Etiquette For Dummies (and Psychos)

Speaking for myself, I am not quick to judge McIntyre for his actions, as he obviously has a lot to work out for himself. It's true, most people don't like it when you murder your wife, kids, and mother-in-law, especially during a holiday--very tragic. But, if you take a fly on the wall view, McIntyre is not evil in the "classic" sense. Basically, I think he suffers from a case of bad manners.

Let's look at the big picture. The dude spent most of his life on adventures in exotic places for months at a time, where in many cases his life was on the line. Have you ever spent two weeks on a glacier, or at 25,000 feet, in below freezing temperatures? I didn't think so. You don't shower when you're up there, and the folks you hang with on your expedition don't either. There's no time for manners when the possibility of freezing to death, cerebral edema, falling over a ledge (where it's too dangerous for anyone to recover your body), losing a limb to frostbite, or finding a good place to relieve yourself require most of your daily attention. These guys talk about the dump they just took like they talk about their favorite TV show, and nobody cares. Manly things. So there's that.

And let's not forget, McIntyre REALLY DID suffer a cerebral edema, and in a hallucinatory fit, may have accidentally killed one of his sherpas.

"Not cool," you say, "when you're in someone else's country, you're a GUEST."

Bowing foolishly, mangling the language, that's okay, that's what most natives will (barely) tolerate from foreigners. But, when you go on a killing spree while in country, that's when people take offense. Listen, the guy's a mountaineer, for crying out loud! Things are a little more intense in his world. Mountaineers (and surfers) invented the catchphrase, "Intense, dude!" for a reason. So, there's that.

When McIntyre gets back to his country, everyone's coming down on him for the murder. The folks from the dead sherpa's village are seen on CNN, putting a curse on him. And now, he's sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner, and his mother in law is giving him grief.

"Are you okay, Sean?"
"You should take some aspirin, Sean!"
"That wasn't necessary, Sean!"

Someone cut her f@#%ing head off, please. Admit it, you're all thinking it. Don't lay it all on McIntyre. Okay, sure, he could smile wanly back at her and limply tell her that he's "all right". That's what most people do with their in-laws. Just get through the weekend without a major disagreement, maintain the illusion that you like them, they'll soon be on a plane back home. Good manners, right?

Depending on which female acquaintance I run into, I have a running database in my brain which contains the correct greeting for each one of them. In Europe, it's easy, because everyone gives each other a proper peck on each cheek. Simple. Not in America. There's no standard, and you have to pre-judge what affection each person will accept from you. Which is more intimate, a hug or a kiss? Depends on the woman. Some require a handshake, some a hug with a tap out at the end, some a kiss on the cheek. Everyone has a different affection sharing protocol, and their own set of boundaries. Of course, you just do what works for you, even if it produces the occasional faltering air kiss.

I'm not suggesting that you practice McIntyre's techniques with women. That would be incredibly gauche. But, as you can see, not knowing the proper etiquette for a given situation can produce some very awkward moments. Give the guy a break. Please. Thank You. --Regards, KB

Bombs Away

We exported quicktimes for Adam Blau over night and they have been FTPd to the server this morning so that he has access to everything. We split the film into 9 different scoring chapters all with timecode burns so that we can talk coherently about the film even though we are 3500 miles apart.

I'm getting antsy about getting the screeners done so that we can get them out to the people who need them.

I had dinner on Saturday evening with one of our investors who was over from Paris. He was interested in how we were doing but never asked about sales and didn't put any pressure on us. We like him. He said he had shown the trailer to all the people in his office with good feedback.

Compression Depression

I feel like I've lost a child. I think locking picture is both thrilling and depressing at the same time. We can no longer argue over the aethetics of a particular delivery or the nuance of a rack focus. I'm kinda laughing at myself but there has definately been a feeling of... forgive me...loss around here the last couple of days. Oh sure we're working and moving forward but it's all kinda bitty. Cleaning up audio tracks ready for export. Recapturing 10 Bit clips for effects shots, talking about sound effects etc.
I think it will be another week to ten days before all these pieces start to come back together.

The Power of Voodoo

This week was the week that the digital voodoo began. We have a series of Visual Effects (VISFX) shots to produce as well as some clips that need some doctoring. I have personally been swearing continually about a small piece of monofillament which managed to cut through a particular shot of Anne McDaniels as she entered the attic.
I submit to the jury two screnshots before and after the digital voodoo. We are exporting these clips for painting and will then reimport them into the film.
I think that is COOL!
It's time consuming process as the images have to be painted frame by frame. I think the results speak for themselves and we have even removed a small zit on the left side Anne's chin. You're welcome darling!
Evil Iz

Monday Murder

What is wrong with Mondays?! The day started with two hours cursing Verizon because our internet was down for the second business day in a row and as a result we couldn't transfer files across from our server to burn a DVD for Adam in LA. Got that sorted and then got into the edit. This is the film that will not die. Everytime we think we are going to get through the end of the film we start re-looking at scenes Why? because we got bogged down figuring out the best way to sell Darla's reaction to Brad's penis! No kids it's not that kind of movie but the guy does spend a substantial amount of time with a non stop boner -- the result of a tab of Erecxa. And so when we called it a day today we were still only just murdering Velvet.
We will be getting into some audio editing this week and it looks like we will be adding a music supervisor to the team who will be putting together some great tracks for a soundtrack to support the orchestral wotk Adam is doing. So who knows we might even end up with a soundtrack album at the end of this. That's all I have to say for now. Keep reading and add a comment already!!!

