Final edit: 135 minutes. I've created new opening and closing credit sequences (with Motion), and I'm working on an animated company logo.

I'm also entering the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, and as soon as I can wrangle a press kit together, I'm finally writing M. Night. (Thanks, IMDB Pro trial!)

I will try and update a bit more regularly; I have a good feeling about this year.

April 1st: location screening in Lynchburg, VA! Carl Randolph, Justin Timpane, and Jaime Morgan will be attending. Contact The Federal Crest Inn if you'd like to come.

April 1st: screening in Lynchburg, VA! Carl Randolph, Justin Timpane, and Jaime Morgan will be attending. Contact The Federal Crest Inn if you'd like to come.

Sorry about the lack of updates; we've moved offices and I haven't had much net access. Also, I'm stuck finishing an airport training video (ugh) for at least another week.

But I'm still working on the film; I'd like to cut 15 minutes off the running time before the Illinois premiere at the end of the month. You can also e-mail me for a link to the cool new outtake reel (I don't want to post a link until more people have had a chance to see the film.)

It's done. Technically.

Most of the cast came over Sunday night, along with Andrew, Ricardo, and Krysia. I'll post their comments soon, but I think everyone was pleased, and even a little surprised. It's about 30 seconds shy of 2.5 hours, so now I'm working on fine tuning, titles, and general tweaking. (I find myself in need of glass shards and stone showers, as well as additional foley.)

I cannot get the Mac to output via Firewire, which vexes me no end. I had to drag my computer, speakers, and monitors out into the living room so we could actually watch the thing. It wasn't horrible, but it's embarrassing.

Current technology limits consumer dvd's to about 1.5 hours, so I need to split the film onto two discs, which is a little worrisome. Do I really want to send the rough cut out on two discs? I suppose it doesn't matter, but I wish I had more options.

I'm getting decent sleep again. Righteous.

Last night I had to fit 45 seconds of dialogue into 26 seconds, which actually worked out rather well (think Amadeus). This morning I roused myself after another 4.5 hours sleep to start trimming the timeline, so that 129 minutes became 127, and perhaps even less by tonight. This is important, because I still have 20 pages of script left, and I am hellbent on keeping Nocturne under 2 1/2 hours. (More or less, 20 pages equals 20 minutes...equals 20 more hours of editing between now and Sunday night. And that's not counting audio effects.)

I don't think this film would be half as interesting if it weren't for the (delerious/brilliant/desperate) problem solving.

Also interesting to note...the next time I post online, this movie will be done.

!

the great and secret art

The editing process is tedious work -- viewing hours of footage, then assembling a film a half-second at a time. "I like to think this is sort of a cross between a short-order cook and a brain surgeon," Murch says. "Sometimes you're doing incredibly delicate things. Two frames different will mean whether the film is a success or not..."

Ashley Davis' mother just called me! I'd been trying to locate Ashley via Google for about a week, and yesterday I stumbled across a theater company in Richmond. I contacted them, explained who I was and who I was looking for, and today I got the call. Very cool.

Ashley's been busy; she's starred in quite a few productions, and had a short speaking role opposite Jon Bon Jovi in Cry Wolf. (I wonder what she'll think of watching her 14 year old self, speaking Polish no less....)

Wendy came over last night to help me with a crucial re-shoot, bless her. That leaves just two gaping holes in the film, but thankfully they're both audio related. I've been editing, re-editing, polishing, and feverishly working on the audio effects, with a net gain of...3.5 minutes. I just finished Ryan and Carl's full blown fight, and tonight or tomorrow I hope to finish the seance. If I'm very lucky:

• Friday - Carl and Bethany's special last moments, and Ryan's shamanic journey
• Saturday - audio for the shamanic journey, Ryan and Justin's fight, and end of act 3
• Sunday - last day in the Fed Crest, maybe tweak the credits, and figure out a way to get the Mac to play on my tv.

This is going to be rough.

120 minutes. Still going more slowly than I'd like, but that's what you get if you insist on editing the music and sound effects yourself. Yes, I'm saving money and, from a broader perspective, speeding things up. But it's tricky. And hard. And it's going too well to fuck up now.

12 Tips For Selling Your Film

8. Seek outside validation.
One key person's positive opinion of your film is enough to get the ball rolling. Consider showing your rough cut to an established producer or director and ask them to sign on as executive producer. If you have connections with a key agent or manager, have them help spread the word. Or, hire a reputable publicist who likes the film.

