Almost a year later...

Well, it's been exactly 11 months since the shoot, and we're just now locking picture. Man, that's frustrating. Nobody's fault, but finding people to work for free on somebody else's pet project has proven to be more difficult than I thought. The long and short of it is that, after waiting 9 months for a succession of other people to edit this beast, I finally bought Final Cut Pro and decided to edit it myself. "How hard could it be?" I asked myself. Famous last words!
Actually, to be fair, a friend of mine, Richard Harris (Oscar-winning picture editor) did a first cut of the short for us. But, as it turned out, I hadn't given him all the footage, so I basically wasted a week or so of his very valuable time. I went back to the source tapes, re-imported everything and started all over, using his cut as a guide.
So I started editing right after Thanksgiving, and am just now "locking" the picture. Hopefully we'll be able to do some color correction and digital "fixes" in the next week or so, while simultaneously doing final audio mixes, and we'll be able to enter the short in a few film festivals next month.
The good news is that the film is looking and sounding great. We got some really funny performances from our actors, and I think it will come across well on the screen. Just for giggles, here's a clip of the main titles...

Final Moments of "The Coffee Quintet"

This was shot from my (Chana's) little camera while I was on the set during the final moments of the filming of Coffee Quintet.  From left - Stephen Vendette, Christina Valo, John Le May, Tara Hunnewell, Barry O'neil, Allegra Leuthold (slating), Jerry Ranger (at the end).  

Day 3 (Chana's Post)

It's 11:00pm and I'm finally home from this crazy whirlwind of an experience filming "The Coffee Quintet". As we were wrapping up - cleaning up after our final moments of shooting, I had a real sense of gratefulness for this whole experience. It's really amazing that the elements involved in making this film just sort of fell into place. Especially when you understand that there is no reason why they should.
My feet are killing me from standing so long waiting on the set. I've eaten more junk food in the past 3 days than I have in the past 3 years. I have spent hours and hours with people who I'd never even met prior to Sunday, and yet I'm left with a real satisfaction in just "producing" something. Something that at one time was just a thought or an idea or a good rhyme or a catchy (really catchy) tune. I marvel at how a group of strangers can come together for a few days and create something where there wasn't anything. So, yes, I'm grateful. And also, a little nauseous from the package of thin mints I just scarfed down.

It's a wrap!

They actually say that on a set! We finished at 5:15. A quick champagne toast to cast and crew, and now we're frantically packing up to clear the room for a class coming in at 6:30. Lots to return tomorrow as well as some dings and scratches to repaint. Back to work...

Almost done...

3:35 on Wednesday. We have 1 1/2 hours to do the last song. Actually the first song. But it's only two characters, so hopefully it will go fast. Hopefully fewer airplanes. We're right in the flight path of Burbank Airport, and every few minutes a jet comes thundering overhead. Funny how you notice things only when they affect you! We already had some lady in a diesel Mercedes who was idling her car outside the set, and we had to politely ask her to move, since the rumble was getting into the microphones. I was afraid I was going to have to slip her a $20 to move.

We just sent home 3 of our 5 cast members. They all seemed to have had fun. I hope so.

In the home stretch...

Day 3 (Carl's post)

So far, so good. We finished yesterday getting through everything on our "must-have" list. Everyone left feeling good about the day and hopeful about the next day. I skipped dinner with the crew so I could get some work done on my other musical. I think I probably got in about 1 hour of work before passing out from exhaustion! 

Woke up at 5:00 am worrying about "what if our camera guys forgot to put tape in the cameras?" I figured that was something I couldn't do anything about. Then went on to "What if our rental truck got towed for parking on the street overnight?" So I got dressed and drove by the truck at 5:15 am just to make sure it was still there. Fortunately it was, so I went out for an early breakfast at Denny's.

We're starting off this morning with a couple of close-up shots of Christina, in which she has a "fantasy" scene in a very lightweight costume. No pictures of this one on the blog, I'm afraid. You'll have to watch the movie!

Still hoping to finish shooting today and strike everything tomorrow. Nobody really knows what we're going to do with the set pieces. I hope we don't have to cart them to the landfill. Maybe we'll put up a listing on craigslist. I'd love to be able to sleep in my own house tomorrow night.

Just did a cast photo. They are five very good sports. They have put in a lot of time on this!

Okay, so getting ready to block the next scene... Fingers crossed!

Clip from "Blessing in Disguise"