Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Ivan Molotov Meets Ruby Milldue
Hacked up Scene 45 for RRR! Ended up with multiple versions. Couldn't decide if I wanted to go with the intensity of the hand held shots or the composition of the tripod shots or various mixes of the two. With that many rough versions of the scene- it's just pick and choose later. On something like this, I like to wait a few days, come back and then pick which version to put in the film. Fresh eyes are best eyes and when you've been working on a scene 6 hours straight, take a break and come back.
I also tried out a new River Rock Studios plugin for Final Cut Pro on a close-up of the Dominatrix character Danika Molotov called "Jitterbug." This filter shakes the clips around making them look..well...jittery. I was trying to get a tripod shot to match the hand held footage. It kinda worked. Did some interesting things to the lighting of the shot as well (unexpected).

Rat Rod Rockers! Run Time

Just tallied up the rough cut scenes for RRR! (44 minutes) and then guesstimated the remaining scenes. I think we are going to be around 70-80 minutes when complete. I really want Rat Rod Rockers! to be at or under an hour and a half- so we are lookin' good.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed a rough cut of Scene 59 this morning for RRR!  This one had some serious character interaction and an over the top fight sequence so it took a bit me more time to cut. I also adjusted the audio as I went on this one against a music bed so besides a few minor adjustments (and a rerecord of the guitar track) it is good to go.
Rain today in Seattle. Don't mind the rain, especially when I'm stuck indoors editing.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Rat Bastards Infestation III

Pin-Up Angels giving out awards
Took the family to the Rat Bastards Car Club (of which I am an honorary member) Infestation III Car Show in Issaqauh, WA. yesterday. We had a vendor booth right next to the Pin-Up Angels (of which several are in both of my indie-films). Sold bunches of Hot Rod Girls Save The World DVDs and gave out stacks of handbills for the upcoming Rat Rod Rockers! World Premier this November. Alot of interest in the films and our record label. Love hanging at the Car Shows, especially shows like this one where the cars are built and not bought and the people are the real deal. Saw some old friends that I hadn't seen in months or years and met some new ones I made on Facebook. The weather was a bit chilly, but no rain.
Also did a quick pick-up shot with Miss Kitty Baby for Rat Rod Rockers! I wanted to get Kitty in one of my films and finally did! All in all a very good day.

Slammed (flipped chassis) Dodge Power Wagon 6-Wheeler

1963 Dodge Polara w/ 426 Max Wedge
Pin-Up Angel Kitty Baby dances with Rat Bastard Ron
 Chopped Rat cruises past our vendor booth
MC Lance Lambert with Pin-Up Angels during Awards 
One of hundreds of Rats & Traditional Hot Rods in attendance

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Scene 59 - The Milldue's in trouble
Scene 51 - Danielle gets tough
Spent most of the day editing Scene 59 of RRR! Got a good chunk of it done, including a basic music bed for editing tempo, but decided to jump to Scene 51 to get at least one scene done today.I will get back on Scene 59 tomorrow or Monday. I also stopped in at Office Max to run some hand bills and a movie poster to begin promo for the Premiere of Rat Rod Rockers! in November.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Rico and Jimmy contemplate a girl from house extraction.
After struggling with Scene 23 yesterday and today, it was nice to have a relatively easy scene to edit. Only took four hours to rough cut Scene 43. Nice camera angles and acting on this one.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed two rough versions of Scene 23 for RRR! Not happy with the ending of either one. More work to do...

Rat Rod Rockers! Press Release and Premiere Poster

Spent most of yesterday fine tuning the Press Release for the Rat Rod Rockers! World Premiere set for November 13th, in Everett. I also finished the first rough of the 23x35 movie poster for the event. Next are the hand bills and flyers.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Hard Drive Backup

Spent today backing up all my computer files from Thing One and one of my 500G film file drives onto a new 1T external hard drive that I picked up from Amazon.com. Only $148 for 1T! The price of hard drives has become incredibly cheap- can't wait until 10T drives cost $50!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing


