Duplicates (Part 3)

Day 3:

11:30am -- The team had been hard at work all night and morning long. Each person took a shift to get some shuteye. By the time Taylor, Marta, and I got to Post-HQ, they had an edit down minus one shot of a closeup on a business card. They were still doing audio recording and mixing.

12:00pm -- I recorded my voiceover lines. It was my first time doing it, plus the character was hard to guage, since he doesn't really show much emotion or have much of a backstory. Matching up what you record with the lips on camera is EXTREMELY difficult. I didn't like the way my lines came out in the end, but that's what they wanted to keep. The rest of the afternoon, Jason, the soundguy, did more foley work, all the steps the characters take, the dropping of keys, the turning on of water, the grunts, etc.


4:30pm -- Got some dinner at The Blue Door. All of us had a variation of a Juicy Lucy, a burger with cheese packed into the beef patty. We went back to HQ where they were finalizing the edits. The title was decided: "Duplicates".

6:30pm -- The file was exported and burned onto two data discs. Three of the team went to go drop the file off at the dropoff site, while Taylor, Marta, and I met up with Greg at our house to watch our copy at home.

CONCLUSION:
In hindsight, this project was more organized and had some pro people onboard. The shooting was very quick, yet very creative. Greg and Jeff, the Director of Photography, were extremely effective and on the money with their setups. I've seriously come to depend on Greg more and more with his "quick to understandness". The guy can listen to what you're saying and pretty much know exactly what you're talking about. And if he doesn't, he'll tell you how he'd be able to understand it (in Patch, he says, "Why don't you just make a sample of what you want, since I know I'm not going to do what you're looking for.").

Taylor's direction was more spot on, as well. Everybody started out strong. The project got lazy halfway through, though, as is expected when five hours or less of sleep is a factor in creativity and stamina.

In Post, I was very happy with the video editing and effecting. I had some qualms with the sound design and soundtrack. But it was too late in the game to start voicing my opinions. That was more the job of the producers/directors.

In the end, to be honest, the project still has potential to be awesome. It's not now, while in the hands of the 48 Hour Film people. The reason for this is due to a couple of very specific things, but I don't want to explain them here. We were brainstorming afterward about doing another director's cut to fix some of our issues. But I have a feeling we won't get to it.

I feel like putting too many PRO people on the plate makes for subtle egos to push through and taint projects similar to regime takeovers (picture old animations of maps of Europe explaining the Nazi's rule. The blood and Swastika filling in with the bland colors of non-Nazi occupied countries. That's how I picture PRO ego takeover). They're all nice people, but I felt like nobody wanted to burn bridges. So, direction was left unsaid. It's the fault of many different sides.

Ironically, bridges were burned on the homefront with some potential actors being given the shaft due to the script only having two characters. A group of five people were on standby, eager to work. Two of us actually got to work, three others were "laid off". Some fiery attacks were issued toward Taylor and myself (I still don't get that, I had nothing to do with the decision, I was getting drunk at the Spring Street with Greg), biting enough to really coat some gasoline on an open flame for me, sadly. I can't forgive this time.

Was this project worth it? Not if those bridges remain on fire. If the fire is put out, then maybe . . .

Led Zeppelin -- "When the Levee Breaks"