Mondo Beacho update Holiday Edition

L-R: Sarah Winsor, Maya Briller.
photo by David Thomas

Last week I went over to NWFF to port over the movie from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro. It was fun working at the Film Forum, but I gotta say -- it's great to have the movie available to me whenever I want. And now things are moving along a lot more quickly.

Special thanks to Steve O'Neil for his help in facilitating the switch!

Not much else to report right now...

Hey look, there's Sarah Winsor and Maya Briller up on the roof of Surf Ballard!

PS. If you're looking for a last minute holiday gift, support the arts.

Mondo Beacho update Monday, December 16



L-R: Emily, Riley, and engineer Doug
in the big room at Jack Straw Studios.
La, la, la    Photo by Kenna Kettrick

Last Tuesday we went in to Jack Straw Studios to record final vocals for all the band songs in the movie. That place is great and their rates can't be beat.

We had Ahren Buhmann and Kenna Kettrick on lead vocals, with backups by Riley Neldam and Emily Purington (pictured left with friendly and knowledgeable Jack Straw mixer Doug Haire). Everything came out sounding great, it was fun to see everyone again, and we got out of there neatly in our small-but-efficient time window.

On Thursday, I edited some more, and got all the way through Scene 1, which includes the opening credits and then resolves outside the surf shop that day. The tone and tempo changes a lot in a few minutes, but it's cutting together as expected and the performances are looking great.

On Friday, I got a nice email from Lyall Bush of NWFF okaying an extension to my NWFF grant which was about to max out (thanks Lyall!).  and then later that same evening, I finagled a way to add Wednesday nights to my editing time in addition to whatever daytime hours I can weasel in (thank you projectionist Spencer Sundell)!

But then today, Sunday, ... I have a new editing computer in my home.

So -- that changes things greatly.

And, once the godawful setup process is done, Mondo Beacho editing should begin to move along at a very snappy pace! (and, I very well might be dumping Final Cut Pro in favor of Premiere Pro. We shall see how that all goes...)

In other news
I am delighted to announce that "The Last City in the East", the short film I made with underground poet Paul Dickinson, is now available on DVD at holiday-friendly prices!! This handmade confection also includes a previously unreleased recording of Dickinson reading live at the legendary Turf Club of St. Paul.  According to the packaging: Full of grit , humor and a mystical urban romanticism, Paul D. Dickinson soars in this surprise triumph of a film. Get it at Amazon.com.
"Beautifully shot in Super 8 and Holga... ...sharp-witted, imagery-rich wording."
--Sheila Regan, CityPages

Mondo Beacho Monday update: Dec 9

Well, slow and steady wins the race. But filmmaking isn't sports.

Last week I got another good session in on the opening titles/music montage, and then earlier today I squeezed in a few more hours on the same.

I have to say, everything's looking good -- but dang, the lack of proximity of an editing computer is getting frustrating.

I am looking into a variety of ways that I can improve the editing situation. I hope to have something better figured out in the next few weeks.

On the upside, we had a great rehearsal last week with both Ahren and Kenna and we're ready to go in to record final vocals (plus one new song!) at Jack Straw studio tomorrow with them, Riley and Emily.

I also maxed out the memory card on my recorder last week working on incidental music. So that's some kind of progress, right? Yes!

Mondo Beacho update Monday dec 2

Sweethearts in an early "beach movie":
Buster Keaton and Alice Lake
(or Alice Mann, I don't know) in "Coney Island"

Last Monday, I stared editing the opening credits. Beginning at the beginning.

Today, I continued working on the credits. Really getting some traction this time. I'll probably be working on the credits for a while now. The opening and the end always take the longest. 
 But the great thing is, I am not cataloging or assembling, I am editing, and the fun has started.

Now, the only things that can get in the way is time and the inevitable computer/technical problems. On the other hand:
Q: How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: "If we change that, we'll have to change everything!"

There's no photo this week, but I found this animated gif on the internet. Ain't they sweet?
If you'd like to send me something else, I'll see about putting it up.

In other news:

Steven Sterne is in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at SPT and I have every reason to believe it'll be the best Best Christmas Pageant Ever ever! Ha ha! But seriously, it sounds like they're doing something very interesting over there with this holiday fave. Anna and I will be there opening night (Dec 6).

Speaking of holiday-type shows (is every Dickens story a holiday story?), Riley Neldam continues his run in Oliver at the mighty 5th Avenue theater.

And finally, today is my birthday.

Mondo Beacho weekly update, Sunday Nov 24

1st AD Mel Café - photo by David Thomas

I'm posting the weekly update early this week, because tomorrow I'm going off the air to put in a nice long day editing at the Northwest Film Forum.

Last week, I got the roots of two instrumental tracks figured out for possible soundtrack use. I say "possible" because you never know if something's going to work until the last minute.

I also spent some time up at the NWFF, organizing scenes from the film into sound-synced Sequences. Their editing computers are great, and it's nice to be up on Capitol Hill editing among film-types, instead of sitting at home by myself.

To wit, I ran into Adam Sekular (formerly of NWFF) in the editing suites, finishing up a film festival package. I got to see a cut of a cool trailer he was working on and talk a bit of shop.
After that, I went out for lunch with Iain Dalton. I've been hearing Iain say "mark it" on the sync tracks for the last few weeks, great to see him again in person. And to continue the illusion that I actually get out and see people, right after lunch with Iain, I went downtown and met up with Ahren Buhmann for some music rehearsal.

But wait, the name drop continues! -- I also got an email from Mel Café (pictured here) the other day, whose film career is taking an exciting new direction --  we've got Riley Neldam confirmed to join us for the final recordings in December -- and I'm meeting with Kenna Kettrick to work on on the second FF song for that as well.

How about that? It's like Studio 54 around here.

Mondo Beacho Update Monday Nov 18

Mondo Beacho editing has re-commenced. I'm now working on the film over at the Northwest Film Forum's post-production suites.

I got a grant to use the suites last spring, applying for it at the same time I applied for the big equipment grant that I used to shoot the film.

At the time, I figured it might be handy to have the NWFF's newer, faster machines at my disposal in case I needed them... (but really, what could possibly go wrong with my 6-year old pre-Intel consumer-level iMac?)

The grant is for 20 hours of free time, but even after that is maxed out, the NWFF only charges five bucks an hour to use their beautiful new high-speed, state of the art computers. Three cheers for the Northwest Film Forum!

The only drawback to this whole setup is that the editing suites are just available on weekdays, and the Film Forum is a 45-minute commute from where I live.

I did manage to set up a good solution for music composition at home, though. 

I'm using a hand-me-down computer very similar to my old, now-dead machine, and so far it seems to be working fine. Over the weekend, I finished a new vocal melody line for the second Farrah and the Fairies song, and sent the demo over to Kenna Kettrick, who will be recording final vocals for it next month.

I also took the Zoom portable recorder down to the beach on Saturday, and recorded some random ambient sounds. You never can have enough of that.

I should have more to say about the Mondo Beacho edit next week.

Mondo Beacho update Monday Nov 11

Editing has temporarily stopped because my computer died. No footage was lost, just the machine. I'm working on temporary and long-term solutions for this problem.

Meanwhile, back in the world of things that work properly --

Ahren and I had a great rehearsal/music session last week, and
we'll be back at it again this Friday.

In other news, my short film The Last City in the East will be released on a physical DVD! The underground product will come packaged with a groovy audio CD of a live performance by Paul Dickinson, the poet who is the subject of the film. It's going to be cool.