Finished the first rough cut version of Scene 37 for RRR! This was a cool scene with Harold Milldue (Aeon Black) getting roughed up by Dominatrix Danika Molotov (Red Rocket). They did a great job on their characters delivery and interaction.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Started the first rough cut of Scene 20 tonight. Have one version completed. Got a late start on the editing as I was working at our arts school all day, painting, cutting black berry bushes and mowing. Gonna do some detail work on the cuts for this scene tomorrow. Also experimenting with some sound effects- but that may not work, may be too over the top.
Another hot one in North Seattle. Supposed to cool down tomorrow. Additionally- I want to say a prayer for the millions of people devastated by the floods in Pakistan. I will make a small donation to UNICEF tomorrow.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing In The Heat

Worked both Saturday and Sunday on Scene 33 of RRR! Lots of choices and angles to sort through. Because of the room layout and actors positions,  I broke the 180 degree rule for the ending of the scene- but it's not that radical or disorienting. It was just a better shot. Also Seattle is having a little three day heat way that's supposed to end tomorrow. Only reaching 92 degrees, but that's hot for the mostly non-air conditioned Northwest.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed a rough cut of Scene 49 for RRR! Trying to work in some hand held footage for the front of the scene, but the actors motion continuity doesn't match. I still need to sweeten the audio on this one, but it's almost there. Also a guy called my wife said he found my wallet. I tried calling him back but got his voice message. I had a stack of my wife's business cards in it, so he figured we were connected.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Just finished a rough cut of Scene 24 for RRR! Slow morning, couldn't get motivated. Woke up with the wife at 6AM and then after she went to work, tried to go back to sleep. Dozed from like 8:30AM-10AM. I should just get my ass up out of bed and get to the editing, but I am on my summer schedule and trying to take advantage of it. Next month I'll be getting up at 5AM every morn to take the kids to school.
Also think I lost my wallet yesterday at a store. I rarely do that, but ended up spending several hours running to all the stores and stops we made last night to see if we could find it. Had to call in and stop all the debit cards, etc. Fun.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed the first rough cut of Scene 56 for RRR! Still feels like it needs a little somethin'-somethin' so I'm gonna try the addition of a two shot at various points (over the close-ups) to see if it flows a little better. Still, as is, the scene looks good.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed Rat Rod Rockers! Scene 63 this morning. This one was all ADR, due to the extreme wind when we filmed at the beach, so it took some time to line-up the audio. I also used a very nice Ambient Beach background I grabbed off the Sonomic.com website. If you ever need a quick sound effect or music loop, Sonomic has probably got what you need. On their site you can preview the sounds and then download them directly to you computer. Cost is $4.99 per individual sound effect or you can get a subscription and save money.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Completed a rough cut of Scene 53 for Rat Rod Rockers! Third one I've edited today. I'm on a roll.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Just finished a rough cut of Scene 58 for RRR! Kinda bouncing around grabbing a few random scenes to edit. I was going straight down the numerical line, but wanted a change of pace. I ended up with multiple version of this little scene on the timeline, all with slightly (and I mean very slightly) different cuts. Too many choices sometimes.

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Jumped ahead and completed Scene 60 just for a change of pace. Going to jump around the editing bin a bit. A scene completed is a scene completed- ya know?

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Just completed a rough cut of Scene 17 for RRR! Another quick one. I ended up with three slightly different versions that I will keep in the scene's master file folder. I'll pick one for now to drop in the "Completed Rough" timeline- but will not make a final decision until later. On to Scene 20!

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Just completed Scene 15 for RRR! This one was a quickie. No audio problems, limited dialog. On to Scene 17 (there is no Scene 16, 18 or 19- I decided to cut those sequences from the filming schedule last year).

Monday, August 9, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Finished the rough cut for Scene 14 this afternoon. Added it to the "Completed Rough" project timeline. Rat Rod Rockers! now clocks in at over 21 minutes! Jumped immediately into Scene 15. Gaining some momentum.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

