When I first was laid off from my job over 5 months ago, I accepted it as the next stage in my life, so I let things fly and gave them time to see see where I would land. Most people would've reached for the panic button after a couple months, and I myself had a slap in the face of reality about a month ago. Since that time I have adopted a Plan B that will start to get organised if Plan A continues to be lackluster.
PLAN A
- Continue finding freelance work
- Finish film "Acid Snow"
- Make a new Demo Reel
- Record new music album
- Script out new video projects
PLAN B
- Get additional software training for Web Design
- Look for Web Design work
- Use Web Design work to fund Plan A
The beauty of Plan B is that it will only re-enforce my efforts all around. I will create a website for myself (finally) and use it to promote Plan A.
The Road to "Acid Snow"
Where I sit today, however, I feel that I have allowed this freedom of time to distract me from my initial big push - to finish "Acid Snow", the only feature film I have edited so far. The road map for Acid Snow is to have a final product by the beginning of September. Just this week I have re-directed my focus to working on the soundtrack. About 3 hours ago, I finished editing the last available foley take made during the original foley sessions back in 1997. Chris White, the foley artist, did a masterful job creating all the footsteps, coats (film in winter had lots of taking off coats), glasses (lots of drinking), and zillions of incidental sound effects, like:
- Signing a letter
- Shifting in a chair
- Massaging hair
- A painting falling off a wall
Soundtrack Restoration
When the original foley sessions took place, they were all neatly organised on an Avid timeline, synchronised with the picture. When the film was shut down, several months worth of sound editing was lost (could not afford to release soundtrack from rented computer system). Like a good postproduction supervisor, I had meticulously backed up all audio sessions to DAT. There were approximately 15 hours of post audio to re-edit back in sync with the picture. I began this process off-and-on in January, and now am up to the point of placing in other sound effects not covered in the foley sessions, like phone ringing, background walla, ambience, etc. This could take another month, as there are many gaps left in the soundtrack. I also plan to re-record some new foley sound to replace some spots that I couldn't find on the DAT tapes. Once I have finished filling all the holes in the soundtrack, I begin what is the Big Mix. With 24 tracks of audio, a careful blend of all the sound elements is needed to bring life to the film. This means adding reverb to the ADR voices, and finding the delicate balance of hearing footsteps without making them sound unnatural.
Sound Design - An Audio Canvas
Sound editing is a lengthy process. There will finally be some review of any additional music, or perhaps some slight changes, and then mastering the picture and sound together. The sound mix for a film is really the moment when everything comes together. A director and an editor will have gone through repeated viewings of each scene with only temporary sound, and one becomes used to hearing only that. A metamorphosis takes place when the final sound elements are brought together, and all the rough edges are smoothed out. This process will probably take most of the summer. But it also a moment I am excited about. I have mixed short films and put together some complex video soundtracks, but never a full blown feature. Back in the 80s, I at one time wanted to get a job at Cinesound, a film mixing facility in town run by Denny O'Rourke. He had the same enthusiasm about audio as I did, and was working with the latest technology. Sadly, Denny died recently and Cinesound is now closed. I have a Logic Audio system in my studio, as well as a control surface mixing board with motorised faders. This automated system will help organise the 24 tracks of audio. Sound Design is a creative process that can be as original and stylistic as any other creative medium, and it is fun for me to enhance the story by carefully crafting the reality by controlling what is heard.
Passing Time
Alas, the last five months have little else to show. I have posted some video clips on YouTube, and have made good initial progress on my new pop album. But the last five months so far has been me enacting the role of Curator for all my collected work. I am compiling, organising, arranging, scanning, documenting, capturing, archiving and scripting all the physical things I've collected in my life. The archiving of my music alone is gargantuan. I have probably 100 tapes of my original music - each holding 90 minutes. That's about 150 hours of music! (including rehearsal and basic tracks). Then there is my photograph collection, which is slowly growing on this blog and flickr. Then there is my other video work, the early stuff, and the recent corporate and broadcast projects to put together on a snazzy demo reel. Then there are my pages and pages of comedy scripts. Starting back in the Ozone Radio days, I wrote scripts in notebooks and saved them for 'some day'. Now, I feel like I can direct some of these scripts, as well as some new material.
Summer in Minnesota
The most unpleasant thing about being unemployed is the lack of social contact. I spend (by choice) the majority of my time in my home office, multi-tasking like crazy. On the other hand, Summer in Minnesota is upon us, and one has no choice but to go outside and join everyone else celebrating the time of year in our great state when it is Not Winter. This means that there is a festival or party every weekend somewhere, and if you don't have a beer in your hand, someone will quickly make sure you do. As my own projects start to slowly unfold in the next few months, hopefully I will be able to look back upon this period and see that it was worthwhile. On the other hand, there is of course, Plan B.
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