Updates: 4 Months Later...

Post production for a film is usually the black hole where time just gets sucked up. Once the tinkering begins, it's hard to step away. Monument is no different, especially with how picky you can be with editing in Final Cut. As of right now, the picture edit is locked and we're working on finishing the sound and final color-correction.

One might ask, "...but it's been four months, why aren't you done?"

Well, the current edit of Monument (version 7.50) has seen a good amount of revisions and re-edits. We're only talking about a short film clocking in around twenty minutes, I can't imagine how things are on a feature. Between living life and working on the project on the side, there were times when I couldn't bare looking at the edit. Periods spanned to days to a few weeks at a time. The project had changed from the initial script/ideas and I wasn't able to get an objective viewpoint on it. There were pieces of the original project that weren't playing out and trying to look at things differently took a while to get use to. It's the awful nature of how a project changes from script to production, and then from there to post.

Even with all the headaches, I'm really happy with how the project played out. More-so on living through it all and being able to talk about it. Expect some more film still updates, screening dates, etc. in the next few weeks.


Revisiting, Reflecting, and Remembering Day 6 and Beyond:
Over the weekend, we had a sizable group of people helping out. Things played out so well that those days flew right by. From Day 6 and beyond (the Weekdays), the crew ran down to about six people. This was six people including myself, Doug (our actor), someone on sound, someone as an AC pulling focus, someone pushing dolly and another freehand to hold a fan/prop. We were really running on minimum.

Needless to say, we got our asses kicked around. I'm entirely grateful for the people that stuck with us til the end of the shoot. Word of advice for anyone else shooting a project, definitely find the right number of crew you need... and then some. An extra person can always help.

After wrapping the last shot, people had to leave and gogogoo. There was a plan to get ourselves there and through the duration of the shoot, but getting back was something we didn't anticipate. Jake and I spent the next three days wrapping up set/location/basecamp in between working on two video shoots over the Easter Weekend. We must have driven back to Warner Springs at least five times before everything was broken down and moved back to the house. Good Times.