The Supposition of Steven’s Vernacular

Post production was delayed on my newest endeavor. Paid work, especially work that pays well, takes precedence. It’s the way of life. I’m no communist, and I prioritize the work regardless of how soul crushing it is to deny the muse her attentions. The hardest part is that I love my job. I get paid to edit and do graphics work. Who can really complain about getting money to do what they love in some form? Therein lays the conundrum. I don’t hate the day job work, yet it keeps me from focusing on the artistic work that I strive to improve and expound upon.



After some preliminary tinkering with the footage, I’ve decided to bring in another editor other than me to work on the cut. I’m too close to it. I want to select the takes, but the actual cutting is more difficult for me on this project. I have the luxury of every single take looking great and the performances were very good. The curse is that I have too many options and making decisions get a lot harder.

I may have spoken too soon about my writing. Why is it that the dialogue sounded so good in rehearsal, and now I kinda hate what I wrote? I’m thinking of stripping a lot of the dialogue down to its essentials, and telling the story more visually.

HEALTH
I had another health scare last week. Much pain in my ankle and walking became very difficult. Luckily, Dino Tripodis came to the rescue with a HOUSE M.D. promo item for the series, a cane. I have only recently discovered and fell in love with this show, mostly because of the ties to Sherlock Holmes. When I first got the cane, I was more or less retarded in my usage since I’ve never had or used a cane before. Amazingly, with pain the proper use of the cane came to me in milliseconds.

Evolution - 1
Creationism - 0

So I’ve been limping everywhere and nicknamed GIMPY by several people. All those Special Olympics jokes are coming back to haunt me.

Karma - 5,763
Ross - 6,399

I’m still ahead.

I’ve been collecting HD-DVD’s now from AMAZON.COM. I’m getting titles for $1-$3 each, so I’m even getting movies I have never seen and quite possibly will hate (I.E. THE FAST & THE FURIOUS, and the ubiquitous sequel 2FAST, 2FURIOUS). I love that if I order $25 worth, shipping is free, and so costs stay low. I love my HD-DVD/BLU RAY combo player. I took my old HD-DVD only player into work for the 32” TV there and an old surround sound setup. It’s like having a home theater at home and at work.

Later my friends.

- PJR

Brain-Hammer

I have some time to myself this week. The Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ is on vacation with her family and I had some work to do. I’m going to be doing some writing this week. I plan on taking a few days off to go off somewhere and just WRITE. If you have been reading this blog for the past several years, you can clearly see a former writer/director that became more of just a director because I lost some faith in my own writing. After working with some other writers and also this year doing some more writing, I’ve regained some of that lost faith in my own ability to write. If I’m properly motivated, and I feel it in my heart, then I can write. So now I plan on writing my next project myself. Here comes draft 9…


So as I gear up for another season conventions and having a dealer table to sell items, I came up with another disc. I compiled all my educational videos onto a single disc and plan to sell it. I may even put this on AMAZON.COM, but eh, I may not. It all depends. Maybe if I make a few more videos like this, of which I had plans, but have been put on hold.

Now, there’s something educational. Let’s talk about editing on a feature film. Some people, a surprising number of people, don’t understand the most standard workflow of editing on a feature film. In several cases, if the audio was recorded separately from the picture (which is always the case with celluloid film), you need to synchronize (or short hand “synch”) the audio to picture. That’s where you match the sound of the clap to the “Clapper” which is the slate. After that, the initial edit of scenes, in most cases is just a basic cutting of the scenes in script order and they tend to be long. The name for this edit is THE ASSEMBLY, or assembly edit or assembly cut. This can often mistakenly be called a “rough cut”, but the rough cut is really the NEXT edit. The assembly of APOCALYPSE NOW and THIS IS SPINAL TAP are bootlegged as “rough cuts” and that propagates the misnomer.

The 2nd edit is the ROUGH CUT. Once you start to attack the movie from the assembly of scenes, and really start to dig in, you are doing something beyond the basic cutting of the film. The 3rd cut, often called THE FINE CUT is where all the notes from relevant personnel from the producers to directors, etc. are incorporated from the ROUGHT CUT and trimmed away, or put back in as may be the case. The FINE CUT is where radical re-arrangement of scenes, dropping scenes, etc. usually (but not always) occurs. This is usually where pick up shooting comes from, etc. You also wouldn’t’ want to screen anything but the FINE CUT to any kind of audience. The FINE CUT is what studios usually show to test audiences, and never any earlier versions. This is where temp music is placed and used to really start selling the movie.



