I remember back when I interviewed to get into the Film School, I said I was interested in writing and directing because that’s where the story is shaped. The head interviewer added the editor to that list, though in a condescending way (I’d later learn that the guy is indeed a prick, and fortunately is [...]

In a perfect film set world (real world), you shoot for the day, send the film to the lab that night to be processed, return the next day, shoot some more, and then during lunch (or beginning/end of the day), you watch what you shot the previous day. These are called dailies, because you do [...]

Since I’ve been sound mixing for the past three days, with three more to go (a double show), I thought it would be appropriate to post some tips on getting the best audio possible from Christian Dwiggins, Master Engineer and owner of Engine Room Studios, a sound production facility.
Here they are, from Christian:

Good sound starts [...]

When you major in film, you sort of become the official video guy for the family, like editing stills and video your grandfather shot in Israel.
The good thing about an A/V clueless family is the most minor tasks, like making a cut, amazes them, so they’re pretty easy customers. Until they give you weird video [...]

The storm has calmed. Last week really was the perfect storm, as my friend Justin and I described it1. I had always heard stories of film schoolers getting loaded with a ton of work and scrambling to meet deadlines. I thought that was a myth. I was proven wrong.
As usual, a new draft of my [...]

This is the home stretch - the last cycle of sound design. For eight days I’m back in the post hallway/cave, sound designing my own movie.
I appreciate the importance of sound. An audience can forgive bad images, but not bad sound. But for some reason, I find myself unable to focus for long periods of [...]

So the editing for my F3, How to Sell Your Soul, is locked. Of course there’s always doubts. For the most part it was a painless process, and I’m very happy with the final cut.
We have a run-time limit of 6:30 for content. The first cut was 1:47 over. The cut we just locked was [...]

It’s time to flip flop. I locked Lauren’s picture on Tuesday, meaning all the edits and cuts are done. All that’s left are titles and sound design.
Wednesday Lauren began editing my film. I’m not involved in this process, nor do I want to be. She’s making her cut, without regard to run-time, and Saturday we’ll [...]

The past week has been all editing, with a few classes thrown in. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the process. To explain a bit about it, this is the first time we’re not editing our own films. There’s three editing cycles, followed by three sound design cycles.
I’m editing Lauren’s film, and next [...]

Wednesday I finally got to see all the footage from my F3, and I think it looks great. It was a lot funnier than I had anticipated, but it was the comedy I was hoping for. Dry, this-is-life-and-it’s-funny comedy.
The strange thing about seeing the footage, though, is earlier in the afternoon we had spent a [...]