Holy Boners

Another 7 days have rolled by and the inventory milestone is still on the horizon. It’s been a slightly traumatic week. I extracted DOG references from my personal journals from the years 2006-2009, which meant slogging through a lot of unrelated comedy and drama. Women I wanted that didn’t want me back, romantic scuffles and misunderstandings, friendships falling apart, near death experiences, bad business decisions, disastrous collaborations… masterful triumphs, subtle shining insights, orgasmic bliss, beauty beyond description, ecstatic sunrises, jade green thunderstorms, ethnic feasts, hilarious hijinks. 3.5 years worth. In the midst of these vivid literary recollections, my brand new significant other bailed on me – via text. So woof.

This movie has coincided with big changes in my personal life over the years, one might almost say that it has pruned away less than solid friendships. On the one hand that’s kind of sad, but on the other it’s exciting. There’s crazy birth energy behind this project, and only my best peeps will remain standing when it’s done. I don’t mind having my wheat and chaff automatically sorted. I’m a robust and profoundly loyal friend, but I don’t always require that to be reciprocated. DOG does. Push or get out of the way.

Here’s the latest recalculated projection for the milestones. Somewhere, Faisal is sniggering.

I’ve overrun the rescheduled inventory deadline, after only getting in about 30 hours in the last 6 days. What else was I doing? Some M3 business on Wednesday, the usual training, eating, sleeping, maintaining social ties, fixing things…

Below is a peak at the inventory so far – a spreadsheet in NeoOffice. The colored lines show production days for the A unit, which helps me to locate matched cameras. A UNIT refers to the team that handled primary production with actors on the big boat. B UNIT refers to the team that handled all the other stuff – moldering trains, rust red canyons, abandoned highways.

Archeology – Originally the A UNIT had 10 days to do it’s thing, less 2 days of roundtrip travel from NYC to Kingston, Canada. I think we started a day late to finish prepping and testing the equipment, then we lost another day because the Canadian border cops got mixed up about our work permits… so that left 6 days. Looking at the A UNIT directory we captured for five days but only Monday and Tuesday were actually “productive”. What happened to the other day? Setting up, tearing down and rehearsing I guess. We were shorthanded too, Eiji had to leave unexpectedly before we entered Canada. As I dig deeper into the archives, I am sure the details will emerge.

We should have been on location longer, seems like we were just getting warmed up when it was time to go. In hindsight, it was silly to arrange all that and only get 2 productive days. I had zero time to review scenes with Ann Loeding, my producer.

I am building an inventory of the DOG archival drive ‘momma’,  shown below with upper level directories visible. The camera files in the A UNIT directory (colored, above) are not visible in this list. Neither are the contents of the FCP directories which contain the editorial history, organized by year.

In 06 FCP, there are project files for every month after Canada. Basically, I worked on the edit for the rest of that year. In 07 FCP, there are files from January – March and then November – December or 5 months. My guess is that I was doing B UNIT from April – October. In 08 FCP, there are edit files for every month – the entire year! In 09 FCP, there are files from January and oddly May and June. 2009 was the year I dropped DOG and started ALM.

Looking at the history of edit files is revelatory because I had it in my head that I didn’t work enough on DOG and that I gave up when the going got tough. The truth is, aside from my work documenting performance and dance in NYC, I was doing little else BUT make DOG. Those two productive days in Canada triggered a 3 year educational immersion and trial by fire.

It’s important to notice that there is still persistent self talk which is neither supportive nor accurate. Why else would my perception about my effort and accomplishments be so skewed? I know a lot went wrong on location but perhaps enough went right. Since early 2006 I’ve been learning like crazy, having loads of fun and perhaps making a movie that won’t totally suck.

Today’s bottom line is that another milestone was missed. I didn’t do a solid 40 hours and the scope of the inventory was much bigger than originally projected. If a major deadline is missed, it’s important to deflect bad vibes and recriminations. Since Faisal isn’t available to take the blame this week, I whipped up a sweet flow chart.

