Things Best Said

I’m finding the business side of producing for a major label AND a management company to be…incomplete in thought. What this all means is that we are serving two masters…one wants a product for sale AND a music video that we didn’t shoot footage for…the other wants promotional clips of the band playing live…we’ve got plenty. Both parties are sure that they’re going to get what they’ve asked for but I’M NOT SURE they know what they’ve bought.

Live events, the kind we normally do, are meant to be just that..LIVE. What the label wants is not a live video but a music video…something to get airplay with. I’m astounded by how far this project has trekked off the mark.

On the lighter side, it’s possible to fix/remedy the whole situation by putting together a third version of the “music video” with footage they’ve never seen. Hindsight tells me that offering them a video of the load in, rehearsal and the show may yield a piece worthy of some praise…but as of yet I think that our deadline will need to be pushed considerably further for the concert-length piece.

This is what independant filmmakers have been crying about for years…too many chiefs. I’m understanding more about myself and the business of production every day. I don’t know that I like all of it, but at least I’m learning something.

hmmm…pause for a deep breath….

back to it. more later…

It was a short road to getting Atlantic to pay for the video, but a long one to find out IF we were actually going to do it. Strangely, the management company didn’t seem to know what was what. One person said “yes, were doing it” another said “no, someone spoke out of turn”. By Wednesday we finally had an answer, but that gave us less than a day to secure all crew, extra gear and get the hell to florida.

Okay, so, we shot the concert this past friday (march in Lakeland, Florida. We had one shot at it so we had 4 cameras running –each recording to a separate beta– plus a master switch cut of those four cameras to another beta machine. Audio was multitracked by the guys from AIPS audio in Orlando. We had 6 da-88’s going, giving us a total of 48 tracks of stage audio. Additionally, we had Mike Ashcraft running his ass off getting the “documentary” feel of the process. He brough back about 4 hours of tape when it was all said and done.

At the end of all that we’ll have 2 weeks to edit the first song edited and the entire thing has to be done in another 2 weeks. Oh geeze….

Anyway, that’s that. It’s sunday and I’m still pretty worn out by the whole thing but I’m trying to get ready for the weeks ahead. someone pinch me…am I really responsible for thousands of dollars worth of footage and audio? does it all really come down to me? if you read this, call me and let me know everything is going to be alright…

-j.

Along with starting a new venture (SFI), I’ve managed over the last month to create (with Mike Ashcraft) a series of 16 concert visuals for the band PLUS ONE. You can see one of them at Short Film Insider.

We had such a great time making them, and have had such a good response that we’re probably going to jump into the middle of making a concert video & DVD. Yeah baby!

that is what’s going on in my world as of late…

I recently started a new venture: Short Film Insider. It’s an open forum for short film directors, actors, writers, etc. So far I’ve had 27 people sign up to be part of the site. It’s a really exciting community that has started to grow. We’re doing short film hosting and getting lots of cool people responding to what’s being shown –some a bit more abrasive about what they have to say, but still good.

Check it out if you have the time.