The movie is getting closer to being finished, although I haven’t had much time in the last few months. Now that I’ve finished the 5.1 audio mix and other editing, I’m doing a final check on shots and levels before I lock the scenes for good – meaning I’m hoping to never touch the movie again. For example, today I found a shot where a glass was put on a table, but you don’t hear the sound of the glass actually making contact with the surface. I added in the sound effect from another shot. Good times.
I’ve also swapped out some of the music – I’m working on bringing up the “feel” of the pace, particularly early in the movie. Swapping out a slower song and replacing it with something faster and more upbeat seems to change the perception of how long the scene “feels” rather than how long it actually takes. You can see a visual example of this anytime you watch baseball on television; if you count along with how often they switch to a different camera angle, it’s often as short as three seconds! I’m also a big fan of this visual editing technique, especially when the entire cast is sitting at the kitchen table and barely moving.
So here’s the deal: I’m using this post as a “To Do” list, so if you’re following along, here’s what I’ve got left.
Scenes that need work
Scene 0: need to pick up three shots
scene 18: pick up “fire” shots
The following scenes are LOCKED
1 thru 10
The following scenes are LOCKED
11 thru end
Scene 11 is made up of a bunch or so small scenes (numbered 11, 11.1, 11.2 and so on) and it’s one of the big bears of the movie. Any time I get thru scene 11 on one of these checks, it’s a big deal, and hopefully, this will be the last time I look at anything. I’ve still got more than half the movie left, but I’m trying to force myself to find time for this work every week, if not every day.
Will Reading 