The Past Two Weeks

Sorry about the missed blog. There was so much going on last week, I completely forgot about writing one. It was Friday before anybody even reminded me that I’d missed a week. By that point, I figured I would just wait until Tuesday.

It’s been an eventful two weeks both personally and professionally.

First off, Cindy and I had a small house fire. Fear not. All is well. The house is still standing. In a nutshell, a surge protector failed to do what it was supposed to, though the fact it had gotten wedged under a couch probably didn’t help. Thankfully, I was home and had the presence of mind to zap it with a fire extinguisher. We were really lucky. It could have been far worse than it was.

The fire burned up a couch and some curtains, singed the floor and did a good amount of smoke damage. While there was more dirt and soot than actual fire damage, it was about a week of dealing with insurance, housecleaning, and getting all the soot out of cat fur. (The cats are fine.)

The lessons: Make sure you have smoke alarms on all levels of your house, test your fire extinguisher(s) regularly, and don’t skimp out and buy cheap surge protectors to save a few bucks.

Anybody who wants to make a joke about me burning down the house to finish paying for Women’s Studies should do so now.

I also spent the past two weekends working as an associate producer with Women’s Studies Director of Photography Aaron Shirley on his long gestating short film project which bears no relationship to the Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe film but is still tentatively titled American Gangsters. We were actually supposed to shoot American Gangsters in the spring as a test for a lot of the techniques and workflow we intended to use on Women’s Studies, but there were only twenty-four hours in each day and something had to give.

Aaron’s Untitled Gangster Short (There, better?) should be finished by mid-April. I’ll post info on where and how it can be seen as it becomes available.

What else? Oh yeah, Women’s Studies!

On Sunday, the chip cooling fan on my computer’s motherboard said “sayonara.” While neither the motherboard or hard drive were damaged, my machine had to go into the pooter shop which has pretty much left me without the means to do much but hope all the department heads are on task AND finally write a blog that’s more than just “Work! Chaos! More soon!”

So where are we?

The past couple weeks have really seen Women’s Studies start to blossom into the movie I’ve always hoped it could be. Make no mistake, there’s still a ton of work to do. However, Instead of worrying about big broad patches on the film that didn’t seem to be working right, Editor Jim McGivney and I have gotten to a point where the tweaks and fixes are only needed on very specific areas.

(Oh yeah, both Jim and I got hit with some Captain Trips level flu/cold over the past couple weeks.)

It used to be I’d watch a reel and see a bunch of footage trying to be something. Now, with each passing day I get a sense of a story, a glimpse of lives unfolding before me. I get wrapped in drama, comedy, conflict and horror. More and more, I feel like I’m watching the beautiful amazing thing we call a movie.

It’s pretty exciting actually.

Next week, I’ll spend some time talking about music, sound, and the first eight minutes of the movie (and the new trailer) we’ll be premiering during Horrorfind Weekend taking place at the end of the month.