After the FINE CUT comes the FINAL CUT, which means picture lock. That may or may not have the final FX shots, color correction or sound mix, but they often call it PICTURE LOCK because you aren’t really cutting any more or re-arranging the shot to shot edit.

So these are the four main stages of editing, especially on a feature film.

ASSEMBLY -> ROUGH CUT -> FINE CUT -> FINAL CUT

It terrifies me that people making movies don’t know this simple procedure on a feature film. I never went to film school, but even I know this. The procedure has been around now for nearly 100 years (since the mid-late 1920’s). It works. It works well.

One thing is for sure, I really am learning how much I know and don’t know about making movies every single day. All I know is that I don’t want to keep teaching people what I know. I want to work with people that I don’t have to explain this stuff to. I want to work with professionals, not amateurs. I’m done babysitting.

- Peter John Ross

A Cantankerous Buffoon

I inserted the new pickup shots into the new short film I’m working on. It’s only been 3 months. WOW, I feel better though. They fit in very well for continuity, but far more importantly, they make the edit flow much much better. The performance fit like a glove and it’s amazing to have an actor acting against no one (me) in a pickup and in the edit, have it seamlessly feel like these two people were interacting on the spot. What I am most pleased with is my discipline to make sure it was right before giving up on it. Even 2-3 years ago, I would have accepted the error and just went with it instead of working to correct it and make it as good as it can be. I’m glad I have raised my standards on myself.

Friday I worked until nearly midnight on the graphics. I started to find that groove place. I made major headway and got about a 3rd of the shots done. It feel better to have some FX that need tweaking in place even though I might have to re-do them or replace the shots later. The piece begins to come together more cohesively.

At the end of the night, I put the movie to Quicktime ® in 1920x1080 24P so I can view it at home on Ye Olde 42” LCD TV. Now, talk about an eye opener. The amount of detail you see blown up at full resolution jolted my eyes a bit. Things I thought too small to be concerned with blared up and smacked me. I need to type 24 pages of what should have been a tiny word scroll on screen. I have to paint out 3 millimeter long logos that I never saw before. High Definition means more detail and that translates to a lot more work and effort. There’s no skimping in HD.



ZUNE – My buddy Maurice sent me an unsolicited gift, a 300 gig ZUNE from Microsoft ™. This is one of those cool gifts because it’s something you might not ever go get yourself, but it’s a really damn cool toy. It can play videos, music, and you can store pics on it too. My sole complaint (not to my friend, but in the design) is that it’s really odd about getting the accurate video settings, so most of my videos will have to go through 2-3 steps to get them on the damn thing. Now that I’ve got the best settings, I’m putting about 100 hours worth of video of various things on it tonight and tomorrow.

I think the purpose of the portable media device Zune was a not so subtle attempt to get me to exercise more. Shows that I might otherwise sit on my ass to watch, I can watch while walking, you know at the park so I can ignore nature. I have a weekend long delay on starting any real exercise because of the technical glitches of getting stuff on the damn thing…



I watched the Blu-Ray of the DAVINCI CODE, an extended cut of the film. I read the book, loved it, and was lukewarm about the movie the one time I saw it in the theater and never wanted to see it again. Since the sequel (prequel book, sequel movie) ANGELS AND DEMONS is about to come out, plus I have 3 years of distance from the book, I gave it another whirl. I liked it a LOT better this time. I couldn’t remember anything added to this movie, but there’s 26 minutes of new material in it. I guess it stays remarkably loyal to the source material and this viewing was so much more enjoyable (mostly because of my LACK of expectation).



We went and saw the new STAR TREK in IMAX. I liked this a lot too. I’m not a Trekkie or Trekker, however I can see some serious continuity errors on many levels, but you know what? I DON’T CARE. If all you care about is how it wasn’t possible to identify a Romulan by site in 2231*, then you don’t enjoy movies they way a normal person does. This movie was for normal people, not Trekkies. It moved at about a million miles an hour, but the first sequence was incredibly well done and emotional to boot. It still did not dethrone WRATH OF KHAN as the greatest thing TREK has ever put out there, but if the only 2 movies of STAR TREK anyone sees is this new one followed up by WRATH OF KHAN, the franchise might warrant more respect.


