THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - VFX

Dino has has a hectic time of it, finishing visual effects work at his job, but he’s finally able to begin Alchemist VFX. Tonight he’s going to assemble the project into a Flame timeline and then we’re supposed to be meeting later this week to begin the actual effects and color correction work.

The Alchemist Makes Gold - Final Stages

On September 6th, 2011, which also happens to be my birthday, I dropped off my short film "The Alchemist Makes Gold" for post production work with Dino Tsaousis at Light of Day, VFX.

Alchemist Website!

The website for "The Alchemist Makes Gold" is now up and running!

The Alchemist Makes Gold - Final Stages

Dino is away on vacation until August 25th, which means that the color correction and graphics work has to be put on hold. In the meantime I'm prepping materials for festival submission.

Today I’m spending the day at the start of finalizing production packet materials for my alchemist film. I think I’ll make the production books essentially square with Peter Schafer’s alchemical chart as the cover to the book. Inside will be a few promotional images, info about the film, director’s statement, etc.
I feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing. But I often feel that way, ha!

I hope some of these festivals want hard copy materials and not just digital submissions. Hard copy is so much more enjoyable to make.

Hold. The. Phone.

Whoa, it's been a while since I even considered posting on this thing.

I've moved through(with?) a series of events recently. I was forcibly removed, along with my whole home community, from the large warehouse where I was living. There was no real notice(3 days, I think?), before the FDNY locked the doors to where we were living because the conditions we were under were supposedly "imminently perilous conditions". It's a fairly long story, one that has been well (mis)documented by various blogs, newspapers and magazines and it's gotten exhausting to talk about.

But, most recently, I've moved into a pretty awesome space with a full view of the river front. The rent is low, the company is awesome, and I'm hoping to settle in and re-dedicate my time to personal creative projects.

Helen is still moving along, so is Alchemist, and I have a few other projects in the works.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - Soundscape Design

Yeesh. I've been editing in Soundtrack Pro for hours now, my head feels foggy and my back is tired. I'm going to take a bath. I don't really know how to use Soundtrack, so I've been reading the manual and fighting with this program.

I've got 22 tracks of audio now, hopefully this will turn out fairly well. My plan is to do a bunch of "sound design" and then send it over to Jared and have him clean it up nice and add some extra touches to it, to make it sound better. Hopefully he'll add his own design to it.

Anyway, that's my plan.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - *Sound Design*

Jared finished a first complete sound clean up and it's sounding really great! I'm amazed at how much cleaner the audio is than it was. I watched it through and put together some notes with timecode markers which I sent his way. He's going to make changes and mess some more with the overall balance and then we'll be on our way to some serious soundscape design. Exciting!

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION in stages...

Jared has officially begun sound design on The Alchemist Makes Gold!

And then this happened...

Went to my parents house this weekend. My dad and I didn't talk much about the Helen script, mostly I just relaxed. I read a book, watched movies, took a bath, hung out with my dog and went out in the woods. I had an all around relaxing time.

In my last post, I mentioned that I would relay something further about IFP. IFP is Independent Feature Project and they host Independent Film Week. It's a week long event where filmmakers are introduced to agents, managers, distributors, producers, etc. to talk about a current project(for which the filmmaker submitted at an earlier date). My dad and I submitted to IFP film week back in...April, I think it was. They accepted 25 scripts in development for the Emerging Narrative section of the film week, and the script my dad and I have been working on was accepted! I submitted as writer/director, my dad as co-writer--though he wont be attending the film week. We are listed on indie wire here: http://www.indiewire.com/article/150_New_Films_IFP_Project_Forum/P0/

We're on the 2nd page, 8th project down.

I've been handling a few deadlines and prepping for the week event. I had my script consultation and I'm going to update the script soon. Most recently, I've been preparing "The Alchemist Makes Gold" and "The Astral Woman" to be burned to DVD so that I can share some 'past work' with any reps that might be interested in the projects I'm working on or have been working on.

The Alchemist isn't very far along. Well, I mean, it's edited--has been stitched together, but it doesn't have any sound design done and none of the graphics work or color correction. The DVD media is due by August 31! I've been doing some basic stuff and I gave all the sound over to some folks who said they'd be willing to help out, but as of yet we haven't been able to touch base about everything. It's a little nerve wracking to have all of this stuff going on and to be working a full time job, but I really feel like things are going well--or at least sometimes I feel that way. Today I feel that way.

Tonight I'm going to a meeting for an art project called "INTERSECTION" (project website: http://projectintersection.org/ ). I only joined forces recently and haven't really done a whole lot with them, but they seem like a neat group of people and the project is interesting. It's good to have some project distractions that aren't your personal burden. Plus, it's fun to spend some time with interesting folks.

