Keeping It Rolling

Progress continues. 

My target to finish editing the sequence for

Graveyard Shift by end of holiday was slowed by having my editor come to stay for a week, but I made good progress and just have the last couple of longer, more complicated scenes to finish now. Before he came, I was working on at least two of my projects every day. I got four chapters of my Steampunk novel finished, halfway through the commercial script I’m writing, and several scenes edited from Graveyard Shift. Not bad for a couple of weeks. 

I have this week off the day job as well, so I’m making more progress. Those last scenes can’t be done in a single sitting, but making some progress daily results in eventual finish. 

I’m relieved to have done the most difficult scene of those that have the actor who wouldn’t study his lines. The wind noise on the microphone in November made it difficult to hear what he was saying on top of the lines being broken up for prompting. But it is done now, and just needs a few adjustments on CS3, visual effects and voiceover. He is in the finale scene as well, but there are five people in that one and his shots are not as difficult. 

Meanwhile, the technology is still giving us a run for our money but victory is in sight. My editor downloaded the last DV tape, but it seems that the cinedeck is geared toward Mac users and captured in .mov which is fine for a Mac, but not what I need. Never mind, I bought a firewire and the camera will go with my PA in a couple of days to download the way we did before. We’ll run out of battery before we can do the Old Blood tapes, but three more are getting charged and will be brought back when my editor comes to visit on Easter weekend. 

This is going to be a monthly situation as things are going. He is leaving the camera at mine as well, and will bring the tripod next time and keep them both at mine until the summer shooting is finished. I arranged to borrow a tripod for last weekend’s shoot. This gives me a whole new resource. He may not always be able to travel in for a shoot, but with the camera in hand, I do have other camera operators I can call in who don’t have their own equipment, including the students. 

I’ve also been doing some experiments on Photoshop on ideas for a more effective day for night effect, which makes use of the rotobrush feature on CS5. The trick is to make the actors visible while giving the impression of darkness. I’ve worked out how to do it, now we just have to get the programme up and running to try it out. My editor has a new motherboard on the way, as apparently the problem was a chip that wasn’t up to the demands of CS5. He builds computers, so I’m confident of his ability to sort it out. 

Being on holiday from the day job so much has prevented me from doing my usual Wednesday evening CS3 adjustments regularly, so I have a couple scenes backed up on that. Not every scene needs these adjustments, but I have two waiting for when I go back to work, and the last two scenes will certainly need some speed changes here and there. But even with all this, I should be finished sequencing all the Graveyard Shift scenes by end of April, and can start on the Old Blood scenes as soon as we have them captured. 

Oh, and I won my battle to sit with my team at the day job. Even better, the managers are going to be in the same place now too. I’m not sure what changed that, but it’s all good. 

The weather is looking nice these past few days, and we’re ready to roll. Events in April are keeping my various actors busy, but I’m planning the next shoot around the second week in May. May and June should see some real progress on the remaining scenes for Old Blood, as well as the edit for Graveyard Shift. At least now I’m working with someone who shares my dedication.