The inventory is probably 3 times bigger than I initially imagined. After 5 days I am about 1/3 of the way through. Rather than spend another huge block of time organizing, I like the idea of switching between abstract and pragmatic, or put another way, wide and tight. Alan Watts might have called it prickles and goo. On the chart below, the orange area represents the inventory currently underway, now redesignated as INVENTORY PHASE 1 – RAPID ACCESS.

There are two more directories yet to do, PLAN (NOTES on ‘momma’) and VFX. LEGAL and FESTIVALS can be handed after the two EDITs (blue and black) are well underway. The other tasks associated with INVENTORY PHASE 1 are finding and organizing all the DOG files not on ‘momma’ and then riffing on the most interesting elements. That should take another 4 days based on what’s left. This wide task is followed by a tight task,  revisiting the 3:30 edit and building a 6 minute version. I’ll get 3 days to do that, and the result will be scheduled for test screenings facilitated by friends. I’ll get to sit in the audience and be anonymous. There may be several iterations of the 6 minute version based on these test screenings.

Anyway, you can follow the chart right though to the finish. I’m projected an ending in November, but that doesn’t include a trip to NYC this fall. Also, it assumes a robust VFX team.  The chart’s main thrust is the editorial for the 12 minute version – those projections feel pretty solid.

I’ve been poring over the drive “momma”, 2 terabytes (5 years) of accumulated DOG development. I had this idea that the content was relatively organized, but it turns out – not so much. Sifting through the hoary once upon a time, catapulted over the ramparts of a disheveled memory palace. Not only was my impression of organization false, but I was chagrined to discover that the archive was incomplete.

Back in the day, I refrained from reorganizing because I was concerned about breaking links to my media, but FCP v7 seems to be smarter about finding files moved to new locations on the same volume. This is good, because I was itching to organize even if it meant slogging through the arduous relinking process. There are now dedicated directories for all the significant modalities of the project such as SCRIPTS, SOURCE, VERSIONS, NOTES, LEGAL, etc.

Now that “momma” is mostly tamed, I want to gather the rest of the DOG content from the 40 terabyte meta archive. Fortunately I updated and indexed this archive a couple of weeks back, so it’s now searchable. New discoveries will be sorted into the appropriate directories.

Using Fujiwara’s DiskCatalogMaker, I search the meta archive for “daughter of god”…

… and find two files that are not on “momma”. Other search terms related to the project – dog, steve, carmen, canada, fudip, uncle joe, christina, gerry – might unearth additional nuggets.

The next phase is to write a general description of each directory’s contents, how many files are there and if they are media, report the total file size / duration. For example, I’ve got movies of NYC’s Empire State Building at dawn. There are 30 shots and together they take 45 gb or approximately 7 minutes in 720P HD. With these thumbnail descriptions, I open neural wormholes for supra-luminal access to my content cosmos. 2 terrabytes (2000 gigabytes) is about 5 hours of 720p video. That’s not all that much, unless you need to remember where to find a specific 2 minutes or 20 seconds of it. What were you doing 3 hours, 34 minutes and 15 seconds ago? Huh?

Here’s the roster of high level stuff…

• review and describe supplemental material or b roll (as above)
• find every DOG analysis and publish on the blog for review
• print a reference bible of compelling visual content for bb deployment,  supplement to standard index cards

… but I’ll also be getting low level with the sequences in the main FCP files, as described a couple of posts back…

• identify and describe the main sequences.
• brief analysis of unique component combinations with benefits and drawbacks, connections they suggest, etc.
• identify the strongest alternate takes of Acts 1 and 2 and riff on what they might be good for

and preparing for the VFX uber marathon in the fall, once the final cut is complete.

• (ongoing) revise the motion graphics and VFX roster
• make placeholders for future media (text or graphics)
• identify what VFX can be intelligently contracted to other artists

Credits and content (DVD) extras are also facilitated by a robust inventory. Lots of folks helped create the content and for the most part I have releases from everyone, but there are many peripheral people who deserve recognition. I’ll tag each element of content with the names now, and then harvest everyone later. It would be handy to do that with metadata, but not all my media files (aiff, jpg)  have that capability.

