Back in the Saddle

This last week was just a terrible week for me on all levels, so unfortunately I didn't get any editing done in all that time. Tonight I had a little time to log some footage, which is the first time I've done anything with the film since my computer troubles.

The scene I was working on tonight occurs toward the end of the film, but we shot it on our second shooting day. Putting the film together, I can see why some directors really strive to shoot a film as close to sequential order as possible. First, my actors all found their characters better toward the second half of the shoot, so any scenes from those days seem to have turned out slightly better performance-wise. Second, as a director, I got a better idea of the group dynamic and I was better able to do my part during the second half of the shoot too.

I'd like to say I'd film in order next time, but what comes first is budgeting both time and money, and that in turn leads to arranging your shooting schedule by location (in other words, you group your scenes together by location so you don't leave that spot and come back, which saves you both time and money).

The third act of the film is more dramatic than the rest, which makes it a little tougher to edit without a soundtrack to really smoothen out the flow. That's a reason why it seemed like I was shooting ahead with this so fast, and then slowed down immensely at the second plot point.

That's really it right now, sorry this wasn't the best update. I'm going to get back into editing this so that maybe I'll have some kind of cut to show to my family around Thanksgiving.