Film Festival. Sure our hopes are high, but realistically, I think the odds are against us. There are SOOO many bigger budget films to compete against. We'll keep our fingers crossed and our palms greased... but these other bigger budget films have even GREASIER palms and a much bigger publicity machine behind them. All we have is us guys at Panic Pictures, and we're NOT a pretty bunch.... well Michael is......

So today we started the pre-mix. Today it was backgrounds, tonight it's dialogue. So for the backgound pre-mix, the mixer has all the sound effects for the various scenes and locations and he mixes them in an appropriate fashion. For instance, an exterior shot will have MANY tracks; cars, birds, sirens, wind, kids playing, dogs etc. Then you may cut to an interior shot and the tracks have to be remixed; furnace, clock, radiator but also the perspective of the dogs and kids playing has to be changed to match the new location. Plenty of work.

On a separate rant....

I spent the weekend fumbling around with many power tools building a wooden shed. It was hard work... drilling, screwing, sawing. But my mind went to the builders of yore. In the past, when constructing houses, ships, buildings, bridges etc, they didn't have electricity. Poor bastards. They had to do all that stuff with just pure know how and brawn.

I guess, the Mennonites still build stuff like that, without the assistance of electricity or power tools. But I guess the consolation is that they have 8 wives. Poor bastards.

The lesson here is that we are VERY lucky these days.... I appreciate where and when I am.

MAY 5th - MUSIC Part 2

2006-05-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

WOW - next week, starting Monday, we begin the pre-mix for "THE CHAIR". Wholly crap, it just sort of creeps up on you. So in like 3 weeks, the whole movie will be complete... finished.

It was only about 10 months ago that my partners, Doug and Michael, even talked about about making a film. We didn't even have an idea yet. The whole thing took less than a year. Amazing.... maybe even stupid.

Well yesterday, Kurt Swinghammer invited me over to listen to the score that he has been revising since my last visit. And right after we finished a DELICIOUS burrito from Kensington Market, we got to it. MMMMMMmmmm Burrito.

Once again, (see April 19th's entry), Kurt continues to wow. There are some disappointments too. There were few times that I would NOT like revision that Kurt has done and I would suggest a change... then Kurt would say, "Um that's the way it was last time, I changed it based on your note". Meaning, it was better before. If it's any consolation Kurt, as an editor, I go thru WEEKS of that exact same thing. Spending days making changes, only to have the director/producer/P.A. claim that it was better the old way. But the trick is, you can NEVER stop trying those changes because MOST of them are better.

The thing I like about the score, without giving away a spoiler, is that at 'key' moments, Kurt has used instrumentation that instantly takes you to that event. It's super cool. That's right... I said " SUPER COOL".

Yesterday, Doug and I went searching for publicity photos to send along with our film festival packages. Long story short here, even though we had near a thousand stills, we needed more. There are some scenes that like 100 photos for that moment. But for other moments, nothing suitable. What I'm trying to say is this.... DO NOT SCRIMP on STILLS. You can never have too many. ----- Dee, de......deeeeeeee - "the More You Know".

What's up peeps... haven't a question in while... are you ALL forsaking me? Don't make me back up MY blog and go home cuz I'll do it.... I WILL.

APRIL 29 - PLUGGING AWAY

2006-04-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Okay.... not much to report these last few days....

Worked on video fixes at Mag North. The Panasonic DVX100A, the camera we used, had some issues. Overall, the image was great but I had various concerns during production and in post, we have come across a few major problems. Is it the camera, the tapes or something else..... I don't know.

As for production, we wanted to shoot with an aspect ratio of 16x9. Y'know, very close to what you see most of the time at the cinema or for instance "West Wing". But with most cameras out there, they shoot 4x3, TV aspect ratio. They have 16x9 settings, but for the most part, all they do is MASK out the space outside of the 16x9. So you are still recording those black bars and using up space on the tape to store the information for the black letter box. That sucks. So we had planned on shooting 'anamorphic'. A special lens adapter that stretches the 16x9 image to 4x3, thereby using the entire space on the tape for each frame for the 16x9 image. Did that make sense? If not ask me a question.

Well the problem we then came across was the wide angle. Since we were shooting within my 120 year old house, getting far away from the subject to get a wide shot was very difficult as we were limited by the walls. I know, if I was committed to the project, I would have moved the walls in my house. So to compensate, we wanted to use a wide angle adapter that would give us wider shots than the standard lens. Now here comes the stupid part. The wide adapter and the anamorphic are not compatible, meaning they don't fit together. So we had to chose one or the other. After much debate with the DP Kiarash Sadigh and the producers, we went with the wide angle. Bummer. But I think we made the right choice. I've included a picture of his DOP-ness Kiarash and I with the camera. I look like a deer stunned by the headlights.... go ahead mock me....

The other crazy thing was, the monitor and onboard screen for the DVX100, does NOT show the entire image being captured. Not a huge problem, but c'mon, show the entire frame.

During post though, we noticed a collection of digital hits, or dropouts on the tapes. When played on other decks, the tapes play less reliably than when played back from the camera they have been recorded on. I digitized into Final Cut Pro from a DVCAM deck and regretted NOT digitizing from the camera. So long story short, after trying more than 5 different decks to correct some of these digital hits and dropouts, we decided to redig problem shots from the camera. That got rid of MOST of the issues. Lesson learned.

Of course it could have been 'dirty heads', but we cleaned the heads regularly. I don't have an answer.

Okay... boring blog today for the most part.... except for the techies. But that is one aspect of what I have been dealing with this past week. Fixing frames at a time, getting rid of 'digital problems'. C'est la vie.

On the PLUS side... this week my house is getting painted..... I'm high on fumes but it's looking good. YIPPEE.

MOTHER SAYS

2006-04-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

I just got an email from my Mom. She was giving me the 'virtual wooden spoon' to the hand for being tardy with blog. I didn't even know my mom knew about 'blogs' nevermind knowing about mine. I mean technology and parents are like Florida alligators and visiting Quebecois.... they just don't go together... and when they do, disaster is sure to follow.

Regardless, Mom was right, I have let my Blog go for awhile. See, the process has slowed down a bit as all the audio folks do their work.

Oh, I did get a request from the best looking guy in show biz to run his picture again. And when I say request, I mean blackmail. I guess I will have to reprise the pix from before.
BUT be warned..... for most humans, his manly attractiveness is a like a car accident on the sun... you can't help but look, but it'll ruin you eyes... it's like looking at Jesus. That man would be Mr. Peter Gibson from Tattersall Sound and Picture. He is a few watts away from pure energy. He spearheaded getting "THE CHAIR" into Tattersall for the sound work. On a side note... if I do show Mr. Gibson.... I also have to show Eds' cat again because of legal reasons and I contract I have with Ed. Peter Gibson is the one on the top.... I think.

In THE CHAIR world, I have the visual Effects company going full steam. They are being VERY helpful. And are picture post at Magnetic North is coming along nicely too. They are treating us well.... I don't know why, but they are. There were a few Final Cut Pro mix ups with the video that I guess I can blame on the really lousy asst. editor we had.... me. I was lazy when logging the tapes and by mistake gave some tapes the same names which of course confuses the computer. Also though, Final Cut Pro made a few 'buggy' things happen that need to be fixed. Well the good folks at Mag North are being patient....

There Mom.... you happy...... HAPPY FRIGGING MOTHER"S DAY.... that's all you get.... that and the picture of the pretty flowers and the ability to look at the handsome man above... he's the one on the top... although, his friends often call him a 'bottom' and I don't know why.

