Wednesday, January 16, 2008

next steps

By now, the screening party is old news. We all made it through the holidays, some of us with a few extra pounds and a handful of new gifts to make room for in the back of the closet.

Even so, the wheels on the "Don't Call Us" bus keep going round and round. Here's a quick summary of what's in store for the short:
--Russell and I are working on finalizing the cut. We're implementing feedback, and also replacing two of the songs (sadly, we couldn't get all the rights). The feedback was mostly very positive, and the vast majority of the changes we have in mind are very minor. We hope to be completely finished with this stage by the end of the month. If you've seen the short and have any constructive (or even semi-constructive) criticisms, now is the time to let us know!
--Next up, the hard drive with the film will be handed off to Sebastian Capilli, for color correction. Sebastian and I are going to lock ourselves into his cave for a marathon weekend session in early February to do everything we can to get DCU looking sharp, including giving it more of a "film look."
--After that, the hard drive will wind up in the hands of Bret Johnson, our post production sound mixer. Bret is going to use the same sound mixing studio as films like "The Departed" and "The Devil Wears Prada," and television shows like "Law & Order." By mid- to late-February, he should be finished.
--From there, we'll output the digital file to other screening formats, like DigiBeta, MiniDV and of course, DVD. By late February, DVDs should be in the mail to the cast and crew.
--Once we're done with all that, we start applying to festivals. We already have a "short list" of about 50-60 festivals we're considering. The earliest are in the fall; we're starting at the top by applying to Telluride, Hamptons, Toronto, etc. and as the season progresses we'll continue to apply to a range of other festivals. We're looking for a good geographic balance of major national fests and small regional festivals; a mix of short film festivals and more general festivals; and festivals that are well organized and attended. If anyone has a specific suggestion, let me know, especially if you have an in somewhere.

That's it for now. As you can see, this little film is still a big project... but I'm loving every minute of it.

Zack

3 comments:

Armak said...

I don't you need a "film look" so much as you need to soften and accentuate various aspects of certain shots, in order to lead the eye to what you want more expeditiously.

Also, you definitely want to be there for the mixing session. (The way you wrote it, it sounds like you're handing it over to Bret and he's going to mail it to you when he's done) Ya'll have your sound work cut out for you, but I think it'll double or triple the power of the piece.

Zackattack said...

Double or triple the power?! That's great! I was willing to settle for anything better than 1.3 times the power.

Seriously though, I expect to be there for some of the mixing, so no reason to fear.

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