Rat Rod Rockers! Music

Churning it out up until the last minute. Got many tracks set up in Cubase with correlating video files. Got a nice Gypsy/Baltic/Western/Surf/Mafioso tune together for Mob Boss Ivan. Used mandolins, myself singing baritone and some spaghetti western style guitars. Minimal but effective. I will have many tracks done by the Premiere next Saturday, but not all the music I want for the finished DVD version of the film. I will be tweeking this bad boy for months after the screening.

Rat Rod Rockers! Audio & Tweeking

This is what the film currently looks like in FCP 5.

Since I finished the rough cut a few days ago, I have been working on cleaning up the audio, adding in background sounds that were missing, tightening a few scenes and making music master files for arranging the music in Cubase. To work in Cubase, I have to export sections of the film with a separate video file, a dialog file and a working music file (un-arranged). This is complicated and I am sure I will be tweeking and tightening this film for months- long after the Premiere next week. Especially before Rat Rod Rockers!  goes to DVD.

Rat Rod Rockers! Rough Cut!!!

Just completed the rough cut (actually a bit better than a rough cut) completed tonight. Feels good. My second feature film is almost ready to screen. I still need to arrange the music, polish and mix the audio and tighten the overall edit. Man...

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Yes! Just finished Scene 31- the Drag Race Scene! Only one scene left to rough cut, then on to audio fixin' and music arranging.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed Scene 30 of RRR! this morning. I am gonna have to go back and revamp the music bed for this scene, to adjust the cuts to the beats, but planned on doing that anyway. Two scenes left to rough cut! Of course then I have to go back and do the audio EQ, dialog adjustments, music rewrites, scene reordering/cuts, etc. But there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed Scene 32 for RRR! this afternoon. Yesterday I posted that I had only three scenes left to edit, when in fact I had four. I hadn't separated Scene 32 from the main Drag Race footage of Scene 31. Dahhh...no wonder there scene numbers skipped over one number. Anyway this was an easy cut- but had messy audio. I asked Ron Foreman to swing by the studio next week so we could do some ADR and replace his lines. The mic placement at the time wasn't good for his dialog and because we shot this scene just a few yards from a Drag Strip during races, splicing the audio is very difficult, especially with different cars at different places on the strip on different actors takes and words.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed the action packed Scene 44 this morning. However after viewing the sequences in the timeline, I decided to add a Scene 44B which will be a vignette of the girls (characters Danielle and Stephanie Milldue) from an outside POV of their house, running around and waiting. I will cut 44B up to smooth some of the jumps in time in the film. One step forward one step back.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Finished the rough of Scene 49. Had to get creative with a day for night shot that just wasn't working at the end of the scene. Went with a bouncing negative/positive with ugly distorted sounds for a sound bed. Sometime getting uber creative can fix a crap take. But that's the exception...

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed Scene 47- except for picking which of three versions I will use of the Rat Rod Gangs cars driving off. This will depend on how I cut Scene 48 against the segment.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed Scene 46 this afternoon and mated it to Scene 45. 46 was just a matter of picking the best take. Still another one down!

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing The Home Straight

Just completed the first rough of Scene 62. Should have a final version later today. Only a handful of scenes left to cut.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Jumped onto Scenes 40 and 62 last Tuesday. Both have related sequences and both will sew large sections of Rat Rod Rockers! together. Didn't get too much editing time in the last few days, because of errands and work, but now I'm back on it hardcore.

I also did some press e-mails for the Rat Rod Rockers! Premiere this morning.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed Scene 61 (all parts today). This was a whopper and should have been listed as 4 different scenes, but when I was penning the screenplay each section was only a descriptive paragraph with just a little dialog and mostly action. I am very happy with how it turned out. Still need to tighten it up and add some additional music flourishes.  This completes a block of Scenes 51-61. Scene 62 is the last scene left to complete the whole end section of the film.

I also purchased a Big Fish Audio producer CD called Gypsy Cafe with Gypsy and Italian sounding mandolin and music riffs to help with the creation of Ivan Molotov's Theme (he is a Russian Mob Boss, but the Gypsy sounds can possibly work for a Russian Mob style track). I wish I could find some Balalaika sample CDs, but I guess Russian Gangster tracks are not the rage right now.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Finished up the "D" section of Scene 61 last night. This one was extremely time consuming to begin with, then after a small editing break through, I completed it is a few hours. Ya never know with this editing stuff. I also did another back up of all my movie and sound files for RRR! I learned my lesson when my hard drive crashed a few years ago while editing Hot Rod Girls Save The World. Cost $500 and a week to retrieve the files.  Double ouch!
Started editing the "E" (last) section of Scene 61 this morning. Already got the ending and sequence set. After 61 I move on to 62 and then the whole ending of the film is rough cut (Scenes 51-63). The most difficult scenes left are the ones where the girls are trapped by the Rat Rod Gang in their house. This is a series of four scenes that work in tandem. Of course I still need to edit the drag race scenes and a woods chase scene- so I have some serious work left to do on this bad boy. Today is one month until we Premiere! Also as I was backing up files last night, I wrote a possible end credit twang punk tune called Down Time.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Logging extra editing time in the next few weeks. One month until we Premiere with 10 scenes to go (plus audio)!

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Decided to officially break the massive Scene 61 into A-B-C-D-E parts. I had completed part A and put it in the films main "Completed" timeline, but as I was working on B, C, D and E, it just got too difficult to keep all the little bits and pieces organized. I keep all the snippets and push them past a marker on each scenes timeline, in case I want to try another snippet in a sequence. With Scene 61 I was close to 1.5 hours of tiny little clips on the scene's timeline. Too much.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing Countdown!

So I have just a few days more than a month until we Premiere Rat Rod Rockers! in Everett, WA. It has been slow going on the films ending sequences. This is one scene in multiple sections that includes the climactic ending and a foot chase. I decided to lay in much of the "tension" music as I edit, to keep from having to come back and revamp the scenes audio tracks. Much of the "tension" musicbed is visually related. For instance when a bad guy comes on the screen a certain sound will be added into the soundtrack, or if something drastic happens a "shocker" sound will be thrown in the mix.  I learned how to do this during the soundtrack composition for the "Stranger In The House" Scenes of Hot Rod Girls Save The World.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Today I finished the first two thirds of the climactic ending sequence for the film. This includes foot chases and gun play. The sequence is listed as one scene in the script and only takes a few paragraphs, but covers alot of territory visually and action wise. That's the funny thing about a script or screenplay, you can write "helicopter lands on roof of car and blows up." Not much on paper, but hella hard to film. And no I don't have any helicopters in Rat Rod Rockers! Maybe in The Legend Of D.B. Petty...now wouldn't that be cool?!?

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Finally completed the Car Chase sequence for Rat Rod Rockers! Some things came up mid-week that kept me from spending alot of time at the editing desk. Next, I am moving on to the climax and ending sequences. I only have 5.5 weeks left until the premiere so I want that to be as a priority. There are a few filler scenes that are not necessary to screen the film, though I would like a completed cut by November 13th.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Spent all day editing. Tied Scene 27 into Scene 28, which is actually in two parts. The first is Harold Milldue spying on the Rat Rod Gang and the second is Harold being chased by the Rat Rod Gang. I am now at the chasing part. Maaaaaaan.