Sound bites

So last night we went through our rushes, and Anthony ended up staying back late and getting all the clips from ALL FOUR TAPES onto Final Cut. Everything is looking superb, but lo and behold, THE SOUND SUCKS ASS! In parts, at least. As my long-term readers may recall, I HAD THIS SHIT SOUND PROBLEM LAST SEMESTER! After everything this has caused me, I wanted to have kittens when viewing the initial takes. How could something so imperative screw up for us? It's almost like everything that could go wrong, has (well that's not entirely true, but we the Market were utter bastards). But it may be possible to work around it in the final cut, it's just gonna take a lot of genius engineering, and time, and effort. At least I've got the last two.

And at least, now, we have something to make a rough cut out of. I have to say, Amazon was brilliant to work with, and kept all of us entertained while being as helpful as he possibly could - i.e., welcoming us into his house. Last Friday was one of the biggest demonstrations of friendship I've ever experienced, and makes being enthusiastic about this project one of the easiest things ever.

It's just so surreal... As well as calling the order of shots, I kept everyone in order and on top of their game while we filmed, but at the same time, I wanted to allow the boys (especially Deno) their own creative licence. It was my main aim to keep us on schedule as much as we possibly could have been (okay, so no-one foresaw we were going to need 4 tapes... it was a good thing Officeworks was only 4 blocks down the road!) One thing I regret was not having the little viewer connected while the boys had their eqiupment - a few shots stuffed up with having the boom in frame, and even though it's fixable, changing the composition still impedes the shot a bit.

Ah well, the worst is over. Or is it? There are going to be countless hours spent holed up in V1 from now on. Can't say it doesn't excite me, though, because it does.

I may be director, but that doesn't mean I don't get to have my moods pampered on occasion, too!

Spent most of today's tutorial once more bouncing ideas off one another as far as our docos were concerned. Josh's group have already got some stuff on tape, sons of bitches. Nah, good on 'em, this isn't a competition, but if it were they would definitely be a few goals ahead of us. We're going to be so behind by the next tutorial, because we decided not to get the gear out this weekend, either.. Yes, folks, it's my birthday in two days' time, and one thing I was NOT entirely enthused with the prospect of having to put on the 'uni face' for my once-every-365-days' respite from reality. My deepest apologies... BUT I had a presentation + 2 things to hand in on my birthday last year (my 21st) and I swore black and blue that uni could go to hell whenever I had a birthday next.. And as much as I love this subject, there's no breaching my credo!

Anyway, the 'Stacey' doco is looking pretty cool... I mean, for the first viewing of the rushes, they seem to have done well. Some cool pans, and for the most part the sound worked out well. It's good to know that lapel mics are pretty powerful devices. We're in two minds about using lapel mics or just relying on the boom in ours.. Now that we aren't using a public space anymore, it may work out better to just use the boom. Amazon's flatmate has agreed to let us use his (fairly decent sized) ensuite (which is also a laundry, which would account for its size). It's relatively enclosed, nothing like the theatrical back-stage feel the last location had.

We've short listed all the photos we'll be using in the doco. Some of them are real pearlers... haha. Gotta get my arse off to Teds and print them before next week. Other than that we haven't got much else to prepare for. All our questions are finalised and we are in a good space as a group for the upcoming filming process. I'm actually really glad to have landed a group of only 3... it's so nice only having to coordinate 2 other schedules besides my own, and the boys are really flexible when it comes to meeting after hours etc.

Time to do my Australian Cinema reading log. Yay :P

advice from the king

We booked the equipment today - and are all gung ho to begin shooting next Saturday. The 1st of September - what a way to start the month, and the season. To say I'm gut-wrenchingly nervous is a complete understatement.

We have confirmation on the dressing room at Exchange, so at least the location/logistical side of things is sorted. Thankfully I have a car so we can get all gear as well as the 3 of us there, and Amazon now lives just 3 blocks away, so it works out to be a convenient location for all of us.

The final version of the treatments is due in two days - we've completed the bulk of it, but it's the fine-tuning and actual articulation of what we want to do that's seemingly taking the longest. One aspect that we had not put much considertaion into for our initial draft was our target audience - and it would feel as though this aspect is taking the longest to craft. So far we have a couple of paragraphs, which I might just put up here for the sake of it, in case anyone in cyberspace has any musings to offer on the topic:

While we are confident that vast kinds of audiences will be able to appreciate Amazon’s story, the main target audience of our work will be Victorian homosexual men between the ages of 18-50 – that is, the key demographic that are most familiar with and likely to partake in drag activities themselves.

Because our subject is widely known within this community, an exposure of his personal story will indeed be of interest to those that may have seen him perform in the past. And given that the main conflict within this story – besides that of Amazon’s dual identities – reflects critically upon the divisive nature of the modern gay world, the underlying message is one of hope that drag queens will someday become a more widely accepted part of not only society as a whole, but in particular among gay men.

Furthermore, this demographic are a media-savvy, media consuming bunch who will probably have watched many documentaries on their favourite performing artists. Indeed, for someone with so much talent and experience in this arena, precious few Victorians (let alone fellow Australians) are aware of Amazon’s impressively unique - albeit somewhat colourful - history. This two-fold process of ‘revelation’ will take viewers on a journey that may well not be far in physical distance, but will nonetheless transport them to a captivating, yet painstakingly realist atmosphere (one which audiences either young or old can certainly appreciate).

Sounding alright? I can't believe how long these things are shaping up to be - we're looking at something in the vicinity of six pages. I suppose there are considerably less pre-production aspects to doco than there are to drama, so I can see why they'd want us to be absolutely specific at this point in time. Still, it's a fairly consuming process - and as nervous as I am about filming, this whole 'a little less conversation, a little more action' (cheers Mr Presley) fever is starting to take hold... cause part of me just can't wait to get my Directorly hands on that set to roll camera and watch the magic transpire all over again.

Patience, they say, is a virtue.