APRIL-19 - MUSIC and a Tangent Rant

2006-04-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well, things are going smoothly..... a few little bumps here and there, but I think the sound is progressing well... as far as I know.

Today I had the pleasure of getting my initial listen to Kurt Swinghammers score as it sounds now. It's always scary, probably more so for the composer, listening for the first time.

As I have been watching "THE CHAIR" now for months with the temp. Music that I have stolen from various other soundtracks and tunes etc. So I am used to that music. To even watch the film with new music is weird. It would be like watching another actor in a role. But then to evaluate the music and it's effect without trying to be bias to what you are accustomed to is difficult.

Well, as usual, Kurt had some GREAT surprises. Sounds and music used in way that I was NOT expecting. So at first viewing, you are a wee bit stunned.... then once you start to get into the vibe and understand the motivations.... it's outstanding. Kurt's job is not to just layer music in through-out the film, he wants to give the score a character and raison d'etre. He gives themes and moments distinct moods and instrumentation. Needless to say, he puts much thought into it.

On the otherhand, because he is making 'choices' that are sometimes 'ballsy', I may NOT agree with his sensibility. It's weird, as here is the guy from a Toronto suburb with near no musical training, me, telling this other guy with plenty of training and experience, to change what he has done.... I kinda feel guilty. What right do I have?

Well, it's my job I guess. I take ALL these various elements; story, performance, costume, photography, set design, and try to fit them into my 'vision'. It sounds a little pretentious and precious, but that's my job I guess. Just to communicate my thoughts and desires as I see these various factors affecting the whole.

Okay... that was all serious a stuff.... I didn't intend on writing all that..... That's just what popped into my head. And as people who know me are aware of, I have NO filter between what my brain thinks and what comes out of my mouth (or keyboard) and it gets me in trouble sometimes.

On a separate note, ALEX K. left a comment for me to ridicule her as I think she fell for the APRIL FOOL's joke of changing the film's title to "CREAK". Oh Alex..... no ridicule needed.... you just totally trust me ... and it is I who let you down.... I fibbed to YOU. I'm ashamed of my naughty behaviour. It will NEVER happen again.

Yeah right.

APRIL 15 - REPLIES & JEWISON

2006-04-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well, most of the ADR is now recorded. Alanna did a kick ass job in a very difficult situation. She had to recreate some very emotional and trying scenes. She was EXTREMELY good at mimicking her own delivery. Freakishly so. The editors and recordist were very impressed at her ability to sync her delivery to near perfection to a performance she gave 6 months ago. Kudos Chizz.

So, I believe almost all movies have ADR. The amount varies depending on the film and the circumstances of each one. THE CHAIR has a higher percentage than usual as we recorded in a very creaky house with noisy floors and many dolly shots... a wicked combination. The dolly noise can be heard over all the dialogue. We also shot outside plenty WITHOUT locking the exteriors, meaning, traffic and pedestrians were not stopped and the background noise is overwhelming. Some movies are shot in studio, where external noise is at a minimum.

On a separate note, Duane asked who my favourite director was. I like the Coen Brothers, but I must say my favourite is Norman Jewison. Yes, he is a proud Canadian, but that is not the reason why. I think he has such a strong and diverse body of work; The Heat of the Night(which won MANY Oscars including Best Picture (seen here)), Rollerball, Jesus Christ Superstar (in honour of tomorrow being Easter, I've included a picture of from that too), Russians are Coming, Moonstruck, Soldier Story, Agnes of God and many more. All very different. Sure he has some that were not so good, but overall, to me, very successful both creatively and financially.
Next week, I get my first chance to hear what composer Kurt Swinghammer has cooked for THE CHAIR. I'll report back.

April 11 - Some Answers to Some Queries

2006-04-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Chuck wrote a comment asking what ADR stood for....

I've heard ADR stand for a couple different things; Additional Dialogue Recording, Automated Dialogue Record.... I'm sure there are other variations too. Basically, it's the actors re-recording their voices AFTER the movie has been shot and usually to the edited picture. The dialogue recorded could be because of technical reasons, performance choices, or it could be lines that are freshly written... called add lines, cuz well, they were added after the movie was shot.

Also, yesterday, Duane asked what for my favourite scenes to shoot were from THE CHAIR and GINGER SNAPS UNLEASHED....

For GS 2, I must say, it's hard to pick a favourite.... of course anything with Eric Johnson was particularly difficult as we had to use special lenses so his piercing eyes wouldn't fog the film. After the week three, which was almost exclusively OUTSIDE, in Edmonton, in February, mostly ALL nights it was painfully cold....frigging freezing.... Just how cold WAS it ?

Deathly cold.... just look at the picture.....
Hence. it was a DREAM to go into studio for the last three weeks, a controlled, warm environment where that if you fell behind, you could always get it later as you were in that location for quite a while. It was just about being comfortable. I will also say, there were scenes where I wanted to cry and throw up my hands, get in the El Camino drive to Mexico and say, "well I tried". Other times, I has my 'director stick' in my hand, and 'sometimes in my mouth' and I would think, "This is the BEST F^#&ING job ever." It was just fantastic. The stress one day and the euphoria the next, mixed with total exhaustion, made all emotions heightened. FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE

As for the CHAIR, it is more fresh in my memory. Everyday was challenge. I would wake up, there would be people in my house making noise, I would go to bed, there were people in my house. I didn't sleep much during those 4+ weeks. The shoot in the woods, on Hallowe'en, although EXTREMELY challenging and stressful, felt very rewarding as I KNEW we were getting some great looking stuff. Better than a movie on our budget deserved to be getting. And shooting Lauren Roy trying to escape from the chair was a blast, as the 'gag' we had planned for her to use to aid her in the escape ACTUALLY worked in reality. Also there is a scene we shot in the kitchen, where there were about 10 people crammed into every possible off camera space to make the 'cutlery' gag work. It was painful after double digits retakes and resets. It was a highly choreographed scene in which many of the cast and crew had to do exact actions at precise times. Batter splattered cutlery was whipping unpredictably around the room, so amidst all these precisely timed actions, people were trying to protect themselves from flying utensils and the crew was covered in goo.
RIDICULOUS.

I actually got the scene on take 3, but was SOOOO enjoying the moment and the torture I was putting Alanna(she had to eat the pancake batter each take... that's her in the pix, licking the batter-y spoon) and the crew through, I just had to continue. SUCKAS.
The hardest was the one in which I had to spend WAY TOO much time underwater in a tub under Ms. Chisholm, but it too was fun in its own way.

Wow... long blog today.... that's what happens when people ask me questions.

APRIL 10 - ADR with LAUREN

2006-04-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the first day of ADR. That is the process of re-recording dialogue in a studio environment to match to a already cut, projected film. So today we had an ADR virgin in.... LAUREN ROY and she was fantastic. She discovered that when she was 'zen-like' it was much easier. When she stressed over the sync of some lines, it became more difficult. So what we had thought was gonna take about 15 hours, will only be about 10... we hope. Unless, y'know, Lauren shows up totally drunk tomorrow morning.

There was a moment that I thought Lauren was going to faint or die. We had her hyperventillating to get breath and gasp sounds for about an hour. She was getting light headed. It was hilarious, as we didn't really those breath sounds. Just a cruel joke the ADR editors play on all the newbies. Now you see, that was the cruel joke.... We did need those sounds. I was just kidding. The ADR editors did a great job today as well.... Ronayne, David and Jean all put up with my antics and were very patient with us. Thanks dudes.... It was fun today and we got plenty done.