• names of creators / contributors
• content extra

DVD extras, for a 12 minute movie?! Heck yes. My first (modest budget) movie has been packed with lessons. Obviously, I am interested in the process as well as the product, hence all this blogging. The catchy theme song “Fucked Up Day in Paradise” or FUDIP was my first multi-track recording for public consumption. I produced several versions before I passed it to my mixer Ndong Essinga, who then made several more versions. It’s interesting to hear the evolution of the song, our choices along the way. I could cut an album with the 9 or 10 variants, along with incidental music that didn’t make the final version.

I think that’s the trick of this movie thing, to excel we’ve got to be paying careful attention. I want to squeeze the most intelligence out of the time and money I’ve invested. DOG may or may not be an Oscar winner or even a nominee, but it will be THE hyper jump for me, an artist who makes movies – if I learn.

There’s yet another argument against abdicating creative control. The decisions and audacious mistakes that inevitably follow are whole point. If I assign my project to an alien aesthetic, even if the mandango or mamasita is some kind of hot shot bad ass super success, I loose the lessons. I wouldn’t be developing my own voice which is certainly the reason for doing any of this crazy shit. I am here to make the movies that are unique to this dude, and when I do I’ll find a huge audience waiting, just for me… guarantee!

As I dive back in, there will inevitably be tangential ideas and inspiration. These I’ll write down for later review, deep storage…

edit (tools)

• image placeholder or describe what’s seen
• new script
• index cards
• image cards

qualities

• humor / backstory / sublime / detachment

story elements

• live action – audience rapport that’s me • dialogue, emotion, conflict, interaction
• radio voices – tell • eavesdrop / narration / exposition
• nature reclaims  – show • catastrophe = beauty / voyeur / god view / HO scale train layout
• signage / graffiti • implied / givens / premise /  assumptions / culture eg “we reget to inform you that your civilization is dead”
• spooks • surveillance / power / masters of the graveyard / fools / magic / mystic / traitors / liars / manipulation / pinnacle / death culture / awakening / hope
• distributed processing / distributed consciousness • future hinted at by Gerry

remote viewing concept final (written before tunnel version)

• I like, but it needs establishment that I like better – view out the window, bike, etc.

“three intros”

• dressing for date w/radio
• nature reclaim w/ music
• act I flashback (actual white flashes)

“exposition holo” (4, 3, 2)

• there are nice tie-ins here, it’s illustrative! Where does the radio come from?
• What about a rough an hard radio intro with diverse images then classic theme song?

The theme song and VFX flourishes

• There are close up, detail shots and wide shots. What about a slight zoom in at start of detail shots and slight pull back on start of wide shots?
• Could the classic intro with theme song be only about local boat shots (cu) with storytelling details?

boat VFX

• Signs on big boat – typhus quarantine do not enter. Flags and banners on ship hanging from lines, laundry
• “lord pity us” “plague ship” “no virgins on board” ← like the “baby on board” sign
• exit sign cover props – need a little touch up

gritty titles as suggested by rendering errors in FCP 7

• harsh shit – theme music – let the clear white titles slip into grit and cognitive warble

cutting the dialog, slicing it up

• important it’s slow
• some of the best parts need time.

“holodog 3:00 6”

• act 2 3:30 – 12:00 8:30 minutes!
• Establish Christina in cabin daydreaming, she might be listening to radio
• cut aways to radio and bad shit
• cut aways during joe scene – dream or no
• then she’s in the hallway knocking
• spent shells everywhere especially by her feet as she’s walking in
• “quality of my erections” add back in “hasn’t always been that way” √ tested, seems feasible
• you remind me of someone – uj. Early uncle joe scenes acting like Gerry. The plodding walk, what else?
• There have to be more connections between uncle joe and PKD. It’s a crucial reveal
• my uncle did, little longer
• grain up the rest of act 2 to match the CU’s on Christina
• cut away when Gerry’s almost closed bathroom door

