Production Post- Video Library

 Since the preproduction post A Thousand Little Portraits of Mother has fallen apart. I've talked to my regulars actors and none of them have had time to film anything new. I was planning on breaking the production into two blocks: First a day with all the actors in which we film the fast-food scene, the pet store scene, and the shotgun/tackle scene. Then a day for the opening scene, the drawing the box scene, the portrait scene, and the final scene. My cast for the film was to be as follows:

Drawer- Ed Hans

Customer- Aaron Grinberg

Employee-Mikhaila Adams 

I decided we would film at Fiala Field, as they have a big empty parking lot giving ample space to draw the sets. these would be drawn in chalk, and would all be different squares with more specialized chalk drawn in for those individual close ups. Beyond the chalk the film would only use different pieces of paper for props. For example the on screen title reveal:

But as I said at the beginning this fell apart because the actors were not available and I could not find replacements. 

Luckily I've had three films shot and sitting on my computer that I've been too lazy to edit, so for the postproduction post in a few weeks I will edit each of those films (Each explained later in this post). Furthermore, since December last year I've been working on a project I like to call "The Hankie Journal Video Library". During breaks from school I like to take a lot of footage with no real plan on how to edit it, just recording for fun. I've saved all of this video in a couple scattered folders throughout my computer that collectively make the Video Library. For a reference on how much unused footage this is, the current combined space of the Library is 128 GB. While Ed has reached into the library to edit They Went to a Park and Sweet Jane under my guidance/direction, my use of the library has been exclusively for little projects that I didn't want to record anything new for. That is, until now...

Without a proper production phase I decided to take this time to edit a new music video using footage from the video library for one of my band's songs "Fire Race Car": 

What the video Library Looks like:

Beyond the video Library I also have three completed films that I will briefly describe and provide unedited/color graded stills from. 

The COST

An avant-garde surrealist dadist theater piece. Since its original performance in 2016 The COST has taken a life of its own, with modern performances only vaguely representing the original script. This last summer I had the opportunity to record a performance with two members of the original cast. This is the first time anyone has been allowed to record the play, partially because I was the first to ask. During the performance I was not allowed to cut, so the film takes a certain film tableau look. After the performance I had a chance to interview the writers of the play, to truly understand their artistic vision. Then I let the footage sit on my computer for six months. 

   

A Pleasant View of Jane Doe's Lobotomy 

Over the summer I had a distinct "I am Stanly Kubrick" phase where I would method direct as Kubrick to make fun of him. This lead to the production of instant classics like Tennis and the Duality of Man. During quarantine Ed self published a book of poems on amazon. Combining these two factors I decided to have Ed do a book reading for Amazon in which I would have him read the entire book in one take. After 20 minutes of reading Ed was holding the Lav mic in his hand, leaning against the wall, and yelling about how humans only can think in binaries. Then I let the footage sit on my computer for five months. 

Artist Spotlight: Ed Hans 

One day towards the end of summer as my band was having a recording session, Ed decided he would make a song called "Madness and the Bed" where he would record each of us individually and progressively edit as he was recording 

While he was doing that I took each individual band member aside for an interview on what working with Ed was like. After a mild attempt to keep the interviews neutral I started intently asking questions to make it an anti-Ed documentary. Of these three films this is the only one I have a good justification for why I didn't edit, it's very hard to find the exact moments to cut around in interviews. I remember trying to edit it when I recorded it, but it failed. Of these projects this will take the longest to edit. So that's why it sat on my computer for four months.  

Conclusion 

Even though my supposed main project fell apart, I looked into my files and found four exciting projects, the first one almost completed. I didn't really take a production phase, but a double post production phase. From this whole process I am learning that I do need to suck it up and edit more, because I am leaving a lot of great projects just sitting on my computer. I suppose double editing is my penance.