Our Blessed Lady of Benevolent Test Screenings, please let this film rock. Amen.

This last week was tough; now that I'm getting into the serious audio it's slowing me down somewhat, but last night I had a breakthrough and did five minutes. (My haphazard cinematography is making my editing equally creative, so that probably doesn't help.) But all is well. 111 minutes.

I've been meaning to put up some pages, but I have no creative spark just now, at least for html. (How sad is that.) So here are some captures to assuage your suspense.

8 more days.

102 minutes. I just finished the downtown Lynchburg montage, so virtually all that's left is the (supremely audio effects heavy) long dark night of the soul. I don't imagine these scenes being longer than 40 minutes; including the denouement, it looks like I'll just bring it in under 2 1/2 hours. After that it's all dire scrutiny and cutting.

And then there's titles and credits, of course, which software I have not yet mastered, let alone properly explored.

Do filmmakers ever go back and watch their own movies?

90 minutes done. Nocturne is officially a feature length film. Not that this is especially surprising, given that there's still roughly 60 minutes to go....possibly less. I won't really know until I'm in the home stretch which is, not too ironically, somewhere between the 4th and the 17th.

I think the editing's going well. Damn this insomnia, though.

I used to feel ashamed when I thought of what I'd say, when people ask me why it took four years to finish this. The long answer is, after three failed hard drives, six months of recapturing, a brand new Mac with double the processing power of the old workstation and five times the RAM, the cutting edge and vastly superior Final Cut Pro software, and four more years of editing experience, it's taken me about sixty days of non-stop editing (ask Krysia) to get to this point.

My fervent hope is that, after watching the film, no one will have to ask this question.

4:30 a.m.; 81 minutes done. The mad, wicked and wayward somnambulists tucked away all of them into realms of inordinate conciliation, lifted or carried down by damascene wings, lavender scented. And I? I do but lie here yet awhile, slowly coiling in this treacherous twilight reversed.

When sleep finally came, I dreamt of old friends.

Na Zdrowie!

Wow....Steven Brust has a Livejournal. Most excellent. I wonder if he remembers giving me permission to have Bethany's character read To Reign in Hell on camera for Nocturne...I certainly don't have the e-mail, it was three years ago. Should I write him again? After the movie's finished, probably. Yeah, that.

So it looks like the November 4th date for the rough cut is fanciful, pure and simple. Not that this is a problem, merely notable. The edits are coming along at a reasonable pace, up to three scenes a night...it's just impossible to rush them. I know this because I've tried. And anyway, you can't imagine my joy with the process right now; I think it's actually going to be entertaining. Thank you thank you thank you, Apple and FCP.

Maybe the 17th.

Still can't shake the schedule from last week. I was up til 4:30 night before last, overslept yesterday (epic surprise), spoke with Krysia for all of 12 minutes last night around 9:30/10:00 and completely passed out for about an hour straightaway afterwards, worked til 3:30 and finally discovered nepenthe around a quarter of 5. Dreamt of pirates night before last. This morning I dined at an upscale cheese shop where Anthony Hopkins was the proprietor.

I don't even wonder anymore.

SO ANYWAY. Posted a few new videos, including the new "Moonlight Sonata" montage from Nocturne. (The other is a sort of visual homage to "The Sand Princess"...it's basically Rika's travels.) Also consolidated Caryatidfilms.com into Byroniceye.com, so there'll be major changes to the Nocturne pages next week.

68 minutes done. The last 8 were damned difficult, but I'm very pleased.

Took off of work last week to edit; discovered previously unknown realms of sleep deprivation, and learned that you can actually get a drug hangover from too much coffee. BUT...I managed to go to sleep this morning (5:30-ish) with exactly 60 minutes of completed film. Completed. Sleek, black & white, and not bad.

For those of you who have written me (Bob, Christel, etc.), I'll write soon, I swear, and thanks for checking in on me. Things are going well.

Now if I can just edit 30 more minutes every week between now and the 4th.

I am walking death. This is what you get when you're editing up to 5 minutes every night.

However...I promised a few dear people I'd post the first 15 minutes, so here it is. There's no audio for the first 90 seconds or so, and you need the new Quicktime 7 to view it.

PLEASE note that I haven't addressed the titles or audio in any meaningful way yet, and that you're watching incredibly compressed video...3 gigs worth. (Q7 for Windows is brand new, which may explain why the video stutters on my machine. Yours might be better.)

Anyway. Enjoy.