Wasted time.

Looks like I spoke too soon.

The deal to sell our condo fell through (due to the current banking climate), so all that packing and cleaning and house hunting were for naught.

If I weren't trying to keep this blog PG-13, this is the part where I'd let loose with a few profanities.

Real estate.

Sorry for the lack of posts. Stacey and I are trying to sell the condo and buy a new place, and it's been one hassle after another. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe. I'll say no more for fear of jinxing it.

In happier news, the third season of The Venture Bros. is rocking along nicely, even though things seemed a little off for a while. This is my favorite show on TV and worth a look if you're a fan of comedy, action, and the absurd.

Wrap day?

Still worn out from Sunday, which was the final day of Interplanetary principal photography. I think. We had some effects problems, which sucks because Trap and I actually spent some time testing out the effects ahead of time. Apparently, when it comes to using sparkler fireworks for simulating small rocket exhaust, all brands are not created equal.

And then there were a couple of afternoon thunderstorms. Rainy days on Mars. So we didn't get all the shots I wanted, but I think the ones we missed can be moved to the "pick-up" list. I'll know better after I get the footage back from the lab.

Here's actor Scott Ross in an interior scene we shot while waiting for the rain to clear...



And here's the rain as viewed from inside my truck...

Now playing.

Hellboy II is technically rock-solid, which isn't a surprise as it was directed by Guillermo del Toro. And I love the cast and characters. But the story never really came together for me.

I'd give it 2.5 stars, but Mr. Ebert says 3.5.

Whew.

I thought for a moment there I'd lost all of last night's editing. Sure, it was only three minutes of screen time, but it took a few hours to put those three minutes together. Thank goodness for the Final Cut Pro "Autosave Vault."

The cut is still at 75 minutes -- other than panicking, tonight's work has just consisted of cleaning up the existing edits.

Cut status.

It'll be slow going from here on out. At this point, I have most of my organized video and audio files edited. So now I'm editing the unorganized stuff, which means I have to dig around for the various bits and pieces of each sequence before I can assemble it.

And, yes, I should have had all this stuff organized months ago.

The rough cut is now at 75 minutes.

Cut status.

Between the holiday (happy Independence Day, by the way), trying to sell the condo, and a few hours of Pixies Rock Band action, I haven't gotten much editing done since my last post. Also had to take a few hours to locate and format some production audio I had misplaced.

Current rough cut running time: approx. 71 minutes.

Cut status.

We're past the one hour mark -- rough cut is now at 65 minutes. Didn't accomplish as much today as I would have liked -- I got called in to the day job, and that kind of screwed my whole groove.

Also, another frame...

Cut status.

Interplanetary rough cut is now approximately 51 minutes long.

And here's a nice frame I came across...

Not disappointed.

Had a little screening of the Wrath of Con footage (approximately 20 minutes of Interplanetary) last week for some of the principal cast and crew, and it seemed to go over really well. Which was a huge relief. As much as I want Interplanetary to be a big hit with audiences and critics, I'm much more worried about pleasing the cast and crew who have worked so hard on the movie for little more than pizza and the occasional beer.

Here's hoping the other 70 or so minutes of the flick get a similar reaction.

This week.

Taking off from the day job to edit Interplanetary. The plan -- get the whole movie assembled (rough cut, super rough audio). Well, "whole" except for the bit of stuff not yet filmed and/or transferred. Currently just past the half-hour mark. I'll keep you posted.

More on the end of indies.

Good post from Andrew regarding that "end of indie film" item I linked to last week. Also includes a bit about Andrew finishing production on his latest feature in twelve days. Way to go, Andrew!

Now playing.

Caught WALL-E Sunday night. And it is really, really excellent. Maybe perfect.

I know I say that about a lot of Pixar stuff. But they make a lot of good movies. And WALL-E might be their best yet.

I'm not going to link to a review, because I don't want to spoil any of WALL-E for you. If you like animation or sci-fi or romances or... well, if you like movies, I think you'll like WALL-E.