Enjoy the days,
Peter John Ross


• I have no idea Trek timelines, so if this inaccuracy is notated by you, then you are a TREKKER…

Anagrams and Deviant Art

I have a minor secret. I want to tell people, but devilry and not a small amount of childishness prevent me from being forthright. So I came up with a fun way to delay the inevitable revelation.

Here are two anagrams, a free DVD of the latest Sonnyboo HD shorts to the first to get them correct:

am so free man, join

and

sore Nina Joss



The answer to one of these is also the password to seeing the latest sonnyboo produced short film, directed by Joanne Fromes on VIMEO.COM. http://www.vimeo.com/4110271


Refractory from Peter John Ross on Vimeo.

I named the short REFRACTORY, as the word significantly relates to the subject matter. Here’s a secret, I like big words; as if the titles to my blogs were not a giveaway to that little secret. A huge hint to the anagrams is in the paragraph above, as one of those words is in both…



I finished the edit today, at least for now. I am tinkerer, so I expect some revisions and changes at some point. Thank God for a Terabyte drive because for color correction I used uncompressed video files. I chose a vignette look for this to emphasize characters and it worked out in my opinion. The images were pretty good as is, with a consistent color and look. I chose not to over process it too much. I pulled about 15% saturation from the overall image to “depress” the look. We set out to make a green or blue tint, but since the location was primarily red and burgundy, that really didn’t work out so well. I’m not at all disappointed, though.

To emphasize some dialogue and other points, I digitally added two small camera moves. The beauty of HD is that I can manipulate the images a lot in post to do this. I had not considered these camera moves on the day, but here I am 9 weeks later popping in tighter, zooming in. I love the control that editing has over the whole process. You can rethink almost anything and in the High Definition world, we have latitude to affect the picture a lot with little loss in quality.



The music should be sparse. In some ways the sound design and score is same thing here. The sound design is rhythmic and musical, and the music is more ambient and environmental. I love a good sound mix, and one of the lessons I have learned over the years is to bring the volume down and keep it balanced so that you can boost it later more cleanly. If you go for the volume it distorts and no matter what you do later, you can’t un-fuzz the sound, as opposed to being a tiny bit low, you can boost it cleanly.

I’m sending this out to a few peers for review before I make it public. I don’t know if it will be a web video for a while. It’s a drama and not the most appealing to the masses or of interest to many, but it was a story I wanted to tell.

I knew that all I needed was a day or two with a solid block of time to just hone in and focus. I had no new Blu Rays from Netflix, no TV shows to catch up on, and no lingering freelance or day job work handing over my head. I wasn’t particularly in the “mood” to edit, but without these distractions I was able to zero in and get ‘er done.



The sole inhibitor wound up being my kitty “V”. Every time I’d start to cut, he would cry and whine, demanding attention. He was not satiated to sit on the desk and be pat. He brought me many toys that apparently I was meant to play with along with him. Luckily the later processes required a lot of render times, so we could play fetch or in “Cousette’s Cave” (which is me holding a blanket over our heads whilst holding a flashlight). In “V” world, if I am home, my sole purpose is to be his playmate. Cousette is perfectly happy to lie in a ball nearby and pass out.

Starting this coming week, I have one more short film to complete. That includes some pickup shots and one helluva lot of FX shots, but at least it’s edited already…

Now I am to dance the dance of joy, pantsless as usual. Mayhap My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ and I will get around to watching CASABLANCA on HD tonight. Or maybe I can get THE SPOONS ®; it is after all the Zombie Jesus Holiday weekend.

- Peter John Ross,
- All loosey Goosey
Great ZOMBIE JESUS!

Ardently Pithy?

I finally took a day off from work. I stayed home, tried to get some sleep, and the real goal was to edit on these short films shot now several weeks ago. In the blink of an eye, 2-3 hours can disappear as if it was a fleeting moment when moving footage and selecting takes.