Christina’s cabin, montage approached as an actual experience – rationale

• radio broadcast, she’s listening, daydreaming goes on and on, flashing images, her memories. Is she dreaming? Fast flurry her past, what she’s seen, heard, etc.
• the ring snaps her out, she’s coming out of her reverie reluctantly. “Hello?” and opening song.
• Christina bubbles establish : intense flashback/fast : ring : theme song: act 1 : hall : act 2 : end
• blip blip blip, popping bubbles… blip blip blip blip blip… popping bubbles
• premise, Christina is day dreaming. Maybe her singing is heard under the radio broadcast
• she has flashbacks, disturbing
• then it’s a joke, she makes it that way, slowing down, she sticks in a theme song…
• it’s a situation comedy maybe there’s brady bunch or partridge family rerun shots or shows from the 2010s since she is about 20 something and it’s probably around 2030 or so. Fake shows, no shows, she doesn’t remember TV ver well, TV and her child life blend because it went away before she got old enough to differentiate between TV and real.
• Two shots, young joe with Christina, bed time story PKD with Christina.
• could she add joe’s remote viewing app to the beginning, as if he is watching her?
• Joe’s death (hit by a truck?)he’s calling out to her “Christi” as he crosses road, in suit or no? Perhaps not. (Hat is missing)
• any other business to hook up joe’s game playing, “I am the resurrected John F Kennedy, mythological american president, and I have come back to show adorable young ladies a good time! Ask not what your country can do for you, Christina, but what you can do for me!”

variation

• starts with Gerry Answering door and Christina saying, I’ve been sent to fuck you. Cut to flashback… joe device
• G clomps to door : sent by god : theme song : in our last episode : remote view answers phone :
• (previously on dexter)
• reprise act 1 : act 2 : endings

ADR

• we can tweak the audio for the move consonants and vowels for better lip match.

Remembering the characters

• Joe is a clown, a troublemaker. He jokes around not to placate, entertain or distract aggressors, but from the place of having been through and seen indescribable horrors, battled for his life and emerged intact. He’s a fast talking charismatic badass with his own agenda. He makes folks feel that whatever he’s got going on, they’ll enjoy the ride if they go along.
• Christina’s been through some shit and is used to going alone, her relationship history has been idiosyncratic to say the least, there hasn’t been anyone like her uncle yet. She’s distrustful, but glad to toss common sense aside when her magic uncle shows up from the beyond the grave. It’s permission to do something wild, a shot of strong spirits, she no longer has to be a vulnerable refugee constantly careful.
• There’s a con game afoot but she’s willing to be the mark, it’s always worked out for her in the past to do what her uncle suggests and he is the only family she’s found in years.

Joe’s lair

• Tunnel far – mid – near. (Currently it’s far, mid, inside.) With each shot there’s more and more grisly warnings – mined, nuclear, biohazard, skeletons, burned tanks or humvee, spent shells everywhere. Skeletons on blue with uniforms, jumpsuits. Lightpost, this light powered by clean solar energy.

Christina’s cabin

• Add in radio, she turns it off.
• CU on bubble popping, each bubble popped is an explosion
• He gives her hat.

VFX

• mediatronic boxes – have animated logos, gently pulsing, like waves, organic rhythms
• dream flip vision edit

Let’s talk 3 versions. There’s a working 3:30 minute core, ready to get sleeky.

The 2011 approach to the final cut is to cut to the core and add back in. Story support – what’s worth adding to deepen, reveal and nuance the story. I want to use the word complicate, but that’s in the sense of going beyond duality, clear cut good and evil, two genders.

Nuance, deepen, enhance, reveal. With the Uncle Joe bookends the core becomes 5:20. I’d like to finalize a 5:30 version. Then there’s the grail, 12 minutes. Finally, we’ve got 26:40 version which could be dramatically influenced by the discoveries of 5:30 and 12:00. 12:00 needs to be confirmed as the ideal festival length, btw. Certainly around or less than 12:00.

So that’s three versions. The shorter versions are subsets of the longer versions, so the same motion graphics can be plugged into all three.

What does this mean for my festival strategy? Should I submit both the shorter versions to the same festivals, what would happen? Why not have two or even three versions tailored to different festivals? Just as 12 is the festival sweet spot and 26:40 is the length of a typical TV episode, is there an optimal short length? Research required.

A transcription of pro tem Producer El Carne Loco’s interview with Director Dan Kelly regarding Daughter of God’s first milestone completion in 2011.

