Gone too long.

Wow. More than a month since my last post. And after all that time, nothing to say. Well, maybe a little to say.

Stacey and I are going on vacation soon. Before we leave, I want to get the current cut of Interplanetary (clocking in at an even 83 minutes) submitted to a few fests, including Sidewalk here in Birmingham, AL. Ted's still working his magic on the audio mix, but I think the version I'm sending out next week is pretty good. Better than any previously-seen versions, at least.

The new Wolverine movie isn't very good, but the new Star Trek movie is terribly entertaining. A strong cast and interesting cinematography/sound design more than make up for the plot holes in the Trek script.



Stacey and I are finally mostly settled in the new house, and things at my day job have kind of returned to normal (after a pretty rough couple of years), so I hope to get back to regular blogging after I return from vacation.

Re: Mixing.

Ted Speaker and I started re-mixing the Interplanetary audio last weekend. It's a little trickier than expected (otherwise, it wouldn't be Interplanetary, right?), but it's sounding great. The opening scene, especially, is so much more dynamic now. I can't wait for you guys to hear it.



Stacey and I are finally in our new house. Things are still a mess, but we have a roof over our head and a comfortable bed to sleep on. And I got an interim home theater system set up tonight.



No surround sound yet (I got a new tuner but can't find my old set of surround speakers), but we have the big TV, Dish Network, and PlayStation 3 for Blu-rays and DVDs. Also, my new favorite trick is using Handbrake to convert videos on my Mac for playback on the PS3.

I only have one real gripe with the new house: none of the electrical outlets in the living room are grounded. So I ran a ground wire out the back door. I feel better now, and so does my surge protector.

Still homeless.

So Stacey and I are still homeless. We were supposed to move into our new house today, but the bank dropped the ball and didn't get the mortgage ready in time. And they're apparently just now discovering that we spent a lot of money last year on a movie, and they don't seem to be happy about that. Well, somebody had to finance Interplanetary, right?

Anyway, we moved out of our tiny, crappy apartment and into this ridiculous old, slightly creepy three-story mansion. I'm not even kidding. I say "slightly creepy" because the house constantly makes this weird high-pitched moan-y sound. I assume it is an airflow thing and not the sad whispers of the damned.

The real estate mess has slowed down post-production on Interplanetary, so it looks like I won't make the March 15th deadline as recently promised. But Ted speaker wants to do some additional audio mixing (which will be good) weekend after next, so it's for the best. The new deadline is... you know what? There is no new deadline. I'm not gonna mention finishing the movie again until it's finished.

It ain't all bad, though. Stacey and I visited Atlanta recently. Atlanta still sucks, but sometime Interplanetary cinematographer Jimbo lives there now, so that's nice. And Jimbo took me to an awesome Atlanta beer store, where I purchased a few bottles of awesome Brooklyn Pale Ale, and I'm drinking one of those bottles at the moment.

Don't drink and blog, kids. Do as I say, not as I do.

As for movies that Stacey and I didn't finance, Watchmen is in theaters now, and you should go see it. I've seen it twice and will return for a third viewing later this week. Reviews and word-of-mouth have been mixed, and I will admit it isn't perfect, but Watchmen has really stuck with me unlike any movie I've seen since... well, I can't remember when. I was somewhat skeptical when the flick was pitched as the work of "visionary" director Zack Snyder, but the guy definitely made his own movie, one that doesn't pander to much of anybody. That Warner Bros. gave him $100 million to make a long, weird, violent, and often batshit-crazy superhero movie that doesn't pander much to anybody is some kind of Tinseltown miracle.

And I'm going to go ahead and say Jackie Earl Haley's portrayal of "Rorschach" in Watchmen is just as good as Ledger's "Joker" in the last Batman movie. And Haley's working inside a full mask most of the time. One hand tied behind his back, as it were.

Okay, enough rambling for tonight. Catch Watchmen at a theater near you. I'm going to get back to work on Interplanetary.

Happy belated anniversary, Interplanetary.

If I still remember correctly at this late date, it's been two years (and two days) since the start of production on Interplanetary. The "quick and dirty little sci-fi flick" I'd originally envisioned has turned into a no-budget epic.

But I'm really going to try and get it done this month. Which is almost over.

Okay. I'll have it done by March 15. Really.

As if I'm not slow enough to work on Interplanetary, it's been a rough couple of weeks. Stacey and I have both been sick, plus we sold the condo and moved out. But we don't have a house yet, so we're staying in a tiny studio apartment for a while.

Here's my portable editing station, set up in the apartment complex lobby/common area...



Before Stacey and I went to the Oxford Film Fest (which was awesome -- thanks to Melanie, Michelle, and everybody else in Oxford town!), local cinematographer and movie genius David Brower stopped by to watch Interplanetary and offer some editing suggestions. Based on David's input, I just got the flick down to 83 minutes, 51 seconds.

Eric is re-thinking some music, and Joe Walker is working on a couple of cool Martian-style post-production effects for us. And Trap is, of course, doing a little more roto work. But we're getting close to putting a bow on it and calling it "done."

