Sunday, April 26, 2009

Post production at Splice Here -- the off-line edit

For the past two weeks I've been spending most of my time at Splice Here, working on the off line edit -- or the "rough cut" of the film.

I've gotten to meet everyone at Splice Here -- Heidi Schuster has been coordinating my project and I can't thank her enough for all the time she's spent helping me. The folks at Splice Here are the most cordial, helpful people and fun to work with. Carl Jacobs has been mentoring me on the off line edit. He showed me how to log in all the clips from the film; and he's been helping me with editing on Final Cut Pro. My editing platform at home is a PC using Premiere Pro, so I've had a few issues adjusting to FCP. But, with Carl's help, I've been able to cut the film in the way I want.

The rough cut process is going very well. This past Thursday Mary Ahmann, my off line mentor from MCTC, stopped by. She looked at what I've been doing and gave some excellent suggestions. I've incorporated them into the rough cut and they really add to the power of the story.

This coming week I will be continuing to tweak the rough cut and plan to show it to other people at Splice Here to get their feedback. I will also be recording a temp track of the Haydn piano sonata I plan to use for the montage and credit sections of the film. I'm interested in seeing how this works with the film. I also plan to meet with Andy Reynolds at Motion 504 about the animations and TV cable news look for the beginning of the film.

I think we're on track for completing the film by the beginning of July. Once again, thanks to everyone at Splice Here. They are great!!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

More Production Stills

Here are Delaney Burke and Adam Thompson in the flashback scene.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

More Production Stills

Charles Brin (Dr. Larson) greets one of his birthday party extras, Mary Ann Hedin.
Stacia Rice, Kevin Singer and Renee Werbowski chill out between set ups.
Greg Winter, DP, with Linda Kelsey in the background and below that's me watching as the crew sets up a shot.



Production Stills taken by Shannon McCarville

Here are some production stills from shooting the birthday party scene at Dr. Larson's house.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Storyboards and overheads



I thought people might be interested in how I storyboarded for the film. I did the storyboards the week before we began to shoot. It's very time consuming and challenging to try to visualize what you want the camera to see at every moment in the film.

Here's just a sample of an overhead and a page of storyboarding.

It's a Wrap!!

We just finished six days of shooting "The Egg Timer." We have wonderful footage thanks to a spectacular cast and crew!!

On Saturday Stacia Rice and Linda Kelsey brought all of us to tears as we filmed the final scene where mother and daughter are brought together when a secret is told and a memory shared.

Charles Brin did a masterful turn as Dr. Larson, the wise old small town doctor who tries to help Ellen overcome the guilt she feels about her past action. Kevin Singer had just the right youthful enthusiasm in his portrayal of Ryan, and Renee Werbowski was the perfect caring, concerned daughter of Dr. Larson.

On Sunday, Adam Thompson and Delaney Burke played the parts of twin siblings, Joe and Ellen Marsh. They did a fantastic job --- they're both naturals!!

Thanks to all the cast -- especially my lead, Stacia Rice, who was the perfect Ellen for "The Egg Timer." I can't thank her enough for taking this role and capturing the inner being of the lead character. It was something very special to watch.

Greg Winter, our director of photography, along with his magnificent camera crew (including Brian Garnell, AC, Brian Robertshaw, gaffer, and Dan Miller, gaffer and key grip), brought magic and beauty to every frame of the film. Being a landscape artist made me appreciate even more how Greg brought a wonderful artistic eye to every composition he created. As we begin the editing process we will have so much great footage to choose from.

I got to meet and work with four great sound crews: John Simms, Matt Quast, Gerard Bonnette and Ben Allison.

Dave Halls, assistant director, kept the production moving along, making sure we got all the shots we needed during the day and directing our extras during the birthday party scene. Mark Thompson did a great job on script supervision and continuity.

Cheri Anderson, with the assistance of Brooke Martin and Mary Jo Van Dell, made our locations look like the very real spaces inhabited by our characters. I was amazed at how they transformed the abandoned farmhouse into a beautiful setting for the flashback and final scene of the film.

Julie Kaupa, line producer, and Amy Thompson, production manager, made everything go smoothly on the production -- I can't thank them enough for all the work they put into this production.

Dina Dainty, our make-up artist, was there every day making sure the actors looked their best and Crist Ballas did amazing special effects make up on young Joe for the flashback scene. Deborah Fiscus helped to create appropriate wardrobe for the actors.

Kati Batchelder kept us all nourished with crafty during the shooting day and Dawn Urich produced scrumptious lunches each day of the shoot.

We had a great crew of production assistants.

I can't thank everyone enough for all the work they did on this film. We are going to plan a Wrap Party hopefully for the weekend of April 17 so we can get together and party and celebrate wrapping a fun, successful film shoot.