Movies You Should Love

Considering my extensive relationship with the iTunes Store and after reading the Steve Jobs biography, it's very surreal to be able to find me in the iTunes Store. Yet, there I am. For all the world to hear.

It's Movies You Should Love, a podcast that frequent partner-in-crime Loren Small and I cooked up and have been recording for the past couple of months. Loren built a gorgeous site for it, with me contributing the title aesthetic and the faces by John J Salomone (who you can commission to pixelate your face).

Basically Loren and I sit down and examine classic films (specifically AFI's Top 100 list) and try to figure out what makes them so special. It's something we do anyway, often staying up into the wee hours -- we thought we might as well record it and share it with the world. We're definitely enjoying ourselves and we really hope others do, too.

If you enjoy my ramblings here, you might enjoy my ramblings there.

The Joy of Rendering

Episode 2 culminates in a 30 second sequence that I cannot wait to edit. I'm so excited about how it's going to cut together and how it's going to look and sound, I'm actually going to start there. However, before I can begin editing together those 30 seconds, I have to wait 16 minutes for the video files to render. And that's 14% of the way into the render process. I think it started at something closer to 20 minutes.

I'm actually beginning to enjoy editing. I'm no pro like my pal Loren Small, but I've come to realize that it's in the edit bay that I get to have one last crack at the script. This episode, for example, had 5 drafts to the script. As I sit down to edit it, I'm beginning to suspect there will be a sixth draft to the script. I won't add any lines (though with some crafty ADR, I could), but I might drop a line. I'm actually eyeing a montage right now that get dropped (sorry, Tenika!). But we'll see.

The part of editing that drives me up the proverbial wall is the rendering. I wish rendering existed somewhere else in the process. Maybe at the end. The very end. After I completed the edit and liked the way it looked and sounded. Once I had finished everything, then I would render it and save it as a .MOV or what-have-you. Because here at the beginning it's such a drag. I'm excited to edit, I'm excited to sit down and start the next step in the filmmaking process . . . and I have to wait. Right now I'm only rendering the last five or six shots, so it's only a 20 minute wait. If I wanted to render the whole thing, I'd be looking at a 2 hour wait.

Oy.

I guess I shouldn't complain. This render time is letting me blog and the rest-of-the-episode render will met get caught up on Glee. So at least there's that.

UPDATE:

First part of this blog was posted at 9:25. It is now 10:53. I just finished editing the final sequence, as well as putting together a rough closing credits. It's pretty sweet. Watching it brings a smile to my face every time. I hope everyone responds to it the way I do (with a cruel chuckle). It is now 10:54 and the rendering for the rest of the episode begins. Status bar says it'll take 5 hours.

I say again: Oy.

Remnant Newsletter #2: The Adventure of Links

I've been meaning to write this for a while. And since I stayed home today to sip tea and guzzle Dimetapp, I thought now might be a good time to update everyone on all that is Remnants.

The teaser trailer is out! If you haven't seen it yet, click, click, click your way over to it and watch it in all of its HD glory! It really looks fantastic (all praise be to Loren) and sets the proper tone for Season 1. As much as it shows, it doesn't give away anything and, really, should give you a good idea of what you're in for in Season 1. The music in the teaser is provided by Forest Magic, a local band who's album "Is Energy" has not stopped playing on my iPod since I bought it.

Loren is up in Nashville plugging away on the rest of the post production. I've now seen two (rough) episodes and they look marvelous. I don't want to oversell them too much, but they look better than Avatar. I don't want to spoil the ending, but just wait till you see our CG alien race*.

Meanwhile, a character calling themselves Demosthenes has popped up on the Internet, postulating all sorts of wacky theories and beliefs. This is a blog for conversation and argument. It's also a fun place to submerse yourself into the political and social world of Remnants. It's just the first in a series of peripheral websites we're going to have up, running, and informing the world of Remnants.

Meanwhile, here in Chattanooga, I am trying to secure a location to hold a premiere in. While Remnants is going to be a web series, I would like to hold a special premiere event for the cast, crew, and a few VIP's. We're looking at an early-to-mid April premiere date, with the official release of the first episode to follow soon after.

I've completed my outline for Season 2 (bigger! Bolder! More traumatic!) and I've started writing a special that will take place between Season 1 and 2. It'll be a fun little three episode arc that explores one corner of the Remnants world and will provide a little levity between the darker, more serious seasons.

Meanwhile, in Bakersfield, California, Jon Lachonis is working on our website. We have a meeting scheduled for later this evening to go over his art and web design. As soon as it's up, I'll be sharing the link with you.

So, in summary, all is well (except I'm sick) and a lot of hard work is still being done! And in case you missed it, or found all those pesky links cumbersome, here's our Season 1 Teaser Trailer:

* I better debunk that right now. There are no aliens in our series**.

** Yet.

Day 9: Long-Winded Rhodes

. . . okay. Now Season 1 is officially and completely wrapped. Huzzah!

Day 7: There's SNOW Business Like Show Business!

and on the seventh day . . .

I can't wait for people to see this. I've been working on this story for the better part of two years now. It has taken two years of writing, rewriting, and completely changing the story-telling medium to get the story and the characters where they are now -- and where they are now is nothing short of fantastic.

I can't wait for people to see this. I think it's going to rock some socks off. I'm so proud of all my actors, they're turning in performances of a lifetime. I'm so proud of my director. I've known Loren for nearly nine years now and to see him take charge of a set, to watch him coax those performances out of the actors, and always coming up with new and exciting ways to shoot these scenes (even when he doesn't feel like he has) has been a rare pleasure for me. I've never known someone as long as I've known Loren and to be able to mark his growth, to be able to see where he was and now where he is, is a real treat. I'm so proud of my crew. And when I say crew, I should really say Brian. We've had other crew members on set, but Brian has been our constant. He's been there every day, setting up and tearing down lights on a moment's notice, and somehow, always with the boom mic in hand.

I don't know if I can stress enough how thankful I am for everyone. Nobody is being paid to do this. Everyone is sacrificing their time and energy to tell this story. I appreciate each and every one of you so much. I am now going to spend the rest of my life trying to hire you.

And now, Day 7. Our last, big crazy day. I've prepped and I've prayed. Let's do this.

Day 6: Interrogation Techniques

Day 3: Inner Circle

Day 2: Blame It On The Rain