I've included a picture of Lauren from the movie.

APRIL 6 - I'm CRANKY

2006-04-06T14:45:00.000-07:00

I've been in the edit suite for about 9 hours now..... with nothing to show for it. I have been having ridiculous technical glitches all day. Stupid things like the computer not recognizing the firewire cable. Or Final Cut Pro thinking there isn't enough memory available, when there is a plenty. I'm trying to output a simple 87 minute film and I've been here for 9 hours and haven't been able to get past the first 5 minutes without something going askew. I'm ready to get violent. VERY FRUSTRATING. Makes me remember fondly of the days of editing on film. Like the time I cut Citizen Kane with Orse. Those were the days. I not really nostalgic, but I used, man, I used to be back in the good ole days.

Also, I started this blog, with urging of my partners, to hopefully open a line of communication with people... perhaps maybe even 4 or 5. So they could ask questions about the process, the film or past things I've worked on, like the Ginger Snaps series. So for anybody reading this... ask away. I'll try to answer. I would rather write about something someone wants to hear, instead of rambling in my own way on my own dull topics. Hell just look at the pictures below, tennis. Geez, I don't even play tennis, tho I do like those cool pix...

So please.... feel free to ask away.... I'll try to answer....

APRIL 4 - CREAK

2006-04-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I guess I wasn't overt enough at the end of the last blog...

CREAK, as a title for "THE CHAIR" was a belated APRIL FOOLS. It has stirred up the pot a little bit. Some people even seem to prefer it. I was surprised by that as I though it was obviously silly. I guess not.

So we have ADR booked for April 10-14. It's happening so fast. Very exciting. The sound editors are hard at work and Kurt Swinghammer is busy 'cooking' up some textures. The only piece of the puzzle still missing is foley artist. But Ronayne, dialogue/ADR editor, has grabbed the reigns, and is tracking down a foley artist. Oh yeah.... and it's her birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ronayne. Not that she is actually gonna read this.

On a separate non-CHAIR specific note, I was invited to screen some 35mm print of a DV feature from one of our countries most prolific and recognizable directors. It looked GREAT. I was really impressed how the DV stood up. If I had come n cold without knowing it was shot on video, I might have believed some of it was shot on 35mm. Of course there are some 'tells' like blown our backgrounds and windows and some highlights here and there, but overall....FANTASTIC. It's the future for sure. Of course we are still interested in blowing THE CHAIR up to 35mm. Kiarash, the royal DP-ness on The CHAIR did such great work, I'm sure it would be stunning on 35mm. Bit it's still a matter of mega $$$$. We'll see....

Oh yeah, and just for fun.... here are some pix of a tennis court on the helipad of that famous Dubai Hotel.... FREAKY

SOOOOO MANY COMMENTS

2006-04-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

Okay.... so I am coming down from a week of stress and overwork. And Once again, the crazy nerds from Panic Pictures have decided to rename "The CHAIR". While Doug is away at MIP, he has had a chance to talk up the film, and many people commented on wanting a different title. So Doug offered one of our early title options, CREAK. It's simple and it's iconic. Also, there was movie also called THE CHAIR last year. So NOW HUSH turned THE CHAIR, is now CREAK. Please let me know what you three readers think. I think CREAK is an awesome title.... The floors CREAK, the chair CREAKs and it just screams of horror. It would also make an excellent poster. So for now, we're going with CREAK.

And it seems, there may be MORE that just 2 readers of this wee Blog of mine. A few have even given some comments. Some wonderful witty banter on the choice tidbits of information/experiences I Blog are NOT discussed. However, the state of my family's sexual history seems to come into question. I just can't publish all those comments. Geez.... am I really that offensive that I deserve obscenities hurled thru cyberspace at my loved ones like ninja star. It's not like I'm drawing religious cartoons.

I digress. I'm about to digress more. I know this BLOG is supposed to be about "the Chair". However, I have question. What is the point of cuticles? What is their purpose in nature? Just plain WHY? I'm not the most 'manicured' dude, but my hands are fairly well kept for a guy. But I still have these cuticles that end up splitting and hurting. What's up with that? Is there some preventively maintenance that I didn't get.

Okay... so "The Chair". I'm still at the edit suite trying to get all the post ducks in a row. Cleaning up hard drives, doing more outputs. I have to make a tape for the effects dudes. I have to also make sure I don't erase any of the early scenes that we may have cut out of the locked picture. Keep those suckers for the DVD 'Deleted Scenes'. But the good news is... everybody is working.... the composer, the sound editors etc. I just need one more piece of the sound puzzle to be found. We need a foley artist. I have the feelers out. Hopefully we'll find an enthused foley artist that is up to the task to giving the house, the actors and the Chair an aural personality. (did that make sense)

On a final note.... Very disappointing April 1. I was witness to only one April Fool's joke. Have we all lost are enthusiasm for the practical joke. The little white lie. Have we all forgotten what it is like to scare the pants off a friend or to make a little child cry. For my part, I told my cat I was going to spay her. She didn't seem to mind. But when I told her I was going to do it myself, her little kitten eyes bulged and her hair stood on end. I told her truth about an hour later. APRIL FOOLS MARTY.... APRIL FOOLS..... BLOG READERS.

MARCH 31 - THE SOUND BEGINS

2006-03-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I am still stressed and got all cylinders up on bust. But slowly, and surely, my work as the picture editor on the CHAIR is coming to an end.

Yesterday I had the spotting session with all the good sound editors at Tattersall Sound and Picture. And this morning, I had a spotting session with our composer, Kurt Swinghammer. My temp music track was practically wall to wall music. So at Kurt's suggestion, he will cover those areas, but suggests we try losing some when we get to the mix.

As for the sound editors at Tattersall, it is SO encouraging at how welcoming and enthusiastic they are. Ronayne, Jean and Brent all seem to be looking forward to digging in and giving the The Chair a swift, round house, kung fu kick in to its audio side. Very encouraging. Of course, give them a few weeks to get to know me, then they will regret their enthusiasm... see next paragraph.

For proof of this, see comments form previous BLOG. Somebody obviously doesn't have warm, fuzzy, kitten feelings for me. I think their initial are BM. Which reminds me to pick up toilet paper on the way home.

Our Producer Doug, is off on a ballsy adventure. He has been a VERY busy boy getting himself ready for MIP. A place to sell TV and films. Getting posters and DVD's ready. Printing cards, setting up interviews, pumping the midgets for information... the 9 yards. He's going to get the buzz for "THE CHAIR" going and to interest people in our next crazy adventure in 'we didn't know any better' movie making entitled "Denise's Back". Doug has to try to get people psyched about this whacked out, crazy ass story we have concocted about a boy named Boo whose life for the last 8 Years has been a living hell. That will all changes cuz his incarcerated sisters is being released. The whole small town of Berlin is in a frenzy because they all know that the dreaded inevitable has happened.... DENISES BACK.

So Doug, go to MIP, work your magic, showcase our mojo and karate chop some executives.... I wish him the best of luck..... Godspeed young Doug.... GODSPEED.

GIVE 'ER

LOSING IT - March 29

2006-03-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

Dudes.... both of you....

No time to chat.... burning the midnight oil here..... multi-tasking.... spitting out lists, making OMF, fixing tech issues, making DVD's, pumping the midgets for information.... miles to go before I ZZzzzzzzzzzzz

I will return soon.....

