journal page 9

may 31, 2000
last week i saw five lizards
11:17pm
just wrapped up an updated stereo mix for dolby, and i think we're all done now. the new mix will go to the lab next week and that's it. i know probably nobody will notice the vast amount of layered soundwork we have going on in the film's last three minutes but please pretend. i would keep tinkering with this soundtrack for years if i could. "that's not loud enough either." but it's time to take it away and i don't think i'm ever going to be able to watch this film again. the part of my brain that processes all information regarding it has grown purple and wheezy and shrivelled up. here's another slice of something-something that somebody sent in. after you see it you will say i guess that was really something

may 19, 2000
11:27pm
oops
dead shrimp things
the film is off to the neg cutter and all done. we "finished" sound again last week but i've got a few more things i want to toy with further on monday, and then we just need to stereo mix a bit and finish it up. spent the week writing and rewriting a long project again while meanwhile organizing pre-production on, well, the next short. sort of feeling tired tonight though and i'll be getting absolutely nothing done.

after running errands yesterday afternoon, smoke comes pouring out of my steering column. uh. my car's steering column. so smoke out of there is not a good thing for a car to be doing. time to roll down the window? so i make an about-face to the auto shop and decide to bring along a bottle of water just in case anything on the dashboard bursts into flames. this is the extent of my automotive reasoning. the flaming instrument panel will be perfectly safe to drive across town as long as you bring water to douse it out. the car people say it's $300 worth of electrical short circuits and i am motionless again.

there is suddenly not a lot going on, now that the film is shipped off to the lab and the cartoon is in the oven.

may 7, 2000
5:56pm
groggy
burning
a quick hello. over the weekend, my innocent blinking newborn in the sunshine computer was attacked by the "i love you" virus you have read so much about. it ended up destroying every single photo on my hard drive and i got to spend an evening individually singling out and deleting 3,500 corrupted files. although bitterfilms.com was not directly harmed in any way (which is good), many of those jpegs now lost were photographs and drawings that were gonna make their way over here (which is bad).

more production updates this week. we should be wrapping up sound mixing with technical polishing.

may 2, 2000
2:58pm
india
teethcavedin
wrong drawer
watched a documentary the other night about researchers who compiled thousands of medical cases involving reincarnation theories and biological embryo defects. they believe if a fellow dies by a gunshot wound to his neck, he will be reincarnated as a newborn with a corresponding birthmark on his neck. countless pictures and documents of death and birth dates and deathmarks and birthmarks. a guy hacked up with a knife with toes cut off is reincarnated as a baby missing the same toes. very seriously compiled and studied but goes down the drain after five minutes of thought. for every million births and deaths going on every day, is it not that hard to search through them until you find corresponding marks? statistically, it seems more unlikely to not be able to find corpses and babies that match up in some way. and after all the billions of people dead and born again throughout history, wouldn't we all just be horrible scar monsters by now? i was waiting for a case documentation of someone who died blown up and was reincarnated as a baby in burnt up pieces, but that wasn't on the show.

more sound mix last week and last night and more tonight. getting really close now. i think we'll be 99% wrapped up with the very last technical things to complete by the end of next week. watch me eat those words in ten days, but we're almost there. still polishing up the very last shot which is sorta difficult and delicate, then more fleshing out overall to do.

ok here's the latest from rob - i'm not sure how many staples he had to eat to come up with this, but i think they were chemically treated. this is his official latest news regarding the production which is really interesting because the last cut he saw was, well, a couple of weeks ago:

=======================================================
Lately ive been speaking in long division. some one askes me a question and i answer with the remainder. i met a man in the street who only spoke in fractions. "889989.4?" 27%!!

eee. this of course means that the captain has finally begun the final descent. thank you baby jesus! He has recoverd but please dont ask him questions about his injuries. The healing will take a long time and if you pick he wont heal. when don has finished our beloved film (untitled cocoon sequel) we will load the velvet bus and take the act on the road. there will be free pet signings and if your under ten you get a lolli. I in response to the current craze for knee length jean skirts will be packing heat. the captain always packs a boat load of love and a armful of kittens.

rob
=======================================================

april 19, 2000
8:27pm
scratching carpet
dogfood pony
had a very productive sound mix last night, with more again scheduled this thursday and friday. tackled the big end sequence for the first time and got through those first few shots with surprisingly good results. i say surprisingly because everything fell into place very well w/o the usual experimentation and finetuning to make things work. the layers we've got going are pretty amazing and it should be lots of work but smooth sailing from here. rob will pop in on thursday to marvel at it all and offer thoughts but i can't imagine too much more headache. i can't believe the record amount of hours we've logged now mixing this thing. most of the sound and pic have now reached the point where it throws up its arms and says "stop screwing around you idiot" and its time to let it be.

did you see the 3 hour dinosaur documentary on the discovery channel? it was kind of dramatic. poor old pterosaur who could not mate. "temporary anesthetics" seems to be going pretty well. last week i wrapped up the final strip of the 12 i'm supposed to deliver, after pretty much finishing the other 11 many months ago. not sure if there's gonna be any more after that or what.

i just dug up a pile of "rejected" editing notes from only a couple months ago that already seem very alien to me... "we are missing 6-8 frames as the blob comes out" ... "shave 1/2 second off very first shot of flying pig"... "first 2 guys shave one second off very first c/u tail (end with his mouth closed)"... good god.. so there is your sneak preview. if i have to unlock picture one more time i will make this face ---> :O !!! and my little bow tie that i am not wearing will spin around in a circle and go, woop woop woop woop

my rhythmic dance will be interpreted through the following symbols:

$#^%!$# !#$^!@&^%*$#^%@!^$#% with a pretty little wiggle near the end.

don

april 12, 2000
1:55pm
sugar plum
sho' nuff
(filling in again for don is robert may...)

Hello, Hello.
Our dear friend Cap'n Don is recovering from a rather desturbing incident and has asked me to fill in briefly and update the crowd. "Rejected" is moving along like a rhino in traffic. With the latest cut from Rebecca this week we'll begin the final stage of sound mixing. (sigh)

Memphis was a blast. We met Karin out there and all shook our grove thang. Hopefully soon we'll have pictures to share. For all the Memphis folk out there Thank you again. I have encouraged Mr. Don, ("Pickles" if you've known him long enough) to abstain from parasailing from this point on but...... well theres only so much intervention a friend can try. For those of you following along at home heres some answers and fix all advice. #1 check to see if its plugged in. #3 the color blue #4 dance offs are only a good idea if raining outside and kevin bacon is on your team and #5. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.

thanks
Robert.

march 29, 2000
9:45pm sweet
the film is strutting around like a hotshot with big glammy boots. many improvements. it is going to be quite a ride. things are running much smoother with that dead scene gone, and though rebecca is re-editing little things a bit more for me, i think i will finally be ready to stop screwing around with repeatedly unlocking the picture and wrap up the rest of sound now. next week we may be able to polish up the bulk of the pic and start focusing on the big finale thing. no more trouble from here on out.

heading out to some memphis screenings tomorrow, which should be a good time. it will be the first time rob, karin, and i are in the same room since... probably san francisco over a year ago, and the first time we've all been at the same film festival. those two transform into three year olds when placed anywhere near each other, and you sort of just need to sit back and not get in the way. i am as always convinced that the plane is going to plummet out of the sky in flames so my writing this down is my way of ensuring that the odds of the thing actually crashing are now multiplied even less, just because i predicted it would and what are the odds of that?

ok i will be back on sunday, and i will see you memphis people at the show..
take care-

don