Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Editing Day One: 'Kitty Talk... POST A COMMENT A few months ago we shot the short film "After Party Babies," with a great INDIE crew, decent actors...but, this week is the first time we actually start cutting. On reflection, making a short movie is a semi-glamorous mix: really long hours, little sleep, and people yelling, that I can only now think of as lots of fun. It took 9 full days, consisting of 14 really long hour days of on-location prep and shoot time... Now, months later, it's finally time for editing...'all for what might end up being 15 minutes of film time. The story for After Party Babies showcases a day in the life of three New Yorkers that all end up at an after hours party. I'll be writing little blurbs here and there on the editing process and eventually (fingers crossed) the various submissions to the film festivals. Yesterday, on day one. We -- (meaning the editing crew that consists of myself, Valery and Stephanie) -- screened a few minutes of foreign film clips to talk with the editors on style and rhythm. I told them "I'm really attracted to the european style of editing. That doesn't always tell you everything thats going on." We then logged footage and set up a blueprint for our editing sessions to come. The big talk on day-1 was our pets, Valery and Stephanie have a six month old Kitty (that sat in the editing studio with us), I myself have a much fatter and older 20 pound-porker. Workwise, it felt good to see, and hear the potential of film on the editing bay. The big line of advice given to me -- (and recited yesterday by me to Stephanie and Valery): "The script is written twice, on the page, and rewritten in the editing room." Labels: After Party Babies, Cruz Editing Diaries, Film, Film Festivals, indie film, screenwriting, Short Film posted by Henry Cruz at 11:36 AM Wednesday, August 20, 2008 We take the junky moments out... POST A COMMENT I jump back into the editing suite next week, for my tiny short film "After Party Babies," and I'm actually excited because I'll have on my editors hat (and a fresh perspective on the footage we shot). In his new interview, Woody Allen (72), talks about how "unpleasant" the experience of cutting a movie together can be: Woody Allen: 'When you come in here, as I just did that with this movie I shot with Larry David—the first time you put all the stuff together and you show it on the screen, you’re hoping that you’re going to get a feeling of, “God, this is much better than I thought!” And invariably, it’s not that feeling. Invariably, it’s, “Oh, God, what did I do? I’ve disappointed everybody. I’ve made a fool of myself. It’s awful.” Sometimes you’re right—it never gets any better. But sometimes you’re wrong—we take the junky moments out, and the good moments happen much faster. We take a little scene from here and put it over there, and suddenly it shifts the whole feeling of the film. Very often, we come back in here the second time and it looks much better, and then by the third or fourth time, it starts to really take shape. With this Spanish movie, it looked fairly good the first time I saw it. That was true of Match Point as well. 'There’s a definite difference between the person who makes the film and the people who see it, in terms of perception. What appears to me sometimes to be tedious, slow and not worth anything, for some inexplicable reason will delight an audience. Conversely, sometimes I sit in here and think, “This is brilliant, this is so funny, these scenes are so great,” and then I show it to audiences and they don’t get anything out of it. They disagree with me completely. And over the passage of time, one of us turns out to be right. I will say that, usually, the audience is right. Once in a while, you get a film that the audience is wrong about, but that’s a rarity.'(Village Voice) Thanks Woody. 'Very honest perception of the film making process. At the end of the day, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears (and money) -- goes into making a film... 'The behind the scenes drama quickly fades into the background when you put it together; The audience will be watching and experiencing it in a whole new way, and you can only hope connecting with it in the way you intended...'and in editing you need to be that fresh pair of eyes, to get a good grip on what plays, and take out the parts that just don't work. Source: Village Voice Labels: After Party Babies, Editing, Film, Woody Allen posted by Henry Cruz at 12:32 PM Tuesday, August 19, 2008 My doggie dog world POST A COMMENT I was reminded that I could (and should) use this space to talk more about my own life... 'Yawn. I know, I feel your pain. I know so many Chatty-Kathy-motor-mouth-types that just scream: 'me, me, me...'in my head, I'm writing here about topics that actually touch me. So, there might be a greater worldly court of opinion I'm appealing to -- (or not). That's not really for me to decide. 'Anyhoo, can't get these Chatty-Kathy's to stop talking about themselves -- ('most of the time it ain't that interesting). Hence, the hesitation to use this space as only a me-me-me-and-more-me-soapbox (I'll drop in parts of me here and there when something is really bugging me): Here's such a humble snap shot of my world; 'and I gotta say it, this past week has been a doggie filled world... I live in the downtown arts district (N.J.), in a converted loft that's smack in the center of two universities, 'got a huge-ass stadium a few blocks away, City Hall's about six blocks away...'and mostly municipal offices make up my stomping grounds... 'call me the ultimate city dweller. It works, if you can get pass all the traffic sounds; I do, with the help of those electronic wall-of-sound machines when I sleep at night. My summer was going fine, until the doody started to pile up. It was the hot-topic with my roommate...'went something like: Roommate: "Did you see that big pile of Doody, near the tree?" Henry: "How could you miss that mountain? I did a Miss Bucket move (pronounced Boo-kay), so everyone could see me." I performed my re-enactment of me cleaning up our two dogs-daily-doo-doo, using really wide gestures so Granny would see me from three blocks away -- (like in that BBC show 'Keeping up Appearances'). The recent pile-ups are mostly from the new tenants that aren't a bit worried about their dogs carbon do-do prints. 'Why am I the only one cleaning up after my dog? -- I quietly fumed. 'til I woke up one day last week with a brainstorm: one man can make a difference, says I. After a trip to Kinkos I went out at night commando style to wall paper my polite "Please Clean after your Dog" signs ('even has a cool picture to drive that point home). I can't say for sure, but I do think it's made a difference. Speaking of topics that touch me, I wrote here that I just wrapped a screenwriting workshop -- I might look to join a writing group this fall -- or take yet another writing course. Here in this clip, screenwriter Billy Ray talks about that same need to be personally touched. He offers this advice: 'a very simple litmus test about what you should be writing, and what you shouldn't be writing is never, ever write a movie that you yourself would not pay to see. Labels: After Party Babies, feature screeplay, Free Writing Fiction, screenwriting, screenwriting group posted by Henry Cruz at 3:14 AM Thursday, March 20, 2008 INDIE SHOOT: after party goes after hours.... POST A COMMENT This weekend, Saturday March 22nd 6pm-midnight we are filming (on a INDIE budget) the afterhours scene of the short film: afterpartybabies.com think -- "upscale" after hours nite spot that mixes a touch of the "freaky" (sexy, R rated stuff) that goes down in a real nitelife and a touch of "high fashion".... fashionistas, artist, next to people trying to get their freak on...at least that's the way it should look on film. This is the R rated portion of the show....sexy, drugs and house music....dress to impress, or dress optional.....or something close to that.... Loft Shoot location: 225 East 134th St. 5th floor (near the 3rd Avenue Bridge that goest to Manhattan) New York, NY 10451 If you fit the bill go ahead and e-mail pics / names / contact info: HenryCruzCasting@gmail.com check more info: afterpartybabies.com Labels: After Party Babies, Short Film posted by Henry Cruz at 6:34 PM Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Behind: After Party Babies POST A COMMENT I've been away for a minute...prepping a short INDIE film on the nightlife "After Party Babies" which we started shooting...here's a short teaser: Labels: After Party Babies, Short Film posted by Henry Cruz at 2:12 PM     ARCHIVES October 2005 . November 2005 . December 2005 . August 2007 . September 2007 . October 2007 . November 2007 . December 2007 . March 2008 . April 2008 . May 2008 . June 2008 . July 2008 . August 2008 . September 2008 .