MARCH 27 - YIP-$@%^#^- PEE

2006-03-27T20:27:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official. Today, the boys from PANIC PICTURES locked the picture edit for "THE CHAIR". It was a long process with much debate and humour ... and patience on their part.

We watched the film several times thru these past few days. I finally REALLY got ruthless with the opening act and lost another 3-1/2 minutes from the first 22. We had some really good comments from a screening on Friday. One member of the audience actually started counting establishing shots. Truly NOT a good sign. Then writer Michael Capellupo counted them... there are over 120 shots of the house. Well not really, but there were TOO many. But what Darren, the audience memeber dude said, really struck chord, the establishers stop the flow of dread and release the tension. He was right.

There were also people in the audience that 'called' me on some of my tricks. The fancy post stuff is so easy these days. It's fun to mess around with the images to make them look 'cool'. But this audience was having none of the tom foolery. Just tell the story, and don't try to hide behind visual tricks,

It is something I learned as an editor and as an audience member as well. Sure there are MANY cool shots in many movies. But the MOMENT I say/think, "Wow cool shot", or effect I am drawn out of the story and reminded of the film making process. That's not a good thing. Now, as a director, editing his own film, I get lost in my own flashy visuals. But like the all powerful wizard behind the curtain, I was trying to distract the audience with trickery, when all along, the answer was right in front of me. Just tell the story.

And if any of the audience from Friday happens to read this, I doubt it, thanks for setting me straight. Except Elan Mastai.... everything he said was just wrong.... Of course I'm kidding. He was very vocal, and I appreciate it.

March-24 - APOLOGIES

2006-03-24T07:43:00.006-08:00

Well, it looks like I made a bad judgment call with the last blog entry. Singling out Mr. Peter Gibson as a huge benefactor for "The Chair" has ruffled a few feathers, stirred the pot, shaken the doilies and possibly even pumped up the midgets. I couldn't mention ALL the generous folks that are helping us with this opus. And some of the UN-mentioned are upset that they weren't, well, mentioned. I don't want to name names for fear of further midget pumping. I'll just give the initials of the main person offended so they know who they are, Ed Segeren.

Well, anonymous offended parties, please feel assured that no offense was intended. I had to pick a 'representative'/sample person. It might as well be the best looking contributor. But don't feel bad, we can't all have the charm and chiseled features of one Mr. Peter Gibson. I know I wish I did. So my apologies for not mentioning all of you kind, generous and hard working patrons of 'The CHAIR, and my condolences for the fact that you can't be as dreamy as Mr. Peter Gibson.

And to my readers, both of you, be thankful. You know how people say that pets look like their owners. Well above is the anonymous offended one's cat. Can you imagine what a picture of said secret victim(Ed Segeren) would look like.

Now on a separate note, Ms. Alanna Chisholm screened a rough cut last night. I was nervous showing it to her for a couple reasons; I wanted to make sure she was happy with her performance and she is very insightful and in tune with story/process as well as not being afraid to say it like it is. After reliving a few of the ridiculous set moments, she watched herself in the film for the first time. It must be difficult, trying to evaluate a film, whilst at the same time, watching yourself perform. Surprisingly, she even jumped a few times. Success. Needless to say, she has a similar opinion to myself; she's too close to really scrutinize. That said she did have a few fresh comments that I hadn't heard yet.

That's her picture in a publicity shot... that's right.... she WILL fight you... and she'll kick your ass

MARCH 22 - GREAT COMMUNITY

2006-03-22T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been slowly putting together our post sound schedule. And there has been one particular, incredibly handsome, individual, who has helped us immeasurably.

Mr. Peter Gibson.

He works at Tattersall Sound and Picture and has arranged for some fantastic 'A' league sound editors and mixers and many more things. He has helped us put together a great package that will give 'The Chair' a top notch mix and soundtrack. But without such a great film community willing to help out the productions with out the oodles of cash, The Chair would be a lesser film. But all those people, like the great 'Gibby' above, are so willing to help out the 'little guy'. It makes working on 'The Chair' a true pleasure. We may not have all the money of some of the films made, but it doesn't mean we settle for lesser products. It because of our great Toronto film community, that "The Chair' will have all the same good stuff as the big films. Thanks to people like Peter Gibson. And c'mon, isn't he goodlooking.

MARCH 21-SPRING

2006-03-21T13:54:00.000-08:00

Well today is the first day of spring. That was the most snowlessness winter ever. Okay, I could have phrased that better, but you get my drift (pun intended). We had no snow in Toronto this year. That's just F&^%#&. Is it Global Warming? Or just a weather pattern?

Had another person tell me today that they liked the title "HUSH" better than "the Chair". Are we making a mistake? To me Hush seems soft. It could be a straight ahead drama. To be honest, maybe I have lost my objectivity. Anybody have any insight on this. We were gonna call it "GIGLI", but that was taken.

So, I'm racing towards another screening. My partners and I came up with a 'fresh' new idea that I am going to implement. I'm not sure it is going to work. It certainly is an experiment. but what better place to try an experiment than the editing lab. There comes a time in every editing process, where I think the film gets to stage where it doesn't get better.... it just gets 'different'. In my opinion, after awhile, the people involved start to try things that certainly change the movie, but is it better.... or just a variation? Perhaps we have reached that point.... maybe.... maybe not. Of course, it is always worth trying to clarify story, but you really don't want to hand EVERY little detail to the audience.... or do you? It's a delicate balance. And film runs at 24 frames per second, and a movie is approx. 90 minutes... that's 5400 seconds times 24 frames is.... well it's plenty. The permutations choices are endless. And of course that's NOT including all the footage that doesn't make the cut.

That's kinda where we are now... trying to make sure everything makes perfect sense.... but are we doing so at the expense of mystery and suspense. Like I said... nobody knows anything.

BTW - The picture above is MORTY... my female kitten.... named after a character from THE CHAIR/HUSH/GIGLI whatever. No real reason... just sometimes it's nice to look at an innocent kitten. Not as nice as perhaps a basket of bunnies.... but that's another story.....

Happy Saint Patty's Day

2006-03-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

Dudes;

Hope you are doing well. It's Sunday, and I'm in the edit suite..... gotta try to get as much done as possible to get locked and then give our fabulous sound team the time they need to meet our mix date. Also, our composer, the groovy Kurt Swinghammer, needs time to let his imagination 'cook' up some themes and soundscapes.

I'm getting ruthless trying to lose time from the first act.... it's tough. I could possibly lose some 'creepy' scenes, but we're making a horror, and I think those should stay. What say you kind blog reader.... a quicker act and faster pace... OR more creepy moments.

On my way in this morning, I detoured to see the marshalling area for the St. Patty's Day Parade. I know my last name is Sullivan, nut to be honest, I have never felt a STRONG pull to heritage....except Canada. But I do have a passion for the parade, Santa Claus, Easter, Circus... I guess all the performers bring me closer to my carny days. And c'mon, who doesn't love the leprechaun... those mischievous little imps.... I guess they kinda remind me of myself.

I read an interesting quote the other day... it made me laugh...

"I'm not really the nostalgic type anymore, but man, there were great times when I was."

