In A Place Productions and YouTube

We’re doing our color correction for APPOINTMENT IN VANCOUVER today!  We’re making the magic happen at In A Place Productions (IAPP) – a gorgeous, charming, state-of-the-art facility owned by a dear friend and collaborator of mine.  Yay!

Sound mix on Saturday with Andy.  Megan H. is doing our artwork this week for Monday delivery of DVD menu and jacket.  And Stephanie H. has stepped up to the plate to fix our scroll credits in AfterEffects.  I am unbelievably grateful for everyone’s generosity and willingness to jump in and make this little project look like a million bucks.  Now we just need Casey to win the gold.

Down to the wire, we’ve been trying to find the PERFECT helmet cam shot for the flashback sequence of Casey’s first world-level win when he was a teen.  Namely, we needed the footage to be through gates and, duh, gorgeous. Seth found some beautiful footage on (get this) YOUTUBE. We contacted the owner and got it!

Plus, Today we’ll hear whether or not we’re premiering at the Birds of Prey WC at Beaver Creek in Denver.

 

Homestretch

APPOINTMENT IN VANCOUVER is in the homestretch.  Is ‘homestretch’ one word? Ha. It’s a million words to me right now.

It’s Italians —  as in “will the Italians finally agree to our licensing agreement and ship us the Grindelwald race footage that is the climax of the movie by Friday because we need it by Monday to utilize the huge favor we got of a donated color correction?”

It’s release form — as in “can I still make my film the way I want but satisfy the concerns of a interviewee and secure a release form from this contributor?” Professionally, I know the film could exist without this contributor, but I don’t want it to. I respect the interviewee’s concerns.  Deeply.  The addition of this person brings a texture to the film that I adds to the humanity and truth to this intimate portrait of a world-class athlete.  I might run out of phone minutes this month because I’m listening to this interviewee. I might be the only one but that’s part of my job and I enjoy it.

It’s Pieter. Pieter’s our composer.  He came onboard only a few weeks ago and has been dishing out beautiful music but the clock is ticking and 3/4 of the compositions need to be done by Wednesday – and that’s including a round of notes. Pieter, Pieter, Pieter.

It’s races we’ve never seen.  Five new DVDs of races showed up on Saturday thanks to Tyler Shepherd. We’ve been trying to track down these 2007 Honda Ski Tour Races for months.  With no budget, we couldn’t pay for them to be dubbed from the archives house storing them. We were at the mercy of generous people willing to send DVDs without charge.  There were no people like that.  Luckily, in the last moments, I suggested we check with Tyler and the USSA ski coach saved the day.  Cindy (editor) and I drooled over the footage Saturday as we figured out a workflow to import it.  Instead of grocery shopping and writing all day, my head was gloriously spinning with awesome new action shots, the missing footage of Casey’s Squaw Valley 2007 crash, perfect soundbytes about SkiX as an Olympic sport, and much more.

It’s cue sheet. What Pieter doesn’t have time for we’ll lace with music Mo’s pulled and licensed.  Are we missing any tracks? I wonder if backup tracks we’ve prepared strong enough to use or is it better to leave the sections without music if it isn’t absolutely perfect. I have to listen again to tell but not until I get a little space from the soundtrack.  Do I have time to get space from it?  Does 8 hours of sleep count as space from it?

And all at the same time, the words LOSERS and SLOPPY FIRSTS pop into the chorus of this Homestretch anthem.  They want attention too like jealous siblings when the newborn arrives.  I juggle, and I prioritize, and there are many plates in the air, and I love it. This is making movies.  This is how you hope it’s going to be. I may be living off cheesecake Sarah left here on Saturday, but it’s worth it to be in the game and telling stories that if someone else was telling, I’d be jealous.

IMDB It, Baby

APPOINTMENT IN VANCOVUER is on IMBD!  Big thanks to Seth Caplan (producer of AIV) for making this happen fantastically fast – I’ve never seen IMDB respond so quickly.  It must be the Caplan charm.  Having an IMDB page plus the SKI RACING press have steadily increased our sign-ups for $5 off the DVD.  Yes!

Now back to the edit room with Cindy.  We are picture-locking (possibly) this Sunday and definitely by the 23rd.

Spooky ‘n Silly Lily

It’s October which means I’m eating a ton of candy corn (my all-time favorite candy, though I eat enough of it in October to satisfy my craving for a year. yes. I often feel sick from eating so much of the yellow ‘n orange meanies but I can’t stop!).

October also means LilyDidIt is celebrating Halloween.  Our ghoulishy good Halloween videos are available and to send to all the witches and monsters you call friends. I think my favorite is Fright Stuff.