Death Defying Patience

Its official, we made it through the first hour of the film! We are looking to lock picture this coming week.
We have actually been cutting a little dialogue. Sorry my darling actors, but we did have a laugh at your expense today wondering if any of you would would scan through to see which of your lines we had cut. I think that everyone has suffered somewhere. The film continues to hover around 90 minutes so it is exactly where we want it to be.
I am also happy that there are a few really laugh out loud moments. The other surprising thing is that the college boys have become fully fledged characters and the party scene adds a dimension we had never realised would be so strong.
Signing off but we'll keep you up to date on Tim's car issues!

Inspiration for Murder

Today is a fairly easy one for me. Adam and Kevin have meetings in the city so I am working from home; just cleaning up audio and getting the dvd ready to send to Adam Blau so he can start composing the score. I did learn a helpful editing hint yesterday though. If you really want to get in the mood to murder (on screen of course) then I recommend driving a half hour in ten degree weather with no heat, then having your car break down and waiting on the side of the road for an hour to get it towed. Thats what I did yesterday and by the time I finally got to work I was ready to make everyone's death scene more gruesome and violent (Which is good since we were killing mom, grandma, and the two little girls at Thanksgiving Dinner). Today's light workload and the first snowflakes of the season have improved my demeanor though and I'm ready to go back to the office tommorow reinvigorated to finish the film.

Close Proximity To Death

Well we made it through the movie yesterday and finished off Darla in a fine fashion. After a short break we sat down to watch the film from the top. Well that's where it started. After four hours we had made it through the first three minutes. Yes it's better but Tim had murder on his mind and I think it was Kevin and I he was gunning for. I think we were all thouroughly irritated with each other by the time we called it a day.
The film is looking good and some of the opening scene is really brutal which is good right?
Next step is audio cleaning more picture notes and the best thing of all. The queasy squelchy wet sound effects that will help us all unload our lunches.
Stay tuned.
Evil Iz

Killing People

So it's Tuesday and I had to leave the office last night about 15 minutes shy of having totally massacred Darla, the lead character in our little opus Death On Demand.

I realized with some degree of glee that while Sean McIntyre (the bad guy) had simply killed his other victims he was in fact toying with Darla just as she had reached the outside world and perhaps her salvation. So I'm sitting here with Tim our editor only moments away from the end of the film luxuriating in the patter and slather of blood as it hits the ground. She's doing her best but I'm not sure if she's going to make it.

I'm feeling pretty good about the cut we have and am looking forward to going back to the beginning and getting very picky about what we have so far.

There is definately some pressure as we have already had some calls from a couple of the sales agents we met at AFM in November and we are aware that we have to get screeners out soon.

Victoria (Bert) is also steaming ahead with some plans for Maggots and we know that we have to try to get into preproduction by early April. We's like to have a trailer for that film by the time we hit Cannes in May.

Stay tuned we'll keep you in the loop

The Hardest Cut of All

So, this our shiny new blog, covering all things Evil. Adam and I will put out new tidbits when we have spare time, so expect the next update to happen sometime in 2009. Just a joke. I mean, we're busy, but nothing delights us more than BLOGGING. Really. So, here goes...

It's Monday, and we're about a day away from finishing the fine cut. Has not been easy. Tim created a rough cut back in December, almost slavishly following the script, so that we could get a handle on what we had for a film. Next, I ran through it with Tim from start-to-almost-finish, and we started cleaning and creating sequences from scratch. Adam followed closely behind, and while I built the Evil Twins website, he and Tim really scoured the film, looking into source footage and recapturing when they couldn't find what was needed in the bin, building performances, and ultimately making a version that'll springboard us into the next phase--scoring, mixing, and FX work, not to mention color correction.

We'll be sending the compressed film in "reels" to Adam Blau in LA, so that he can create the music. He performed miracles for the trailer--and quickly, too. He literally had finished music to us three days after getting the trailer from us. To thank him, we went and expanded the trailer by 30 seconds. Not to be defeated, he added more music to make it work for the new cut. Literally, overnight. So, needless to say, I feel really good about what he's going to do for the film.

There is, of course, urgency to getting this film done. We have several industry folks interested in seeing a screener when it's finished. Plus, we really want to get on with Maggots.