ECL: Regarding the 3 minute version, what do you feel was accomplished, did it meet your expectations? What did you learn? How does it bring you closer to completion?

DK: I expected the 3 minute edit to open a window on the 12 minute edit. 12 minutes is 4 times longer than 3 minutes after all, so if I could extract a 3 minute core, that might tell me something about how to achieve 12 minutes elegantly. Certainly my expectations were met and exceeded. Not only did I extract a core, I also stumbled onto a technique I’m calling sleek. By adding back tiny chunks of context, the core started to become much more than a recap of last week’s episode. This isn’t a huge leap – there’s an awful trend in big budget fight and chase scenes where everything is happening so fast you have no idea what’s happening, and somehow that’s become stylistically acceptable. What I am proposing is a visual dynamic that’s chopped and accelerated but at the same time comprehensible and relevant. This reminds me of Marc Garanger’s Regard for the Planet (1989) which was a huge influence.

So not only do I see how I might achieve a powerful 12 minute cut, it feels very doable. It’s not scary any more. Perhaps the answer has been percolating for the past few years and was ready to pop out.

Also, I was reviewing sequences and tinkering with the footage before I cut the 3:30, and made a prototype opening that emphasizes the character of Uncle Joe. He’s watching all the other characters via a remote viewing app on his personal geek spy thingy. I tacked that onto the beginning and then book ended with another surveillance shot at the end. This new version was 5:20 and it really snaps the middle two acts into focus. It’s pretty clear that if I reinsert a bit of exposition between the two acts (like Christina’s infamous clothing dance), I’ll have a functional framework.

After I get the inventory in place, I’ll be ready to rough in all the components of the 12 minute structure. It’s kind of hard to believe I’m saying this, but I think two weeks is a reasonable time to execute the final cut, sans motion graphics of course.

ECL: You have a milestone of having the comprehensive inventory ready by 8/15. That’s 2 days away. How’s it going?

DK: Probably I’ll miss it. I was taking care of a 5 year old the last two days, and I’ve spent most of today blogging about 3:30 and the debacle with Faisal. That Faisal, he carries a lot of responsibility for throwing off the schedule. Last time we talked he couldn’t stop complaining about the actress who played Christina. You know, he’s from one of those terrorist countries and only recently became a US citizen. I can’t say for sure, but I think he’s trying to assert his cultural independence by dissing the defacto symbol of American empire – tall leggy blondes. It’s like an obsession with him. So silly – she’s Swiss for heaven’s sake. If he crawls back begging for another chance, it will be there in black and white – shut up about the lead actress already.

Anyway, I’m going to push the inventory milestone back 5 days to 8/20, which could delay the delivery of the final cut to around 8/7. I’m going to say 8/4, because I have a hot date on 8/5 and I’d like to have my plate clear.

ECL: Why is the comprehensive inventory important? Why not just dive right into the final cut?

DK: Why not cook an omelet without eggs and butter? If there’s one thing I’ve learned about sailing Hobie Cats on the open water, it’s this – get organized and be prepared, your life might depend on it. Ditto for making movies. While sorting through the DOG last week, I found wads of clever little experiments. There’s tons of discarded takes that I really ought to review, there might be a few seconds of cutaway that could save my life. By making the inventory, I’ll have the content bright and big in short term memory. I’ll know just where to put my hands on it drive wise. With instant access, I can really move. My dreams will be full of DOG and I’ll wake up with 10 ways to solve any riddle. Here’s another way to look at it – imagine a swimming pool full of water. If you magically took all the hydrogen away, you could sit on the bottom of that pool and breathe the oxygen, but could you brew a fine porter?

ECL: That last part was a little slushed, but it’s getting late. Last question. What’s the inventory consist of specifically?

DK: Says you. I’ll identify and describe the main sequences. Some of these contain unique combinations of components, so I’ll make a brief analysis of those. For example, the shortwave radio broadcasts might be under a post apocalyptic montage in one sequence and under Christina changing in another, it’s worthwhile to review what the benefits and drawbacks are of both approaches, what connections they might suggest, etc. I’ll identify the strongest alternate takes of Acts 1 and 2 and riff on what they might be good for. I want to find every DOG analysis and publish them on the blog. There’s supplemental material (b roll) that ought to be reviewed and described. I’ll have to revise the motion graphics and VFX roster and figure out if anything can be intelligently contracted to other artists. I was also thinking of creating a printed reference bible that could be deployed on the bulletin board for rapid visualization, as a supplement to standard index cards. That about covers it.