Brett

PS - Stay the F^$%* away from my pot o gold you bastards

March 16 - POST SCREENING

2006-03-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

So the screening was last night. Some really good comments were brought forth.... which I will get to. For me, I sat in the front row and had many thoughts go thru my head;

1 - It's kinda dark.... is it the projector, or the vignette I added on in the suite.
2 - The actors look good, attractive, hot... that's a definite plus... performances are good
3 - I shoulda ate before the screening
4 - Too many establishing shots(which is funny, cuz in a previous blog, I complained there weren't enough. I gotta lose some of those.
5 - A lot of scary/creepy things happen... the most important thing.
6 - Some good gross out moments that the audience reacted to.... SWEET

The comments from the audience of about 15, were varied in everything from font choices to performance notes. I will try to address all the notes, whether I agree or not. That way I can see, not just judge, the comment. Immediately dismissing a comment or suggestion is easy if you think otherwise, but it may spark a better idea, or it may actually work better in reality than the way you picture it in your head. So today, I started to address the comments. Some easy ones, some hard ones. Also, I think I will have to lose some of my 'beloved' shots. C'est la vie.

The film played at 96 minutes... I really must be ruthless and lose 5 minutes from the first 30. It's gonna hurt and I may actually cry.

Retort

2006-03-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

Well... the blog from yesterday is actually based on true events... as recalled by producer Doug Patterson. However, I feel I must set the record straight on a few things...

1 - I do NOT say "right" that frequently.... right

2 - I NEVER thought we could light the grave site with a flashlight.... it was a lantern (eventually it turned into a huge deal with lights being screwed high up into tree trunks) and my intentions were pure.

3 - Yes, I do eat many different types of cereal straight from the bag.... but it was probably 'BROWN SUGER' Mini Wheats

4 - The Thursday Night Poker Club is full of honourable men. Rod the Hammer would never put the kibash on me.... would he?

5 - Kiarash, the DP, did indeed break the flashlight, but it was before shooting.

Okay... that's all squared away.

Tonight we are having our first 'audience' screening. So tomorrow, I should have a good idea of what is working in the film and what is not. It's always a stressful screening, the first one, as you could learn that audience drastically doesn't understand something and it could be a real pain to fix. We'll see.

I'll report back tomorrow.... Oh the humanity.

Producers Transcript -The Chair - Day 16 of 15

2006-03-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

Some what derived from a true story.....

EXT. BRETT'S HOUSE DAY

--Super--MONDAY--

Director Brett Sullivan is standing in front of his Century Home, eating mini wheats from a bag, while he talks on his cell phone. It's late October and DOP Kiarash Sadigh and a very tired, yet determined film crew turn around for the next shot- apparently through the spokes of a moving bicycle on Danielle (Alanna Chisholm).

BRETT (on the phone)
Right. We'll light the grave stuff with a flashlight. I told you, I hate unexplainable light. Kiarash and I talked about it - it's the only way to light it. Anyway, where are you?

DOUG
I'm on my way to pick up a new answering machine for Sc. 992 with Michael and Hank. We broke Hank's answering machine and it's up next after lunch

BRETT
Right. Three people to get a prop? Amatuers. Ok, while your out, pick up a couple more of those yellow crank flashlights. We need a couple more....they break easiliy....I think the sound it makes when you wind it up is really creepy. Plus, it's got a radio, and I get scared and lonely at night.

DOUG
Brett, if we don't quit breaking things and adding days to the schedule, the Thursday Night Poker Club is going to send Rod the Hammer on the red eye from Moose Jaw with a present. Now, back to your plans to shoot a Halloween night, 20 hour, 40 person crew marathon shoot, with only a hand crank flashlight...

BRETT
Right.

Brett sees Kiarash has the yellow flashlight and is cranking it to give it power.

BRETT
Right. Kiarash, let me see that flashlight again. I love that sound, don't you? More flashlight! Roll everything!!!

HANK (yelling into Doug's phone)
Brett, I figured out the big prop gag on Sc. 1047. I think we'll get it in 18 takes this time.

Brett grabs a grilled cheese sandwich from a handy half apple and starts chewing loudly into the phone.

BRETT
Right. Good work Hank.

MICHAEL
Brett, I'm going to my place to write the last act of the film. With this schedule, you never know when we might need an ending. I've got a couple for you to pick from, but I still can't figure out why the carnies would have any reason to be in Sc. 47,322.8AQ

BRETT
Right. Let's shoot them all of them. Lose the carnies...bad memories...so pretty...um, er.. when's that up? On the schedule, the ending, I mean?

MICHAEL
Brett, let me tell you about lunch in the woods...Two words: Grilled Cheese.... and soup. Plus, I've been doing some cool things with balsamic vinegrette and rice noodles. I'm really getting quite good at this... and I'm enjoying myself... hey, did I ever tell you the story about the scorpion and the crane?

BRETT
Soup? What kind of soup....not cream soup...it's too creamy.

DOUG
That's why we need the Giant, to justify the carnies. Why don't you guys see that? We really need to focus here, it's day 16 of 15, the woods are on day 18 and that leaves only 3 days left... or is it 4....

ON BRETT - Off camera, a commotion.

BRETT
Kiarash!!! THE FLASHLIGHT!!!! ...... oh, the humanity.....

To be continued...

March 13 - I'm BACK

2006-03-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Hey...Sorry I disappeared for awhile.... ^%$# happens.

Did you all miss me.... both of you?

So big news.... as of now, the HUSH has become "The CHAIR". Comments? Suggestions...... We reserve the right to change it back of course. But we like "the Chair". It has a simplistic feel and is influenced by the recent ASIAN horrors....The Grudge, the Ring, The Eye, The Big Fat Momma etc. So there it is. Please if you have comment, let me know.... either of you.

A couple of personal notes;

I returned from a FANTASTIC weekend at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. For me, it is these festivals that are the cherry on top of the movie making sundae... bad analogy I admit. But to go and hang out with other directors/actors/fans/producers/writers etc, is SOOO much fun. And the people at the KCFF treated me and their other guests so well... Particularly since I have a 'sorted past' with the festival. I was mischievous there a few years ago.... and yet they still asked me back. Another story for another time. A very accessible festival that gives the people of Kingston the opportunity to see their national films, which don't usually go to the local über-plex. And the festival also gives so much back to the film community,offering free seminars and one on ones for young people starting into film careers. Wow, feels like I was paid to say all this nice stuff... I wasn't.... One more thing.... Kingston is very beautiful.... It used to be Canada's capital so is full of history. Well history and hot women too, as Queen's University is there.

I'm so shallow and superficial.

Good thing only you two readers know this.

Okay, that was way longer than expected...So the second personal note, I will save until tomorrow....

GUEST BLOGGER - ALANNA CHISHOLM

2006-03-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

ALANNA CHISHOLM - LEAD in "THE CHAIR" (formerly HUSH)
That's her scary self - she does her own lighting
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Michael and Doug have decided that since Sully has been removed from the film after breaking morality code (those poor carnies!), it is only appropriate that I take over his position as director/editor on Hush. I feel slightly responsible for the Jack Daniels though, considering Brett never drank until he met me... You can imagine it was all downhill from there. In fact, I am most defintely the person who caused many of the people working on the production to drink. Add sleep deprivation to the mix, and you've got a fun recipe for chaos and disaster.

So, I don't have any experience in editing per-say, but it can't be that difficult, c'mon. I've stopped by the suite enough times to pick up the basics from Brett, which include swearing profusely at the computer screens when he can't get something to work, and drinking copious amounts coffee and vanilla bean lattes (virgin or extra boozey), among other exciting tasks. And I'm super bossy, so the directing thing should be a snap. Hahaha... Okay, that was fun. Now I'm done.

