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MARCH 29, 1993 - DECEMBER 13, 1993 So 3 months later I pick up the project again. Since I had a decent cut of the film my next step was to work on the sound. I dropped off the sound to transfer to mag (at this time I was editing on a Steenbeck). We had the facility at the School of Visual Arts to transfer 1/4" to mag ourselves - but, to be honest, I hadn't a clue how to do this. I think I did it once, but couldn't remember for the life of me. I always take the easy route, even if it costs me a little extra $$. You might think that isn't smart. But screw it - it's easier letting pros at Duart do it. The rest of the year was basically spent breaking down the sound I had recorded. In December I went through my cut of the film and made a list of every shot I used. At the time, I remember thinking I was wasting time I could've spent actually editing. Little did I know how handy this shot list would come in when it came time to actually finish the film... |
MAY 9, 1994 - JUNE 20, 1994 Well, this was
it. Graduation was quickly approaching. I
hadn't worked on the film at all senior year. The
class I began this film for ended up as an
"incomplete" on my transcripts. Suddenly,
I realized if I didn't get that "incomplete"
changed to a letter grade - well, there'd be no
graduation for me. It's not that I didn't wanna
finish the film, but at this point I was working on
getting a script together. Most of my time went
into that during senior year. |
MAY 31, 2002 - JUNE 29, 2002 The facility I
work at has an Avid. The sweetest invention that
has ever been made for filmmaking. Better than
Steadi-Cam, better than CGI, better than Pam Anderson's
boobs...well, maybe not better than those. Anyway,
I had already been through editing my first actual
finished film "H.R. Pukenshette" with Phil
Botti on his Avid. That's where I was really
introduced to the Avid. So when they set the one up
where I work I instantly started trying to learn
it. I began with some "home movie"
footage my friends and I had shot over the years. I
made a sorta "best of" video of it all. I
made a few music videos with the footage, etc. I
was having a blast. That's when it occurred to me
to dig out the old Asbury film and finally finish
it. First step was to get my original 16mm negative
and 1/4" audio transferred to BetaSP. I
checked around at a bunch of places, it looked like it
was gonna run me near $400 for this. I had no
choice...or so I thought. I told my boss about my
plans one day making small talk and it turned out
his cousin ran a transfer house inside Technicolor.
He said he'd get his cousin to do my transfers. For
FREE!! I couldn't believe it. Next step was
to dig out my notes. The same notes I thought I'd
wasted time doing. See when I last left off I was
still cutting on Steenbeck. My film was basically a
role of film. Unless I rented a Steenbeck I had no
way of watching how I originally cut the film.
Luckily, I had my notes. Which, not to brag, were
excellent. I knew exactly which shots I used, which
parts of the narration I used, etc. |
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Anyway, I went into the
editing suites for 4 days. I cut and cut and
cut...I broke down Stan's narration. I worked like
crazy on the film. I knew I wasn't gonna really
finish it, but I needed to get it to a point where my
teacher could see what I was doing and give me a
grade. I actually felt bad when I was working so
hard during this period. I felt like I should've
done this years ago. I did enjoy it. I don't
know why I didn't get off my ass earlier and actually
finished this. I could've been leaving school with
a completed feature script AND a short film. Oh,
well. Hindsight. So, I also spent some time
transcribing all of Stan's narration. Again, this
would come in handy - ten years later. So I got the
picture pretty tight at around 8 minutes. I had 2
basic sound tracks done. One with just waves and
seagulls in the background. The other was the
narration. I showed my teacher and he dug it.
I graduated. I moved to LA soon after. Spent
many days thinking about picking up the film and really
finishing it at an editing facility in LA. Even
checked into some prices for renting a Steenbeck
suite. But, I never did get around to it...
Of course I wanted to see
if maybe I had a new take on the film, too. So I
went thru the footage once I got it back from being
transferred. There were a few shots I originally
didn't use that I, now, wanted to. So I went to
work reassembling the film - but this time with the
Avid. Things went pretty smooth. I swiped
some sound FX from Sound Dogs. I had to copy them
and mail them to an Apple computer and then dump them to
CD. It took me like 3 days to figure all this
out. When I copied them to a PC the sound was all
distorted. Somehow I just thought to email them to
the Apple computer - and it worked. When I shot the
film Asbury was in no way looking like a city turning
itself around. People had come and gone trying to
rebuild Asbury. But now, ten years later, it seems
someone is actually making some progress in rebuilding
the place. Who knows if it'll work. But to
avoid making the film look dated I threw a prologue on
the film basically stating it looked like the city was on
the rise again. I really had a blast. On one
hand, it's fun editing. On the other hand, I was
stoked I was finally finishing this film. And so I
did. June 29, 2002. I did my final cut.
Mixed the sound. Made a new BetaSP master.
And that was that. It was done. 10 years, 8
months, 5 days.