She’s back! Daughter of God is in the house.

3:30 minutes

The first objective was to post a micro version of the story (~3:00 minutes) by Wednesday 8/10.  Between Sunday 8/7 and Wednesday 8/10 I was able to dedicate 11 hours to extracting the essential moments from Acts 1 and 2.

The last time I had tried to cut DOG down was 2009. While going from 26:40 to 12:00, I had explored the “Previously on Dexter” approach, borrowing from the recap style of episodic TV – DOG as an orphaned episode from a trans-dimensional dramedy.

The 3 minute cut was feeling like that, which was fine. Even so, I experimented with adding just enough back to soften the jarring continuity breaks and jump cuts. The final 3:30 version points to a possible hybrid between recap and traditional editorial, an accelerated narrative, sleek. How many shots are needed to depict action? <1. What is needed to feel flow? Can I develop a hand cranked compression algorithm for cognitive coherence? Imagine distilling a story down to essential information rich packets, streaming across the screen.  To be continued…

Two versions were posted by 8:00 pm on 8/10 – the no frills 3:30 cut and a 5:20 version with an Uncle Joe beginning and ending tacked on.

So what was the objective of the 3 minute version? From the previous post…

A working edit of approximately 12 minutes is the grail. How to get there? 1) Feeling like an editor and 2) establishing inner and outer inventory are key. Another strategy is to limber up with an audacious exercise – cutting a 3 minute version. If I can bust it down to 3 minutes, then 12 minutes will feel like extravagance.

Feeling like an editor means feeling competent and inspired. Reacquainting myself with the material to the point where I could pull off a 3 minute version has been exhilarating. Though there are gaffs, blunders and horrible errors to deal with in DOG, I know I can find a way. This confidence is both authentic and vital. Finishing a first film is tough, especially 5 years after shooting. Every aspect of the plan should generate energy and enthusiasm. Momentum is everything.

The 3 minute cut illustrated how a comprehensive inventory is clearly the next step – I’ll want a full palette. What I don’t have I can make, but there’s no point remaking what already exists. It’s amazing how many intriguing exploits I discovered rooting through the archives.

Cutting the project down to 3 minutes showed the way. The 12 minute cut now feels totally doable, especially since I have the “sleek” technique in my toolbox. I know the 3:30 is going to be the basis of longer cuts, as the 5:20 illustrates. I could even do several 3 minute variants, just to be sure I’ve got the best of all possible cores.

Faisal out the house

On Thursday 8/11 a slight snafu. After Faisal had checked out the shorts, he and I had a rather rushed and one sided conversation. I was excited to share my lessons from the latest achievement, what the 3 minute edit suggested for the future and why I was so energized to be back in the saddle. Rather than listen and get the report, he started giving unsolicited… creative… opinions. Thus was revealed our mutual mistake – we hadn’t clearly defined the Producer’s job description in writing.

Faisal is an accomplished editor, with scads of narrative and doc projects to his credit. He’s now working on a complex doc for theatrical release that will likely capture some serious kudos. He’s hooked up and has contacts. More important than all of that, I like him. We eat the same sort of food.

In early December 2010, over cups of mint tea at 12 chairs in Soho, Faisal offered to be DOG’s Producer. What I thought I heard him say was that he would help me to set realistic goals and follow up on their achievement. I recall we talked about how I might draw upon his extensive editorial experience and network. I’m sure I said that I would retain complete control over the creative direction. That was what I remember. I really appreciated my friend’s offer to help. Knowing that he would be engaged and expecting results felt like motivation.

Jeez, how many times do I need to get my ass kicked about contracts, letters of agreements and the like?  I had intended to discuss this with my entertainment lawyer, Innes Smolansky, oops. Faisal and I didn’t even review our understanding on the phone. Nine months later, what I wanted and what he was offering were completely at odds. So, I fired him. Heck, he was going on vacation for a few weeks anyway. When he returns – if he’s still crazy enough to want to help – we can put our expectations in writing and reactivate.

