Film Finished Now Time For Premiere

Been a while since my last post, I know, but here's the update. We finished the shoot on March 22, 2010, at Las Brisas restaurant. The cast and crew were tired and a little sad that it was over. You could feel the good vibes all around from the set to whatever corner served as the "green room" to Cat Alfonso's make-up corner, to the "craft" table--the food and drinks.

Everyone was arriving right on their call time , which was remarkable since they came from Hollywood, the Valley, Orange County, all over.  And they were always ready for their scenes without any big delays. Some days started early and finished late. But it was a very happy shoot. I think part of the reason is that the story is pretty happy, sexually innocent, and non-violent.

Dennis Devine and I were happy because we got the footage we needed for every scene. There was minimal overtime and no overruns.

Kurt, the DP, and I were happy because we finally figured out how to transfer the dailies from the tapes on which the Panasonic HDX 90 camera stored its data, through the Mac and onto the hard drive I bought especially for the shoot.

The cast and crew scattered and Dennis took home the raw footage to begin editing on Final Cut Pro.

The first cut  was pretty rough. It had no music or special effects for the shots of Dewitt's computer screens. Some scenes seemed interminable and out-of-place. I showed it to my friends who were cautiously complimentary. But, it was clear it was time for serious editing.

Dennis and I discussed editing possibilities to cut some long scenes, especially in the beginning, and move scenes around so there was a clearer story line.  Dennis grappled with the scene involving Dewitt, his mom and his aunts. He had to do a lot of slicing and dicing to get that smooth and produce a final cut.

When we had the final cut in hand, we were ready to add music.  I stubbornly insisted on accordion music and had tried to get Los Angeles most famous accordionist, Nick Ariondo, to do the music. I spoke to Nick several times on the phone, and he seemed interested. I bought his album, Trilucence and I was particularly taken with the piece he wrote called "Scherzo in Two" which features the accordion and clarinet. Dennis cut it into the opening sequence with Dewitt walking down the street and it seemed perfect.

The clarinet can produce a lonely, isolated sound, while the accordion can evoke Italian culture. Nick's scherzo combined those effects perfectly. It was appropriately comedic, tender, and weird. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit Nick's license (master or synch) into my budget.

AT Dennis' suggestion, we went to meet Tony Green at Ear Gallery Music, who had done the score for one movie. He had a full sound studio in a building separate from his house in Pasadena. Dennis had given him a few scenes. I liked the scoring he did  for them. His price was right, so he came on board.

Finally, the final cut with music came around Sept 3. I was very happy with the results of the cuts. Kurts effects for the computer screens were excellent and very creative. Tony's music added immensely to the emotional effect of the film.

Very quickly, I had copies made (at Custom Video in Redondo Beach) and gave them to Greg, my attorney to pass on to sales agents.



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