In all seriousness, I am so excited to see the "almost locked" picture cut of the movie. I actually haven't been by the suite in ages... I think the last time I saw any footage was when Brett had only rough-cut the first 20 minutes. Allegedly (accompany with four finger quotation gesture), it looks pretty darn good. I've been trying to convince Sully to let me sit in the back at the screening next week, but he won't let me. Booooooouuurrrnnssss. I even offered to wear a false moustache and shades, but still, "NO DICE".

Anyway, can't wait to start ADR (I know it can be difficult to sense sarcasm through text, but work with me here people!), but in all honesty, it'll all be worth it in the end. Otherwise, I quit. Hahaha! Until next time..... "and... CUT!"

Love,
Chizzy.

March 8

2006-03-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hey, Michael Capellupo, writer/co-producer here. It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that producer Doug Patterson and I were forced to remove Brett from the film for violating the morality clause in his contract. It seems the cops found him in a motel with three albino carnies, two bottles of Jack Daniels and a basket of dead bunnies. Got your attention. Good. Just f**king around.
Right now, Brett and Kiarash (DOP) are shooting some pick-up shots (exteriors of the house) with DVX-100, super8 and 16mm. All in all, I'm very pleased with the cut, but as Brett told you, the real test will come next week when we screen the flick for "industry professionals." As the writer, I'm hoping that the story holds up and people leave thinking that it was a fun, scary ride Anyway, I should sign off and make sure Brett's didn't run off with the albino carnies.
MC

March 7 - Producer Notes

2006-03-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

So we had a screening this past weekend. Things went well I guess. But it was with people that are very close to the film... the producers, writer and myself. So no BIG revelations. That'll probably come next week for the first screening for 'industry professionals'. When screening for them, there are no excuses. The general audience doesn't care how a shot took to set up, or why the sound is poor. The audience just wants to be entertained.... no excuses.

Back to the weekend screening. I received their notes today. Some are fixable issues, some not. Some I agree with, others I don't. Even if I do disagree with a note or comment, it's worth examining as if there is one person with that feeling, there will be many. And often, the note is about something else... depending on the writer of the notes.

So I will incorporate those comments as best I can... even if I disagree at the time. It's worth trying to do ALL the notes, as you never know what else it may trigger. In todays digital editing world, it's so easy to put it back the way it was, so why not experiment. Also, it's interesting to see the different things that people take notice of; producer notes are generally different from writer notes for example. I noticed the producer commenting 'copyright' issues, and the witer notices every change in the dialogue. It's just their focus is different from each other... and me. But each view is valid.

As they say, a film is written three times; once by the writer before shooting, once by the directors and actors whilst in production, and finally in editing.

March 6 - POST OSCARS

2006-03-06T14:18:00.000-08:00

So Oscars were last night. A few surprises, but here are some of my thoughts from last night's ceremony;

1 - Three of the five nominees for best actor, were portraying a character that really existed... Johnny Cash, Edward Murrow, and Truman Capote.... I don't know what that means.... but an interesting fact.

2 - I think George Clooney is the next Jack Nicholson in terms of who the Academy should always stick in the front row. Clooney should be the 'go to guy' for cutaways whenever something happens in the ceremony. It had been Jack Nicholson for the longest while. Time to give that role to Clooney.

3 - Rappers have busted onto the scene. Precendent was set last night with the 36Mafia. What an honest moment. It may not have been the most exciting speech, but they sure were refreshing.

4 - Make sure, if you ever win an Oscar, to be the person to talk first... otherwise you risk getting cut off.

5- Jeans.... just not cool... or are they?

As for Hush... still cutting away..... I'm making another pass at the movie, trimming and trying to fix holes. Also, going thru dedciding where we need other lines (ADR) to clarify the story. I hope to have it locked in 2 weeks.

March 3rd

2006-03-04T22:25:00.000-08:00

Hey .... did you miss me.....? Not really huh? So F%$# YOU then. Well, I missed you.

Been awhile huh? I had many issues last week. I was in a funk...I'll be straight up... a bad 'wanna punch a wall, crawl into the fetal position and rock back and forth for few hours' kinda funk.

I was supposed to be going to Europe for a Film Festival. But due to some mis-communication and incompetence, I didn't go. So that left me with a bad feeling. I mean, I could have been there now. Instead, I'm writing a little BLOG for the 2-3 people that are gonna read this. Well, this one is for... sticking around for week waiting for the next tid bit of mediocre ranting that I do. So today I'll tell you something special... something that nobody else knows about.... but it's between us.... here goes....

I used to be a carny.

There, I said it. I didn't need to be a carny, but I had a desire to be near all the plushies. The sweet, soft and furry animals that were my only true friends as I grew up a loser, zitty , mulleted, geek.

The carnies were my family, and the plushies my friends. theywouldn't betray me like the Varsity rhythm gymnastics team did. Thank god I'm not a geek anymore... still a zitty loser with a mullet though.

I'm still cutting the film down. It's at 96 minutes. We have to lose about 5 more minutes in the first act... that's gonna be tough. Slowly it's coming out. Last week I spent a whack of time fixing some audio issues as well. I'm hoping to have a screening for fresh eyesnext week, so the audio should be clear so the audience can understand.

February 21st

2006-03-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

I have been putting up with technical issues for awhile now. Every now and then, at random, I'm getting black frames on my playback monitor. Kind of like dropouts, but not on the actual media. I'm pretty good with the techie stuff, but this one has me baffled. I can hook up a Video tape thing-a-ma-jig no problem. And this whole interweb, I think I have a handle on.

I know the issue with the black frames is probably some interface withthe firewire drives or the DV deck or perhaps the carburetor. I have tolerated it up to now. But as I get into actually feeling the pace of the movie and judging the overall film, it's now driving me crazy.AAARRRGGGHHHH. Not only that, but I'm spending time trying to fix this issue that could be spent editing. Did I say AAARRRGGGHHH yet?

If anyone knows why, please let me know. Maybe the fuel injectors plugged or the spark plugs need to be cleaned.

February 19th

2006-03-04T22:12:00.000-08:00

Well had a screening with my partners, Michael Capellupo (writer) and Doug Patterson (producer).

They had absolutely NOTHING valuable to say. I just put that there because I know they read these little blogs of mine.

The screening was actually quite illuminating. I had yet to sit downand watch the film from start to finish. It was also nice to see it outside the edit suite for one. We screened at my house.

I think the main issue has to do with story clarity. But because the three of us are too close to the project, and we know the story we want tell, we are not good judges. We will eventually need fresh eyes. Someone who doesn't know anything about the story we want tell and only sees the story we told.... and does it make sense. What is missing from the plot and characters? It's hard for me as I'm too close.

But other than that, I think we were all pleased with the film.

Februrary 16th

2006-03-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

Still plugging away... tightening and experimenting. I'll go thru the entire movie many times seeing places to tighten. It's funny, once you tighten a movie then go back to the beginning, you start to see other areas that you first missed that could be trimmed. It's almost as if you are re-training your eye and senses each time you watch a tighter version.

I'm very excited this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing "EIGHTBELOW". It's the film about the dogs stuck in the Antarctic. I'm a sucker for animal movies. They always get me all misty and happy.The last one I saw that I loved was "TWO BROTHERS" about the tiger siblings. But the thing that gets me, is the patience the director must have. Like W.C. Fields warned about, animals are notoriously unpredictable. And basing an entire movie on them as the maincharacter(s), well that's incredible. So I go to these type of movies not only to admire the courage of animals, but also to be astonished at what the director achieved. I hope its good.

February 15th

2006-03-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

A second here, 4 seconds there.... That's how it's gonna be. I started to cut into the first assembly today. Within the first 2 minutes I lost 4 minutes. Just kidding of course. But I'm at the about the 7 minute mark and I've lost nearly one minute.