Generally, a Producer’s job description varies based on the specific requirements of the project AND the unique super powers of the prospective Producer. In an ideal world what’s wanted and what’s available are matched.  Handy producer attributes include being well connected in the biz, technically savvy, organizationally fluent, socially adept, open minded and svelte of ego. At the minimum they ought to be a movie enthusiast with project management hutzpah.

DOG’s producer should be able to understand the completion plan, offer cognizant feedback about time, budget and resource requirements, monitor progress and follow up to make sure milestones are met. DOG could use a pragmatic savant, an accomplished artist who is thrilled by threading nuts onto bolts.

Here’s what I wrote to Faisal after our talk…

The objective is to finish this movie. I’m building a plan for completion and working the plan. Knowing that someone is out there providing a reality check for the plan and making sure deadlines are met is highly useful. It might also be helpful if you tried to understand my vision and get behind it, though that’s not absolutely necessary.

Getting behind my vision is not absolutely necessary because the Producer’s job description doesn’t include creative direction. I can’t afford to complicate the completion process with conflicting visions of what DOG should be. One cook is plenty for this soup.

Stepping up as Producer pro tem is El Carne Loco. He’s been building sweat equity on DOG since it’s inception. Here’s an interview transcription.

After updating the archive’s catalog the last couple of days, (40 terrabytes worth), I was finally ready to crack the DOG project this morning. Upon reviewing the major sequences, I had a series of epiphanies.

Inventory

Cataloging the possibilities will facilitate good decisions. Along with the main acts there are elements of back story, exposition, plot nuance, character development, premise, world mechanics… after principle production I found many facets of my story to explore, there’s quite an inventory. Unfortunately, the interface of FCP is like looking down a tube, it’s too narrow to see everything, to visualize the relationships between scenes. I need peripheral vision.

There’s index cards certainly, but I’d also like to have images of the scenes to spread over a bulletin board. The process of printing visuals for every major moment will build my inner inventory, hook the neurons up.

I, Edit

It’s an old adage – a movie is made three times. Once with the script, twice with the production and thrice during the edit. I might argue that SFX is a fourth movie (motion graphics,  foley, etc.) but let’s keep it simple.

Each mode has it’s own unique flavor. Storytelling via editorial is different from writing and production. A writer might describe a scene very specifically, but the cinematographer takes the scene beyond the script and moves more deeply into the story. Auspicious editorial can reach the root.

To dive deep, the edit shouldn’t try to serve the script or the shots, it’s got to serve the story. Since I wrote and shot DOG, I might have fixated on those achievements and forgotten that there was a new movie to make. What is the story that the edit will tell?

Now I’m fresh and feeling very free, ready to dance and deliver. I am excited to reengage with the content and extract the magic… and you guess what?

There IS magic!

I made lots of mistakes on location and coupled with the usual unforeseen catastrophes, the raw material isn’t ideal. Welcome to my first film. Even so, I must say… there are moments. Enough I think, maybe just.

Milestones

The current cut is 26:40 in length. For film festivals,  a working edit of approximately 12 minutes is the grail. How to get there? 1) Feeling like an editor and 2) establishing inner and outer inventory are key. Another strategy is to limber up with an audacious exercise – cutting a 3 minute version. To make this fly, only the essential elements can survive. If I can bust it down to 3 minutes, then 12 minutes will feel like extravagance. I’ll start with revisiting the actual script… What’s essential to the story? Any fat? Simplify!

August 6th is drawing to a close. By Wednesday August 10, I’ll have my 3 minute version. That’s 3 days or a minute per day! The next objective is to complete the inventory by August 15, 8 days from now. With the inventory in place, I can then begin the 12 minute cut using placeholders for SFX elements. I want a working version by September 5, when the lady returns from Spain. I may then take a short break and visit NYC for a week.

After all this, I’ll project the next set of milestones. The remainder of September will probably be dedicated to testing with anonymous audiences. Depending on the results, I’ll either do another edit iteration or move into SFX.

