Snafus and Victories!

All right, all right. We're not lazy bums now that the big schlepping of equipment and memorizing of lines and, you know, little task of directing and filming is over. This past weekend Ruan and I were out of town with family in Phoenix watching some baseball. Now, first of all: LET'S GO OAKLAND. Second: Spending those 4 days away from work, away from a broken computer (I'll get to that part) meant coming back to SO MUCH FOOTAGE. But watching after 4 days of rubbing our eyes clear of any biases or over-stimulation was absolutely necessary, and the timing was pretty perfect. This made the reviewing process delightful, fresh, and I found many new details in the performances that only a rinsed palate can appreciate. So THANK YOU Phoenix. One more time, just for good measure: LET'S GO OAKLAND.

In the last couple days, we've been jumping around tasks, namely due to two things: Ruan's monster computer failing and the subsequent lousy repair technician(s), and the issue of sound.

To elaborate: Ruan's computer is gigantic, has several hard drives, it has a lot of software, it does a lot of stuff, it edits things. That's about as detailed technologically as I can be, but the point is, it's got a lot of muscle, and we need it. It was slowing down, and needed to be overhauled. We took in at the end of the shoot, expecting it back when we returned from Phoenix in working order. During our trip we had a lot of back and forth with the service department of Lousy-Electronics-Store, and when we sat down at his new system this past Tuesday, something wasn't right. Because of this, the process was slow, and I decided to do what I coud and review footage to pick takes, so that when the programs were running smoothly we wouldn't have to sift through everything. We did get a good edit on several scenes, and as of today, Ruan has again reconfigured the monster and hope to get back at it Saturday and finish over the weekend.

We are still very ON schedule, I just wanted to have crept a little ahead by now. Relaying on technology can be nervous-making, especially when I don't speak 1's and 0's. Thankfully, Ruan is fluent, and confident as ever about what he does. Sigh of relief.

Issue number two: SOUND. Remember my description of Ruan's computer and all the appropriate and correct jargon I used? Right. So apply that same tech-knowledge to the concept of picture editing for story telling, and syncing the mixed sound files from our on-set mixer, to movie files in editing software. ACCCKKKK. Then add into the mix a Deaf editor and, well, let's just say there was a lot of blank staring. And Googling. BUT. Thanks to our 1st AD, and also editor of his own projects, Jason Roberts, we found a program to help sync the sound. After about 4 hours of famililarizing with the software, selecting and syncing, we got the hang of it and got well on our way. Our sound will ultimately be balanced and mixed in post, and well as have some elements designed by a professional team; the quality we expect and require is high. We just need to do what we can to be efficient in terms of time, money, and provide the post-audio crew with what they need to do their best as well.

Other exciting news that has begun to brew: SCREENING! and SOON. In April for sure, and I can't wait to get the details settled. You'll all be the first to know, promise.