Hi. This is my temporary blog until stupid Blogger starts working again.
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July 9, 2003
So. You want to know about "12 Stories About Eileen."
It premiered at about 9:05A on July 5th. Present, other than me, were two cast members (Kimberly as story #3;
Opie as story #10), two crewmembers (Ed and Beth-Annie), and four hangers-on (Kalista and Patricia; Opie’s two daughters). Present, other than them all, were about 25 other viewers -- and a total of 35 was about the number that had shown up for each the prior 9:00A short films screenings, so that was good. I would like to post two actual comments regarding the film:"I liked the concept behind 12 stories... alot. The still shots and the interview style worked really well together. The music was brilliant and the introductory sequence was really cool."
"I liked 12 Stories. It has a great premise, although if I might throw around some criticism, I'd recommend spending some more time working on the audio. Certain segments were hard to make out -- the dialog was either mumbled or drowned out by the music. [Me: The acoustics in the cinema barn were not terrific, and many of the lower-budget films (including mine) had a difficult time being heard over the necessary fans. Ah well.] But overall I'd say 12 Stories was one of the best shorts I saw there and my friend Kevin, who actually saw all the short films, agreed."
Presumably, there are potential comments more negative than those mentioned above, but I have not yet heard them.
After "12 Stories," better filmmaker
Kevin Nikkel and I were talking about "Eileen" -- he suggested that I interweave the sequence I act in between the others, Memento style -- and he asked if this was the direction I was planning on continuing my film "career" in. I said no, and I said that in fact I had just completed a film, "Ernest Goes to the Window," that was very dissimilar to "Eileen." Two minutes later, Kevin -- who was part of the Cornerstone Flickerings board, so to speak -- was projecting "Ernest Goes to the Window" in front of more or less the same number of people. He and a few other people preferred it to "Eileen," which was somewhat surprising to me, even though I myself prefer "Ernest." I’m going to re-edit the newer film slightly in the next few weeks, and then I’ll make some VHS copies for anyone who’s interested.Patricia got a haircut at Cornerstone. Using Opie’s camcorder, I recorded much of it, and so hopefully in a few months y’all will be able to see my first documentary, "Patty Gets a Haircut."
Steve Taylor, Over the Rhine, and Bro. Danielson are all lovely musicians.
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July 1, 2003
I’m leaving tomorrow to go to Cornerstone, where I will be through 10:00A Saturday morning -- we’re leaving right after the 9:00A "Eileen" screening. (Opie: If you e-mailed your cell number to me, I don’t have it.) Given this method of posting, I can pretty much guarantee that I won’t be writing another entry until next Monday, although I will be checking the comments and my e-mail occasionally during non-Cornerstone moments.
Apparently, my cell phone number is 804-307-6179. I'll have it on from about 6p Wednesday through Saturday morning, not counting those rare hours I will be asleep. My voice mail is not set up and I have no idea to retrieve it, so that is not a good idea.
For those who don’t know -- and I think Kim’s the only one I’ve told -- I’m also participating in two film-critic roundtables: one at 5:00P on Thursday and one at 5:00P on Friday. I, thus, am going to have to run from the end of the Friday roundtable to Main Stage to see Steve Taylor et al. Eh.
"Ernest" is done other than a few very slight timing issues I’d like to change (we’re talkin’ tenths of seconds here) and the audio bits discussed vaguely in yesterday’s post. (I may redo the way I integrated the disc golf footage and the [spoiler removed]; after trying it four different ways, I’m still not sure I like how it ended up.) Having seen "Ernest Goes to the Window" seven or eight times now in 75 percent to 95 percent forms, I am now confident that I prefer it to "Eileen," although I’m not sure most people will. It feels slightly more professional to me in quality, and I really like the way my timing motif (you’ll understand when you see the film) worked out. (Yes, the film is still very wack. Don’t you fret about all that professionalism talk.) I’m bringing a copy with me to screen for Ed, Beth-Annie, and Kim, and there’s also an opportunity at Cornerstone to get feedback from some of the other filmmakers on Thursday night, so I may screen it for some of them as well.
Anyway, ciao ‘till Monday.
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June 30, 2003
I cannot go any longer without blogging, so here it is. I may attempt to put in comments in this fake blog -- depending how long I need to use it -- but I’m not going to worry about that until I get back from Cornerstone on Sunday. (I’m leaving Wednesday.)
"Ernest Goes to the Window" is about 85 percent done. It’s in a good enough form that I may send it to one festival as-is, but I’d rather not have to. I should have enough time tonight to get it to about 95 percent done, with only two small audio changes that I’m not going to worry about until after Cornerstone.
(Speaking of which. Dear Andrew: I know that you cannot get video from your DVD of Ernest Goes to Camp, which is fine, because the way I recorded it off the TV actually is going to look better for this film. However, is there any chance you could record two snippets of audio off the DVD for me? No hurry -- this is the 5 percent that I’m worrying about after Cornerstone -- but let me know if that’s possible. E-mail me if you want to know which snippets.)
What isn’t done, to my current recollection:
That’s it -- no more than three hours of work, I think. And then an hour to render.
Okay. I’m going to put on a commenting thing, but it’s just going to be a link without the number of comments listed. Okay? Okay.
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