I just finished a rough cut and the fine cut of one of these new shorts. By the end of the weekend I’ll have the color correction, score, and sound mix done too. I realized today what my hurdle was, aside from the obvious lack of time. This was the first short I’ve worked on where I was overwhelmed by good choices. Since this was a very short script and we had an entire day to shoot, I explored ideas and performances. This, in the end, gave me in some ways, too many options. I’m much more used to have fewer choices that are good to great. Here I had two women who were giving me variations and all of them usable and interesting. It made the editing go much harder than usual, combined with the higher volume of footage to sift through.



The style of directing I am used to has more economy to it, which has its downsides too. It makes for faster turnaround times, but not always the “great” material. I am shooting for “great” from here on out. If something is not 100%, then I have to work harder to make it 100% and I will not accept less than that anymore.







For NEWS OF THE WEIRD, I offer up some strange tidbits. On AMAZON.COM, my books are for sale. Not new news, but what IS odd is that some store in Florida is selling “special edition” copies for $35+. What makes it a special edition? There’s no email to ask, nor do I have any idea how he’s getting copies outside of buying them himself and that somehow makes them special. Similarly there are used copies of some of my DVD’s from another seller in Seattle that sells my movies in a “collector’s edition” for more than double the retail.



I google myself. In every way you can imagine, I do this. I’m a marketing whore and I want to know what I do that works and what doesn’t. I keep track of my webstats, even when some of the info disturbs me. The disturbing thing is the reading habits for this blog. Some people read this more than once a day. I don’t read my writing or think anything I have to say is worth reading every single day, so why are some individual readers tuning in and re-reading this so often? What is the appeal? Maybe some can answer this for me. I can’t even get My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ to pay attention to one of my long winded stories, so why are some people reading.



On the plus side, I can see several education institutions adding my sites and material to their websites. Either as links to the instructional videos, the free music, storyboard templates, or even the articles, I keep finding links or mentions. The University of North Carolina to USC have all had links to my site and videos. WOW. Seeing my name or site appear in formal syllabus for classes from high school to university film schools, I cannot help but feel honored.







I do worry that some of my formerly philanthropic desires are coming to an end, at least as far as most of my regional filmmakers are concerned. Not too long ago someone was asking about the twitchy handheld filmmaking style. They wondered if it had a name. It does. It’s called Cinéma Vérité. The fact that I know this is a testament to how much research and constant study I do on film. I’m not a genius, nor am I better than anyone else.



The oddity that has occurred is that I now feel displaced. I did not come up the ranks of film school or any form of higher education. I am self taught, and I my history with filmmaking is rooted in the do it yourself, microbudget, digital video desktop editing revolution of the past 10 years. Unfortunately, very few of the people who are a part of this “revolution” have a clue about cinema history, or even technological aspects. They just think because they watch movies and TV that this somehow qualifies them to make a movie. It does, just not necessarily a GOOD movie.







I’m becoming very cynical about the people, especially in my region here in Ohio, and whether or not they will amount to much. Without foundations in cinema history, understanding the mechanics of filmmaking, and real experience making movies without the benefit of learning from professionals (not pretend professionals who think because they watch DVD extras or solely read books somehow qualifies them to be a Pro), I just don’t see many of them ever progressing. There are exceptions of course. There are always the diamonds in the rough, but they are being buried by the masses of talentless wannabes with camcorders and no clue.



Some of my peers, the actual professionals, have been on me for years to stop trying to teach or even interact with the amateurs that are trying. I fought it because I related more to these “Backyard Kubricks” than I did to the professionals I have been working with for 10 years. In the last few months I find myself no longer desiring to impart what modest knowledge I have locals. I feel like I’m giving away an education to deaf ears, or simply wasting my time.



Then again, I have always had this unending drive to share. Every time I learn the simplest of things, I’d share it in a blog, a reply, an email, or on a website, an article, whatever. Can I really turn that off like a faucet?



Check out the adventures of “LITTLE GUY”, a kitty from Columbus Ohio whose adventures have captivated me for a while.





Little Guy from Dave on Vimeo.





Little Guy gets up on the Roof from Dave on Vimeo.





Critter Update from Dave on Vimeo.





Little Guy - Agent of Misfortune from Dave on Vimeo.