Once you start looking at something to get the plot and story going, you can really what has to be eliminated. When I'm cutting the scenes for the first time, it's about making sure I get all the info and beats that I shot. But now, I can see that some of them are superfluous. That's a fun word superfluous. Feel free to use it, tellt hem I said it was okay. Superfluous.

So I figure at this pace, for a 105 minute first assembly, I should be able to lose 10 minutes painlessly. The other five may hurt and some fun stuff may have to be eliminated. There's an expression.... pretty gross when you think about it..... aah forget it.. I can't type it. Maybe when we're more comfortable we each other, I'll tell you.

But the good stuff that get chucked out, that means more goodies forthe DVD in the form of Deleted scenes. I already know we shot somestuff that is FOR SURE not gonna make it in the movie... Wanna know why? I'll tell you... two words...

SUPERFLUOUS

February 14th

2006-03-04T21:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

A special day for me...... but not because of a sweetheart, unless ofcourse you call the film my loved one.

Well YIPP - F&^%*#ING - EE. I finished the first VERY rough assembly today. Meaning every scene that i shot, has been edited. I'm not100% happy with all the scenes nor am I satisfied with how they were edited. But they are all there in a rough form. Now we can see basically what the film looks like. Sound is a whole other issue. Soafter like 11 weeks of cutting ALL that I shot, it's time to get picky and to also start trimming the weaker stuff out.

Gotta say though, when I strung all the pieces together into one big edit, I freaked out. I looked at the screen to get a running length. The running time was 2 hours and 41 minutes. That means I have to cut out ALOT. I would have to take out almost 33% of the content. It could be done. I have worked on projects like that before. But it is a VERY painful and time consuming process with plenty of experimentation.

Luckily, I misread the timeline. Sure it said the film ended at2:41:03, but the timeline started at 1:00:00. Standard procedure, butI wasn't sure with Final Cut Pro. WHEW... I would hate to have to lose that much. That would mean we also spent 33% of our shooting time on stuff that waasn't going to make it into the film. What a waste that would be.

So, right now the film is running 1 hour and 41 minutes NOT including head or tail credits. For those I will assume 3 minutes. Hence, allin the film is running about 1 hour and 45 minutes.....PERFECT.

It means I still have to lose about 15 minutes, but that makes for a better movie. So starting tomorrow, I will attack the film and instead of just putting the scenes together as scripted and as Iplanned when I shot them, I will look to economise and tell a better story. Now the fun starts.

February 10th

2006-03-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

Oh Crap....

It's Febtober 10. I was hoping to finish my first assembly LAST week. I'm still not there. A while ago I thought I was close.... but now that closeness is farther than I though. It's a turtle's pace. I think I'm still a good 2-3 days away. It's killing me. It reminds of that tale about the rabbit in the race.... he makes a deal with somebody about something, ahhh forget it, it's not important. The point is that he would finish half the race in second, then half of the remaining half in a second, So in two seconds he's covered 3/4 of the race. Then he covers half of the remaining 1/4 in a second, then another second for the next 1/8th.... and so on. Eventually of course, all the turtles, or turkeys (is it turkies?) or dwarf tree frogs, or three toed sloths or whatever would finish the race. The rabbit would NEVER finish. Great story..... Would make an excellent indie movie.... with like Mickey Rourke as the rabbit and John Cusak as the frog.

I'm talking crap. I'm a little bummed. My point is, although the end is VERY near for the first assembly, after like 10 weeks, it's still quite far. I think and I'm getting closer, and I am, but there is still a ways to go. I told my partners I be done this week. They're gonna wanna give me wedgie.

But hey... can't rush art. What's the old expression about editing a movie... "you never finish cutting a movie, you just give up"...something like that but more eloquent. Okay... new ETA for first assembly.... Weds Feb.15. Wow... That hurts to say. I feel defeated.

Thanks goodness it's the weekend so I can think for two days abouthow long this is taking. You know what they about an e-mail/blog..."you never finish... you just....

February 7th

2006-03-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

So I was little nervous today knowing I was having a meeting this afternoon. A local effects company, huge in the business, has agreed to help us out with some shots. It would cost us a fortune, but we happen to have 'connections'. So we are getting a VERY good rate. Once again, a case of who you know.

So back in September, before we started shooting, I approached said connection and pleaded my case for 'X' amount of shots for 'Y' amountof time.

CUT TO - After shooting, the scenes in question are cut together and'X' and 'Y' are are ready to be seen. I was worried that I exceeded our 'deal' and was now asking for far more. Well, he loved it. In fact, he was offering to do more effects. After showing some selected scenes. he suggested ways in which they could be improved. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Not only willing to go beyond expectations ,but offering to increase his efforts.

The big surprise was when he started asking how certain shots were achieved. A real compliment when it comes from one of the most experienced guys in visual effects. So, a good day. Oh yeah, and I did some editing, that was fine too.

February 6th

2006-03-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

I'm close.... so very close. I've almost completed my first assembly. I just want to finish this pass to see what the movie actually looks like.... how it feels.

So far, I have only scene it in chunks. I want to let the entire story and visuals and performaces wash over in one showing instead of intermittantly. Then, I fianlly know what this movie is. If the movie works. I think it does.

Same with the performances. When you shoot out of sequence, the actors have the difficult job of gaging their performance based on where in the story they feel their characters are. It must be very difficult for them to anticipate a mood and tone for something out of sequence. I can help with that as a director. But generally, the task is the actors. So the level and angst they had in scene 50, had match the level they had in scene 49, but scene 50 was shot two weeks ago and scene 49 is today. It's tough.

What was I saying... I get sidetracked. I basically just type what goes on in my brain... mmmm, I like Vanilla lattés.

Oh yeah, I have maybe a few more days until everything I shot has been edited. I'm looking forward to that time when I can see the good and the bad. We get to actaully evaluate the film we made. It's scary, cuz it may or may NOT be disappointing. Only time will tell......MMMMM Latté.

February 1st

2006-03-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, today I was tired. No excuse, just tired. On a personal note, I have cut WAY back on my caffeine intake. Only decaf from now on if I can help it.

But regardless, I'm tired today. No big revelations today, just cutting a bunch of the smaller scenes together. Although I will say one thing that I've learned, for about the 11th time in my life. I should know better as an editor.

You can NEVER have enough Establishing shots. We shot plenty on numerous occasions. We don't have enough. Also, at the time of shooting, hold on a locked off frame for a count of 5. Don't think it's 5 seconds... count it off. Longer if possible. But under the time pressure of shooting, you are always rushing.

So here I am in the edit suite, looking for more establishers, as the old Victorian house is also a character, and I'm struggling to find more. Some that I have are too short. Lesson learned... AGAIN.

January 31st

2006-03-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

So today I feel a little dirty. I was cutting a scene that has a hint of sexual deviancy. Of course it was written to be that way and we shot it. But when it's all cut together and the actual message/story is told with in the scene, that's when it hits you.

When conceiving and writing the scene, it's all kind of abstract. You can only imagine the depravity.

While shooting the scene, the impact is far away from mind as there are many other things to think about at the time. I'm sure for the actor, Alanna Chisholm, it was a weird and disturbing moment. But to direct it, you looking for so much more besides just a realistic and gripping performance... the lighting, the composition, the movement,the craft service, the time of day, the light you're losing etc.

