Only a Million Steps to make the Movie KERBEROS!

Or maybe it's a million more!

Wish I could say all the filming was done, which is not say say I don't enjoy that specific process, but that I wish there was some completion or finality to some of the million steps. But it can not be a bad thing to look at footage that we have shot and not only take some energy from the pride of the accomplishment to date, but to analyze it and then be in a position to make our film better as we go. Similar feelings to when we did BLOOD TIES, the knowing that what we have pulled off is pretty amazing, but seeing and knowing that, moving forward with the conviction that this is the time to raise the level on all accounts, including the filming itself.

Even with the half dozen scenes I have already cut, I of course have found shots to redo or pickups to add. What is great about the Kerberos cast and crew is that they too sense something special is happening and have been game to do it better. Already, the simple pick ups with Courtney and Mark have helped raise the bar, and the camera work, under my experimental but now more focused eye, and Attila's rapidly assimilating skills are pushing our overall level upwards.

Okay, a million steps? Maybe an exaggeration but let's take a quick look at just one scene. I have made my first cut of " the mechanics shop", where bank robbing ex-convict Finn (Kely McClung) stops in the middle of the night to the small two car bay garage he owns, talks with Burns (Chris Burns), checks the mail, pounds the heavy bag, finds out one of his snitches is dead, and defends the honor of the girl he's enamored with even while confessing said 'enamorance' as he shares a bottle of 'Jack' with his friend.

Already filmed, locations found and paid for, make up and wardrobe chosen and used, fake tattoos drawn on, lighting scheme worked out, props arranged, punching bag found, aged and brought in, sound recorded, footage captured, backed up multiple times, and studied. First cut assembled with frame grabs pulled out to apply treatments and grades to see what the scene might look like when completed. Sound is found wanting, so making plans for the ADR sessions, and the massive amount of Foley (I like full, rich, complex ambiances, even when unobtrusive or subtle - and can clanging at a mechanics shop while pounding a hundred pound heavy bag be subtle?).

So, already sending compressed versions of this first cut to potential composers who begin their own series of steps while I audition various songs for both style and ability to compliment and tell their alternate subliminal versions of the scene.

Now making plans for the the shots which will enhance and/or replace the footage that is not up to standard. The good news is the blocking, the actual script dialog, and the acting are working as they should. The light works great, and the camera, Sony's PMW EX1 is well up to it, especially now that my experiments and discussions with Attila are taking root.

So we have to now re-light, reset the vehicles, which we have finally tracked down - again, re-dress the scene and ourselves, make arrangements for payment, picture cars, sound acquisition, and then reschedule the actors (I never know my schedule but I am always available for shooting and directing our film!), get the tattoos redone by the great Guzik at the East Atlanta Tattoo Shop, drag every one out there -tough for a night shoot but fortunately it's a really small crew.

And then film again. Gather specific location sound and Foley. Attempt ADR 'wild'. Payoff every one, reset and capture the footage. Back it up multiple times. Import it into the editing program (still staying loyal to Adobe even though I am straddling the platform divide with one leg for PC and one leg firmly on a Mac).

Then I get to edit, work the minimum 100 steps to doing the sound right, export the finished picture, reopen in my finishing programs, process the footage (at least 20 more steps), re-import, render, and then pat myself and everyone else on the back long enough to make plans for the next 3 minute scene.

All this for a 'no budget film' on a scene we have already done... eeeshhhhh...

Only 990 thousand steps to go!

Kely McClung
Producer/Director/Writer/Actor/blah blah blah... oh yeah, and "coolest filmmaker on the planet"