Obsequious and Ignoble

Why do I do this to myself? I have a sick, nasty compulsion. I just signed on to edit another feature film for someone. This time, it’s an HD feature where I started out just offering some technical advice, and then the curse of knowledge bit me. Next thing you know, I’m scheduling out how I can get assistant editors in to re-synch audio and convert files.

My desire to see things through to completion, AKA obsessive compulsive disorder, appears not to be limited by my own projects (as if Goodnight Cleveland didn’t already demonstrate that). Now I’ve signed on to put together an editorial team to see another feature through the editorial stages. My role starts out more as a “Post Production Supervisor” because I have to get all the technicals lined up and taken care of. Overseeing the flow of footage, sound, and then assembling the files to a point where creative editing can even start to take place is something, unfortunately, I’m good at. Being organized and anal about folders and systematic ordering of massive amounts of data can hardly be labeled “talent”, but it is a skill. One I’m cursed with. Who am I kidding? I do this to myself.

So already, I hit my first major snag. The footage came from the Canon XH A1 HDV camera. It was shot in 24F, which is Canon’s answer to 24P, or 24 progressive frames per second format, the coveted frame rate of actual celluloid film and the key to making narrative pieces look more “serious”. Since their CCD chips are natively interlaced, they have some kind of work around to getting a pseudo progressive “film like” format. Since this is yet ANOTHER HD format I’m learning in the last 3 months, I have hit the hardest wall so far. My beloved CINEFORM codec is not dealing with the footage as well or automated as all the others have so far. The way CINEFORM handled the Sony Z1U footage, shot in PAL 25 frames per second mode and converted it unconventionally to 24P impressed me so much; I thought there was no mountain I couldn’t climb. Now I might have to go back to the source tapes and re-digitize 29 hours of footage. Ugh.



I plan on finishing the two Sonnyboo produced shorts ASAP. I have another weekend of freelance work kicking me, but I need to stockpile the $. Again, the comedy short is already more or less picture locked, minus the 2 pickup shots. The other one needs a solid 8 hour day to just immerse myself with the footage, watch the cut about 20 times, and start to see what annoys me first. Part of my new editorial process is to kill myself watching a piece over and over until something starts to bother me. You have to utterly destroy your association with the piece by over analysis, then you can start to find things that bother you, and those tend to be the same things that an anonymous person either online or in a theater will see on their first viewing and hate to. This chaotic method works far better than you might think.

I still struggle to carve out time to actually WATCH movies. Tonight I forced in the time to watch the black & white “director’s cut” of THE MIST from Frank Darabont of the Stephen King novella. I liked it the first time, and I even love black and white, but I preferred the color version. No other changes to the movie really. It didn’t suck in black and white, but I don’t think it added anything either. Oh well. It’s so freakin’ cool that we live in a world where a director can have it both ways on the same DVD release, so there’s that.



“V” only semi-hates Jessica Cameron. I suppose its progress. He really really hates Micah Jenkins, so this is definitely several notches more friendly than that relationship, but we had such high hopes that upon their first meeting my baby boy “V” would be more like every other boy on the planet and fawn all over miss Jessica. He let her pet him for about 20 seconds without mauling her flesh, so it’s somewhat hopeful. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ says he has claimed me and I’m his pet. He lays on my desk before me now as I type just purring like a motorboat eyes closed in a blissful sleep.

Whatevah…

- PJR

Indubitably Implacable

I just finished editing the near picture lock on one of the two shorts I produced. I think we need to do a pickup shoot for 2 shots. This was 100% an error on my part, if for no reason than NOT booking a scrip supervisor/continuity person. That job is an all important function, but I arrogantly thought we could go without for a simple 3 page shoot. Was I wrong on that count! Someone needed to remind us to shoot coverage of these 2 lines and we did not. No one check listed the shots with the script and now we’re desperately in need to cover this hole. I won’t be making this mistake again anytime soon.







Tomorrow I should have a picture lock on the other of the two shorts. When I say “picture lock” or the “edit”, that is NOT the end of the process.These are all pre-FX and pre-color correction, not to mention the full sound mix, sound design, scoring, and title phases that ensue. I’m taking my time on each step because it’s not only education, but I want these to be great, not just good. I’m keeping that bar raised for myself and those that work on them.