HotRod-A-Rama



Yesterday morning we dove down to Tacoma for the 8th Annual HotRod-A-Rama. This is one of the cooler car shows in the Northwest and besides buying vendor space, Car Kulture Deluxe Magazine asked me to write an article about this years show with Dan Brouillard taking pics. The show spans several blocks and a large parking lot around the Swiss Tavern, with rat rods, traditional hot rods, kustoms and vintage race cars in abundance. The weather forecast called for a 40 percent chance of rain, but we weren't gonna let that stop us. We met up with Raegan McKibbin and her bo to caravan to the show. Raegan does auto glass etching so she parked her car next to our booth and to do her thing and thus we could split the vendor expenses,  The morning was overcast but it looked like it might blow over. We set up our booth and immediately sold tons of DVDs and CDs. This was our crowd. The DIY Kustom Kulture people. Most had heard of my last film Hot Rod Girls Save The World and if they didn't already have the film, bought a copy. Dan Brouillard stopped by our booth and we talked about what cars he had already shot for the feature and I mentioned several I wanted to write about. Basic writer/photographer hand/eye coordination. Dan is an incredible photographer with exceptional photographic composition.  So after a few hours working our booth, I walk around the taking notes and grabbing a few quotes with my Neo portable writer. I love that little device. 700 hours on three AA batteries and no internet distractions (i.e. it's not internet capable). So I am right in the middle of checking out a Fiat Bodied Fuel Altered when the sky starts spitting. Not much at first, then as I am walking back over to our Go-Kustom Films booth, it starts to pour. My wife has already covered the back of the TV set that is playing the Rat Rod Rockers! movie trailer on the front corner table of our booth. We pull in the movie posters and "paper" stuff away from the edges of our canopy. It keeps coming down. For hours we keep wiping off the TV and shaking off the rain that is settling on the corners of the canopy. The bands are still playing down the street and the crowd, although thinning, is still hanging on. Some people duck into our booth to shake off the drops. Few brought umbrellas. In the Northwest you learn to live with the rain. It can swing in at anytime, any season. After three hours of the downpour, I talk to some friends who say a bigger storm front is fast approaching. My TV and DVD player are soaked and I unplug them from the gas generator for fear of them both getting fried. We decided to pack up and head home. Still, we made more in a few hours, in the rain than we did at the last two car shows we vendored. Like I said- this was our crowd. Rumors were circulating at the show that this may be the last HotRod-A-Rama. I hope not. Tacoma and the Nortwest really need this car show.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Blog Talk Radio Interview With Wayne Clingman

Did a morning interview via telephone with Wayne Clingman for his Blog Talk Radio Show. The link for the show is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/icflm/2010/08/06/da-sebasstian-go-kustom-film-1 We talked for a solid hour about my films, indie-film and the entertainment industry. Wayne asked some very interesting questions and kept the momentum going. Had fun.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Harold Milldue tries to play the bad guy.
Got a rough completed of the first half of Scene 14 for RRR! Fairly easy with good actor continuity between takes and no major audio issues. Still need to decide on an extended handheld section. The tripod version shows good action, but handheld is almost always more intimate and intense. But do you want intensity for a family playing "Hostage Negotiator" in the kitchen? The second half of this scene is basically the family talking. I shot extra cutaways of the table and "food movement" if I really need it.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Rat Rod Rockers! Editing

Just finished a rough cut of Scene 13 for Rat Rod Rockers! This one was a fairly straight forward edit. The music still needs fine tuning, but works well with the cuts. Used a few samples of Miss Paula Flava from some Gospel style A Cappella vocal tracks she sent in to me for use in the Rat Rod Rockers! Soundtrack. I pitched shifted her samples to match the key and timing of the tune (working title Alright Alright). She is a natural diva with a great timbre. The running time of the rough cut is now over 18 minutes. Little by small.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Beginning Of The Month/Quarterly Stress

Doing the accounting for our small non-profit for the arts is mega-stressful. My yearly cycle includes the monthly ups and downs (will people pay us on time, new bills, etc.) and then the quarterly tax cycles. Both intersect today. I have to pay out personal and business bills, adjust for offsets (i.e. non payments), call people we can't pay, because others can't pay us and beg for more time and do our taxes and payroll quarterly tax forms. This kind of Monday is not so much fun. Still is beats working at McDonalds- I know I used too!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Shoreline Car Show

Spent the day working our Go-Kustom Vendor booth at the first ever Shoreline Car Show, sponsored by the Greenwood Knights. It was held on a large former Middle School (now a large Elementary School) facility & grounds. The event was well organized and had a good turnout.  The weather was a bit overcast and breezy. Still lots of cars and talkative people. Shoreline is a community just north of Seattle's City Limits that's been growing steadily since Seattle housing prices kept rising (though that's a trend that's changed-ehh?).
Rat Bastard CC member Ron Foreman's ride. Look familiarr


Our booth.
My wife and I yakin' it up.
Rat Bastard CC Member Raegen McKibbin's BadAss Glass
etching work.