I’ve digitised Simon’s VHS as one long clip and will slice it up into small chunks (165 of them), then replace each chunk with my original material.

Done. It took approximately three hours and involved a bit of slacking off during work time (surely not!). There are still some bits to clean up and a number of points I’ve marked where I want to change things around. That’s tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I wrote to the director of the short I really thought was brilliant the other night, The Least Of These, to say how much I enjoyed it, what I liked about it and to put my name on the mailing list if he ever makes DVDs. He wrote back to say ‘Thanks’ which I thought was really cool; good to make contact with someone whose more or less where you are and making things you think are cool.

Tonight’s film offerings at the same festival were not so good. It was all about use of sound (which was honourable) but the films they choose were mostly sucky. The first one was like 20 minutes of a computer game except that instead of playing, the camera flew around and looked at the walls. Oh, and if I never see another experimental film with shots of the sky through trees, it will be too soon.

Ironically, my first ever shot planned for my first ever short film (waaaay back when) was looking up at the night sky through barren winter branches before tilting down to reveal the actor walking by the Thames…

Make that 165. That’s how many cuts there are in Simon’s version of the film, so that’s how many clips I have. So far I’ve got back 120 of them. Just 40 left to do before I can reconstruct his edit. Then I can compare it with mine and put in the best bits of both…

Except that it didn’t work.

For some reason, my clips didn’t match up with the clips in Simon’s edit at all. Three days later and I’m back to square one. Today I’ve digitised Simon’s VHS as one long clip and will slice it up into small chunks (165 of them), then replace each chunk with my original material.

Or maybe we can just export everything from Avid on to a firewire drive and create a Final Cut Pro project from that material. Then I go to the online editor (Perry) and he redigitises the material at full digibeta resolution and I have a film.

Clear? Good.

I saw this short film yesterday evening, The Least Of These, at a festival just up the road from St Albans, Filmstock. If you get a chance to see it, do. It’s one of those times when you realise someone has incredible talent and has pulled together an equally talented team to create something wonderful, heartwarming and really rather special.

Another outstanding short film of the weekend was Hang Time which is being distributed by Fox Searchlab. Without giving too much away, it’s about this strange guy who shows people how to fly in elevators. No dialog. Very funny. Catch it if you can. This link takes you to a five minute version, which doesn’t include the cinema end, but it’s still great.

It means… that I have 100 clips and they are all showing black and silence

Make that 165. That’s how many cuts there are in Simon’s version of the film, so that’s how many clips I have. So far I’ve got back 120 of them. Just 40 left to do before I can reconstruct his edit. Then I can compare it with mine and put in the best bits of both. Then, at last, I can get back to the composer and audio post-production.

Phew.

Yesterday the EDL turned up from Simon. Yes, nearly six weeks after April 25th. I’ll try importing it into Final Cut Pro at the weekend and conforming my rushes to it. It’s bound to be easy, isn’t it? Taking information from one editing program and importing it into another? Yes. Easy peasy.

Of course, it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t actually possible.

Avid and Final Cut Pro both treat video clips differently. So, even though an EDL is simply a text file listing the start and stop points for each clip of video, FCP ignores that and starts every clip from exactly the same place.

“What does this mean?” I hear you cry. I’m glad you asked. The seven and a half minute film contains about 100 cuts. That means there are 100 different video chunks. And Final Cut Pro starts each of these chunks in exactly the same place when you use an EDL. “Yes, but What Does This Mean?” It means, dear friends, that the seven and a half minute film contains 100 identical clips when you use an EDL.

“Huh?” It means… that I have 100 clips and they are all showing black and silence, so I have seven and half minutes of black and silence instead of a movie using this method of working. “Oh!” Oh indeed. Next game is to digitise the VHS Simon sent me and match up his work, edit by edit. Actually, I only want to match up some of his work because there are places where I prefer my own cut.

Did any of this make any sense at all? Probably not. It’s a learning experience, I can tell you. And not every Apple product works straight out of the box.

April 22nd: Simon the editor hasn’t been in touch for three weeks… I wonder if/when Simon will get in touch…

April 25th: I call Simon and he starts another editing job as an assistant on a new feature in a couple of weeks which means he’ll be able to get me an EDL from Avid then.

Yesterday the EDL turned up from Simon. Yes, nearly six weeks after April 25th. I’ll try importing it into Final Cut Pro at the weekend and conforming my rushes to it. It’s bound to be easy, isn’t it? Taking information from one editing program and importing it into another? Yes. Easy peasy.

Bwahahahaha!

Meanwhile, I’ve finished the press kit in advance (four photos at 300dpi, biogs, synopsis, etc) and the website is looking fine (though I do say so myself). Go look. Plus someone else wants to screen Fate & Fortune in London on June 27th and I’ll actually be able to go along. Yay! It’s not all slog, you know. Sometimes there’s a moment of success.