One of these two pieces will have an intense amount of CGI and graphics work. This will NOT be simple or fast. Working in 1920x1080 at 24 Frames Per Second doesn’t exactly speed up any part of the process either. I’m used to working with standard definition 720x480 graphics, and this full raster HD in a 4:2:2 color space has my computer wigging out a little. Luckily it’s only a 3.5 minute piece, but even then, almost every shot has a digital effect in it. Because of the rigors of post production, I wanted to finish this edit first, so that’s the one that is basically done. I can proceed with the FX since the 2 pickup shots are non-effects shots and it won’t affect anything I do with those. Needless to say this bugs my obsessive compulsive side.







I submitted UNCLE PETE and IN THE TRENCHES to a few film festivals this past week. I’ve taken too long a break from that kind of thing. Time to get back to it and getting the work seen again. Once these two pieces are finished, I’ll really increase their exposure, and not in the poser-wannabe way I see in my cheap imitators. I mean, I’m going to bust ass to get them seen in real places.



I’m even contemplating a summer film festival of shorts. The question is, should it be a COWTOWN FILM SERIES one off event or a LOOK AT MY SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL? I think COWTOWN. The level of excellence for COWTOWN is higher than the way the last screening of LOOK AT MY SHORTS was just kinda trashed. COWTOWN also had better sponsors and I intend to parlay that much bigger. I think I can get some TV ad time on Time Warner-WOW-Insight to really get some asses in seats. It takes months to properly promote and fund an event like this, so if I choose to do this, I’ll commit to dates and start working in less than a month. So I think COWTOWN represents a more professional era and I’ll leave the LOOK AT MY SHORTS to represent the amateurs and posers, of which I was definitely in those ranks then, but not now.







Work has slowed some. What a shock! At least it’s not at a standstill. My prediction? Once we get to the June-July period, people will realize the world didn’t end and start spending some of money they’ve stockpiled. Then some new jobs will open back up and the injuries will begin to heal, slowly but most likely.



I sold several DVD’s in the last few months unintentionally. I always do my duplication at work, and so I usually have some discs lying around. Sometimes commercial clients want to buy a DVD; sometimes it’s an editing class student wanting either the book or a DVD. So I’ve decided to make sure I always have a decent amount of product around. I dedicated a shelf of product at work, and have a box of various DVD’s in the trunk at all times too. You never know when you might want to sell or give a disc away. I run into people from HORRORS OF WAR in various places and want to give them their free copy of IN THE TRENCHES, so keeping some stock handy will save me on shipping.



That’s all for now my bitches. Are you a pretty hate machine?





- Peter John Ross

Chancellor of Rossdonia

A province of Rossdom

Disavowing Jurisprudence

When things move again, they move fast and mightily. On my plate already is post production on a quick green screen short I tossed together this past Thursday night. I wanted to make a commentary on the ever giant Wal-Mart and the media. I was greatly inspired by seeing a TV “news” segment that was glorifying and miraculously sponsored by a hospital during the 11:00 O’clock media coverage that used to be called journalism. This cynicism and sick sense of humor keyed off a new bit. I wrote it quick and called in some actors.

Today I shot the background plate for one section of this bit. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™ has been tinkering with IN THE TRENCHES OF AN INDIE FILM documentary relentlessly since the screening a little over a week ago. She wanted to re-order all the scenes to make it flow better, plus we really agreed with most criticism from the screening which was that the Fly-On-The-Wall B-Roll segments were too long. They cause the overall pacing to drag and people lose interest. I think these sections could be equally effective in less than half the time.

The other thing needed was more on Post Production. I short-changed the entire process in the documentary that played. It was 3 minutes of montage with a quickie voice over to cover the entirety of post. Now we took some of the existing “educational” web docs and fashioned them into the movie proper. Sections on ADR, M&E Tracks, and why & how we deleted scenes fit into the scheme. The actual “editing” process is still skipped a bit, but on a DVD I can use the WebDocs of editing as bonus features.

Speaking of which, the goal is to sell DVD’s of this documentary and DVD as an educational tool. Many people who want to get into making a feature length film can get in depth with the process and really feel what it’s like to take the plunge. Creative and practical decisions with footage make for a demonstrative movie at a budget level more people can relate to as opposed to the huge multi-million dollar productions that are beyond more people’s grasp.

