Faisal dropped off his edit of DOG. In the spring of 2009 he had offered to bring out the “David Lynch ambiance” while simultaneously loping off “atrocious performance”. He felt that DOG depicted a quirky, off kilter world that was believable.
His approach was not timid – slashing out chunks of dialogue, occasionally going so far that the sense of the moment was totally lost. He had no qualms about changing the story either – excising characters entirely and even suggesting a new ending!
On the whole, his trimming was pretty nifty. Many of his ideas will be worthy of careful consideration and the energy he has brought to the project is amazing. I owe you pal.
Timewise, the project is a misfit. It’s too long to be a short and too short to be a feature. At the end of 2008, it was 26.40 minutes – the standard length for 1/2 hour TV episode. An ideal short length would be about 13 minutes. Faisal was attempting to bring it down to the high teens, he made it to 20 something.
How do I feel? I hadn’t seen the project play out in 6 months. Watching DOG with all it’s production warts, ragged and hemoraging from it’s trip through Faisal’s brain – I felt happy. There really are some great ideas here, and the project should be finished so those ideas can live. It’s doable, it’s gonna be fun.
So when can we work on it, what’s the schedule? ALM preparedness is underway – what would have to happen to DOG before hitting the water? A working cut, long or short version would allow motion graphics to move forward while I’m gone. March is the window, I can schedule two weeks. A very focused two weeks to block out the basic structure, what’s in and what’s not…
Last thing… test screenings. Put a project online with password protection and a feedback form, then invite participation from major metro areas using craigslist. If we could somehow integrate video chat, whoa. Record reactions and facial expressions from an audience of one, by appointment.