A new site for continuing news on "The Egg Timer"

"The Egg Timer" blog is moving to a new site. http://theeggtimermovieblog.blogspot.com/
I hope you'll come to this new site for the latest news about "The Egg Timer."

Emily Haddad

"The Egg Timer" will show at the WCA Short Film Festival in Chicago

I'm very excited that the Women's Caucus for Art has chosen "The Egg Timer" to show in their 6th Annual International Video Shorts Festival. The festival will take place in Chicago on February 12, 2010. I plan on attending!!!

Thank you to the WCA for selecting "The Egg Timer."

Production Stills credit to Shannon McCarville

Just wanted to add a note that Shannon McCarville took the production stills shown in this blog. As you can see she did a fantastic job!

Update

WOW -- it's been a long time since I wrote on this blog. A tremendous amount of post-production work has been done on the film. After previewing the rough cut to a dozen or so people in May, I made changes primarily to the beginning and end of the film. These changes weren't in the original shooting script, but the film needed them to really bring the story home to the viewer from an emotional point of view.

Joe Martin and I also worked on editing the film to make it breathe more, opening up a few scenes to give the viewer time to take in the atmosphere, characters and story.

After several more weeks of editing and showing the film to different people we reached "picture lock" and the film went to Splice Here's colorist, Michael Sandness and his color assistant, Ross Fleming. Greg Winter and I met with them a couple times to view and comment on the color corrections done on the film. Michael and Ross did a fantastic job unifying the film with beautiful, deep colors matching the mood of the film and the landscape!!

As I write this post, Kent Militzer, sound mixer for Splice Here is working on the soundtrack for "The Egg Timer." We previously recorded the classical guitar soloist (Joan Griffith) playing a Haydn sonata for the second montage and end credits of the film.

We've also sent the film over to Motion 504. They will work on graphics and animation necessary to complete the film.

The film is on track to be completed by the middle of July.

Thanks again to the folks at Splice Here and Motion 504 for all their work on the film.

Previewing the Rough Cut

This past Thursday I previewed a rough cut of "The Egg Timer" for a select group of people. I wanted to get some preliminary feedback on the film. As the writer, director and editor I am so intimate and involved with the film that it becomes difficult to stand back and assess how the film is working for the viewer.

After watching the film, we had a good 40 minute discussion and I received a number of very helpful comments and suggestions. After the discussion I was able to approach the film from a little different angle; and yesterday I sat down at the computer to begin to make changes which I think will define the story and characters a little more clearly. I'll continue to work on these changes in the coming week as I show the film to more and more people.

This is a fascinating experience and I've learned so much. Once again, I thank all the folks at Splice Here for their tremendous help on the project.

Polishing the off-line edit at SpliceHere

This past week, Joe Martin, editor at SpliceHere, and I have been polishing the off-line edit. Joe has a great feel for the mood and timing of the film and has really smoothed out the edits. Mary Ahmann stopped by a second time and also gave me some really good ideas for making the film better. I recorded a rough version of the piano sonata I want to use for the soundtrack. I think it's working well with the story. I have a few more ideas for polishing the off-line, but I'm taking several days off, so I can come back next week with fresh eyes.

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!!