The final touches and clean ups for My Sexy Fiancé Veronica ™’s edit are completed and we’re about to start the encoding for DVD process later tonight. Last night I worked on the DVD art and setting up the distribution with Amazon.com. My goal of 90 minutes has been met, and we’re even 3 minutes shorter than what played barely over a week ago at the Cowtown Film Series, and that’s with 14 minutes of new material ADDED to the movie. It’s another feature I produced, and that’s a goal met.



On the downside, I reviewed footage from much earlier in the year. I had always intended to do this short film but since it relied on snow, it was incredibly difficult to put together. I gave someone a shot at D.P. and after supervising the first few shots I gave over the reins and focused on working with my 7 year old actor. I digitized the footage shortly after that and was disappointed, but didn’t feel rushed to edit this piece. As we enter winter I wanted to re-examine it after not seeing a frame for months. Looking at it now, the footage was not as bad as I remember, but it still falls very far below the standards I am setting for myself for the future.

This puts me in a quandary. I will absolutely not use a frame of this footage and if this short is to be resurrected, it will be re-shot entirely. The stars may not ever align to make this happen again, but I would rather not release anything that is below my current standard of quality. I have to tell my nephew that this piece will never be done. That is not something I look forward to, but I can’t do it. I don’t even have enough footage to cut something together just for him. I don’t blame the D.P., as it was my shoot and making sure the shots I want are there is my job, no one else’s. Let’s just say that my trust of camerapersons understanding me has gone down. I will be absolutely sure I’m getting what I want for all my projects. This is a stinging reminder of my role with the camera as a director.



I’m hoping to get a sole music cue for my new little greenscreen experiment, and I have to create some graphics, plus key in the back ground and I will have a new piece on the market by the end of the week, if not sooner. I love having a greenscreen and studio I can just walk into and shoot on next to my edit suite. I don’t want to take these things for granted and not only let them inspire my creativity, but I need to ACT on these inspirations.



I love being burned in the flames of inspiration right now. 2009 looks to be quite a kick ass year; recession be damned. This year, I defeated my enemies, drank their blood, and sang the songs of victory to the lamentation of their women and children. Next year I conquer more worthy foes and loftier goals. My banner is raised, as are my standards. Let’s just watch as it all unfolds.

To my acolytes of Boo,
I wish you the best

Peter John Ross

Accomplishments in Spite of Insurmountable Obstacles

June 11th, 2007

So we got an assembly of Goodnight Cleveland together. Friday night was significant because Micah & I watched the assembly for the first time. I wanted to stay away from the basic scene edits until the assembly was together, and then start getting into the rough cut and fine cuts. Micah and Jeff did all of the editing, except 2 scenes that I edited because of time constraints. Goodnight Cleveland is a 16mm feature from Miguel Baldoni-Olivencia and produced by my good friend George Caleodis. It was shot in 1996-1997. It has remained dormant until the cost of telecine dropped to the point where I personally paid for the telecine transfers to MiniDV so we could edit on a computer instead of the archaic & time consuming flatbed editing.

The film stars and is about an Improv troupe. That means there was no script. In this case, the entire plotline got improvised when, as happens in indie films, lead actors drop out or don't show up, so they had to make do with a storyline and characters that weren't intended to do one thing or another. Since the producer and director are both living in California, we've been flying blind in terms of putting all the scenes in "order". Some scenes could stand alone & go anywhere, then other ones have continuity for one character, but not another.

We had some technical disasters and we're pushing Adobe Premiere Pro to its limits, and we're finding what those are. For some reason, not all of our edits and changes are sticking. I'll make a cut, and then during playback, it will not be the new edit. Of course, because of originating audio on DAT and synching it to picture, we're doing probably 5-6 layers of SEQUENCE timelines within SEQUENCE timelines before we get to the final timeline master. I think the solution is to make a master timeline that has fewer nestable timelines.

George was set to screen the assembly on Sunday (Yesterday), so we spent Friday night and all day Saturday experimenting. We decided to screen it at Tavares on the digital projector in surround sound (even though it's currently in a MONO mix). This was a new experience for us since we've been editing on a little 6"x7.5" window. We could see details (like a tattoo on an actress' shoulder). Also, the synch was off a little because we could see mouths much closer up on a 6' screen.

