March 23, 2016
On Monday (March 21) I edited in the reshot footage and counted the amount of VFX shots I needed to do. I counted a grand total of:
41!
And that's not even counting the shots I've already done.
I needed to get VFX out of the way as soon as possible, so I edited my timeline (hopefully for the last time). I’m ending the VFX this Sunday. Hopefully I'll have a full edit by then. (Of course that will add more VFX, but more in that later.) Color editing is going to have to be the briefest portion of the post production work. I'm only giving the Monday to Wednesday for color correction and grading. The rest of the time until April 13th would be spent on sound. If all goes well, I'll only be doing music during the week of the 13th. Unfortunately, I don't think I will get much done over Spring Break. I'm traveling to Myrtle Beach (for a much needed vacation). I'm planning on taking my laptop, but it has a record of being slow when working with the film. Of course, I was doing VFX, and computers do tend to handle audio better than video as far as processing goes.
Speaking of the VFX, I've created an intense game plan for getting it done. I'm going to do 7 visual effects a day. It's crazy, and I realized that yesterday when I tried to do it. I was up until 1:30 and I only got 5 effects done. I'll admit, I was distracted that night as well, taking out the trash, putting away groceries, reviewing Jack’s trailer cut. However, I don't think that's going to change tonight. I have the Academic Honors Banquet until about 8:30, (meaning I'm getting home at about 8:30-45) and I also have to complete the Sophomore Project Report (due tomorrow). I don't have much left to do for the report. The only thing I'm worried about is making sure I've given a sense of everything I've done, and how much time it may take. Anything that I don't finish VFX wise may be fodder for Saturday and Sunday, where I will be preoccupied preparing for and participating in Easter.
We planned to film the hallway scenes at the school today. It was small, only scenes 11 and 27. I thought we'd be done around 4:30. (I think it would take less time, but you can't be too careful when it comes to filming.)
Alas, there was another wrench thrown in the plan. Patrick and Carter forgot their clothes. We had to cancel. I was incredibly frustrated, but there is nothing I could do but adapt. I asked if they could film tomorrow for extra time. We'll be doing the hallway scenes along the the highly important scene 26. They gave me their word and I believe they will keep it. The biggest variable is Gabe. He plays the teacher and needs to be particularly present in this scene. However, he has a busy week this week. Whether or not he makes it, we're filming Thursday. I think we can get the shots that don't include him and come back next week for a very short day and get his inserts. He's not in anything VFX related, so it wouldn't be difficult to edit it in later.
Of course, I'd rather it not come to that.
Jack wants to get the trailer out as soon as possible. While I agree with him, I don't think it's where it needs to be yet. He told me the changes I suggested were really technical and that the trailer should just go out. My main problem with it in its current state is the pacing is a little slow and there wasn't much variety in the shots. I blame that on myself because I gave him an incomplete edit. I want him to use some of the shots from the latest version, but he may not be willing to wait that long. Now one thing I wish I could fix is the sound, unfortunately, the timing of post just didn't work out for the sound design. (Jack did a good job fixing the levels of the clip though.)
I don't know, I may just let him go for it and then make another trailer myself once the film is finished. I know it will be after the film is released, but I just want to see what the trailer could have been. (Plus, I've never made a trailer before, and I want to give it a try.)