Production Journal #2

Day two of post-production on "The Dinner Engagement" went well, despite the fact that I was running on three hours of sleep after last night's Genre Theory and Criticism class (our screening was the excellent "The Commitments") and this morning's Documentary Film and Video class (we watched "Hoop Dreams).

I opened up the old project file in Final Cut, my least favorite of the major NLE programs, and luckily everything was still there. I made the revisions I had talked about earlier, including a few new insert shots, lengthening one dramatic pause, and adding music and titles. Unfortunately, some of my desired changes were impossible due to a lack of coverage, emphasizing the importants of keeping an accurate and thorough shot list. I have had some concerns regarding my assistant director-the shot log that was kept has several discrepancies (it jumps from shot 3 to shot 5) and several of the slates were mis-labeled. Worse yet, the clapper was out of frame in a couple shots, making synchronization a considerable bit more difficult.

One difficult aspect of this editing is the timing, which is so integral to comic storytelling. One shot in particular has been very carefully edited to maximize comic effect, and I have decided to keep the reaction shot as I had originally edited it, for the simple fact that I feel that's how it works best.

Next issue-sound. I am very grateful to have had an experienced and thoughtful sound mixer on this film. The dialogue is all clear, requiring no ADR, thankfully. The sound of shattering glass was captured so perfectly that not only do I not need any foley work, I don't even need to increase the volume!

The initial reception to the film was quite positive. I feel that the revisions made today only enhance it. I want to be careful about not making any major changes at this point, although I'm quite sure there will be some minimal revisions in the near future.

In the mean time, let me announce the date of the film's premiere: Saturday, May 19th, at 7 pm at the Van Bokkelen Auditorium at Towson University. And look for the film on YouTube in the near future (I have decided I will be deleting the MiniDV version).