Really.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody!

As of January 1, 2009, the running time of Interplanetary is 85 minutes, 11 seconds.



Now I'm just hoping we can get this thing wrapped up before 2010 rolls around...

Cut status.

Been tightening up the editing on Interplanetary the last couple of nights. We already have a new deadline (Norway!), but it isn't weighing down on me nearly as much as the Memphis deadline.

Current running time for anybody still keeping score: 85 minutes, 7 seconds.

That includes everything. The only way I see the flick getting any longer is if we're able to film a couple of additional effects shots. But that won't happen 'til at least December. If it does happen, the running time might increase by 30 seconds or so.

Under the gun.

Got a day job deadline tomorrow that's taken priority over the Thursday 9 a.m. Memphis deadline. It sucks, but a guy's gotta eat. And pay for film stock.

I just wanted to take a break to thank everybody who's been working hard to get Interplanetary ready for the Saturday screening, especially Alex Justinger (sound design), Eric McGinty and Ted Speaker (music), and Joe Walker (visual effects). And all the actors who have been in for ADR sessions. And usual MVPs Juan (flying saucer construction) and Trap (rotoscoping). And Erik Jambor, of course, for inviting us up to screen the flick.

I'm going to watch a little more of Mad Men and get back to it. I'll try to post from Memphis, if not sooner.

This and that.

Chuck, Sanford, Tim, Michael, and I met down at Trap's on Sunday, and I think we finally finished up Interplanetary pick-up shots. I'll know for sure when we get the footage back from the lab, hopefully sometime next week. Here's Chuck about to get his lid on...



Melissa stopped by on Tuesday to do some ADR. She knocked it out of the park, as usual. It was great catching up with Melissa (and seeing photos of her new baby!).

Stopped by Eric McGinty's last night and heard the first bits of the music he is working on for Interplanetary. It's sounding awesome. And strange and cool and creepy... well, words can't do it justice. But hearing the direction McGinty is taking with the score has me even more excited about the movie.

And Erik Jambor informed me today that we already got a little Memphis press for the October Interplanetary screening...

"On Its Way: The Indie Memphis Film Festival"

Thanks to Jambor for the heads-up and The Bloodshot Eye for the mention.

Otherwise, it's just been day job and mixing/editing. As I expect it to be until mid-October (with some breaks for Rock Band 2 and the Sidewalk film fest).

And so it begins.

Kevin Van Hyning stopped by earlier for the first ADR session of what I'm calling the "Memphis" cut of Interplanetary.

As most of Kevin's lines were of the off-camera variety, it didn't take too long to do the actual work. So I showed Kevin the first 20 minutes (give or take) of the edit, and we talked about other movies and drank the beer Kevin was nice enough to bring. Kevin's got excellent taste in movies -- his favorite flick is 2001. Go Kubrick!



A couple of pick-up shots with Sanford tomorrow, another short ADR session with Nick Crawford on Saturday, then to Trap's on Sunday to finish (hopefully) the Memphis cut pick-up shots.

Cut status.

The first assembly of Interplanetary is done.

Running time, minus pickup shots and end credits, is 83 minutes, 46 seconds.

Cut status.

Finally made it into reel six of Interplanetary (though I'm only expecting five reels total after I get the complete movie assembled and the reels better organized). So we're in the home stretch. Current running time is 81:54, and I'm only expecting that number to increase by a couple of minutes. Plus re-shoot footage. Plus closing credits.

Would have gotten more work done tonight, but I had to take breaks for The Venture Bros. and Mad Men.

Here's a cool frame of Mia from the end of reel 5...

Cut status.

Current running time of the Interplanetary rough cut: 78 minutes, 32 seconds. I added a whole scene to the cut, but the movie is actually a bit shorter now due to the tightening of several scenes.

A couple of nice frames I came across...

Exit strategery update.

Here are the Aaton camera film magazines shortly after unloading rolls 79 and 80 of Interplanetary.



Hopefully we'll finish the movie before we hit roll 100.

Speaking of finishing, I think we're down to two days of pickup shots -- one day (scheduled for mid-September) for a bunch of relatively simple stuff I should have got the first time around, and another day (currently unscheduled) for blowing shit up.

Also, I located some missing production audio last night, so I was finally able to assemble scene 28.

Woot.

Whew.

Chuck stopped by earlier to drink some beers and watch the current work-in-progress version of Interplanetary. And he didn't hate it! And he provided the beers!

This is a relief, as no one but me has really watched this cut yet. Well, my buddy Andrew watched it with me while I was in New York, but we had the sound down and were mostly discussing cinematography, effects, and other visual stuff.

Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to get the ending assembled and do some fine-tuning. Assuming I don't spend too much time working on pick-up shots on Sunday.

Cut status.

Finally back to editing after dealing with all that real estate foolishness.

Current Interplanetary running time: 78 minutes, 47 seconds.

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...