Mondo Beacho update Feb 24, lots of progress to report!

Lots of progress on the Mondo Beacho edit this week!

First off, many thanks to Eric S. Anderson for nifty little editing tip that helped get me out of the record store scene where I'd been stuck for a lot longer than seemed reasonable. It was at the point where I was basically "in a quagmire"...

Also thanks to Anna Forse, for a suggestion for the title scene, which I thought I'd gotten past on this initial cut but it'll be worth checking out for sure...Yes!

L-R: Riley Neldam, William Poole, Erik Hammen,
and Sarah Winsor at Dutch Bike, Ballard
(photo by Mel Cafe)

Yes... Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah: lots of ground covered last week.

Back on the bikes, for the lovely little scene that we shot up north by a manicured strip mall in Shoreline, WA. ( ... a strip mall?  In a beach movie of the mind?  .. Yes! ... Intentional! )

That done, it was back to Georgetown again, at Lect's Soup Stop. It was roundly agreed that the soup at Lect's is awesome.

Ease-of-location? Not so much. We pulled that one out of the fire just barely at the time.

But at the end of the day (aka last week) it cut together pretty well.

After that, I worked on a nice long scene that combines the first scene we shot on the film -- down by the rocks on the beach -- with one of the very last things we shot over in Ballard proper.

Also good stuff, but I'll definitely need some more ambient sound for that one.  And it'll need to be quiet ambient sound.

Especially after those Georgetown scenes.

Quiet ambient sound!  It's harder to get than you'd think. The thing is, your brain edits out a lot of sound around you, so something that you think is pretty mellow is actually picked up by the recorder as a big screeching, rumbling hunk 'o racket.

There's also a little touch of music in one part of the Ballard scene, though, and many thanks to Greg Wharmby of the band Horns of Ormus for the music tracks he sent! One of them is looking very good for that bit.

Finally, it was out on the water for some more canoe-camera shots, which I believe will comprise the second surf yoga scene but...

But the truth is these second shots came out really, really good.  So good, that I'm doing some serious considering behind the scenes what I want to do with them for sure.  Because there are several options.

(And, by "behind the scenes", I guess I really mean I'm just going to think about it and no one will know either way. And, is it really behind the scenes if I'm blabbing about it on this blog...?  Considering my likely readership, I'd say yes. )

Last week, I also picked up some more ambient sound, and like I mentioned earlier, I have come to realize that I still need a lot more. I can't go out in the rain, it won't sound right, but my to-do list now has a stack of outdoor jaunts on it. When the weather's right, I'll start carrying the recorder everywhere. Successful ambient sound recording seems to be a combination of luck and perseverance.

This week's still photo is from the bike shop, which is where we began the shoot day that eventually took us up to Shoreline. I don't know what Riley and I are saying in this shot but you can tell it was a laugh riot. (Will seems to be tuned-out, but he's probably just in character)

Monday Mondo Beacho update: Jan 13, 2014

L-R: Iain Dalton, Erik Hammen, Anna Forse.
Photo by David Thomas

I'm currently working on the Farrah and the Fairies band practice scene, cutting it using the temp music track that we recorded live on set.

David Thomas has begun mixing the new vocal tracks we recorded last month with the existing instrumental tracks, and it'll be nice to have a "real" version.  Kenna Kettrick actually sounds great in the on-set version, but the instruments are muddy.

Yesterday, I finished up the scene before that, where the boys eat and walk to that band practice. There are two eat/walk scenes, both shot in Georgetown in rackety, unstable locations and using a conceptual cutting plan rather than your standard moving/master/singles whatever. But so far, the first one came together as planned !

Um... Whew. -- but I love those eating/walking scenes! Writing, shooting, and putting them together has all been very satisfying.

This week's photo was taken during the production of the first eat/walk scene.  Iain Dalton, Anna Forse, and I are walking the same line that Ahren and Riley will walk in the movie. That's called Method Production.

Weekly Mondo Beacho update -- Happy New Year edition

L-R, Sarah Winsor, Mel Café on location for Mondo Beacho
photo by Anna Forse

Editing has progressed to the bike shop/riding scenes.

The bike shop location (Dutch Bike, Ballard) was awesome but a bit tight, and I shot a lot of weird angles that day.

That scene also has three performances to balance: Sarah Winsor and Will Poole doing one thing in the shop while Steven Stern's VO from the radio is talking about something else entirely.  

It's actually super fun, but also the first really complicated scene in the film, and it was a bit daunting at first. (By comparison the scene before it was just Sarah walking. Which, if you know the scene, is nuanced in its own way...)

To help move things forward, I've also decided that I'm done learning AfterEffects for the time being. AE is a useful tool, but dang -- everything I touch with it seems to need rendering (time consuming) and then needs to be re-rendered whenever I want to move the clip or change its length, i.e.: edit it. I'll revisit AE later, when I've got time to pretty things up.
 
The need for music is becoming very apparent now, so I went to a rock show a few days ago to check out the bands. The show was over at heartland, where we filmed in August.

There were four bands. Twice, during the break between bands, a random kid wandered over and introduced himself to me, for no apparent reason other than possibly he were curious about the big old fool standing in back. One of the kids turned out to be a former student of my friend Retz. The other guy I couldn't figure out at all.

But nice kids! Apparently the feather-haired denim-jacketed thugs who used to come attached to shows like a hair to the top of a wart have moved on to other projects.

Anyway, the headliner that night was Thee Samedi, a band whose vibe seemed exactly right for the radio or maybe as record store music in Mondo Beacho. The guys put on a great show, and I introduced myself to Alex the bass player afterwards. We exchanged a few emails the next day, and they are now on board for the film and psyched!

Yes! It ain't easy finding the right music.

In other news

Steven Sterne is the playwriting/performing marathon 14/48 this weekend. Be there or be square.