Brooklyn, New York
Are we there yet? This week I’m liquidating gear for cash. I’ve got about 12 terrabytes of projects stored on 500 gb and 1000 gb hard drives. The idea is to buy new drives with credit cards, transfer the data and sell the old drives. Gotta move my old drives anyway before Moores law erases all of their resale value. Selling all the old drives will produce roughly $2400 in cash and buying 12 TB of new drives will run about $2700, so it’s a loss of $300 not including some interest on the credit cards. I can also sell one of my two HVX-200 cameras for $4k. $6.4 k is not much, but with the right plan it might be enough.
So what might the plan be? To perform radical surgery, cut the length of the project and then perhaps hire help to share the work.
The current final cut clocks in at 26:40, a standard length for half hour broadcast programs. 26:40 is an odd length for festivals – it’s too short for a feature and too long for a short. To get into festivals, 3-5 minutes is a good length but projects over 8 minutes have a better shot at awards. 15 minutes is about max length.
Based on last week’s calculations it will take another 8 months to finish this 26:40 minute project. If the project is half as long, it will take 4 months, one quarter 2 months. I want to wrap by March which leaves almost 3 months – probably enough time to handle 8-10 minutes.
I’ve performed an experimental edit on ACT 1 which takes it from 10:15 to 1:22! It needs some context to fly – is it a flashback, a recap from a previous episode, opening credits?
I am currently exploring whether radical editing is also possible on ACT 2. So as not to get bogged down in major reconstruction, it might be best to leave ACT 2 alone. With a little exposition, ACT 1 and ACT 2, the total time is 13 minutes, certainly in the ballpark. Minus the exposition it’s 10 minutes.The current dilemma is the exposition. In previous posts we’ve documented how much effort has been spent on setting up DOG with a slew of slightly antic post apocalyptic scenes. ACT 1 is now a montage of the key moments to set up ACT 2, so it doesn’t really work to do additional setup for ACT 1 – it’s like having two introductions. Perhaps if I had 3 introductions I could use them all as alternate entry points to the story. Tying the three intros together is a whole other can of worms that might complicate our finishing plans, but having options is good.
I am going to gamble / trust that an exposition solution will present itself after the slash of ACT 1 and ACT 2 is around 8-10 minutes. With 1 or 2 more minutes of exposition, that would be just right.
Radical editing is often referred to as killing your babies, because there’s been so much love and sweat involved in creating the work that get’s cut. I’ll be exercising the holographic approach for DOG – the essence of the story is present in every little fragment. Whatever remains contains all, nothing dies. Not that I’ve got anything against dead babies, where would Trainspotting have been without ’em?
Been getting words of encouragement from y’all. Much thanks for the ongoing attention and support.
DK