Sweat Is a Must

At 29, I’ve finally started to recognize a few things about the way I am. Congrats to me!

One motif is that I’m a lot happier and even-keeled if I exercise by body as much as my brain.  This is why I’m training for a 10k in November with a few of my friends.

We’ve tentatively named our team RUN HARD! (exclamation mark included) but are open to other suggestions.

SKI RACING Magazine Press for AIV

SKI RACING magazine interviewed Seth and I last week about APPOINTMENT IN VANCOUVER and already has published “Puckett Stars in Documentary Film.” They link to the story and our trailer from their homepage.  Boo. Yah.

The magazine is discussing doing a longer print piece closer to our release date/Olympics. Boom. Boom. Pow!

“140″ Premieres

“140″ had a special preview screening this week at Hatchfest in Bozeman, MT.  I believe this has something to do with Frank (the organizer of the project) being married to a Bozeman-ian. (BTW – I was there when these two sweethearts met at Heartland Film Fest ‘06!)

Frank edited 140 and is close to a final-final-final cut.  There’s murmurs of officially premiering in as innovative manner as we shoot — 140 screenings on the same day, possibly in late November.  From red carpet affairs to in fireside viewings in the coziness of our own homes.

Totally confused because you don’t remember wtf “140″ is? I understand.  Here’s its crib sheet:

• On June 21, 2009, 140 filmmakers in 140 different locations simultaneously shot 140 seconds of footage.
• The objective: to demonstrate the connections between the filmmakers and the places they call home.
• Inspired by the micro-blogging site Twitter.com (and its 140 character limit for its messages),
• 140 is an experimental documentary that brings together the talents of these 140 filmmakers in 30 countries on 5 continents.
• The range of filmmakers is diverse, ranging from students to seasoned industry professionals, from bare-bones indie filmmakers to successful Hollywood directors.
• The unique footage that tells their stories has been assembled into a eature length (85 min)montage of poignant visual moments – the exact same moments captured all across our planet.

To keep up with the progress of “140,” check out Frank’s blog.

LOSERS Notes: Part 1

Leigh Anne and I got our first round of notes on LOSERS last week.  We had three excellent readers that we handpicked based on the following criteria: intelligence, sense of humor, sense of story, and attractiveness.

And the readers delivered! Each person had their own excellent feedback that melded together in a really exciting way — one reader noted issues in the first act, another in the third, and then our last reader made some brilliant notes about the middle that successfully effected some of the first and second act questions. One of my favorite notes was to render a character more likable by having someone have a crush on her.  If the audience sees someone liking a character, they like the character even if they’re seemingly unappealing. (ex. Meredith on GREY’S ANATOMY.  McDreamy always was sooo into her.  And George (RIP) was puppy dog-crushing on this drunk, damaged, proud, poor-decision-making character.  These men’s unwavering affections helped us like her more despite all the ways she was annoying in the first season).

Our readers’ feedback (and the ideas it spawned) combined to provide a comprehensive analysis and (after some discussion) clear agenda for draft 2. An even more awesome screenplay is on the way.  This is truly exciting considering this screenplay was one of the most solid (and funniest) first drafts I’ve ever seen in a while.

Next draft is due Wednesday!  A whole new round of readers will get their paws on LOSERS next weekend.

The A-Team

I’ve been asked to be a member of the AFI Alumni Steering Committee. It’s a small, freshly-assembled group of crackerjack, young alums who love AFI like a fat kid loves cake. Lead by Patrick Creadon (C ’93), we’ve been charged with generating an alumni community that connects the AFI grads to the school and to each other.  We are not fundraising.  Thank. God.

This endeavor is long overdue.  Our alumni network is made up of talented, extremely independent, ambitious, one-of-a-kind filmmakers.  They are the kind of people who don’t naturally seem to stay tightly connected after graduation.  Maybe if we had a football team (like USC) to rally around, things would be different?

The steering committee and I think our alumni network has tremendous potential to be a stronger community and industry network-y system for its members.  We’ve already rocked our first meeting and brainstormed ideas that included events, weekly screenings, mentorship programs. We’re sussing stuff out; I’m inspired.

Smell Me

Degree for men sent me a sample.  How sweet of them!  It’s small and free, so it became my travel deodorant for this trip.  Only now do I realize it must be what an ex-boyfriend used.  It’s been a little distracting for the last few days to be yanked out of whatever I’m doing because I catch a whiff and am hit by memories of this guy in the middle of a Seattle coffee shop.  That said… I kind of like it. I get the smell without the dude.