Just in case I pass this way again, just for the record, I’d like to blog that:

1. The Car is no further and no nearer audio post-production.

2. But it should be next week when Simon is due to get in touch.
3. Yes, we’ve heard that before.
4. The Ascalon Films website may soon get an overhaul
5. I’ve been learning Dreamweaver, After Effects and a smattering of Photoshop this week. Among other things, I can now make stuff fly around the screen, add snazzy rollover buttons to a website and create animated gifs.
6. The jeans I bought about six months ago and have worn perhaps twice are now three inches too large around the waist (inconceivable!) since for this past month I stopped eating chocolate (no, really), started drinking diet sodas (yes, I know) and… And, well, that’s about it.
7. I’ve also learned more about the Mac and can now backup important files (whoop) and use iCal better [You’re reaching here, aren’t you? Quit blogging already! – Ed]
8. X-Men 2 didn’t do it for me because I am becoming old and cynical (instead of merely young and cynical).

Oh, what a mad crazy merry-go-round existence I lead.

I really enjoyed Fight Club. It was original and not what I was expecting at all. I like the fact that it had things to say about modern society as well as having a story–a quirky, off-beat story–to tell. And there were lots of great lines too.

From a film-making perspective, I think it shows how you can take a simple three-act structure and take the audience on a journey that’s both entertaining and thought-provoking. I’m not sure it has any real answers. It definitely leaves a few questions hanging, but that’s okay.

Overall, a fascinating study of a lunacy and a split personality at work. Two great lead actors and Helena Bonham-Carter’s best role/performance. I also appreciate the way the locations matched the central character’s inner psyche. Soul hollow hi-tech to start. Bleak community support groups. The crumbling house as he fell apart.

Actually, I remember the first time I saw this was on DVD and I’d just set up my living room with a large widescreen TV plus surround sound. The soundtrack blew me away. In the first few minutes… No, in the opening seconds, the second was awesome.

Can’t think what else at the moment. It’s a film that’s worth discussing, though, partly because it doesn’t resolve absolutely everything, only the central plot. And even that’s left a bit open–did he kill himself or did he kill Tyler? Did he just leave a hole in his cheek or is there one in his head?

Meanwhile, I wonder if/when Simon will get in touch…

Today, as it turns out, three days after I wrote the above, a VHS arrives from Simon. I’m tempted to call him and say it’s too late, I’ve gone with my edit. Be interesting to see the tape first, though, wouldn’t it? I play it. It’s superb. Real Quality. Drat. Simon has captured little nuances of performance in the shots he’s chosen. His cutting is much quicker than mine. Little things work seamlessly.

I *have* to go with it. Swear swear swear. I thought The Car was all ready for the sound mix but I *can’t* compromise quality on the altar of speed. If I do, then what’s the point? Okay, there will come a point where it absolutely has to be, must be finished. But that’s a few months off. I’m thinking more in terms of a couple of weeks on the timescale here.

I call Simon and he starts another editing job as an assistant on a new feature in a couple of weeks which means he’ll be able to get me an EDL from Avid then. I can use the EDL to conform my version on the PowerBook in Final Cut Pro. Two weeks is doable. I call Peter Hodges to put the brakes on the sound edit and Paul the composer to warn him a completely new version is on the way.

Back to the Emporer and Death meanwhile…

Simon the editor hasn’t been in touch for three weeks. No VHS has appeared in the post from him, despite being promised at the end of February. But who cares? I’ve finished editing The Car on Final Cut Pro and I’m satisfied that it’s good. So today I took the PowerBook down to London to meet up with Peter Hodges, the sound editor/rerecording mixer, and we spent the afternoon getting material on to his system.

Long story short, getting the audio info from an OSX to an OS9 Mac took us three hours (partly because neither of us understood the other’s computer fully) and eventually turned out to be as simple as burning a CD then doing a dub via firewire on to DVCAM tape. Peter now has everything he needs except music and I’m corresponding with a composer who seems to have done a lot of interesting work. I burned a DVD this afternoon and can make him a VHS from that.

It would have been cool to work with a composer in the US on this project but what with Simon keeping me hanging on for months, I don’t feel like I want to spend loads more time. No more of these two year film editing projects, ack. However (and with no trace of irony), I’ve transferred rushes on to the Mac for another short film, The Emporer And Death, which was shot about six years ago on BetaSP and I intend to start working on that next.

TEAD has lots of scope for using wacky visual effects as it’s an experimental dance/drama so I should get to use After Effects on it and learn about that too. The opportunity to learn something new is always a bonus. I just hope the very ‘proper’ British accent of the actress (in best received pronunciation) won’t put people off it. Meanwhile, I wonder if/when Simon will get in touch. Okay, I only wonder in an abstract way.

Oo, baby/Watchful lines/Vibrate soft/In brainwave time