The biggest issue I’m having right now is how long it’s taking me to edit projects. Editing all of them simply takes too long. I definitely need to obtain an editor for all of my wedding films. I find myself editing them as if they were a feature film! I have to keep telling myself that its “good enough” for what it’s for. I’m not saying I plan to slack on wedding projects, just that they don’t need composting, camera movement, and special effects like a creative film project would. It took me 6 months to edit my first wedding!

I’m finding that I want to enter into the short film festivals over at dvxuser.com. They are a great way to get used to making films, editing quickly, and having your work viewed. I’d neglected the short film route for some time because I wasn’t very interested in doing fictional films. However, they have been a great way for me to build my editing skills.

The biggest issue I was recently faced with was how slowly I’ve been working on one of my big projects “Our Side of Joy”. I decided this past weekend I’m going to present the film in the format for which it was intended instead of trying to create a shorter version for film festivals. I’d mentioned in previous posts that this film was several films but I filmed it for academic audiences (volumes for higher education courses). If it were intended for general audiences I wouldn’t have picked such a broad topic. I was just about to play myself on this one.

I’ve had this film down to an hour and fifteen minutes for months now and I just couldn’t go back to it. I’m very unhappy with this length. It feels like a long “preview” for what I intended to shoot. I felt as if I should make this film for general audiences and do the whole film festival thing. In doing a little soul searching… I’m just not a 90 minutes or less kinda filmmaker.

I have no problem taking a lot of info and making it into shorter volumes that represent an entire body of knowledge. But I can not just cut and cut and cut until my message is a mess at my feet and I’m putting out into the world some other animal.

Pre-Production:
Movie Outline Software http://www.movieoutline.com – It is essential to make a detailed outline of your film before you do anything. It will help you understand your story better which will help you move to the next step of writing the script. This software will help you to quickly and easily create an outline for your film projects. I’ve even written an entire script in this program (not what the software is for). The price has gone up significantly since I first purchased it so I can only recommend it if you really really need it.

Celtx Software http://celtx.com – This is thee software to have if you are an independent filmmaker. It is the one stop shop for all your filmmaking needs (wow that’s corny… but true). I use this program exclusively for writing outlines, scripts, creating lists of cast, crew, props, and sets, putting together my shooting schedules and much more! And best of all… It’s FREE!

Production:
I don’t have anything to add as a resource during the production phase because all I’m concerned about during this time is shooting. I’m not logging any tapes, filling out any forms or any other paper work. I’m shooting my scenes according to my shooting schedule, making changes to my script on the fly and watching the tapes after each shoot to catch any issues that need to be addressed by re-shooting.

Post-Production:
I’ll also keep this section simple because I don’t want you to get hung up on what tools to use for editing your film if you decide to edit the films yourself (I don’t plan to edit my films anymore.) You do need professional tools for editing; not necessarily for trimming and ordering but definitely for color correction, effects, transitions, and audio processing. I use Adobe Premier because it’s very easy to use. I use it to trim my footage, put the film together in the sequence it’s going to be in, and arrange the audio for the film. I use Adobe After Effects for everything else (for the video only. I never import the audio.), such as color correction (the first thing I worry about), and any other necessary effects like camera movements and transitions. Lastly, I use Adobe Audition to process any problematic audio (I try my best to shoot perfect audio so it is not something I have to “fix” when editing). Once I’ve corrected problematic audio in Adobe Audition, I import it back into Adobe Premier. Adobe Premier automatically links to Adobe Soundbooth for editing audio but Adobe is crazy. Soundbooth is a substandard audio program and I don’t know why they think film audio doesn’t need as much care as a musician’s audio. Adobe Audition has been around for longer than Adobe has owned it (used to be Cool Edit) and has outstanding, easy to use audio processing tools.

Release:
Kunaki.com – $1.75. Yes, that’s right. For $1.75 each you get retail ready DVDs plus full color covers and inserts using Kunaki.com. These DVDs and the printing are of the same quality you see in retail stores. To make this even sweeter, these DVDs are made on demand! So you don’t need to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for stock you may never get rid of.

Filmbaby.com – If you want great personal customer service from a respected industry company with a great history with indie artists, this is the company for you! Filmbaby.com is owned by the same people who own CDbaby.com and they offer affordable easy to use services for selling your films. And best of all, they accurately report sales and pay you when they are supposed to pay you…consistently. Switching all of my films over to them is the best thing I could have done for myself.

