Back!

How lame is this production blog, huh?

My last post was five weeks ago! The good thing is that I have a great excuse. As promised, I’ll be on the other side when you next hear from me. So here I am, waving from the other side of the river. We made it!

I’ve been meaning to post numerous blogs about what happened between this blog post and the last. It’s just that it’s been a struggle wading through the tasks for the shoot (which naturally left NO ROOM at all for blogging) and then eventually, with the post production. So many things happened that made me want to write and share urgently (as means of release and even therapy), but I didn’t want to preempt talking about any step of the process cause I might completely forget or overlook writing about the other stages of making this film.

Instead, I’ll just give you an update. It’ll be like the list of things that I need to write about next so I don’t forget.

Soon after the ‘final call’, we turned over for the first time. It was four days of shooting, with occasional visits to our post production house for the telecine transfer. Those four days alone merit an exclusive blog, with all its ups and downs. I still can’t believe I survived it whenever I think about it.

We immediately went to the offline edit. We didn’t even have time to get copies of the rushes for me to review. Our editors took the liberty of selecting the good takes and assembling the sequences.

After fine tuning the cut (that took a bit of time – but still quite fast by normal standards), we submitted a final offline. We waited for scanning to finish and then it was on to the colour grade. My DP sat in on the second session to validate some of my decisions and instructions to our colorist as well as make some suggestions himself.

By the time we were doing the online edit, we’ve already been pushed back from our original deadline. Between the grade and the online, we slowed down considerably because of some administrative and organizational hiccups. Some of the materials I needed took time to acquire. We had to go back to the negative repeatedly, which then extended the online. Then there was a really problematic part of the film. It was an in camera problem during capture as opposed to a problem in the transfer. Just one section from the entire rushes, but it was also among our most important shots. We really stressed thinking about that and taking time to find ways on how to find an acceptable remedy.

During our last sit down with my online artist, they presented the best solution they could think of. I laughed when I first saw what they did, but it was out of extreme amusement. I thought it was genius what they came up with. Now, there are only minor adjustments left to be make, all of which, I’m confident, don’t need any more changes on the cuts nor the effects. I’m proud to say that we only have one online presentation left.

It won’t be long before we go to audio post. Throughout the post production process, I’ve been coordinating with my friend who I’ve signed up to help out to perfect the musical score. That’s also taking a lot of time and effort, but we’re slowly but surely getting there. That should just be in time for when we start mixing and fixing the audio.

Before you know it, the final cut. Maybe in 7 to 10 days?

Maybe I’ll get more blogging done until then. I actually have more time in my hands. Time from the film post production, that is. I am actually busy winding down my stay here in Manila. I’m trying to squeeze in some vacation time away from the film production and seeing as much of my friends. I also booked a trip to the beach despite the end of summer and the start of La Niña. Not a great time to be doing so, but I haven’t had the time to do it in the previous weeks.

I also promised myself to work on the school’s journal requirement during these weeks. Ha! Good luck on that.

Lots of progress. And lots more to make.

Wish me well.