Long-distance editing...it's the next-best thing to being there.

I’m working on two big editing projects at the moment and for me they’re a great reminder of how far the technology of editing has advanced in recent years, but also what may have been lost along the way. Editor Travis Bleen, writer-producer Andrew Stoneham, and I have just locked the cut on our new short film Coffee & Pie just in time to do the sound and color correction for our premiere in about two weeks at the Bermuda International Film Festival.  And of course, post-production continues on Divergence with editor Tony Randel, assistant editor Mike Canon, and my co-creator Dan Southworth.

The way I work on most editing projects has changed drastically in the past few years.  Once upon a time, editors literally cut and spliced strips of film, so they had to be in a room where the film was.  There was no duplicate set somewhere else for another editor or the director to muck around with.  The editing happened in the room and it was generally a two-person job because while one was cutting and splicing, the other was going and looking for the right piece of film.

Thank goodness those days are over. (continue reading…)

Backblog bak’ blôg n.

1. an accumulation of unwritten blog posts
2. a blog that is deeply out of date.

v.intr being in a condition of backblog.

“The last couple months I’ve been so slammed with work, my poor site is in serious backblog.”

I see a lot of backblog going on right now around the web.  I don’t know if people have lost some of the blog fever or if they’re just busy making a living in tough times.

My acute case of backblog is due to a whole lotta projects all demanding my time.  But of course, that’s when I need to blog the most.  So here’s the quick overview of what I’ve been up to.  I hope to catch up with more info on each of these projects shortly:

• Two short documentaries I made for MTV have finally hit the web as part of $5 Cover: Seattle.  Look for the “Seattle Scene/B-Side” Videos “Tube Addiction/Verellen Amps” and “Vortex.”  You can watch them on the MTV site or in higher quality here.
• My family film, The No-Sit List (staring Danny Trejo, Rico Rodriguez, Trenton Rogers, and Dee Wallace Stone) is about to be released on DVD (street date: March 8, 2011) by Phase 4 Films, retitled Babysitters Beware.
• Another family film I wrote is preparing to go into production in a month.
• I directed the short film Coffee & Pie in New York, and just learned of its first festival acceptance.
• My co-creator Dan Southworth and I (along with a truly amazing nano-crew) shot the first several episodes of our action/sci-fi web series Divergence. We’re now winding our way through post.

There’s some other bric-a-brac but that’ll hold until I get some more photos, links, and updates uploaded on these projects.

So, sorry about the delay.  I’m still breathing, still dedicated to the blog.  More info, videos, and articles are on the way.

Hey look a bunch of LEDs on a computer chip. Let's call that Open Source!

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of Open Source Entertainment and just what that mash-up of different worlds could be.  …if anything.

Open Source, of course, comes from the open source software movement where a bunch of people from all over the world to work together in a sort of human cloud computer of developing new software.  Linux is the granddaddy of open source software but there are now numerous applications.  OpenOffice is an open-source Microsoft Office clone.  Blender is an impressive open-source 3D modeling application.

What’s interesting to me is the thought of applying open-source principals to creating filmed entertainment.  Part of the reason I’m considering this is my upcoming action/sci-fi series Divergence.  The first season of Divergence is being produced in a manner that has a lot of similarities to open source—that is, a lot of people working together  with the goal of creating something great, rather than immediately profiting.  In that way, low-budget filmmaking and open source software development have always shared a core key idea. (continue reading…)