Anyway...yep.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION in stages...

The Alchemist is now in it's first official HD rough cut. I did a once over tonight, checking my cuts and tightening edits. Pretty soon we'll be starting on graphics and sound design. The goal is to complete at least one full, strong scene before August 30 so that I can submit a DVD for IFP. I'll discuss IFP another time.

Yay!

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION in stages...

I have a cut of The Alchemist that I'm pretty happy with, but the sound is difficult to work with. The recordings have a lot of interference(clothes rustling, camera noise), so I get a little exasperated every now and again. I'm considering a new creator for musical composition and spoke with a friend about looking for a composer who might be interested in doing the sort of music that I'm interested in. I listened to his demos and they're good stuff, so hopefully we can begin talk on all of this soon and see if this is a project he would like to be involved with.

I got the tax return deposited into my bank account and now I just have to find the time to bring the film over to PostWorks and get a best light transfer to HD. (!!)

Submitted Helen

Last week I submitted the script my dad and I have been writing to the IFP Independent Film Week competition. Interested to see where that is going.

I passed my Motorcycle Safety Course and got my Motorcycle License on Friday. My moto is in the shop, getting new cables and what not and should be good to ride sometime next week. Pretty excited about that. It's beautiful outside.

I spent a good portion of the day cleaning and rearranging the apartment while listening to Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I'm supposed to have a meeting this evening to talk about the projects I'm working on and discuss steps towards creation. Alchemist sound design is moving at a slow and steady pace and I bought a whole bunch of candles today.

Good things.

Project Updates

This weekend I'm working with my dad to get together a rough draft of our feature script that I feel is strong enough to share with my friend over at Cooper's Town Productions.

Also, I got a pretty good tax return and once that is deposited in my bank account I'm going to have my Alchemist film transferred to HD and FINALLY get that finished and festival ready.

My Astral Woman short should be shooting sometime around the first of May, that's pretty exciting.

I realized I hadn't updated in a while, so this is my quick update.

More soon.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION *SOUND DESIGN*

My short film, The Alchemist Makes Gold, is still currently in the hands of motion graphics artist Dino Tsaousis who is doing additional editing and working out some digital effects. In the meantime, I'm starting preparation for sound design.

I've started on a Sound Map of the Alchemist. I separate each scene and then do grouping of the sounds for the corresponding scene. Concrete sounds, Musical sounds and Voice sounds. Luckily, the Alchemist is incredibly simple when it comes to voice sounds, they only really pertain to the two characters when they're speaking, the characters are never in an environment where other people are having conversations. The concrete sounds are fairly straight forward, though they begin to get a little complicated, as there are lot of noises that would be considered "concrete" but which weren't actually audible enough to be recorded on location--things such as, bubbling, boiling, sputtering, fire flickering, etc. So, those all have to be notated and then recorded separately. The "musical" sounds are the hardest to pin down. The "music" of the Alchemist isn't exactly music, I call it a "soundscape". It is composed of industrial noises, mechanical noises, the sounds of the woods/forest, and then building shimmering sounds, glowing sounds, whooshing and resonant/hollow sounds. Basically, the soundscape is the most interpretive and complex, as it requires creating concrete sounds to relate to abstract concepts. I guess this is always what music is, but I don't want the soundscape to sound quite like music or quite like it could be the real environment. It resides in a sort of in between place, an indefinable place. Anyway, this is where Alchemist stands now. A chugging along process. I'm nervous and excited to see where all of this leads.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION *STAGE 3.2*

Presently, my still-in-production short film, The Alchemist Makes Gold, is in the hands of an additional editor/motion graphics artist, Dino Tsaousis (http://www.dinotsaousis.com/). Dino is really great, he works primarily in the more commercial world of video/filmmaking with Arby's, Wendy's, Gillette, AT&T...etc. Presently, he's working freelance out of NY. However, he also went to college in Boulder, Colorado where he had a focus on Avant Garde/Experimental filmmaking, what a great mix!

The Process:

First, I made a cut of the whole project with rudimentary graphic placeholders, then Dino took the project and all the raw footage. He watched it through, made notes and has come up with potential changes in cuts and rhythm and concepts for the special effects. He'll make changes and begin on design and then send me low resolution files through yousendit.com where I'll review the changes and give my opinion. So far, I've seen two changes(one involving special effects) and I was happy with both of them. After Dino finishes with his changes, he'll conform the whole sequence to something that is watchable by anyone and I'll share the rough final cut with other people. Once I've gauged response and feel happy with where the video stands, we'll decide the cut is a lock and he can begin on color correction. While that's happening, I can take the footage over to my friends at The Cutting Room Studio in Manhattan, where we'll begin soundscape design . Once the soundscape is complete, the whole sound aspect of the project will be brought to the guys at Black & Gray Music (http://www.blackandgraymusic.com), where final sound mix and clean up will be completed. Then we synch our completed audio with our completed video and the project will be done!

