Documentary film production site of (tentatively titled) "The Drift"

Sunday, July 30, 2006

A little more blue

I'm finding myself more and more helpless in terms of how and when this film will be finished. In a week, the subject of this film will be heading to Seattle to speak at a Veterans for Peace and IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War) conference and I am financially unable to go. Not too different from last year with Crawford, Texas. I think financial matters like this have made this project suffer and will undoubtedly be a detriment to the "end result."

Still shooting these days, and little if any editing. I have an opening sequence in Final Cut Pro but little else...it can basically be shaped and pieced together anyway at this point. I think it's best to begin editing once I'm totally finished shooting.

I'm also in a period where I need to make decisions beyond this project, specifically day-job and leaving Binghamton related. There's little hope in any filmmaker living and actively making projects here, and a change of scenery can at least give me new things to shoot and new ideas to pen. I don't shoot nearly as much as I did last year, mostly because of the lack of material to gather.

I've promised myself that by February of this coming year, a full two years after I began filming and a year after I hoped to be finished, I am finishing a final cut. There's a good chance that my subject might be elsewhere anyway, so I might be finished in that sense. But I need to begin to save money to pay off debt from college and misc. things such as the camera I bought two years ago and god knows what else.

After this film is finished, irregardless if it gets into festivals or shown anywhere, I'm possibly moving abroad to teach English with companies that pay at least twice as much as your typical post-college grad would make (or in my case right now, three and a half times more). Filmmaking possiblities are greater in both Western Europe and in East Asia, the two areas I'm contemplating a move to. Not to mention, I'll have friends to be around.

If there's any distribution/marketing plan I have, it's to sell DVDs. I doubt this film will ever get a theatrical run, given the production qualities and my lack of a producer, which is fine. If I can sell 40 DVDs, it'd recoup most of my investments into this film.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

The painted word

I find it hard to believe that's been a month since my last update.

Well, editing has been postponed until further notice. I've resumed shooting once again and will until need be. I feel the much needed bits and pieces of material are, well, materializing. I've also not had the time to edit, or the peace of mind lately. I've been running around, traveling with the change in my pocket, and working more than usual (which still isn't much). And considering I am shooting new material, editing before this period is over muddies the waters and shields the necessary clarity I need.

It pains me to say it but I don't think I will be finished this year. Which means two years of my life (on and off of course, mostly off) will have been put to use on one film. Jesus. I don't have the time or money to finish by year's end, and I will be working again fulltime come fall out of dire necessity. I've been working part time for over a year now and it's not enough...and much needed post production work cannot be done without sufficient funding, which I will have to save up for.

I am very glad, however, that I was derailed for awhile, as it occurred to me that the first twenty or so minutes is absolutely horrendous: no clarity, quick pointless cuts, and rushed. I will be starting from scratch when all necessary materials are shot, and begin once again. The new material is clearing up things for me enormously, and I am finally finding a (somewhat) clear path to trudge through.

In the meantime, I will try to update more, even if they're long bitchy posts. In the end, I hope, I can make a decent film and look back on this blog with (some) hindsight.