Promotional:
I can’t stress to filmmakers enough how important it is to have a website for your film company and/or your individual films. Let’s face it, many of of the earth’s inhabitants are slaves to the web. *Smile* It is the easiest and cheapest way to get the word out about your films. Making a website can be free or near free so there is really no reason not to have one.

4 Steps to getting your website ready:
1. Get good hosting (linux/unix hosting with Cpanel is highly recommend) – Hostgator.com is my favorite.
2. In Cpanel (fantastico), or on your own, install a content management script (Joomla.org, Drupal, WordPress.org, etc.).
3. Fill it up with content about your film company and film projects.
4. Invest in an outstanding design template if you have no graphics design skills. I can not stress this enough. An uninteresting site is a worthless site, just like an uninteresting advertisement is an invisible advertisement (i.e. you website should not look like it was made in the early 90s). If you need great templates for many of the popular, free content management scripts visit: Templatemonster.com, joomlart.com, and many others.

If you need outstanding quality print media, I’d recommend GotPrint.com. I haven’t had too much of a need to use them for my films (but have used them for my publishing company) but you will need print media if you plan to work the film festival circuit.

Tutorials:
Videocopilot.net – If you are interested in producing professional quality films with great effects, or just to learn how to use Adobe After Effects, this is the site for you. Not only do they have incredibly useful tools for purchase, they have fantastic free tutorials and an entire website dedicated to help you learn the basics of Adobe After Effects; a boot camp if you will.

Enjoy your art, Cheers!

The last time I posted something to this blog, I was heading back to Tampa to shoot more of “Our Side of Joy”. I’m very glad I did because it wasn’t until I went to shoot some more of the twins that I was able to really capture what I wanted to capture about their relationship. I will write a separate post about this second shoot because it made such a huge difference for my film.

Although I’d returned to my hometown of Tampa, Florida almost every year since I moved away, I never truly enjoyed being there. But these past 3-4 times I’ve been back have really been quite amazing. I still have a somewhat love/hate relationship with Tampa but what I do know is that I have a wonderful nephew there who I wish I could see more of and all of my real friends are there. Don’t get my wrong I’ve made good friends everywhere I’ve moved, however they have not been lasting friends. At first I thought it was because it appeared we tend to keep friends we knew while we were children longer than ones made as adults. But I think what is more accurate is you will keep friends who strive for and enjoy friendships that are more than superficial and/or surface level friendships and unfortunately there are many people who only offer surface level friendships and this behavior can also be a part of the entire culture of a place (as I am witnessing here in upstate, NY). So I have decided to move back to Tampa as soon as possible for a maximum of 2 years.

Besides being closer to my nephew and wonderful friends, I have also changed a great deal since I’ve lived in Tampa and even since many of my visits thereafter. So what I’ve been finding is my own desire to “live” in Tampa because I hadn’t “Lived” when I was there. Especially compared to where I am, at this point in my life Tampa has a lot to offer me. From awesome food (OMG I never thought about this until I moved here. The food here is awful.) to many many creative outlets I can enjoy. Tampa does have an active film community which is a huge reason why I’d like to move back. I also feel like I can make many new friends in addition to the ones I already have. I can also accomplish some of my ideas for things like fundraising puzzle hunt races, murder mystery dinners, and my plans to start my own video series.

Over the years since I’ve moved away, I’ve also gotten used to traveling and driving long distances and just exploring areas further away from where I lived. I never did this in Tampa. So when I move back I plan to drive anywhere I want to go all over Florida and beyond as well. I plan to “LIVE”. I’m also planning to start traveling outside of the country more as well. For a while there, I was traveling to other countries every year and then the recession put an end to all of that. Now i’m back to a point where I want and can travel more and I’m really hoping to do that when I move back and after two years I will feel comfortable enough to make the big move out of the country. But also let me say this, being where I am now has been a serious learning experience. One, I’ll never waste my time in a place that doesn’t support who I am ever again. This has been almost 9 years of my life I can never get back. Two, I’m going to do all that I can to live life to the fullest anywhere I move and if in doing so, I am unable to create the social and personal connections that every human being needs, then I need to move. Being here has certainly taught me that having a good job is just not enough to make a person happy (at least not me).

I have so much to talk about, I’m going to have to break right here and create new posts for the other things I have going on. Just to share a little bit, I’ve started doing wedding videos to help fund some of my film projects and I’ve been thinking of new, fun ways to help fund my films. Also I’m really pushing towards finding a few editors to work with because editing is truly ruining my desire to make films and to enjoy the films I’m making. My publishing and writing has been suffering a little bit as well because of where I am right now but I have plans to get that back on track as well. So I’ll blog a little more about these things later.

Cheers!