Finishing Touches

Last week I had to travel for my real job. I only do it once a year. Nice to get out and see parts of the country, and since I don’t do it as often as the other employees, it’s a nice respite from the day-to-day. I don’t get to pick the time I travel and I was apprehensive since LAFF is close and Old Scratch isn’t done yet. While I was gone, I turned my rough edit over to Bryan Schaefer, my LAFF partner-in-crime as well as good friend and collaborator.

As with many of my films, Old Scratch has sound issues. Part of that stems from limited resources but part of it also stems from my tone deafness. In certain scenes, such as the opening minutes of the movie, Bryan is able to discern camera humming as the actors talk. I’ve tried but I cannot hear anything like that. He generously agreed to correct any sound issues while I was away.

Not only that, but he, along with Mark Pennell, another LAFF partner, friend and collaborator, gave me suggestions for additional footage that would make the story clearer. I agreed with what they proposed, and was thrilled to hear that Bryan had already secured the actors for a re-shoot.

I viewed Bryan’s rough cut tonight and was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. The new footage was great and the sound has improved by leaps and bounds. Bryan had to swap out shots to improve the audio and many of them are okay. I do have some notes and there are changes I am going to make, but the film is better for what Bryan did. I think this is my best work to date.

As March nears an end, I am getting pumped for LAFF and Old Scratch’s world premiere, which is taking place in Theater 6 at Penn Cinemas during the 12pm block. I expect it to start around 12:35. Speaking of LAFF’s schedule, please excuse the shameless promotion as you can find the festival’s entire schedule here.