Faisal in the house

Faisal Azam has generously offered to produce DOG, which basically means riding herd on me. We talked on the phone today and he gave me the green light on these deliverables. 3 minute version, here we come!

Matt Monroe, Born Free

…and basking in beauty, that’s the summer of 2011. Hello World has been beached (blossomed) for a solid year following her crippling injury 30 miles north of Chicago that ended our 2010 expedition.

She’s communing with the flox and vetch across the street, waiting for repairs. Patrick and I are converting a storage shed into a workshop and that’s where she’ll be before the snow flies. I’ll mend her over the winter.

Meanwhile, she’s watching over another exploration of sustainability – the Lauren di Scipio memorial vegetable garden.  I’ve followed the weed free (layer cake) method – with commercial organic soil in some beds and composted horse poop from Willy and Marijke Church in others. Unfortunately, the entire plot is shadowed by the backyard bluff and misses most of the morning sun. The corn patch is growing in a wedge shape, plants are progressively lower the closer they are to the bluff. There couldn’t be a clearer demonstration of solar power.

So what’s the prognosis for Around Lake Michigan, Search for Sustainable Civilizations? Will there be another expedition? What about posting movies from the rest of the 2010 expedition? What the hell has Dan Kelly been doing for the last year?!

After the 2010 expedition ended, I decided to leave NYC and return to Michigan full time. I enjoyed the summer on Crystal Lake, intent on posting the expedition movies and evaluating the project. The abrupt end of the sailing may have been more discouraging than I was able to admit, my passion for the project waned and… I got distracted.

In August, documentation of Gretchen Eichberger’s American Document flowed into discussions about starting a performance company, which ultimately triggered a traumatic misunderstanding. Though our friendship has bounced back, we’ve since steered clear of any significant collaborations.

In September the lads and I joined my brother Mike for a trip down the San Juan River in Utah. My no jet travel protocol and recent ALM experience prompted me to do a little trickstery critique of James Weston’s Africa documentary in November.

Speaking of James, my experience with Mykl Werth’s partner dance methodology started an extensive exploration of how Mykl’s classroom technique could be translated to video. We started in October but by the spring of 2011, disagreements with Mykl about the business model ended the project.

Also in September, the Trickster Pictures motion graphics show reel was re-activated, featuring work by myself and the Bear Lake Kelly brothers. We posted Version 0.9 in May of 2011.

From October 2010 – March 2011, I taught Tai Chi at Studio on Main in Frankfort, which Patrick and I have since moved to the house. Joe Cissel, Patrick and I were also teaching ourselves combat mime for most of the winter.

In the spring, I conned James into forming a production affinity group, the Michigan Movie Makers. After the first meeting, James was off to film school in Montana,  but fortunately a slew of other local production VIPs have stepped into the breach. M3 had a presence at the recent Traverse City Film Festival, and I ended up volunteering for the TCFF video team and helping to edit a video for the Awards Ceremony.

The inventory of distractions wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention the house I’d neglected for the last 6 years. The furnace was toast, skylights leaking, etc. Still some stabilization required before real weather returns.

In the fall of 2010, I made a commitment to focus on current projects and not start any new ones. The Gretchen and Mykl dalliances were definitely new business – and they both tanked. M3 is also new business but has been justified as support for my relocated production presence. The other initiatives were arguably old business and have reached various stages of completion. However the two most important pre-existing projects – Daughter of God and Around Lake Michigan – have not been touched!

I haven’t been eating lotus only, progress has been made on various fronts and life is good. I even have a steady girlfriend and the possibility of an instant family.

But… I’m done with distractions. Now let’s be a laser beam, it’s time to make my movies. Since DOG has been on the back burner the longest, it’s first in the queue.

ALM is right after DOG. If we count the reconstruction of Hello World this fall, ALM will be happening concurrently to some degree. The next expedition of ALM will have to be re-thought if it’s going to accommodate sailing, movie making and distribution all at once. After Fukushima, I’ve been thinking about all those reactors I sailed by. What chance does a powered down civilization have surrounded by nuclear bombs? 10,000 years of toxic threat seems pretty daunting, maybe ALM needs a tighter focus.