- I decided to do the cut in black and white - it adds
alot of age and starkness to it - it's just a rougher look which works
well for it. And to be honest there is a few costume and make-up
continuity issues the black and white helps cover! ~ but having said
that if it didn't work artistically first I wouldn't put it in that
- The audio was pretty good - and a huge step up from
the quality of the audio on In My Image - all I
learnt from thast I put into this. I did alot of foley leading up to it
which was good fun and all the dialogue was overdubs - either recorded
on location or subsequently - but it all cuts in well.
- Unfortuantely the composer Tony Jones has been
serioulsy ill and wasn't able to have the score completed in time for
the screening. I had to make the decision of whether to postpone the
screening or to go ahead with it as is, and decided to go ahead with it
mainly due to logistic factors - with people who were coming and the
availability of equipment etc. So without the actual score we just used
some stand in music, which worked sufficientlty but won't be a patch on
Tony's. My sympathies and support goes to Tony and his family at the
moment.
26/6/2006
- I've completed the new final cut of the film bases on
the impressions from the premiere. About a minute and a half of action
were taken out - mainly just through little shots and edits tightened -
however the credits were slowed down, with some addtional text added,
which has added about a nother minute in so the actual running time has
only decreased a little
- The actual editing and tempo of the film has been a
bit of an experiment - I wanted it to have the editing style and pacing
of a feature but being a fair bit shorter. To be honest it doesnt' work
as well as I had hoped - because it doesn't have the substance of a
feature as well. A good experiment though - and there will be different
cuts for different purposes though - for instance the 15 minute
education kit cut
- A couple of people suggested that the dream sequences
and flash backs be in colour - and I've decided to go ahead with this
- The music is still coming - Tony is dealing with a
serious condition, and I have alot of respect and committment for him -
both as a person and a musician - so I'm happy to wait. He tells me
that working on it will be therapuetic, so that's good - as I don't
want to add to his pressures.
- I've done a collection of alot of hilarious out-takes
for the dvd when we get round to it!
28/8/2006
- The DOP, David Rusanow, who couldn't come to the
screening made an
interesting suggestion today - that the final cut should be in a
desaturated colour -- which is not a bad idea, so I'm going to think
about it - the starkness and roughness of the bush still should be
there, but hopefully the continuity issues won't stand ot too much
either
24/9/2006
- Tony's operation is scheduled for about a month and
I've told him no
rush on the music - as his helath is much more important!
- The history teacher who is intersted in doing the
education kit has
told me he can't look at it until the Christmas holidays, so the timing
works out well with the music as well actually.
9/10/2006
- Tony's operation went well (just got out yesterday)
and he is now in his recovery period - this is open heart surgery! He's
keen to get on
with the music - but I've told him only if it's therapeutic!
30/11/2006
- We're aiming for Christmas for the music and the
final cut - Tony is
recovering well, but obviously the film score is and should be a low
priority - he tells me he's experimenting with "a combination of
natural and artificial sounds - hums, whispers, and so on - to see how
that carries a growing sense of desperation and fear.
" - which sounds pretty good!
8/1/2007
- The score is progressing well and I should have it in
a few days
24/1/2007
- Well here's an unlikely thing - I've just got back in
touch with an old
friend from primary school who is now a teacher in the ACT, and has
friends in the National History Teachers Association - she's going to
show it to them and maybe we can get it worked into a syllabus or
something. It's good timing since the Federal Government is trying to
encourage more Australian history to be taught in schools.
I'm
not sure whether to send her the version now or wait for the music. I
might send her a preliminary copy just to look at, and then the final
one when the music is done.
- Music is almost finished, and can't wait for it, but
obviously it's got
to take it's time - not just around Tony's health issues - but work,
life, family pressures - all of those kinds of things - and I totally
understand!
18/2/2007
- Just found out I've got a job in the Torres
Strait in April and May - woohoo! (I'll be looking at this
after that job obviously!)
19/4/2007
- Just got back from my first trip to Dauan Island -
which was awesome -
and there's one cue left to do on the music - woohoo!
20/4/2007
- Got two samples cues today - very celtic and very
moody/sound-scapish -
they sound great!
11/7/2007
- The
score is finished!!!!
Just got an email from Tony today - woohoo! - can't wait to hear it -
it's been such a long while, but for such understandable and
extraordinary reasons! He's going to send a cd - should
get it in the next day or so
12/7/2007
- Got the music and it is
fantastic - worth every bit of the wait - it is
very moody and really reflects the psychological torment of the
character ~ or the convicts - which is what the film is mainly about. I
sware Tony will be the next Vangellis (or first Tony Jones!) - it's a
very moody brilliant score - all the more amazing because he's gone
through
such a wretched year or so - maybe that's where he got the inspiration
from!
- So anyway I'm going to go back
over all the
vision and redo some of the colour correction and then try it
desaturated rather than black and white - so there's probably another
month or so before it will be out - but it's on the way.
- I'm also going to do some shorter cuts for festivals
and an education
kit and I'm playing with the idea to get another editor in for that -
new set of eyes all that. In fact I'll try and get it into the Qld Short
Film Festival (which runs from Oct 18-21)
although they have a 20 minute limit, so we'll see if we can get it
recut by then.