The order of editing a feature length movie is simply – an ASSEMBLY, which is taking every single scene shot and putting a rough edit together by placing all scenes in order. From there, you start editing down to the ROUGH CUT, which is where you start to omit scenes and chopping scenes down further. Next comes the FINE CUT, which is where you take all the input from directors, producers, yourself, anyone who sees the movie, and try to make the most sense out of the movie as it is. They say that editing is the "final re-write" or "the last draft of the script" because things that filmmakers INTEND often times don't come across in the actual film. As an example, if two characters are related, but there is no dialogue stating that they are brother & sister, you have to find creative ways to get that information to the audience. It could be ADR, adding a new line from one actor, replacing other dialogue, or it could be shooting a newly made family photo, or a voice over, or any one of a number of ways that was NOT done during the shoot.

We are faced with a first feature film with a lot of good things and a few bad elements. Our goal is to make the best movie possible with the materials at hand. Some scenes are superfluous; others seem like that but have a nugget of plot point in the middle of a lengthy monologue. After talking with George, we have some new ideas, but a DVD of the ASSEMBLY is already being mailed to Miguel, the director, to get his notes too.

I can already start a rough cut because of my own notes after seeing this cut all weekend. Each scene needs some tightening, so going scene by scene won't be a bad thing. We've got about 2 months left on it, as the audio work will take some real time… it's not a small mountain of work.



Just because I had George booked for a whole day, we did a table read of my Dark Comedy script (which George co-wrote with me) at Tavares right after the screening of the assembly. I asked ACTING IN COLUMBUS' Richard Mason to round up a few additional actors to read for me too.

When work-shopping a script, it's crucial to hear the dialogue out loud. Words always sound better in your head than when someone is faced with speaking them. Alliteration, tongue twisters, mistakes, plot holes, and all kinds of things come out at a table read. I want to make this script perfect before I shoot it.

I met some new talented actors, plus we had some fun as the script was read. I recorded it digitally to the hard drive using the really nice mic we normally use for voiceovers. As is usually the case, it took about 20 pages in before people got a little more into their parts, except for a few actors who came out of the gate swinging.

There are some minor problems that need tweaked in the storyline I discovered. There was also some remnants of the "cutting and pasting" from the various drafts that were causing logic-errors that need to be fixed. Obviously some of the dialogue needs tweaked here & there. That will always be the case, even as you shoot (and even in the editing) as dialogue is malleable in my movies. I don't ever let myself fall too in love with specific words that I can't let actors contribute or that someone may come up with something better than I did. I did find a character that was under-developed and then in discussions with George after the read, we found a way to not only re-think the character, we tied her to the plot more.

Overall, the script needed work and that's why I did the table read. Now I know what it needs specifically. That just means I have to make more time to make the changes and do the new draft.

I'm also starting to develop another script with Tony Goins. This is another feature (I don't really make shorts anymore) that will also be comedic, but this one is for later. I have decided I don't want to be a writer, but a producer-director. I like working on the material, but it's better to work with someone else who can add to the project and bounce ideas off of. Collaboration is underrated in many people's view of filmmaking.

Here comes another booked work week. I'm leaving in moments to start another edit job and then when I get home, I'll have another edit waiting for me in the form of an actor's reel. "V" is not a happy kitty. He is really displeased at Brandy working and me working away from home. I think we spoiled him and "V" acts out a lot, and then lies around depressed because he's not the center of our entire day. We have discovered a new joy in a tinfoil ball. I toss it to the top of the stairs and he chases it up and down the stairs as if it's mocking him in some way.

I also signed on to edit another feature, one in HD for the Derek. So I can now say goodbye to all free time I thought I might get this summer. That's okay. I prefer the work. It's better than pretending to be a filmmaker or wasting time doing nothing.

13.5 million views on GROUPER.COM and climbing. This makes me pleased. YouTube is also doing the Boo some good. 74 subscribers, and I've uploaded 41 videos. YouTube still reigns as the giant of online video. It's changed the game single handedly. There are now so many ripoff sites, it's ridiculous.

Anyways, I've got to get going to worky-work.

Have a blessed day, and stay positive.
PJR