Joe Muto rehearses in the "apartment" location.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION *STAGE 3 and on*

All of the audio is now synched up, it took me working at least 10 hours straight yesterday, but now when their mouths move, there be sound!

Here is a preview image, this is from Scene 10(keep in mind it's low resolution and no color correction has been done):

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION *STAGE 3*

The Alchemist Makes Gold has been transferred to two miniDV tapes. I watched both of them on the TV yesterday and imported one tape to my computer, in the midst of the second one today.

The shots look good and I think the movie is going to have an interesting feel, the only disconcerting thing is that everything looks so dark on the computer screen and I have the screen set to 'Generic RGB' which is the lightest setting for the computer screen. I'll probably be giving a call to PostWorks today and asking their media guys some questions, just to make sure everything is okay. I don't like how dark it is on here. Otherwise, this is a big step forward with the project.

Alchemist, Post Production *Stage 2.5*

The film has been transferred, I'm going to pick it up today.

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION *STAGE 2*

This thing has been moving ever so slowly, so I feel I need to start from the beginning, with a brief description of the progress.

In July-August 2009 we shot my short film "The Alchemist Makes Gold" on Super16 color negative film in the woods of Pennsylvania and in a basement in Philadelphia. I wrote the script months before that, but I never did figure how to raise any money, though I really did try to understand the whole process. So we all worked for free and I spent all of the money I had to make it work. Very very low budget. The basement was in a friend's sculpture studio, the woods are where my parents live. A good producer friend acted as a consultant of sorts and got me a 16mm camera for free and film stock.
The shoot was a bit hectic and not phenomenally organized, but we got everything we needed. I have plenty of stories about the organizational messes I was constantly cleaning up, but that can be for another time, this is supposed to be the brief explanation.
So, we completed our 4 days of shooting(we only actually shot for 4 days, though we booked 7 for travel time and prep time.) But, after that, I had 8 rolls of exposed film and no money--again, I didn't necessarily handle the project expertly. So, I had the film in my fridge for a while. 3 rolls were already developed because we had a scare with the camera and were forced to make sure the footage was okay(my cinematographer loaned the money for developing those rolls). Then I read something online that said that film can be damaged if held in a fridge for longer than 6 months, since my monetary situation wasn't changing, I panicked. First, I found a grant source and filled out an application for an arts grant and submitted that, then I created a web site with a description of the project, conflicts and a paypal donation button. From that, I got in $500. I used $320 of that to develop the rolls of film in my fridge, but the left over $200 wasn't enough for transfer. Progressively, that amount raised to $335, which was still not enough. I wanted to do an HD transfer, which is about $1500, and doing even just an SD transfer is about $500. So, I kept trudging along. Time passed and I grew frustrated with things, thought I might stop working freelance and get a 'regular' job and actually save enough money to do the things I want. However, that thought propelled me forward and I started working a lot more in freelance. I became motivated to buy a motorcycle, which will eventually save me money on travel expenses and allow me to visit family and friends and, for Christmas, my parents gave me the last of the cash($300) needed to have the film transferred to SD--which is absolutely a start, and at least I'll have something to show for all the work we put into the movie. The award connected to the grant I applied for is not announced until sometime later on in January, so I don't know anything about that yet. (*UPDATE* I did NOT receive the grant. Bummer!)

So, this PHASE 2 of my Alchemist Post Production is coming up on Tuesday, when we're going to have the film transferred to SD miniDV tapes and I can begin a rough edit of the film!

Still image from The Alchemist Makes Gold, woods location

THE ALCHEMIST MAKES GOLD - POST PRODUCTION *STAGE 1* Completed!

So, I picked up the Alchemist film yesterday and now it sits in a heap on my floor. Well, a neatly arranged heap of carefully considered boxes of consciously coiled film. Anyway, that's stage one. It's out of the fridge and safe. My new plan is to raise enough money to get it transferred to SD(about 1/3 the cost of HD) and edit that as a first full rough cut, then I can submit the rough cut to finishing film grants(as they tend to require rough cuts) and potentially raise enough money to have the film transferred to HD.

Now, on to PHASE TWO! The transfer of film to SD...