16/7/2007
- Allan
Houston from
40Wattfilms is interested in doing a shorter cut - so I'll drop a copy
into him and see what he thinks - editing it might be problematic as I
only have it as one completely rendered master file at the moment with
out all the original footage digitised anymore - so if it's a matter of
cutting down what's already edited that's alright, but if it's a matter
of going back to the original footage that's hard. There were 12 one
hour tapes of HDV - which I captured as sd - and to save hard
drive space I don't have them on the hard drive anymore - they'd all
have to be recaptured - which is possible, but time consuming, and will
cost another camera hire - and I'll have to find the hard drive space!
Hmmmmphh!
20/9/2007
- Well to cut a long story short - recapturing has
been problematic - I need another firewire card which
I can't afford at the moment, and having watched over the footage
(which I haven't seen for quite a while) I can see where 5-8 minutes
can easily come off, so really it's jsut easier for me to do it on the
master edit I have, rather than to try and recapture all the original
footage.
- But anyway in the meantime I've been fiddling around
with doing a
preview ("trailer" - hate that American term :-O ) with the
deaturated look - and even a bleach bypass look. See here for
the clip and here
for a discussion of it on filmshooting.com.
- I'm pretty happy with it actually, I've used the Red Paw
Media bleach bypass filter and it looks pretty good - I want
to try it with a really good film grain effect too, the problem with
this filter is the grain doesn't move - which is fine for stills but
not a movie! Here's an example still image:
5/10/2007
- Just found out in the last two weeks of November I'm
going to be going
up to Papua New Guinea to shoot a doco on an archaeological
expedition - can't wait!. I won't be able to get this finished for the
Qld Short Film Festival - but I'm still aiming to have it ready to go
for some other festivals before I go.
13/10/2007
- I just recaptured all of the original source tapes
the
other day - I did a straight HDV -> SD (miniDV) transfer from
the
camera to my camcorder. I definitely had to recapture one of them to
redo the colour correction and a few other things
, so I thought I might as well do all of them since I had the camera
hired for 24 hours, and that way they're on hand if I need them. I
don't know why I didn't hink of doing this the first time, rather than
capturing all of the HDV masters onto the PC - if I'd done this I
always would have had the SD versions on hand and it wouldn't have
mattered if I ran out of hard drive space.
- One problem I had (and I don't know why I did this)
but
when I did the original capture I captured one of the tapes through an
analog card - not a firewire connection - I think I was experimenting
but there's a definite amount of analog noise and interference on it
(hence the reason for the invention of digital!) - and this is
particularly evident on the darker scenes (which this tape has heaps
of) - so it had to be recaptured anyway, and the digital versions laid
into the film
- Roger
Evans has explained a good method of getting moving grain in this
discussion on filmshooting.com - basically make your own
grain map, cut it up to make multiple frames, render that as an avi and
overlay it. I've kind of tried this before, but not from cutting a map
- it's a good idea. Here's a before and after he did. Remember the big
difference here is the grain will move!
Roll the mouse over to see the change
18/10/2007
- I've had a lot of sucess cloning out the stand on all
of
the hut scenes. Basically because we couldn't see the overscan on the
camera there was a bit more
of the stand holding up the hut model, and the base, visible than we
liked, but I've managed to remove it and soften the edge of the base
fairly well. Mouse over the image below to see the before and after
differences.
Roll the mouse over to see the change
7/11/2007
- Well I finished it all a few days ago - complete
shorter
cut, with all the hut cloning and bleach bypass effect etc (but no
grain effect), but you now it's still not right.
I don't want to be pedantic about it but there's some colour correction
that's still not right (the second time we shot at the beach) and the
night time flash back shots are way too orange - which is my fault -
just not lit properly
- this may all sound like litle stuff, but it's important because
little things will stand out and I don't want there to be a reason for
the film to be discounted from festivals etc. So it's going to have to
wait till I get back from Papua New Guinea - a little bit disappointing
but the right thing to do by far.
12/3/2008
19/7/2008
- I finished the DVD about a week ago -
- The
contents
are on the PAL
version are:
Hold Me Tight -
letterboxed version - 32 minutes (with optional
commentary by Scot McPhie and Elisa Lago)
Hold Me Tight -
widescreen version - 32 minutes (with optional
commentary by Scot McPhie and Elisa Lago)
Making of discussion - 32 minutes
Out takes
Hold Me Tightt short
version - letterboxed - 22 minutes
Hold Me Tight extended
rough cut - widescreen version - 37 minutes
(with optional commentary by Scot McPhie)
Previews of In My Image, Sleeping
On Her Couch and Hold Me Tight
DVD ROM component - the web page of the film
Test patterns to calibrate your TV
- The
NTSC version wiil have:
Hold Me Tight -
letterboxed version - 32 minutes
Hold Me Tight -
widescreen version - 32 minutes
Making of discussion - 32 minutes
Out takes
Previews of In My Image, Sleeping
On Her Couch and Hold Me Tight
DVD ROM component - the web page of the film
Test patterns to calibrate your TV
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