It’s hard not to admire the mad genius of Michel Gondry. You probably know him as the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; a personal favorite of mine. He has also directed music videos for the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Bjork, and Massive Attack along with commercials for Levis and HP. (He’s also pretty good with a Rubik’s Cube)

His latest film Be Kind Rewind tells the tale of two guys - Mos Def and Jack Black - that work at a VHS video rental store. Jack’s character’s brain becomes magnetized and erases all of the video tapes. In order to satisfy the store’s most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films, which include Back to the Future, The Lion King, and Robocop. Here is the original trailer if you haven’t already seen it.

In typical Gondry style he takes the concept one step further and films himself doing a low budget version of his own trailer.

Genius.

Admittedly, I don’t love everything Gondry has done but I think that is indicative of someone with that broad a range of creativity. He is anything but a one trick pony.

Tags: Movies by Dan
No Comments »

What is it with my scheduling abilities on this project?! What was scheduled to be a 3ish hour ADR session on Sunday turned into a 12 hour marathon. I suppose it might have something to do with me going over the location audio with Wayne and saying, “F@#k it. We need to redo the whole thing.” Wayne was nice enough not to slap me and we settled in for what was going to be a long evening. Once everything was set up Eric, Wayne and I spent the next 9 or so hours stuffed in my little office, re-recording all of the dialog… 2 words at a time.

The good news is that Eric matched, and in some cases improved, his original performance which was amazing to begin with. Eric, you’re a pro brother.

The next steps are to line up all of the dialog we recorded, (Yep, 2 words at a time) equalize it so it sounds like it was recorded in that room and not in some studio, add the foley, mix it all together and serve chilled.

So far we are on pace to have Rectify finished in time for the February 15^th STIFF late deadline.

I am shooting for a Saturday, February 23^rd premier of the film at the Christoff gallery in Georgetown. This has NOT been confirmed but it is the target date and location. Stay tuned for updates.

Tags: Pre-production by Dan
No Comments »

I received the still pictures from the shoot this weekend.

Thank you Lisa!

Below is a selection of shots that I feel are begging for captions. Take a look and leave a suggested caption in the comments e.g. Picture 11 - “I’m not gonna drink it. YOU drink it”. Alternately you can vote for a comment that someone else posted. I will update the gallery with the funniest/most voted for comments. Wayne, I expect a strong showing from you.

12►

Tags: The aftermath by Dan
3 Comments »

Two big thumbs up for this movie! Rotten Tomatoes is currently giving Juno a well deserved 93% which passes my “90%+ equals a must see” test for RT. This is how an “indie” movie should be done. You get a great script, attract great actors (some more well know than others), and allow interesting characters the chance to come to life. Juno honestly exceeded my expectations. It didn’t use up all the jokes in the trailer and wasn’t a one-trick-pony of edgy comebacks and quips. Solid performances were given by all of the major cast members; particularly Ellen Page.

The bottom line is if you like the trailer you will like the film.

Tags: Movies by Dan
1 Comment »

Things are moving along quite nicely with the film. The editing is done; save for trimming or adding a frame here or there during the fine tuning process. The rag doll FX shot is done even though someone turned off a light between shots. Good thing I’m an After Effects Ninja. 14 eye blinks have been removed. Don’t worry Heather, that’s actually really good. Color correction is done. All that is left is audio (last weekend got bumped to this weekend) and credits. I will post another update after the ADR is done.

Tags: The aftermath by Dan
No Comments »

I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who was on set Saturday. The shoot went waaaaay longer that I had intended but I assure you it was worth it. All of the technical difficulties were successfully overcome and we got all of the shots we needed. The footage is beautiful and Eric’s performance was absolutely amazing.

The progress is as follows. The initial “assemble edit” is complete and it looks great. Very frickin’ creepy. The next step is to work on the FX i.e. the doll transition, remove eye blinks, etc. Then comes color correction. This weekend Wayne, Eric and I are getting together to work on the audio. After all of that is put together I will do the final tweeks, add the credits and it should be good to go.

The goal is to have it done in time for the Seattle True Independent Film Festival’s late deadline of February 15th. Then we will submit it to whatever other film festivals seem appropriate and are affordable. I will NOT be posting it online until it has run its course at the festivals.

Stay tuned for more info about the film as things progress. There will also be a screening party that everyone will be invited to at a yet-to-be-determined time and location.

P.S. I would like to point out that I am more excited about the film now than I was when I first started working on it; which isn’t always the case. For those of you who have written, planned, produced, and shot films of your own, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out the way you had envisioned and you end up telling yourself, “Well, it’s not bad considering what we had to work with…” That’s not the case here. This is EXACTLY what I envisioned and then some. That feels good. This is the story I wanted to tell, told the way I wanted to tell it. If people don’t like it then they just don’t like it and that’s OK.

Tags: The aftermath by Dan
5 Comments »

• Script - check!
• Storyboards - check!
• Bad ass camera - check!
• Tons-O-lights - check!
• Sound gear - check!
• Über talented cast and crew - check!
• Sweet location - check!
• Creepy ragdoll - check!
• Coupla wigs for said ragdoll - check!
• Fooooooood - check!
• Easy to administer caffeine - check!

What else could we possibly need?

See you all on Saturday!

Tags: Pre-production by Dan
3 Comments »