After a 5 day straight holiday editing binge, the film is ready for the next stages of post-production! I managed to do everything I wanted to do with the timeline in the last few days. I might go into the details of those fixes at a later time, especially if anyone has specific questions, but!, for now, it’s getting past my bedtime and I do have work in the morning. I just wanted to say that I am very excited and feeling great tonight.
Been struggling these last three weeks just to keep my head above water - I know a lot of people are feeling that way these days, much of my time is spent applying to jobs that I never hear back from and listing things to sell on Amazon and Craigslist. I’m keeping a chin up though - I know we’ll be okay as long as we stay positive and keep pushing forward.
Last night I took the edge off a bit by watching an hour of the film - the structure that I’ve been working with the last year is more bare-bones, as far as what shots and sequences I’ve used so far to piece the story together; one thing I’ve been making an effort to do lately is track down more related footage and intentionally bloat the edit. A month ago the timeline ran about 2 hours even, as of last night it’s pushing closer to 2 and a half hours long. Much of the pieces that I’m cramming in will eventually get trimmed back out - but it’s important I make sure I’ve carefully compared different available shots before locking picture.
It has been amazing to rediscover footage that I haven’t seen or thought about in almost eight months, it’s all sitting there in a separate five hour edit waiting to be taken advantage of. The above screengrab is the film’s timeline short of the first fifteen minutes, which were cropped out when I made the image 4x4, it’s surreal for me to look at the tiny blocks above knowing they represent years of work. So close.
This beautiful GIF is related to FToM. Everything feels connected. Feeling excited about the progress that’s being made.
(via fuckyeahtheuniverse)
Source: vl4da
Photo via Erica Hampton
Ran into Mike Hedge during SXSW, just after an interview with Zadi Diaz for her new documentary project I Heart the Web, he was, quote, “on a mission to save his film”, and I liked the sound of that - not to mention it’s a sentiment I can relate to.
Hedge also said that his film, ATDS, and FToM are going to premier at south-by next year; I can’t think of anything I’d love more than that. Here’s to moving forward.
Source: Flickr / ericarhiannon
For all of social media’s inefficiencies - for every minute that was spent updating the production blog instead of applying for finishing grants, or responding to comments and building relationships instead of editing - the film would have died out long ago without that connection.
I cannot stress this enough or too many times, the decision to be open about our process was made to build an audience, but, in retrospect, what it actually built was a support structure that has pulled both myself and the project forward when it needed it most. For every three months that went by with little feedback from the outside world, at moments where I felt lost and inert from depression and exhaustion and frustration, one person would write an email to me and say they just spent the last six hours on our website watching episodes and teasers, and it would fill me with hope and excitement and drive.
It makes no difference whether you’re piecing together a film or any other project personal or professional, it is human nature to self-doubt and second-guess - share everything you possibly can online; going it alone only ensures no one will call you out when you’re dragging your feet, or let you know they care when you’re convinced no one possibly could.
via @FToM
Finally managed to render out the entire film’s timeline - which has made editing the narration much easier on my machine.
Source: Flickr / mike_1630
