Editing: Jonah got about one third through the rough cut. That puts us in good standing for the LA Film Festival deadline Friday. Sound won’t be done by then, obviously, but LA’s down widdat. One thing we’re sure of, though, is the need for some quick reshoots. In the NY location has it already been a month?], you may recall, there was a buzzing sound caused by grounding problems with the Mini-Disc player. Turns out we needed the cuts that were unusable. We’ll crank it out pretty quickly, though (as if we have a choice). AND we need to shoot some more insert cuts of searching the web. Right now, it’s a little rushed.
For sound, I’m meeting with a former colleague who has moved to Elias Arts, a sound design and branding firm. It’ll be good to scope out the sound mixing/editing job we face and see if another set of hands (and ears, I guess) will be helpful.
Music: Bjork’s out. I think I have to agree with Jonah that the music is just too emotionally laden. After all, this isn’t a piece on Public Radio (at least not until we get the publicity machine rolling). When we were talking about Antonioni and the Caetano Veloso song I heard (called “Michelangelo Antonioni”) and tracked down for the soundtrack, Jonah suggested the soundtrack from Antonioni’s epic failure, Zabriskie Point. Specifically, Pink Floyd’s opening track, “Heart Beat, Pig Meat,” which is all but cemented for our opening scene at the airport. It’s got an amazing, light keyboard and a faint, moaning vocalist, with an undercurrent of bongo drums. In the film version I downloaded from Gnutella, there are clips from TV shows, commercials, and overheard conversations interspersed throughout. It’s awesome.
Other Stuff: I’ve been working on the press kit and on completion of the festival submission form information. I’m going ahead with WithoutABox registration, a festival submission service. So far so good. Anyone have any experience with them? Please let me know.