There you have it, folks.  Proof that our entry is on its way to California on time!  Actually ahead of schedule.  The whole thing actually wasn't that stressful, in fact easier than working with some of my clients on their impossible deadlines.  So it was a joy when it finally came together and as people come by for previews, it's rewarding to hear their comments.

But today wasn't without its moments.  I'm not happy with the QuickTime renderings that we saw.  On one monitor it looks OK; on another there is severe banding in the dark gradients.  We'll just have to see how it shows up in Hollywood.  (I thought we were through with "never the same color" NTSC video!)   I've offered to send them a different file if they want it.

Now ... Read More »

Here we are - 23 hours away from turn-in, and it's DONE!!! 

Can I hear a Hallelujah!?!

Yes, it's exactly 10 minutes, 59 seconds and 29 frames long - 1 frame (1/30th of a second) under the limit.

For those of you not used to nonlinear video editing, the final step is to "render" the video file that will actually be played.  We turn the machine loose and it takes each frame of video from its native format and creates a new frame in the file format that we specify.  168 wants QuickTime, which is something Windows computers have a little trouble doing.  At least mine does.  If it's been running a long time, it runs out of memory as soon as it starts rendering, then it crashes!

Fortunately it works if I restart the program before I start to render.  We're going to be rendering several different flavors of HD QuickTime, plus a Standard Definition version so they'll ... Read More »

Yes, it's less than 48 hours until turn-in.  The "print" is now "locked" i.e. I'm done timing.  I managed to get 37 seconds for credits, so I think we'll be OK that way.  We're now trying to come up with the music cues.  Lorn was over today to record the final version of the song he wrote that fits the verse very nicely.  The last of the interim previews will be going up on the streaming server for the team to see tonight.  Those who have seen it say it works!  I'm too close to the thing to know.

Tomorrow we will need to get all the submission paperwork together, which Howard will take care of.  Then it's time to render the final HD files and DVD masters.  That'll take awhile.  But our creative process will be finished tomorrow!

Pray for the machine to work!  Sometimes that's a problem when you get a project complete, something odd happens and ... Read More »

The forecast was correct, Columbus had its "storm of the century" today, but the beauty of having home & office under the same roof paid off.  We have a film!  I was able to edit all day, taking breaks to plow the driveway  (We had a 24" snow drift across the driveway - taller than the snow blower!)

So I was digging my way out of two messes - the snow and the show.  I made some technical mistakes on Wednesday that I'm having to deal with - hissy sound from borrowed wireless mics I forgot to test, and a limited selection of shots because it got so late when we were shooting we forgot to get reverse angles.  Also when flipping between angles, there were continuity errors everywhere (hand in lap / hand on table), but fortunately I found some b-roll material that could cover, and it looks pretty good.

The only thing the snow complicated was getting musicians over to actually do the recording.&# ... Read More »

That countdown clock on the home page just keeps ticking.  It's ironic:  30 years ago we were working on the original "I Love to Tell the Story," the documentary on Tetelestai during the blizzard of 1978.  This year we're working on 168 during the blizzard of 2008 (at least blizzard warnings are out for tonight.) So it's a blizzard of activity and my brain is having a hard time of it.

I have the easy parts cut together, but I'm procrastinating on the hard part, the "conference room" scene.  Two problems:  One, by cutting the beginning and ending first, I find the scene can be no longer than 4 minutes.  When we read the script it was a little more than 6 minutes.  So it's time to slice and dice.

Second, it was so late Tuesday night when we shot it, we forgot to get a couple of critical lines.  If there wasn't a blizzard we might go reshoot tomorrow, but getting to church ... Read More »

At 10:04 tonight Chipp made the announcement:  after just 74 hours into our 168, "It's a Wrap!"  All the scenes have been captured and we're moving on to editing.

Tonight we shot the "waiting room" scene which was really interesting.  We had about 50 people in all, a good number of whom were from Hilltop, so it was a fantastic cross-section of race, gender and age. 

Jack McClintock got to enjoy shooting with the camera stabilizer vest and arm, and with just a little bit of training he had it down.  It seemed to drag on forever, and we finally got to pizza around 9pm. But according to the script, it's all ready to edit.  Now on to capturing.

Sarah Ammerman, who's shooting our BTS (Behind the Scenes) video had me sit in the "video confessional" booth tonight, where I promptly ran out of things to say and blabbered on about something, I can't remember what.& ... Read More »

For this producer, the adrenaline has run out.  I was really dragging as we went to the old Ohio State School for the Deaf building (now owned by private investors and under renovation into condos) for our entry/exit shot.  It was one of those 1-inch March snows that is really pretty but melts quick, though that meant that the snow dialog we wrote in the script worked!

Our friend from Saturn arrived right on time, and we discovered that our talent couldn't drive a stick shift on the sports car.  We have some great blooper real material now! 

So the tapes are capturing and we're ready for our big crowd scene that shoots tomorrow night.  I'm told we could have as many as 80 extras!  We're having fun now!

It's 2am and we've just returned home from our first night of shooting.  For some stupid reason (well it was a good reason at the time), we chose to start with the most important and dramatic scene and work backwards.  It should be all downhill from here.  Then again maybe I don't want to say that.

Mark, our lead actor with a disability, is a trooper.  He hung with us all evening and was still delivering quality lines by the time we were done.  We ended with a crane shot 30 feet in the air.  Jack, our camera operator had to go home, so I got to shoot from up there.

So we actually have about 6 minutes in the can, so there's only 5 minutes left to shoot and we have 152 hours left (151 if you count DST).  And wouldn't you know it's snowing tonight for our outdoor shoot tomorrow morning!

Only in Ohio...

24 hours from now our first scene will be in the can!  Unbelievable.  How time has flown by.

Today we spent all afternoon setting up Felloship Hall as a movie set and this evening we did testing.  The results were spectacular.  So tomorrow afternoon we set it all back up and do the shoot for real!

Of all things, though, I tripped over one of the feet of our big screen and took a tumble!  Nothing broken but I'll feel it in the morning, I'm sure.  Funny that the producer would be the first one to have a safety issue!

My concern, if you're praying, is that something might be forgotten.  So pray that collectively we'll have everything

I just realized today that next Sunday is the start of daylight savings time.  That means we'll have only 167 hours to do our film!  I guess nobody in California looked at the calendar.

Anyway today was no day of rest as we were taking stills to use as props at church services this morning.  Lorn came over to work with Sharon on music composition, and Chipp, Rob, Frank and myself walked three of our four locations.  Chipp has directed mostly theatrical stuff, so directing camera positions and movement are all new to him.  It's been quite a collaborative process, as we're all throwing out ideas about how to shoot a scene, and the things we're coming up with are really interesting!

We met at Mill Run with Steve Gill and Don Long, searching for a way to turn Fellowship Hall into a black void with a conference table in the middle.  We're going to set it all up tomorrow and test in the evening, then we'll have to ... Read More »