Also, the scene actually takes place over several scenes and then over several shots per scene.
So again, the total immorality of the overall objective isn't really grasped until it's all put together in one sequence.

W ell, that happened to me today. it kind of gave me a chill. Creepy.So I'm pleased that it worked as this was my first time seeing it all together. It's not exactly subtle but I don't think everyone that sees this sequence will totally understand, and that's great. It requires some.

And no, I'm not going to tell you what the scene is.... just know that it works and I'm happy. I'm sick, twisted and sexually corrupt, but I'm happy.

January 27th

2006-03-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

Aahhhh the MONTAGE;

The guys from South Park sure had fun with montage. So much so they made a song about...."It's a montage....FUCK YEAH!!!"

So today, I started to tackle one of the films large montages. It was to be a montage and it's gonna remain a montage. The thing with montage....(how many times can I say montage, so I'm going to use every synonym that I can think of for 'montage') SO the thing with 'medley''s is they are fun for me to edit.

Because there is NO continuity, or particular sequence of shots that MUST be used, creating a 'hodgepodge' of shots is all about telling the story with just. The challenge is to also keep the energy up and the shots interesting or your 'melange' will fall flat.

Also, a well paced piece of music always helps.

So the visual 'smorgasbord' that I created today is kinetic and entertaining as well as little bit mysterious. My internal battle is now, do I go with dissolves between shots or straight cuts.Usually I'm AGAINST the dissolve. But for this particular 'conglomerate', it seems to work and contrary to my initial belief, the dissolves actually increase the pace. Because during the dissolve, you actually see 2 images layered, the shots can be shortened by the amount of time in the layering. Also, the viewer is looking at 2 things atonce.

I'm not set on the 'montage' (okay, I ran out of synonyms) with dissolves, but for today, it was pleasant surprise.

January 26th

2006-03-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes things just work. I was cutting today and was amazed how a group of scenes I had envisioned cutting together, actually worked quite well.

When working on the script, these scenes were never planned to be intercut. It wasn't until we shot the the first 'video journal' scene in which Danielle talks to the camera, that it struck .

I found the dialogue in that scene a little lengthy. And the subsequent scenes were without any dialogue. So in my head, I had planned on using the video journal dialogue as a sort of voice-over for the of the scenes. Well that was though about 15 weeks ago. I haven't really thought about it since. Well today, I'm cutting those scenes, and the plan worked. I think it keeps the story moving and the visuals interesting. NEAT.

January 24th

2006-03-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

Wholly Crap....

The time is just whipping by. I wanted to have a rough assembly by the end of next week but that looks next to impossible. So I'm a wee bit stressed. We want to be finished by the end of MAY. So you have to count backwards all the things left to do; sound editing, music composition, ADR, Foley, Visual Effects, and the sound mix itself. So, I think I have to lock the picture, meaning no more picture changes, at the end of February.

Why did I shoot so much? Why are there so many scenes? Why couldn't I just get a job as a barista at some fancy coffee-teria? But in a few weeks, it'll all be done. Then comes the most rewarding part.

For me, once the sound work and Visual Effects starts, the compromising ends. From day one, when you imagine the concept, things get compromised; Have to lose a character, that effect is too expensive. That location is impossible. The camera can't do that move. Your best take is out of focus. Movies too long and time must be taken out. But once the picture is locked, I feel it is from that point on that film gets BETTER. The score and sound are only limited by your imagination, whereas shooting and script are limited by MANY logistical issues.

So today, I'm going to get past Scene 100... a milestone. Yippee.

January 23rd

2006-03-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

Monday Morning....I'm on scene 088 of 256. Seems like plenty left to do. Granted our scene numbering was a little unique. We opted to treat the script scenes like a schedule almost. As we shot a great deal in my house(another huge story there), we decided to try to make use of the script to help us economise our locations.

So instead of a location being just 'the house', the script identified each location in the house in detail. That way when it came time to breakdown the script for shooting, we could anticipate other shots and scenes that would be needed at that particular location; Top of stairs, closet, secret closet (in studio), bathroom etc. Not sure if it was the more efficient way to work, but we did it.

So now I have the remainder of those 256 scenes to cut, although, like I mentioned previously, there were a few occasions where I skipped ahead to edit particular scenes that were intriguing to me. It's daunting on a Monday morning... and I want to have the first assembly by next week. Fingers crossed..... feels impossible at the moment. YIKES. Sometimes I want a simpler job. One where you know your set hours, then you go home. A job where your home and your work are totally separate. On this particular movie, that separation is not there. I live where we shot, this film is my life... for now.

I said it before... YIKES.

January 20th

2006-03-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Jan. 20. Today I'm finishing the cut of the forest exterior scenes that were shot on a VERY LOG Halloween night. Probably the most memorable October 31 of my life. Crazy fun and stressful.

A lesson re-learned about using fog/smoke. We had a fog machine and people responsible for keeping the fog in the forest consistent. A near impossible task with shifting wind and so on. But it's so hard to have good fog continuity. The toughest part is changing the focal length of the lenses. For instance shooting a wide shot, say the camera is 25 feet from the subject with X amount of fog and it looks like your shooting from 25 feet away. No the difficulty comes from then trying to get coverage or say close-ups. When you're in a rush, which we were, instead of moving the camera, you change the lense length and go telephoto/zoom. Still shooting from the 25 foot distance, the subject now looks much bigger in frame and appears to be only a few feet away. But you still have 25 feet worth of fog between the camera and the subject and the lenses just compresses that fog and it seems like there is WAY MORE. It causes nightmares in the edit suite. We had enough coverage that it wasn't really an issue, but it could have been.

The funny thing is, at about 3AM on the night, I remember telling the fog crew' that there was too much, "LESSEN THE FOG" or as we would say "FOG OFF". The reply came back that they haven't had the machine on for the last half hour. It actually got REALLY foggy naturally. Now we had NO control over it... then it started raining which created a new problem... but that's another story.

Brett

January 19th

2006-03-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

It's January 19th. Just to get up to speed. I've been editing HUSH for the past 6 weeks. I'm about 45% done. I started cutting sequentially but it's daunting. I've never edited a movie that accelerate been entirely shot. Usually the editor is cutting as the film is being shot.

So here I am, cutting away at the over 40 hours of footage that I have to widdle down to 90 minutes. And going sequentially is tough, as I know there are HUGE scenes waiting to be put together. As the director as well, I have a great desire to see how those things look,see where I succeeded and where I failed. Also, I just want to see the looks 'cool'.

So to be honest, I've bounced ahead a few times. Overall, I'm VERY pleased with the footage. It looks great and I think the actors did a good job. It's also a fun trip down memory lane. You start to cut anew scene and are instantly transported back to the day of shooting. The struggles and triumphs of the scene. Of course, it's all still too bright but that is the goal when shooting, make sure you have a image to darken. You can always go darker and add shadows... You can NOT add brightness and image to darkness. At times, I must admit, I have found the recorded sound to be a hassle. The house is old, the floor creak, the dolly squeaked and soon. So the sound at times has been driving me mental. Granted I'm dealing with the sound that was recorded on the camera.

Hopefully, once I get the sound from the DAT tapes into the Final Cut Pro system,it won't be an issue anymore. That will happen in the next 2 weeks. Until then... soldier on...It's my fault as I never gave sound the time and attention it deserved. Back when we started this concept, we didn't want any dialogue at all. Well that was then....it nice to dream. Of course I know, in three months when HUSH is mixed, it will all be solved and we'll have a KICK-ASS sounding film.

Brett
www.hushthemovie.com