Love is Stronger than Justice
Yet another film festival/screening for the local film community has come & gone. This time, the size was enormous. Even bigger than last time, we had a 4 hour program & much to my dismay, we turned down several movies. A “Look at My Shorts III part 2” is already planning for April. My hope to have this be the last one I was involved with has turned into another commitment to administrate one more. Seems I can’t cut my ties as easily as I’d hoped from the short film world.
There were several standout movies. Of particular note was C. Alec Rossel’s THE BAG, and Louie Cowan’s A COLD BLOOD, written and starring Dan Kiely. There was all kinds of brouhaha over being 4 hours and the play order. I don’t care, I’m so sick of everyone’s ego I could vomit. When we first ran over, I gave up my single 2 minute short without hesitation. I make movies for the sole reason of seeing them with a bunch of strangers in a dark room. Losing that opportunity took no time for me to decide. Not everyone is willing to do that.
Soon we’ll have announcements about the next one, and how we can show some of the films that didn’t make it or have been made since. I hope I have even less to do with this one.
Last weekend Brandy & I went to Cleveland for Johnny K. Wu’s premiere of a music video for Sweden’s Bimbo Boy. Brandy was in the music video, along with several Horrors of War alums (like Christine & Chandler Chapman, and Joe Shaw, etc.). Before hand, we ate at C&Y, a Chinese Restaurant Johnny introduced us to after Indieclub one week. I love that place. I spent the evening in a gay bar where I was not hit upon and that was strangely disappointing.
Johnny Wu is the coolest. There are no two ways about it. He and I have a lot in common. Spending a day up at Casa De Wu not too long ago trying to work out a technical issue with an unforgiving quicktime file, I witnessed just how similar his place and lifestyle is to my own. The way filmmakers congregate to our place and work with out equipment, the support structure, and even the drama in the film communities. Johnny has far more tolerance and more generosity than I do. I wish I were more like Johnny K. Wu. Especially in his ability to kick ass, both literally and figuratively.
I don’t know why. I have no real answer. I got a whim, and I did it, okay? I wasn’t even bored. I just got a weird urge & I followed it.
I re-edited Horrors of War.
I’m burnt out on the topic, I’m sick of talking about it, thinking about it, marketing it, and what do I do instead of watch Jon Stewart host the Oscars? I re-edited the thing I’m most sick of. Granted, it didn’t take long, approximately 5 minutes.
I had some weird thought in the back of my mind that said that a re-structuring of the entire timeline of the film into a linear story, as opposed to the “final” edit being a non-linear story. After the cast & crew screening I had this nagging feeling that we lost people with the jumping around.
So I originally was going to just re-structure where the original scene (the one that was never intended to be in the film & where Osbeck & Micah play different characters entirely), goes in the film. I told Phil my idea & he said, why not go all the way & try going back to the original scripted version? I said sure, and proceeded to do it within minutes. There is one exception to this. I left scene 30 in the post opening credits section. There was too much entailed in moving that scene with score, sound mix, and even picture edit cross dissolves that can’t be “undone” at this stage. Everything else was a simple cut & cross dissolve of sound & it was perfect.
This is NOT a “director’s cut” because I edited it alone on a whim without my co-director. It’s what I’m calling the “linear edit”. What I did was go back to the way the script went. We start off with a flashback of D-Day, into scenes 2 & 3, then the opening credits (exactly as intended), then we go out into scene 30, but it then goes into scene 4-29, and 31 to the end. There were intentional character arcs and storylines that got muddled when we went non-linear, telling the story in a flashback here, showing the end first. No matter how many dates & places and “six months earlier” title cards we used, it was NOT making sense. Now it does, and much to my surprise the film is much stronger now.
We went non-linear story after the horrid aftermath of screening the rough cut to our executive producer (see prior Blog entry). Scenes 2-3 were very weak at that point (I take my full responsibility as a director). After pickup shooting, and re-editing the scenes enhanced, we never tried to re-insert the scenes as they were intended. Tony, our executive producer also insisted we use the original scene, which was hard to justify. That scene is still in the new cut, but it takes place later, and makes more sense as a “tease” to a potential sequel (although I have no interest in seeing or making or even allowing a sequel to be made).
To be honest, the more I’ve scene the original scene in the film, the more disappointed I am in the lackluster sound mix on that one scene. It’s too thin. We had managed to make it seem bigger in my own sound mix (although borrowed elements from other films, so it was NOT an option to use that mix properly in the final film). I really feel like it seems smaller & thinner than even the number of guys we had. There was a theory that “if you can’t see it, you shouldn’t hear it” which is ludicrous. Sound makes the picture bigger, not just what you see. Now I’ve added music & some minor sound FX enhancements.
Horrors of War is the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. It’s not a bane because I don’t like it, it’s a pain in the ass because I’ve spent two solid years (almost 3 total) with this and I’d like to be free of it, but I can’t until it’s out there, until a formal release. I dig the movie. I like it a lot, including the flaws and all. I especially like it better now. This new cut, which has been looked at by Greg Sabo, Jon Osbeck, John Whitney, and Phil Garrett, is vastly superior. I’m hoping we can convince our executive producer to accept it as the new & final (for now) cut of the film.
Here’s a secret just for the acolytes of Boo… I think we’re going to have a sneak preview or two of the finished film soon. I’m hoping to convince my cohorts to do this so we can gauge an audience reaction, and give people a chance to see it on the big screen (again), but the public, outside of just cast & crew.
We recorded the Horrors of War commentary tracks this week too. It went from 6:00PM to 4:30AM. I got only one pass, but then again I had my notes & did my homework. Whether we get multiple commentaries or not, my vote is to have one track with intermixed commentary so that it always stays interesting and lively. Each of our tracks by themselves aren’t all that exciting, but taking a “best of” pass will make a really great track, at least in my not so humble opinion.
We were asked why we went into the studio and recorded our own track (and similarly why I’m tackling all the behind the scenes docs myself), well I’m trying to create value for our DVD sale. If we have pre-made, professional grade extras and a studio quality commentary track ready, that’s less work (and thus expense) a distributor can charge us for on the back end. They could & would pay for it, but then we’d pay for that 3X over in the payouts. Since I have access to a studio and a nice professional recording facility, why not use it now?
That’s all I’ve got now. I still don’t feel a 100% and I feel much older than what I am right now. It’s a horrid feeling that I’m hoping to shed as I prepare my next feature that I intend to shoot this summer.
The stars are aligning and I have something special in mind. My first solo feature film effort. This will be interesting. More on that as it develops. Stay tuned my faithful listeners.
Adios Muchachos!
Senor Pedro Juan Rosalez
You amigo on the web
Oh, and watch this not public yet video of the visual FX work from Horrors of War
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